Airway Twin Drive-In

10634 Saint Charles Rock Road,
St. Ann, MO 63074

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Additional Info

Previously operated by: General Cinema Corp., Wehrenberg Theatres

Styles: Streamline Moderne

Previous Names: Airway Drive-In

Nearby Theaters

Airway at Night

Opened September 21, 1948 with Walt Disney’s “Song of the South”. The Airway Drive-In in St. Louis County had a capacity for 800 cars, and was operated by General Cinema. It had a cool 1950’s cheerleader on the sign. On May 21, 1975 a second screen was added. It was closed on November 2, 1986. They saved the sign and cheerleader when they decided to tear down the theatre in 1992 to put up an otherwise completely generic and uninteresting strip mall named Airway Shopping Center, which had permanently closed by 2022.

Contributed by Kevin Schneider

Recent comments (view all 21 comments)

Chris Utley
Chris Utley on June 17, 2011 at 6:25 pm

More pics (and fond recollections) of the Airway here: St. Louis Flashback Movie & Drive-In Theatres

crossstitcher
crossstitcher on July 12, 2011 at 6:38 pm

I used to live in St. Ann. The girl was definitely a majorette! The drive-in looked really cool—I remember it still being open when we first moved there—you could see movies as you drove by (no audio, of course!). I’m very glad they saved the sign, but the shopping center was indeed unremarkable in itself.

rivest266
rivest266 on February 25, 2016 at 6:20 pm

September 23rd, 1948 grand opening ad in photo section.

davidcoppock
davidcoppock on October 27, 2018 at 3:05 am

Opened with 6 comedy cartoons(not named), and “Song of the south”. The majorette neon sign is similar to the majorette neon sign from the former Campus Drive-in in San Diego, California, not at the shopping center on the site now. Where is the Airway Drive-in majorette neon sign now?

davidcoppock
davidcoppock on October 27, 2018 at 3:06 am

The shopping center is called Airway Shopping Center.

Kenmore
Kenmore on October 27, 2018 at 8:08 am

The neon sign hasn’t moved, it’s still at the entrance to the shopping center.

davidcoppock
davidcoppock on October 27, 2018 at 11:26 am

Is it the original marquee too(minus the word Drive-in)? The Airway name looks the same too.

MichaelKilgore
MichaelKilgore on June 8, 2020 at 2:11 pm

Based on its ads in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Airway’s final night was Sunday, Nov. 2, 1986. The movies were Trick or Treat, Maximum Overdrive, Sky Bandits, and Teen Wolf. It “closed for the season” but never reopened. Several redevelopment plans came and went before the site was demolished in 1992.

MichaelKilgore
MichaelKilgore on August 3, 2021 at 9:12 pm

The Airway opened on Tuesday, Sept. 21, 1948, as seen in the ad below. The next day, a similar ad said “Now Open” so that grand opening probably went off okay.

In the autumn of 1974, Wehrenberg Theatres took over operation of the Airway. Less than a year later, they added a second screen, first advertising the Airway Twin on May 21, 1975.

Airway Drive-In grand openingAirway Drive-In grand opening 21 Sep 1948, Tue The St. Louis Star and Times (St. Louis, Missouri) Newspapers.com

jwmovies
jwmovies on August 26, 2022 at 8:18 am

Update: Airway Centre which replaced this drive-in is now permanently closed.

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