Yes, people could be using what we post on Cinema Treasures as their source of info, then when we see them saying the same things we believe they are backing up our information when they actually got it from us. : )
Yes, showmanship. I thought of that word a month ago but had forgotten. To me it feels like there should be an outgoing person standing out front saying something like “Ladies & gentlemen, step right up! Have we got a show for you!”
Wow, thanks for that link to the Bijou. This photo is great.
Guess I’m hoping for a way to see a list of such cinemas the way we can see lists by architectural style, so I was asking about “Nickelodeon style“ when part of it is the advertising placed in front of the building, not the style of the building‘s construction.
Does anyone know if there are any cinemas in this 1910’s architectural style still operating anywhere? Or are there any more recently built designed to replicate this early movie-going experience?
The Old Daisy is the only such building I’m aware of so far that still exists.
Is it called “Nickelodeon style”? This page designates this theater as “Neo-Classical”, but the other examples in that category on Cinema Treasures don’t look like nickelodeons to me. Some in the “Neo-Vintage” category are maybe closer, but should “Nickelodeon”, if that’s what it is, have its own architectural style category?
It would be neat to be able to visit such a theater still showing movies, with the pre-marquee signage out front in what I call “Come see the picture show” style.
Yeah I guess I can “give my brain permission” to stop pondering the which Air Dome/Airdome was moved question.
Looks like the website for the second Seminole Theatre used the wording of the Herald article I had read back when it reopened and created a page for its history that was not there when I first explored the website in early 2016.
Btw, I toured the second Seminole during the earlier stages of restoration/remodeling at an open house event they held but have not yet gone back to see a show.
New question: Are there any cinemas in the 1910’s style of the Airdrome pictured above still operating anywhere, with a lot of pre-marquee signage out front? Or are there any more recently built designed to replicate this experience?
Is this called “Nickelodeon style”? I call it “Come see the picture show” style. : ) Does it have its own architecture style category on Cinema Treasures?
Thanks Louis. I may go to Sundance sometime. Also I kinda liked Salt Lake City when I visited in August of 2012.
Al, if I can’t find a ‘97 time clock to look at I may ask you for a photo of one listing Pasta Attic. :) (Back then I was going to check the place out, then it disappeared.) If it was mostly a restaurant, it probably doesn’t “qualify” for a Cinema Treasures page.
Ha, oh well. :) I was hoping to “solve the case” of which Air Dome was the one that moved. If Paul George’s book is correct, it was the one next to Burdine’s. (Maybe he didn’t know about the Olympia property Airdome when he wrote the book in the 90’s, so he assumed it was the Burdine‘s one?) Articles online say the Airdome that moved first became the two-story Colonial, which your sources say was at this address, before moving. And the building that was reconstructed in Homestead arrived as a two-story building from what I understand, like the Landmark Hotel it is today, while to me the photo of the one next to Burdine’s looks perhaps too small to have gone on to become the first Seminole, (unless 1910’s photography distorts sizes).
Thank you Al! Some of the sources of historical info I have found online may be more recent than your original Cinema Treasures posts, so I’m turning up things from pages that didn’t exist yet when you started on Cinema Treasures. Also since I still live here I come across references to early Miami history offline.
Sometime I’ll look in the microfilm of the 1997 New Times in the Main Library and see if I can find the Pasta Attic listing I remember, since I see only old articles viewable on the New Times website, not also ads or movie listings. ‘97 feels about right. Wow, how did you find out it was ‘97?
Louis, did you attend the Sundance Film Festival?
Al: On the Olympia Theatre Cinema Treasures page it says the first Hippodrome was at 174 East Flagler Street (and the Florida Theatre page says the second Hippodrome was later at 205 East Flagler across the street.)
Was the first Airdome that you mentioned in the description for this page really the first Hippodrome? How did you hear about the first Airdome at 174 East Flagler?
