Comments from David_Schneider

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David_Schneider
David_Schneider commented about Miami Theatre on Mar 28, 2022 at 7:26 pm

One of the neon “Miami” signs from above the marquee of the Miami Theatre visible in archival photos such as this one and this one is the centerpiece of the “It’s a Miami Thing” exhibit at the HistoryMiami Museum that has been extended to September 4, 2022.

I have uploaded photos of it to the photos page from my visit to the museum.

David_Schneider
David_Schneider commented about Mexia Theater on Jan 18, 2022 at 10:56 pm

To add to Patsy’s comment above from March 5, 2007, I watched an episode of “20/20” reviewing the life of Anna Nicole Smith broadcast on August 13th, 2021 in which her childhood friend explains to Anna Nicole’s daughter that there was little to do while growing up in Mexia and that “There’s no movie theaters”. I looked up the town on Cinema Treasures to see if there had ever been any and it appears all four were gone before her time, (though as I post this comment this page does not indicate when the Mexia Theater closed).

The episode includes Jim’s Crispy Fried Chicken as a place she had worked at as a teen and I see from Google Maps at least that is still open. : )

Wow, mine is the first comment on this page since 2008. Also it was fun responding to a comment that was left 15 years ago, and by someone who is still active on Cinema Treasures today. : )

David_Schneider
David_Schneider commented about Neon sign from Miami Theatre in HistoryMiami collection 3 on Jan 17, 2022 at 8:15 pm

The neon “Miami” sign can be seen above the marquee in archival photos on the Miami Theatre’s photos page such as this one and this one.

I took the “It’s a Miami Thing” photo above on August 21, 2021 like the other two I uploaded. The photo’s info was somehow changed to “March 13” when I clicked on the file’s “File Information” and I forgot to correct it before uploading.

David_Schneider
David_Schneider commented about O Cinema on Jan 17, 2022 at 7:52 pm

Although it does not mention O Cinema, this Miami New Times article from October 5, 2021 describes the history of the changes to the Wynwood neighborhood that may have led to the cinema’s closure and the demolition of the building:

“Gentrification Complete: Will Wynwood’s Progress Be Its Downfall?”

David_Schneider
David_Schneider commented about Festival at Grove Harbour on Jan 15, 2022 at 10:50 pm

Click here to view a vandalized version of the auditorium I remember visiting in my comment above.

I wish there were photos from when it operated as the Grove Harbour.

This article from the Abandoned Florida website says it was used for theater classes by the Academy of Arts & Minds school when it occupied the property, which has been abandoned since it closed in 2018:

https://www.abandonedfl.com/academy-of-arts-minds/

The Mr. Moe’s bar/restaurant that I had mentioned as being across the street is also closed.

David_Schneider
David_Schneider commented about Coral Gables Art Cinema on Jan 15, 2022 at 9:29 pm

This Miami Hurricane (U. of Miami student newspaper) article from October 7th, 2021 describes plans for the Coral Gables Art Cinema to expand into an adjacent location by adding a second screen:

“Coral Gables Art Cinema, home to late-night events, cult-classic screenings, set to expand in 2022”

The article includes renderings of the proposed floorplan and of the front of the building, showing the original location on the right side of the entrance to the parking garage, and the new second location on the left in the storefront at 240 Aragon Avenue where Patio & Things furniture currently is.

Biscayne Bay Tribune article from August 30, 2021:

“Coral Gables Art Cinema Plans Expansion, Begins Fundraising”

Miami Today article from August 31, 2021:

“Coral Gables Art Cinema Expanding”

Click here for complete details from the cinema’s own website for the project:

https://gablescinema.givecloud.co/

David_Schneider
David_Schneider commented about Riviera Theatre on Jun 1, 2021 at 8:22 pm

The Riviera Theatre, as well as the entire Riviera Plaza shopping center of which it was a part, was demolished in the days leading up to May 25th, 2021, when I gazed down from the northbound Metrorail car I was riding on and saw machinery removing the last piles of debris.

Only the marquee still stands alone at the sidewalk on US-1. (I walked by today and confirmed this. I hope the developers leave it there or incorporate it into the new Publix project as I’ve always enjoyed how it sort of had its own identity physically separate from the building.)

