Sun Art Theatre

1116 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street N.,
St. Petersburg, FL 33705

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Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on August 3, 2021 at 5:08 am

During the 1940s the Ninth Street Theatre was operated by Florida State Theatres, who bought the house in 1946 after leasing it for several years, according to Boxoffice of March 4, 1950. They disposed of the theater in 1950, selling it to the independent operators who would later rename it the Sun Theatre. It had been closed for several months at the time of the sale. Florida State also gave up their lease on the Beach Theatre at the same time.

Darren_Snow
Darren_Snow on April 2, 2021 at 2:14 pm

Demolished in 2018.

AndreasP
AndreasP on October 30, 2017 at 2:31 pm

seems to be a double entry for http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/32377

rivest266
rivest266 on October 9, 2017 at 12:57 pm

This opened as the 9th Street theatre on September 30th, 1929. It reopened as the Sun on August 23rd, 1950 and Sun Art on August 31st, 1957 and closed in April 1977. 1929, 1950, 1957 grand opening ads in the photo section.

rivest266
rivest266 on October 9, 2017 at 12:55 pm

August 28th, 1957 article

Found on Newspapers.com

April 19th, 1977 closing

Found on Newspapers.com

P. K. "Budd" Ballard
P. K. "Budd" Ballard on December 2, 2016 at 4:27 pm

Your “Google” photo is showing one block too far north. If you could turn around 180 degrees you would be looking at the north side of the theatre building. The building still exists. When I moved to St. Petersburg in 1953, it was called THE SUN THEATRE and ran 2nd run films. When I graduated from high school in 1955, and just before I moved to Asheville, NC, I had to go see a last movie at the SUN THEATRE. The movie was JOHNNY DARK with Tony Curtis. When I moved back to the area, the SUN THEATRE was now the SUN ART THEATRE and was showing “them there furrin fillums”. When this did not work the SUN ART started running “soft core” porno films. They even added a small “pussycat” theatre inside the office area that ran 16mm films. The theatre had a live stage and dressing rooms and at one time in the early 1960’s had live vaudeville and burlesque shows. In later years it was used as an antique auction house.

jimmyj
jimmyj on December 14, 2013 at 9:50 am

This Theater was first the “Ninth Street” Theater, then the “Sun Theater” and finally the “Sun Art Theater”.