This video segment from the CBS Sunday Morning show says a film using the process Kinemacolor was screened for the first time at the Palace on February 26th, 1909:
Thanks Louis! Good to know people are seeing my posts. :)
I relate to a person’s desire to find out more about the first theater they attended, though I don’t have any exceptional resources: the Box Office article I got from a post by Al Alvarez; I live in Miami so I remembered coming across Isidor Cohen’s book while browsing the public library catalogue years ago, then when I Googled it recently in prep for posting on Cinema Treasures, it turned out the chapter about early cinemas was available online; therein is a reference to Kelly’s Theater, the first movie theater in Miami, and the building it was in, so I Googled those hoping for photos which instead turned up the name of a nearby hotel from those times and Googling for images of that lead to an article referencing the Air Dome next to Burdine’s and its photo; I know local historian Paul George from when I was his student and the first Seminole was mentioned during a tour he did of Homestead I took in the 90’s or early 00‘s; I own a copy of his book (the library has several) so I looked in it to see what he says about the Seminole and discovered a story of the Air Dome next to Burdine’s being the one that moved; I saw a Herald headline about the (second) Seminole Theatre reopening at the time that it did and found the article to be available online which turned out to include theater history and a reference to the Air Dome that moved being the first one at the address on this page. (Maybe the author of the Herald article got their info here on Cinema Treasures? :) )
So I don’t know any more about the Strand than what I learned from its Cinema Treasures page after suddenly encountering the former theater while driving past years ago.
Yes I get frustrated when I can’t find something on Google even after being pleasantly surprised by what I do find. For example I remember Pasta Attic Cinema being listed in the Miami New Times with the other theaters at some point back in the 90’s (when that paper used to list movie times) but can’t find anything about it online, which is annoying even though it was probably just a restaurant that decided to also try screening films.
I don’t know how to search a city’s building records, though I assume it involves visiting a government office unless they are accessible online. … How would I go about it if I someday want to?
A paragraph on page 75 of the book “A Journey Through Time: A Pictorial History of South Dade” by Paul S. George says that Air Dome was disassembled in 1916 and moved south by railroad to become the first Seminole Theater in Homestead.
A Miami Herald article refers to the Air Dome that was moved to Homestead as being here at 174 East Flagler Street, which would be the first of the two mentioned above as having existed at this address. I vaguely remember one or two other people over the years beyond the Miami Herald article assume that this was the one that was moved.
Did the first one exist on this property, or are people confusing it with the Air Dome next to Burdine’s? Or where there three Air Domes?
A paragraph on page 75 of the book “A Journey Through Time: A Pictorial History of South Dade” by Paul S. George says this Air Dome was forced out of business after Burdine’s sued the City of Miami for not enforcing its codes against flammable building materials before the Air Dome’s retractable canvas roof caught fire in 1915 and damaged the department store. The City then condemned the roof and the theater closed, was disassembled, and moved by railroad in 1916 to become the first Seminole Theatre in Homestead.
Mr. Cohen’s book does not mention a fire, the Colonial, or a theater being moved anywhere, but then his chapter is about the early “development” of cinemas in Miami and may not have been intended to be a complete history of everything that happened.
I’m supposing the Seminole Theatre would be Homestead’s first cinema, since I have not heard of any previous.
I’m not completely sure what the Landmark Hotel building is really used for now. I do not see a way to reserve a hotel room there online, and did not when I once looked for hotels in Homestead a few years ago. Larry Wiggings’ article says “it operates as a rooming house” at the time he wrote it. I’ve found a recent real estate webpage listing the property for sale as a hotel, with a note not to disturb the residents. Meanwhile someone has created a Facebook fan page calling it the Seminole Cafe and Hotel Landmark & Historical Place.
If you are driving south down US-1 from Miami to Homestead, you are parallel to the route of the former Florida East Coast railroad right-of-way, now the Metrorail and Busway, once used by the train that transported the disassembled Air Dome/Colonial to its new home.
As I post this, I am gazing out the window of a Starbucks across US-1 at the space under the elevated Metrorail tracks that used to be the railroad, where, for a moment, the theater passed by 101 years ago.
