Forgotten Omaha is a series of caches that will take you to the locations of iconic Omaha landmarks that have given way to progress, redevelopment, and the changing needs of a growing city.
Sky View Drive-In Theater opened on this site in August of 1954. If featured an 80-foot high screen and had space for 1,122 cars with another 100 seats on top of the concession building for walk-in patrons. The screen was on the southwest corner of the field below GZ. Cars fanned out in an arc that reached north toward Hartman Avenue, and east all the way to the back side of the homes along 69th Avenue. An aerial image from 1973 in the gallery shows the footprint of the entire property.
Omaha boasted multiple drive-in theatres during the latter half of the twentieth century. The first in the city was simply named The Drive-In at 76th and Dodge. Others included the Golden Spike at 114th and Dodge, the Q-Twin at 120th and Q, and the Grand View south of Omaha on Highway 75.
Cable television and the rise of the video rental industry eventually contributed to the demise of the drive-in theatre as America’s first choice in entertainment. Sky View remained one of Omaha’s most popular drive-in theatres until it closed in the late 1980’s.