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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I visited North Beach on March 11, 2016. The doors to the Surf were papered over so the gym is apparently gone. (I Googled and found photos of what the interior looked like when it was Condesa gym.)
If you visit the Subway restaurant across the street and sit near the front window, you can enjoy a full view of the Surf and contemplate it as I did.
The inside of the nearby Normandy was under construction, with a table with blueprints laid out in the lobby.
Both theaters still have their marquees, which I hope are kept if the area is “revitalized” (which was somewhat dumpy).
The photo also appears on p. 36 of the book “Jesse Robinson of Homestead: Remembrances and Recollections of Jesse James Robinson, Sr.”
The caption in the book says the theatre was owned by Lester Lawrence, Sr. and had 250 Seats.
It burned down on September 16, 1940.
The photo was originally taken by Marion Post Wolcott for the Farm Security Administration in January of 1939.
In the photo Rev. Fred Lloyd’s barbershop is on the left. To the right of that is a store owned by Prince Ferguson’s that sold soda, peanuts, candy and ice cream – with the ticket window for the Ritz next to the door! The business on the far right was Nelson Kelley’s Pressing Club, where clothes were sent out to be dry cleaned, then pressed at this location. The second floor was the projection room and sleeping rooms for rent.
There is a copy of the book available to be checked out at the Homestead branch of the Miami-Dade Public Library and two other non-circulating copies at the Main Library in downtown Miami.
This multiplex was located on the top (3rd) floor of the complex.
Back in the 90’s into the 00’s the building was called the Streets of Mayfair. There was a nightclub called Café Iguana Cantina also on the third floor across from the cinema, a comedy club next to that, and a Borders Books on the first floor by Grand Avenue, making this a hub of activity. (In the 90’s there was even a Planet Hollywood on the first floor a block down from the Borders.)
All of these businesses are gone and the place is mostly offices with some retail, though the Bookstore in the Grove is on the first floor near Florida Avenue. (The Improv Comedy Club had opened on the first floor a block down in the area that looks like a street for pedestrians only, but it recently closed. The exterior looks sort of like a cinema, but it was always a comedy club.)
Back in 1998 I saw the Native American film “Smoke Signals” with a small group that included a Miccosukee Indian friend I had at the time at the Mayfair 10.
Back in the 1990’s I was driving with a Miccosukee Indian friend I had at the time when we approached Virginia Street from Florida Avenue and he told me while in the intersection facing the Coco Walk parking garage that a cinema had once existed there decades before.
This theater and the Grove Art Cinema are discussed in this article:
The second photo in the article, with the people waiting outside under a sign that says “Grove Cinema. Decameron. Magical Mystery Tour”, is of the theater discussed on this page.
Ironically, though there is no longer a movie theater in the neighborhood, I was there to attend a screening of some of avante-garde filmmaker Jonas Mekas' work at an event space rented out for the evening by Obsolete Media Miami, an organization based in a nearby building that is a repository of archival motion picture materials and other related things.
Before going I checked Cinema Treasures and found this page for the Biltmore. In my opinion the building currently numbered as 150 NE 40th Street looks like it could have been a movie theater, with its tall rectangle rising above what could have been the entrance, since I have seen other movie theaters with similar features. The place is on the south side of the street however, while steg’s comment remembers the Biltmore as being on the north side.
Check out this webpage describing Fendi, the current occupant of the space:
There’s a photo of the exterior. The green square is the part of the building that makes it look like a movie theater to me. There are also some interior shots: high ceiling?; a staircase that could have led to a balcony or projection booth?
Does looking at these photos jog anyone’s memory?
During my walk I could not find a storefront currently numbered 143, and the building directly across from 150 that looks to be 151 when I zoom in on Google Street View has recently been removed.
Down the street on the corner of NE 40th Street and NE 2nd Avenue (4000 NE 2nd Avenue) is a small, historic, interesting, federal-looking building. It housed the designer clothing store Billionaire when I was there, but carved into the architecture above the door were the words “Buena Vista Post Office” with an eagle on top of that and a profile of a Founding Father underneath.
In late 1991 or early 1992 I saw a play here with some other recent University of Miami grads and students. That the cinema had “thrived on student trade” as described above perhaps explains why the playhouse staff was not surprised we were U.M. students when to me the place was not that close to U.M.
Months later I thought I’d heard the place had been too damaged by Hurricane Andrew (August 1992) to function any longer, though the Actor’s Playhouse page says they did not move to the Miracle until 1995.
