New Moon Drive-In

The New Moon Drive-In in Lake Charles, Louisiana, opened on April 9, 1953, with The Bad and the Beautiful and To Please a Lady, on what is now Gerstner Memorial Boulevard south of town. Open Air Theatres built it as a twin, with an East Tower and a West Tower and room for about 1,000 cars. The owner's reasoning, as the 1954 Theatre Catalog gave it, was that a customer who wanted only one of the features could pick it.

The screens faced the lot, and the backs faced the road. Each back was a huge dark grid with rounded shoulders, with a white moon on it and a streak of cloud passing across, and New Moon in script along the low building beside it. In the middle of the lot stood a brick and redwood building holding the concession stand, the projection booth and, upstairs, a 400-seat auditorium with air conditioning and central heat, for anyone who would rather not sit in the car. There was also a patio with 150 seats and a fenced playground with motorized rides and an attendant.

In April 1962 Boxoffice reported that the theater had reopened after a week of repairs to a fire-damaged screen. A projectionist who worked there before and after a fire recalls the owners taking out the lot speakers afterward and sending the sound over an AM radio frequency, and many customers ran down their car batteries.

Gulf States was the last operator. The New Moon was still running into the early 1980s, though no closing notice has turned up. By the 1990s it was gone, and it became a golf driving range that kept the name. A care center now stands on part of the land.