Midway Drive-In 1 & 2
8808 Beach Boulevard,
Jacksonville,
FL
32216
8808 Beach Boulevard,
Jacksonville,
FL
32216
1 person
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A Walmart has replaced this drive-in. Was owned by Eastern Fed. Had a capacity for 800 cars. Was still a drive-in in 1983.
Contributed by
Dave Bonan
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Recent comments (view all 9 comments)
I was working there in the early/mid 80’s as a projectionist when we got the bad news from the district manager at a meeting there that the midway was closing but it might reopen which it never did.It was a very sad day for all of being that I grew very fond of that drive in.
Troy,didn’t you find some old pictures/news clippings of when it opened back in the ‘50’s.Didn’t you tell me that Maralyn Monroe cut the ribbon on it when it opened?At any rate,I worked there too,part time and was really fond of it.I think the last movies I ran there were Blue Thunder on one screen and House of 1000 Pleasures on the other.
I have some super 8 films somewhere that I shot of the place during the daytime just before it was demolished.
I’m assuming you guys where there when they shot NIGHTMARE AT SHADOW WOODS aka BLOOD RAGE?
Hi Vaughn,
My family has very deep roots with a lot of Jacksonville’s drive ins in the 60s and 70s. My favorite is the Midway. I loved that place. I have no pictures of her and would love to see if you located any of the films you took. I would like to e-mail you some how so we could talk more.
Newspaper ads for films that played at the Fox and Midway Drive-Ins and theater times
here.
Opened as a single screen in 1955, was twinned in 1978, was operated by H.B. Meiselman thru 1969 and then Eastern Federal Theatres thru closing in 1985. Car capacity after twinning was listed at 808. The address for the Midway Drive-In was 13488 Beach Blvd., Jacksonville, Fl. 32224.
8808 Beach Blvd, Jacksonville, FL 32216
The above address will map accurately to the location of the drive-in, which is now another Wamart monstrosity.
Here is a 1970 aerial photo of the drive-in, courtesy of HistoricAerials.com.
I grew up in the Windy Hill area of Southside Jacksonville and remember the Midway drive-in very well. It was the place to go on a week night especially if you had a date, for less than 5 dollars you could get in buy a drink and popcorn and you were all set.Sure miss that experience.
The Google street view is locked in at the wrong location, if you move the curser to the 8800 block you will see the Walmart where the drive-in once stood.