Victory Drive-In

15382 W. Lisbon Road,
Butler, WI 53051

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Additional Info

Previously operated by: Delft Theaters Inc.

Architects: Urban F. Peacock

Nearby Theaters

Victory - Butler, WI

The Victory Drive-In opened June 12, 1950 with John Wayne in “She Wore a Yellow Ribbon” & a short: Dayton Allen in “The Red Headed Monkey”. It featured a large screen tower with the drive-in’s name spelled out in large red letters at the top. The Victory Drive-In also featured a children’s playground and a large concession area.

The theatre closed after the 1986 season and was soon demolished. However, although the property was purchased by a church in 1988, it wasn’t developed. In 2018 it was redeveloped as a housing scheme.

Contributed by Bryan

Recent comments (view all 10 comments)

MichaelD
MichaelD on September 19, 2005 at 9:53 pm

As someone who lived behind The Victory Drive In, I have to tell you it was open until at least 1984.

MrDriveIn
MrDriveIn on March 12, 2006 at 2:56 pm

Sorry to tell Bryan but is wrong on a couple of things. The Victory Drive-in did open in 1950 but the large letters that spelled Victory on the top of the screen did not appear until at least the late 1950’s.
The theater did NOT close after the 1980 season but closed after the 1986 season. Then it was torn down a very short time afterwards. A church did buy the property but as of summer of 2005, there is NOTHING on the site except a few remnant car ramps. Check out my website below for more info.

MrDriveIn
MrDriveIn on December 3, 2008 at 3:03 pm

Any comments or questions regarding any drive-in theater in Wisconsin, please check out my website at
www.drive-inthruwisconsin.com There you will find photos, original newspaper ads and a whole lot more. Or contact me at I will give you complete and accurate information about Wisconsin drive-in theaters, just ask. Thanks, Charles Bruss

AS OF OCTOBER 2008, THE LOT OF THE VICTORY DI IS STILL VACANT.

wevowva
wevowva on July 29, 2010 at 2:30 pm

I just walked the lot and was amazed it hadn’t been developed. I’ve driven by on my bike many times, never knowing it was right there. I had been under the misapprehension it was along Hwy. 45 near the Starlite. Many great memories of this theater, it sends a chill just to stand there! Unless you look very hard, about the only thing visible is the main entry drive, 4 lanes wide, used to collect cars before the gate was open. You can still spot the pedestals for the ticket booths without much trouble. Walking through the overgrown fields, it’s not hard to sense the subtle up and downs of the mogul rows. The ground flattens half way back where projection/concessions were, and a few cement circles used to pad the falls of occassional clumsy youngsters falling off the merry-go-rounds (pre-PC playground hysteria) are still there in front of the screen.

rivest266
rivest266 on October 22, 2010 at 6:06 pm

June 12th, 1950 full page ad is at View link
This was opened by Delft Theatres.

davidcoppock
davidcoppock on April 10, 2017 at 12:40 am

It looks like in the photo above there still also the entrance(or exit?) road(or both?) still there as well?

Kenmore
Kenmore on November 6, 2018 at 12:59 pm

It appears based on the Apple Map overhead photo along with the Google Map street view from August, 2017 that the land is being prepared for something.

The grass has been removed leaving the underlying dirt and construction equipment is present in the street view.

davidcoppock
davidcoppock on November 6, 2018 at 7:42 pm

Opened 12/6/1950 with “Red headed Monkey”, “Fishing in the North Atlantic” and “She wore a yellow ribbon”.

dansdriveintheater
dansdriveintheater on November 6, 2018 at 11:04 pm

the ramps entrance/exit road are all that exist.

kennerado
kennerado on July 29, 2023 at 2:06 am

The land was redeveloped into a housing estate in 2018.

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