Park Theater

I have a listing for a Park Theatre at 3527 Park Ave in Memphis. The theatre opened sometime in the late 1940s or early 1950s and doesn't appear in any of the listings since 1960.

Small photo of the Park Theatre.
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y147/Chuck1231/Tennessee%20Theatres/ParkTheatreMemphisTn.jpg

This is a photo of a Park Theater in Memphis.

I know the Park was open when the movie "Midway" came out because that was the very last movie I ever saw there. That was in 1976. I moved from Memphis in 1984 and it was still open at that time.

An interesting urban legend about the Park is that when it was built about 1947, Park Avenue was the Southern City Limit, and being on the South side of the street the theater was not legally in Memphis. Lloyd T. Binford was still the Memphis Movie Censor at that time, appointed by E.H. Crump himself in the 1920s. They booked Howard Hughes' "The Outlaw" into the Park --the one where Jane Russell leans over the bed and a soldier in the audience is supposed to have jumped up and shouted "Bombs Away!" It was done very hush-hush, but Binford heard about anyway it and got the Mayor and City Council up in the middle of the night to move the city limits of Memphis 200 yards to the South so he could ban the movie. "The Outlaw" played in West Memphis like all the other "banned in Memphis" shows. That's the legend anyway. I went to lots of movies at the Park while a student at "Rhodes College" (--gag--) 1963-67, and then again from 1973-1983. It was a large open auditorium with no balcony. Saw "Being There," "Apocalypse Now," "Altered States", and "Thunderbolt and Lightfoot" there, among many others over the years. It closed not long after I left Memphis in 1983, was briefly a recording studio (I think) and then was boarded up for a long time. It was still standing in 1998, but I haven't been back since then. Binford died in 1956, and I didn't arrive in Memphis until 1963, but he was still a local show-business legend. I broke into show business by tearing tickets at the Guild (1705 Poplar at Evergreen) and the Studio (535 South Highland a few blocks down from the Park near MSU) and heard many amazing stories from the old-timers, most of them probably true. West Memphis had several drive-ins and several large indoor theaters, far more than you'd expect from its size, because they showed all the films that were banned in Memphis.

Update: the "satellite" feature of the map function now shows a vacant lot where the Park used to be. Don't know when it was taken.

I saw Natalie Wood's last film "Brain Storm" at the Park. It was still clean and well kept. I remember the hall being very long and narrow - something like a bowling lane. The sight lines were good with a decent slope to the floor. The most notable exterior feature was it's late 'Deco name sign on the triangle marquee. When the recording studio took it over, they kept the name "Park" and did a nice job with their adaptive re-use. Sorry to hear that it's gone now.

The Park Theater was still in operation into the 80's. It was one of the last larger single auditoriums in the Memphis area, and possibly THE last one. A great building, too. After it closed it was used for quite a few years by a video production company. They used part of the street address ("35 Park") as the production company name. I was surprised that the building finally got taken down by the wrecking ball, I suppose in the late 90's. I believe it has been replaced by yet another national corner pharamcy. A pity, this one. Memphis, like other cities, isn't particularly protective of its architecture.

I remember standing in long lines to see "Airport" at the Park. I also saw "Jaws", "Altered States", "Brainstorm", and "The Empire Strikes Back" which kept breaking because of a mis-aligned 70mm gate. The management gladly invited me back to see the movie once the problem was repaired. I also seem to remember a censorship controversy for "Love Story" when it played there.

Count me in for "Altered States" and "Watership Down" during my Memphis State University days.

1982 night photo of the Park Theatre.
http://americanclassicimages.com/Default.aspx?tabid=141&txtSearch=CATAdvancedSearch1%2c42%2c3%2c1808&ProductID=33699
Another 1983 photo of the Park Theatre.
http://americanclassicimages.com/Default.aspx?tabid=141&txtSearch=CATAdvancedSearch1%2c42%2c3%2c1808&catpageindex=10&ProductID=33702

1982 Photo

1983 Photo

PLaying First run at THE PARK theatre CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND. Shows at 7:15 and 9:40 .I find this odd only two shows at a theatre in a city the size of Memphis.Usually cities that size play matinees and evening shows. Not here. two shows!