You are referring to an entertainment complex (probably not the Biscayne Park Theater) that included Pueblo Feliz (“Visit the quaint streets of old Spain before the shows” one newspaper ad says), and Teatro de Alegria…. Like you noted, it seems to have never exhibited films.
In his book “From Farms and Fields to the Future: The Incredible History of North Miami Beach”, Seth Bramson says it was built “fronting today’s NE 16th Ave and 123rd Street”.
Click here to see an artist’s depiction on a postcard.
The Apple Maps image shows the location as being within ArtsPark at Young Circle but the correct location is west of there on the north side of Hollywood Boulevard, shown correctly on Google Maps.
Says that back in the 1920’s US-1/North Federal Highway was called North 18th Avenue or “East Dixie”.
Click here for a photo from the blog of hurricane damage on which a note reads “In this wreck lies the Garfield Theatre…” (The Quonset hut shaped building is Brandon’s Hippodrome.)
The 2019 Google Street View image shows that the carwash, called Division Wickerwash, is closed and its storefront empty with the blue awnings and signage removed.
I enjoyed finding this listing a couple years ago when I looked at the Cinema Treasures page for Movie Theaters Organized by Current Function and saw “car wash” included ….. Car wash! : ) Does this make it a sort of drive-thru theater? : )
The place looked cute. I liked that the vertical “car wash” sign seemed to be designed and placed in cinema signage style with lights around the edges like an homage to the location having been a movie theater.
Wow, mine is the first comment on this page since 2008…. though this means the Monarch will no longer be listed as a “car wash” for others to discover the way I did.
And if you’d rather just set up a theater in your backyard, here’s an article from the Philadelphia Inquirer reprinted in the July 26th, 2020 Miami Herald:
robboehm, yeah I’m not saying the South Bay was impressive, just it was the first cinema I was ever at. : ) When I was last there in the summer of 2000 with my late mother to see “Bring It On”, it did seem somewhat rundown. …. Wow, I just realized my mother, the person I went there with the final time, was the person I was there with the first time. (All my visits in between were without her.) As we approached the entrance I may have said something like “You brought me here in 1974”…..
I just found out by perusing Cinema Treasures listings that the Islip Theater, which had closed after I last visited it in 2000 to see “The Perfect Storm” or “X-Men”, has since reopened as the Islip Cinemas, so one of the cinemas I recall attending is still a movie theater. Other than that I get the impression there are currently no operating movie theaters that close to the Babylon/West Islip/Bay Shore area, while in my time there were several choices.
robboehm — I’d like to use this, my 300th comment on Cinema Treasures, to thank you for keeping track of the first movie theater I ever attended back in 1974, the South Bay Cinemas. (See my comment posted on January 17th, 2016.)
Interesting that although all of the cinemas I recall visiting on Long Island from then through 2000 are gone, the one that still might reopen and carry on as a movie theater is the first one I ever went to.
The Circle Theater was demolished, along with the Parkway Shops building in front of it that included the hallway leading up to the theater’s entrance, starting the final week of December 2019:
I first visited Miami Springs sometime in the 1990’s, where I was surprised to encounter a downtown environment with somewhat of a hometown feeling different from the rest of Miami-Dade County, arranged around a traffic circle and continuing on the streets radiating from it.
I felt attracted to the look of the Clune/Stadnik building, then the adjacent Parkway Shops, at which I was drawn in to this store-lined hallway that beckoned me to see where it leads…. and at the end discovered, oh, the entrance to a defunct cinema! At the time the glass doors were not covered with paper and I could peer through to identify the remains of a concession stand across a dusty lobby, like I’m a movie theater archaeologist. : )
In the 2000’s I’d stop by and check on the empty cinema when enjoying Miami Springs events such as the River Cities Festival. Some sort of Building Department permit posted on one of the doors for what seemed like years informed me that this had been the Circle Theater, though not much changed.
During a historic tour of the city, I learned that the Clune/Stadnik building and the Parkway Shops, as well as a few others within the municipality’s limits, the Curtiss Mansion in particular, were constructed in Pueblo Revival style, inspired by the architecture of New Mexico.
