In-Focus The Pensacola Connection Sept 2026

This month: A new music track, film incentive news in the Tallahassee area, a PensaCon update, and would you believe: a new AI video about Pensacola movies?

FIRST: Put on your ear buds, and check out this cool new rap track, about “P-Cola Town” by Hometown Hip-Hop. Well, as new as September 15^th, 2024. Check it out, anyway, on this YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnN_gvKO59k

NEXT: As early as July 13th of this past summer, Tallahassee’s Leon County authorities have announced, that they are exploring the possibility of bringing back legitimate tax incentives and rebates for out-of-state film & video companies, inbound to the central part of Northwest Florida. Well, good for them, I say. That's at least 1 new foothold reclaimed in the Panhandle sector of the Sunshine State, trying to restore the incentive system which Florida State Capitol authorities cancelled and abandoned, back in 2016. But Pensacola is in Escambia County, 5 counties west, and is still dependent on 'private funding' for film industry growth and trade. (Wish I could've been privately funded for the last 36 years.) Anyway, small progress is better than none. So, thumbs up. For more info, please check this newslink: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIOvdF2gqDQ

UP NEXT: An update on PensaCon 2027. Topping the upcoming guest star list now is Edward James Almos (“Miami Vice, Battlestar Galactica”) Michael Horse (“Legend of the Lone Ranger”) John Ratzenberger (“Cheers, Toy Story”) Soleil Moon Frye (“Punky Brewster”) Anson Mount (“Star Trek: Strange New Worlds”) Paul McGann (“Doctor Who”) Joey Lawrence (“Blossom”) Doug Jones (“Star Trek: Discovery, The Shape of Water”) Lauren Holly (“Hill Street Blues, All My Children”) and several more. The 14^th annual multi-pop culture event for Florida’s western gate city takes place once again at the Bay Civic Center on Gregory & Alcaniz Streets, on February 19^th, 20^th and 21^st. 2027. For more information, please visit their website, at: www.pensacon.com.

AND FINALLY: BlockHeadz Art, one of the latest AI digital visual effects creators in the Greater Pensacola area, dropped a 3-minute video about Pensacola’s ties to Hollywood cinema, as of last June 20^th. I have just caught up to it, as of late last month. Sure, like most AI videos about history, it makes a lot of inaccurate claims. For one: Hollywood did arrive in Pensacola in 1939 to promote the film “Wings of the Navy,” shot partly at Pensacola Naval Air Station, and partly at North Island station in San Diego. But no, this was not Hollywood’s first-ever arrival to our City of Five Flags. That honor still goes to the silent films “Molly ‘O” of 1921, and “The Flying Fleet” of 1929. For another: although “Midway” of 1976 used the Essex-class aircraft carrier USS Lexington, based at NAS Pensacola, to double for the Enterprise and Yorktown, our naval air station itself was actually doubling for Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in the film. For still another: the recreation of Pensacola Beach in “Contact” of 1997, was extrapolated from a childhood drawing, but was not filmed on Pensacola Beach at all. It was actually modeled after Fiji, in the south Pacific. Other inaccuracies of course, include the Blue Angels jets, the Pensacola Beach sailfish sign, Fort Pickens as a beachside medieval castle instead of a Civil War fort, and the faces used for John Wayne’s aviator Spig Wead for “Wings of Eagles” of 1957, or Jodie Foster’s radio astronomer Ellie Arroway in “Contact,” looked nothing like the people they were depicting. (Plus: the airplane cockpit calendar shown in “Close Encounters” of 1977 is actually dated May 1945 from Trade Winds Bar of Pensacola, not our NAS in September 1984.) BUT…no matter, I say. Like international folklore, details get squashed and stretched anyway, when told and retold from person to person. So, inaccuracies or not, I’m glad to see somebody else in town, not just myself, is thinking in the direction of spotlighting and promoting Pensacola’s famous film & TV heritage. To learn more about Blockheadz Art, or watch their Hollywood Pensacola tribute video, check this link at: https://www.facebook.com/reel/1032595609503286