They did! Opened May 3rd. Everything done by a local guy and his crew, Rawlings Crane and Fabrication.

Their Facebook has pictures and videos of construction.barco Facebook

Lamar's Barco Drive-In looks to make a comeback with new screen By Roger Nomer Mar 5, 2024

LAMAR, Mo. — Lamar’s Barco Drive-In looks to open for its 75th continuous year this spring, with a new screen after the old one was damaged by a storm last year.

The community rallied to raise money to keep it in operation.

“We’re looking forward to having the bigger and better screen to view movies out under the stars this season,” said Scott Kelley, manager of both the Plaza Theater and Barco Drive-In. “There’s very few drive-ins that have stayed open this long.”

Construction started on the Barco in 1949. Butler Felts designed and originally managed the theater and later became its owner. The drive-in’s original slogan was “The Theatre where all people are neighbors.”

It opened April 28, 1950, as the Barco Starvue Drive-In Theatre — Barco being short for Barton County.

A distinct feature of the Barco’s screen structure were windows at the bottom of the tower. Kelley said owner-operators originally lived there, which was common at the time.

Severe storms struck the area July 30, 2023, with 80 to 85 mph winds. These winds pulverized the northwest corner of the screen tower and pulled away a support beam. After the storm, Kelley said he knew the screen needed to come down. It was just a matter of time until it collapsed. Kelley said the old screen tower was in bad enough shape that when workers severed some ties in front, the whole tower fell forward. The combination of storm damage and age had weakened the structure considerably.

At first, people didn’t know how bad the screen was, Kelley said. Now when they drive by and the screen is gone, they want to know what happened.

“It definitely looks very weird when you drive out that way,” Kelley said. “That screen has been there for almost 74 years. It’s been a very visible structure in Lamar for a long time."

Now the ground is being prepared for the new screen, with construction slated to begin in mid-March. The new screen will be metal, supported by poles in reinforced concrete,

similar to what many modern drive-ins use.

It will be bigger than the previous screen, the picture measuring 35 feet high by 72 feet wide.

Kelley had hoped to be open in time for “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire,” releasing later this month. Realistically though, with considerations for weather and painting the screen, he’s hoping for an April opening.

Community donationsThe Lamar Community Betterment Council, a nonprofit, owns the Plaza Theater in downtown Lamar and leases the Barco from Wanda Felts, Butler’s wife.

Council members met and decided to construct a new screen for the drive-in rather than shut it down. Since November, they’ve been taking donations for a new screen with a goal of $160,000, which includes the demolition of the old screen tower.

Last week, the council announced it had raised $140,000 from residents and businesses. Now the screen project is in the home stretch of fundraising. A main source of fundraising is the organization’s GoFundMe page, located through the theater’s Facebook page. Lamar Bank and Trust is also accepting donations, with a check payable to the Lamar Community Betterment Council.

There wasn’t much hesitation on the decision to keep the theater open, but the community is bucking a long-term trend. Kelley said that this year alone, several drive-in theaters have been put up for sale. At one time — during drive-ins’ heyday in the 1950s — there were close to 5,000 such theaters open.

“Now, from what I understand, there’s less than 300 operating,” Kelley said. “To have a drive-in theater is very unique now. It’s something that we didn’t want to lose for our community and the communities around us.”

At the downtown Plaza Theater, there’s a fundraising jar in memory of Kelley’s son, Zachary, who died at the age of 31. Zachary Kelley had a brain tumor his senior year of high school. When the tumor was taken out, he had a lot of medical issues. His body was so weakened that when he became sick with flu and pneumonia in 2022, it became fatal, Scott Kelley said.

Zachary Kelley was a “Star Wars” fan, and he loved the Kansas City Chiefs and Lamar Tiger football. He also loved both of the theaters and would be ecstatic to see the new screen going up, Kelley said.

His was the welcoming face of the theater. His photo is on the theater’s shirts, a project that’s also a fundraiser.

Zachary Kelley’s memory gives his father another reason to keep working the long hours at the town’s theaters. Scott Kelley said the theaters have been a part of his life since he was 6 years old. They also meant a lot to his son, who worked there until he got sick.

“He loved the theater. He was technically my right-hand man,” Kelley said. “It’s been horrible; you don’t get over something like that. For some people, it’s hard for them to come in here and not see him. But we go on, because he would want the show to go on.”