Pen Theatre

400 E. Cervantes Street,
Pensacola, FL 32501

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Pen Theatre

Opened June 16, 1946 with Merle Oberon in “This Love of Ours”. The “whites-only” theatre was the second largest theatre in the city at that time. The building was constructed of concrete with ornamental brick at a cost of $100,000, and housed commercial spaces on both sides of the theatre, and a parking lot in the rear had a capacity for 525 cars. Delta Theatre Supply furnished the equipment. Clinton Vucovich was the manager.

Contributed by Chief Bob Jensen

Recent comments (view all 9 comments)

reed4
reed4 on August 14, 2012 at 4:45 pm

The Pen used to show United Artists films almost exclusively in the 60’s. The James Bond movies drew the biggest crowds and played for many weeks. Arnold Gary was the manager for many years. I remember seeing Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Bananas, and Cold Turkey there as a kid.

dalesmith
dalesmith on August 14, 2012 at 5:30 pm

What is this location of the Pen? I have absolutely no recollection of the Pen. The Google map shows it at 12th and Cervantes but that is impossible. I would think I would recall the Standard Oil station but I don’t, leaving me to wonder if this was really on East Cervantes. If so it had to be closer to Palafox.

reed4
reed4 on August 16, 2012 at 6:22 pm

The Pen was located on the north side of Cervantes in the Alcaniz/Davis area. When the theatre was torn down, it was replaced in the 70’s with a small drive-through bank branch (Citizens & Peoples Bank?). The bank branch was torn down to build the fire station, which is on the site today.

Ret. AKC (NAC) CCC Bob Jensen, Manteno, Illinois
Ret. AKC (NAC) CCC Bob Jensen, Manteno, Illinois on August 18, 2012 at 10:07 am

PLEASE ADD TO THE ADDRESS:

400 east cevantes street.

The Pen Theatre was on the Northeast Corner of Cecantes Street & North Alcaniz Street/Dr Martin Luther King Jr Dive.

knucks
knucks on August 22, 2012 at 10:55 am

They always had a Pink Panther cartoon.

dickneeds111
dickneeds111 on August 22, 2012 at 11:10 am

This was a great theatre to watch and listen to movies. I was stationed in Pensacols in 1959, 1964-1968 and later in the 80’s. Some of the movies I saw there were the Clint Eastwood spaghetti westerns, How to succeed in business, A funny thing happened on the way to the forum and Khartoum plu many others. Did this theatre have actual 70mm projection or was it just a big bright screen and great Stereo?

Lynne
Lynne on September 9, 2012 at 7:12 am

My dad, Arnold Gary owned the theatre. Such wonderful memories of all the movies that played there. I can still see the lines of people that went around the corner whenever a new movie played. The theatre closed in 1975 and I lost my dad in 1977. An era gone too quick.

DickKnight
DickKnight on September 9, 2015 at 12:06 pm

I remember you Lynne and introduced shows at the Penn back in the late 60’s when I worked as a (very) young disc jockey at WNVY, Pensacola! Dick Knight was my air name and I always enjoyed being on the Penn stage. Would love to hear from you! Dwight Stagner roadrunner6064@yahoo

rivest266
rivest266 on December 2, 2017 at 3:33 pm

This opened on June 16th, 1946.

Found on Newspapers.com

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