Rest in peace Riviera…

David_Schneider
David_Schneider commented about O Cinema on May 17, 2021 at 6:21 pm

Google Street View images show the building that had housed O Cinema was demolished by March 2020.

Wynwood Green apartments are being constructed on the site.

David_Schneider
David_Schneider commented about Las Olas Cinemas on May 16, 2021 at 8:13 pm

The page for this cinema on the Abandoned Florida website, that includes a variety of photos, says the cinema and the entire complex of which it was a part was demolished in 2017:

https://www.abandonedfl.com/sunrise-cinemas-las-olas/

The last paragraph says:

“The complex sat empty until 2017, when the property was bought by a developer for $29 million. Later that same year, it was demolished to make way for two high-rise residential towers, standing at 42 and 38 stories tall. The towers will have over 40,000 square feet of shops and restaurants on the lower levels, and 1,200 one and two bedroom apartments. The first phase of the project is planned to be completed by 2021.”

I’ve seen this confirmed by 2019 Google Street View images, which show a large construction project where the older images show the Riverfront entertainment, dining and shopping complex.

I attended the Fort Lauderdale Film Festival here maybe 20 years ago.

In 2007, the final film I saw at what I knew as the Las Olas Riverfront Cinemas was “The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters”, a documentary about men competing to achieve the world record high score on the classic video arcade game Donkey Kong. : )

David_Schneider
David_Schneider commented about We're switching to Apple Maps on Nov 27, 2020 at 9:16 pm

Today I saw a tv news segment about an effort by the National Association of Theatre Owners called #SaveYourCinema, to rally people to contact their representatives in the United States Congress and tell them to do something to help stop movie theaters from going out of business before they can fully reopen.

David_Schneider
David_Schneider commented about Ritz Theatre on Nov 25, 2020 at 10:09 pm

I have uploaded photos I took of a historical marker/plaque for the Hollywood Theatre/Ritz Theatre that is attached to the wall on the left end of the storefront at 1921 Hollywood Boulevard that has been the home of Mickey Byrne’s Irish Pub & Restaurant for several years. The plaque includes a description and an archival photo.

The spot where the plaque is placed against the wall painted orange is visible in the 2019 Google Street View image.

Click here for a map of downtown Hollywood’s historic landmark plaques, though the Hollywood/Ritz is the only former theatre so recognized probably because the others arrived later and the marker project is about the city’s earliest important businesses.

David_Schneider
David_Schneider commented about Square Theatre on Nov 1, 2020 at 11:43 pm

Oh wow, before I read the first sentence of the second paragraph of the description for this listing (“Never more than a late-run nabe…”) I had never heard of the term “nabe” before. How often have any of you heard the term used in reference to a cinema?

A Google search for “nabe meaning” results in “a local movie theater”. The Wiktionary page says “Neighborhood theater, neighborhood cinema”, and seems to indicate it was mostly a New York City thing. (I grew up on Long Island in the 1970’s-80’s but I wasn’t from the city and rarely interacted with it.)

David_Schneider
David_Schneider commented about Paris Theatre on Oct 6, 2020 at 7:49 pm

This article from the August 17th, 2020 Miami Herald says the Paris Theater will next become a restaurant:

“Movie house. Nightclub. Adult Cinema. Video Studio. What’s Next for the Paris Theater?”

Here’s a remiamibeach.com article including some discussion of the theater’s remaining historic elements and renderings of the new concept:

“Preservation Board to Consider Planned Renovations and ‘Supper Club’ Proposal for Historic Paris Theater”

This website promoting the current incarnation of the venue says “In the ’90s, when Miami’s fashion and film industries were riding high, artists such as Madonna, U2, J. Lo, Christina Aguilera and Ricky Martin shot album covers and music videos there. Major photographers such as Helmut Newton, Herb Ritz, Patrick Demarchelier, and Bruce Weber shot campaigns for major fashion magazines and world renowned fashion designers using supermodels of the era to create their content.”

David_Schneider
David_Schneider commented about Biscayne Park Theater on Oct 6, 2020 at 7:29 pm

Al,

You are referring to an entertainment complex (probably not the Biscayne Park Theater) that included Pueblo Feliz (“Visit the quaint streets of old Spain before the shows” one newspaper ad says), and Teatro de Alegria…. Like you noted, it seems to have never exhibited films.