I walked by on February 14th, 2016. A JC Penney Home Store replaced the auditoriums years ago and to the left of that an empty storefront sits where I believe the entrance and lobby were the night I saw the play.
During part of what I called my “Great Western Trip ‘08”, I found a promotional postcard in the Little Tokyo Visitor’s Center for the premier of an independent film called “Asian Stories”. Being a person attracted to Asian things I attended the event, held on July 25th, 2008, which turned out to be a couple blocks away at the ImaginAsian Center, a movie theater that played only Asian/Asian-American films!
The exterior of the theater was sort of futuristic and neat. As I arrived I found out that James Kyson, an actor in the film who also played the part of “Ando” in “Heroes”, one of my favorite tv shows at the time, would be there for a q&a session.
After the film and q&a, the audience was invited to an after-party at a nightspot some blocks away. (I can’t remember the name or find it where I think it was on Google Street View, even if I look at images from 2008, but I remember a small bar in the front, then an enclosed patio-like area in the back where the party was held.)
At the party I chatted with some of the film’s crew who seemed pleasantly surprised that a guy visiting LA on a trip would have chosen to attend their event. The director introduced me to one of the producers as proof to her that using promotional postcards to attract viewers really does work, (since she seemed to have had doubts, though we wondered if I was the only one they had worked on). I was able to get a photo with James Kyson and tell him I was looking forward to the next season of “Heroes”.
I had a longer conversation with one of the other actors (probably Kirt Kishita). I said he didn’t seem like the tough guy he played in the film and asked him how he was able to get into character. He said he is usually more sensitive in real life and described some of his techniques. We agreed that acting is something that needs to come from the heart, and after we expounding upon this theme for a few minutes, he concluded by saying “We are like brothers”.
Before I left I stopped at the bar in the front, where I talked with a girl who had been in the audience about the movie and my trip. As she reached her drinking limit and her husband came to collect her, she introduced me to him in appreciative tones with some embellishment and flair : “This is Daaaave…. from Miami, Florrrrrida….. and he’s traveling the worrrrrld…. and he’s having the time of his life!”
All this is a pleasant memory.
When I next visited Los Angeles and walked by the theater in August of 2011, I was disappointed to see it was no longer the ImaginAsian (and therefore probably not showcasing Asian films), but at least it was still operating as the Downtown Independent and still had the cool unique exterior.
I had read online there had been another ImaginAsian in New York City, which I now see is part of the history of the closed Big Cinemas Manhattan that has a page here on Cinema Treasures.
“They also operated The ImaginAsian, a renovated movie theatre located in Midtown Manhattan that shows only first-run and classic East Asian films, as well as several film festivals per year. The company renovated a second former movie theatre in Los Angeles that opened in December 2007, the former Linda Lea Theater, which originally showed Japanese films and served the Little Tokyo area before shuttering in the 1980s.”
The Linda Lea has its own Cinema Treasures page, and to me the contrast from the ImaginAsian/Downtown Independent is striking.
On September 3rd, 2011 during a trip that included Los Angeles, I stood waiting at a bus stop in front of a former business with an aging mustard yellow marquee. A folding gate blocked the doorway, where discarded soda cans and fast food wrappers had accumulated in the space between. Some other signage made statements such as “Girls, Girls, Girls” (reminding me of the Motley Crue song)… I thought, “Oh, it’s a defunct movie theater that is now a defunct strip club!”.
For a while as I waited for the bus, two women in their early 20’s stood silently under the marquee holding a handmade cardboard sign that said “Hungry Hobos” and a request for money. Occasionally some people would offer assistance and chat with them, but I got the impression this was possibly a sort of performance/experiment to see how people would respond.
A year or so later I thought it would be fun to try to find the place on Cinema Treasures, but couldn’t remember what it was called or where in L.A. I had been.
Then on February 12th, 2016, I was watching the documentary “David Bowie – Five Years” that was airing on PBS. During a segment describing Bowie’s time in Los Angeles in the 1970’s, an interviewee’s voice says Bowie felt he needed to leave L.A. because the culture was getting too crazy and therefore unhealthy for him, while for a moment the image on the screen is a lit up marquee of a theater called The Cave taken from a passing car. …. I wrote down the name and looked it up on Cinema Treasures: Ha – it just happened to be the theater that I had stood in front of back in 2011! (Apparently with a remodeled exterior and reopened as a strip club.)
