Tampa Theatre
711 Franklin Street,
Tampa,
FL
33672
711 Franklin Street,
Tampa,
FL
33672
44 people
favorited this theater
Showing 101 - 125 of 170 comments
brianinboca: If you drive from Boca Raton to Tamps 6-8 times a year to see movies at the Tampa Theatre that tells me it’s worth the trip!
Just caught the screening of Touch Of Evil yesterday… Tara and the staff acquired a pristine print of this classic, my third fave movie of all time and it made fora great Sunday. Let the staff now they should have a fall series of classics so we dont have to wait till the winter. We drive from Boca about 6-8x a year to see movies there
Love those vertical marquees! I hope to see this atmospheric theatre next winter during a trip to that area to see friends.
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Here are the other June broadcast dates and times.
The Tampa Theatre episode will air on other June dates and times so check the DYI broadcast list.
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This site tells more about the DIY To The Rescue episode though there doesn’t seem to be any photos.
This a.m. on HGTV’s DYI program a group of volunteers were working on a dressing room at the Tampa. Unfortunately, I only caught the last 5 minutes, but what I saw was interesting. Perhaps if you go to the HGTV site and click on DYI it will tell and show more.
Tim: Let us know when your article on Eberson and atmospheric theatres has been published as we’d all love to read it. I especially would as my favorite theatres are Eberson atmospherics followed by art deco ones.
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Palace Theatre, Canton Ohio
sam_e: Yes, you are right about the parrot being seen in most or all Eberson theatres. The Palace Theatre in Canton OH is on CT and the manager has at least one of these parrots as he showed me one that was in the basement of the theatre. A bit dusty, but all there! I didn’t know the ‘bag of bird seed’ story though!
Patsy: I recall reading that the parrot (stuffed bird variety) was a trade mark or a tongue-in-cheek joke that Eberson included in his atmospheric theatres. As busy as his atmospheric interiors were/are, the difficulty is in locating the parrot in the finished design. It could be perched almost anywhere. Also, he was known to present a bag of bird seed to the theatre owner(s) (to feed the parrot, of course).
Were the peacocks an Eberson design? If so, I know of 2 that were in the former Latonia Theatre in Oil City PA but not sure if that theatre was connected with the name Eberson.
Timothy: Your comments about peacocks caught my eye as I recently toured the former Latonia Theatre in Oil City PA and was told this theatre had them. The gold peacocks have been restored and are now in the town’s museum along with the originally restored Wurlitzer organ.
Hello Everyone! Happy to see that this Eberson gem has been well preserved. Two items.
I’m trying to find out more about the ‘fist’ crest, and I’ve looked at the links to photos and have yet to find it. It’s a cool detail sort of like my church which has a ‘green man’ in the leaves of one detailed area. Does someone have a photo of an example of this? I’ve seen another atmospheric where there were many ‘crests’ but they were simple multi-colored ones'.
Also, I noticed the Peacock on the right side ‘box’ area. This was done in several of his other designs.
If anyone can help me with a photo of the ‘fist’ I’d appreciate it. I’m working on an article for a historic magazine about Eberson and atmospheric Theaters.
Thanks
Tim
sam_e: Oh, forgive me I was typing so fast I forgot to type the all important word….NORTH Tonawanda and I knew better as I’ve been to the Riviera Theatre in NORTH Tonawanda many times for their weekly Wurlitzer organ recitals. I believe that one in that theatre was used as the Wurlitzer demo when letting customers hear one of their mighty organs.
Tsk, tsk, Patsy. You should know that the Wurlitzer factory was in NORTH Tonawanda, not Tonawanda. The locals would never forgive you for that :). Although Wurlitzer vacated their building many decades ago, until fairly recently another organ company occupied a portion of the complex.
The definitive 1925 silent version of Phantom starring Lon Chaney Sr. did indeed have a musical score. I’ve seen that restored version including the music at an historic local theatre (which dates from 1907) a couple of years ago. It would have been fun seeing it at the Tampa theatre however.
drumboy: Great to read about the the Mighty Wurlitzer in the Tampa Theatre. I never knew there was an original silent version of Phantom. As you know the Mighty Wurlitzers were built in the Town of Tonawanda NY in the Buffalo NY area. The main administration building still stands with the word WURLITZER over the front door.
I just went last week to the Tampa Theatre and saw the original silent version of Phantom of The Opera. It was accompanied by the Mighty Wurlitzer….as well as the entire Florida Orchestra. It was like time travel back to the twenties. The orchestra and organ played an incredible scort………fantastick!!!
rlvjr: If you go see Taylor Hicks at the Tampa, please let us know about that special concert in a special theatre.
On a trip to Florida I travelled 65 miles to see a movie at a John Eberson theatre like I used to do many years ago. It was VOLVER with Penelope Cruz, the night before her Oscar nomination for it. (If anybody still cares about the increasingly foolish Oscars). Fine movie, beautiful theatre, great experience. Each show begins with a Wurlitzer concert (15 min) then the movie.
Loew’s Paradise has a listing of comments on this site 100 times the length of Tampa Theater’s comments, but the Paradise no longer has their famous twinkling stars sky (painted over). The TAMPA THEATRE still has theirs.
TAMPA THEATRE’S mission is to show high quality foreign films, but they also have frequent stage shows (Taylor Hicks is next) and I’d gladly return here for either.
On a trip to Florida I travelled 65 miles to see a movie at a John Eberson theatre like I used to do many years ago. It was VOLVER with Penelope Cruz, the night before her Oscar nomination for it. (If anybody still cares about the increasingly foolish Oscars). Fine movie, beautiful theatre, great experience. Each show begins with a Wurlitzer concert (15 min) then the movie.
Loew’s Paradise has a listing of comments on this site 100 times the length of Tampa Theater’s comments, but the Paradise no longer has their famous twinkling stars sky (painted over). The TAMPA THEATRE still has theirs.
TAMPA THEATRE’S mission is to show high quality foreign films, but they also have frequent stage shows (Taylor Hicks is next) and I’d gladly return here for either.
Love those vertical signs and especially AT NIGHT! Thanks.
http://www.tampatheatre.org/openhouse.php
This link will give information for the upcoming 80th anniversary open house to be held on January 7th!
Too bad – in the original polarized format not only do you get the correct looking black & white image (the polarized glasses don’t add any color distortion, unlike the anaglyph glasses) but the depth effects are notably enhanced.
Peter, I’m no technical genius but I can tell you that the glasses were red (right eye) and blue (left) from Deep Vision 3-D. So I assume anaglyph.
The film had some nice 3-D depth but very little action “jumping off the screen” as advertised. Leonard Maltin says its one of the weaker uses of early 3-D. Still, it’s a better movie in 3-D. jk