Beacham Theater

Joe Vogel on January 6, 2011 at 6:04 am

A small “before” photo of the Beacham Theatre and an architects rendering of the remodeled facade appeared on this page of Boxoffice, January 6, 1954. Plans for the remodeling project were by the architectural firm of Kemp, Bunch & Jackson, the firm which took over the practice of architect Roy A. Benjamin upon his retirement in 1946. There’s a possibility that Benjamin was the original architect of the Beacham, but I haven’t been able to confirm this.

Samuel Augustus Jennings on June 18, 2011 at 3:50 am

I was greatly frustrated by COLOREDand WHITEdrinking fountains at Kress and segregated lunch counters at drug stores (Liggett-Rexall, Emerich, and Stroud) and other dime stores like Woolworth, Grants, McCrory in downtown Orlando. Blacks were also barred from white-only movie theaters like the Beacham, Rialto, Roxy, and Astor in downtown Orlando, the Colony in downtown Winter Park, and the Vogue in Colonialtown.

The inviting smell of hot buttered popcorn (made with real butter) tried in vain to lure me inside while passing the box office of the first-run Beacham Theater on Orange Avenue, but I dared not enter. In 1954 I looked up at the dazzling flashing neon marquee advertising CARMEN JONES starring Dorothy Dandridge, my favorite actress of all time. Posters of sassy Dorothy as Carmen striking that world famous provocative pose were plastered all over the place, but I would have to wait 6 months to a year before that black movie classic moved to the new Carver Theatre for colored people on Church and Parramore Streets.

That hurt me deeply, because in Detroit or LA I would have walked right in any theater without giving it a second thought. Less than 3 blocks away from the Carver sat the rat-infested pre-historic Lincoln Theater where movies were even older, but the food was better. Both colored theaters were owned and operated by the Gordons –husband, wife, and Baby Hughey (their grown son). Baby Hughey was weird indeed and everybody called him a “punk"(the colored term for "homosexual").

In the early 60’s teen activists in the Youth Council of the NAACP were arrested while demonstrating against segregation at the Beacham and other public places in Orlando. I was president of the Youth Council when we engaged in sit-ins, wade-ins, and mass civil disobedience challenging southern tradition and American apartheid in the land of the free.

We also picketed the Carver Theater to show first run movies. We even planted a stink bomb (made in our Jones High School chemistry lab) in the Carver and howled as as those who crossed the picket line ran out screaming and cussing!

The first movie I remember seeing at the Beacham after it integrated was “Circus World” (starring an aging Rita Hayworth) in 1964. By the mid-70’s the Beacham had been renamed the Great Southern Music Hall featuring live acts like “Weather Report”. I tried without success to book The Supremes at the Music Hall but the famous trio rang in the 1974 New Year singing “Love Train” at the Contemporary Hotel at Disney World.

The Beacham now sits dirty and derelict in scruffy downtown Orlando, both in dire need of a major facelift. It is sad to think that the bright blinking lights and the smell of hot buttered popcorn are gone with the wind.

lartomar on July 4, 2015 at 4:02 am

Saw the"Police" on their first North American tour. It was shortly after Roxanne came out. What a great show. Back then who would have thought what they would eventually become. Looking forward to seeing “The Killers” in August. Brandon Flowers the lead singer is now appearing on Guitar Center Sessions on DirectTV Audience channels, 101, 239

spectrum on August 18, 2022 at 7:31 pm

This is now known as The Beacham, billed as Orlando’s #1 nightclub. Their official website is at https://www.beachamorlando.com/home

50sSNIPES on October 19, 2025 at 5:31 pm

Later operated by ABC Florida State Theatres, and closed as a first-run movie theater on September 28, 1975 with “Return Of The Street Fighter” and “The Scavengers”.