![]() With Arnold Johnson and his orchestra and organist Celia Santon, The Grove was the place to see and be seen. 'The Grove.'īuilt in 1926 and rebuilt again after the hurricane one year later, the movie palace had its days of glory. Then in 1955, Engle bought the movie house, a.k.a. Engle opened the Florida Pharmacy, a one-stop-shop with reasonable prices to fit the bohemian Grove. In the 50s the village then a quiet area where local artists found inexpensive space to live in and work out of had one hardware store, one post office, one school and one movie house. George Engle was a self-made millionaire and oil tycoon who had decided to settle in Coconut Grove. The Depression Bust of 1929 followed the Real Estate and economic Boom of the early 20s, and the theater was more or less busted in the process. ![]() The Grove Theatre opened as a motion picture house in 1927. After placing an ad in Variety, there were many a phone call and a veritable 'Broadway' cast line lined up outside their hotel. Producer Ed Goodnow and publicist George Campbell went with Engle. Kentucky oil millionaire George Engle, who had purchased and was in the process of renovating the former movie house, went to New York to cast the first play. was the norm, and Broadway actually wanted to come to Miami. For one, routine air transport for traveling actors, producers, directors, etc. The success of the Playhouse was based on numerous factors. With the opening of the Coconut Grove Playhouse in January 1956, theater took on a greater role. The Ring was the first flexible playhouse in Miami and, indeed, the country. The stage, located at the center of the theater, facilitates seating changes and, with a revolving stage, rapid stage changes as well. 'Flexible theater' provides facilities for the five basic staging styles: arena, proscenium, horseshoe, Elizabethan and musical comedy. What was particular about the Ring was that it introduced 'flexible theater' to theatregoers. In February of 1951, the 400 seat Ring Theatre an actual playhouse, not a room opened its doors with Harvey. In 1946 the Ring Theatre on the University of Miami campus was launched in a room seating 104. The Civic Theatre of Greater Miami's object was to "foster, encourage and promote the production, appreciation, understanding and practice of dramatic art and the allied arts of the theater." The interest for and backing of theater was now well on its way. Theatrical organizations such as the Civic Theatre Players picked up on this and began offering memberships with socioeconomic benefits: membership provided "admission to the regular performances, play reading meetings and social functions." A membership card provided for admission. In the 20s, going to the theater and seeing the show was about more than just theater itself it was about seeing and speaking to those who attended. Social interaction has always been at the core of community, regional and even national theater. They presented a tragedy by John Ervine, John Ferguson, in 1931. The Temple's 1928 - 29 season included The Civic Theatre Players of Greater Miami in George Bernard Shaw's Candida and the production of Enter Madame. The program - Act I: The Walsh girls' room in Ma Woodruff's boarding house on the lower West Side in New York. North River Drive at Third Street, in 1926. The show featured The Park Associate Players starring 'Dainty Little' Edna Park in Miami's Temple Theatre, N.W. In the 20s there was Love 'Em and Leave 'Em, a comedy in three acts. Unfortunately the fate of Budge's, Prout's and other like 'Opera Houses' was to become armories, empty warehouses, boxing arenas and athletic gyms. The Pickert Children, which later became the Pickert Stock Company, played in Miami every season until 1918. Pickert brought the first theatrical production to Miami in 1912. Despite the limitations of time and distance Willis A. Nor were they able to surf the net and communicate via email at the touch of the keyboard. Although Prout's was the more ostentatious of the two, the city was quite a distance from booking centers.īack then, they did not have Miami International Airport's daily round-trip service to and from major hubs in the Northeast every hour on the hour. First Street between First and Second avenues was the second theater. ![]() Flagler Street between First and Second avenues. Built in 1899, the theater was in a one story building at E. Miami's first playhouse was Budge's Opera House. In this centennial year we look back at Miami's theater history and find that our city has become the little Broadway of the South. ![]() The city walked first it skipped on the crawling. With its population exceeding the 300 needed to incorporate into a city, Miami was never actually a town. As soon as the tracks came in Miami was set. From the very beginning the city has always been ahead of its time.
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