Drive-Ins of New Mexico

Did you hear about the New Mexico drive-in that started out with one name, changed it a decade later, then changed back? How about the drive-in that was replaced by a micro-midget race car track, then restored? Or about the one in Albuquerque that offered a circle of screens, one per car?

Drive-Ins of New Mexico is the ultimate guide to the history of every drive-in theater in the state from 1946 to the present. Includes dozens of historic photos, intermission stills, and amazing anecdotes.

Join Michael Kilgore, the West's foremost drive-in theater researcher, as he tells the often quirky, frequently accurate, bite-sized stories of ever ozoner that ever operated in New Mexico. A full index and background histories of drive-ins in general complement the 82 individual drive-in histories in this book. Drive-Ins of New Mexico is the perfect gift for any historian or drive-in theater enthusiast.

FREE Epub version!

The electronic version of Drive-Ins of New Mexico is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International. That roughly means that you are allowed to download it, then pass along copies of the unaltered file for noncommercial purposes. Give one to a friend!

If you want the version with dozens of historic illustrations, or if you just want to hold a physical book in your hands, you'll need to purchase the paperback.

Corrections, Updates, and Bonuses

Page 22
There's a photo of the 66's original sign here, and a color photo of its final sign here. Its BMX racing, post-movie era is captured here.

Page 26
Chester H. Liebs' 1982 photo, three years after this book's cover shot, can be viewed at the Center for Southwest Research, University Libraries, University of New Mexico.

Page 37
There's a beautiful color, night photo of the Terrace dancing woman on Pinterest. Thanks to the permission of photographer Steve Fitch, I was able to include it as a color photo in the second edition of Drive-Ins of Route 66, but it's not as great when converted to B&W. There's also a daylight view of that screen tower here.

Page 39
This circa-1965 sign for the Tesuque doesn't look ugly to me.

Page 42
You can see Robert A. Christensen's 1977 Joy photo at the Palace of the Governors Photo Archives.

Page 57
The Fiesta was a couple of blocks from the main tourist highway, so its owners had the brilliant idea of placing a neon arrow there to attract attention. You can see my night photo of it on my Flickr feed.

Page 71
There are several photos of the Starlighter at CinemaTreasures.org.

Page 83
Compare my photo of what's left of the Sahara sign with one of the original, posted at CinemaTreasures.org.

Page 87
Based on two photos, it looks like the Flamingo replaced its screen tower. This circa-1963 photo from the Griffith Amusement Company Collection showed a solid tower, while this undated newspaper-type photo had a modern metal screen.

Page 92
Here is a nice color photo of the Aggie's sign.

Page 95
And here is a nice photo of the Rocket's screen tower.

Page 126
The Yucca's screen tower looked ... different ... in daylight, as shown in this great color photo.

Page 133
I may have found Edsel Cavasos' Sunset/Star-Lite Drive-In. A USGS aerial photo taken in October 1950 showed a circle entrance at present-day 918 6th Street (where a house is now, not the vacant area next door) leading to a long driveway dumping out in a square, cleared, then-empty lot. A blurry 1952 USGS aerial showed the lot still empty, and a 1955 aerial showed an auto junkyard.

Page 135
If you poke around the internet, you can find several photos of the abandoned but intact Sierra Vista screen. Here's one on Pinterest.

Page 140
Fortunately for us, there's a great photo of what the Pueblo screen tower looked like.

Please let me know if you find anything else we need to add to this page. Thanks!