I found what I remember as the Valentino, now a Planet Fitness gym, at the back of the strip mall on Google Street View. I tried to include a hyperlink here but the link won’t work.
kencmcintyre: Yes, to correct my previous comment I can see now it was a stand alone building since it was close but not physically connected to the one next to it. In the Street View image from 8th Street it is straight back all the way to the rear of the mall though too far away to see. Yes I remember it being a church when I was last in the area years ago.
The drive-in has been listed along with the regular conventional theaters on the physical Miami Herald’s movie times page since 2013, and it might be of interest to locals living here, so I created a Cinema Treasures page for it.
The drive-in has relocated from its primary Miami addresses when the circumstances of the land it is on eventually change, not just because it is portable.
Thank you for updating the city and Street View image.
Just for the record the theater’s original address was 11975 South Dixie Highway. The Best Buy that is now in the theater’s space is addressed at 11905.
As seen on the photos page, there had been an incline from the sidewalk up to the theater entrance with movie poster boxes on either side. Now the front door to the gym is at the sidewalk.
There used to be a covered walkway from the entrance across the parking lot to businesses on the east side of the mall, which at the time were nightspots (Café Iguana, Fat Kats Poll Hall). Now the roof extending in front of the east entrance is all that is left and the walkway is completely gone.
Back in the 90’s I’d come out here for the Flippers video arcade a few storefronts north of the cinema which now looks to be a medical office. To me the vibe of the mall today is more about functionality while then it felt more like a place to also enjoy at night. I guess the nightlife aspect transferred to the other side of the Turnpike at the newer Kendall Village but to me it doesn’t feel the same.
Could be listed as “Gymnasium” under Functions.
Can be sublisted in the Kendall neighborhood of Miami.
The entire parking lot has been filled in with new buildings right up to the sidewalk of SW 88th Street/N. Kendall Drive in the past two years.
Yes, the address was 7440 SW 88th Street, Miami, FL 33156, which was never in the City of South Miami, but on the eastern edge of an unincorporated area of Miami-Dade County known as Kendall.
Perhaps all the of listings for theaters along SW 88th Street/with “Kendall” in their names could be sublisted under “Kendall” as a neighborhood of Miami, and would still show up in the general list for theaters in Miami when a neighborhood is not selected.
I found an article length Miami Herald obituary for Andres Marrero del Campo, the owner of the Valentino, from January 4th, 2017, describing his life and career as a film exhibitor, in which his granddaughter Pricilla, who’s comment is above mine, is quoted:
I saw “The Legend of Bagger Vance” at the Valentino in 2000 and believe I remember him, smiling, as I bought my ticket and entered.
I would often think of the theater while driving past on 8th Street to and from Miccosukee Indian Gaming back in those days. It was the last business at the western edge of the strip mall with its entrance facing north, not a stand alone building.
“About [1912] another movie was opened in the ‘Hunter’ building on East Flagler Street, between First and Second avenues, called ‘The Wigwam,’ by the late Clifford Brown. Mr. Brown excelled his competitors by equipping his theater with a mirror screen and by giving away pianos and automobiles to the lucky winners among his patrons.”
Mr. Cohen’s phrasing seems to indicate the actual name was “The Arcade”.
Cinema Treasures changed my use of the words The Arcade in my original submission to Arcade Theater before posting and explained:
On the site we don’t use the word ‘The’ as part of theatre names as there would be possibly hundreds of ‘The’s’ and to find The Arcade when doing a search would be neigh impossible. Most people would search for Arcade, as theatres are listed alphabetically.
There are a few more theatres in there that came and went that are not listed on Cinema Treasures but there might not be much information about them outside of being mentioned therein.
I enjoy the part that says, after Kelly’s Theatre drove the Alcazar out of business, “Noting the victor’s apparent prosperity, one of our pioneer boys, Henry Chase (recently elected sheriff of Dade County), opened a movie theater in an old shack which stood on North First Avenue, where now stands the First Trust and Savings Bank building. That caricature of a theater served as a retreat for somnambulists and victims of insomnia.”
