Was the building down the street currently occupied by ACS Computers LLC at 1120 Bardstown Road ever a movie theater? The sign above the door is shaped like a marquee. (Check it out using Google Street View.) I can’t find a listing on Cinema Treasures.
Photos from the Oklahoma Historical Society of the Wigwam and its projection room circa 1912 are on pages 13 and 15 of the book “Oklahoma City: Film Row” by Bradley Wynn.
It also says the Lyric’s address was 325 Dewey Avenue.
On Google Street View, the building currently numbered 318 occupied by Cooper Herrington Furniture looks to me enough like the photo on page 88 of the book to possibly be the former Lyric.
Cool, I’m glad it won’t be torn down and there are plans to do something with it.
I remember years ago being pleasantly surprised to find an old closed movie theater behind some trees that had grown enough at the time to obscure the Ace signs when I was driving past one day. I’ve since enjoyed glancing at it to see if anything had yet changed whenever I’ve been through the area.
On June 5th, 2016 I visited O Cinema Miami Shores at the Miami Theater Center to attend a live presentation of “The Flick” — a play about a cinema’s employees performed in the theater’s aisles, seats, and projection booth, while the audience sits in a seating area set up on risers on the stage where the screen of the cinema portrayed in the story would be!
A few days before, as the Universe would have it, I felt I had completed my project of saying almost everything I’ve been wanting to say about movie theaters on Cinema Treasures — so when this play popped up about a movie theater performed within a movie theater, I just had to go to “celebrate”!
As I entered the usher explained that I’d be sitting on the stage, and that I could still reach the restroom during the performance by using the aisle along the wall, though the restrooms are part of the set. (No one tried during the show I saw.) With anticipation I took the program she handed me and said “Well, then I’m ‘ready for my close-up’”. “Okay, Mr. DeMille” she responded with a smile. : )
I enjoyed finding out what it feels like to be a movie screen when, as part of the play’s story, a probably simulated projector would cast its light upon the audience on the stage.
Another favorite part was a cinema patron who gazes up at “the screen”/above us and fantasizes about the movies for a moment after the one he came to see was over.
I also appreciated one character’s concern with traditional vs. digital projection.
This run of “The Flick” ended on June 12th. The running time was three hours (including an intermission), which felt somewhat long to me when the story would thematically linger upon the rut the characters’ lives are sort of stuck in, but if you love movie theaters you should consider going if it comes to a theater near you.
Harvey: The open area in the back of the auditorium you mention in your March 27th, 2008 comment as “standing room” is still there between the last row of seats and the restrooms at the back wall. Something about the restrooms feels historic to me though they also look renovated. The “Men” and “Women” (Ladies?) signs above the doors look possibly original. I’ve never seen turnstiles when I’ve visited this theater and wonder if they are in a closet somewhere.
The box office shown in the older photo is no longer used and tickets are sold at a counter just inside the door on the right or sometimes at the concession stand farther in at the end of the lobby also on the right. (Too bad, I like being able to walk up to an old box office, but perhaps having it inside feels more secure?)
I enjoy visiting what to me still feels for the most part like a small town movie theater.
The storefront to the right of the cinema is also used for theatrical performances as part of the Miami Theater Center who calls it Sandbox, a black-box theater.
I found it interesting when I read somewhere that, before the movie theater could reopen fully as O Cinema, the Miami Shores Village Council had to repeal an ordinance against exhibiting films in the village left over from a time decades ago when it was felt the theater was attracting a “questionable” crowd.
Al Alvarez: Wow, you were the manager here in the late 1970’s during those “controversial” days?! … Regarding your comment from January 14th, 2006, I didn’t experience Miami Shores in the 70‘s, but now when I visit for O Cinema, there are, for example, a more or less equal number of African-American/Caribbean, Caucasian, and Hispanic customers in the Starbucks down the street, who I assume are local to the Miami Shores/El Portal area. I’ve never heard of the possibly racist “island community” concept you mention you had dealt with, so maybe the town has moved on.
I saw “Casino Royale” here in November of 2006. I enjoyed the skyline behind the screen and the planes passing by overhead though I felt like the film’s sound was not as good as in an enclosed theater (or was it were I was sitting?).
