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Vintage St. Pete: When downtown got ‘legitimate theatre’
In 1953, Broadway came to an old movie house.
With just one TV station for all of Tampa Bay, WSUN, entertainment options in 1953 were few and far between.
St. Petersburg’s ’s population at that time was estimated at 120,000, and they were served by a handful of AM radio stations, and by half a dozen single screen movie theaters, most concentrated in the downtown area.
What folks needed, new residents Carl Cavello and Sam Harris decided, was a Broadway-style professional theater (to use the parlance of the day, “legitimate theatre”) with real stars. At the end of ’52, they bought the Capitol Theatre, one of the city’s many cinderblock movie houses, and renovated it with lights, theater sound, a blue velvet curtain, thick red carpeting and a new stage.
The 850-seat Capitol, at 140 1st Street N., had made its debut in 1925 as an “open-air” theater, with only a partial roof. Which was great on balmy Florida nights, as the building was initially not air-conditioned, but miserable when it got humid, or buggy, or rainy. The roof was closed off in 1927, before the arrival of “talkies.” Air conditioning was added later.
St. Petersburg’s Capitol Theatre, date unknown. Photo: Tampa Bay Times via Zuma Press Wire.
Cavallo and Harris announced a 10-week season for January 1953, with comedy or drama Monday through Saturday each week. This was the peak of St. Petersburg’s winter tourist season, offering up the maximum number of potential patrons.
Cavallo “has had theatrical interests,” explained the St. Petersburg Times, and Harris (a former magazine editor) was quoted as saying “I feel sure St. Petersburg will give our project hearty endorsement.”
Well, yes and no. When the Capitol Theatre began its first season, the St. Petersburg Operetta was already in its death throes. Launched in ’51, the Operetta was another attempt to bring big city theater to the Sunshine City, with Broadway actors and singers (no big names, though) performing in the round, under a Big Top circus tent on 4th Street N. With 1,400 seats.
The tent blew over, the Operetta was relocated to Gay Blades Roller Rink, and with dwindling attendance the endeavor was shut down early in ’53, the owners bickering, broke and blaming each other for the failure.
READ MORE: Vintage St. Pete: The Operetta and the Music Circus
At the same time a similar tented venture, the Treasure Island Music Circus, lasted all of one month at a Gulf Boulevard intersection.
Burgess Meredith, Franchot Tone, Joan Blondell, Zasu Pitts, Glenda Farrell, Clare Luce, John Dall and Betsy von Furtstenberg were probably the most famous thespians to “tread the boards” at the Capitol; in many cases, they were already in the South, touring with their plays.
That’s still how theater (and concert) booking works today. The venue or promoter puts in a bid for available dates on the tour, since the company would already be in the vicinity.
The owners cagily dropped the names of stars who were being negotiated with, including Vincent Price, Gypsy Rose Lee and Sylvia Sidney (“but no promises!”). It made good copy for the newspaper, but none of them materialized.
By the second season (1954), Harris had been bought out by Cavallo and new business partner John. J. Dewey. The bosses hired Zach Waters, of the Pinellas Players at Pinellas International Airport, and the then-current director of the Clearwater Little Theatre, as “director in an advisory capacity.”
Soon enough, before you could say “switch on the ghost light,” it was all over.
The lineup
Each show (all comedies in this inaugural season) opened on a Monday and concluded six days later with a Saturday matinee.
1953
Jan. 19 Glenda Farrell in The Fatal Weakness. In the 1930s, Farrell had roles in I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang, Lady For a Day and other movies; she starred in the Torchy series, and made five comedies co-billed with her pal Joan Blondell.
Jan. 26 Franchot Tone in Jason. Tone appeared in over 100 films; notably, he played reluctant mutineer Roger Byam in the 1935 Mutiny on the Bounty, with Clark Gable and Charles Laughton. He was briefly married to Joan Crawford. He co-produced 1950’s Hitchcockian thriller The Man on the Eiffel Tower, and co-starred in it with the film’s director, Burgess Meredith.
Feb. 2 Kay Francis in Theatre. Francis was a stage and silent film actress in the 1920s who enjoyed a brief reign as Warner Bros.’ highest-paid actress in the ‘30s. She returned to stagework after her movie career bottomed out. “It’s not the greatest play in world,” Francis tells a local reporter. “But it has appeal.”
Feb. 9 Mischa Auer in Room Service. Russian-born comic actor whose films included My Man Godfrey, Destry Rides Again, Hellzapoppin’ and One Hundred Men and a Girl.
Feb. 16 Ilka Chase in Over 21. (written by Ruth Gordon). Ilka, the daughter of Vogue editor-in-chief Edna Woolman Chase, was an author and (later) a TV personality who started out on the stage and appeared in a handful of films, most notably Now, Voyager with Bette Davis.
Feb. 23 Joan Blondell in Happy Birthday. Considered an icon of pre-Hayes Code (1930s) Hollywood, the “Brassy Blond with a Heart of Gold” had just come off an Academy Award nomination for The Blue Veil; she’d be Tony-nominated in 1958 for Broadway’s The Rope Dancers. She had star turns in Nightmare Alley (opposite Tyrone Power), Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?, Desk Set and many others. Her daughter, Ellen Powell, appeared with Blondell in the Capitol show.
March 1, 1953, Madeira Beach, Florida: Burgess Meredith, here to appear at the Capitol Theatre has been spending much of his time at the Pilgrims on Madeira Beach with his 20-month-old son Johnathan, eight-month old Tara, and his blonde, ex-ballerina wife Kaja Sundsten. Photo: Johnnie Evans/Tampa Bay Times via Zuma Press Wire.
