Town Theatre
265 E. Flagler Street,
Miami,
FL
33131
265 E. Flagler Street,
Miami,
FL
33131
2 people
favorited this theater
Showing 26 - 47 of 47 comments
Louis, I don’t have an ad to share but I do know that the original PLANET OF THE APES opened at the Carib exclusively then went wide to include the MIAMI, MIRACLE, 163rd St, PALM SPRINGS and SUNRISE CINEMA.
BENEATH THE PLANET OF THE APES opened at the Paramount and ESCAPE at the Florida. CONQUEST did not play downtown, a fact not quite as tragic as the fact that I know this information from files I started as a kid.
Al,
Did you note the address for the Dade Theatre? When I was a kid there was a Royal Castle, a Food Fair, Western Auto, and I believe a Grant’s, Kress, or McCrory’s. I don’t remember a theatre being there or the Regent just south on NW 17th avenue. The Regent had to be right next door to the Live and Let Live Rexall Drugstore that is still there! I grew up in Allapatah, when I was a kid those theatres were non-existant. I never knew them.
Al George Stegmeir had posted on this before and he stated that the Dixie later became the Rio. Given the address, this must have been the case. George lived in the area circa late 40’s and into the 50s.
I have yet to visit the library to see old newspapers, I wish I had time to do this. I am curious and feel compelled to ask this: do these collections include the classified ads? If memory serves me right, most of the movies and movie times were either in, or part of the classifieds. Unlike today where you have sections like Showtime, which is the entertainment weekly that is published by the Ft. Lauderdale Sun Sentinel, back in those days we did not have that luxury. It would be fun to see what was playing in the theatres. I would kill to see the Planet of the Apes ad that was run by the Paramount Theatre and also the ad for the first Batman Movie with Burt Ward and Adam West. I remember seeing those ads in the Miami Herald as a kid!
Louis, you and Al and all the contributors here at CT have no idea how happy I am that I found this message board. I was beginning to think I was the only one left who appreciated these great theaters.
I lived in NY for a few years in the early 80s and went to the movies in Manhattan quite often, but never gave a second thought to WHICH theater I was in or WHAT its history was! I could really kick myself now for not being more observant.
If I come across any other things that people might find interesting, I’ll be sure and post them.
Cool info. The NYC library Miami Herald collection starts in 1957 so I cannot see earlier newspapers unless I go to Miami.
If the Coral was already there in 1949 why did it always look so modern?
I think this confirms that the Dixie indeed became the Rio.
Did the South Miami become the Sunset?
WOW! This is a great post!!!! This certainly clears up a lot of questions with regards to where these theatres were. I double checked some of the addresses of theatres I was and am familiar with and the addresses are right on the money. I guess the State Theatre was on a corner verifiying some of the references of the hand written map MiamiGuy posted in his earlier thread. It’s amazing how we see things when young and after we get older.
MiamiGuy I have no idea where you got this info, but congratulations on the research! I look forward to your posts.
As a point of reference, here’s a list of theaters in Miami and Miami Beach from the August, 1949 Southern Bell Telephone Book.
So I guess the Florida was the Rex Theatre at one time. Back in those days Miami wasn’t South Beach, so I gather things took a while to get there, but 11 years? That’s a stretch. The map in the link above was hand drawn, who knows who drew it, maybe a native, maybe not. Based on this, I would have to say the map on the link is probably wrong as far as the theatres go, although, Harleys, Kress, Grant, McCrory’s, and Walgreen’s are right on the money. They even show the stores going completely across the block with an entrance on each street.
The Hippodrome you mentioned, if it was a theatre, the corner where it is on, would have made it a very small and unusually shaped theatre, given that the Rex was already there.
Sound came in around 1927 but I am not sure when it came to Miami. My 1934 Film Daily Year Book of Motion Pictures does not list a Miami nor a Town Theatre.
It does list the Rex with 1000 seats.