“Happy Feet” seemed to play for an extended time here.
I vaguely remember perhaps hearing the cinema then moved to North Beach for a couple months before disappearing again.
Bayfront Park is where the annual Ultra Music Festival (electronic dance music) takes place, encompassing the entire park including where Movies on the Bay had been.
Fourth of July and New Years Eve events are held in the park, including the nationally televised Pitbull’s New Year’s Revolution.
Bayside Marketplace, an outdoor mall and tourist destination, is next to Bayfront Park.
A few yards directly south of where Movies by the Bay had been is the Dade County War Memorial (to residents who gave their lives in World War II), a peace pole… and the site of an assassination attempt against then President-elect Franklin Delano Roosevelt!
I grew up in West Islip in the 70‘s and 80‘s. I did not live near the theater but would see it going to and from Beach Street Jr. High which still sits behind it, and when visiting the shopping center, sometimes after school.
I enjoy reading graffiti, and there was often some on the white wall on the side of the building facing what at the time was an open field of undeveloped property between the cinema and Captree Bowling. For at least a year and a half, in large black letters, were the words “Waste Islip”. When I’d get frustrated with suburban life, the people and attitudes of Long Island, it helped me to picture this fine phrase on the wall in my mind, as if someone out there may have “understood” how I was feeling, and one day just had to express themselves. (Also helpful in this respect were the lyrics to the song “Subdivisions“ by Rush. Later in the early 90’s, I was driving with the suburban scenery providing a “video” for the song as it played on the car radio. After it ended the d.j. said “That was a Long Island song if there ever was one“.) I felt a little bad whenever the graffiti would get painted over. (On Google Street View in July 2015, the white wall looks clean and the cinema is Union Wine & Liquors.)
One evening in the late 80’s I noticed a sort of bonfire going on by some mounds of soil at the edge of the part of the undeveloped property that was next to the cinema. I was curious if I knew anyone amongst the silhouettes drinking and hollering, but didn’t dare stop to find out.
For a while in 1983, the James Bond film “Octopussy” was showing at the West Islip. If I had a bad day at the Jr. High, I had to smile on the way home at the naughty-sounding word up on the marquee just calmly out there for all to see… or was it that cats are my favorite animal? : ) I couldn’t bring myself to ask my parents to take me to see, um, “Octopussy”, and to this day I have not seen that movie – ha – perhaps because of its title.
I saw “Caddy Shack II” (1988), which became one of only two or three films I’ve ever walked out on, after most of the few other audience members had already left. … This may have also been the time some mischievous kids in the back lot startled everyone by banging on the outside of the fire exit door below the right of the screen right in the middle of the show, before running off.
After seeing “Dances With Wolves”(December of 1990?) with my late father, we sat in our car, lit only by streetlamps, out in the middle of the parking lot in front of the theater to recover from and process the experience. I was impressed at the time and said if I were ever a filmmaker I don’t know that I could accomplish producing something of such magnitude. He encouraged me, affirming that if and when the time came, I would be surprised by my own abilities.
I saw “Phenomenon” (1996), then wandered down to the other end of the shopping center to the entrance of what was then the Grand Union grocery store. I paused to watch three young women who had been somewhere in the same theater as I stroll by cheerfully singing in unison the song from the movie’s final scenes, “Change the World” by Eric Clapton. (“If I could cha-a-ange the world, I would be the sunlight in your universe…”)
When I last visited Long Island in the summer of 2000, the theater was closed. The marquee only said “That’s All Folks”.
The way I remember it, I thought the mall originally ended at the movie theater, before being expanded down to Macy’s with the remodeled and enlarged movie theater now in the mall’s middle.
