Community Theatre
1007 Lincoln Road,
Miami Beach,
FL
33139
1007 Lincoln Road,
Miami Beach,
FL
33139
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The appendix to a City of Miami Beach historic site designation report for the Hotel Mayflower has a list of other projects designed by the Mayflower’s architect, Martin Luther Hampton, and one of them is the Community Theatre. The book Lost Miami Beach, by Carolyn Klepser, also attributes the design to Hampton (Google Books preview.)
The Community theatre opened on December 23rd, 1923 with Mary Pickford’s “Rosita”. Grand opening ad posted.
A very good shot of the theater from the Florida Memory archive. From 1924, the movie on the marquee is the “The Flaming Forest” which puts this at Fall/November of ‘24. Probably one of the first showings.
https://www.floridamemory.com/items/show/144646
web site is gone, here is the wayback link to the original article:
http://web.archive.org/web/20081107041943/http://www.southbeach-usa.com/news/pop-culture-history/2007/09/23/miami-beachs-long-gone-lincoln-road-movie-theatre/
Boxoffice of March 27, 1955, said that the Community Theatre in Miami Beach was being demolished. The article says that the house was built by local investors when no theater operators were willing to build in Miami Beach. After a year of successful operation, the Community Theatre was taken over by Paramount interests.
The Boxoffice article diverges from the history given in comments above, and says that the Community opened in 1924 and was closed in 1935 when Paramount leased another theater. Thereafter, it says, the building was used for storage.
To belatedly answer Al Alvarez’s question of March 30 last year, the E.J. Sparks circuit was for many years the Paramount affiliate in Florida.
The Community opened in 1923 and closed in 1940. It was apparently Miami Beach’s first full time movie theatre.
The above page has moved. This is new link to the Community Theatre in Miami Beach.
“Miami Beach’s Long-Gone Lincoln Road Movie Theater”
Community Theatre
1007 Lincoln Road
Miami Beach
(decent photo, too)
The Community Theatre opened around 1924. The architect was August Geiger and the general contractors were Beach Construction Co. It is listed as operating in the Film Daily Yearbook 1941, but not recorded in my copy of the 1950 F.D.Y.