Daily Archives: 04/05/2013

(Community Matters) Brett Hurt is a good friend, mentor, a fellow EF board member and the founder of Bazaarvoice. His blog posting:  7 lessons learned on the journey from founder to CEO

(Community Matters) This missive found me by a circuitous route.

The Rambling Boy

By Lonn Taylor

Several weeks ago I wrote a column about Ballroom Marfa’s plans to build a drive-in movie theater in Marfa at a cost of $4.5 million. This column is about David Bebee’s drive-in movie theater, which  Bebee estimates cost $2500 to build and which is already operating on the lot Bebee leases behind Padre’s in Marfa. He calls the lot Airstreamland because it has five Airstream trailers parked on it in addition to a taco stand, a recycling center, and a 1967 Chevrolet Suburban that once belonged to the University of Texas Department of Zoology, where it was known as Murgatroyd.

The Ballroom’s drive-in will have a screen that measures 40 by 52 feet. Airstreamland’s screen measures 6 ¾ by 12 feet and is constructed from 3 sawed-off telephone poles, some 2 by 6 planks, and a piece of plywood. Bebee has given it 3 coats of industrial oil-based paint and plans to add a coat of gray movie screen paint containing glass beads, which costs $300 a can. His projection booth is a metal table with “Cerveza Superior” stamped in each of the four corners, the type of table you used to find in Juarez cantinas.

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