Chalk Hill Drive-In
Dallas, Texas1941-1973
Order Chalk Hill Drive-In tees, long sleeve tees and hoodies. The Dallas theater opened on July 4, 1941, with The Invisible Woman, and its tower later carried a huge smiling clown face with circus figures around it. A local TV station filmed a crane taking the tower down in 1974, clown still on it. Browse the styles below, and the full Chalk Hill history is 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.
4 products
Chalk Hill Drive-In History
The Chalk Hill Drive-In in Dallas, Texas, opened on July 4, 1941, at 4501 West Davis Street, with The Invisible Woman. W.G. Underwood and Claude Ezell built it about two weeks after opening their Northwest Hi-Way Drive-In, the city's first. The two theaters were close to twins, right down to a big star on the tower. Chalk Hill sat on 12.5 acres, with 408 car spaces and 204 in-ground speakers.
Live stage shows ran before the pictures starting in 1943. An 80-foot curved CinemaScope screen went in during 1954, with The Robe among the first films on it. At some point the star gave way to a mural on the back of the tower: a huge smiling clown's face, with circus figures around it and neon lighting. A photographer named Steve Fitch recorded it in 1973.
The Chalk Hill closed in 1973 and came down in 1974, when local station WFAA filmed a crane taking the tower apart with the clown still on it. Warehouses now cover the site.