Shoals Theatre

Florence, AL

123 North Seminary Street

, Florence, AL 35630 United States

(map)

Status:	Closed
Screens:	Single Screen
Style:	Art Moderne

Function:	Unknown
Seats:	1350
Chain:	Unknown

Architect:	Joseph W. Holman
Firm:	Marr & Holman

The Shoals Theatre opened on Thursday, October 21, 1948. The theatre was located at 123 North Seminary in Florence, at the corner of Seminary and Mobile Streets, diagonally across from the post office. The theatre was in a new building also containing four stores. One store, Brother and Sister Shop, was already open and in operation, but the other three stores opened at the same time as the theatre.

The theatre had a balcony, and 1,350 seats. At the time of its opening, it was the fourth largest theatre in the state, and the largest in any town with under 100,000 population. The theatre featured voice of the theatre sound equipment, and had a complete duplicating set that could be activated by a snap of a switch in case of failure.

The theatre was the first in the South to feature Slide-back seats, which could be retracted six inches with the shove of the body, to make it easier for people to walk in front of the other customers. At the time there were only four other theatres in the world in posession of these seats.

This theatre's last night of operation was Thursday, March 13, 1980.

Contributed by Charles Van Bibber

YOUR COMMENTS

This is a photo of the Shoals Theater.

posted by Lost Memory on Apr 29, 2006 at 3:54pm

Here is a recent night view of the Shoals Theater.

posted by Lost Memory on Oct 12, 2006 at 3:09pm

Here is a 1948 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/2lnbs3

posted by ken mc on Mar 18, 2007 at 12:26pm

This is another version of the 1948 photo linked to above.

posted by Lost Memory on Jul 17, 2007 at 4:50pm

Here is a 1979 photo of the Shoals Theater. Text with photo: Shoals Theatre, Florence, Alabama, July 1979, eight months before closing.

posted by Lost Memory on Jul 17, 2007 at 6:46pm

Concession stand in 1948.

posted by Lost Memory on Jul 18, 2007 at 8:10am

This is a recent photo of the Shoals Theater.

posted by Lost Memory on Aug 7, 2007 at 6:37pm

A 1986 view of the Shoals Theatre in Florence and a larger view here.

posted by Don Lewis on Jul 5, 2008 at 1:49pm

We're getting locked out of the larger views due to password issues.

posted by ken mc on Jul 5, 2008 at 2:07pm

Don already explained on another thread that its a server problem on our end.

posted by Lost Memory on Jul 5, 2008 at 2:58pm

The Shoals Theatre was designed by the Nashville architectural firm Marr & Holman, according to an item in Boxoffice Magazine, April 10, 1948.

posted by Joe Vogel on Mar 14, 2009 at 11:44pm

The January 8, 1949, issue of Boxoffice gives the seating capacity of the Shoals Theatre as 1,166, with 974 Ideal Slide-Back chairs on the main floor and 192 in the balcony. The standee area would accommodate about 150 additional patrons, the article said.

posted by Joe Vogel on Mar 19, 2009 at 9:59pm

1983 Photo of the Shoals Theatre.
http://americanclassicimages.com/Default.aspx?tabid=123&CategoryID=3281&List=1&SortField=ProductName%2cProductName&catpageindex=2&Level=1&ProductID=23225

posted by Chuck1231 on Apr 4, 2009 at 11:27pm

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