KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The Boulevard Drive-In Theatre in Kansas City, Kansas announced Thursday the passing of longtime owner Samuel Wesley (Wes) Neal. According to his obituary, Neal passed away on Wednesday, Sept. 18, at the age of 96. In 1954, four years after Boulevard Drive-In opened its gates with the movie “The Lady Takes a Sailor” starring Jane Syman and Dennis Morgan, a young Wes Neal moved from Wardell, Missouri to Kansas City to take his first job with a pharmaceutical company. Eight hours a day didn’t keep Neal as busy as his work growing up on the farm, so he went looking for a second job. Royals sweep Nationals: Magic number drops to two, three games remain “I had so much energy I couldn’t sleep. I came to the show one night and asked him if they needed help, and they put me to work,” Neal told FOX4 in a 2021 interview. “I got to work all day and half the night.” He would work at the drive-in every day since and in 1984 become the owner. To carry the theater through the lean years after television became a mainstay in American homes, Neal started the Swap and Shop. Open every Saturday and Sunday year-round. For decades, Neal would personally check all 700 speakers every single Monday. Download the FOX4 News app on iPhone and Android In 2012, Neal invested $100,000 in a digital projector, catapulting the historic drive-in theater straight into the modern age. A visitation for Neal will be held on Tuesday, Oct. 1 from 12:30 p.m. to 2 p.m. at Chapel Hill-Butler Funeral Home in KCK, followed by a funeral service.