“Man buys porn theater in an attempt to save historic Birmingham community” From Birmingham, AL.

posted by ThrHistoricalSociety on December 17, 2014 at 7:29 am

Two years ago, Vince Amaro moved his antique business into a red-brick building in East Lake that had been in his family since the 1960s, despite the fact that its neighbor across the street was a porn theater.

Amaro spruced up the outside. He hung a handsome sign with scalloped corners. Employees stacked steamer trunks in front of display windows and lined the walls with old writing desks and a massive hunter’s cabinet. Recently, the staff added a Christmas tree draped with candy canes and plastic poinsettias.

But no matter the holiday, or the inventory, there was one thing about those window displays Amaro couldn’t change.

The view on the other side of the plate glass always included a string of adult-oriented businesses: The Cinema Blue, with its weathered marquee, Pleasure Books and its badly buckled sign and a third shop, Birmingham Adult Books.

Read the entire article at al.com.

Article by Amy Yurkanin.

Image courtesy CT user Jessi.

Theaters in this post

• Cinema Blue Theatre