In his book “From Farms and Fields to the Future: The Incredible History of North Miami Beach”, Seth Bramson says it was built “fronting today’s NE 16th Ave and 123rd Street”.

Click here to see an artist’s depiction on a postcard.

Another listing for the postcard describes the show “Fountania” as having been a “Florida historical pageant”.

The complex was also damaged and closed by the Great Miami Hurricane of 1926, then what was left burned down sometime later.

David_Schneider
David_Schneider commented about Ritz Theatre on Oct 6, 2020 at 6:42 pm

The Apple Maps image shows the location as being within ArtsPark at Young Circle but the correct location is west of there on the north side of Hollywood Boulevard, shown correctly on Google Maps.

David_Schneider
David_Schneider commented about Ritz Theatre on Oct 6, 2020 at 6:31 pm

Click here to see a nice photo of when this was the Hollywood Theatre from the blog “Florida’s Hollywood: History and People” by Joan Mickelson, Ph. D.

David_Schneider
David_Schneider commented about Garfield Theatre on Oct 4, 2020 at 8:28 pm

Here are Joan Mickelson’s blog posts that mention the Garfield Theatre:

“Hollywood, Florida – Not Named for the Movie Capitol”

“The ’26 Hurricane: Refuting the Myth That Hollywood Was Destroyed by That Storm”

Says that back in the 1920’s US-1/North Federal Highway was called North 18th Avenue or “East Dixie”.

Click here for a photo from the blog of hurricane damage on which a note reads “In this wreck lies the Garfield Theatre…” (The Quonset hut shaped building is Brandon’s Hippodrome.)

David_Schneider
David_Schneider commented about Monarch Theater on Sep 28, 2020 at 7:23 pm

The 2019 Google Street View image shows that the carwash, called Division Wickerwash, is closed and its storefront empty with the blue awnings and signage removed.

I enjoyed finding this listing a couple years ago when I looked at the Cinema Treasures page for Movie Theaters Organized by Current Function and saw “car wash” included ….. Car wash! : ) Does this make it a sort of drive-thru theater? : )

The place looked cute. I liked that the vertical “car wash” sign seemed to be designed and placed in cinema signage style with lights around the edges like an homage to the location having been a movie theater.

Click here for some external photos on Google.

Wow, mine is the first comment on this page since 2008…. though this means the Monarch will no longer be listed as a “car wash” for others to discover the way I did.

David_Schneider
David_Schneider commented about Blue Starlite Mini Urban Drive-In - Miami on Sep 28, 2020 at 6:43 pm

To add to my comment above this one, I found two more drive-ins that have popped up: Florida City Cinema in southern Miami-Dade County, and Carpool Cinema, whose website says “The first and only boutique drive-in theatre in Wynwood”, although as I mention in my description at the top of this page the Blue Starlite’s first Miami-Dade County location was in Wynwood. : )

And if you’d rather just set up a theater in your backyard, here’s an article from the Philadelphia Inquirer reprinted in the July 26th, 2020 Miami Herald:

“How to Set Up an Outdoor Home Movie Theater”

David_Schneider
David_Schneider commented about South Bay Cinemas on Sep 28, 2020 at 6:26 pm

robboehm, yeah I’m not saying the South Bay was impressive, just it was the first cinema I was ever at. : ) When I was last there in the summer of 2000 with my late mother to see “Bring It On”, it did seem somewhat rundown. …. Wow, I just realized my mother, the person I went there with the final time, was the person I was there with the first time. (All my visits in between were without her.) As we approached the entrance I may have said something like “You brought me here in 1974”…..

I just found out by perusing Cinema Treasures listings that the Islip Theater, which had closed after I last visited it in 2000 to see “The Perfect Storm” or “X-Men”, has since reopened as the Islip Cinemas, so one of the cinemas I recall attending is still a movie theater. Other than that I get the impression there are currently no operating movie theaters that close to the Babylon/West Islip/Bay Shore area, while in my time there were several choices.

David_Schneider
David_Schneider commented about South Bay Cinemas on Sep 26, 2020 at 8:53 pm

robboehm — I’d like to use this, my 300th comment on Cinema Treasures, to thank you for keeping track of the first movie theater I ever attended back in 1974, the South Bay Cinemas. (See my comment posted on January 17th, 2016.)

