St. Johns Drive-In

One of the later airers to open in the Titusville area was the St. Johns Drive-In. It opened on April 22, 1965. The opening night feature was the 1964 comedy-musical “The Unsinkable Molly Brown” starring Debbie Reynolds, Harve Presnell and Ed Begley. The second feature was the 1964 comedy “The Disorderly Orderly” starring Jerry Lewis, Glenda Farrell and Susan Oliver. The new airer was opened by Clyde N. Hall dba. Orange State Theatres Inc. based in West Palm Beach, FL. They also operated the Florida Theatre, Crown Drive-In and the Town Cinema in Titusville, FL. Al Mier was the drive-in manager. J.M. Tuggle was the city manager and was assisted by W.C. Fielding. Eventually Bob Mc Cain would be the city manager for the three theatres.

One of the features of the new drive-in was that it featured air conditioning for each car in the 300–car capacity lot. Cool air was piped to each car from four central units. It cost 50 cent extra to get A/C in your car. It was advertised as the first drive-in in Florida to have air conditioning. It started to screen first run family entertainment but realised in the late-1960’s they had to increase patrons when screening exploitation films. In the early-1970’s the St. Johns Drive-In was screening adult double features nightly. The St. Johns Drive-In was closed on November 10, 1973 with Glen Ford in “Santee” & Adam Rourke and Neville Brand in “This is a Hijack”.

The property is now Affordable Auto Repair, DB Motors & BHI Energy.

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