He says there was an attempt to build a drive-in on Newton Road, then:
“Two years later on December 4, 1949 Mr. and Mrs. Clyde Chambers (she was Mary Grace the daughter of Jim and Grace English) opened the Breezeway Drive-in on 15th Street and old Dixie Highway. It was built for them by Vannie Lee Harris. It accommodated 350 cars. The projected picture was 50 feet by 38 feet; the projection equipment cost $15,000. The first picture show was ‘Song of India’ with Sabu. Admission was 48 cents. On Jan. 7, 1957, the Breezeway became the first drive-in in Dade County to host a worship service. Sponsored by the South Dade Christian Church, services were held each Sunday morning at 8:15a.m. In the early 1980s the drive-in began showing X-rated movies and became the home of a large Sunday morning flea market. The current Dixie Shopping Center was built on the site in late 1985.”
He says “In the 1960s Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello made a visit to the Palms while they were in Miami-Fort Lauderdale promoting their ‘Beach Blanket Bingo’ movie.”
Also that “The theatre end of the shopping plaza has since been torn down and Miami-Dade College now uses that end of the shopping center space as a parking lot.”
I believe the marquee sign in the photo may have been next to the end of the building that is now a real estate service office and Tooth Place Dental Clinic, at the spot where now stands a lone tree:
The skinny poles holding up the roof over the sidewalk (one pole, then two poles next to each other) behind the marquee are visible in Google Street View in 2015 as being in front of the real estate services office, and the Army Navy store in the photo’s background might now be the Mexico Market across the street.
It says the Air Dome that was relocated from Miami that became this Seminole was the one next to Burdine’s.
Wow, Mr. Jensen says “The last time I was in the lobby [of the Landmark Hotel] the ticket booth could still be seen.”
There’s also some more details about James W. English.
New to me, the article says the first films exhibited in Homestead were shown at Sistrunk Hall in 1913 (the article includes what is believed to be a photo of the building), a wooden structure that had existed on Mowery Drive where Showbiz Cinemas is now building Homestead Station down the street from the Seminole Cultural Arts Theater.
“Sistrunk Hall was where various fraternal orders and community groups met and it also had a movie theater which pre-dated the Seminole Theater. Sistrunk Hall, like so many other wooden buildings of that era, burned down in the early morning hours of August 31, 1916.”
It includes a photo of the Seminole in the 1940’s as well as one of the aftermath of the fire that burned the previous Seminole at this location. Interesting it mentions until the Seminole was rebuilt movies were shown in the alley behind the building. There’s also some details about its time as the Premier Theatre.
New to me, the article says the first films exhibited in Homestead were shown at Sistrunk Hall in 1913, a wooden structure that had existed on Mowery Drive where Showbiz Cinemas is building Homestead Station as I mentioned in my previous comment.
Wow, this is where I served as a volunteer staff member for the Independent Feature Film Market (IFFM), commuting in via Long Island Railroad for over a week in late September of 1995.
I stood at the top of those stairs in the photo to check people’s Market passes as they entered and on one day got to announce on a lobby microphone when some of the Market film screenings would be starting. For lunch I’d get a hot chicken sandwich at a deli around the corner that may have been Han’s which I see on Google Maps is still there. (I still have a paper coffee cup from there with a depiction of the Manhattan skyline below which says “Enjoy coffee here and don’t ever change…”, which in my head I enjoy repeating with a NY attitude. :) )
During the Market I also saw “Living In Oblivion” at the Angelika about filmmakers trying to make an indie film, and filmmaker Ed Burns speaking at Cooper Union following the then recent success of “The Brothers McMullan”. (The Market had some buzz because Kevin Smith had gotten a deal for “Clerks” there a year or two before.)
As a teen I enjoyed walking back and forth through the length of the South Shore Mall, (when I wasn’t in the video game room), and at one end there was this cinema standing apart from the mall several yards outside a side entrance/exit like my landmark, especially since I love movie theaters, for having reached that point.
This is where I saw the first three Star Trek movies, II and III being thankfully better than the first. During “Star Trek III: The Search for Spock” (1984), I had the haunting experience of sitting next to my father while Kirk’s son, also named “David”, (spoiler alert), is suddenly killed and we see Kirk’s paternal pain. Maybe that was the first time I’d seen that sort of loss portrayed, and I awkwardly glanced at my father imagining how he might feel if something happened to me.
