Lackland Drive-In
7188 Somerset Road,
San Antonio,
TX
78211
7188 Somerset Road,
San Antonio,
TX
78211
1 person
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The Lackland Drive-In was opened on November 2, 1953 with Randolph Scott in “The Man Behind the Gun”. This ozoner had a 450 car capacity. From 1967 until it closed in 1982 it played adult movies. Since demolished it is now the site of a Sam Warehouse Club.
Contributed by
Chuck Van Bibber
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Recent comments (view all 10 comments)
What’s odd is that there was an elementary school very close by to the area. Good thing was they had many lights around the area facing out towards the street, so that no one could see into the screen and parking area on the X-rated movies.
The Lackland’s screen sat high on a berm. It’s screen was easily visible from many angles. Rather than build a fence to keep passers-by from seeing the X rated films being shown on it’s screen, 88 very bright halogen lights were mounted on poles around the theatre. The bright lights effectively hid the screen from everyone but people in the theatre itself.
The Lackland was built in 1953. It was one of the better built drive ins in San Antonio.
I remember this place from when I was stationed at Kelly AFB in 79. They were showing porn at that time As porn was generally against the law everywhere in Texas in the late 70’s, San Antonio did not allow porn to be shown within the city limits. This theater hired a guy to stand in front of the projection booth with 2 paddles. The paddle guy’s job was to cast a shadow across the screen, blanking out the “offensive” parts of the scenes. A bunch of us, men & women, used to load up & go to the movies, not to watch the porn flicks but to watch this poor guy do a dance to keep his paddle shadows moving on the screen. I swear he was a gymnast or or a contortionist. Can you image doing this non-stop for 60-90 minutes at a crack?
contortionist. Can you image doing this non-stop for 60-90 minutes at a crack?
or a contortionist. Can you image doing this non-stop for 60-90 minutes at a crack?
Above address is incorrect. Approx. address for this drive-in was 7188 Somerset Road, San Antonio, TX 78224. Sam’s Club (at least the building was there when the drive-in closed) is north of where the theatre stood.
The entrance was where Specialty Prosthetics is located now. The buildings SE of this location and west of the post office is where the drive-in was located.
There is no way someone could place a paddle in front of the ports in the projection room unless he was 12+ feet tall. The Lackland was one of the first drive ins built with the projection room atop the snack bar. There were certain things that could not be shown, but those scenes were cut out of the film and placed back in at the end of the run.
The guy with the paddles could have climbed up on the roof of the snack bar?
Billboard, Oct. 23, 1954: “Sale of two drive-in theaters in San Antonio for $275,000 has been reported by Thurman Barrett Jr., owner-operator. Buyer is Lone Star Theaters, Inc., Dallas, owned by Pack-Murchison interests. The theaters are the Lackland and the Kelly.”
Opened on November 2nd, 1953 with “Man Behind the Gun”. Only the regular listing appeared.
Closed in 1982. Was owned by Gulf States theatres and Santikos from 1973 until it closed. Adult movies 1967-1982.
jw is correct, that Military street number is not the address of the former drive-in. Just compare Google Maps to the historical aerial view map posted with the photographs. Sam’s is north of where the theater existed.