Broncho Drive-In
Odessa, Texas1949-1972
Order Broncho Drive-In tees, long sleeve tees and hoodies. The Broncho opened in Odessa, Texas, in 1949 with Clark Gable in It Happened One Night, a picture already 15 years old, and it leaned on return engagements for room to fill 500 cars. Its tower showed a bucking horse inside a big ring, and Odessa High is the only Texas school with the Bronchos mascot. Browse the styles below, and the full Broncho history is further down. We are an American small business bringing back the signs and logos of places and teams that are long gone but remembered fondly.
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Broncho Drive-In History
The Broncho Drive-In in Odessa, Texas, opened on March 31, 1949, with Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert in It Happened One Night, a picture that was already 15 years old. H & H Theaters ran it at 2700 Andrews Highway, with room for 500 cars, and it leaned on return engagements of older films.
The name came from the Odessa High School football team. The team had been the Yellowjackets until students voted in 1929 to become the Bronchos, spelled with an h, and the school is the only one in Texas with the mascot. The theater's tower carried the name in tall capitals above a bucking horse inside a big ring, with Drive In Theatre in smaller letters between them.
The Broncho closed in late 1972. The Cinema Treasures overview puts the end down to daylight saving time, which pushed the first show later into the evening. Photos on that site show the 40,000-pound screen being pulled down, and nothing remains of the theater on Andrews Highway.