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The Route 66 Drive-In Theater was constructed in 1949. Once completed, the tower stood 66 feet with 50 foot wings on each side and had a capacity of nearly 500 automobiles. Once it was constructed, Camp Crowder equipped the theater with a surplus of movie projectors.
Another drive-in was in town during the same time period. The Sunset, which was located on the opposite side of town, just off Route 66 near Kellogg Lake, had feature films as well and competed with pricing and times.
A 1957 ad in The Carthage Press for each theater states that the price was $1.00 per car at both theaters. Route 66 was playing Walt Disney’s “Cinderella” at 7:30 and 11:00 and “Abandon Ship” at 9:15. The Sunset was playing “Storm Fear” and “Man Without a Star.” The “Owl Show” was “Women Prison.” They were also advertising “Somebody Up There Likes Me” and “Kartoon Karnival.”
Another lesser known outdoor theater was in Carthage way before either of these theaters. The Airdome Theater was originally located on a lot on East Fifth Street, but was later moved in 1909 to the lot where The Drake Apartments now sit. In the beginning, mostly vaudeville and performing acts from around the country would perform at the Lyric Airdome Theater. In the 1920’s movies would be shown on special canvas that was brought in. The Airdome, at one point, could seat 1,500.
According to “Show Me Route 66,” the number of drive-ins began to decline in the 1960s. “More teenagers and young adults were behind the wheel, and they preferred drive-in passion pits to local lover’s lanes. Movies, too, became less family-friendly. The loss of regular family support seems to have started a nationwide decline in drive-in popularity. In Missouri, according to driveintheater.com, the number of drive-ins dropped from 121 in 1958 to 85 in 1977. The advent of cable television and VCRs in the late ’70s and ’80s hastened the decline, leaving only 23 outdoor theaters in Missouri by 1987.”
The Route 66 Drive-In was one of the casualties of the 1980s decline. The theater closed in 1985. For the twelve years following, the theater nearly came to disrepair, but Mark Goodman and Wes Alumbaugh came to the rescue. They, along with many other Carthaginians, did not want to see it go and hoped for it to open again. The theater reopened in 1997 with a capacity of about 400 vehicles and is still going strong today with two featured films every Friday, Saturday and Sunday night between April and October. For show information and pricing visit 66drivein.com.
Sources: Carthage Press, Powers Museum
Zooming In! is a column dedicated to the history of Carthage. Every Wednesday since July of 2009, Wade Utter has photographed and exposed the history behind new and century-old structures in the Carthage area.
