Colony Theatre
1040 Lincoln Road,
Miami Beach,
FL
33131
1040 Lincoln Road,
Miami Beach,
FL
33131
5 people
favorited this theater
The landmark Colony Theatre on Lincoln Road in Miami Beach opened in January 1935, and was built for the Paramount chain. It was listed in 1950 with a seating capacity of 894. It is a glorious example of the Art Deco style, and one of the city’s most well-known examples of that style of architecture.
After decades serving as a movie house, the Colony Theatre was renovated in 1976 for performing arts. It has been restored again since, most recently at a cost of over $1 million. It is now owned by the city of Miami Beach.
One of South Florida’s most popular entertainment venues, the Colony Theatre now hosts a wide variety of arts, such as concerts, dance, opera, comedy acts and film festivals, like the Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival every March.
Recently, the Colony Cafe opened at the theater, serving coffee, liquor and light fare, as well as live music.
Contributed by
Bryan Krefft
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Recent comments (view all 42 comments)
Al, Joe Vogel, Found the grand opening ad and article in the newspaper from January 25th, 1935 and you can see it at View link
Another (co- with the Sheridan) world premiere of note was the Fleischer Studios' first feature film, “Gulliver’s Travels” (1939), produced at the company’s short-lived Miami headquarters. For a look at what the Studios became:
View link
I never understood why some movies would open at two Miami Beach locations and not in Miami itself. Some would do the opposite.
Were they such distinct markets then even with common newspapers?
My guess would be that Miami Beach was more tourism oriented, and world premieres there would encourage word-of-mouth promotion when visitors returned to their respective hometowns. It’s also possible that “double world premieres” were arranged to meet extra demand.
The brief presence of the Fleischer Studios received substantial press in Miami; a generous sampling can be found in Leslie Cabarga’s book “The Fleischer Story” (out of print, but worth the money for animation history fans). Another animated feature, “Mr. Bug Goes to Town” and the first Superman cartoons were among Fleischer’s output there before Paramount withdrew their business.
1961, my Mom and I saw Spartacus. It was quite an experience.
I’ve seen old photos of the Colony with an entrance directly on Lincoln Road itself. It was probably in 1955 that Florida State Theaters remodeled it with it’s diagonal entrance from Lincoln Road to Lenox Avenue.
The above-the-marquee signage lost its Plexiglass panels after 1965’s Hurricane Donna… and I remember seeing pieces of it up and down Lenox Avenue. In 1967 I (and a high school buddy) got dressed up in sport jackets and ties to look older – and we actually got in (at the age of 15) to see the movie “Candy” at the Colony…
When I worked at Miami-Dade Community College in the late 1970’s, one of the members of the graphics department was Frank Spaulding, who had been an animator with Fleischer – both in New York and in Miami…
I forgot to mention – if you look at the picture posted above – the wall on the left side of the image is where the original entrance was; pre-renovation build-out.
A recent photo of the Colony Theater
View link
Thanks for all the Great looking pictures.AClassy theatre all the way.
The January 25th, 1935 grand opening ad has been uploaded here.