Over the years I got the impression that Miami Springs is a self-contained community with its own character, where you can obtain many of the goods and services you frequently need without leaving and a lot of the residents know each other: the teens socializing and doing school work at the Starbucks across from the Parkway Shops would run into others with whom they are familiar, though they had not necessarily planned to meet there; at the annual Independence Day Parade many of the spectators and participants seemed already acquainted… I felt it a shame that the Circle Theater was no longer operating to make the contribution to this communal experience that it must have in its day.
When I last visited for a small arts festival in 2018, something felt slightly different to me that I couldn’t precisely identify, like maybe the vibe of the city was starting to become more like the rest of Miami-Dade County. Then in 2020, as if to confirm my suspicions, I came across articles on MiamiSprings.com saying the Circle Theater and Parkway Shops buildings were gone, to be replaced by an apartment and retail complex whose design has nothing to do with the Pueblo Revival style probably unique in South Florida to Miami Springs.
At least Google Maps satellite view shows that the Clune/Stadnik building is still there, being that it is on the National Register of Historic Places and a designated Miami Springs Historic Site.
If Miami Springs is gradually losing its character, those who remember or have gained an understanding will tell of a previous context in which the Circle Theater played its role.
Wow, check out this view of the outdoor auditorium that I just added to the photos section. So this once existed where a parking lot is now behind what today is a the Bank of America. I never thought I’d get to see what it looked like.
And click here for an article from the website of the Coral Gables Museum about the history of the Dream Theater.
It includes that the Dream Theater was designed by architects John and Coulton Skinner, “yielding a capacity of 1500” which apparently refers to the number of seats, and closed sometime between 1927-29.
Wow, thanks rivest266!… An opening night article and ad from 1926! This is amazing!
I saw this a day after you posted it but am just getting back to it now.
This most directly confirms what I had heard about there having been a Wurlitzer organ. I see that it and some other details have now been
included in my description that I submitted when I created this listing. : )
The opening night promotion sounds like an event I would have attended, but I missed it by 94 years… I can only pause and imagine what the Riviera Theatre experience may have been like when I walk through the western edge of the Sunset Place parking garage where the auditorium had approximately been. (Ironically the bottom of the opening night ad says “Plenty of Parking Space”.)
Of the businesses in the Riviera Plaza shopping center, the theater was the centerpiece and the last to go.
In early February 2020, a few weeks before the coronavirus pandemic shutdown, I noticed that all of the Plaza’s storefronts other than the theater were permanently closed, with some posting signs saying they had relocated elsewhere. The Area Stage Company that was using the Riviera Theatre remained, probably until the shutdown, and is moving a block south to a space inside the Sunset Place shopping mall on the second floor near Barnes & Nobles.
I believe that in the immediate area the only businesses that date back to when the Riviera Theatre was a cinema are Swensen’s restaurant and Publix supermarket (before it moves to the new Riviera Plaza).
I remember the Plaza once included Riviera Photo (I think it was called), a photography shop where University of Miami film students had their Super 8mm film cartridges processed for their introduction to film production classes. The store had been there for decades, then closed sometime in the 90’s due perhaps to the rise of digital cameras, and by that time the nice older couple who owned it may have wished to retire.
If the Riviera Plaza is torn down I may miss it, even though it hasn’t been a regular part of my life in many years.
Homestead’s first bowling/cinema combination was Paula Carter’s Pro Bowl (last called Homestead Bowling Center) that included the Fun Center Cinema that operated in the 1990’s near US-1.
The Showbiz, Homestead’s latest cinema, happens to have been built approximately where Homestead’s earliest one once stood over 100 years before.
“Homestead’s first movie theatre dates to 1913….The first movies were shown in Sistrunk Hall which was on the south side of Mowry Street just west of the Bank of Homestead – most recently the Homestead Police Station.”
The old Homestead Police Station and the buildings west of it along Mowry Street where Sistrunk Hall had previously been were removed and replaced by the Homestead Station complex that includes Showbiz Cinemas, therefore the new cinema is about where the first one had been.
Wow, thanks rivest266. I had once walked into the bowling part of the facility, but had never seen what the inside of the theater auditorium had looked like until you posted this article with its photo.
It’s interesting to read that at the time this cinema opened, “the bowling alley bijou…. is the only post-hurricane [Andrew] screen operating south of Kendall Drive at the moment…”, seventeen months after the storm wrecked South Dade.
Homestead now has a cinema and bowling combination again at the ShowBiz Cinema in the Homestead Station complex (that I had mentioned was being built in my May 2018 comment above).
