Pioneer Corporation built the Corral Drive-In Theater at 1710 West Second Street in 1949. Art Downard managed the drive-in until he purchased it from Pioneer Corporation in 1964 at the same time that he bought the Webster Theater. He owned and operated them both until 1980.
He was joined in the 1979 by his son, Tom, who then purchased the theaters from Art. Tom owned and managed the Corral Drive-In Theater until until it was closed in 1987 and was later torn down. Today the site is occupied by the Beam Industry building.
The nation's love affair with the drive-in movie passed from the scene partly due to the advent of the VCR and the video tapes. At the height of their popularity they were visited regularly by the teenagers. One night a week the theater would offer "Buck Night" where they would admit a whole car-full of people for one dollar. At the regular times when the admission price was charged for each passenger youngsters would cram into the trunk until after the car was inside the theater grounds. I suspect that most times the management knew that this was going on but they just had to put up with it.