“Alex Weinstock (at the bottom of the ladder) and Frank Kelleher, Homestead Theatre executives, prepare the marquee of the new facility for its grand opening. 1955. Courtesy South Dade News-Leader”
“Alex Weinstock (at the bottom of the ladder) and Frank Kelleher, Homestead Theatre executives, prepare the marquee of the new facility for its grand opening. 1955. Courtesy South Dade News-Leader”
A Miami Herald article, “Homestead’s Historic Seminole Theater: Restored and Once Again a Community Treasure”, says the Seminole Theater on Krome Avenue was built by Homestead pioneer James Washington English, and that “In 1955, English built another theater called the Homestead Theatre (where the Miami Dade College Homestead Campus parking lot sits today)…”
As I said in my previous comment, I may have seen a photo of the Palms theater, which this may have been at some point, in the Homestead Historic Town Hall Museum across from the Seminole Theater.
The Miami Herald article that mentions the Ritz, “Homestead’s Historic Seminole Theater: Restored and Once Again a Community Treasure”, can be viewed here.
The Cinema Treasures page for the Ace Theater that opened farther west on 4th Street to serve the African-American community can be viewed here.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I visited North Beach on March 11, 2016. The doors to the Surf were papered over so the gym is apparently gone. (I Googled and found photos of what the interior looked like when it was Condesa gym.)
If you visit the Subway restaurant across the street and sit near the front window, you can enjoy a full view of the Surf and contemplate it as I did.
The inside of the nearby Normandy was under construction, with a table with blueprints laid out in the lobby.
Both theaters still have their marquees, which I hope are kept if the area is “revitalized” (which was somewhat dumpy).
The photo also appears on p. 36 of the book “Jesse Robinson of Homestead: Remembrances and Recollections of Jesse James Robinson, Sr.”
The caption in the book says the theatre was owned by Lester Lawrence, Sr. and had 250 Seats.
It burned down on September 16, 1940.
The photo was originally taken by Marion Post Wolcott for the Farm Security Administration in January of 1939.
In the photo Rev. Fred Lloyd’s barbershop is on the left. To the right of that is a store owned by Prince Ferguson’s that sold soda, peanuts, candy and ice cream – with the ticket window for the Ritz next to the door! The business on the far right was Nelson Kelley’s Pressing Club, where clothes were sent out to be dry cleaned, then pressed at this location. The second floor was the projection room and sleeping rooms for rent.
There is a copy of the book available to be checked out at the Homestead branch of the Miami-Dade Public Library and two other non-circulating copies at the Main Library in downtown Miami.
You may be able to buy a copy from the Florida Pioneer Museum in Florida City or the Homestead Historic Town Hall Museum. It includes many historic photos.
This multiplex was located on the top (3rd) floor of the complex.
Back in the 90’s into the 00’s the building was called the Streets of Mayfair. There was a nightclub called Café Iguana Cantina also on the third floor across from the cinema, a comedy club next to that, and a Borders Books on the first floor by Grand Avenue, making this a hub of activity. (In the 90’s there was even a Planet Hollywood on the first floor a block down from the Borders.)
All of these businesses are gone and the place is mostly offices with some retail, though the Bookstore in the Grove is on the first floor near Florida Avenue. (The Improv Comedy Club had opened on the first floor a block down in the area that looks like a street for pedestrians only, but it recently closed. The exterior looks sort of like a cinema, but it was always a comedy club.)
Back in 1998 I saw the Native American film “Smoke Signals” with a small group that included a Miccosukee Indian friend I had at the time at the Mayfair 10.
Back in the 1990’s I was driving with a Miccosukee Indian friend I had at the time when we approached Virginia Street from Florida Avenue and he told me while in the intersection facing the Coco Walk parking garage that a cinema had once existed there decades before.
This theater and the Grove Art Cinema are discussed in this article:
http://www.miaminewtimes.com/arts/miami-memoirs-the-grove-cinema-7934464
The second photo in the article, with the people waiting outside under a sign that says “Grove Cinema. Decameron. Magical Mystery Tour”, is of the theater discussed on this page.
I walked the Design District on March 26th, 2016.
Ironically, though there is no longer a movie theater in the neighborhood, I was there to attend a screening of some of avante-garde filmmaker Jonas Mekas' work at an event space rented out for the evening by Obsolete Media Miami, an organization based in a nearby building that is a repository of archival motion picture materials and other related things.