March 2 Burgess Meredith in The Silver Whistle. The salty-voiced auteur was, at the time, one of America’s most respected Broadway and screen actors and directors; his acclaimed Hollywood films included Of Mice and Men and The Story of G.I. Joe. Blacklisted by Sen. Joseph McCarthy, he would stay away from films for most of the 1950s. On television, he became one of the best-known repeat players on Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone series, later played the Penguin on Batman, and was Oscar-nominated for his portrayal of Rocky Balboa’s crusty trainer, Mickey, in the first three Rocky films.
(Note: Meredith and the Silver Whistle company came to St. Petersburg immediately following a week’s run at the Palm Beach Playhouse, during which the cast also included young actress Cloris Leachman. Typical for the times, members of the supporting cast were sometimes switched out between bookings, due to scheduling conflicts, and Leachman didn’t come here with The Silver Whistle.)
March 9 Miriam Hopkins in Hay Fever (written by Noel Coward). Savannah-born stage actress who made 35 films, mostly in the ’30s for Paramount. Hopkins was the first performer nominated for an Academy Award for a color film (Becky Sharp, 1935).
ZaSu Pitts
March 16 Zasu Pitts in The Late Christopher Bean. Pitts was a comic actress who got her start in silent films. Often referred to as “rubber-faced,” Pitts created a persona for herself and it served her well, as her career thrived with the advent of television. She made her final film, It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, in 1963. Comedy.
“I’m more surprised than anyone else when I say something and people laugh,” Pitts says in a Times interview. “If I can make people laugh in days like these, I feel I am doing my little bit.”
Betsy von Furtstenberg
March 23 Franchot Tone and Betsy von Furstenberg in The Second Man. A German-born heiress, von Furstenberg (second-billed to Tone in his second Capitol Theatre show) studied acting under the legendary Sanford Meisner, and arrived in St. Petersburg shortly after her Broadway debut in Second Threshold (for which Life magazine sang her praises and put her on the cover).
(Later this year, and into 1954, Tone and von Furstenberg would reunite in the original cast of Oh, Men! Oh, Women! on Broadway.)
It’s pretty obvious that the second season suffered from a reduction in star power:
1954
Image: St. Petersburg Museum of History.
Jan. 11 Donald Cook in The Moon is Blue. Cook and co-star Janey Riley both appeared in the original Broadway production. Comedy.
Jan. 18 John Dall in Mister Roberts. Dall and Farley Granger were the intellectual murderers in Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope; his other best-known works are Girl Crazy and The Corn is Green. Comic drama.
Jan. 25 Born Yesterday. Comic drama with no stars.
Feb. 1 John Dall in Stalag 17. Dall’s second Capitol show. Comedy.
Feb. 8 Sidney Blackmer in The Country Girl. Blackmer was a Tony winner (for Come Back, Little Sheba) in 1950. A character actor who appeared in 100 films going back to the 1920s; he was in Little Caesar, Heidi, Angels With Broken Wings, Nazi Agent, Duel in the Sun, High Society and, fast forward to 1968, Rosemary’s Baby. Drama.
Feb. 15 Nils Asther in The Happy Time. Swedish actor who began in the silent era; once called “The male Greta Garbo.” Comedy.
Feb. 22 Claire Luce in Time of the Cuckoo. Although her filmography was small, Luce was a popular Broadway performer (actress and dancer) in the ‘20s, ‘30s and ‘40s. She also appeared in Shakespearean productions on the London stage. Drama.
March 1 Angel Street. Drama with no stars.
The curtain falls
That’s when the Capitol went dark. Behind the scenes, the money had simply run out.
John Dewey of the Capitol Theatre says persons who had tickets covering season shows there may cash them in at the Capitol office. The theatre closed two weeks earlier than planned, hence the refund on season tickets.
St. Petersburg Times/March 25, 1954
It wasn’t until the unexpected return of Clearwater director Zach Waters, in November 1955, that “legitimate theatre” was once again proposed for the aging structure.
Waters, whose amateur theater at the Pinellas airport had burned to the ground, leased the Capitol for a series of 15 plays, starting in January. These had no “stars” attached, but would be populated with a stock company of local, paid thespians, thereby guaranteeing quality.
Waters produced exactly one show, in January. The Traveler’s Joy cast and crew quit, citing “lack of advertising and utter mismanagement.” The company collapsed.
In a long, rambling letter published in the Times, Waters blamed his investors. They did not put their money where their mouths were, he said.
“Is it my fault? I have staked my last dollar, spent months of my time, selected a good cast, exercised all my skill to produce a good show, which if not supported by our citizens will, I am afraid, once and for all spell the death of ‘little theatre’ professionally, in St. Petersburg.”
Zach Waters, St. Petersburg Times/Jan. 10, 1956
He was wrong, of course, as anateur theater thrived, and continues to thrive, in Pinellas County. Although audiences, with so many entertainment choices at their fingertips, are much smaller.
Professional theater, performed by full-time actors who don’t necessarily have to work day jobs, began with the arrival of American Stage in the 1970s.
A different kind of theater began in 1969 with the Showboat, the county’s first dinner theater. For two decades, the Showboat and its rival, the Country Dinner Playhouse, paired local supporting casts with faded TV and film stars for a good old “dinner and a show” night out. Interest in celebrity dinner theater faded in the 1980s.
READ MORE: Vintage St. Pete: Celebrity Dinner Theater
As for the Capitol Theatre, it re-opened as a movie palace in 1959; it was briefly known as the Family Theatre, offering second-run hits at discount prices. Within a few years, the skids having been well and truly hit, the Capitol went the way of just about all of St. Pete’s formerly great downtown theaters, screening adult films.
The Capitol was razed in 1968. The building at the site today includes a men’s hairdressing salon and other businesses.