I saw “Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion“ at The Falls. I remember being glad I had driven down and made it into the theater before a nasty-looking thunder storm had reached me. … Eventually I could hear the thunder through the walls, then with maybe 20 minutes left in the film, the power flicked on-and-off a few times, the image on the screen froze, and the film strip melted! ….. A hole began in the middle, then expanded outward, consuming Romy and Michele, leaving an empty white screen in its wake. The projector’s bulb then ceased while the sound continued another second or two in the darkness, then the lights came up. … The projector was started and stopped a couple times malfunctioning in different respects, then several minutes later an usher came in to tell the people who hadn’t already left that the film would not be restarting. … Today their projectors are probably digital with no film strip to melt. …. In 2016 I still have not seen the end of the film. (It’s almost time for their 20th year reunion, so maybe I’ll get to see it. : ) )
On June 14th, 2015 I toured the Tampa Theater. I mentioned to the tour guide that parts of the interior, like the second floor lobby, looked something like the Olympia in downtown Miami.
After the tour, before the film began (“Key Largo”, as part of their Summer Classic Film Series), she found me in my seat to tell me she had just discovered the two theaters have the same architect, then left saying “Now I have to visit Miami”. : )
I enjoyed the history of the theater, the live organ performance (it rises from beneath the stage, descends as the music finishes), and getting to see an old film in a venue that was around during the film’s original release.
The property at 150 NE 40th Street which is currently occupied by Fendi that I mention in my previous comment doesn’t look like the photo of the Biltmore that has since been uploaded. Oh well.
In my opinion the name of this page should perhaps be changed to “Astor Art Cinema”, since that was this location’s last incarnation as a cinema, this website is about cinemas, the New Theater was a live performance venue not a movie theater, and people using Cinema Treasures would generally be looking for cinemas not playhouses.
Someone I know who remembered the Astor Art Cinema was looking for it on Cinema Treasures and “couldn’t find it”.
In 2015 I took a tour of the Olympia. One interesting thing is there’s a collection of signatures of mostly famous performers and politicians who have appeared there on some doors just offstage on the left (from the audience’s point of view) of the stage.
On June 14th, 2015 I toured the Tampa Theater. I mentioned to the tour guide that parts of the interior, like the second floor lobby, looked something like the Olympia. After the tour, before the film began (“Key Largo”, as part of their Summer Classic Film Series), she found me in my seat to tell me she had found out the two theaters have the same architect, then left saying “Now I have to visit Miami”.
On May 7th, 2016 I stopped by the Colonnade Hotel mentioned in my previous post above this one. The grouping of four photos of the exterior of the building during different usages in its history was still on the wall on the second floor above the Aragon Avenue entrance. One photo shows “Colonnade Pictures” on the top of the building above Miracle Mile. The caption says from 1940 to 1942 it was a movie production studio before becoming a parachute factory for World War II.
The Lincoln Theater closed several years ago and became an H&M clothing store in 2012. (I believe I remember hearing of objections by preservationists that did not prevail… though after the transformation some people were pleased with what was preserved.)
The New World Symphony moved behind the Lincoln into the newly constructed New World Center (across 17th Street from the Fillmore at the Jackie Gleason Theater) which opened in January of 2011. Click here (the same official link under “Related Websites” above) for info and the Wikipedia page.
Still it would have been nice to have been able to visit the Lincoln when it was a cinema. … A friend of mine told me his parents took him to see “Beverly Hills Cop” there in the 80’s. … I remember seeing news reports of the premiere of the “Miami Vice” (2006) movie with stars in attendance, apparently using the projection capability the theater still had though it was the home of the symphony.
Now when I’m in the area I enjoy sitting in the front windows of the Starbucks next to what had been the Lincoln, watching the parade of pedestrians on Lincoln Road Mall. (Another kind of “motion picture”? … Don’t take my seat, okay? … Only kidding…)
I like the way the current description of the Lincoln in its overview here on Cinema Treasures reads from the time when it still housed the symphony so part of me wants to say “Don’t change or update it due to my post“, except to change it from “open“ to “closed“.
A few years ago I’d heard that a building was being renovated somewhere in or near downtown Miami when “they broke through the wall and discovered an old cinema for ‘colored’ people that had been sealed off when the building was used for something else and everyone forgot about it”.
I wonder if it was the Ritz and if it was really rediscovered in this dramatic fashion.
During Miami River Day, held each April, the interiors of the buildings are open to visitors and historical reenactors are on hand, providing atmosphere and answers to your questions.
Inside Fort Dallas historical photos show other early buildings that no longer exist.