This is also where I saw my first Star Wars movie, “The Empire Strikes Back” in 1980, (with “Episode V” included in the opening crawl, and it became known that nine episodes are intended, with IX coming soon these decades later).
Being a Star Trek fan who had watched reruns of the original tv show everyday after school, I wasn’t interested enough in seeing the original “Star Wars” in 1977, but came back here for its re-release in 1981 (with the new subtitle “Episode IV: A New Hope”). I have a vivid memory of Darth Vader’s ominous mask looming large on the screen while he piloted his TIE fighter.
The final time I visited the Loews South Shore Mall Twin in 2000 after a few years away, I found it closed with the lobby of the still intact interior occupied by Indian or Sikh or Pakistani folks selling maybe rugs or items of their culture.
Inside I approached the ticket booth and took a moment to silently relive the times I bought tickets there. I almost said I’d like one now, then thought the joke would be lost in translation, yet as I turned to leave the empathetic eyes of the man wearing a turban let me know he understood I had come for nostalgic reasons.
Growing up in West Islip I would often wonder about this theater as its architecture would catch my eye whenever I was driven past by my parents along Sunrise Highway. I’d wonder why there was a drive-in behind it on what felt like almost the same property and if the two were related even though they seemed to have separate vibes. (Thanks to Cinema Treasures I now see they were mostly different entities.)
I never got to visit the drive-in as my mother warned me that such places are “passion pits” where people are not there to watch what is on the screen and what I might witness happening off screen would disturb me.
The only time I was at the Bay Shore Cinema was my first time sort of seeing “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”.
In about 1986 I somehow got invited by the “cool kids”, who in my high school at the time seemed centered around the Drama Club and their friends, even though I wasn’t in their social clique, (or anyone’s, perhaps being more of a thinker than a socializer, though I had some individual friendships). Probably that was a semester when I wanted the experience of being on the club’s backstage crew, during which I may have overheard them talking about “Rocky Horror” and tried to ask what it is. When they found out I had never been they looked at me with an expression of “Oh, this is gonna be fun”.
When the time came I got sandwiched into the back seat of one of two cars full of kids piloted by those who could drive. On the way they were still evasive about what the show really is, with some explaining to the others that I am asking questions because I am a “virgin”, as if I had gotten myself involved in some sort of initiation.
At the theatre we took a back row as the middle was full and the show was starting. A few minutes in I still couldn’t hear the dialogue because people kept yelling things at the screen or singing and dancing along with the music depending on the movie’s scene as if the audience was part of the show and everyone knew what to do and when.
After awhile I decided to move to an aisle seat in the front rows closer to the speakers where no one else was sitting while also thinking it would be safer to stay away from whatever my classmates implied they may have planned for me — but then a guy costumed like a cross-dressing exotic dancer from somebody’s artsy bad dream emerged from somewhere below the screen and sauntered over to my area! The crowd cheered and a moment later he was mimicking the actions and lip syncing the lines of an actor who had just appeared in the film that, whoa, looked a lot like him!
I then gathered from a song that seemed to introduce the character that this is “Frank-n-Furter”, even though he didn’t seem to be a hotdog vendor. Rather, he proclaimed himself to be a “sweet transvestite“!! (Doesn’t this sort of thing only happen at the drive-in I was warned about??! Is that where he wandered in from??! Selling frankfurters at the concession stand??!)
At some point he focused on me, seductively stretching his garter belt and pointing to it. I wasn’t sure what was going on and shook my head “No“. (What character did he think I was portraying??) The crowd chanted “Virgin! Virgin!” at me as he tried a couple more times. I shrugged and someone yelled “Tip him!” I turned to the audience and said “What? What does he want me to do?!” Other voices shouted “He wants money!” and “Give him a dollar!”
I turned back to him and he was slowly nodding in agreement, his eyes fixed on me and holding a space open between his garter belt and thigh skin for my deposit. I figured if I complied maybe the situation would end so I relented and placed a buck or three in the space provided. He mouthed a “thank you” as the crowd cheered. The Frank-n-Furter on the screen had already left the scene and this live one made some last flamboyant gestures to the audience before receding back from whence he came.
