Circus Drive-In
Hugo, Oklahoma1950-1980s
Browse Circus Drive-In tees, long sleeve tees and hoodies. The theater stood in Hugo, Oklahoma, a winter home for traveling circuses that called itself Circus City, U.S.A. Its tower read CIRCUS THEATRE under a row of three stars, and it held about 300 cars. Pick a style below, then read the full Circus 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.
4 products
Circus Drive-In History
The Circus Drive-In in Hugo, Oklahoma, opened on August 23, 1950, with Ann Blyth in Red Canyon. Tom Morehead of Video Independent Theatres put it on land that had hosted the first Choctaw County fair in 1914. It held about 300 cars, and its screen measured 30 by 40 feet.
The name was local fact. Hugo became a winter home for traveling circuses in the 1940s, when the Miller family moved its show there, and it took the nickname Circus City, U.S.A. Elephants wintered outside town, and stone elephants still mark Showmen's Rest, the section of the town's cemetery set aside for circus people. The theater leaned into it with circus decorations, and its tower read CIRCUS THEATRE under a row of three stars.
A projectionist who worked there from 1966 to 1969 recalled year-round shows with three film changes a week; other accounts say it was seasonal. In 1972 Jack and Linda Boucher, who had the town's Erie Theatre as well, planned to move their mobile home onto the property.
It ran steadily until the late 1970s, then on and off until it shut for good in the early 1980s. Plans to restore it came to nothing, and it was torn down. The land now belongs to an onion processor.