Interesting that although all of the cinemas I recall visiting on Long Island from then through 2000 are gone, the one that still might reopen and carry on as a movie theater is the first one I ever went to.

David_Schneider
David_Schneider commented about Circle Theater on Sep 19, 2020 at 9:52 pm

The Circle Theater was demolished, along with the Parkway Shops building in front of it that included the hallway leading up to the theater’s entrance, starting the final week of December 2019:

“Going, Going, Gone” (A page of demolition process photos on MiamiSprings.com.)

“Farewell to the Circle Theater in Miami Springs” Facebook page from the Miami Springs Historical Society. (Check out some old photos and comments from people sharing memories.)

I first visited Miami Springs sometime in the 1990’s, where I was surprised to encounter a downtown environment with somewhat of a hometown feeling different from the rest of Miami-Dade County, arranged around a traffic circle and continuing on the streets radiating from it.

I felt attracted to the look of the Clune/Stadnik building, then the adjacent Parkway Shops, at which I was drawn in to this store-lined hallway that beckoned me to see where it leads…. and at the end discovered, oh, the entrance to a defunct cinema! At the time the glass doors were not covered with paper and I could peer through to identify the remains of a concession stand across a dusty lobby, like I’m a movie theater archaeologist. : )

In the 2000’s I’d stop by and check on the empty cinema when enjoying Miami Springs events such as the River Cities Festival. Some sort of Building Department permit posted on one of the doors for what seemed like years informed me that this had been the Circle Theater, though not much changed.

During a historic tour of the city, I learned that the Clune/Stadnik building and the Parkway Shops, as well as a few others within the municipality’s limits, the Curtiss Mansion in particular, were constructed in Pueblo Revival style, inspired by the architecture of New Mexico.

Over the years I got the impression that Miami Springs is a self-contained community with its own character, where you can obtain many of the goods and services you frequently need without leaving and a lot of the residents know each other: the teens socializing and doing school work at the Starbucks across from the Parkway Shops would run into others with whom they are familiar, though they had not necessarily planned to meet there; at the annual Independence Day Parade many of the spectators and participants seemed already acquainted… I felt it a shame that the Circle Theater was no longer operating to make the contribution to this communal experience that it must have in its day.

When I last visited for a small arts festival in 2018, something felt slightly different to me that I couldn’t precisely identify, like maybe the vibe of the city was starting to become more like the rest of Miami-Dade County. Then in 2020, as if to confirm my suspicions, I came across articles on MiamiSprings.com saying the Circle Theater and Parkway Shops buildings were gone, to be replaced by an apartment and retail complex whose design has nothing to do with the Pueblo Revival style probably unique in South Florida to Miami Springs.

At least Google Maps satellite view shows that the Clune/Stadnik building is still there, being that it is on the National Register of Historic Places and a designated Miami Springs Historic Site.

If Miami Springs is gradually losing its character, those who remember or have gained an understanding will tell of a previous context in which the Circle Theater played its role.

David_Schneider
David_Schneider commented about Dream Theater on Aug 8, 2020 at 10:49 pm

Wow, check out this view of the outdoor auditorium that I just added to the photos section. So this once existed where a parking lot is now behind what today is a the Bank of America. I never thought I’d get to see what it looked like.

And click here for an article from the website of the Coral Gables Museum about the history of the Dream Theater.

It includes that the Dream Theater was designed by architects John and Coulton Skinner, “yielding a capacity of 1500” which apparently refers to the number of seats, and closed sometime between 1927-29.

David_Schneider
David_Schneider commented about Riviera Theatre on Aug 8, 2020 at 10:31 pm

Wow, thanks rivest266!… An opening night article and ad from 1926! This is amazing!

I saw this a day after you posted it but am just getting back to it now.

This most directly confirms what I had heard about there having been a Wurlitzer organ. I see that it and some other details have now been included in my description that I submitted when I created this listing. : )

The opening night promotion sounds like an event I would have attended, but I missed it by 94 years… I can only pause and imagine what the Riviera Theatre experience may have been like when I walk through the western edge of the Sunset Place parking garage where the auditorium had approximately been. (Ironically the bottom of the opening night ad says “Plenty of Parking Space”.)