Funny, apparently there is a model of the exterior of the Tower Theater in the Little Havana portion of Miniland in the Legoland theme park near Orlando:
Click here for a Youtube video of an episode of “Roadside Florida”, set to begin as the model appears.
(Also, Google for images of “Miniland Little Havana” and you might see the model in its surroundings.)
natalie66, because indoor cinemas are temporarily closed and social distancing is required in response to the coronavirus pandemic, two drive-ins popped up in northern Miami-Dade County: Carflix at the Dezerland amusement park, and another, the Hard Rock Stadium Drive-up Theater, where you park your vehicle…. on the field where the Miami Dolphins play football!
(Outside the stadium on the plaza part of the property is the Fountain Plaza Open Air Theater, where moviegoers sit outdoors.)
It appears these venues may be temporary… This Miami New Times article as well as the Hard Rock Stadium homepage say the drive-up theater is scheduled to run through August 2nd…. And this brief tv news story about the opening of Carflix mentions it was scheduled to close in early July.
If this post is therefore a little late, it still serves to indicate that these places had existed if they never reopen. : )
Another Miami New Times article from May 29th, 2020:
Today’s episode of CBS Sunday Morning gave a brief update:
“We’ve word that [Craig Smith’s] GoFundMe page has received more than two hundred thirteen thousand dollars in small donations from some five thousand of you movie lovers, saving the theater and keeping the projector and the popcorn popper on.”
Good to hear Craig has come closer to his page’s fundraising goal as his efforts continue.
I wonder how many of the donators did so because of this Cinema Treasures page. : )
Wow, I saw the CBS Sunday Morning segment as I woke up this morning and just had to post these links on Cinema Treasures. When I opened the home page this listing had just been established. : )
Firehouse Theater owner Craig Smith’s passionate one-man effort to keep the small town personalized movie-going experience alive and “make a movie house feel more like a home”:
“Our mission statement is to support the creation and operation of an art cinema in the downtown Coconut Grove Business District reminiscent of the original Fabulous Flying Fendelman Brothers Grove Art Cinema of the 1980’s.”
Click here for the Society’s photo page displaying images of the Grove Art Cinema and some of its printed programs.
Click here for a December 2nd, 2019 post of more program photos.
Thanks rivest266 for posting the above article about Nat Chediak. I knew of him from when I volunteered with the Miami Film Festival in the early 90’s and had heard that his career grew from this location, but now this article provides some early details and a sense of what the experience was like in the beginning.
Perhaps the Merry-Go-Round has come full circle. : ) This year, about three blocks south, the Coral Gables Art Cinema is holding a monthly program, “The Films of My Life”, described on its website:
“In 2020 CGAC Director of Programming Nat Chediak, dean of South Florida film exhibitors and founder of the Miami Film Festival, celebrates his 50th anniversary in Film. CGAC kicks off the festivities with a year-long series of films from around the world that have shaped his unique sensibility for the medium. Mr. Chediak will be on hand to introduce the films and engage the audience in conversation. Nat welcomes the opportunity to meet friends old and new and envisions the program as a golden opportunity to share with us his passion for Film in what is sure to be, indirectly, an ongoing master class in Film Appreciation.”
The ad that rivest266 posted says the Ocean Theatre was located “in Holiday Inn Bldg.” I looked up the address on Google Street View which shows a parking lot there, then searched for images of a Holiday Inn at that address which revealed some old postcards of a Holiday Inn Oceanside that had apparently been there beforehand.
Google Maps indicates the parking lot has now been replaced by the recently opened Las Olas Oceanside Park.
I believe sometime in the late 90’s or early 00’s I once parked in that parking lot, (having no idea there had ever been a hotel there or that there had been a cinema in it).
I remember stepping out of my car to notice that on what may have been a busy night I had found parking near the beach and across from the Elbo Room bar, which I had heard is famous in Spring Break lore.
The next day when I casually mentioned this to my late mother she suddenly said “Oh, ‘Where the Boys Are’!”, sang a few notes from that song, then was surprised I had never heard of it. She fondly explained: “That’s Connie Francis. She sang that”, from the movie of the same name, which she had seen when she was young (1960), whose story takes place during a Spring Break at that beach. … I described all this to a friend who pointed out some of the movie’s scenes had been filmed in the Elbo Room.
