Burnet Drive-In
Austin, Texas1950-1976
Order Burnet Drive-In tees, long sleeve tees and hoodies. The Austin theater opened in 1950 with fireworks and carried 750 in-car speakers, a horseshoe snack bar counter and a board at each ramp that showed which speakers were free. A projectionist's 1973 photo of its marquee shows German soft-core titles that day. Pick a style below, then read the full Burnet history further down. Down Home Apparel is an American small business remembering the best places and teams of yesteryear, and every shirt is printed to order in the USA.
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Burnet Drive-In History
The Burnet Drive-In in Austin, Texas, opened on June 23, 1950, at 6400 Burnet Road, with fireworks and a double bill that included Sitting Pretty. The spelling has one T, like the road. It was built for Claude Ezell's Dallas drive-in company, and the American-Statesman wrote up its equipment at length: 750 in-car speakers, a snack bar with a horseshoe counter, a playground with merry-go-rounds and elephant slides, and an electric traffic system. A board at each ramp showed drivers whether any speakers were free, and Ezell's general manager held the patent on it.
The sign ran the name in tilted square tiles, one letter each, with DRIVE-IN below them and a long tilted attraction board on three legs under that. Trans-Texas Theaters of Dallas ran the place from about 1961 to 1975.
By the 1970s the bills had changed. A projectionist who photographed the marquee in 1973 says the titles on it that day were German soft-core films, though the theater also ran mainstream pictures in those years. One Austin history links the Burnet to a promotion handing out packets of green blood.
The Burnet closed in April 1976. A commenter gives April 1, and the Statesman ran a notice on April 18 saying another Austin drive-in was gone. The lot became Burnet Road Self Storage. The old snack bar appears to be its office.