Fort McCoy Drive-In
Ocala National Park,
FL
32134
1 person
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This from journalist Ann Hyman in Jacksonville. I will sum up a most unusal drive-in probably ever put on Cinema Treasures, or in the top five anyway.
The Fort McCoy Drive-In was located not in a city or small Florida town, but in the middle of the Ocala National Park! The Fort McCoy Drive-In was located in a cow pasture where cars would scare the cows away. Cars lined up on the road waiting for tickets to be sold, old ladies with yard chairs waiting for a Doris Day movie to start. The money was collected in a cigar box. The movie screen was a sheet stretched on a frame nailed to a couple of tall palmetto trees. No car speakers, there was a large speaker set up in front of the screen. When a breeze came by the screen moved having real 3-D. The projector was set up by the back gate and ran off a car battery! There was an intermission between reels while the projectionist served chilled drinks and Nehis out of a tub of ice. He rewound the reel and started another.
The night Ann Hyman was there it was a black and white Roy Rogers movie. You couldn’t even make out what was going on back away from the screen, but she said the fun was drinking Nehis and smoking Pall Malls. She said this visit to the Fort McCoy Drive-In was in 1956.
Contributed by
MikeRogers
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Recent comments (view all 2 comments)
I really don’t think a drive-in can be found to top this one in Flordia.
Ann Hyman wrote for the Jacksonville Times-Union.