Some minutes later I left to use the restroom then didn’t want to go back in since stuff was still being yelled at the screen, I didn’t know what might happen to me next, and besides I hadn‘t followed the “story“. I hung around the lobby talking a little with the staff who assured me all their performances of “Rocky Horror“ are like this. I attempted to take a nap on some furniture, though the employees may have thought it would be more “fun” for me to return to the auditorium. To pass more time I may have used a payphone there to call my parents who were waiting up for me who advised that I wait till the movie was over for the ride home from the group.
After the film finally finished I ended up in the other car instead of the one I had arrived in. On the drive back I listened to inside jokes I was not privy to not being part of the “in-crowd”. I didn’t say much and someone eventually commented that at least I was “no longer a virgin”. I guessed my classmates had just wanted to see what my reaction to the experience would be and to the film’s, um, aesthetics. : )
A few years later on my university’s campus I was able to sit through and observe an entire screening of “Rocky Horror”, now that I knew what to expect… It was okay, better than a “time warp”) back to ‘86… but I still want my dollars back. : )
I love coming across cute little cinemas like this.
First time I’ve seen what MarkNYLA in his July 21st, 2008 comment calls an example of “shotgun style theatre construction” still in operation. (Are there others?)
Reminds me some of the Monarch Theater in Chicago (that is now a car wash?!).
Another I find cute which is also old and still operating is the Fountain Theatre in Mesilla, New Mexico.
Does anyone else have their own cute favorites to share?
I emailed Blue Starlite using an address on the Austin location’s website asking about the status of the Miami location, if it had moved to Colorado, and pointing out it is still listed in the Miami Herald with no films scheduled.
They responded on May 15th: “We had a temp location in CO, but our main and home location is in Austin. Miami has been a satellite location. We do hope to get back there and open up again!”
So it sounds like the Miami location is closed until further notice.
Thanks Al. Do you remember the names of any of the groups or films societies? Or maybe the themes of the shows, like from a certain country or director, or something more unusual that I wouldn’t expect?
The Secret Celluloid Society has been around Miami for years, holding screenings at other venues before establishing the Nite Owl for itself.
I never attended a screening and have yet to visit the Nite Owl but I’m guessing “longest-running 35mm film screening series” means of any film appreciation type group that may have been holding screenings using 35mm around town over the years this one has lasted the longest.
Reminds me of Optic Nerve, that would quickly sell out before I ever had a chance to go, that had a screening as recently as 2013 (which I vaguely remember as possibly being the “final” one.)
Also Detonate Microcinema, that ran at least through 2001, that I remember being occasionally listed in the New Times movie times listings back in the 90’s (even though Detonate was a film series, not an operating theater) when a screening was held somewhere, often in bars and restaurants if I remember correctly, of some sort of “underground” film showcase.
I don’t know how often either of these used 35mm, so maybe Secret Celluloid is the “longest running” one that did and does.
These were not really full blown film festivals, but occasional probably one-night only screenings of film showcases in I assume rented or donated spaces.
Does anyone know of others I didn’t mention here?
Al, were there groups that put on film screenings when you lived in Miami? Would be interesting to hear about them.
Looks like this location reopened as Full Moon Cineplex on September 23, 2016 according to their “Us” page, screening horror and cult classics while serving food and beverage.
Apparently only one or two of the eight auditoriums are now used for screening films while some of the others are occupied by Lone Wolf Tattoo parlor and seasonally by a haunted house attraction called Slaughterhouse.
Last night I attended the groundbreaking ceremony for Homestead Station, a new entertainment complex by ShowBiz Cinemas and transportation hub that will be built in downtown Homestead just south of the Seminole Cultural Arts Theatre at the corner of Mowery Drive and Krome Avenue, and will include a ten screen cinema.
Meanwhile the Seminole was alive and well with people arriving for a performance, under the neon lights of the good-looking vertical “Seminole” sign.
I saw that the building that housed the Fun Center Cinema seems to have been demolished and replaced by the new Hyundai dealership, or maybe one or two of the Bowling Center’s walls have been incorporated into the new building, I’m not sure.