Yes, people could be using what we post on Cinema Treasures as their source of info, then when we see them saying the same things we believe they are backing up our information when they actually got it from us. : )
Yes, showmanship. I thought of that word a month ago but had forgotten. To me it feels like there should be an outgoing person standing out front saying something like “Ladies & gentlemen, step right up! Have we got a show for you!”
Wow, thanks for that link to the Bijou. This photo is great.
Guess I’m hoping for a way to see a list of such cinemas the way we can see lists by architectural style, so I was asking about “Nickelodeon style“ when part of it is the advertising placed in front of the building, not the style of the building‘s construction.
Does anyone know if there are any cinemas in this 1910’s architectural style still operating anywhere? Or are there any more recently built designed to replicate this early movie-going experience?
The Old Daisy is the only such building I’m aware of so far that still exists.
Is it called “Nickelodeon style”? This page designates this theater as “Neo-Classical”, but the other examples in that category on Cinema Treasures don’t look like nickelodeons to me. Some in the “Neo-Vintage” category are maybe closer, but should “Nickelodeon”, if that’s what it is, have its own architectural style category?
It would be neat to be able to visit such a theater still showing movies, with the pre-marquee signage out front in what I call “Come see the picture show” style.
Historic photos of some examples: Grand, Galax,, Majestic, Comet.
Yeah I guess I can “give my brain permission” to stop pondering the which Air Dome/Airdome was moved question.
Looks like the website for the second Seminole Theatre used the wording of the Herald article I had read back when it reopened and created a page for its history that was not there when I first explored the website in early 2016.
Btw, I toured the second Seminole during the earlier stages of restoration/remodeling at an open house event they held but have not yet gone back to see a show.
New question: Are there any cinemas in the 1910’s style of the Airdrome pictured above still operating anywhere, with a lot of pre-marquee signage out front? Or are there any more recently built designed to replicate this experience?
The Old Daisy Theater in Memphis still exists as a venue for live performances.
And here are some more vintage photos of other examples in the past: Galax, Savoy, Uno, Downtown.
Is this called “Nickelodeon style”? I call it “Come see the picture show” style. : ) Does it have its own architecture style category on Cinema Treasures?
Thanks Louis. I may go to Sundance sometime. Also I kinda liked Salt Lake City when I visited in August of 2012.
Al, if I can’t find a ‘97 time clock to look at I may ask you for a photo of one listing Pasta Attic. :) (Back then I was going to check the place out, then it disappeared.) If it was mostly a restaurant, it probably doesn’t “qualify” for a Cinema Treasures page.
Ha, oh well. :) I was hoping to “solve the case” of which Air Dome was the one that moved. If Paul George’s book is correct, it was the one next to Burdine’s. (Maybe he didn’t know about the Olympia property Airdome when he wrote the book in the 90’s, so he assumed it was the Burdine‘s one?) Articles online say the Airdome that moved first became the two-story Colonial, which your sources say was at this address, before moving. And the building that was reconstructed in Homestead arrived as a two-story building from what I understand, like the Landmark Hotel it is today, while to me the photo of the one next to Burdine’s looks perhaps too small to have gone on to become the first Seminole, (unless 1910’s photography distorts sizes).
Thank you Al! Some of the sources of historical info I have found online may be more recent than your original Cinema Treasures posts, so I’m turning up things from pages that didn’t exist yet when you started on Cinema Treasures. Also since I still live here I come across references to early Miami history offline.
Sometime I’ll look in the microfilm of the 1997 New Times in the Main Library and see if I can find the Pasta Attic listing I remember, since I see only old articles viewable on the New Times website, not also ads or movie listings. ‘97 feels about right. Wow, how did you find out it was ‘97?
Louis, did you attend the Sundance Film Festival?
Al: On the Olympia Theatre Cinema Treasures page it says the first Hippodrome was at 174 East Flagler Street (and the Florida Theatre page says the second Hippodrome was later at 205 East Flagler across the street.)
Was the first Airdome that you mentioned in the description for this page really the first Hippodrome? How did you hear about the first Airdome at 174 East Flagler?
Jane’s Bits blog article about the history of the Hippodrome.
