Twinair Drive-In

3910 Navy Boulevard,
Pensacola, FL 32507

Unfavorite 2 people favorited this theater

Additional Info

Previously operated by: Gulf States Theatres

Nearby Theaters

Twinair Drive-In

The Twinair Drive-In was opened on October 16, 1952, featuring the 1952 adventure/drama “Scarlet Angel” with Yvonne DeCarlo, Rock Hudson and Richard Denning. The Twinair Drive-In featured dual screens with a capacity for nearly 1,000 cars and was the first twin-screen drive-in to open in Pensacola. The Twinair Drive-In was also one of the first to feature CinemaScope sized screens. A small house was situated in the middle of the drive-in, where the manager could live.

In 1972, T.G. Solomon, president of Gulf States Theatres, recalls “that when plans were first being made for Pensacola’s Twinair Drive-In there were only a few hundred open-air theatres in the country. I realized that drive-in theatres had a great future, and I began pursuing the building and purchasing of drive-ins in 1948 after forming Gulf States Theatres. The arrival of the baby twins on April 22, 1952, was a surprise, as we were expecting but one child. At that point, I decided to start building twin screen drive-in theatres rather than single screen ones”. At this time Gulf States Theatres were also operating the Palafox Drive-In.

The Tiwnair Drive-In was destroyed by Hurricane Frederick on September 12, 1979. The former drive-in site is now a water retention pond.

Contributed by Randy Studer, Dave Bonan

Recent comments (view all 6 comments)

knucks
knucks on August 22, 2012 at 9:51 am

My parents lived about a quarter mile from the Twin Air…so I used to sneak in through the woods or hop the fence from Camelot Apartments…from about age 12…1973…till I was old enough to drive. It was destroyed by Hurricane Frederick in September 12,1979.

jwmovies
jwmovies on December 25, 2012 at 10:52 pm

THE MANMADE LAKE TO THE NORTH OF THIS ADDRESS WAS THE DRIVE-IN!

FYI: When this was open, it was not on Navy. Shadow Lawn extended next to the drive-in.

knucks
knucks on February 1, 2013 at 9:44 am

When the Twin Air was open,the entrance was off of Navy Blvd.Shadowlawn ran sort of adjacent to the exit at the southeast corner.The exit had those one-way spiky things you had to drive over.I think the pond you’re talking about was more northeast than due north…and was on the grounds of the clay mining operation next door.The drive-in was definitely not in the lake.

tntim
tntim on June 21, 2014 at 6:48 am

Knucks, the aerial shot in the photo section shows the drive-in west of Ehrmann Street. On Google maps, there is a second lake west of Ehrmann where the drive-in use to be. So it appears that the lake is where the drive-in was located.

I would love to know what is under that water.

rivest266
rivest266 on December 2, 2017 at 4:38 pm

This drive-in opened one day after the Ranch Drive-In.

DavidZornig
DavidZornig on February 20, 2020 at 8:06 am

All of the images posted indicate the name was Twinair Drive-In, with no hyphen in “Twin-Air”. Cinematour indicates 700 car capacity.

You must login before making a comment.

New Comment

Subscribe Want to be emailed when a new comment is posted about this theater?
Just login to your account and subscribe to this theater.