I then attended the groundbreaking ceremony for Homestead Station, a new entertainment complex and transportation hub that will be built in downtown Homestead at the corner of Mowery Drive and Krome Avenue, and will include a new bowling alley and a multiplex cinema.
The exact spot where the Sunset Theatre once stood before demolition is now occupied by The Halal Guys restaurant, which opened in the still mostly empty large grey/white building in the last few days.
In recent months the old buildings that existed in the theatre’s day immediately to the south including Fox’s have been gutted and the outer walls will be filled with more restaurants from what I understand, with the vertical neon Fox’s sign remaining as a tribute.
I also remember for a time in the early 90’s one of the movie poster boxes had a poster-sized advertisement for new employees instead of a movie poster that showed some smiling young people dressed in AMC uniforms with the words “Now Hiring” above them like it was the title of a film.
I joked to myself, “Oh, it’s a movie about the end of the Recession”. :)
Wow, if each of the 259 cars really did have its own individual screen then this listing should read “259 screens” (though the drop down menu for screens on the new theater listing submissions page does not allow for more than 35).
Ha, the circular arrangement in the photo makes me wonder if this is the pad where the aliens had intended to land before they ended up crashing near Roswell. :)
The Breezeway has a paragraph in Bob Jensen’s article in the South Dade News Leader from December 11th, 2015:
“Homestead’s Early Movie Theaters”
He says there was an attempt to build a drive-in on Newton Road, then:
“Two years later on December 4, 1949 Mr. and Mrs. Clyde Chambers (she was Mary Grace the daughter of Jim and Grace English) opened the Breezeway Drive-in on 15th Street and old Dixie Highway. It was built for them by Vannie Lee Harris. It accommodated 350 cars. The projected picture was 50 feet by 38 feet; the projection equipment cost $15,000. The first picture show was ‘Song of India’ with Sabu. Admission was 48 cents. On Jan. 7, 1957, the Breezeway became the first drive-in in Dade County to host a worship service. Sponsored by the South Dade Christian Church, services were held each Sunday morning at 8:15a.m. In the early 1980s the drive-in began showing X-rated movies and became the home of a large Sunday morning flea market. The current Dixie Shopping Center was built on the site in late 1985.”
The Palms/Homestead has a paragraph in Bob Jensen’s article in the South Dade News Leader from December 11th, 2015:
“Homestead’s Early Movie Theaters”
He says “In the 1960s Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello made a visit to the Palms while they were in Miami-Fort Lauderdale promoting their ‘Beach Blanket Bingo’ movie.”
Also that “The theatre end of the shopping plaza has since been torn down and Miami-Dade College now uses that end of the shopping center space as a parking lot.”
I believe the marquee sign in the photo may have been next to the end of the building that is now a real estate service office and Tooth Place Dental Clinic, at the spot where now stands a lone tree:
The skinny poles holding up the roof over the sidewalk (one pole, then two poles next to each other) behind the marquee are visible in Google Street View in 2015 as being in front of the real estate services office, and the Army Navy store in the photo’s background might now be the Mexico Market across the street.
Check out this article by Bob Jensen in the South-Dade News Leader from December 11th, 2015:
“Homestead’s Early Movie Theaters”
It says the Air Dome that was relocated from Miami that became this Seminole was the one next to Burdine’s.
Wow, Mr. Jensen says “The last time I was in the lobby [of the Landmark Hotel] the ticket booth could still be seen.”
There’s also some more details about James W. English.
New to me, the article says the first films exhibited in Homestead were shown at Sistrunk Hall in 1913 (the article includes what is believed to be a photo of the building), a wooden structure that had existed on Mowery Drive where Showbiz Cinemas is now building Homestead Station down the street from the Seminole Cultural Arts Theater.
An article on the Historic Homestead Town Hall Museum website from May 2, 2017 says:
“Sistrunk Hall was where various fraternal orders and community groups met and it also had a movie theater which pre-dated the Seminole Theater. Sistrunk Hall, like so many other wooden buildings of that era, burned down in the early morning hours of August 31, 1916.”
