On October 18th, 2018 I attended the Lighting Ceremony for the Seminole’s new marquee, (it had never had a marquee before), followed by a free screening of “Singin' in the Rain”, which to me nicely felt a bit like going to the movies in a small town years ago.
remkoolhaas, are the remnants you are referring to that of the Biscayne Park Theater in North Miami? Click here for the CT page I created for it. Where can I see your photos?
The Cultural Council of Palm Beach County, a combination art gallery, performance space, educational center, gift shop and tourist information kiosk that is currently housed in the former Lake Theatre is visited starting at 11:50 in this Lake Worth episode of the PBS tv program “On the Town in the Palm Beaches” on Youtube:
Nice contemporary exterior shots at 12:30 and 13:00, but also a historic depiction back at 2:41 and 4:03 even though that part of the program is discussing the Lake Worth Playhouse.
The Lake Worth Playhouse is discussed and visited starting at 2:19 in this Lake Worth episode of the PBS tv program “On the Town in the Palm Beaches” on Youtube, (although the exterior shots at 2:41 and 4:03 are actually of the Lake Theatre):
When I’ve been to Lake Worth for the Street Painting Festival I’ve enjoyed what to me is the mellow vibe of the local Guatemalan-Mayan immigrants I’ve sat amongst while eating at the little Panda Garden Chinese restaurant they seem to enjoy frequenting in the shopping center where the Towne apparently had been, but I can’t tell exactly where the cinema was located.
Perhaps it was where the El Bodegon Hispanic-themed supermarket is now?
Sporridge, in response to your question from June 25th, 2011 regarding newspaper references to the Capri, I found this Palm Beach Post article from May 7th, 2014 saying the Lake Worth Playhouse had been the Capri Art Theatre, then in 1968 became the Playtoy!:
(When I was a kid I remember some regular movie theaters having an “X” on their marquees, but this is the first I’ve heard of one changing its name to make its adult nature more obvious.)
The article, that begins with an exterior photo and ends with a list of some titles that screened there, says the Playtoy became embroiled in an anti-indecency court case over the film “Deep Throat” that closed the cinema in the early 1970‘s, before it was purchased by the Lake Worth Playhouse nonprofit group that converted it into a venue for live theater.
A visitor to the area today would perceive no indication of the Playhouse’s former less respectable identity.
By the way, a good reason to visit Lake Worth is the Street Painting Festival that takes place annually in late February on Lake Worth’s downtown streets including in front of the Playhouse.
This theater is no longer an O Cinema location but is still the Miami Theater Center, focusing on theatrical performances for children and their families, and sometimes screening programs of family orientated films, meaning it is still technically an open movie theater.
I asked an employee at the original O Cinema in Wynwood who confirmed this, saying the change occurred about a year ago.
Wow, the Silverspot was built on the spot where the remains of a Tequesta village were discovered and studied by archaeologists before the cinema’s construction!
Check out the 12 minute documentary film “The First Miamians” presented by local PBS station WLRN on Youtube:
Starting at
9:39 the film mentions the future of the site and the then coming building that now houses the Silverspot. (At the end don’t miss the cool use of glow sticks to illuminate the outlines of where some huts had stood that are then photographed via drone!)
From the sidewalk I once peeked in on the archaeologists working as I walked around the fenced perimeter of the property and I used to gaze down onto their work from overhead while riding past on the Metromover.
The site also inspired the book “Before the Pioneers“ by Andrew K. Frank that describes the history of the north bank of the Miami River from the earliest geologic times through the Tequesta’s habitation and up until the founding of Miami.
Along the wall of the dining area inside the Whole Foods across the street is a mural depicting Tequesta in tribute to them. (I remember years ago when that property was being developed I had heard Regal Cinemas might open a multiplex there next to the Whole Foods, then that never happened.)
When I walked by the Silverspot on September 12, 2018 I stood on the sidewalk and could peer down into the circle (not made publicly presentable yet so you currently can‘t see the postholes where a Tequesta hut had been) in the so far unoccupied southwest corner of the building. The other circle the developers promised to preserve as described in “The First Miamians” is hopefully inside the northeast corner.
Perhaps the documentary should be shown before each movie screened at the Silverspot! : )
There are descriptions of the renovation project’s progress from the county’s point of view on the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs Coconut Grove Playhouse Project webpage.
For me O Cinema was almost the only reason to visit the Wynwood neighborhood because I am not a hipster.
There are hints that the O Cinema folks will open something new somewhere but no announcement yet. (Meanwhile the Miami Beach branch continues.)