Some residences that look to date back to the 1920’s are along the street behind the park (NW 3rd Street) and may also be of interest, especially in an unrenovated state.
I remember reading years ago in the Miami Herald that a time capsule with items associated with a premier at one of the now defunct Lincoln Road cinemas had been found during road work.
I Googled and found this article from the Sun Sentinel:
For some reason I remember reading or assuming that the capsule had been found on the pedestrian part of Lincoln Road, (maybe I saw some road work being done on the pedestrian part around that time so I thought that’s where they found it?), but the article says the items were associated with a premier at the Carib.
I was posting a comment that mentions my mother having grown up in Shamokin when I clicked on this photo… that turned out to be about Mother’s Day in Shamokin!
My late mother, Rita Dusick, grew up in Shamokin on South 1st Street in the 1930‘s, 40‘s and 50‘s and moved away probably by 1960. She graduated from Coal Township High School in 1952. (Does anyone remember her and/or her family?: father John J. (who was a Justice of the Peace and died in 1963), mother Victoria Wysocki, sister Marian.)
I visited Shamokin for the first time in September of 2013 during what I called my “PA Trip ‘13“. … I found it moving to walk upon streets my mother inhabited before I was ever a concept.
(Hmmmm…. There’s an ad in the photos section for Mother’s Day at the Capitol from when my mother was a kid. :) )
At the Shamokin-Coal Township Heritage Museum in the American Legion Building on Independence Street next to the Public Library (210 East Independence Street), I bought a locally produced book called “Matinee Memories” about the movie theaters of Shamokin, including some that existed before the Victoria, Capitol and Majestic.
The author, Garth Hall, passed away in January 2016, and I got the impression the book was only available from him/the museum.
The inside cover says the project was prepared for The Northumberland County Council For The Arts & Humanities. Perhaps they have copies for sale or perusal and can be contacted by clicking here.
Cinema Paradiso has been renamed Savor Cinema.
This article explains:
“FLIFF Board member & Philanthropist Steve Savor To Make Significant Upgrades to Building & Grounds”
Was the building down the street currently occupied by ACS Computers LLC at 1120 Bardstown Road ever a movie theater? The sign above the door is shaped like a marquee. (Check it out using Google Street View.) I can’t find a listing on Cinema Treasures.
Photos from the Oklahoma Historical Society of the Wigwam and its projection room circa 1912 are on pages 13 and 15 of the book “Oklahoma City: Film Row” by Bradley Wynn.
Page 88 of the book “Oklahoma City: Film Row” says the Lyric was the location of the Bartlesville Telemovie Experiment, a precursor to cable television that lasted from September 3rd, 1957 to June 6th 1958.
It also says the Lyric’s address was 325 Dewey Avenue.
On Google Street View, the building currently numbered 318 occupied by Cooper Herrington Furniture looks to me enough like the photo on page 88 of the book to possibly be the former Lyric.
From the Cinema Treasures blog posted on July 18th, 2016:
“Segregation-era movie theater in Coconut Grove wins national historic designation”
Cool, I’m glad it won’t be torn down and there are plans to do something with it.
I remember years ago being pleasantly surprised to find an old closed movie theater behind some trees that had grown enough at the time to obscure the Ace signs when I was driving past one day. I’ve since enjoyed glancing at it to see if anything had yet changed whenever I’ve been through the area.
A July 11, 2016 article from the Grand Forks Herald:
“Big Screen Debut at the Empire Arts Center”
Miami New Times article about the current state of the Playhouse:
http://www.miaminewtimes.com/arts/coconut-grove-playhouse-restoration-stuck-in-act-i-8499932
Save Our Playhouse Facebook page.
Wikipedia page.
On June 5th, 2016 I visited O Cinema Miami Shores at the Miami Theater Center to attend a live presentation of “The Flick” — a play about a cinema’s employees performed in the theater’s aisles, seats, and projection booth, while the audience sits in a seating area set up on risers on the stage where the screen of the cinema portrayed in the story would be!
A few days before, as the Universe would have it, I felt I had completed my project of saying almost everything I’ve been wanting to say about movie theaters on Cinema Treasures — so when this play popped up about a movie theater performed within a movie theater, I just had to go to “celebrate”!