Check out this article by Bob Jensen in the South-Dade News Leader from December 11th, 2015:
“Homestead’s Early Movie Theaters”
It includes a photo of the Seminole in the 1940’s as well as one of the aftermath of the fire that burned the previous Seminole at this location. Interesting it mentions until the Seminole was rebuilt movies were shown in the alley behind the building. There’s also some details about its time as the Premier Theatre.
New to me, the article says the first films exhibited in Homestead were shown at Sistrunk Hall in 1913, a wooden structure that had existed on Mowery Drive where Showbiz Cinemas is building Homestead Station as I mentioned in my previous comment.
An article about the closing:
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/business/20180713/regal-riverfront-twin-in-santa-cruz-closes-after-48-years
Google Maps shows Hay-on-Wye is in Wales, not England.
Also there’s a CT page for the New Plaza Cinema in Wales in Hay-on-Wye.
Yes I’m curious too. Maybe they focus on films that were adapted from books. : )
A few years ago I read a book about Hay-on-Wye: “Sixpence House: Lost in a Town of Books”
Jennifer Weaver, thanks for writing. You may email me at ds2020 at netzero.com
Wow, this is where I served as a volunteer staff member for the Independent Feature Film Market (IFFM), commuting in via Long Island Railroad for over a week in late September of 1995.
I stood at the top of those stairs in the photo to check people’s Market passes as they entered and on one day got to announce on a lobby microphone when some of the Market film screenings would be starting. For lunch I’d get a hot chicken sandwich at a deli around the corner that may have been Han’s which I see on Google Maps is still there. (I still have a paper coffee cup from there with a depiction of the Manhattan skyline below which says “Enjoy coffee here and don’t ever change…”, which in my head I enjoy repeating with a NY attitude. :) )
During the Market I also saw “Living In Oblivion” at the Angelika about filmmakers trying to make an indie film, and filmmaker Ed Burns speaking at Cooper Union following the then recent success of “The Brothers McMullan”. (The Market had some buzz because Kevin Smith had gotten a deal for “Clerks” there a year or two before.)
As a teen I enjoyed walking back and forth through the length of the South Shore Mall, (when I wasn’t in the video game room), and at one end there was this cinema standing apart from the mall several yards outside a side entrance/exit like my landmark, especially since I love movie theaters, for having reached that point.
This is where I saw the first three Star Trek movies, II and III being thankfully better than the first. During “Star Trek III: The Search for Spock” (1984), I had the haunting experience of sitting next to my father while Kirk’s son, also named “David”, (spoiler alert), is suddenly killed and we see Kirk’s paternal pain. Maybe that was the first time I’d seen that sort of loss portrayed, and I awkwardly glanced at my father imagining how he might feel if something happened to me.
This is also where I saw my first Star Wars movie, “The Empire Strikes Back” in 1980, (with “Episode V” included in the opening crawl, and it became known that nine episodes are intended, with IX coming soon these decades later).
Being a Star Trek fan who had watched reruns of the original tv show everyday after school, I wasn’t interested enough in seeing the original “Star Wars” in 1977, but came back here for its re-release in 1981 (with the new subtitle “Episode IV: A New Hope”). I have a vivid memory of Darth Vader’s ominous mask looming large on the screen while he piloted his TIE fighter.
The final time I visited the Loews South Shore Mall Twin in 2000 after a few years away, I found it closed with the lobby of the still intact interior occupied by Indian or Sikh or Pakistani folks selling maybe rugs or items of their culture.
Inside I approached the ticket booth and took a moment to silently relive the times I bought tickets there. I almost said I’d like one now, then thought the joke would be lost in translation, yet as I turned to leave the empathetic eyes of the man wearing a turban let me know he understood I had come for nostalgic reasons.
Growing up in West Islip I would often wonder about this theater as its architecture would catch my eye whenever I was driven past by my parents along Sunrise Highway. I’d wonder why there was a drive-in behind it on what felt like almost the same property and if the two were related even though they seemed to have separate vibes. (Thanks to Cinema Treasures I now see they were mostly different entities.)
I never got to visit the drive-in as my mother warned me that such places are “passion pits” where people are not there to watch what is on the screen and what I might witness happening off screen would disturb me.
The only time I was at the Bay Shore Cinema was my first time sort of seeing “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”.
