Tower Theater
1508 SW Eighth Street,
Miami,
FL
33135
1508 SW Eighth Street,
Miami,
FL
33135
1 person
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 34 comments found
Al, Yes I remember “La Novia” very well; several scenes have stayed in my mind all these years. The movie was a little “sappy”, but I loved the song, “Ante el altar está llorando, todos dirán que es de alegría”.
Guarina, you remember LA NOVIA? Nobody else seems to.
It seems to have escaped history and it was one of my late mother’s favorite films.
I can still remember Antonio Prieto singing “Blanca y radiate va la novia…” as he walked down the aisle of the church as his heart sick love married her doctor, and not him.
“Le sigue atras su novio amante”.
Ave Maria!
AlAlvarez, The Town was one of the first movies I ever went to when I moved to Miami, in late August 1961 I saw “The Savage Innocents” with Anthony Quinn. “Hang Down Your Head Tom Dooley” was playing in the juke box in a nearby coffee shop and I had a Yoo-Hoo. And I think it was there I later saw “El Rufián”, a good Argentinean suspense movie, and “La Novia” with Chilean Antonio Prieto.
This opened on December 20th, 1926. Ad posted in this theatre’s photo section.
The link needs to be updated:
http://www.mdc.edu/tower/
Another recent photo of The Tower Theater.
View link
My grandmother and I went to the Tower Theatre once, as I recall,
to see “Half Angel” starring Loretta Young. I suppose it was around 1950 and I was about nine years old. I remember huge round airconditioning vents in the ceiling…larger than other theatres I knew at the time. As far as interior decor, I don’t remember anything at all. I do remember the “tower” was neon it and maybe
flashed. A decade or so later the “tower” came down as shown in the 1961 or thereabouts photo earier in this thread. My grandmother lived at S.W. 11th Terrace just west of 22nd Ave and we probably walked to the Tower since she didn’t drive…or we could have taken the #5 Miami bus down S.W. 8th Street. I would have gone to the show there more if my grandmother hadn’t moved just a short while after that.
1985 Miami News article on the Tower’s original closing.
View link
OK, thanks. I was close.
“Gallos” are roosters, Spanish slang for the term “Boys Don’t Cry”.
I was going to say that the marquee on the 3/22 photo says “Chickens dont’t cry”, but I suspect that I am translating gallos incorrectly.
Joe, that thirties remodel was strictly cosmetic. Wometco took it over and made it look more contemporary with Art Deco touches.
Here is another photo:
http://tinyurl.com/y9psap9
Here is a photo circa early 1960s:
http://tinyurl.com/ll3w2s
1981 photo of the Tower here.
The Tower Theatre was rebuilt in 1937. I don’t know if it was a ground-up rebuilding or merely an extreme remodeling job. An article about Wometco Theatres in the April 16, 1938, issue of Boxoffice Magazine mentioned in passing that Robert E. Collins had been the architect for the rebuilding of the Tower Theatre the previous year.
The Tower opened in 1926 and recently hosted screenings for the Miami Film Festival.
This is a 2009 close-up view.
Another photo is here.
This is now the oldest operating movie theatre in South Florida.
Here is a 2008 photo. One function could be concerts.
…[chuckle]…
As Al pointed out, “anti-Castro” is putting it mildly.
More Tower Theatre info here.
“When it opened in December of 1926, it was Robdendon Corporation’s newest theater and cost $110,000.”
“On October 3, 1931 the Tower Theater re-opened following extensive remodeling under the leadership of renowned architect Robert Law Weed.”
I have wonderful memories of the Tower Theater…we lived just a few blocks away in the 50s and I remember the magical light blue neon tower in the night sky from our back yard. Later, I went to Saturday mantinees…two features, cartoon and serial for (I think) 15 cents. It was a special time in a special place. After the movies we would go to the nearby Royal Castle for hamburgers and birch beer….the hobby shop … the camera store and Green’s Drug Store. China City, Miami’s best Chinese restauarnt, was right there too. Across the street there was a gas station (PURE??) that had a monkey in a cage on the property …. Down the street was the Puritan Ice Cream Store with the best hot fudge sundaes (21 cents) that were ever created! Ah…the good ol' days.
ClaudiaO
Does anybody know anything about a former Strand Theatre in Miami?
One morning while communting from my home in Hollywood down to my job in Coral Gables, I decided to avoid the terrible traffic on I-95 and find some avenue that ran parallel to the interstate. And somewhere between NW 29th Street and NW 14th Street along NW 7th Avenue I found a small theatre with a marquee and classic double doors. It was labeled the STRAND with the S having fallen off some time ago. It currently seems to be a small church/prayer home now. I will try to take some pictures of it. Can anybody here identify what part of town/neighborhood we would call this area? It’s definitely industrial and very poor. Perhaps that might help with some research (where I’m finding NO luck).
Quick shot of the Tower in video news footage during the doc “COCAINE COWBOYS”.