Newspaper ads from 1920’s for films playing at the Hippodrome.
This video segment from the CBS Sunday Morning show says a film using the process Kinemacolor was screened for the first time at the Palace on February 26th, 1909:
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/almanac-natural-color-comes-to-movies/
The bottom of the page includes links to more Kinemacolor information.
Thanks Louis! Good to know people are seeing my posts. :)
I relate to a person’s desire to find out more about the first theater they attended, though I don’t have any exceptional resources: the Box Office article I got from a post by Al Alvarez; I live in Miami so I remembered coming across Isidor Cohen’s book while browsing the public library catalogue years ago, then when I Googled it recently in prep for posting on Cinema Treasures, it turned out the chapter about early cinemas was available online; therein is a reference to Kelly’s Theater, the first movie theater in Miami, and the building it was in, so I Googled those hoping for photos which instead turned up the name of a nearby hotel from those times and Googling for images of that lead to an article referencing the Air Dome next to Burdine’s and its photo; I know local historian Paul George from when I was his student and the first Seminole was mentioned during a tour he did of Homestead I took in the 90’s or early 00‘s; I own a copy of his book (the library has several) so I looked in it to see what he says about the Seminole and discovered a story of the Air Dome next to Burdine’s being the one that moved; I saw a Herald headline about the (second) Seminole Theatre reopening at the time that it did and found the article to be available online which turned out to include theater history and a reference to the Air Dome that moved being the first one at the address on this page. (Maybe the author of the Herald article got their info here on Cinema Treasures? :) )
So I don’t know any more about the Strand than what I learned from its Cinema Treasures page after suddenly encountering the former theater while driving past years ago.
All of the cinemas I frequented while growing up on Long Island are now gone, except the first one I ever visited in 1974, which is currently renovating.
Yes I get frustrated when I can’t find something on Google even after being pleasantly surprised by what I do find. For example I remember Pasta Attic Cinema being listed in the Miami New Times with the other theaters at some point back in the 90’s (when that paper used to list movie times) but can’t find anything about it online, which is annoying even though it was probably just a restaurant that decided to also try screening films.
I don’t know how to search a city’s building records, though I assume it involves visiting a government office unless they are accessible online. … How would I go about it if I someday want to?
Yet another Air Dome was located at 30 East Flagler Street next to Burdine‘s around 1913.
A paragraph on page 75 of the book “A Journey Through Time: A Pictorial History of South Dade” by Paul S. George says that Air Dome was disassembled in 1916 and moved south by railroad to become the first Seminole Theater in Homestead.
A Miami Herald article refers to the Air Dome that was moved to Homestead as being here at 174 East Flagler Street, which would be the first of the two mentioned above as having existed at this address. I vaguely remember one or two other people over the years beyond the Miami Herald article assume that this was the one that was moved.
Did the first one exist on this property, or are people confusing it with the Air Dome next to Burdine’s? Or where there three Air Domes?
By the way, check out this chapter entitled “Development of Miami’s Theaters” of the book “Historical Sketches And Sidelights Of Miami, Florida” by local author Isidor Cohen, printed in 1925.
And an article in the January 27, 1975 issue of Box Office: “Nickel Shows, Live Music, Tents: Miami’s Early Film Days Recalled”
A paragraph on page 75 of the book “A Journey Through Time: A Pictorial History of South Dade” by Paul S. George says this Air Dome was forced out of business after Burdine’s sued the City of Miami for not enforcing its codes against flammable building materials before the Air Dome’s retractable canvas roof caught fire in 1915 and damaged the department store. The City then condemned the roof and the theater closed, was disassembled, and moved by railroad in 1916 to become the first Seminole Theatre in Homestead.
A Miami Herald article refers to the Air Dome that was moved as being at 174 East Flagler Street, which would be the first of the two mentioned on this Cinema Treasures page.
Other sources that do not mention a fire say the Air Dome that was moved was remodeled into a two story Colonial Theater before being disassembled.
See this Cinema Treasures page about the first Seminole Theatre for more.
