Address | 7770 Biscayne Boulevard Miami, Florida United States |
---|---|
Coordinates | 25°50′49.0″N80°11′05.8″W / 25.846944°N 80.184944°W |
Owner | Leroy Griffith |
Operator | Paramount Enterprises, Inc. (1940s) |
Capacity | 974 |
Current use | Gold Rush Cabaret (adult nightclub) |
Construction | |
Opened | November 21, 1940 |
Years active | 1940-present |
Architect | Weed & Reeder |
Website | |
goldrushcabaret.com |
The Boulevard Theater is a former movie theater located at 7770 Biscayne Boulevard in Miami, Florida. [1] It is owned by theater and nightclub proprietor and former Broadway theater producer Leroy Griffith.
The theater has variously served as a night club and adult movie theater. It is currently an adult entertainment club, Gold Rush Cabaret.
The Boulevard's doors first opened on Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, November 21, 1940. Hailed as "the finest neighborhood theater in the South," the Boulevard featured modern amenities unique to the period, including a massive air conditioning system, acoustical walls, and neon lighting. [2]
The theater, part of the Paramount Theatres chain, debuted with a matinee showing of Rhythm on the River , starring Bing Crosby and Mary Martin.
Purchased by Griffith for $165,000 in 1970 and renamed the Pussycat, he created three different theaters within: the Pussycat, the center theater, was a 900-seat theater that showed adult films including Deep Throat ; the Kitty Cat featured female performers; and the Tomcat featured male performers. [3]
Over the decades, the theater has also been known variously as Black Gold, Club Madonna II, Pussycat II, Shadows, and Wonderland.
Community activists have tried, and failed, to shut down the theater during its time as an adult club. [4] [5]
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production and distribution company and the namesake division of Paramount Global. It is the sixth-oldest film studio in the world, the second-oldest film studio in the United States, and the sole member of the "Big Five" film studios located within the city limits of Los Angeles.
Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music, song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, a casino, a hotel, a restaurant, or a nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining or drinking, does not typically dance but usually sits at tables. Performances are usually introduced by a master of ceremonies or MC. The entertainment, as performed by an ensemble of actors and according to its European origins, is often oriented towards adult audiences and of a clearly underground nature. In the United States, striptease, burlesque, drag shows, or a solo vocalist with a pianist, as well as the venues which offer this entertainment, are often advertised as cabarets.
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Fox Theatre is a historic movie theater located on Harbor Boulevard in Fullerton, California. Built in 1925 as part of the chain of Fox Theatres, the theater was closed and abandoned in 1987. The Fullerton Historic Theatre Foundation is currently in the process of fundraising and restoring the theater.
The Paramount Theatre was a 3,664-seat movie palace located at 43rd Street and Broadway on Times Square in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Opened in 1926, it was a showcase theatre and the New York headquarters of Paramount Pictures. Adolph Zukor, founder of Paramount predecessor Famous Players Film Company, maintained an office in the building until his death in 1976. The Paramount Theatre eventually became a popular live performance venue. The theater was closed in 1964 and its space converted to office and retail use. The tower which housed it, known as the Paramount Building at 1501 Broadway, is in commercial use as an office building and is still home to Paramount Pictures offices.
An adult movie theater is a euphemistic term for a movie theater dedicated to the exhibition of pornographic films.
Hollywood Masonic Temple, now known as the El Capitan Entertainment Centre and also formerly known as Masonic Convention Hall, is a building on Hollywood Boulevard in the Hollywood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, U.S., that was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985. The building, built in 1921, was designed by architect John C. Austin, also noted as the lead architect of the Griffith Observatory. The Masons operated the temple until 1982, when they sold the building after several years of declining membership. The 34,000-square-foot building was then converted into a theater and nightclub, and ownership subsequently changed several times, until it was bought by the Walt Disney Company's Buena Vista Pictures Distribution in 1998 for Buena Vista Theatres, Inc.
George Michael Cohan was an American entertainer, playwright, composer, lyricist, actor, singer, dancer and theatrical producer.
Trevor Ashley is an Australian musical theatre actor, cabaret and drag artist based in Sydney. He also has appeared on television in The Very Trevor Ashley Show.
The Pussycat Theaters were a chain of adult movie theaters, operating between the 1960s and the 1980s. Pussycat Theaters had 30 locations in California and were known for their cat-girl logo. The last one closed in 2022.
Stephen Andrew Lynch, known more commonly as S.A. Lynch, was an early motion picture industry pioneer.
American Broadcasting-Paramount Theatres, Inc. was the post-merger parent company of the American Broadcasting Company and United Paramount Theatres.
Park West is a neighborhood of Greater Downtown, Miami, Florida. It is roughly bound by Biscayne Boulevard to the east, West (NW) First Avenue to the west, North (NE/NW) 7th Street to the south and Interstate 395 to the north. As of 2010, about 4,655 residents live in Park West. The neighborhood is named 'Park West' due to its location just west of Museum Park.
The Rialto Theatre was a movie palace in New York City located at 1481 Broadway, at the northwest corner of Seventh Avenue and 42nd Street, within the Theater District of Manhattan.
Leroy Charles Griffith is an American theater and nightclub proprietor, former Broadway theater producer, and film producer. He has owned, leased, or operated more than 70 adult entertainment theaters across the United States, dating from the burlesque era of the 1950s to present day nightclubs. During burlesque's heyday, he was a prolific producer of live stage shows featuring showgirls, strippers, comedians, and other stars of the era.
The Roxy Theater is a former movie theater located at 1527 Washington Avenue in Miami Beach, Florida. In 1994, the Roxy was converted into an adult nightclub and renamed Club Madonna. It is owned and operated by theater and nightclub proprietor and former Broadway theater producer Leroy Griffith.