MDC's Tower Theater is one of Miami's oldest cultural landmarks. When it opened in December 1926, it was the finest state-of-the-art theater in the South. It is located on SW Eighth Street and Fifteenth Avenue in

Miami, Florida Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

History

Robdendon Corporation opened this movie theatre to the public as a

Wometco Wometco Enterprises (also known simply as Wometco) is an American company headquartered in Coral Gables, Florida; a suburb of Miami. It was once a large media company with diversified holdings, but slowly sold off its assets during the early 1980s ...

first-run-house in December 1926. On October 3, 1931, after extensive remodeling under the leadership of Robert Law Weed, the theatre re-opened its doors. The exterior was developed in an

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

style with a prominent 40-foot steel tower that quickly became a neighborhood landmark. The Theater was now a member of Wolfson-Meyer Theatrical Enterprises of Miami. During the late fifties and throughout the sixties, large numbers of Cuban refugees fled to Miami. The area surrounding S.W. Eighth Street - "Calle Ocho" - became a place of new beginnings. For many Cuban families, films at MDC's Tower Theater were an introduction to American culture in addition to pure entertainment. Soon MDC's Tower Theater altered its programming to include English-language films with Spanish subtitles, and eventually Spanish-language films. However, after almost sixty years of operation, MDC's Tower Theater was closed to the public in 1984. Following another remodeling in 2002, the Theater was turned over to

Miami Dade College Miami Dade College (MDC) is a public university, public college located in Miami, Miami, Florida, United States. Established in 1959, MDC operates eight campuses and numerous outreach centers throughout Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade Count ...

. Now under the auspices of Miami Film Festival. In 2011,

USA Today ''USA Today'' (often stylized in all caps) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth in 1980 and launched on September 14, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headq ...

declared MDC's Tower Theater "one of the 10 great places to see a movie in splendor" in the newspaper's round-up of the best old-fashioned movie palaces in America.

References

;Notes ;Bibliography {{coord, 25, 45, 56.42, N, 80, 13, 10.07, W, scale:20000_region:US, display=title Theatres in Miami Art Deco architecture in Florida Art Deco cinemas and movie theaters Cinemas and movie theaters in Florida Theatres completed in 1926 1926 establishments in Florida