Those who doubted whether the Admiral Twin Drive-In theater in Tulsa would rise again after a devastating fire in September 2010, take a look at this:
That’s a big concrete structure at the bottom, where the new concession stand and bathrooms will be. The steel skeleton of the big double screen is rising from that. These pictures were taken about noon Tuesday. A few more beams were added later that day.
I walked over to the concrete structure and shot this image of the inside:
More steel beams for the double screen were strewn around the Admiral Twin’s grounds. Clearly, more work will be done.
It’s doubtful the Admiral Twin will reopen in time for the usual beginning of the season in April. Word is that the theater’s owners are shooting for a July reopening instead.
The drive-in first opened in 1951, and its second screen was built a year later. Even as the number of drive-ins in the United States dropped over the decades, the Admiral Twin continued to show first-run movies.
In addition to its association with Route 66, the Admiral Twin served as an inspiration during a scene in Tulsa native S.E. Hinton’s famous novel, “The Outsiders.”
It’s just so cool, to not only see these properties and businesses saved, but probably even improved for the future, by pure accident and then sheer will-power. Rock on Admiral Twin!
These are the stories that give us hope, that Route 66 will both be saved and survive for at least a few more generations. And given that amount of time, hopefully one or more of those plans out there becomes a new reality, and Route 66 finally reaches it’s future potential for more generations to come than we could ever imagine? Her gains continually over shadowing her losses, and new growth that recognizes, embraces and celebrates our history?
We’ve done a lot of great things across the road over the last few years, it’s going to be interesting to see where the next steps take us, and whether or not we’ll be bold enough to take them…
I think the now defunct 11th street Twin was used in the Outsiders, not the Admiral Twin
That’s incorrect. The Admiral Twin was used for the filming of a scene in “The Outsiders.”
https://www.urbantulsa.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid:29672