St. Cloud Twin Theatre
1110 10th Street,
St. Cloud,
FL
34769
1110 10th Street,
St. Cloud,
FL
34769
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I had read about the “only theatre in town” in the trade press and local papers in the late 1910s - the Palm Theatre. It’s listed for sale and the town is again described in the 1920s a a one theatre town with its movie house known as the Popular Theatre. So it’s likely that the building in the silent days spent time as the Conn, Palm, and Popular becoming the Granada with sound followed by the Cloud, Popcorn Palace and Cloud Twin.
This theater’s web site says that it was built in 1917. The fact that St. Cloud is not represented by any theater in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory tends to support the claim. In the photo section we have some vintage photos which, judging from clothing and cars, look like they could be from the late 1910s or very early 1920s, with original captions saying they depict the Conn Theatre. That must have been the opening name of the house. Other sources indicate that the Conn Building also housed Conn’s Department Store. The building might have been erected for the department store and the theater added on one side of it a year or two later. At some point the former department store space was converted to accommodate a larger theater auditorium.
It’s difficult to do Internet research on this theater, as almost all results of searches on St. Cloud are about St. Cloud, Minnesota, and so far every result from theater trade journals from searches for Conn have turned out to be only the old abbreviation for Connecticut.
A new theatre initially called the Granada opened here in 1933. In 1941, the theatre received a major refresh and was renamed as the Cloud Theatre. The theatre continued though languished at the end of the 1960s operating on a weekends-only policy. The Cloud’s new ownership out of New York tried seven-day programming beginning at Thanksgiving of 1970s only to close in 1971 with its seating given to City Hall.
In 1973, it reopened as an adult theatre. Protests ended that quickly and it returned to family fare in 1973, closing and reopening in 1975 and closing again that December, according to the marquee, just “for the winter.” That sign on the marquee lasted almost comically well into next summer and beyond. The theatre appears to have remained closed until operated as the Popcorn Palace when it had a grand reopening on December 14, 1995 with “Too Wong Foo.” It closed at the end of a leasing agreement on December 7, 2000. It was offered for sale in the local paper.
The theatre reopened as the St. Cloud Twin Theatre on August 7, 2002 with “Like Mike” and “Reign of Fire.” The theatre closed from March to September of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic but reopened and was still going in the 2020s.
Perhaps the theatre that was the original Cloud is where these cars are stored.
I remember a theatre in St. Cloud that was owned by a car collector who stored his cars there. Is that still the case as only 2 theatres in St. Cloud are listed and I don’t think either one is the theatre I recall seeing years ago.
The 1944 FILM DAILY YEARBOOK lists the Granada Theatre in St. Cloud with 250 seats (no address listed). The 1954 edition of the same publication lists the Cloud Theatre at 1114 10th Street, with 315 seats. Does anyone know more about these theatres?
Vox populi:
http://tinyurl.com/yopfj8