Midway Drive-In
Sweetwater, Texas1948-1970s
Order Midway Drive-In tees, long sleeve tees and hoodies. The highway side of the tower was painted with a zigzag meant to read as a purple mountain range, in flat West Texas. A man who climbed inside the tower in 1991 found birds nesting and a poster for a 1970 film pasted upstairs. Browse the styles below, and the full Midway history is further down. Every shirt is printed to order in the USA and carries the memories of bygone places and teams.
4 products
Midway Drive-In History
The Midway Drive-In in Sweetwater, Texas, opened on May 20, 1948, on the old Bankhead Highway west of town, now State Loop 432. It was one of three drive-ins in Sweetwater. Listings put its size at 230 to 320 cars.
Jack Wallace owned it in the 1950s, one commenter on Cinema Treasures recalls, and his son J.D. and J.D.'s wife Dorothy ran it. The ticket office stood a few yards from a snack bar with a drive-through window, close enough for J.D. to walk over and catch teenagers trying to sneak in. A big playground and outdoor seats let parents watch the movie and their children at once.
Nobody has published a closing date. A survey of roadside architecture says the Midway has been shut since the mid-1970s. A man who climbed inside the tower in 1991 found it deserted, with birds nesting and a poster for a 1970 film pasted upstairs. A 1984 aerial already showed debris on the lot. The highway side of the tower was painted with a zigzag meant to read as a purple mountain range, in flat West Texas, and it was still standing in 2008 satellite images and in photos from 2021.