In 1967 I was in the fourth grade at Thompson Elementary which was 2 blocks behind Jacksonvilles largest theater The Iwo Jima with 599 seats. That year my teacher took our class for the 4 minute walk
(2 by 2) to go grab some pop corn and watch “Old Yeller” as a class trip. It was so much fun!! Yes, we all cried at the end.
Some 6 years later when I was 16, I got a job shoveling pop corn there. I changed hundreds of marquee’s and movie posters. I watched a parade down New Bridge Street once from inside the lobby. I stayed there for 5 more years until joining up with Uncle Sam and sailing the 7 seas for the next 20 years in the U.S. Navy’s Submarine Force.
Now a Floridian at age 58, the years I spent working for Stewart & Everett Theaters, who owned Iwo Jima, was incredible. I was able to interact with thousands of customers, watch hundreds of movies from “B” films and everything in between & up to “The Exorcist” & “The God Father” all while earning 85 cents an hour. I lived on popcorn!! The Iwo was huge inside. It had 3 huge speakers behind the screen. The “Sound of Music” played there in 1965 for 12 weeks because of the huge seating capability. Don’t tell anyone but when a GREAT movie was showing, over the years now and then, after the last show let out on a Saturday night (non-school nite), my close friends and I would have our own private viewing of the film in that BIG theater. Thanks for the memories Stewart & Everett Theaters! I was able to get in for free to all their theaters…The “Center”, “Northwoods”, and especially the Drive Inn on Bell Fork road. I miss those fogged up windows!
In 1967 I was in the fourth grade at Thompson Elementary which was 2 blocks behind Jacksonvilles largest theater The Iwo Jima with 599 seats. That year my teacher took our class for the 4 minute walk (2 by 2) to go grab some pop corn and watch “Old Yeller” as a class trip. It was so much fun!! Yes, we all cried at the end. Some 6 years later when I was 16, I got a job shoveling pop corn there. I changed hundreds of marquee’s and movie posters. I watched a parade down New Bridge Street once from inside the lobby. I stayed there for 5 more years until joining up with Uncle Sam and sailing the 7 seas for the next 20 years in the U.S. Navy’s Submarine Force. Now a Floridian at age 58, the years I spent working for Stewart & Everett Theaters, who owned Iwo Jima, was incredible. I was able to interact with thousands of customers, watch hundreds of movies from “B” films and everything in between & up to “The Exorcist” & “The God Father” all while earning 85 cents an hour. I lived on popcorn!! The Iwo was huge inside. It had 3 huge speakers behind the screen. The “Sound of Music” played there in 1965 for 12 weeks because of the huge seating capability. Don’t tell anyone but when a GREAT movie was showing, over the years now and then, after the last show let out on a Saturday night (non-school nite), my close friends and I would have our own private viewing of the film in that BIG theater. Thanks for the memories Stewart & Everett Theaters! I was able to get in for free to all their theaters…The “Center”, “Northwoods”, and especially the Drive Inn on Bell Fork road. I miss those fogged up windows!