Years later I would see “Where the Boys Are” on television. Although the Ocean Theatre opened a decade after the movie was released, I wonder if it was ever screened there in honor of the location.
Savannah Morning News article from January 13th, 2020 about the uncertain future of the Eastside Theater and changes over the decades to the surrounding neighborhood. Includes photos of the theater and old newspaper ads, and an interactive map of locations of other Savannah cinemas:
The Eastside Theater is also listed in the book “African-American Theater Buildings: An Illustrated Historical Directory, 1900-1955” by Eric Ledell Smith.
This Hawaii Tribune-Herald article from December 27, 2019 about the theater’s current situation even references the description on this Cinema Treasures page saying “…it was the go-to theater for some 8,000 residents and 10,000 troops stationed at South Point, according to cinematreasures.org.”:
Al,
You are referring to an entertainment complex (probably not the Biscayne Park Theater) that included Pueblo Feliz (“Visit the quaint streets of old Spain before the shows” one newspaper ad says), and Teatro de Alegria…. Like you noted, it seems to have never exhibited films.
In his book “From Farms and Fields to the Future: The Incredible History of North Miami Beach”, Seth Bramson says it was built “fronting today’s NE 16th Ave and 123rd Street”.
Click here to see an artist’s depiction on a postcard.
Another listing for the postcard describes the show “Fountania” as having been a “Florida historical pageant”.
The complex was also damaged and closed by the Great Miami Hurricane of 1926, then what was left burned down sometime later.
The Apple Maps image shows the location as being within ArtsPark at Young Circle but the correct location is west of there on the north side of Hollywood Boulevard, shown correctly on Google Maps.
Click here to see a nice photo of when this was the Hollywood Theatre from the blog “Florida’s Hollywood: History and People” by Joan Mickelson, Ph. D.
Here are Joan Mickelson’s blog posts that mention the Garfield Theatre:
“Hollywood, Florida – Not Named for the Movie Capitol”
“The ’26 Hurricane: Refuting the Myth That Hollywood Was Destroyed by That Storm”
Says that back in the 1920’s US-1/North Federal Highway was called North 18th Avenue or “East Dixie”.
Click here for a photo from the blog of hurricane damage on which a note reads “In this wreck lies the Garfield Theatre…” (The Quonset hut shaped building is Brandon’s Hippodrome.)
The 2019 Google Street View image shows that the carwash, called Division Wickerwash, is closed and its storefront empty with the blue awnings and signage removed.
I enjoyed finding this listing a couple years ago when I looked at the Cinema Treasures page for Movie Theaters Organized by Current Function and saw “car wash” included ….. Car wash! : ) Does this make it a sort of drive-thru theater? : )
The place looked cute. I liked that the vertical “car wash” sign seemed to be designed and placed in cinema signage style with lights around the edges like an homage to the location having been a movie theater.
Click here for some external photos on Google.
Wow, mine is the first comment on this page since 2008…. though this means the Monarch will no longer be listed as a “car wash” for others to discover the way I did.
To add to my comment above this one, I found two more drive-ins that have popped up: Florida City Cinema in southern Miami-Dade County, and Carpool Cinema, whose website says “The first and only boutique drive-in theatre in Wynwood”, although as I mention in my description at the top of this page the Blue Starlite’s first Miami-Dade County location was in Wynwood. : )
And if you’d rather just set up a theater in your backyard, here’s an article from the Philadelphia Inquirer reprinted in the July 26th, 2020 Miami Herald:
“How to Set Up an Outdoor Home Movie Theater”
robboehm, yeah I’m not saying the South Bay was impressive, just it was the first cinema I was ever at. : ) When I was last there in the summer of 2000 with my late mother to see “Bring It On”, it did seem somewhat rundown. …. Wow, I just realized my mother, the person I went there with the final time, was the person I was there with the first time. (All my visits in between were without her.) As we approached the entrance I may have said something like “You brought me here in 1974”…..
I just found out by perusing Cinema Treasures listings that the Islip Theater, which had closed after I last visited it in 2000 to see “The Perfect Storm” or “X-Men”, has since reopened as the Islip Cinemas, so one of the cinemas I recall attending is still a movie theater. Other than that I get the impression there are currently no operating movie theaters that close to the Babylon/West Islip/Bay Shore area, while in my time there were several choices.
robboehm — I’d like to use this, my 300th comment on Cinema Treasures, to thank you for keeping track of the first movie theater I ever attended back in 1974, the South Bay Cinemas. (See my comment posted on January 17th, 2016.)
