Graham Drive-in Theater finds new ownership

Jacksboro’s Becky DuBois settled into the ticket booth around 7:30 p.m. at the Graham Drive-in theater Sunday and watched the dark clouds for lightning.

“We show the movie in the rain. We always get a lot of calls asking,” she said.

If you had told Becky a year ago she would be spending her summer weekends running a drive in theater, she would never have believed it. That was her reaction when her husband, Therrol, told her he wanted to buy it.

“I thought, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me.’ We’re looking to slow down. I’d already retired from the school district,” Becky said.

Becky, 64, worked in the school system for 22 years as a teacher’s aide for band and in the middle school library. She retired a few years ago and the time has flown so she is not sure if it was two or three.

Therrol, 67, has been a minister with Jacksboro’s First Baptist Church for 34 years, currently serving as minister of music. He served in his home state of Oklahoma prior to that but it was one of his first jobs which led to the couple taking on the movie business.

“In high school for four years I was a projectionist at the theater in my small town in Oklahoma,” he said. “So it’s kind of in my blood. It was a lot of fun.”

Therrol’s dentist, Dr. David Scott, who along with his wife, Pam, were the previous owners of the drive-in, told Therrol in passing during one visit he would make him a good deal on the theater.

Therrol thought he was joking.

“But we talked about it some and I told Becky and we did it,” he said.

The DuBoises began training in March (they say they are still in training) and officially bought the theater April 1.

“How many husband’s buy their wives a theater for Mother’s Day?” Therrol asks.

It makes for a long weekend with double-features every Friday, Saturday and Sunday which do not begin until sunset and conclude around midnight. The DuBoises often do not get home until after 2 a.m.

For the rest of the story, see the Wednesday, July 10 edition of The Graham Leader.