SAPULPA, Okla. — A local icon of the mid-century is opening back up in Sapulpa.
The Tee Pee Drive-In opened its doors in the 1950s and shuttered in 1999, but with new owners, the drive-in will be back to its former glory and showing movies again in about two weeks.
It will be holding a grand opening on April 15, within a few days of announcing they’ve sold more than 600 tickets.
This shows hundreds of people are excited about this icon coming back.
Haley Smalley, the operations director, said people have even been commenting on their Facebook posts tagging friends and family which tells her the community is as excited as they hoped.
“Before the drive-in, before some of these new renovations that have been done in Sapulpa, pretty much the only thing fun that you could do was to go into Tulsa to do them. Now it's something that people can have recreational here in their hometown,” Smalley said.
A few years ago, the vacant drive-in was run down and dirty with over-grown grass.
Now it’s been completely renovated with new decking, a new playground, a new projector, concessions, and a few Airbnb trailers. Smalley told 2 News the only thing the same is the layout of the property and the screen itself.
She said one of the new owners is from Sapulpa and says restoring this part of town is important to her.
“They wanted to kind of build up Sapulpa. Make it more of a luxurious town and kind of build it back up," Smalley said. "It was kind of starting to go down a little bit, and what better way than one of Joanie's childhood memories to build up.”
It offers some family-friendly fun locally in Sapulpa that appeals to older generations as well, bringing back memories of classic drive-in flicks.
The closest drive-ins are in Tulsa and Oklahoma City, so restoring this one gives locals somewhere to go as well as drawing visitors to the small town.
They’ve already had people from out of state reaching out, wanting to stop by as they travel Route 66.
The operations manager explains they will show all kinds of movies, from artistic ones to blockbusters. They will be open seven days a week, showing a double feature every night from April 15 until around Halloween. Tickets are $8 for adults, $4 for kids 4-12, and free for kids under 4.
The first movies shown on this screen in more than 20 years are great for kids too. They will be showing the new Super Mario Bros movie as well as the Despicable Me movie.
Tickets can be bought online or at the ticket office on the property.
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