Of the businesses in the Riviera Plaza shopping center, the theater was the centerpiece and the last to go.
In early February 2020, a few weeks before the coronavirus pandemic shutdown, I noticed that all of the Plaza’s storefronts other than the theater were permanently closed, with some posting signs saying they had relocated elsewhere. The Area Stage Company that was using the Riviera Theatre remained, probably until the shutdown, and is moving a block south to a space inside the Sunset Place shopping mall on the second floor near Barnes & Nobles.
I believe that in the immediate area the only businesses that date back to when the Riviera Theatre was a cinema are Swensen’s restaurant and Publix supermarket (before it moves to the new Riviera Plaza).
I remember the Plaza once included Riviera Photo (I think it was called), a photography shop where University of Miami film students had their Super 8mm film cartridges processed for their introduction to film production classes. The store had been there for decades, then closed sometime in the 90’s due perhaps to the rise of digital cameras, and by that time the nice older couple who owned it may have wished to retire.
If the Riviera Plaza is torn down I may miss it, even though it hasn’t been a regular part of my life in many years.
Homestead’s first bowling/cinema combination was Paula Carter’s Pro Bowl (last called Homestead Bowling Center) that included the Fun Center Cinema that operated in the 1990’s near US-1.
The Showbiz, Homestead’s latest cinema, happens to have been built approximately where Homestead’s earliest one once stood over 100 years before.
“Homestead’s first movie theatre dates to 1913….The first movies were shown in Sistrunk Hall which was on the south side of Mowry Street just west of the Bank of Homestead – most recently the Homestead Police Station.”
The old Homestead Police Station and the buildings west of it along Mowry Street where Sistrunk Hall had previously been were removed and replaced by the Homestead Station complex that includes Showbiz Cinemas, therefore the new cinema is about where the first one had been.
Wow, thanks rivest266. I had once walked into the bowling part of the facility, but had never seen what the inside of the theater auditorium had looked like until you posted this article with its photo.
It’s interesting to read that at the time this cinema opened, “the bowling alley bijou…. is the only post-hurricane [Andrew] screen operating south of Kendall Drive at the moment…”, seventeen months after the storm wrecked South Dade.
Homestead now has a cinema and bowling combination again at the ShowBiz Cinema in the Homestead Station complex (that I had mentioned was being built in my May 2018 comment above).
Funny, apparently there is a model of the exterior of the Tower Theater in the Little Havana portion of Miniland in the Legoland theme park near Orlando:
Click here for a Youtube video of an episode of “Roadside Florida”, set to begin as the model appears.
(Also, Google for images of “Miniland Little Havana” and you might see the model in its surroundings.)
natalie66, because indoor cinemas are temporarily closed and social distancing is required in response to the coronavirus pandemic, two drive-ins popped up in northern Miami-Dade County: Carflix at the Dezerland amusement park, and another, the Hard Rock Stadium Drive-up Theater, where you park your vehicle…. on the field where the Miami Dolphins play football!
(Outside the stadium on the plaza part of the property is the Fountain Plaza Open Air Theater, where moviegoers sit outdoors.)
It appears these venues may be temporary… This Miami New Times article as well as the Hard Rock Stadium homepage say the drive-up theater is scheduled to run through August 2nd…. And this brief tv news story about the opening of Carflix mentions it was scheduled to close in early July.
If this post is therefore a little late, it still serves to indicate that these places had existed if they never reopen. : )
Another Miami New Times article from May 29th, 2020:
Today’s episode of CBS Sunday Morning gave a brief update:
“We’ve word that [Craig Smith’s] GoFundMe page has received more than two hundred thirteen thousand dollars in small donations from some five thousand of you movie lovers, saving the theater and keeping the projector and the popcorn popper on.”
Good to hear Craig has come closer to his page’s fundraising goal as his efforts continue.
I wonder how many of the donators did so because of this Cinema Treasures page. : )
Wow, I saw the CBS Sunday Morning segment as I woke up this morning and just had to post these links on Cinema Treasures. When I opened the home page this listing had just been established. : )
Firehouse Theater owner Craig Smith’s passionate one-man effort to keep the small town personalized movie-going experience alive and “make a movie house feel more like a home”:
“Our mission statement is to support the creation and operation of an art cinema in the downtown Coconut Grove Business District reminiscent of the original Fabulous Flying Fendelman Brothers Grove Art Cinema of the 1980’s.”
