Beaux Arts

In May of 1952, with the help of Bill Wasel, Tom Reese cleaned out an old parlor at 7711 60th Street North, and named it the Beaux Arts Gallery and Coffeehouse.

They invited the folk singers, songwriters, and poets, as well as artists of national reknown, to perform on the weekends.

Fred Neil, Vince Martin, Ramblin' Jack Elliot, and Woody Guthrie were regular performers there throughout the mid to late 1950’s.

From 1960 through 1962, Jim Morrison recited poetry at Beaux Arts, and was filmed in the garden at Beaux Arts while attending St. Petersburg Jr. College.

In 1964 and 1965, stand-up comic David Philhour performed on stage at the Beaux Arts, along with Fred Neil, Vince Martin, and Oz Bach, who later became the bass player for Spanky and Our Gang.

In 1966 Henry Paul performed his first performance, before forming the Outlaws, and later Blackhawk. Around this time, student film makers began screening short subject films on Super 8 and 16mm. Other people who were there during that time: Gamble Rogers, Phil Larson. Buddy Klein, Rick Norcross, J.W. Fonte, Don Couch, Stanley Powell, G.E. Sassani, Barry Sims, Jack Kelly. Hitch Roney, and John Eldridge.

Retrospective, cult, and historic films were screened at the Beaux Arts throughout the late-1960’s, throughout the 1970’s, and into the 1980’s.

Jonathan Morrill screened his experimental animated Super 8 films there, including a special retrospective in 1983, which included a screening of Morrill’s first horror film; “The Dolls of Death”.

In July 1988, a fire gutted the main building. The operation was moved to a horse barn for a while. July 1994 was the Final Sunday Show in Pinellas Park.

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