Owl Drive-In
Columbia, Louisiana1952-1970s
Order Owl Drive-In tees, long sleeve tees and hoodies. The Owl opened on U.S. 165 on April 10, 1952, with Royal Wedding, and its grand opening ad starred a cartoon owl shouting through a long megaphone. C.C. Duke ran it from that fall on, and a Dollar General now stands on part of the lot. Browse the styles below, and the full Owl history is further down. We are an American small business bringing back the signs and logos of places and teams that are long gone but remembered fondly.
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Owl Drive-In History
The Owl Drive-In in Columbia, Louisiana, opened on April 10, 1952, with Royal Wedding, according to the front page of the Caldwell Watchman as cited on Cinema Treasures. Its grand opening ad placed it in Columbia Heights and starred a cartoon owl, leaning forward and shouting through a long megaphone. It stood on U.S. 165 and parked about 275 cars.
That fall W.M. Clark of Monroe turned his interest over to C.C. Duke, who ran the Owl from then on. It was a small seasonal house. The trade papers show Duke cutting back to weekends in late 1962 and closing for the winter that December. A few years later he was again closing at the end of November, with plans to come back around Easter.
The Owl was still open in 1970. It is marked on a 1976 topographic map, though that doesn't prove it was running, and it was gone by 1983. Nothing found gives a last night. A Dollar General now stands on part of the lot, and the rest is an empty field.