Ribault Drive-In
4819 Soutel Drive,
Jacksonville,
FL
32208
4819 Soutel Drive,
Jacksonville,
FL
32208
1 person
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The Ribault Drive-In was opened on June 8, 1951 with Randolph Scott in “The Nevadan” & Lex Barker in “Tarzan’s Magic Fountain”. It was a Clark Theater and had a capacity for 400 cars. Also operated by Eastern Federal Corporation. It was closed in 1981.
Contributed by
Dave Bonan
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Recent comments (view all 15 comments)
Eastern Federal owned and operated the Ribault Drive-In in its early years, but closed it when operating cost exceeded revenue. They leased it out to a couple independent operators while I was in Jacksonville from late 1980 to late 1984 with Eastern Federal.
Why the name Ribault?
Davidcoppock, The Ribault Drive-in was located in the NW part of Jacksonville, near the Ribault River, thus a number of businesses in that part of Jacksonville used the Ribault name. The Ribault name comes from the French explorer, JEAN RIBAULT, who was credited for exploring parts of the SE US, and claiming territory for France. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Ribault
400 cars
Boxoffice, Feb. 8, 1960: “Carlton J. Carter has taken over operation of the local Ribault and Air Base drive-ins, which have been operated for the past several months by Irving Sochin.”
The entry/exit roads still exist, and so does part of the concreate screen foundation.
The Ribault Drive-In is notable for an August 24, 1957 advertisement containing a quadruple run with films that began with the word “Hell”, and a r**ing investigation from the Jacksonville Police Department, reporting of a man and a little girl at the playground section of the Ribault Drive-In on March 3, 1955. Its opening/closing dates were not discovered yet.
Opened on June 8th, 1951. Grand opening ad posted.
Closed 1981
Most of the property is still open and mostly undeveloped. Although a significant portion was landscaped.
You can see rows of trees which grew from the ramps. The entrance/exit road is now connected as a parking area for a church on the east side and a academy on the west side.