Moberly Five And Drive Theatre

3000 N. Morley Street,
Moberly, MO 65270

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50sSNIPES
50sSNIPES on February 13, 2024 at 1:43 pm

The actual grand opening date is June 25, 1950 with Shirley Temple in “The Story of Seabiscuit” with no extra short subjects.

  • However, it did had a private opening the previous day with an unknown movie plus two cartoons and a sportlight.
MichaelKilgore
MichaelKilgore on June 20, 2019 at 10:35 am

An Associated Press article, published Oct. 5, 1997 in the Springfield IL State Journal-Register, added more details about the drive-in’s restoration. B&B Theaters co-owner Elmer Bills Jr. said that when they were planning the indoor theater, “We went out and looked around the site and the old screen tower was still standing, and we said we might as well put the drive-in back in operation. We sure had plenty of room.”

The drive-in used FM radio for sound and used the indoor theater for snack bar, restrooms, and a second-floor projection room. At the time, Bills believed it was the only hybrid indoor-outdoor theater in the country.

MichaelKilgore
MichaelKilgore on June 9, 2019 at 4:42 pm

The Hi Way 63 last appeared in the Motion Picture Almanac drive-in list in 1982.

Here are details of its opening from a note in the July 22, 1950 issue of BoxOffice:

MOBERLY, MO. – The new 300-car Highway 63 Drive-In erected by Elmer Bills on a 10-acre tract near the Omar Bradley airport north of here recently was opened. Bills is operator of the Lyric Theatre in Salisbury, Mo., where he lives, and eight other houses in Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma. The new drive-in is the first to be opened near here. …

Surrounded by an aluminum fence, the new open-air theatre has such features as a playground for children and a modernistic snack bar. The projection booth is situation in a portion of the building housing the concession stand. Equipment installed in the booth includes Century projection and sound, Strong lamps and RCA in-car speakers. The parking area is covered with crushed rock.