Kozy Theatre

Manager Sam L. Taylor watched one of the earliest documented Gulf nickelodeons, Fayard’s Pictorium, burn down in a December 1914 blaze. He would set up temporary digs in downtown Pass Christian while a new theatre was built. It would be the Kozy Theatre launching in 1915. He would also operate the Kozy Airdrome in the warm summer months - indicating a ventilation challenged venue. That was discontinued in short order

The Kozy Theatre was a bit less so when the space was enlarged. It increased from 150 folding chairs to 240 fixed seats and a sloped floor in 1927. On December 30, 1928, Taylor converted to sound using RCA Photophone sound. The only other theater in town was a theater for African American patrons listed in the trades as Colored Theatre.

A nitrate film explosion in the projection booth during a busy showing of “Mutiny on the Bounty” on January 23, 1936 ended things or the Kozy Theatre. The inferno also took out the Mr and Mrs. Taylor’s Kozy Ice Cream Shoppe and Taylors' home all in the same building. Fortunately nobody was killed.

After the Kozy Theatre 1936 fire, Taylor signed up local contractor Bernard L. Knost to rebuild a new venue called the Avalon Theatre (it has its own entry on Cinema Treasures). Taylor- a film programmer since the 1910’s in P-C - knew he his duty to audiences and distributor was to fulfill that showing of “Mutiny on the Bounty” that was interrupted by fire. “MOTB” was the first film shown at the new Avalon Theatre on April 19, 1936.

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