Hankins Drive-In
Lawton, Oklahoma1950-1986
Order Hankins Drive-In tees, long sleeve tees and hoodies. The Hankins in Lawton, Oklahoma, put its name uphill across a tall tower wall, with rays fanning out below from a small star. It was the last drive-in in Lawton to close, in October 1986, and customers remember dollar carload nights and a good snack bar. Browse the styles below, and the full Hankins 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.
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Hankins Drive-In History
The Hankins Drive-In in Lawton, Oklahoma, opened on September 30, 1950, near the Lawton airport on the south side of town, at Bishop Road and 11th Street. A 1955 theatre catalog lists Ned and Jack Hankins as its executives. A photo in the 1953 Lawton High School yearbook shows the name running uphill across a tall tower wall, with rays fanning out below it from a small star.
Jack Hankins sold the theater a few years before 1961, according to Boxoffice, to his rival Volney Hamm, who ran the Mt. Scott Drive-In across town. Hamm kept the Hankins name. Directories put capacity at 640 in 1965 and 300 in 1979, and still list Hamm as owner in 1984.
The Hankins was the last drive-in in Lawton to close, in October 1986. Former customers recall dollar carload nights and a good snack bar. One says patrons were invited to cut a speaker off its pole and take it home. The site is now an open field with some asphalt and a ramp still showing in the grass, and the airport in the background.