As I entered the usher explained that I’d be sitting on the stage, and that I could still reach the restroom during the performance by using the aisle along the wall, though the restrooms are part of the set. (No one tried during the show I saw.) With anticipation I took the program she handed me and said “Well, then I’m ‘ready for my close-up’”. “Okay, Mr. DeMille” she responded with a smile. : )
I enjoyed finding out what it feels like to be a movie screen when, as part of the play’s story, a probably simulated projector would cast its light upon the audience on the stage.
Another favorite part was a cinema patron who gazes up at “the screen”/above us and fantasizes about the movies for a moment after the one he came to see was over.
I also appreciated one character’s concern with traditional vs. digital projection.
This run of “The Flick” ended on June 12th. The running time was three hours (including an intermission), which felt somewhat long to me when the story would thematically linger upon the rut the characters’ lives are sort of stuck in, but if you love movie theaters you should consider going if it comes to a theater near you.
A Miami New Times article about this production:
http://www.miaminewtimes.com/arts/mad-cat-theatres-the-flick-explores-the-waning-days-of-film-8491959
Harvey: The open area in the back of the auditorium you mention in your March 27th, 2008 comment as “standing room” is still there between the last row of seats and the restrooms at the back wall. Something about the restrooms feels historic to me though they also look renovated. The “Men” and “Women” (Ladies?) signs above the doors look possibly original. I’ve never seen turnstiles when I’ve visited this theater and wonder if they are in a closet somewhere.
The box office shown in the older photo is no longer used and tickets are sold at a counter just inside the door on the right or sometimes at the concession stand farther in at the end of the lobby also on the right. (Too bad, I like being able to walk up to an old box office, but perhaps having it inside feels more secure?)
I enjoy visiting what to me still feels for the most part like a small town movie theater.
The storefront to the right of the cinema is also used for theatrical performances as part of the Miami Theater Center who calls it Sandbox, a black-box theater.
I found it interesting when I read somewhere that, before the movie theater could reopen fully as O Cinema, the Miami Shores Village Council had to repeal an ordinance against exhibiting films in the village left over from a time decades ago when it was felt the theater was attracting a “questionable” crowd.
Al Alvarez: Wow, you were the manager here in the late 1970’s during those “controversial” days?! … Regarding your comment from January 14th, 2006, I didn’t experience Miami Shores in the 70‘s, but now when I visit for O Cinema, there are, for example, a more or less equal number of African-American/Caribbean, Caucasian, and Hispanic customers in the Starbucks down the street, who I assume are local to the Miami Shores/El Portal area. I’ve never heard of the possibly racist “island community” concept you mention you had dealt with, so maybe the town has moved on.
I saw “Casino Royale” here in November of 2006. I enjoyed the skyline behind the screen and the planes passing by overhead though I felt like the film’s sound was not as good as in an enclosed theater (or was it were I was sitting?).
“Happy Feet” seemed to play for an extended time here.
A Miami New Times article: “Let’s All Go To The Movies by the Bay” about attending a movie here and the cinema’s uncertain future.
I vaguely remember perhaps hearing the cinema then moved to North Beach for a couple months before disappearing again.
Bayfront Park is where the annual Ultra Music Festival (electronic dance music) takes place, encompassing the entire park including where Movies on the Bay had been.
Fourth of July and New Years Eve events are held in the park, including the nationally televised Pitbull’s New Year’s Revolution.
Bayfront Park on Facebook.
Bayside Marketplace, an outdoor mall and tourist destination, is next to Bayfront Park.
A few yards directly south of where Movies by the Bay had been is the Dade County War Memorial (to residents who gave their lives in World War II), a peace pole… and the site of an assassination attempt against then President-elect Franklin Delano Roosevelt!
A historical marker set horizontally on the ground honors the Mayor of Chicago Anton Cermak, who was shot during the attempt and later died. Some ponder how the Great Depression and World War II might have turned out if Vice President-elect John Nance Garner had then been sworn in as president instead of Roosevelt.
A link to a short Youtube video regarding the event including archival footage.
Also see: http://miami-history.com/attempted-assassination-of-fdr-in-bayfront-park/
Wikipedia page for the would be assassin.
