Towne Twin Drive-In
4719 Dietrich Road,
San Antonio,
TX
78219
4719 Dietrich Road,
San Antonio,
TX
78219
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The Towne Twin Drive-In opened in September 1957 with Tab Hunter in “The Burning Hills” & James Mason in “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea”. Closed in 1983 and nothing has been built on the site yet. The layout and the entrances are still there but everything is covered with tall weeds.
Contributed by
Chuck Van Bibber
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Recent comments (view all 9 comments)
I just visited the area two weekends ago and got some pictures of the lot area. I found where the old ticketbooths stood and their concrete floors, I also found the concrete entrance that led to the highly weeded area on the east side of the lot. I didn’t venture too far since the land was very obstructed with trees, grass, and some trash. Hopefully I can return to take some more pictures of the projection and snackbar floor in the middle of the lot.
The Towne Twin was a VERY nice drive in. It had large (55x110) CinemaScope screens that were made of plaster. The light on the screens was very good. The two projection rooms sat atop the snack bar and were mostly glass and resembled airplane control towers. The snack bar originally had dining booths, and was open during the day as a restaurant. The Towne Twin was never a big money maker. Although it was right on the highway you had to go through a residential area to get to the boxoffice. The large ornate marquee was on WW White near “The Farmer’s Daughter” night club.
Here is a 1973 aerial photo:
http://tinyurl.com/y9b8p7y
I’m not sure where saheaters.com got the timeline from but the San Antonio Light has the Towne Twin as early as Sept. of 1957. That’s just in the Movie Listing pages. I didn’t find an earlier article on it’s opening.
Aerial in ‘63
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7381/13824261005_637d07e6a3_o.jpg
So the SAPL has this new “Twin Screen Suburban Outdoor Theater” at Loop 13 and Highway 90 East opening October 4, 1956. I couldn’t remember it but after checking old newspapers, it has to be the Towne Twin. Same address. I didn’t see any mention of Towne Twin until 1957.
Newspaper ads and aerial
Historic Aerials' photo of the site in 1955 shows it still unimproved.
In August 1957, Variety reported that the Towne Twin Drive-In had signed a three-year deal with the projectors' union. “Ozoner was formerly known as the San Antonio Twin Drive-In Theatre.”
Uploaded an image of the projection booth from the San Antonio Drive In series from the Zintgraff Studio Photo Collection
The S. A. Twin Drive-In opened on October 4th, 1956 with “20,000 leagues under the sea”. Grand opening ad posted.
Also opened with a Tom and Jerry cartoon(not named) and “The burning hills”.