History

The Byron-Carlyle Twin Theater opened December 18, 1968, with 590 and 993 seats. The opening film was the World Premiere presentation of “Skidoo” attended by Jackie Gleason. It was multiplexed in the late 1970’s to 3 theaters and again in the late 1980's to 7 screens. It became a Cobb Cinemas in the years afterward and was closed in the early 2000s and acquired by the City of Miami Beach in 2001 from Wometco at a cost of 1.7 million dollars.

In early 2011, the renovated theater was repurposed as a playhouse for a Broward theater company. The theater was a single auditorium which sat a total of 304 (152 in the orchestra and 138 in the mezzanine) using just one of the former screens.

After the passing of the playhouse director in 2014, it was announced that O Cinema would manage the property under a five year contract with the City of Miami Beach, re-branding the theater as O Cinema Miami Beach.

In late 2019, the five year contract with O Cinema ended and the city chose not to renew. As of this writing, the fate of the Byron Carlyle remains uncertain with a developer plan afoot to raze the theater and replace it with high rise housing.

Resources

• http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/8243