Btw, I thought there was a different Cinema Treasures page for O Cinema Wynwood a few years ago with a few minor comments and some different photos, but that one seems to be gone and replaced by this one, or I might be misremembering?
Based on your helpful March 1st, 2017 comment I found the Pasta Attic Cinema listing I was looking for on microfilm in the Miami Main Library yesterday using one of their new machines hooked up to desktop computers and made a photocopy. I found it in the first newspaper I tried, the October 13th, 1997 Miami Herald. Thanks.
Here’s a tv news story from July 1978 on the Wolfson Archives Youtube channel about the Miami Theatre being turned into a mall, including some of the theater’s history and older archival footage. There’s also a short segment about the Rio Theatre:
Click on “show more” under the video on the Youtube page for more details.
I walked by the Miami Theatre location on 9/12/2018 and all the stores in the mall it had become were gone with the entrance gates closed. To the right of the main entrance was an exhibit of homemade political protest signs (“A Century of Dissent”)and to the left was a Dale Zine store, neither of which were open at the time. A young guy appeared who told me he believes the place will become a space for artists, before he let himself in with a key and closed the gate behind him.
Wow kflmiami420, thanks for uploading the overhead shot of the former location, and for responding within a couple days after I posted my question! (And you created a CT account just to do that. : ) )
The spot you indicate was until recently an h.h. gregg store that to me looks like new construction compared to what it was up until a few years ago, so the part of the strip mall that housed the cinema may be gone.
In Google Street View if you approach the location (h.h. gregg) from SW 127th Avenue along SW 89th Terrace to the crosswalk in the upper left corner of your photo then set the image to show 2011, on that corner used to be a store called Divers Den (at what used to be 12614 SW 88th Street) in a building that matched the rest of the strip mall. Behind that was Creative Children Therapy in a portion with a higher ceiling like it may have been the former cinema’s auditoriums (even if the front entrance was not on that side).
Hmm, all those times I visited the Kendall Bookshelf used book store that used to exist in the Shops of Kendall and I never knew there had been a cinema in that shopping center.
I’d be interested in more information and stories from anyone about this theater.
Includes photos from the Delray Drive-in (some of employees) and mentions a melee that happened there involving police and also the time reels of “Debbie Does Dallas” were seized by authorities.
It says the Delray Drive-in stopped showing movies in 1988.
Says the first drive-in in the county was in an empty lot to the west of what is now Palm Beach International Airport and was called the Boulevard after going quasi-nameless for years.
Also that “The Dixie Skydrome, dubbed ‘The South’s Most Beautiful Drive-In Theater,’ [that] opened on North Dixie Highway in Lake Worth in January 1949” and closed in 1978.
I’ve been unable to locate pages on Cinema Treasures for the Dixie Skydrome as well as the Boulevard and the Boynton Outdoor Drive-In Theatre (which the article says appeared only once in the newspaper).
Does anyone know exactly where in the Shops of Kendall shopping center this theater was located? If the building is still there, what businesses occupy the space now? Thanks.
Rivest266, the address you give in your October 15th comment is for the Dadeland Triplex not the Kendale Lakes Triple and there is no place called South Dade City. …. If you delete your comment, I’ll delete this one, then you can recomment about the opening date? Thanks.
I have uploaded photos of the Seminole Theater/Landmark Hotel building (which seems to be for sale), as well as one of its historical marker.
On October 18th, 2018 I attended the Lighting Ceremony for the Seminole’s new marquee, (it had never had a marquee before), followed by a free screening of “Singin' in the Rain”, which to me nicely felt a bit like going to the movies in a small town years ago.
I’ve uploaded a photo of the marquee on the night of its debut.
remkoolhaas, are the remnants you are referring to that of the Biscayne Park Theater in North Miami? Click here for the CT page I created for it. Where can I see your photos?
Article in the Palm Beach Florida Weekly about the Cultural Council of Palm Beach County moving in to the former Lake Theatre in January of 2012:
https://palmbeach.floridaweekly.com/articles/cultural-council-opening-in-robert-m-montgomery-jr-building/
The Cultural Council of Palm Beach County, a combination art gallery, performance space, educational center, gift shop and tourist information kiosk that is currently housed in the former Lake Theatre is visited starting at 11:50 in this Lake Worth episode of the PBS tv program “On the Town in the Palm Beaches” on Youtube:
https://youtu.be/-61xIcKfLV0?t=710
Nice contemporary exterior shots at 12:30 and 13:00, but also a historic depiction back at 2:41 and 4:03 even though that part of the program is discussing the Lake Worth Playhouse.
