| May 30 @ 2:09 PM |
Jesus bought my drive in theater
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Thor1960303
Posts: 1,887
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Over the last 22 years I've been the relief projectionist at the only drive in theater left in town.About 8 months ago,my wife and I took over management and have enjoyed some success.However,due to failing health as a result of a shooting,the owner,Mr.Furman "Dempsey" Burchfield has sold the property (some 7.5 acres,last price I had quoted was 1.7 million) to a church.
Needless to say,our customers are very disappointed.Some have even given us money in an attempt to save it.We have accepted their donations and we are setting up a fund to help re locate it.If we are unsuccessful,the money donated will be given to charity,which is what we really wanted to do with the drive in anyway,that is,open it as a non profit organization with profits going to charities such as the Children's Wish Foundation and the Police Athletic League.This has been done with much success with the Hull Drive In in Lexington,Ky.Google it and have a look at their site if you're interested.Drive in theaters are slowly making a comeback and I can tell you from observation and experience,despite the reputation for being "passion pits" for teenagers,they're a great source for family entertainment.Both of my kids grew up at the Playtime Drive In,seeing such films as Finding Nemo and Ice Age.During the summer, you see families playing with a frisbee or passing a football around.Our prices for admission and snack bar food,which is as good as many fast food restaurants,are about half what you would expect to pay at an indoor theater.I only hope the church can do as much good to the community as we have.Somehow I doubt it as there's already churches on every corner in my town,usually located across the street from a bar.We provided a theater and flea market that gave working class folks first class entertainment.
.Our last movies running will be Indiana Jones,Ironman and Narnia Chronicles.Here is a brief history of the Playtime Triple Drive In Theater in Jacksonville,Florida
Saturday May 31,2008 will be the final show at the Playtime Drive In in Jacksonville,Florida,ending 60 years of entertaining Jacksonville and the surrounding areas.The property was sold to a church after the owner,Furman "Dempsey" Burchfield was shot in a robbery while working the ticket booth on September 21,2007.I was asked to manage the place and over the last 8 months we have enjoyed bringing back the customers.Mr. Burchfield has donated the equipment to us and as soon as we secure some property,we plan to re open at another location.
The Playtime Drive In was built in 1948 as the Twin Hills Drive In,but didn't open until 1952 as black out laws from the war were still in effect.It was owned by Cecil Cohen up until 1968 when it was bought by Ray Accord in a loose partnership with Furman "Dempsey"Burchfield.It was renanmed The Playboy and it offered adult fare,which at the time was soft core.After incurring legal issues by using the Playboy name,it was renamed The Playtime where it ran hard core adult films,offering such skin classics as Deep Throat,The Devil In Miss Jones and Behind the Green Door.They even had Marilyn Chambers make a personal appearance to sign autographs for her then new film,Insatiable.In 1981,hard core was prohibited in Jacksonville and the Playtime ran edited soft core X movies until 1989 when Burchfield took over and they began running first run general release movies.The Playtime enjoyed success,adding a thrid screen in the 90's,but managerial changes in 2006 brought about a rapid decline.I was asked to manage shortly after Mr.Burchfield was shot and due to failing health.Mr.Burchfield decided to sell out and retire after 48 years of running drive ins and an indoor throughout Florida.Burchfield had recently closed his other drive ins in Naples and Ocala.
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| May 30 @ 2:45 PM |
Jesus bought my drive in theater |
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hammertime
Posts: 14,071
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And what does the church plan on doing with the property? They should play Jesus Camp videos all night. What about a Ted Haggard Film festival? 
Behind the Green Door. Wacko Mitchel brothers. Really original genre with a hell of a plot. LOL!!! The first time I saw that was at the Student Union building when I was in college during a film festival. I had no idea what was being shown. What a freak out that was. The film majors were really far out people. They were goth even before goth came in style.
[Edited on 5/30/2008 2:58 PM]
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| May 30 @ 3:38 PM |
Jesus bought my drive in theater
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Thor1960303
Posts: 1,887
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And what does the church plan on doing with the property? They should play Jesus Camp videos all night. What about a Ted Haggard Film festival?
All they're gonna get is the land and an empty old shell of a building.The owner gave the equipment to us.Yet with tax exempt income,I'm sure if they wanted to,they could open up a full state of the art digital cinema.I've seen churches with TV broadcast gear better than alot of TV stations and production companies.
Not sure what kind of church bought it.A few months they were out there looking it over.The pastors were all in clerical collars,so I thought Catholic at first,but there's a Catholic church not even a block up the street.Then I heard Episcopal,but at this time I'm not sure.
The patrons have asked if there is any way they can stop it from closing.The church has put a 400,000 dollar down payment,and it's not a completely done deal yet,so I tell them if they can outbid Jesus,they have a chance.Anyone here want to buy a drive in?I think the asking price is 1.6 million.
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| May 30 @ 3:42 PM |
Jesus bought my drive in theater |
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hammertime
Posts: 14,071
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Yet with tax exempt income,I'm sure if they wanted to,they could open up a full state of the art digital cinema I bet these guys can't wait for the technology to project 3D holograms of Jesus right in your living room. Just like Landru on Star Trek. Wow, just think. Hallucinations might become obsolete. What's Hunt, SOC and Bev going to do then?
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| May 30 @ 4:06 PM |
Jesus bought my drive in theater
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Angel54214
Posts: 14,074
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So if the property was bought by Wal-Mart or the city to build a school, they locals wouldn't be upset?
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| May 30 @ 7:29 PM |
Jesus bought my drive in theater |
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j_goose
Posts: 1,952
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So if the property was bought by Wal-Mart or the city to build a school, they locals wouldn't be upset?
At least those things would be something everyone could use.
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| May 30 @ 7:36 PM |
Jesus bought my drive in theater
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BandTMom
Posts: 28,448
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I love the drive-in movies.
It brings back such good childhood memories.
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| May 30 @ 9:15 PM |
Jesus bought my drive in theater |
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Angel54214
Posts: 14,074
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At least those things would be something everyone could use.
If they have money. If they have clothes to wear. If they can afford to see a Doctor and medicine for any disease treatments that would restrict from entering a school.
But yet....
They would go to this church for funds, food, clothings and money if they became unable to buy anything cause they lost their job or they become disabled and possibly lose their home because they lost their job and became disabled; try to live on SSI, it don't cut it.
The church would be the very place they would head for help.
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| May 30 @ 9:39 PM |
Jesus bought my drive in theater
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Thor1960303
Posts: 1,887
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So if the property was bought by Wal-Mart or the city to build a school, they locals wouldn't be upset?
Anyone who loved the drive in is sad,regardless of who bought the property,however, the reaction we get when we tell people that it was sold to a church is, "Gee,great,just what this town needs,another church".Even church going people say this.
So if the property was bought by Wal-Mart or the city to build a school, they locals wouldn't be upset?
At least those things would be something everyone could use.
Not only that,goose,but what we give people in the movie business is fantasy escapism and we don't try to BS anyone into believing that it's anything but fantasy.There are disclaimers in the credits that say,"This is a work of fiction...any resemblance between the characters and real people living or dead is purely coincidental."All bibles should have that printed on the first blank page.Hollywood is called the dream factory for a reason and most intelligent,sane people know this.There are,however,some people with emotional/mental disorders that can get so wrapped up in movies,TV,escapism that they can't differentiate between fantasy and reality.This is the same type of personality disorder many religious people have.I've actually known people to get really wrapped up in a movie character or music star and do everything to try to emulate that person or movie plot.Then I've seen these same people a few weeks,months or years later and they're all wrapped up in Jesus.The Star Wars T shirts are replaced with Jesus shirts,Gun's N' Roses is replaced with Petra (who's music I like actually)and instead of greeting you with "May the force be with you",it's "Jesus died for you,dude." Anyone out there reading this in the clergy,are we REALLY in a different business?
The only difference I see is that we don't try to pass ourselves off as dispensing pure truth.We make no bones about it,WE ARE LYING TO YOU.Your favorite movie or TV star lies to you every time they perform,if they're good at their craft,they can convince you for a short time that they are someone else. Hollywood even tries from time to time to remind people that it's all fantasy when they show you behind the scenes documentaries.Hell,even sports stars have done commercials saying,"I'm a professional basketball player,I am NOT your kid's role model,that's a parent's job."
Why can't pastors and churches do that?Oh, yeah,I forgot,they actually believe their crap. 
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| May 30 @ 9:53 PM |
Jesus bought my drive in theater |
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Angel54214
Posts: 14,074
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goose?? 
Your posts are to long Thor, sorry to honk the horn but, "goose" gets lost in all the typset adjectives.
