Byron Carlyle Theater
500 71st Street,
Miami Beach,
FL
33140
500 71st Street,
Miami Beach,
FL
33140
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The Byron Carlyle Theater opened in 1968 as a twin with 590 and 993 seats. It was multiplexed in the mid-1970’s. It was closed in 2002 and acquired by the City of Miami Beach from Wometco.
Today, the renovated theater functions as a playhouse. It has been returned to a single auditorium which seats a total of 304 (152 in the orchestra and 138 in the mezzanine) obviously using just one of the former screens.
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kitty
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Recent comments (view all 21 comments)
Article on the Byron/Carlyle opening, 1968.
View link
December 18th, 1968 grand opening ad is at View link
Though the Byron Carlyle Theatre was opened in 1968, it got an article in Boxoffice on October 19, 1970. The Byron had 590 seats and the Carlyle seated 993. Oddly, the larger house had only 35mm projection while the smaller was equipped with Century 70/35s.
The Boxoffice article said that the architect of the project, A. Herbert Mathes, was “…the architect responsible for many Wometco theatres….”
The smaller house having 70mm was not rare for Miami twins as this was the designed for roadshows and longer runs in order to capitalize on the improved film terms.
I ran this location in late 1997 early 1998 for Regal Cinemas. The theatre was in horrible shape. I remember there being sub-pumps in some of the auditoriums to drain the water when it rained.
Sub-pumps probably became a standard feature of Dade’s shoreline theaters. See what “generalcinemainfo” has to say about the 170th Street:
/theaters/15996/
Miami Beach is basically made up of reclaimed swamp land and dredging and pumping is often still needed during heavy rains. I worked at the Sunny Isles theatre which was built on stilts upon dredged up swamp land. Although the theatre never flooded, the parking lot was sinking and we sometimes had to removed crabs and walking catfish out of the auditoria before opening for the day.
The Broward Stage Door Theater company (which operates in the former Holiday Springs movie theater in Coral Springs), has signed a five-year lease on this theater and will rename it the Miami Beach Stage Door Theatre. Productions originating at its Coral Springs location will be remounted here.
December 18th, 1968 grand opening ad had been posted in the photo section.
Fresh link to 1970 trade article cited above by Joe Vogel: Boxoffice