Mr. Cohen’s book does not mention a fire, the Colonial, or a theater being moved anywhere, but then his chapter is about the early “development” of cinemas in Miami and may not have been intended to be a complete history of everything that happened.
City of Homestead history brochure “Homestead Then & Now” including photo of Seminole Hotel street scene.
“17 Must-Visit Historic Treasures in Homestead and Florida City” by Larry Wiggins.
The Miami Herald article “Homestead’s Historic Seminole Theatre: Restored and Once Again a Community Treasure” about the Seminole on Krome Avenue, including some history of Homestead’s theaters, such as the first Seminole and the Ritz.
Cinema Treasures page for the Seminole Cultural Arts Theatre.
Cinema Treasures page for the Air Dome next to Burdine’s that Paul George says was moved to Homestead.
Cinema Treasures page for the Airdomes that were at 174 East Flagler Street where the Olympia Theatre is now, the first of which may have moved to Homestead. I vaguely remember one or two other people over the years beyond the Miami Herald article assume that this was the one that was moved.
I’m supposing the Seminole Theatre would be Homestead’s first cinema, since I have not heard of any previous.
I’m not completely sure what the Landmark Hotel building is really used for now. I do not see a way to reserve a hotel room there online, and did not when I once looked for hotels in Homestead a few years ago. Larry Wiggings’ article says “it operates as a rooming house” at the time he wrote it. I’ve found a recent real estate webpage listing the property for sale as a hotel, with a note not to disturb the residents. Meanwhile someone has created a Facebook fan page calling it the Seminole Cafe and Hotel Landmark & Historical Place.
If you are driving south down US-1 from Miami to Homestead, you are parallel to the route of the former Florida East Coast railroad right-of-way, now the Metrorail and Busway, once used by the train that transported the disassembled Air Dome/Colonial to its new home.
As I post this, I am gazing out the window of a Starbucks across US-1 at the space under the elevated Metrorail tracks that used to be the railroad, where, for a moment, the theater passed by 101 years ago.
I found what I remember as the Valentino, now a Planet Fitness gym, at the back of the strip mall on Google Street View. I tried to include a hyperlink here but the link won’t work.
kencmcintyre: Yes, to correct my previous comment I can see now it was a stand alone building since it was close but not physically connected to the one next to it. In the Street View image from 8th Street it is straight back all the way to the rear of the mall though too far away to see. Yes I remember it being a church when I was last in the area years ago.
Wish I could watch an archival video of what a patron saw and experienced while entering and walking through the lobby then into the auditorium.
The drive-in has been listed along with the regular conventional theaters on the physical Miami Herald’s movie times page since 2013, and it might be of interest to locals living here, so I created a Cinema Treasures page for it.
The drive-in has relocated from its primary Miami addresses when the circumstances of the land it is on eventually change, not just because it is portable.
Thank you for updating the city and Street View image.
Just for the record the theater’s original address was 11975 South Dixie Highway. The Best Buy that is now in the theater’s space is addressed at 11905.
1987-88 phone book says actual address was 7150 SW 57th Avenue, South Miami, FL 33143.
As I said in my first comment, it faced Red Road (SW 57th).
It’s now a DSW Designer Shoe Warehouse store.
More precise address is 12090 SW 88th St, Miami, FL 33186 and can be sublisted in the Kendall neighborhood of Miami.
“Retail” could be listed under Functions.
I saw “Gettysburg” here in the fall of 1993. There was an intermission after the first two hours.
It’s now a gym called 24 Hour Fitness.
As seen on the photos page, there had been an incline from the sidewalk up to the theater entrance with movie poster boxes on either side. Now the front door to the gym is at the sidewalk.
There used to be a covered walkway from the entrance across the parking lot to businesses on the east side of the mall, which at the time were nightspots (Café Iguana, Fat Kats Poll Hall). Now the roof extending in front of the east entrance is all that is left and the walkway is completely gone.
