Sottile Theatre

Miller Signs fabricated the new marquee per the June 2011 issue of “Signs of the Times.” No date is given.

The Lincoln was torn down in the 1980s. It was a theater for blacks in the Jim Crow era. It was a tiny place, relatively speaking. I never went inside, though. It had been abandoned for years.

The Gloria was the big, nice theater of downtown Charleston during the 1970s, when I went there regularly. It had long red curtains down the sides of the auditorium, probably hiding whatever was underneath. The stars in the ceiling are still there, from what I hear. It’s a bigger theater than the Riviera, so there is something wrong about the seating capacity; it had to have been more than seven hundred. That may not include the smoking gallery, which had been closed for years.

Status should be changed to “open”

In the early sixties, the Gloria was operated by the Pastime Amusement Company out of Charleston. President was Alberta Long. Other Pastime theaters in Charleston at that time were the American, Arcade, Garden and Riviera. Pastime also ran the Ashley Theater in St. Andrews Parish.

This appears to be the only atmospheric theater left in the Carolina’s. While not a full blown atmospheric it does have a large blue sky dome in the auditorium with electric stars and outdoor effects.

It seems there were many theatres in Charleston on King Street! If this theatre is currently owned by the College of Charleston and is used by their theatre department perhaps this is the store front that I visited when in Charleston as I told by the gift shop owner that the auditorium still exists in the back and is being used by a local college. The owner showed me behind a small wall curtain the original glass-enclosed theatre poster inserts. I thought that she should at least be using them as display/advertisement areas, but didn’t tell her so.