The Lake Worth Playhouse is discussed and visited starting at 2:19 in this Lake Worth episode of the PBS tv program “On the Town in the Palm Beaches” on Youtube, (although the exterior shots at 2:41 and 4:03 are actually of the Lake Theatre):
https://youtu.be/-61xIcKfLV0?t=138
The Street Painting Festival is shown at 10:47 followed by the Cultural Council of Palm Beach County housed in the former Lake Theatre.
History of the Lake Worth Playhouse page on the Playhouse’s website:
http://www.lakeworthplayhouse.org/playhouse_history.html
I enjoy knowing there’s a nearby municipality named after the legendary lost city of Atlantis.
How skeptical might some people be when the mayor of Atlantis, Florida introduces themselves as “the mayor of Atlantis”? : )
When I’ve been to Lake Worth for the Street Painting Festival I’ve enjoyed what to me is the mellow vibe of the local Guatemalan-Mayan immigrants I’ve sat amongst while eating at the little Panda Garden Chinese restaurant they seem to enjoy frequenting in the shopping center where the Towne apparently had been, but I can’t tell exactly where the cinema was located.
Perhaps it was where the El Bodegon Hispanic-themed supermarket is now?
Sporridge, in response to your question from June 25th, 2011 regarding newspaper references to the Capri, I found this Palm Beach Post article from May 7th, 2014 saying the Lake Worth Playhouse had been the Capri Art Theatre, then in 1968 became the Playtoy!:
“When Lake Worth Was the ‘Skin Flick Capital of the Country‘”
(When I was a kid I remember some regular movie theaters having an “X” on their marquees, but this is the first I’ve heard of one changing its name to make its adult nature more obvious.)
The article, that begins with an exterior photo and ends with a list of some titles that screened there, says the Playtoy became embroiled in an anti-indecency court case over the film “Deep Throat” that closed the cinema in the early 1970‘s, before it was purchased by the Lake Worth Playhouse nonprofit group that converted it into a venue for live theater.
A visitor to the area today would perceive no indication of the Playhouse’s former less respectable identity.
By the way, a good reason to visit Lake Worth is the Street Painting Festival that takes place annually in late February on Lake Worth’s downtown streets including in front of the Playhouse.
This theater is no longer an O Cinema location but is still the Miami Theater Center, focusing on theatrical performances for children and their families, and sometimes screening programs of family orientated films, meaning it is still technically an open movie theater.
I asked an employee at the original O Cinema in Wynwood who confirmed this, saying the change occurred about a year ago.
Article from July 30th, 2018 on Miami.com website:
“Luxury Movie Theater Silverspot is Now Open in Miami. Here‘s What It Looks Like.“
Wow, the Silverspot was built on the spot where the remains of a Tequesta village were discovered and studied by archaeologists before the cinema’s construction!
Check out the 12 minute documentary film “The First Miamians” presented by local PBS station WLRN on Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnDqIHdxDBM
Starting at 9:39 the film mentions the future of the site and the then coming building that now houses the Silverspot. (At the end don’t miss the cool use of glow sticks to illuminate the outlines of where some huts had stood that are then photographed via drone!)
From the sidewalk I once peeked in on the archaeologists working as I walked around the fenced perimeter of the property and I used to gaze down onto their work from overhead while riding past on the Metromover.
The site also inspired the book “Before the Pioneers“ by Andrew K. Frank that describes the history of the north bank of the Miami River from the earliest geologic times through the Tequesta’s habitation and up until the founding of Miami.
Along the wall of the dining area inside the Whole Foods across the street is a mural depicting Tequesta in tribute to them. (I remember years ago when that property was being developed I had heard Regal Cinemas might open a multiplex there next to the Whole Foods, then that never happened.)
When I walked by the Silverspot on September 12, 2018 I stood on the sidewalk and could peer down into the circle (not made publicly presentable yet so you currently can‘t see the postholes where a Tequesta hut had been) in the so far unoccupied southwest corner of the building. The other circle the developers promised to preserve as described in “The First Miamians” is hopefully inside the northeast corner.
Perhaps the documentary should be shown before each movie screened at the Silverspot! : )
There are descriptions of the renovation project’s progress from the county’s point of view on the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs Coconut Grove Playhouse Project webpage.
Miami Herald article from September 5, 2018:
“Florida Moves Toward Seizing Grove Playhouse from Miami-Dade Over Renovation Delays”
O no, the original O Cinema will be closing in the Spring of 2019 as the property will be redeveloped into apartments:
Miami Herald article:
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/real-estate-news/article217816530.html
Miami New Times article:
https://www.miaminewtimes.com/restaurants/wynwood-yard-and-o-cinema-to-close-to-make-way-for-lennar-apartment-building-10700957
Make a visit before you can’t.
