Palms Theatre
190 Clematis Street,
West Palm Beach,
FL
33401
190 Clematis Street,
West Palm Beach,
FL
33401
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The Kettler Theatre was the largest movie theatre south of Atlanta when it opened in 1922 at the corner of Clematis Street and Narcissus Avenue in downtown West Palm Beach. It was renamed the Palms and competed with the Florida Theatre across the street for decades. It was demolished in 1965 to make way for a parking lot.
Contributed by
Ed Tombari
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Recent comments (view all 12 comments)
You can find a picture of a Palms theater at:
View link
Don’t know if its this one or the one in Fillmore. It doesn’t seem to match up to any other of the Palms theater listings. Perhaps there’s another Palms that hasn’t been listed yet. Anybody know for sure?
The City Directory for Palm Beach County list the Palm Theatre’s address as 126 Clematis Street.
The City Directory for Palm Beach County lists two Kettler Theatres, one at 102 Narcissus Avenue South (1925-1930) and the other at 126 Myrtle St (1930-1935?). There is no listing for a Kettler on Celmatis Street.
The Kettler theatre was renamed Florida on October 5th, 1935 and renamed Palms in 1949. An new Florida theatre opened in December, 1949.
The theatre acros the street from the Palms was the Surf. I spent many a pleasant evening at one or the other in the early 1960s; saw “Ben Hur” at the Palms and “Spartacus” at the Surf. The interior of the Palms was seriously ornate, though it had grown shabby by the time of its closing and demolition.
From 1986, an editor with the Palm Beach Post recalls local theatres by then past:
View link
It is hard to believe that this was “the largest theater south of Atlanta” in 1922 with only 500 seats. The Strand in Tampa opened in 1917 with at least 850 seats; I am sure that there were other larger theaters in Miami and other cities prior to 1922.
There is a small picture of the Kettler/Palms theater here (the enlarge link does not seem to work): View link. According to the information below the picture, the theater at its opening sat 1,400. If that was the case, then a much better case could be made for the claim that it was once the largest theater south of Atlanta.
I remember The Palms well, and yes, Elvis did play there, saw him there. The new theatre across the street on the corner of Clematis and Narcissus, was The Florida. The Coral was up Clematis Street, next to,or near Burdines. The Surf was over on Datura, in the 300 block.
The Florida became The Stage Company, a concert house and was then remodeled (several million) into The Burt Reynolds Theatre. That went under, and Bob Cuillo purchased it, and ran it for about ten years as The Cuillo Theatre. Recently, the City of West Palm Beach bought it for the new home for a theatre, “Dramaworks”. That will open on 11-11-11, as a legitimate theatre. The City of West Palm Beach no lomger has any movie theatre(s) in the immediate downtown area. There is one with many tiny screens in City Place. Palm Beach has no movie theatre either. They destroyed the last movie palace in Palm Beach County when they destroyed The Paramount. Once they are gone, they will never be built again, and all of ours are gone in Palm Beach County. PROTECT YOURS if you are lucky enough to still have one.
And by-the-way, it was not uncommon, at that time, for road shows to play 4 shows a day. I went after school, and it was still daylight when we met him at the stage door after the show. He most likely had at least two more shows after the one we saw. In Vaudville, the performers did eight shows a day.