Al,
I agree. As a kid I used to go to the Downtown YMCA, they had an indoor pool, first one I ever went to. The Y was around the block from the Town. The Town was not on the corner where that Miami Theatre was, at the time, there were a cluster of stores there. You may remember these, they had these little tiny film black and white cameras in the store windows, as a kid, I was always fascinated by them. I believe one of the stores was called “Gay Mart”, and it was a small electronics shop, I think the owners were from Chile? While walking to the Public Library I always crossed 3rd, at the time the 1 Biscayne Tower was under construction, so that gives you an idea of the time frames.
I think that silent theatre you mention, may very well indeed have been on that corner, then closed and the stores were built in it’s place. This is probably a very stupid question on this venue, but what year did silent films go out? 1938 seems to be a tad late for a silent movie theatre to be in operation and that map is from 38 according to the post.
This is a good one. I find these posts and information posted fascinating. MiamiGuy, thanks for the challenge!!!
The Wometco Miami opened in 1947 but I also was unaware of the Town having ever been the previous location of the old Miami. That map also shows NW 3rd street just east of the Town, which I do not recall.
I have a postcard of an old silent Miami Theatre on East Flagler and 2nd Avenue that I could not previously place. It looks like an older, taller building on the site. (I will post it when I get my photos back on line as my photos site shut down.)
I postcards of the State I have all appear to start at the marquee on the East so I cannot tell if it was on a corner, but Kress is indeed across the street.
The Hippodrome News was also a theatre which I had previously read was on the Olympia site. This map shows it co-existed next to the Rex instead. The Rex was a Publix (Sparks) Theatre on 205 East Flagler Street. It was there in 1933.
That is an interesting map of the area. I never knew the Florida to be the Rex or the Town to be the Miami theatre. The Miami Theatre was further west. Not sure what year the actual Miami theatre was built. I never knew the State Theatre, but from the picture that is on this website, the last thing I would have thought is that it was on a corner. The picture of the State that is on this website, depicts the theatre as having stores on both sides, which would not place this theatre in the corner where that map shows it.
Al? Any input on this?
Here’s something interesting I found. This Miami map is supposed to be from 1938.
It shows that the “Town Theater” on Flagler and N.E. 3rd was originally the “Miami Theater” (apparently not the one built in 1947, but and earlier one), and the “Florida Theater” across from Walgreens’s was originally the “Rex Theater,” which I’ve never heard of before.
Al,
You are 1000% correct, I just realized that. Walgreens front entrance is right accross the street! That is the Florida Theatre. I saw a couple of the Planet of the Apes movies there and in the Paramount. That is a rare pic of the Florida Theatre. I think the Florida was the first of the theatres to get converted to a mall.
Louis, that is actually the Florida State Theatres FLORIDA – just west of the TOWN on Flagler street. I have not seen a photo of this theatre for years.
It was a Cinerama house for a while and I saw THIS IS CINERAMA there. I also remember seeing THE ODD COUPLE, ROSEMARY’S BABY and the original NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD.
Here is another picture of downtown Miami, the Town Theatre on the right. This picture dates as 1952:
http://www.pbase.com/donboyd/image/77098085
Wow, great pics. I love the one with the Snows of Kilimanjaro movie posters, very very nice!
The photos of the Town.
View link
View link
Next door to the Town Theatre was a Juice Bar named Sloppy Joes! They served actual juices made in front of your eyes from fresh veggies and fruits. My personal favorite was the coconut juice. I will never forget this place, on the wall they had “America will be 200 years old in 1976”. I have no clue when that establishment went up, but it was there in the early to mid 60s. I always went there after a movie at the Paramount. I never went into the Town Theatre, there were never any kid type movies playing there, at one time it was an adult movie house. The Paramount had more exciting movies such as James Bond, and the last movie I ever saw there, Beneath The Planet of The Apes.
The Town played dirty movies in the 70’s and as a kid I was never allowed to go in :–( Paramount theatre and a “Royal Castle” restaurant was next door.
The address for this theatre is 265 E. Flagler.
My description should have stated this theatre had one screen. It was just a couple of doors down from the Paramount which was located at 257 E. Flagler.