Rimar Drive-In
4137 Clarcona Ocoee Road,
Orlando,
FL
32810
4137 Clarcona Ocoee Road,
Orlando,
FL
32810
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Additional Info
Previously operated by: Floyd Theaters
Architects: Richard Boone Rogers
Previous Names: Ri-Mar Drive-In
Nearby Theaters
The Ri-Mar Drive-In was opened on September 2, 1949 screening the 1949 drama “Bad Boy” with Lloyd Nolan, Jane Wyatt, James Gleason & Audie Murphy. It was opened by Jack Martin of Orlando, Ben Rivers of Apopka, FL and Sam Manning of Macon, GA. The Ri-Mar name came from the last names of Ben (Ri)vers and Jack (Mar)tin. It was built at a cost of $50,000 and featured a car capacity of 400-cars with in-a-car speakers for each car. Plus, they had benches in front for walk-in patrons to use. Richard Boone Rogers was the architect who drew up plans for the drive-in. His plans called for the screen to be 30ft x 40ft and the tower to be 50ft tall and 44ft wide. The tower was made of steel & concrete. I believe the screen was made of wood because it burnt down on November 26, 1996. One of the features of the drive-in that Jack Martin was proud about was the amusement center for kids. It featured Shetland ponies, motor boats and airborne chair-o-plane rides.
Later on Floyd Theatres took over operation of the Ri-Mar Drive-In. Floyd Theatres sold the Ri-Mar Drive-In and Star-Lite Drive-In to Mastec Inc. The Rimar Drive-In and Movieland closed for good on April 30, 1996 and the Star-Lite Drive-In closed on May 10, 1956 because they were not profitable for Mastec Inc. from Miami, FL.
Contributed by
Randy Studer
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Recent comments (view all 4 comments)
4137 Clarcona Ocoee Rd, Orlando, FL 32810
The above address maps more accurately to the location of the drive-in, which is visible on Google Earth using historic aerial imagery.
500 cars. Demolished(date unknown?) Site is now Value Place Hotel and Orange County Tax Collector.
Opened on September 3rd, 1949, and closed in 1996. Grand opening ad posted.
Based on some of the newspaper ads posted here, plus the following magazine clip, it appears that the drive-in dropped the hyphen by the 1960s, becoming the Rimar. I would rename the listing according to that final version of the name, leaving Ri-Mar as an alternate.
Also, Google Maps shows the old Rimar site outside the Orlando city limits. That would explain why it was described as being in Lockhart, a nearby census-designated place.
Boxoffice, Aug. 17, 1964: “Dixie Drive-In Theatres has taken over booking duties for the Rimar Drive-In at Lockhart, formerly booked by C. H. Deaver.”