Pioneer Drive-In
Mesa, Arizona1949-1982
Order Pioneer Drive-In tees, long sleeve tees and hoodies. The Mesa, Arizona, drive-in opened on November 1, 1949, with White Heat, and its sign showed a covered wagon behind a team of oxen beside PIONEER in letters that look cut from rough timber. It held 692 cars and had a second screen by 1978. Browse the styles below, and the full Pioneer 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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Pioneer Drive-In History
The Pioneer Drive-In in Mesa, Arizona, opened on November 1, 1949, with White Heat, One Last Fling and a Bugs Bunny cartoon. It stood at 2165 West Main Street, on the road to Tempe. That March, Boxoffice had reported Garfield Anderson planning a $150,000 drive-in on the Tempe-Mesa highway under the name Valley, with an electrical display on a western desert theme. A researcher on Cinema Treasures takes that to be this theater under its working name.
The sign fits that plan. PIONEER ran down a tall board at one end, in letters that look cut from rough timber. Beside it sat a band reading Drive In Theatre, and above that a covered wagon rolled behind a team of oxen. A 1963 newspaper ad shows a dollar per car as the top price.
Harry L. Nace Theatres, which also ran the Sands across town, operated it. It held 692 cars and had a second screen by 1978.
According to one researcher, it closed on February 7, 1982, with Taps and Cannonball Run on one screen and Neighbors and Stir Crazy on the other. By 2005 the lot was a small trailer park. Midtown on Main Apartments stand there now.