History of Bayfront Park webpage and Wikipedia page.
I grew up in West Islip in the 70‘s and 80‘s. I did not live near the theater but would see it going to and from Beach Street Jr. High which still sits behind it, and when visiting the shopping center, sometimes after school.
I enjoy reading graffiti, and there was often some on the white wall on the side of the building facing what at the time was an open field of undeveloped property between the cinema and Captree Bowling. For at least a year and a half, in large black letters, were the words “Waste Islip”. When I’d get frustrated with suburban life, the people and attitudes of Long Island, it helped me to picture this fine phrase on the wall in my mind, as if someone out there may have “understood” how I was feeling, and one day just had to express themselves. (Also helpful in this respect were the lyrics to the song “Subdivisions“ by Rush. Later in the early 90’s, I was driving with the suburban scenery providing a “video” for the song as it played on the car radio. After it ended the d.j. said “That was a Long Island song if there ever was one“.) I felt a little bad whenever the graffiti would get painted over. (On Google Street View in July 2015, the white wall looks clean and the cinema is Union Wine & Liquors.)
One evening in the late 80’s I noticed a sort of bonfire going on by some mounds of soil at the edge of the part of the undeveloped property that was next to the cinema. I was curious if I knew anyone amongst the silhouettes drinking and hollering, but didn’t dare stop to find out.
For a while in 1983, the James Bond film “Octopussy” was showing at the West Islip. If I had a bad day at the Jr. High, I had to smile on the way home at the naughty-sounding word up on the marquee just calmly out there for all to see… or was it that cats are my favorite animal? : ) I couldn’t bring myself to ask my parents to take me to see, um, “Octopussy”, and to this day I have not seen that movie – ha – perhaps because of its title.
I saw “Caddy Shack II” (1988), which became one of only two or three films I’ve ever walked out on, after most of the few other audience members had already left. … This may have also been the time some mischievous kids in the back lot startled everyone by banging on the outside of the fire exit door below the right of the screen right in the middle of the show, before running off.
After seeing “Dances With Wolves”(December of 1990?) with my late father, we sat in our car, lit only by streetlamps, out in the middle of the parking lot in front of the theater to recover from and process the experience. I was impressed at the time and said if I were ever a filmmaker I don’t know that I could accomplish producing something of such magnitude. He encouraged me, affirming that if and when the time came, I would be surprised by my own abilities.
I saw “Phenomenon” (1996), then wandered down to the other end of the shopping center to the entrance of what was then the Grand Union grocery store. I paused to watch three young women who had been somewhere in the same theater as I stroll by cheerfully singing in unison the song from the movie’s final scenes, “Change the World” by Eric Clapton. (“If I could cha-a-ange the world, I would be the sunlight in your universe…”)
When I last visited Long Island in the summer of 2000, the theater was closed. The marquee only said “That’s All Folks”.
The way I remember it, I thought the mall originally ended at the movie theater, before being expanded down to Macy’s with the remodeled and enlarged movie theater now in the mall’s middle.
I saw “Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion“ at The Falls. I remember being glad I had driven down and made it into the theater before a nasty-looking thunder storm had reached me. … Eventually I could hear the thunder through the walls, then with maybe 20 minutes left in the film, the power flicked on-and-off a few times, the image on the screen froze, and the film strip melted! ….. A hole began in the middle, then expanded outward, consuming Romy and Michele, leaving an empty white screen in its wake. The projector’s bulb then ceased while the sound continued another second or two in the darkness, then the lights came up. … The projector was started and stopped a couple times malfunctioning in different respects, then several minutes later an usher came in to tell the people who hadn’t already left that the film would not be restarting. … Today their projectors are probably digital with no film strip to melt. …. In 2016 I still have not seen the end of the film. (It’s almost time for their 20th year reunion, so maybe I’ll get to see it. : ) )
Here’s an interesting thread I found on the IMBd page for the film with people discussing why they did or didn’t attend their reunions and how they feel about such things.
Patsy: Thanks, I enjoy doing them. I rewrote it slightly and reposted, then deleted the original which is why your comment now appears above mine.
