Cowtown Drive-In
2245 Jacksboro Highway,
Fort Worth,
TX
76114
2245 Jacksboro Highway,
Fort Worth,
TX
76114
5 people
favorited this theater
The Cowtown Drive-In opened on September 2, 1950 with Gregory Peck in “The Gunfighter”. It ran third run movies. The rear of the screen tower had a painted mural of a steer, with the Fort Worth skline in the background. When first opened, patrons drove up to the ticket office and were served by long-legged cowgirls dressed in Texas regalia!
The Cowtown Drive-In featured a childrens playground and in-car heaters, and had a capacity for 950 cars.
It was closed 1964 and reopened July 1, 1966, finally closing in 1984.
Contributed by
Lost Memory
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Recent comments (view all 13 comments)
There is an article about the Cowtown Drive-In in the February 3, 1951, issue of Boxoffice. It was owned by Southwest Theatres, a company headed by C. A. Richter, who had opened the first drive-in in Texas in the late 1930s.
The Cowtown Drive-In was designed by Harvey A. Jordan, who was also the contractor. The owners and the designer posed in front of the screen tower for a photo that appeared as the frontispiece of the Modern Theatre section of the same issue of Boxoffice.
Great name for a drive-in in Texas.
BIG KUDOS to whomever posted the above pic of the Cowtown Drive-In Theatre! Along with the matching nighttime shot, the other daytime shot at the ‘Fort Worth…the Way We Were’ website, and the shot in Boxoffice Magazine, it has become the most photographed drive-in theatre in Fort Worth. If I may ask, where was it found? Thanks, again!
Mr. Vogel, your URL does not work. Has it changed.
This opened on September 2nd, 1950. Grand opening ad in the photo section.
Closed in 1964 and reopened on July 1st, 1966. Another ad posted.
The Aug. 1, 1960 issue of Boxoffice reported that one Saturday evening, a car slammed into the box office, breaking the leg of the off-duty police officer working there and trapping manager Bill Corbell inside. Corbell worked through the pain to finish selling tickets for the night, and later x-rays revealed that he had suffered a fractured pelvis. At the time of the article, the policeman was still in the hospital but Corbell had been released.
Reopened on 1/7/1966 with “Duel at Diablo”, “Mclintock” and “Wild guitar”.
The Cowtown closed playing Spanish language films and also hosting a weekend flea market in 1984.
The site is now a Walmart supwrcenter, a bank(First Convenience Bank), a restaurant(Subway), 2 money transfer companys(Coinstar and Moneygram), and a pharmacy(Walmart Pharmacy).