Back in the 90’s I’d come out here for the Flippers video arcade a few storefronts north of the cinema which now looks to be a medical office. To me the vibe of the mall today is more about functionality while then it felt more like a place to also enjoy at night. I guess the nightlife aspect transferred to the other side of the Turnpike at the newer Kendall Village but to me it doesn’t feel the same.
Could be listed as “Gymnasium” under Functions.
Can be sublisted in the Kendall neighborhood of Miami.
Someone has a Facebook page for people to post about the old Kendall Town & Country mall.
Name of theater is now Regal Kendall Village Stadium 16 IMAX & RPX.
Actual address is 8585 SW 124th Ave, Miami, FL 33183, and can be sublisted in the Kendall neighborhood of Miami.
Official website is:
http://www.regmovies.com/Theatres/Theatre-Folder/Regal-Kendall-Village-Stadium-16-IMAX-RPX-7770
The entire parking lot has been filled in with new buildings right up to the sidewalk of SW 88th Street/N. Kendall Drive in the past two years.
Yes, the address was 7440 SW 88th Street, Miami, FL 33156, which was never in the City of South Miami, but on the eastern edge of an unincorporated area of Miami-Dade County known as Kendall.
Perhaps all the of listings for theaters along SW 88th Street/with “Kendall” in their names could be sublisted under “Kendall” as a neighborhood of Miami, and would still show up in the general list for theaters in Miami when a neighborhood is not selected.
I found an article length Miami Herald obituary for Andres Marrero del Campo, the owner of the Valentino, from January 4th, 2017, describing his life and career as a film exhibitor, in which his granddaughter Pricilla, who’s comment is above mine, is quoted:
“Theater owner who brought American movies to Spanish-speaking audiences dies at 82”
I saw “The Legend of Bagger Vance” at the Valentino in 2000 and believe I remember him, smiling, as I bought my ticket and entered.
I would often think of the theater while driving past on 8th Street to and from Miccosukee Indian Gaming back in those days. It was the last business at the western edge of the strip mall with its entrance facing north, not a stand alone building.
In a chapter entitled “Development of Miami’s Theaters” of the book “Historical Sketches And Sidelights Of Miami, Florida" printed in 1925, local author Isidor Cohen mentions:
“About [1912] another movie was opened in the ‘Hunter’ building on East Flagler Street, between First and Second avenues, called ‘The Wigwam,’ by the late Clifford Brown. Mr. Brown excelled his competitors by equipping his theater with a mirror screen and by giving away pianos and automobiles to the lucky winners among his patrons.”
Mr. Cohen’s phrasing seems to indicate the actual name was “The Arcade”.
Cinema Treasures changed my use of the words The Arcade in my original submission to Arcade Theater before posting and explained:
On the site we don’t use the word ‘The’ as part of theatre names as there would be possibly hundreds of ‘The’s’ and to find The Arcade when doing a search would be neigh impossible. Most people would search for Arcade, as theatres are listed alphabetically.
Compare the historic photo to the present day Street View image for a look at now versus the 1910’s, with the Burdine’s/Macy’s building still present.
Cinema Treasures page for other Air Domes.
Cinema Treasures page for The Arcade
Check out the complete text of the “Development of Miami’s Theaters” chapter of Isidor Cohen’s book.
There are a few more theatres in there that came and went that are not listed on Cinema Treasures but there might not be much information about them outside of being mentioned therein.
I enjoy the part that says, after Kelly’s Theatre drove the Alcazar out of business, “Noting the victor’s apparent prosperity, one of our pioneer boys, Henry Chase (recently elected sheriff of Dade County), opened a movie theater in an old shack which stood on North First Avenue, where now stands the First Trust and Savings Bank building. That caricature of a theater served as a retreat for somnambulists and victims of insomnia.”
Here’s a link to the article “Miami Avenue & Flagler Street in 1913” on the miami-history.com website.
Compare the historic photo to the present day Street View image for a look at now versus the 1910’s, with the Burdine’s/Macy’s building still present.
Cinema Treasures page for the other Air Domes.
An article in the January 27, 1975 issue of Box Office: “Nickel Shows, Live Music, Tents: Miami’s Early Film Days Recalled”