In about 1986 I somehow got invited by the “cool kids”, who in my high school at the time seemed centered around the Drama Club and their friends, even though I wasn’t in their social clique, (or anyone’s, perhaps being more of a thinker than a socializer, though I had some individual friendships). Probably that was a semester when I wanted the experience of being on the club’s backstage crew, during which I may have overheard them talking about “Rocky Horror” and tried to ask what it is. When they found out I had never been they looked at me with an expression of “Oh, this is gonna be fun”.
When the time came I got sandwiched into the back seat of one of two cars full of kids piloted by those who could drive. On the way they were still evasive about what the show really is, with some explaining to the others that I am asking questions because I am a “virgin”, as if I had gotten myself involved in some sort of initiation.
At the theatre we took a back row as the middle was full and the show was starting. A few minutes in I still couldn’t hear the dialogue because people kept yelling things at the screen or singing and dancing along with the music depending on the movie’s scene as if the audience was part of the show and everyone knew what to do and when.
After awhile I decided to move to an aisle seat in the front rows closer to the speakers where no one else was sitting while also thinking it would be safer to stay away from whatever my classmates implied they may have planned for me — but then a guy costumed like a cross-dressing exotic dancer from somebody’s artsy bad dream emerged from somewhere below the screen and sauntered over to my area! The crowd cheered and a moment later he was mimicking the actions and lip syncing the lines of an actor who had just appeared in the film that, whoa, looked a lot like him!
I then gathered from a song that seemed to introduce the character that this is “Frank-n-Furter”, even though he didn’t seem to be a hotdog vendor. Rather, he proclaimed himself to be a “sweet transvestite“!! (Doesn’t this sort of thing only happen at the drive-in I was warned about??! Is that where he wandered in from??! Selling frankfurters at the concession stand??!)
At some point he focused on me, seductively stretching his garter belt and pointing to it. I wasn’t sure what was going on and shook my head “No“. (What character did he think I was portraying??) The crowd chanted “Virgin! Virgin!” at me as he tried a couple more times. I shrugged and someone yelled “Tip him!” I turned to the audience and said “What? What does he want me to do?!” Other voices shouted “He wants money!” and “Give him a dollar!”
I turned back to him and he was slowly nodding in agreement, his eyes fixed on me and holding a space open between his garter belt and thigh skin for my deposit. I figured if I complied maybe the situation would end so I relented and placed a buck or three in the space provided. He mouthed a “thank you” as the crowd cheered. The Frank-n-Furter on the screen had already left the scene and this live one made some last flamboyant gestures to the audience before receding back from whence he came.
Some minutes later I left to use the restroom then didn’t want to go back in since stuff was still being yelled at the screen, I didn’t know what might happen to me next, and besides I hadn‘t followed the “story“. I hung around the lobby talking a little with the staff who assured me all their performances of “Rocky Horror“ are like this. I attempted to take a nap on some furniture, though the employees may have thought it would be more “fun” for me to return to the auditorium. To pass more time I may have used a payphone there to call my parents who were waiting up for me who advised that I wait till the movie was over for the ride home from the group.
After the film finally finished I ended up in the other car instead of the one I had arrived in. On the drive back I listened to inside jokes I was not privy to not being part of the “in-crowd”. I didn’t say much and someone eventually commented that at least I was “no longer a virgin”. I guessed my classmates had just wanted to see what my reaction to the experience would be and to the film’s, um, aesthetics. : )
A few years later on my university’s campus I was able to sit through and observe an entire screening of “Rocky Horror”, now that I knew what to expect… It was okay, better than a “time warp”) back to ‘86… but I still want my dollars back. : )
From the Greyhound bus I rode by on on June 11th, 2018, I could see this theatre is now the location of Captivating Dental Care.
I wonder how much of the interior is still an intact theatre.
I love coming across cute little cinemas like this.
First time I’ve seen what MarkNYLA in his July 21st, 2008 comment calls an example of “shotgun style theatre construction” still in operation. (Are there others?)
Reminds me some of the Monarch Theater in Chicago (that is now a car wash?!).
Another I find cute which is also old and still operating is the Fountain Theatre in Mesilla, New Mexico.
Does anyone else have their own cute favorites to share?
