163rd Street & Patio Theatre

saw the hilarious 'Scenes From The Class Struggle In Beverly Hills' here.

The Patio Theatre was added behind this site in 1970 with a separate entrance and opened with LOVERS & OTHER STRANGERS. The larger 163rd Street screen was later twinned and the three screens were marketed as a triple.

Now, Al, I know the marquee here at 163rd Street was huge! Hell, there were marquees all over: by the road, over the entrance and back over by the Patio. I'm assuming these large marquees were a trademark of Wometco ? The Plaza, The Palm Springs, 163rd, etc ?

I saw so many movies at this theater growing up it pains me to know it's gone.

Harvey,

This marquee had a platform that you could walk on once you climbed up. It was indeed huge and wide. The Sunny Isles and Loews 167th Street along the same stretch were also large, but not quite as wide as this one and had no platform.

I do remember these three vividly as I was older then and actually managed the Sunny Isles for several years and often changed the marquee myself, a dangerous exercise on windy Florida night.

I think it was more of a sixties thing than a particular Wometco trademark.

Artist rendition

http://www.pbase.com/donboyd/image/80670007

I worked for Wometco Theatres in the 70's and 80's. I did the marquee at the 163 rd St. when it was still a single theatre. The theatre was unusual in that it had 2 sets of curtains up on the stage. One was gold and one was red. It also had the biggest screen in the state of Florida. This theatre had real showmanship. We would decorate the lobby to the theme of the movie that was playing there. I also did the marquees at the Plaza, Surf, Normandy, Byron/Carlyle, etc.

Remembered seeing "Porky's", All of the Star Wars movies, "Firefox" and "Hot Stuff"(filmed in Miami) there. It's sad to see that it's a parking lot for Home Depot.

The Patio Theatre had about 900 seats in it. I remember working there when it had the South Florida premiere of " The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas" It was a lot of fun meeting all of the stars.

This is from Boxoffice magazine in April 1962:

Members of CORE staged a 40-minute demonstration April 3 at Wometco's 163rd Street Theater in the 163rd Street shopping center. The Committee of Racial Equality sent some 30 Negroes to the box office to purchase tickets. When they were refused, the demonstrators formed a revolving line which continued the requests until the ticket window closed for the night.

I only went here twice, as we lived down in the Fairlawn area (Flagler & Red), and it was too far. My family saw the roadshow engagement of "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" (with Intermission) in 68, then while attending UM, I caught "Eddie and the Cruisers" in 1983. It was definitely a triple by then.

This theatre opened in 1960 with the exclusive South Florida roadshow engagement of "SPARTACUS". The run was a failure and Wometco refused to book roadshows for several years at any of its theatres as a result.

Ripshin, that "CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG" roadshow actually ran on both screens of the nearby SUNNY ISLES TWIN further down 163rd Street. It had staggered showtimes there.

Roadshows eventually settled back on South Beach where they always did best with the tourists keeping them going for months, sometimes years.

I attended a few roadshows at Dadeland Twin in the late 60s. I'll check out Sunny Isles - to a mere six year-old, all I remember was 163rd Street - it was Siberia to a kid who rarely traversed north of the airport (except Westland). In college, though, it was indeed the 163rd Street Theater where I say "Eddie..."

The Dadeland Twin ran "FUNNY GIRL" and "OLIVER!" on roadshow although they were added runs after both had played a while in Miami Beach/Bay Harbor.

Yep, remember "Oliver!" there. Again, we never went to Miami Beach/Bay Harbor. "The Bible: In the Beginning" had a big rerelease showing at Dadeland - I know it wasn't the initial 1966 release - wasn't in Miami then. In 83, I stood in line five hours for "Return of the Jedi" - number five in line. Unfortunately, it was with a bunch of sci-fi nerds in costume - I hid from the news cameras.

I saw Nightmare on elm street 2 there as a kid. I dont think the neighborhhod suffered from "west indian" folks. i think it was the hatins, and the other blacks. they destroyed that area. Now it is a walmart, and a home depot in its place.