The Avon Associates Inc (Sol Goldman and Alex DiLorenzo Jr.), which owned the building from 1973 until 1977, was not related to the Avon theatres. In fact AAI in the early/mid 1970s had one of the largest real estate portfolios in New York city, with over $1B in holdings, including the Chrysler Building. I’m sure they had a few theaters in their inventory, but IF any were also a part of the Avon chain then that was purely coincidental.
Before this was City Lights it went through a number of name changes:
𝗠𝗶𝗻𝗶 𝗩𝘂𝗲 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗿𝗲 (adult) – August 19, 1970 – September 22, 1970
𝗠𝗶𝗻𝗶 𝗩𝘂𝗲 𝗔𝗱𝘂𝗹𝘁 𝗖𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗺𝗮 (adult)– September 23 – December 15, 1970
𝗖𝗿𝗮𝘇𝘆 𝗞𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗻’𝘀 (adult) – December 16, 1970 – October 6, 1971
𝗔𝗿𝘁 𝗖𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗺𝗮 𝗫 (adult) – October 7, 1971 – March 21, 1975
At this point the Art Cinema X was relocated to 3rd Street where it lingered until 1989
𝗕𝗶𝗷𝗼𝘂 (mainstream) – March 28, 1975 – May 19th (?), 1977
There was another theater in Cherokee in the 1980’s in roughly the same area, which I know was closed by the mid-90’s. Is this the same location/building (with obvious renovations and additions)?
The overview states that the Capri closed in 1987, but I know for sure it was still open in 1989 (don’t ask how…), and I found ads in the Daytona Beach News Journal for it as late as March 1992 (I’ll upload an example). There is a gap in Google Newspapers between March 1992 and Jan 1995, and by then the ads had stopped, so we can probably assume it closed for good between the spring of 1992 and end of 1994. It’s an empty lot now.
Another article with some back story:
http://www.news-journalonline.com/article/20130101/business/312319966
The Woodland Plaza Cinema was last owned by Chester Frank DeMarsh from 1983 when he purchased it from Cobb Theaters and operated it until it closed in the early 1990’s. His father had opened a string of drive-ins in Pennsylvania and then throughout Ohio, West Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina. His sons opened the nearby Victoria Square 6, and now also operate the Epic Theaters chain in Central Florida.
Here’s an article from the Orlando Sentinel when The Boulevard Drive-in closed in 1993:
http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1993-08-12/news/9308110811_1_boulevard-drive-in-screen-operators
Based on this the last two movies shown were “No Where to Run” and “Dracula”. For me the last movie I saw there in high school was “Soap Dish”. Also based on the article it indicates the reason for it closing was “the screen was torn during a storm that caused extensive damage in the area in March (1993). Floyd Theaters officials had considered costs for repairing the screen before deciding against continuing the operation.”
The Avon Associates Inc (Sol Goldman and Alex DiLorenzo Jr.), which owned the building from 1973 until 1977, was not related to the Avon theatres. In fact AAI in the early/mid 1970s had one of the largest real estate portfolios in New York city, with over $1B in holdings, including the Chrysler Building. I’m sure they had a few theaters in their inventory, but IF any were also a part of the Avon chain then that was purely coincidental.
Before this was City Lights it went through a number of name changes:
𝗠𝗶𝗻𝗶 𝗩𝘂𝗲 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗿𝗲 (adult) – August 19, 1970 – September 22, 1970 𝗠𝗶𝗻𝗶 𝗩𝘂𝗲 𝗔𝗱𝘂𝗹𝘁 𝗖𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗺𝗮 (adult)– September 23 – December 15, 1970 𝗖𝗿𝗮𝘇𝘆 𝗞𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗻’𝘀 (adult) – December 16, 1970 – October 6, 1971 𝗔𝗿𝘁 𝗖𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗺𝗮 𝗫 (adult) – October 7, 1971 – March 21, 1975 At this point the Art Cinema X was relocated to 3rd Street where it lingered until 1989 𝗕𝗶𝗷𝗼𝘂 (mainstream) – March 28, 1975 – May 19th (?), 1977
There was another theater in Cherokee in the 1980’s in roughly the same area, which I know was closed by the mid-90’s. Is this the same location/building (with obvious renovations and additions)?
The overview states that the Capri closed in 1987, but I know for sure it was still open in 1989 (don’t ask how…), and I found ads in the Daytona Beach News Journal for it as late as March 1992 (I’ll upload an example). There is a gap in Google Newspapers between March 1992 and Jan 1995, and by then the ads had stopped, so we can probably assume it closed for good between the spring of 1992 and end of 1994. It’s an empty lot now.
Another article with some back story: http://www.news-journalonline.com/article/20130101/business/312319966
The Woodland Plaza Cinema was last owned by Chester Frank DeMarsh from 1983 when he purchased it from Cobb Theaters and operated it until it closed in the early 1990’s. His father had opened a string of drive-ins in Pennsylvania and then throughout Ohio, West Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina. His sons opened the nearby Victoria Square 6, and now also operate the Epic Theaters chain in Central Florida.
Here’s an article from the Orlando Sentinel when The Boulevard Drive-in closed in 1993: http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1993-08-12/news/9308110811_1_boulevard-drive-in-screen-operators
Based on this the last two movies shown were “No Where to Run” and “Dracula”. For me the last movie I saw there in high school was “Soap Dish”. Also based on the article it indicates the reason for it closing was “the screen was torn during a storm that caused extensive damage in the area in March (1993). Floyd Theaters officials had considered costs for repairing the screen before deciding against continuing the operation.”
According to the following article the theater opened in 1973 and had 305 seats:
http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1990-10-11/news/9010100960_1_west-volusia-athens-theatre-movie-screens