Click here for the Society’s photo page displaying images of the Grove Art Cinema and some of its printed programs.
Click here for a December 2nd, 2019 post of more program photos.
Thanks rivest266 for posting the above article about Nat Chediak. I knew of him from when I volunteered with the Miami Film Festival in the early 90’s and had heard that his career grew from this location, but now this article provides some early details and a sense of what the experience was like in the beginning.
Perhaps the Merry-Go-Round has come full circle. : ) This year, about three blocks south, the Coral Gables Art Cinema is holding a monthly program, “The Films of My Life”, described on its website:
“In 2020 CGAC Director of Programming Nat Chediak, dean of South Florida film exhibitors and founder of the Miami Film Festival, celebrates his 50th anniversary in Film. CGAC kicks off the festivities with a year-long series of films from around the world that have shaped his unique sensibility for the medium. Mr. Chediak will be on hand to introduce the films and engage the audience in conversation. Nat welcomes the opportunity to meet friends old and new and envisions the program as a golden opportunity to share with us his passion for Film in what is sure to be, indirectly, an ongoing master class in Film Appreciation.”
The ad that rivest266 posted says the Ocean Theatre was located “in Holiday Inn Bldg.” I looked up the address on Google Street View which shows a parking lot there, then searched for images of a Holiday Inn at that address which revealed some old postcards of a Holiday Inn Oceanside that had apparently been there beforehand.
Google Maps indicates the parking lot has now been replaced by the recently opened Las Olas Oceanside Park.
I believe sometime in the late 90’s or early 00’s I once parked in that parking lot, (having no idea there had ever been a hotel there or that there had been a cinema in it).
I remember stepping out of my car to notice that on what may have been a busy night I had found parking near the beach and across from the Elbo Room bar, which I had heard is famous in Spring Break lore.
The next day when I casually mentioned this to my late mother she suddenly said “Oh, ‘Where the Boys Are’!”, sang a few notes from that song, then was surprised I had never heard of it. She fondly explained: “That’s Connie Francis. She sang that”, from the movie of the same name, which she had seen when she was young (1960), whose story takes place during a Spring Break at that beach. … I described all this to a friend who pointed out some of the movie’s scenes had been filmed in the Elbo Room.
Years later I would see “Where the Boys Are” on television. Although the Ocean Theatre opened a decade after the movie was released, I wonder if it was ever screened there in honor of the location.
Savannah Morning News article from January 13th, 2020 about the uncertain future of the Eastside Theater and changes over the decades to the surrounding neighborhood. Includes photos of the theater and old newspaper ads, and an interactive map of locations of other Savannah cinemas:
The Eastside Theater is also listed in the book “African-American Theater Buildings: An Illustrated Historical Directory, 1900-1955” by Eric Ledell Smith.
This Hawaii Tribune-Herald article from December 27, 2019 about the theater’s current situation even references the description on this Cinema Treasures page saying “…it was the go-to theater for some 8,000 residents and 10,000 troops stationed at South Point, according to cinematreasures.org.”:
I wouldn’t know. I’m just a fan of the moviegoing experience and cinema history. I found the article and figured I’d post a link to it while stating why it seemed relevant to this page based on what the article describes.
As I prepare to go see the just released “Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker”, the final entry in the Star Wars saga, I’m thinking about this cinema, the South Shore Mall Twin, where I saw the first Star Wars movies almost 40 years ago in the early 1980’s (see my previous comment directly above).
The LA Times article mentioned by DavidZornig includes island resident’s feelings regarding their relationship to the Avalon, and says it was “the first cinema in the world designed for talkies”.
Came across this photo of a Miami Transit Company bus in front of the Olympia marquee in I’m assuming 1961 since the original “The Parent Trap” is being shown. The marquee looks larger and more traditional than today’s electronic one:
Miami Herald article from September 26, 2015 about Steven Krams, who ran a cinema equipment business in Miami for decades, supervised the design and outfitting of the Coral Gables Art Cinema, and has served as executive director of its board:
Miami Herald article from October 16th, 2019 about the O Cinema folks holding screenings at venues around the Wynwood neighborhood in response to locals who miss their movie theater:
The O Cinema website no longer lists North Beach (called Miami Beach on the site before they opened South Beach) as a location, meaning this O Cinema is closed, leaving South Beach (the former Miami Beach Cinematheque) as the only O Cinema for the time being.
So for now Miami-Dade County has 4 art cinemas left, down from 7 a couple years ago. Those remaining are: Coral Gables Art Cinema, Bill Cosford Cinema (on the University of Miami campus), Tower Theater (on 8th Street in the Little Havana neighborhood), and O Cinema South Beach.
Also here’s a webpage regarding art film screenings at various locations around South Florida that might be useful:
The South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center located just south of the mall across SW 211 Street holds a monthly film screening series called Indie Flicks.
The Riviera Theatre is closed.
Of the businesses in the Riviera Plaza shopping center, the theater was the centerpiece and the last to go.
In early February 2020, a few weeks before the coronavirus pandemic shutdown, I noticed that all of the Plaza’s storefronts other than the theater were permanently closed, with some posting signs saying they had relocated elsewhere. The Area Stage Company that was using the Riviera Theatre remained, probably until the shutdown, and is moving a block south to a space inside the Sunset Place shopping mall on the second floor near Barnes & Nobles.
When I walked by on July 27, 2020 the stores were still vacant. Curious, I Googled “Riviera Plaza”… and discovered that Gadinsky Real Estate, LLC has plans to turn it into a “70,000 sq. ft. multi-level Publix-anchored shopping center”, that would apparently require the original Plaza to be removed…
I believe that in the immediate area the only businesses that date back to when the Riviera Theatre was a cinema are Swensen’s restaurant and Publix supermarket (before it moves to the new Riviera Plaza).
I remember the Plaza once included Riviera Photo (I think it was called), a photography shop where University of Miami film students had their Super 8mm film cartridges processed for their introduction to film production classes. The store had been there for decades, then closed sometime in the 90’s due perhaps to the rise of digital cameras, and by that time the nice older couple who owned it may have wished to retire.
If the Riviera Plaza is torn down I may miss it, even though it hasn’t been a regular part of my life in many years.
Homestead’s first bowling/cinema combination was Paula Carter’s Pro Bowl (last called Homestead Bowling Center) that included the Fun Center Cinema that operated in the 1990’s near US-1.
The Showbiz, Homestead’s latest cinema, happens to have been built approximately where Homestead’s earliest one once stood over 100 years before.
According to this South Dade News-Leader article from December 11, 2015, “Homestead’s Early Movie Theaters”:
“Homestead’s first movie theatre dates to 1913….The first movies were shown in Sistrunk Hall which was on the south side of Mowry Street just west of the Bank of Homestead – most recently the Homestead Police Station.”
The old Homestead Police Station and the buildings west of it along Mowry Street where Sistrunk Hall had previously been were removed and replaced by the Homestead Station complex that includes Showbiz Cinemas, therefore the new cinema is about where the first one had been.
Wow, thanks rivest266. I had once walked into the bowling part of the facility, but had never seen what the inside of the theater auditorium had looked like until you posted this article with its photo.
It’s interesting to read that at the time this cinema opened, “the bowling alley bijou…. is the only post-hurricane [Andrew] screen operating south of Kendall Drive at the moment…”, seventeen months after the storm wrecked South Dade.
Homestead now has a cinema and bowling combination again at the ShowBiz Cinema in the Homestead Station complex (that I had mentioned was being built in my May 2018 comment above).
Funny, apparently there is a model of the exterior of the Tower Theater in the Little Havana portion of Miniland in the Legoland theme park near Orlando:
Click here for a Youtube video of an episode of “Roadside Florida”, set to begin as the model appears.
(Also, Google for images of “Miniland Little Havana” and you might see the model in its surroundings.)
natalie66, because indoor cinemas are temporarily closed and social distancing is required in response to the coronavirus pandemic, two drive-ins popped up in northern Miami-Dade County: Carflix at the Dezerland amusement park, and another, the Hard Rock Stadium Drive-up Theater, where you park your vehicle…. on the field where the Miami Dolphins play football!
(Outside the stadium on the plaza part of the property is the Fountain Plaza Open Air Theater, where moviegoers sit outdoors.)
It appears these venues may be temporary… This Miami New Times article as well as the Hard Rock Stadium homepage say the drive-up theater is scheduled to run through August 2nd…. And this brief tv news story about the opening of Carflix mentions it was scheduled to close in early July.
If this post is therefore a little late, it still serves to indicate that these places had existed if they never reopen. : )
Another Miami New Times article from May 29th, 2020:
“Drive-In Movie Theaters Pop Up Across Miami and Fort Lauderdale”
Miami New Times article from March 31st, 2020 about O Cinema offering “Virtual Cinema”, where films may be viewed via its website while its physical theater is temporarily closed due to the coronavirus pandemic shutdown:
“At the Movies at Home: O Cinema Launches Virtual Theater While Its South Beach Space Remains Closed”
Today’s episode of CBS Sunday Morning gave a brief update:
“We’ve word that [Craig Smith’s] GoFundMe page has received more than two hundred thirteen thousand dollars in small donations from some five thousand of you movie lovers, saving the theater and keeping the projector and the popcorn popper on.”
Good to hear Craig has come closer to his page’s fundraising goal as his efforts continue.
I wonder how many of the donators did so because of this Cinema Treasures page. : )
Wow, I saw the CBS Sunday Morning segment as I woke up this morning and just had to post these links on Cinema Treasures. When I opened the home page this listing had just been established. : )
Firehouse Theater owner Craig Smith’s passionate one-man effort to keep the small town personalized movie-going experience alive and “make a movie house feel more like a home”:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/a-small-town-silver-screen-fairy-tale-with-real-buttered-popcorn/
Also on YouTube.
The GoFundMe page:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/kingston-firehouse-theater
The “about” section of the Facebook page of the Coconut Grove Art Cinema Society says:
“Our mission statement is to support the creation and operation of an art cinema in the downtown Coconut Grove Business District reminiscent of the original Fabulous Flying Fendelman Brothers Grove Art Cinema of the 1980’s.”
Click here for the Society’s photo page displaying images of the Grove Art Cinema and some of its printed programs.
Click here for a December 2nd, 2019 post of more program photos.
Thanks rivest266 for posting the above article about Nat Chediak. I knew of him from when I volunteered with the Miami Film Festival in the early 90’s and had heard that his career grew from this location, but now this article provides some early details and a sense of what the experience was like in the beginning.
Perhaps the Merry-Go-Round has come full circle. : ) This year, about three blocks south, the Coral Gables Art Cinema is holding a monthly program, “The Films of My Life”, described on its website:
“In 2020 CGAC Director of Programming Nat Chediak, dean of South Florida film exhibitors and founder of the Miami Film Festival, celebrates his 50th anniversary in Film. CGAC kicks off the festivities with a year-long series of films from around the world that have shaped his unique sensibility for the medium. Mr. Chediak will be on hand to introduce the films and engage the audience in conversation. Nat welcomes the opportunity to meet friends old and new and envisions the program as a golden opportunity to share with us his passion for Film in what is sure to be, indirectly, an ongoing master class in Film Appreciation.”
The ad that rivest266 posted says the Ocean Theatre was located “in Holiday Inn Bldg.” I looked up the address on Google Street View which shows a parking lot there, then searched for images of a Holiday Inn at that address which revealed some old postcards of a Holiday Inn Oceanside that had apparently been there beforehand.
Google Maps indicates the parking lot has now been replaced by the recently opened Las Olas Oceanside Park.
I believe sometime in the late 90’s or early 00’s I once parked in that parking lot, (having no idea there had ever been a hotel there or that there had been a cinema in it).
I remember stepping out of my car to notice that on what may have been a busy night I had found parking near the beach and across from the Elbo Room bar, which I had heard is famous in Spring Break lore.
The next day when I casually mentioned this to my late mother she suddenly said “Oh, ‘Where the Boys Are’!”, sang a few notes from that song, then was surprised I had never heard of it. She fondly explained: “That’s Connie Francis. She sang that”, from the movie of the same name, which she had seen when she was young (1960), whose story takes place during a Spring Break at that beach. … I described all this to a friend who pointed out some of the movie’s scenes had been filmed in the Elbo Room.
Years later I would see “Where the Boys Are” on television. Although the Ocean Theatre opened a decade after the movie was released, I wonder if it was ever screened there in honor of the location.
