Woodstock Drivein Theater Edmond

[Edmond_Outsider]

Does anybody remember the Woodstock Drive-in in Edmond? I live near there and have always wondered where it was in relation to the cemetery and BNSF tracks. I've tried to find photos of it with no luck.

It was small, about 200 cars, and a single screen. I've tried for years to locate photos of it with no luck.

[stile99]

http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/28698

Seems there was a link with photos, now inoperative. The Wayback Machine might have them cached though.

[Edmond_Outsider]

Yeah, I've looked all those places.

I haven't tried the Edmond Historical Society.

I have a few articles from the Oklahoman about a teenager who was hit by a car during a concert held there in the early '70s but nothing else.

[rezman]

looks like it would have been on Thomas drive between Danforth and Covell. The 1964 shot on Historic Aerials.com shows vacant land, but the 1991 shot shows some type of structures there.

[Edmond_Outsider]

I've seen the Historic Aerials map and I think it IDs the location on the wrong side of the tracks. I've read that the entrance was off Boulevard directly north of the cemetery. That may be incorrect.

[whorton]

What do you want to know?

The Edmond Woodstock Drive in theatre was opened on Sept 20, 1971 and was built and owned by Ron Turner and James O'Donnell.

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It was located North of the Cemetery and just East of the train tracks. (which was not a wise choice for obvious reasons) It set:

Attachment 14214

The place was build on a shoe string and operated the same way. The concession building was a portable building.

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It did poorly as a drive-in theatre and it's end came basically Aug 5, 1973, when the theatre had a "Rock Fest" with radio station KWHP of Edmond. The problem was they did not provide traffic control, and as a result a young lady was ran over by a car during the event. There was a predictable lawsuit with a $880,000 payout to the family. The drive-in never reopened.


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I spent some time researching this drive-in back in the early 90's and even visited the site. There are some remains left, but mostly all that was there was an oil pump jack (this several years ago.) I was able to track down Turner (original owner) but he refused to speak to me about the theatre. I really got the feeling it had left him soured.

I have often wondered what became of the young lady who was injured.

Advert thanks to the Edmond Sun. The articles about the accident from The Daily Oklahoma (c)1971 and (c)1973.

Wesley Horton

[whorton]

Incidentally, it was not the only drive-in theatre to ever exist in Edmond. In the early 1950's there had been a drive-in theatre called the Sunset Drive-in that was located roughly where Lowe's is today. But that is a story for another post.

[DenverMichael]

According to Boxoffice magazine, Edward Roupe bought the Woodstock from O'Donnell and Turner in the spring of 1976, and he was later reported to be booking movies for the place, which suggests that it reopened. A short note in May 1977 said that James Barnet had leased the Woodstock, and that's all I've found so far.

[DenverMichael]

The Edmond Historical Society & Museum just sent me a couple of clippings with a few more details. The Woodstock advertised in The Vista of Edmond's Central State University on Oct. 13, 1971, largely confirming Wesley Horton's grand opening date a few weeks earlier. At the other end of its life, the Woodstock also advertised in the Oct. 14, 1976 Vista, verifying that it reopened by then. And for a few issues in October 1977, the drive-in advertised in the Daily Oklahoman as "Edmond Drive-In".

[whorton]

The whole matter of the Woodstock was conducted on a shoestring budget. The lot was small and poorly laid out, the concession stand was a portable building and the whole Aug 5, 1973 "rock concert" fiasco where a young lady was ran over (and cost the owners 800 thousand dollars left a bad taste in the city's mouth until it closed around '76.

Not to mention locating a drive in next to an a active railroad track may make for a great O Winston Link photo, but for showing movies? Not so much!