Interesting that although all of the cinemas I recall visiting on Long Island from then through 2000 are gone, the one that still might reopen and carry on as a movie theater is the first one I ever went to.
The Circle Theater was demolished, along with the Parkway Shops building in front of it that included the hallway leading up to the theater’s entrance, starting the final week of December 2019:
“Going, Going, Gone” (A page of demolition process photos on MiamiSprings.com.)
“Farewell to the Circle Theater in Miami Springs” Facebook page from the Miami Springs Historical Society. (Check out some old photos and comments from people sharing memories.)
I first visited Miami Springs sometime in the 1990’s, where I was surprised to encounter a downtown environment with somewhat of a hometown feeling different from the rest of Miami-Dade County, arranged around a traffic circle and continuing on the streets radiating from it.
I felt attracted to the look of the Clune/Stadnik building, then the adjacent Parkway Shops, at which I was drawn in to this store-lined hallway that beckoned me to see where it leads…. and at the end discovered, oh, the entrance to a defunct cinema! At the time the glass doors were not covered with paper and I could peer through to identify the remains of a concession stand across a dusty lobby, like I’m a movie theater archaeologist. : )
In the 2000’s I’d stop by and check on the empty cinema when enjoying Miami Springs events such as the River Cities Festival. Some sort of Building Department permit posted on one of the doors for what seemed like years informed me that this had been the Circle Theater, though not much changed.
During a historic tour of the city, I learned that the Clune/Stadnik building and the Parkway Shops, as well as a few others within the municipality’s limits, the Curtiss Mansion in particular, were constructed in Pueblo Revival style, inspired by the architecture of New Mexico.
Over the years I got the impression that Miami Springs is a self-contained community with its own character, where you can obtain many of the goods and services you frequently need without leaving and a lot of the residents know each other: the teens socializing and doing school work at the Starbucks across from the Parkway Shops would run into others with whom they are familiar, though they had not necessarily planned to meet there; at the annual Independence Day Parade many of the spectators and participants seemed already acquainted… I felt it a shame that the Circle Theater was no longer operating to make the contribution to this communal experience that it must have in its day.
When I last visited for a small arts festival in 2018, something felt slightly different to me that I couldn’t precisely identify, like maybe the vibe of the city was starting to become more like the rest of Miami-Dade County. Then in 2020, as if to confirm my suspicions, I came across articles on MiamiSprings.com saying the Circle Theater and Parkway Shops buildings were gone, to be replaced by an apartment and retail complex whose design has nothing to do with the Pueblo Revival style probably unique in South Florida to Miami Springs.
At least Google Maps satellite view shows that the Clune/Stadnik building is still there, being that it is on the National Register of Historic Places and a designated Miami Springs Historic Site.
If Miami Springs is gradually losing its character, those who remember or have gained an understanding will tell of a previous context in which the Circle Theater played its role.
Wow, check out this view of the outdoor auditorium that I just added to the photos section. So this once existed where a parking lot is now behind what today is a the Bank of America. I never thought I’d get to see what it looked like.
And click here for an article from the website of the Coral Gables Museum about the history of the Dream Theater.
It includes that the Dream Theater was designed by architects John and Coulton Skinner, “yielding a capacity of 1500” which apparently refers to the number of seats, and closed sometime between 1927-29.
Wow, thanks rivest266!… An opening night article and ad from 1926! This is amazing!
I saw this a day after you posted it but am just getting back to it now.
This most directly confirms what I had heard about there having been a Wurlitzer organ. I see that it and some other details have now been included in my description that I submitted when I created this listing. : )
The opening night promotion sounds like an event I would have attended, but I missed it by 94 years… I can only pause and imagine what the Riviera Theatre experience may have been like when I walk through the western edge of the Sunset Place parking garage where the auditorium had approximately been. (Ironically the bottom of the opening night ad says “Plenty of Parking Space”.)
The Riviera Theatre is closed.
Of the businesses in the Riviera Plaza shopping center, the theater was the centerpiece and the last to go.
In early February 2020, a few weeks before the coronavirus pandemic shutdown, I noticed that all of the Plaza’s storefronts other than the theater were permanently closed, with some posting signs saying they had relocated elsewhere. The Area Stage Company that was using the Riviera Theatre remained, probably until the shutdown, and is moving a block south to a space inside the Sunset Place shopping mall on the second floor near Barnes & Nobles.