Savannah Morning News article from January 13th, 2020 about the uncertain future of the Eastside Theater and changes over the decades to the surrounding neighborhood. Includes photos of the theater and old newspaper ads, and an interactive map of locations of other Savannah cinemas:
“Former Eastside Theater Faces Uncertain Future, Possible Disappearance”
And another from January 11th about the theater’s history, what it meant to the community, and moviegoing in Savannah in those days:
Savannah’s Last Standing Blacks-Only Theater Remembered as Refuge, Community Space"
The Eastside Theater is also listed in the book “African-American Theater Buildings: An Illustrated Historical Directory, 1900-1955” by Eric Ledell Smith.
Hawaii Tribune-Herald article from December 8th, 2019:
“Sprinkler Project a Go at Historic Palace Theater”
This Hawaii Tribune-Herald article from December 27, 2019 about the theater’s current situation even references the description on this Cinema Treasures page saying “…it was the go-to theater for some 8,000 residents and 10,000 troops stationed at South Point, according to cinematreasures.org.”:
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2019/12/27/hawaii-news/officials-considering-offer-from-foundation-to-turn-over-naalehu-theater-to-county/
I hope the future of the Olympia is well.
Miami Herald article from December 28, 2019 about the family of Maurice Gusman trying to get control of the Olympia back from the City of Miami:
“He Donated Olympia Theater to Miami Decades Ago. Now His Family Wants It Back”
And another from the December 10th Miami Today newspaper with links to related articles on the right hand of the page:
“Cliffhanger at the Gusman Meets New and Frightening Peril”
Al, I had been wondering if you knew of him.
I wouldn’t know. I’m just a fan of the moviegoing experience and cinema history. I found the article and figured I’d post a link to it while stating why it seemed relevant to this page based on what the article describes.
As I prepare to go see the just released “Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker”, the final entry in the Star Wars saga, I’m thinking about this cinema, the South Shore Mall Twin, where I saw the first Star Wars movies almost 40 years ago in the early 1980’s (see my previous comment directly above).
The LA Times article mentioned by DavidZornig includes island resident’s feelings regarding their relationship to the Avalon, and says it was “the first cinema in the world designed for talkies”.
CBS Morning News segments from 11/22-23/2019 regarding the documentary Comfortably Cool just mentioned:
https://www.cbsnews.com/video/telling-the-story-of-the-apollo-was-an-overwhelming-task-filmmaker/
https://www.cbsnews.com/video/new-hbo-documentary-highlights-apollo-theaters-legacy/
Came across this photo of a Miami Transit Company bus in front of the Olympia marquee in I’m assuming 1961 since the original “The Parent Trap” is being shown. The marquee looks larger and more traditional than today’s electronic one:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/autobuses/8331559650/in/album-72157677675938345/
Miami Herald article from September 26, 2015 about Steven Krams, who ran a cinema equipment business in Miami for decades, supervised the design and outfitting of the Coral Gables Art Cinema, and has served as executive director of its board:
“Steven Krams, Miami’s Movie Man: For the Love of Film — and Projectors, Too”
Miami Herald article from October 16th, 2019 about the O Cinema folks holding screenings at venues around the Wynwood neighborhood in response to locals who miss their movie theater:
O Cinema is Returning to Wynwood — But In a Radically Different Model
The O Cinema website no longer lists North Beach (called Miami Beach on the site before they opened South Beach) as a location, meaning this O Cinema is closed, leaving South Beach (the former Miami Beach Cinematheque) as the only O Cinema for the time being.
So for now Miami-Dade County has 4 art cinemas left, down from 7 a couple years ago. Those remaining are: Coral Gables Art Cinema, Bill Cosford Cinema (on the University of Miami campus), Tower Theater (on 8th Street in the Little Havana neighborhood), and O Cinema South Beach.
Also here’s a webpage regarding art film screenings at various locations around South Florida that might be useful:
https://www.miamiartguide.com/category/cinema-1/
The South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center located just south of the mall across SW 211 Street holds a monthly film screening series called Indie Flicks.
Albuquerque Journal article from October 6th, 2019 about the history of the naming of the KiMo:
“Six Letters or Less: KiMo Theatre Naming Process Utilized the Power of Community”
Also there’s a recently released book: “KiMo Theatre: Fact & Folklore”