I emailed Blue Starlite using an address on the Austin location’s website asking about the status of the Miami location, if it had moved to Colorado, and pointing out it is still listed in the Miami Herald with no films scheduled.
They responded on May 15th: “We had a temp location in CO, but our main and home location is in Austin. Miami has been a satellite location. We do hope to get back there and open up again!”
So it sounds like the Miami location is closed until further notice.
Thanks Al. Do you remember the names of any of the groups or films societies? Or maybe the themes of the shows, like from a certain country or director, or something more unusual that I wouldn’t expect?
Al,
The Secret Celluloid Society has been around Miami for years, holding screenings at other venues before establishing the Nite Owl for itself.
I never attended a screening and have yet to visit the Nite Owl but I’m guessing “longest-running 35mm film screening series” means of any film appreciation type group that may have been holding screenings using 35mm around town over the years this one has lasted the longest.
Reminds me of Optic Nerve, that would quickly sell out before I ever had a chance to go, that had a screening as recently as 2013 (which I vaguely remember as possibly being the “final” one.)
Also Detonate Microcinema, that ran at least through 2001, that I remember being occasionally listed in the New Times movie times listings back in the 90’s (even though Detonate was a film series, not an operating theater) when a screening was held somewhere, often in bars and restaurants if I remember correctly, of some sort of “underground” film showcase.
I don’t know how often either of these used 35mm, so maybe Secret Celluloid is the “longest running” one that did and does.
These were not really full blown film festivals, but occasional probably one-night only screenings of film showcases in I assume rented or donated spaces.
Does anyone know of others I didn’t mention here?
Al, were there groups that put on film screenings when you lived in Miami? Would be interesting to hear about them.
Looks like this location reopened as Full Moon Cineplex on September 23, 2016 according to their “Us” page, screening horror and cult classics while serving food and beverage.
Apparently only one or two of the eight auditoriums are now used for screening films while some of the others are occupied by Lone Wolf Tattoo parlor and seasonally by a haunted house attraction called Slaughterhouse.
Tim McGrath, a survivor of the shooting, has made a film based on the experience, “Surviving Theater 9”:
https://www.survivingtheater9.com/
Last night I attended the groundbreaking ceremony for Homestead Station, a new entertainment complex by ShowBiz Cinemas and transportation hub that will be built in downtown Homestead just south of the Seminole Cultural Arts Theatre at the corner of Mowery Drive and Krome Avenue, and will include a ten screen cinema.
Meanwhile the Seminole was alive and well with people arriving for a performance, under the neon lights of the good-looking vertical “Seminole” sign.
I visited Homestead on May 11th 2018.
I saw that the building that housed the Fun Center Cinema seems to have been demolished and replaced by the new Hyundai dealership, or maybe one or two of the Bowling Center’s walls have been incorporated into the new building, I’m not sure.
I then attended the groundbreaking ceremony for Homestead Station, a new entertainment complex and transportation hub that will be built in downtown Homestead at the corner of Mowery Drive and Krome Avenue, and will include a new bowling alley and a multiplex cinema.
Link to article from the May 7th, 2018 Herald-Dispatch newspaper about the Keith-Albee turning 90 years old.
I wish the photo linked to in Al Alvarez’s April 13th, 2009 comment with the vertical red “Theatre” sign could be in the “Photos” section.
The exact spot where the Sunset Theatre once stood before demolition is now occupied by The Halal Guys restaurant, which opened in the still mostly empty large grey/white building in the last few days.
In recent months the old buildings that existed in the theatre’s day immediately to the south including Fox’s have been gutted and the outer walls will be filled with more restaurants from what I understand, with the vertical neon Fox’s sign remaining as a tribute.
I also remember for a time in the early 90’s one of the movie poster boxes had a poster-sized advertisement for new employees instead of a movie poster that showed some smiling young people dressed in AMC uniforms with the words “Now Hiring” above them like it was the title of a film.
I joked to myself, “Oh, it’s a movie about the end of the Recession”. :)
Wow, if each of the 259 cars really did have its own individual screen then this listing should read “259 screens” (though the drop down menu for screens on the new theater listing submissions page does not allow for more than 35).
Ha, the circular arrangement in the photo makes me wonder if this is the pad where the aliens had intended to land before they ended up crashing near Roswell. :)