When I walked by on July 27, 2020 the stores were still vacant. Curious, I Googled “Riviera Plaza”… and discovered that Gadinsky Real Estate, LLC has plans to turn it into a “70,000 sq. ft. multi-level Publix-anchored shopping center”, that would apparently require the original Plaza to be removed…
I believe that in the immediate area the only businesses that date back to when the Riviera Theatre was a cinema are Swensen’s restaurant and Publix supermarket (before it moves to the new Riviera Plaza).
I remember the Plaza once included Riviera Photo (I think it was called), a photography shop where University of Miami film students had their Super 8mm film cartridges processed for their introduction to film production classes. The store had been there for decades, then closed sometime in the 90’s due perhaps to the rise of digital cameras, and by that time the nice older couple who owned it may have wished to retire.
If the Riviera Plaza is torn down I may miss it, even though it hasn’t been a regular part of my life in many years.
Homestead’s first bowling/cinema combination was Paula Carter’s Pro Bowl (last called Homestead Bowling Center) that included the Fun Center Cinema that operated in the 1990’s near US-1.
The Showbiz, Homestead’s latest cinema, happens to have been built approximately where Homestead’s earliest one once stood over 100 years before.
According to this South Dade News-Leader article from December 11, 2015, “Homestead’s Early Movie Theaters”:
“Homestead’s first movie theatre dates to 1913….The first movies were shown in Sistrunk Hall which was on the south side of Mowry Street just west of the Bank of Homestead – most recently the Homestead Police Station.”
The old Homestead Police Station and the buildings west of it along Mowry Street where Sistrunk Hall had previously been were removed and replaced by the Homestead Station complex that includes Showbiz Cinemas, therefore the new cinema is about where the first one had been.
Wow, thanks rivest266. I had once walked into the bowling part of the facility, but had never seen what the inside of the theater auditorium had looked like until you posted this article with its photo.
It’s interesting to read that at the time this cinema opened, “the bowling alley bijou…. is the only post-hurricane [Andrew] screen operating south of Kendall Drive at the moment…”, seventeen months after the storm wrecked South Dade.
Homestead now has a cinema and bowling combination again at the ShowBiz Cinema in the Homestead Station complex (that I had mentioned was being built in my May 2018 comment above).
Funny, apparently there is a model of the exterior of the Tower Theater in the Little Havana portion of Miniland in the Legoland theme park near Orlando:
Click here for a Youtube video of an episode of “Roadside Florida”, set to begin as the model appears.
(Also, Google for images of “Miniland Little Havana” and you might see the model in its surroundings.)
natalie66, because indoor cinemas are temporarily closed and social distancing is required in response to the coronavirus pandemic, two drive-ins popped up in northern Miami-Dade County: Carflix at the Dezerland amusement park, and another, the Hard Rock Stadium Drive-up Theater, where you park your vehicle…. on the field where the Miami Dolphins play football!
(Outside the stadium on the plaza part of the property is the Fountain Plaza Open Air Theater, where moviegoers sit outdoors.)
It appears these venues may be temporary… This Miami New Times article as well as the Hard Rock Stadium homepage say the drive-up theater is scheduled to run through August 2nd…. And this brief tv news story about the opening of Carflix mentions it was scheduled to close in early July.
If this post is therefore a little late, it still serves to indicate that these places had existed if they never reopen. : )
Another Miami New Times article from May 29th, 2020:
“Drive-In Movie Theaters Pop Up Across Miami and Fort Lauderdale”
Miami New Times article from March 31st, 2020 about O Cinema offering “Virtual Cinema”, where films may be viewed via its website while its physical theater is temporarily closed due to the coronavirus pandemic shutdown:
“At the Movies at Home: O Cinema Launches Virtual Theater While Its South Beach Space Remains Closed”
Today’s episode of CBS Sunday Morning gave a brief update:
“We’ve word that [Craig Smith’s] GoFundMe page has received more than two hundred thirteen thousand dollars in small donations from some five thousand of you movie lovers, saving the theater and keeping the projector and the popcorn popper on.”
Good to hear Craig has come closer to his page’s fundraising goal as his efforts continue.
