20th Century Drive-In
2900 N. Dale Mabry Highway,
Tampa,
FL
33607
2900 N. Dale Mabry Highway,
Tampa,
FL
33607
3 people
favorited this theater
Showing 51 - 75 of 94 comments
Yeah the boat sinks in both versions!
Mike, Yes, I certainly have my work cut-out! I wish I could do this research full time…now that would truly be a dream job! Sounds like you had a SUPER time at the reunion. You have a photo of a display from the Hillsboro Triple?!! If you’ll send it down I’ll make a copy and return it.
I’m shocked about Skyland Arts Cinema. I thought I typed the wrong city but in looking at your letter I don’t see Hendersonville listed on the page so I just assumed it was Forest City. Hopefully one of CT’s editors will correct it.
I’ll check out Robin’s photos for Columbia Square…sounds great! From your I have to guess that Barkley is heading south this summer. This should prove interesting!
Mike & tlstoes: for what it’s worth here’s my two cents on Titanic. I enjoyed the 1995 blockbuster mainly for the astounding effects. The documentary-like 1958 version, “A Night To Remember” was and still is my favorite movie about the disaster. So there you go!
tlsloews, Thanks! I’ll try and keep ‘em coming and hopefully you’ll continue enjoying them. My fear is that they’ll eventually began to sound sort of repetitive which I’m hoping to avoid.
Chuck, I’m familiar with several theatres you had listed but three of those I have never even heard of! Way before my time I would imagine. These should certainly provide for a very interesting search & find mission! If you have any additional theatres please list them here and I’ll add them to my expanding research project. Thanks!!
I will be honest with you I never saw Titanic,seemed liked a three hour soap opera from i read about,There was another TITANIC movie i think called “REMEMBER THE NIGHT” i liked it alot better.
It was a kind of up-side down movie.Titanic was good too if you have not seen it the boat sinks.!
WHAT IS IT WITH YOU AND BOATS!!!! I bet you loved “THE POESIDION ADVENTURE”
How many boats can you park there Mike?
NICK, ROBIN PUT Columbia 1 and 2 pictures on the CT site for COULMBIA SQUARE CINEMAS!!!!I feel like a six year old CHRISTMAS MORNING! Plz,check them out. OH, I mailed you a letter with some big news on BARKLEY.Boy, are you all in for a fun summer.
Nick, Robin gave me a bunch of old Plitt theatre office memos and one had the Hillsboro Triple with a picture of a display for “MAN FROM SNOWY RIVER”,would you like it? I don’t mind mailing down to you for your collection.
Nick, I know i gave you too many theatres to do! The Skyland Arts Cinema was in Hendersonville,not Forest City,I put notice on that on the Skyland Arts site,so maybe CT will fix the town.Surprized someone on CT didn’t catch it before I did. You STILL ARE the best at getting articles on CT.
Yeah,we met at a Western Film fair back in the 90’s. His favorite movie was 2001 so that did it,plus like me,he had a strange habit, that i honestly thought only Nick and I had about exploring old Drive-ins and old Theatres.A few we were able to get in.Nick and his friend Charlie hit the Flordia backroads and put on a very impressive VHS old Drive-ins and walk-ins open or closed together. I need to get mine on DVD soon.He is a big help putting my chopped up material on CT.
Hey Mike I check out Nicks posts now that I know you know him from the old days,just something in common I quess?
Boy,Nick,i am sorta glad i live in a medium size city,you have your work cut out for you and we are ALL waiting for another story,just wish more CT folks would read your writings.Maybe,they do and don’t comment.
Keep the stories comming ick and Mike.
Chuck, Are the theatres from the Historic Theatres in Tampa website? If so I have all the names and will be working on getting them up. If not let me know and I’ll post my address and you can email the names to me.
Mike, I’m putting together the story on the Dale Mabry now. I need to find the opening & closing dates at the library which I hope to do tomorrow. It was open before the 20th Century was built and closed in 1972 as I recall. I really didn’t frequent this drive-in very often…it was on the opposite side of town from where I lived. So I wouldn’t normally have much to write about except for the fact that I ended up working there! At least this gives me a few more experiences/incidents to pad the story out. I hate to give a definite date but I’m guessing it should be posted by the middle of next week as long as all goes smoothly.
Charlie was a relief operator and he worked this drive-in at least a couple times. He told me once about a nasty run-in he had with the manager one evening. I’ll get the details again from Charlie but I can tell you now I’ll have to clean up the language before posting on CT!
If you haven’t already done so check out the Florida, Palace, Ritz and Tampa pages. Chuck has posted a link to several photos and additional stories from the locals!
Nick, when will DALE MARBY Drive in be finished? If Charlie worked there interview him for the story. I mailed some theatre stories for you to put on CT. Thanks. Jennifer got a job at Sonic burgers and drive in she will be roller skating out to cars. they grow up fast.
Nick, keep the faith! anywhere i can when I write I try to remind CT the great stories they miss if they don’t seekout your material.
Mike, I still can’t get over it. Thanks to Jeff I now know the title of a movie I saw 50 years ago. And I thought you were just about the only one who read my stories! And more great news: several scenes of the film are posted on YouTube including the scene of the children singing the “knick knack” song! Some great memories here.
I wish i could on CT the times you do,NICK.
Nick, how in the HECK did Jeff know that! I figured if anyone could answer that it would be a CT writer. I am waiting on your next Tampa Drive-in story.
Jeff, THANK YOU! THANK YOU! This is absolutely amazing! I can’t thank you enough. I thought for certain I’d go to my grave without ever knowing what the title was. There’s no way on earth I would have ever found it by searching blindly through the ads on microfilm. Now I need to see if it’s available on video or DVD. Oh yes, thanks also for the memory lane compliment. Glad you enjoyed the post!
The “knick knack paddy whack, give the dog a bone” song was from “The Inn of Sixth Happiness”, with Ingrid Bergman, Curt Jurgens and Robert Donat. Released in 1958 from 20th Century-Fox. As I recall, it was a pretty good movie. Thanks for sharing your walk down memory lane with us.
Mike and Chuck, Thanks guys for the input! Boy did I goof up. I always try and remember to verify
if a theatre I’m about to add is already posted. I could swear I checked before posting the Overton
but evidently I didn’t or perhaps I spelled Overton as Overland. Mike, I’ll just add the story now under comments so it will post immediately.
Just like Mike, until I came across CT I thought I was one of maybe 5 people in the entire country that loved theatres. It amazes me to see the in-depth research and stories by so many on this site. Chuck, thanks for taking the time; I really appreciate your comments. And thanks for posting a little history about yourself. I could listen to theatre stories for hours-on-end no matter which theatre or what part of the country it was located in. I see you’ve been in the business just about all your life. You were in the business when theatres were true theatres! I was about 10 when I was bitten by the bug so I just barely caught the tail end of the real moviegoing experience which was by then slowly starting to evolve into what we have today. And it’s not exactly a pretty picture.