Beach Theater
2500 Atlantic Avenue,
Virginia Beach,
VA
23451
2500 Atlantic Avenue,
Virginia Beach,
VA
23451
1 person
favorited this theater
Showing all 8 comments
I grew up in Va Beach during the 60s and have many happy memories of the Beach and the Bayne. The Beach got the better movies, the Bayne the “B” features. The Beach was parent-approved and the Bayne was “off limits” as 16th street was the “bad section” of town. All the more fun to sneak down there. The 1st movie that I saw at the Beach was “The Misadventures of Merlin Jones” and at the Bayne, “King Kong vz. Godzilla”.
PREVIOUSLY OPERATED BY:
ABC SOUTHEASTERN THEATRES, INC.
PLITT SOUTHERN THEATRES
Haunted house photo here. Also seen on the map view.
http://tinyurl.com/28fvtnk
According to an article of 8 January 1982, the Beach Theatre would be closing within a week. Plitt Southern Thaters, which had been leasing the building, had decided not to renew its lease because attendance was only about 50% of what the management needed to draw to break even. The same article indicates that the Beach had been opened in 1947 in “a shiny marble and brick building” and relates that the marble had soon been replaced with more brick after being damaged by an automobile collision. “For most of itse existence, the beach specialized in ‘family-type Disney movies’ that catered to the interests of vacation families, the article stated, but had lately switched to "more adult, contemporary fare.” Relatively high ticket prices, changing entertainment tastes, and competition from local “shopping center theaters” were cited as contributing the Beach’s demise.
There was a short lived attempt to turn the Beach into a repertory theatre with foreign and classic films in the early 1980s. I don’t think it lasted more than a year but they did do a nice job, even if the audience just wasn’t there for it.
Beach Theater is scheduled to become another cheesy Souvenier Shop on the Virginia Beach Oceanfront. The Haunted Funhouse locked up shop 2 years ago this Halloween and the VB Fire Marshall has declared it as Fire Hazard and the building is slowly but surely crumbling away. Already drafty spots have been found letting in outside air. This theater needs a multi million dollar face lift and needs a patron who will keep it open as a movie house.
Another 1987 photo is here.
1987 photo oc the Beach Theatre.
View link