I wonder how many of the donators did so because of this Cinema Treasures page. : )
Wow, I saw the CBS Sunday Morning segment as I woke up this morning and just had to post these links on Cinema Treasures. When I opened the home page this listing had just been established. : )
Firehouse Theater owner Craig Smith’s passionate one-man effort to keep the small town personalized movie-going experience alive and “make a movie house feel more like a home”:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/a-small-town-silver-screen-fairy-tale-with-real-buttered-popcorn/
Also on YouTube.
The GoFundMe page:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/kingston-firehouse-theater
The “about” section of the Facebook page of the Coconut Grove Art Cinema Society says:
“Our mission statement is to support the creation and operation of an art cinema in the downtown Coconut Grove Business District reminiscent of the original Fabulous Flying Fendelman Brothers Grove Art Cinema of the 1980’s.”
Click here for the Society’s photo page displaying images of the Grove Art Cinema and some of its printed programs.
Click here for a December 2nd, 2019 post of more program photos.
Thanks rivest266 for posting the above article about Nat Chediak. I knew of him from when I volunteered with the Miami Film Festival in the early 90’s and had heard that his career grew from this location, but now this article provides some early details and a sense of what the experience was like in the beginning.
Perhaps the Merry-Go-Round has come full circle. : ) This year, about three blocks south, the Coral Gables Art Cinema is holding a monthly program, “The Films of My Life”, described on its website:
“In 2020 CGAC Director of Programming Nat Chediak, dean of South Florida film exhibitors and founder of the Miami Film Festival, celebrates his 50th anniversary in Film. CGAC kicks off the festivities with a year-long series of films from around the world that have shaped his unique sensibility for the medium. Mr. Chediak will be on hand to introduce the films and engage the audience in conversation. Nat welcomes the opportunity to meet friends old and new and envisions the program as a golden opportunity to share with us his passion for Film in what is sure to be, indirectly, an ongoing master class in Film Appreciation.”
The ad that rivest266 posted says the Ocean Theatre was located “in Holiday Inn Bldg.” I looked up the address on Google Street View which shows a parking lot there, then searched for images of a Holiday Inn at that address which revealed some old postcards of a Holiday Inn Oceanside that had apparently been there beforehand.
Google Maps indicates the parking lot has now been replaced by the recently opened Las Olas Oceanside Park.
I believe sometime in the late 90’s or early 00’s I once parked in that parking lot, (having no idea there had ever been a hotel there or that there had been a cinema in it).
I remember stepping out of my car to notice that on what may have been a busy night I had found parking near the beach and across from the Elbo Room bar, which I had heard is famous in Spring Break lore.
The next day when I casually mentioned this to my late mother she suddenly said “Oh, ‘Where the Boys Are’!”, sang a few notes from that song, then was surprised I had never heard of it. She fondly explained: “That’s Connie Francis. She sang that”, from the movie of the same name, which she had seen when she was young (1960), whose story takes place during a Spring Break at that beach. … I described all this to a friend who pointed out some of the movie’s scenes had been filmed in the Elbo Room.
Years later I would see “Where the Boys Are” on television. Although the Ocean Theatre opened a decade after the movie was released, I wonder if it was ever screened there in honor of the location.
Savannah Morning News article from January 13th, 2020 about the uncertain future of the Eastside Theater and changes over the decades to the surrounding neighborhood. Includes photos of the theater and old newspaper ads, and an interactive map of locations of other Savannah cinemas:
“Former Eastside Theater Faces Uncertain Future, Possible Disappearance”
And another from January 11th about the theater’s history, what it meant to the community, and moviegoing in Savannah in those days:
Savannah’s Last Standing Blacks-Only Theater Remembered as Refuge, Community Space"
The Eastside Theater is also listed in the book “African-American Theater Buildings: An Illustrated Historical Directory, 1900-1955” by Eric Ledell Smith.
Hawaii Tribune-Herald article from December 8th, 2019:
“Sprinkler Project a Go at Historic Palace Theater”
This Hawaii Tribune-Herald article from December 27, 2019 about the theater’s current situation even references the description on this Cinema Treasures page saying “…it was the go-to theater for some 8,000 residents and 10,000 troops stationed at South Point, according to cinematreasures.org.”:
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2019/12/27/hawaii-news/officials-considering-offer-from-foundation-to-turn-over-naalehu-theater-to-county/