On June 14th, 2015 I toured the Tampa Theater. I mentioned to the tour guide that parts of the interior, like the second floor lobby, looked something like the Olympia in downtown Miami.
After the tour, before the film began (“Key Largo”, as part of their Summer Classic Film Series), she found me in my seat to tell me she had just discovered the two theaters have the same architect, then left saying “Now I have to visit Miami”. : )
I enjoyed the history of the theater, the live organ performance (it rises from beneath the stage, descends as the music finishes), and getting to see an old film in a venue that was around during the film’s original release.
The Tampa Theater, its history and preservation, are also discussed in part of the book “The Southern Movie Palace: Rise, Fall, and Resurrection ” by Janna Jones..
An article in the January 27, 1975 issue of Box Office, “Nickel Shows, Live Music, Tents: Miami’s Early Film Days Recalled”, says that someone named Robert K. Andre was “building an ornate self-scale replica of the [Olympia] in a two-story building off Bird Road”.
I wonder what became of this. Has anyone seen it? What was it like? Are there photos?
The property at 150 NE 40th Street which is currently occupied by Fendi that I mention in my previous comment doesn’t look like the photo of the Biltmore that has since been uploaded. Oh well.
In my opinion the name of this page should perhaps be changed to “Astor Art Cinema”, since that was this location’s last incarnation as a cinema, this website is about cinemas, the New Theater was a live performance venue not a movie theater, and people using Cinema Treasures would generally be looking for cinemas not playhouses.
Someone I know who remembered the Astor Art Cinema was looking for it on Cinema Treasures and “couldn’t find it”.
Olympia official website is now: http://www.olympiatheater.org/
Olympia Facebook page.
Olympia Twitter page.
The Olympia celebrated its 90th Anniversary on February 27th, 2016 with a showing of “Dick Tracy”.
Video and article: “Miami’s Most Beautiful Venue Is Getting Its Second Wind“.
Monthly free jazz concerts are held in the lobby.
In 2015 I took a tour of the Olympia. One interesting thing is there’s a collection of signatures of mostly famous performers and politicians who have appeared there on some doors just offstage on the left (from the audience’s point of view) of the stage.
On June 14th, 2015 I toured the Tampa Theater. I mentioned to the tour guide that parts of the interior, like the second floor lobby, looked something like the Olympia. After the tour, before the film began (“Key Largo”, as part of their Summer Classic Film Series), she found me in my seat to tell me she had found out the two theaters have the same architect, then left saying “Now I have to visit Miami”.
On May 7th, 2016 I stopped by the Colonnade Hotel mentioned in my previous post above this one. The grouping of four photos of the exterior of the building during different usages in its history was still on the wall on the second floor above the Aragon Avenue entrance. One photo shows “Colonnade Pictures” on the top of the building above Miracle Mile. The caption says from 1940 to 1942 it was a movie production studio before becoming a parachute factory for World War II.
I Googled and found a list of three films for “Colonnade Pictures Corp“ on the AFI website, including “The Marines Come Thru“ (1942, “produced at Colonnade Studios, Coral Gables, FL”), “Murder on Lenox Avenue”(1941), and “Sunday Sinners”(1941).
The Lincoln Theater closed several years ago and became an H&M clothing store in 2012. (I believe I remember hearing of objections by preservationists that did not prevail… though after the transformation some people were pleased with what was preserved.)
The New World Symphony moved behind the Lincoln into the newly constructed New World Center (across 17th Street from the Fillmore at the Jackie Gleason Theater) which opened in January of 2011. Click here (the same official link under “Related Websites” above) for info and the Wikipedia page.
The parking lot that had been at the corner of Washington Avenue and 17th Street was removed and turned into Soundscape Park. “Wallcasts” of concerts going on inside the New World Center and movies in the Soundscape Cinema Series are presented to outdoor audiences free of charge via large projectors in the park aimed at the “projection wall” on the east side of the New World Center building. (Nice overhead shot of projection wall.)
Still it would have been nice to have been able to visit the Lincoln when it was a cinema. … A friend of mine told me his parents took him to see “Beverly Hills Cop” there in the 80’s. … I remember seeing news reports of the premiere of the “Miami Vice” (2006) movie with stars in attendance, apparently using the projection capability the theater still had though it was the home of the symphony.
