Orange Park General Cinema IV

Blanding Boulevard,
Orange Park, FL 32073

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Additional Info

Previously operated by: General Cinema Corp.

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The Orange Park General Cinema IV opened in the late 1970’s, across Blanding Boulevard from the Orange Park Five Theatres (now a 24 plex at Orange Park Mall). It was a bland box with four screens of equal size.

The popcorn was bought in large bags, pre-popped and dumped in a container that looked like a popcorn popper! The popcorn alone was reason enough NOT to go to this theater. It could not compete with the fresh popcorn at it’s competitor across the street.

It’s life was short lived, having been demolished and replaced with a Toys R Us only a decade or so after it was built.

Contributed by Chuck Hankinson

Recent comments (view all 3 comments)

Harvey
Harvey on July 15, 2008 at 12:27 am

The address for the Toys R Us is

1972 Wells Road
Orange Park, FL 32073

bigred
bigred on July 29, 2008 at 6:36 am

I don’t know of any General Cinema that bought the popcorn pre popped. I did work at one that we kept having to go to other locations to pop the popcorn because our popper kept breaking down and also a fire when I was on vacation. I worked a couple others that were split units and if the popper broke down you could go to the other theatre at that location until it’s repaired. There were verey few General Cinemas that had the poppers at the conc stand but I did work at one that did. In Indianapolis GC had a serviceman who usually was out just about as fast as called. Most General Cinemas had the popcorn room upstairs in older theatres and some newer ones had a room downstairs then they could transfer the popcorn to the conc stand.

The only time the popcorn was bought pre popped was with the air popped. The reason was the cost of an air popper was worth it and it came about because of a report that popcorn was bad for you because of the oil it’s poped in. General Cinema was the first to switch to a healthier oil 4 years before that report came out. This didn’t last long before being allowed to stop serving the air popped. Most people who bought it would still try to put salt and butter on it and find it won’t stick to air popped.

FrozenAstronaut
FrozenAstronaut on August 17, 2012 at 10:51 pm

E Well, I can tell yes indeed it was prepopped, but it was still fresh most of the time as we made it upstairs where there was room to make it in mass. I was usher there for about a year. I was always embarrassed bringing down the garbage bags of fresht popcorn because people always thought it was old stuff! Anyway , I was working there in1982 between my stints at the Kingsley twin. The creep manager fired me after I told him I had obtained proof of his embezzlement from the theatre. Later he even threatened me with his .357 until I informed him I had family who worked in the local law enforcement. GC eventually nailed him and he did time. He was also a molester to some of the girls working there which infuriated me. He’s probably dead now. Let’s hope!

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