Category Archives: Florida

Video: Ruskin Drive-In reopening after hurricane damage

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Great news for the Ruskin Family Drive-In Theatre this week. According to WFLA, Tampa’s News Leader, the Ruskin is about to reopen for another season. It had sustained damage from three (?!) hurricanes in its off-season and needed help to get back on its feet. The community rallied to support the Ruskin; I was the most impressed by TECO (née Tampa Energy Company), which donated poles for the refurbished screen.

The WFLA video embedded above is unusually nice for this sort of report. It’s longer than usual, and it ends with a personal appeal to patronize the civic treasure that is the drive-in. We get to see a lot of views of the Ruskin, along with some shots of the devastation. And we get a lot of commentary from owner Karen Freiwald, who stressed the inclusive nature of the Ruskin’s early days. (There were whites-only drive-ins in the Tampa area in the 1950s, as well as some catering to African-Americans.) I’ve seen a lot of drive-in news videos, and this is one of the best.

One thing that I rarely see mentioned is that the Ruskin was called the Rustic Drive-In for at least a while in the 1950s. My guess is that it opened as the Rustic, though I’ve never seen a grand opening ad. A 1957 movie flyer, posted at Cinema Treasures, used that name. When the Tampa Tribune widened its movie coverage in 1959 to include Ruskin’s drive-in, it was the Rustic. When Carl Floyd bought the place from Harry Jones in 1960, he changed the name (back?) to Ruskin after a bit of remodeling, probably to touch up a couple of letters.

Speaking of letters, I looked back to my virtual visit to the Ruskin during 2017’s Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey, and that post was mostly interested in the animated double feature that night: Moana and Sing. At nine characters, that was close to the shortest drive-in twin bill that I’ve ever encountered: Epic and 42. Sure, there are theoretically shorter pairs of movie titles, but has there ever been another double feature at an actual drive-in with six characters or fewer? (Thank you, I already know that some of the things I care about are extremely trivial.)

Back to the present. Freiwald told WFLA that the drive-in had one its best years in 2020, when the pandemic made it the only entertainment spot in town. More recently, when the hurricanes knocked down the screen, long-time fans donated time, labor, and money to get it fixed. The Ruskin sure seems like a nice place, and it’s great that it’s so well-loved.

New drive-in coming to Mississippi

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Since I don’t have any pictures of the construction site, here’s a photo of John Watzke’s current gig, the Ocala Drive-In, from its web site

Here’s some good news for the New Year. Veteran drive-in operator John Watzke, currently running the Ocala Drive-In in Florida, is building another ozoner west of Bay St. Louis MS. Work actually started a few months ago on the still-unnamed drive-in, but last week we were treated to a full story about the project and Watzke in the Mississippi Free Press.

In reverse of how this usually goes, the new drive-in is being built on the site of an old trailer park. The 10-acre plot has been vacant since Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005 and did what hurricanes do to trailer parks. (Seriously, living in a Gulf Coast mobile home seems to me like walking to work across a busy interstate highway. But I digress.)

Watzke said his drive-in should open by April 2023 with a 60×34-foot screen 45 feet up. If all goes well, he’ll add a second screen a few years later. The concession stand will include an arcade, and the menu will have such Ocala favorites as muffaletts and po-boys.

The article has much more, including plenty of Watzke-provided photos, history of his family’s involvement with theaters, and a mention of controlling fire ants. (And you thought mosquitoes were the most annoying insects.) So now you know you need to go read it!

Video: Ruskin Family Keeps Going

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Here’s another great example of a local TV station celebrating a local drive-in. Instead of the coming of spring (which may have no meaning in Florida, for all I can tell), it was a tie-in with the Oscars ceremony that prompted ABC affiliate WFTS, Tampa Bay’s News Leader, to run a visit with the owners of the Ruskin Family Drive-In Theatre in Ruskin FL.

“Ted Freiwald helped build the Ruskin Family Drive-In in 1952,” the story begins, and he’s been keeping it running for most of its existence. Although he made the digital conversion years ago, the Ruskin Family still has the old-school car window speakers as well as FM sound.

You really should watch this affectionate look at a local institution. And if you want to read a little more about the Ruskin, check out my virtual visit there during the year of the Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey.