I used to ride my bike to watch movies at this theater back in the 60s. One of the scariest afternoons of my life was spent in that cinema. We were watching a wolf man and mummy matinee and a few minutes into the movie, we noticed that the wolf man, the mummy, dracula and various other creatures were getting closer to us. They had hired actors to dress up and walk through slits in the screen as far as I could tell. When I saw the mummy coming towards me, I ducked, hoping with all my might that he didn’t see me. The next thing I know, someone is tapping me on the head with big gnarly fingers. I darn near peed my pants. I played dead until he walked sway. Whadd'ya want I was only about 8 years old….
During the ‘50s and '60s, the Athens was owned by longtime DeLand resident Bill Tison, who also owned Bill Tison Auto Sales to the left of the cinema.
This is where I saw Star Wars in May of 1977. Rocked my world! I was in the Air Force and me and 4 or 5 other GIs went. Great memories!
I used to ride my bike to watch movies at this theater back in the 60s. One of the scariest afternoons of my life was spent in that cinema. We were watching a wolf man and mummy matinee and a few minutes into the movie, we noticed that the wolf man, the mummy, dracula and various other creatures were getting closer to us. They had hired actors to dress up and walk through slits in the screen as far as I could tell. When I saw the mummy coming towards me, I ducked, hoping with all my might that he didn’t see me. The next thing I know, someone is tapping me on the head with big gnarly fingers. I darn near peed my pants. I played dead until he walked sway. Whadd'ya want I was only about 8 years old….