Now when I’m in the area I enjoy sitting in the front windows of the Starbucks next to what had been the Lincoln, watching the parade of pedestrians on Lincoln Road Mall. (Another kind of “motion picture”? … Don’t take my seat, okay? … Only kidding…)
I like the way the current description of the Lincoln in its overview here on Cinema Treasures reads from the time when it still housed the symphony so part of me wants to say “Don’t change or update it due to my post“, except to change it from “open“ to “closed“.
List of articles with photos regarding the Lincoln in its transition to H&M.
Including: “Look At The Guts Of Lincoln Theatre, Revealed And Preserved”
And: “Giant LED Screen! This Is The Inside Of Miami’s New H&M”
Another article about the history, transformation, preservation and architects:
“Art-Deco-Meets-HM”
A few years ago I’d heard that a building was being renovated somewhere in or near downtown Miami when “they broke through the wall and discovered an old cinema for ‘colored’ people that had been sealed off when the building was used for something else and everyone forgot about it”.
I wonder if it was the Ritz and if it was really rediscovered in this dramatic fashion.
Across the street from the Temple is the Lummus Park Historic District where the last two of Miami’s original pioneer-era buildings have been relocated: Fort Dallas and the William Wagner House.
Also see: http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/fl/fortdallas.html
During Miami River Day, held each April, the interiors of the buildings are open to visitors and historical reenactors are on hand, providing atmosphere and answers to your questions.
Inside Fort Dallas historical photos show other early buildings that no longer exist.
Some residences that look to date back to the 1920’s are along the street behind the park (NW 3rd Street) and may also be of interest, especially in an unrenovated state.
Click here for a presentation about this theater:
http://www.amblertheater.org/arthouse
Look for “Collette Costa Gold Town Theater”.
Entertaining, and I felt like I had visited the Gold Town even though I’m in Miami.
Some of the other “Art House Tales” videos may be of interest to you as well.
I remember reading years ago in the Miami Herald that a time capsule with items associated with a premier at one of the now defunct Lincoln Road cinemas had been found during road work.
I Googled and found this article from the Sun Sentinel:
http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1997-01-04/news/9701040022_1_time-capsule-glenn-miller-jimmy-stewart
For some reason I remember reading or assuming that the capsule had been found on the pedestrian part of Lincoln Road, (maybe I saw some road work being done on the pedestrian part around that time so I thought that’s where they found it?), but the article says the items were associated with a premier at the Carib.
I was posting a comment that mentions my mother having grown up in Shamokin when I clicked on this photo… that turned out to be about Mother’s Day in Shamokin!
Thanks for uploading this.
My late mother, Rita Dusick, grew up in Shamokin on South 1st Street in the 1930‘s, 40‘s and 50‘s and moved away probably by 1960. She graduated from Coal Township High School in 1952. (Does anyone remember her and/or her family?: father John J. (who was a Justice of the Peace and died in 1963), mother Victoria Wysocki, sister Marian.)
I visited Shamokin for the first time in September of 2013 during what I called my “PA Trip ‘13“. … I found it moving to walk upon streets my mother inhabited before I was ever a concept.
(Hmmmm…. There’s an ad in the photos section for Mother’s Day at the Capitol from when my mother was a kid. :) )
At the Shamokin-Coal Township Heritage Museum in the American Legion Building on Independence Street next to the Public Library (210 East Independence Street), I bought a locally produced book called “Matinee Memories” about the movie theaters of Shamokin, including some that existed before the Victoria, Capitol and Majestic.
I have uploaded a photo of the cover and the inside cover in the photos section.
The author, Garth Hall, passed away in January 2016, and I got the impression the book was only available from him/the museum.
The inside cover says the project was prepared for The Northumberland County Council For The Arts & Humanities. Perhaps they have copies for sale or perusal and can be contacted by clicking here.
Maybe the Shamokin-Coal Township Public Library next to the museum has a copy or can tell you where to find one.
And there is the Northumberland County Historical Society to try if other options don’t pan out.
You could include the photo of the book when emailing these places so they know what you are asking about.