On Oct. 28, 1908, Carl Kettler opened the Bijou Theatre in the Jefferson building on Clematis Street. The opening feature was The Great Train Robbery. Kettler later moved the Bijou to Clematis and Narcissus streets and replaced it in 1924 with a new building known as the Kettler Theater.
The Bijou Theatre just before it was demolished to make way for the new Kettler Theater in July 1923. (Photo courtesy of the Historical Society of Palm Beach County)
Read more about the history of local theaters here.
Tags: theaters, This Week in History, West Palm Beach
By Michelle Quigley
Several readers have mentioned fond memories of summertime movies in downtown (and later mall and multiplex) theaters.
A 1961 letter to the editor published in The Palm Beach Post describes a typical Wednesday morning at the Florida Theatre:
With RC bottle caps clutched tightly in their small hands as though they were nuggets of gold, they anxiously await the doors opening. Impatiently they rush into the cool comfort of this spacious arena and seek the seats of their choice.
By 1972 the price of admission to the Summer Fun Shows — still held on Wednesday mornings — had risen from six RC Cola bottle caps to 25 cents with a coupon, or 50 cents without. The 1972 movies included War Between the Planets, Black Beauty, and King Kong Escapes.
The Florida Theater Summer Fun Show sponsors over the years included The Palm Beach Post-Times, Montgomery Ward, Royal Crown Cola Bottling Co., and Fountain’s Department Store. As early as 1947 the Florida State Theatres (as it was spelled then) courted young audiences:
Seeing appropriate movies is good for children. It relaxes their active minds and bodies as they spend a couple of restful hours in another world.
The Florida Theater wasn’t the only place kids went to see movies back in the day. The Palms Theatre hosted a local group of newspaper carriers in 1963:
And these kids went to see the beach party movie How to Stuff a Wild Bikini in 1965:
We invite you to share your movie memories here on HistoricPalmBeach.com and on our Facebook page.
Tags: advertising, children, movies, theaters
When people talk about the good old days they often remember going to the movies. Maybe it’s because movie theaters were among the first places that were air conditioned, or because everyone beyond a certain age has fond memories of drive-in movies. In the 1940s each city in Palm Beach County had a downtown theater or two, and drive-ins weren’t just for swap shops and flea markets. Please share your old-time movie memories in the comments below!
Tags: theaters
Longtime resident Roger St. Martin of suburban Lake Worth, who once was a pin boy at the Carefree bowling alley, asked for some details on the West Palm Beach area’s early theaters and its boxing arena.
Former child actor Carl Kettler opened the Bijou, the city’s first theater, in 1908 on the southwest corner of where Clematis Street now splits in front of the West Palm Beach library. He later moved it to Clematis and Narcissus streets and replaced it with the Kettler in 1924. The Kettler (above, in a 1920s photo from the Historical Society of Palm Beach County) cost $500,000, in 1920′s dollars, and boasted 1,400 seats, colored lights, fans and smoking rooms. It became the Palms and was razed in 1965.
The Florida Theatre opened in 1949 north of the Kettler. It closed in 1981, operated as a stage theater until 1991, briefly reopened in 1996 and now is the Cuillo Centre for the Arts.
The Carefree Bowlaway, south of downtown, opened in 1939; it became the Carefree Theatre (above, in a 1984 Palm Beach Post staff file photo) in 1948 and continued to present films and live shows. Its roof collapsed during Hurricane Wilma in 2005 and it remains closed.
The 1,068-seat Paramount Theatre in Palm Beach (above, in a 1939 photo from the Historical Society of Palm Beach County), showing major films and drawing top-name entertainers, operated from 1927 to 1968, then reopened briefly, and was converted to a retail and office complex in 1982.
And the Oakley Theatre, a Lake Worth vaudeville and movie house, opened in 1924.
Damaged by the 1928 hurricane and victimized by the Depression, it was dark for decades, then reopened as an adult theater in the 1970s, and became the Lake Worth Playhouse (above, in a 2007 Palm Beach Post staff file photo) in 1975.
Co-founder Lucien Oakley supposedly haunts the place.
Boxing will have to wait until next week, Mr. St. Martin!
Tags: theaters