Before going I checked Cinema Treasures and found this page for the Biltmore. In my opinion the building currently numbered as 150 NE 40th Street looks like it could have been a movie theater, with its tall rectangle rising above what could have been the entrance, since I have seen other movie theaters with similar features. The place is on the south side of the street however, while steg’s comment remembers the Biltmore as being on the north side.
Check out this webpage describing Fendi, the current occupant of the space:
http://pursuitist.com/inside-fendis-new-boutique-in-miami-design-district/
There’s a photo of the exterior. The green square is the part of the building that makes it look like a movie theater to me. There are also some interior shots: high ceiling?; a staircase that could have led to a balcony or projection booth?
Does looking at these photos jog anyone’s memory?
During my walk I could not find a storefront currently numbered 143, and the building directly across from 150 that looks to be 151 when I zoom in on Google Street View has recently been removed.
Down the street on the corner of NE 40th Street and NE 2nd Avenue (4000 NE 2nd Avenue) is a small, historic, interesting, federal-looking building. It housed the designer clothing store Billionaire when I was there, but carved into the architecture above the door were the words “Buena Vista Post Office” with an eagle on top of that and a profile of a Founding Father underneath.
In 1988 the space was used by the Actors' Playhouse until they relocated to the Miracle Theater in Coral Gables.
In late 1991 or early 1992 I saw a play here with some other recent University of Miami grads and students. That the cinema had “thrived on student trade” as described above perhaps explains why the playhouse staff was not surprised we were U.M. students when to me the place was not that close to U.M.
Months later I thought I’d heard the place had been too damaged by Hurricane Andrew (August 1992) to function any longer, though the Actor’s Playhouse page says they did not move to the Miracle until 1995.
I walked by on February 14th, 2016. A JC Penney Home Store replaced the auditoriums years ago and to the left of that an empty storefront sits where I believe the entrance and lobby were the night I saw the play.
The other ImaginAsian was in Los Angeles with its own page on Cinema Treasures, now as the Downtown Independent, but still has its cool looking exterior.
During part of what I called my “Great Western Trip ‘08”, I found a promotional postcard in the Little Tokyo Visitor’s Center for the premier of an independent film called “Asian Stories”. Being a person attracted to Asian things I attended the event, held on July 25th, 2008, which turned out to be a couple blocks away at the ImaginAsian Center, a movie theater that played only Asian/Asian-American films!
The exterior of the theater was sort of futuristic and neat. As I arrived I found out that James Kyson, an actor in the film who also played the part of “Ando” in “Heroes”, one of my favorite tv shows at the time, would be there for a q&a session.
After the film and q&a, the audience was invited to an after-party at a nightspot some blocks away. (I can’t remember the name or find it where I think it was on Google Street View, even if I look at images from 2008, but I remember a small bar in the front, then an enclosed patio-like area in the back where the party was held.)
At the party I chatted with some of the film’s crew who seemed pleasantly surprised that a guy visiting LA on a trip would have chosen to attend their event. The director introduced me to one of the producers as proof to her that using promotional postcards to attract viewers really does work, (since she seemed to have had doubts, though we wondered if I was the only one they had worked on). I was able to get a photo with James Kyson and tell him I was looking forward to the next season of “Heroes”.
I had a longer conversation with one of the other actors (probably Kirt Kishita). I said he didn’t seem like the tough guy he played in the film and asked him how he was able to get into character. He said he is usually more sensitive in real life and described some of his techniques. We agreed that acting is something that needs to come from the heart, and after we expounding upon this theme for a few minutes, he concluded by saying “We are like brothers”.
Before I left I stopped at the bar in the front, where I talked with a girl who had been in the audience about the movie and my trip. As she reached her drinking limit and her husband came to collect her, she introduced me to him in appreciative tones with some embellishment and flair : “This is Daaaave…. from Miami, Florrrrrida….. and he’s traveling the worrrrrld…. and he’s having the time of his life!”
All this is a pleasant memory.
When I next visited Los Angeles and walked by the theater in August of 2011, I was disappointed to see it was no longer the ImaginAsian (and therefore probably not showcasing Asian films), but at least it was still operating as the Downtown Independent and still had the cool unique exterior.
I had read online there had been another ImaginAsian in New York City, which I now see is part of the history of the closed Big Cinemas Manhattan that has a page here on Cinema Treasures.
