Rimar Drive-In

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

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Rimar Drive-In

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

Recent comments (view all 4 comments)

NYozoner
NYozoner on January 26, 2011 at 8:15 pm

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.

davidcoppock
davidcoppock on October 22, 2018 at 4:35 pm

500 cars. Demolished(date unknown?) Site is now Value Place Hotel and Orange County Tax Collector.

rivest266
rivest266 on January 15, 2021 at 7:17 pm

Opened on September 3rd, 1949, and closed in 1996. Grand opening ad posted.

MichaelKilgore
MichaelKilgore on February 18, 2024 at 3:31 am

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.”

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