70th Anniversary Beach Theatre in St Pete Beach
This Sunday the iconic Beach Theatre in St. Pete Beach celebrates its 70th Anniversary with discount admission and two classic movies. Admission on Sunday is rolled back to 25 cents per person. Normal ticket prices range from $5 to $7. The family classic movie “The Wizard of Oz” will be shown at 1pm and 4pm. Dorothy and her dog Toto are caught in a tornado’s path and end up in the land of Oz. Dorothy meets the Tin Man, the Brave Lion and the Scarecrow who help her to meet the Wizard of Oz who everyone says can help her return home and possibly grant her new friends their goals of a brain, heart and courage. Dorothy has to be defeat the Wicked Witch of the West to have a chance to get back to Kansas. At 7pm, the Cary Grant comedy classic “His Girl Friday” will be shown. A newspaper editor played by Cary Grant meets his ex-wife/ex-star reporter’s fiancee the day before they are set to be married. She says she will be happy to live a life where she will be treated like a real woman, not a newsman. Grant spends the rest of the movie, which all takes place in one day, trying to lure Hildy back into the life they shared. Most of the movie takes place in the press room of a police station. The St. Pete Beach Theatre is a historic landmark along the west coast of Florida. Built in 1939 for about $50,000, it was said to be the first theater ever erected for sound equipment on the coast. The opening night for the theatre was 15 January 1940. The first movie shown was “Dust Be My Destiny”. Embittered after serving time for a burglary he did not commit, Joe Bell is soon back in jail, on a prison farm. His love for the foreman’s daughter leads to a fight between them, leading to the older man’s death due to a weak heart. Joe and Mabel go on the run as he thinks no-one would believe a nobody like him. The original theatre was fitted out with 528 seats but today there are 245 seats. The Theatre was the first building on Corey Avenue, which was a fairly busy road in those days because the causeway was the only route on and off St.Pete Beach.
