Gulf Theatre
1408 27th Avenue,
Gulfport,
MS
39501
1408 27th Avenue,
Gulfport,
MS
39501
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Additional Info
Previous Names: Legion Theatre
Nearby Theaters
The Legion Theatre was located at 27th Avenue and 14th Street, across the street from the Union Station Depot building. The building was jointly owned by the local American Legion Post and the Ortte family. It opened on December 27 1941 and had a ‘Grand Formal Opening’ on March 5, 1942 with Anna Neagle in “Queen of Destiny”(aka Sixty Glorious Years). The façade of the theatre was green and beige glass tile. The box office was located to the left of the entrance. The Legion Theatre was a second run house and usually played double or triple features.
The huge support pole in front of the entrance was covered with small squares of mirrors. The remaining pieces were eventually removed due problems with people peeling the small mirror sections off the support.
On January 31, 1951 it was renamed Gulf Theatre. On March 5, 1952, the joint owners opened a new modern and much larger Legion Theatre on 13th Street (which has its own page on Cinema Treasures as the Sand Theatre). The Gulf Theatre remained open into the 1980’s when it was closed and demolished during urban renewal.
Contributed by
Wayne Saucier
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Recent comments (view all 2 comments)
The Hancock Bank parking garage now occupies the entire block in downtown Gulfport where the Gulf Theatre was located.
One main thing I remember about the Gulf was its booth. It was small and cramped. There was just enough room between machines for a small size person to fit during change overs. The projectionest, Leroy, who worked the first shift, being a large man, had to be very careful in squeezing between the machines and many times would push the machine running out of alignment and the picture would go off the screen and partly on the left wall until he got it straight again.