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| May 30 @ 10:02 PM |
Jesus bought my drive in theater
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Thor1960303
Posts: 1,887
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They would go to this church for funds, food, clothings and money if they became unable to buy anything cause they lost their job or they become disabled and possibly lose their home because they lost their job and became disabled; try to live on SSI, it don't cut it.
Depends on where you live,I suppose.Extreme poverty such as what you describe in large cities is usually overwhelming even for large churches and they,like everyone else have a limit to what they can do(so much for God's rich bounty,in my opinion anyway).I really admire what some individual Christians I've known have done,building soup kitchens,work programs and such,but I sometimes wonder at what cost are these people getting help?They have to endure dogma indoctrination and I'm starting to think it's time for another venue for charity.Both government and religion have failed,in my opinion at keeping poverty in check.A really close scrutiny of both entities reveals one disturbing fact.Both entities DEPEND on things like poverty to provide a demand for what they offer.What would happen to religion if man solved his own problems such as poverty?
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| May 31 @ 2:49 AM |
Jesus bought my drive in theater |
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j_goose
Posts: 1,952
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They would go to this church for funds, food, clothings and money if they became unable to buy anything cause they lost their job or they become disabled and possibly lose their home because they lost their job and became disabled
Lost your job? Go get one. No need for a church. Been there, done that.
Poor? get a job. Or two or three....there's work out there. Put aside your pride and flip burgers, remove trash from the freeways. Do whatever it takes. It;s ignorant to think that you must be dependant on the welfare systems or soup kitchens.
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| May 31 @ 8:40 AM |
Jesus bought my drive in theater
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16knots
Posts: 3,627
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Churches are spreading more ignorance.
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| Jun 2 @ 4:16 AM |
Jesus bought my drive in theater |
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Thor1960303
Posts: 1,887
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Churches are spreading more ignorance
Here is the newspaper article if anyone is interested.
http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/053108/met_284689198.shtml
The church people were out there yesterday.One of them said something about wanting to show G rated movies and not charge admission.We all got a good laugh out of that one.
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| Jun 3 @ 6:04 AM |
Jesus bought my drive in theater
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Thor1960303
Posts: 1,887
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Here's an update.It was NOT the church with turned around collar guys we saw a few months ago and they are NOT planning to build.They have this idea that they are going to put portables out on the property and use what's left of the equipment,they say to run rented G and PG films as well as Christian movies and not charge admission.The owner sold them some of the equipment,that is,the stuff that was currently in the booth now anyway.Fine with us as the better gear was out in a shed from the owner's other now shut down drive ins.We've gotten most of the stuff out now,and the church people have been going through the booth with very confused looks.They have no clue what they're doing.Furthermore,the equipment is very old and to get a decent image on one of the screens,requires intimate knowledge of the machines and what ails them.It's literally a duct tape and bailing wire operation,so even if you've operated theatrical projection equipment before,it's a challenge.The one guy who claimed to have theater experience had never seen a platter system before.(That's only been an industry standard for the past 30 years)It's going to be interesting as I think some of them have the idea that they can run movies rented from Blockbuster on the screen.That'll be good for a laugh.
What's even more interesting is that the whole building contains stacks and stacks of reels and cans of porn films from the days when it was X rated.The films have deteriorated to where they aren't projectable and they can't just be thrown away as there are EPA laws governing the disposal of motion picture prints.We're going to have to painstakingly pull them out and prepare them for recycling.There are companies that can melt them down for the silver content.I noticed in my office they had the audacity to remove my 2008 porn pigs calendar before I had a chance to take it down.I wish them luck.Even the old owner was laughing when I talked to him yesterday about it.
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| Sep 22 @ 12:53 PM |
Jesus bought my drive in theater |
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Thor1960303
Posts: 1,887
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Well it's been almost 4 months since we closed our doors and the Anglican Church that bought the Playtime has yet to come up with the rest of the money.
HERE is their site showing their proposed plans if anyone is interested. I guess it was the turned around collar guys after all. The gist I get from the site is that they're praying for a miracle to get the rest of the money.
We're in a wait and see mode. Hopefully they bit off more than they could chew and we can make the owner an offer to lease the property with option to buy. After all, right now it's costing him money to keep it as is. At least we can put money into his pocket if we can open it back up.
HERE I am loading one of the films for the last night, May 31.
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