The Wikipedia page for the ImaginAsian company says:
“They also operated The ImaginAsian, a renovated movie theatre located in Midtown Manhattan that shows only first-run and classic East Asian films, as well as several film festivals per year. The company renovated a second former movie theatre in Los Angeles that opened in December 2007, the former Linda Lea Theater, which originally showed Japanese films and served the Little Tokyo area before shuttering in the 1980s.”
The Linda Lea has its own Cinema Treasures page, and to me the contrast from the ImaginAsian/Downtown Independent is striking.
On September 3rd, 2011 during a trip that included Los Angeles, I stood waiting at a bus stop in front of a former business with an aging mustard yellow marquee. A folding gate blocked the doorway, where discarded soda cans and fast food wrappers had accumulated in the space between. Some other signage made statements such as “Girls, Girls, Girls” (reminding me of the Motley Crue song)… I thought, “Oh, it’s a defunct movie theater that is now a defunct strip club!”.
For a while as I waited for the bus, two women in their early 20’s stood silently under the marquee holding a handmade cardboard sign that said “Hungry Hobos” and a request for money. Occasionally some people would offer assistance and chat with them, but I got the impression this was possibly a sort of performance/experiment to see how people would respond.
A year or so later I thought it would be fun to try to find the place on Cinema Treasures, but couldn’t remember what it was called or where in L.A. I had been.
Then on February 12th, 2016, I was watching the documentary “David Bowie – Five Years” that was airing on PBS. During a segment describing Bowie’s time in Los Angeles in the 1970’s, an interviewee’s voice says Bowie felt he needed to leave L.A. because the culture was getting too crazy and therefore unhealthy for him, while for a moment the image on the screen is a lit up marquee of a theater called The Cave taken from a passing car. …. I wrote down the name and looked it up on Cinema Treasures: Ha – it just happened to be the theater that I had stood in front of back in 2011! (Apparently with a remodeled exterior and reopened as a strip club.)
Elmorovivo: Wow, where did you find the picture of the marquee?
This photo also appears on p. 147 of the book “A Journey Through Time: A Pictorial History of South Dade” by Paul S. George, with the caption:
“Alex Weinstock (at the bottom of the ladder) and Frank Kelleher, Homestead Theatre executives, prepare the marquee of the new facility for its grand opening. 1955. Courtesy South Dade News-Leader”
The Miami-Dade Public Library system has 22 copies of this book.
Elmorovivo: Wow, where did you find the picture of the marquee?
This photo also appears on p. 147 of the book “A Journey Through Time: A Pictorial History of South Dade” by Paul S. George, with the caption:
“Alex Weinstock (at the bottom of the ladder) and Frank Kelleher, Homestead Theatre executives, prepare the marquee of the new facility for its grand opening. 1955. Courtesy South Dade News-Leader”
The Miami-Dade Public Library system has 22 copies of this book.
A Miami Herald article, “Homestead’s Historic Seminole Theater: Restored and Once Again a Community Treasure”, says the Seminole Theater on Krome Avenue was built by Homestead pioneer James Washington English, and that “In 1955, English built another theater called the Homestead Theatre (where the Miami Dade College Homestead Campus parking lot sits today)…”
As I said in my previous comment, I may have seen a photo of the Palms theater, which this may have been at some point, in the Homestead Historic Town Hall Museum across from the Seminole Theater.
Here is a photo of the lighthouse in the lobby I had mentioned in my previous comment from the Miami New Times listing for this theater.
The Breezeway Drive-In was demolished decades ago and the Dixie Center, a shopping plaza anchored by a Winn Dixie grocery store, is on the site.
Here is the photo of the Ritz Theatre.
The Miami Herald article that mentions the Ritz, “Homestead’s Historic Seminole Theater: Restored and Once Again a Community Treasure”, can be viewed here.
The Cinema Treasures page for the Ace Theater that opened farther west on 4th Street to serve the African-American community can be viewed here.
View the photo from January 29, 1926 of the Temple Theater here: https://www.floridamemory.com/items/show/41787
“History of Park Place” page, including a photo of what the auditorium looks like now.
Wider version of same photo on Google of the auditorium now.
Scroll down on the Miami Scottish Rite “About Us” page for a “History of the Temple” building (though I don’t see a mention of the cinema).
Youtube video of an aerial flyover of the Scottish Rite building.