For me O Cinema was almost the only reason to visit the Wynwood neighborhood because I am not a hipster.
There are hints that the O Cinema folks will open something new somewhere but no announcement yet. (Meanwhile the Miami Beach branch continues.)
Btw, I thought there was a different Cinema Treasures page for O Cinema Wynwood a few years ago with a few minor comments and some different photos, but that one seems to be gone and replaced by this one, or I might be misremembering?
Al,
Based on your helpful March 1st, 2017 comment I found the Pasta Attic Cinema listing I was looking for on microfilm in the Miami Main Library yesterday using one of their new machines hooked up to desktop computers and made a photocopy. I found it in the first newspaper I tried, the October 13th, 1997 Miami Herald. Thanks.
The Rio appears starting at 0:26 in this news story segment about the Miami Theatre from July 1978 on the Wolfson Archives Youtube channel:
https://youtu.be/-pFFhXWxquA?t=25
Looks like it is next to what is now or still the Miami Sun Hotel.
Wow, I’ve never seen the Rio before.
Here’s a tv news story from July 1978 on the Wolfson Archives Youtube channel about the Miami Theatre being turned into a mall, including some of the theater’s history and older archival footage. There’s also a short segment about the Rio Theatre:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pFFhXWxquA
Click on “show more” under the video on the Youtube page for more details.
I walked by the Miami Theatre location on 9/12/2018 and all the stores in the mall it had become were gone with the entrance gates closed. To the right of the main entrance was an exhibit of homemade political protest signs (“A Century of Dissent”)and to the left was a Dale Zine store, neither of which were open at the time. A young guy appeared who told me he believes the place will become a space for artists, before he let himself in with a key and closed the gate behind him.
Wow kflmiami420, thanks for uploading the overhead shot of the former location, and for responding within a couple days after I posted my question! (And you created a CT account just to do that. : ) )
The spot you indicate was until recently an h.h. gregg store that to me looks like new construction compared to what it was up until a few years ago, so the part of the strip mall that housed the cinema may be gone.
In Google Street View if you approach the location (h.h. gregg) from SW 127th Avenue along SW 89th Terrace to the crosswalk in the upper left corner of your photo then set the image to show 2011, on that corner used to be a store called Divers Den (at what used to be 12614 SW 88th Street) in a building that matched the rest of the strip mall. Behind that was Creative Children Therapy in a portion with a higher ceiling like it may have been the former cinema’s auditoriums (even if the front entrance was not on that side).
Hmm, all those times I visited the Kendall Bookshelf used book store that used to exist in the Shops of Kendall and I never knew there had been a cinema in that shopping center.
I’d be interested in more information and stories from anyone about this theater.
Interesting Palm Beach Post article from late July 2018 about the history of drive-ins in Palm Beach County:
“Drive-in Movie Memories: 71 Years of Double Features and Even Death — Only One Drive-in Remains in Palm Beach County: The Lake Worth Drive-In”
Includes photos from the Delray Drive-in (some of employees) and mentions a melee that happened there involving police and also the time reels of “Debbie Does Dallas” were seized by authorities.
It says the Delray Drive-in stopped showing movies in 1988.
Interesting Palm Beach Post article from late July 2018 about the history of drive-ins in Palm Beach County:
“Drive-in Movie Memories: 71 Years of Double Features and Even Death — Only One Drive-in Remains in Palm Beach County: The Lake Worth Drive-In”
Says the first drive-in in the county was in an empty lot to the west of what is now Palm Beach International Airport and was called the Boulevard after going quasi-nameless for years.
Also that “The Dixie Skydrome, dubbed ‘The South’s Most Beautiful Drive-In Theater,’ [that] opened on North Dixie Highway in Lake Worth in January 1949” and closed in 1978.
I’ve been unable to locate pages on Cinema Treasures for the Dixie Skydrome as well as the Boulevard and the Boynton Outdoor Drive-In Theatre (which the article says appeared only once in the newspaper).
(A photo on the CT page for the Beach Drive-in is of an ad for four of the drive-ins in the article.)
The article includes photos, links to other articles about Palm Beach County cinemas, and ends with a list of the remaining drive-ins in Florida.
Does anyone know exactly where in the Shops of Kendall shopping center this theater was located? If the building is still there, what businesses occupy the space now? Thanks.
Does anyone know what businesses currently occupy this location if the building is still there?
Rivest266, the address you give in your October 15th comment is for the Dadeland Triplex not the Kendale Lakes Triple and there is no place called South Dade City. …. If you delete your comment, I’ll delete this one, then you can recomment about the opening date? Thanks.