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| Fort Lauderdale Beach 1967 Florida State Archives |
By Jane Feehan
Fort Lauderdale’s Parker Playhouse lifted the curtain on its
first production Feb. 6, 1967*. The
theater is located at the fringe of Holiday Park off Federal Highway near
Sunrise Boulevard, but few remember another theater was planned in 1959 for
a site off A1A near the Galt Ocean Mile.
The participants in the two projects were different – and so
were the plans. George S. Engle, owner and producer of the Coconut Grove
Playhouse in Miami, teamed up with famed Florida architect Alfred Browning
Parker (no relation to donor Louis W. Parker of the Parker Playhouse), to draw
up elaborate plans for the A1A location.
The $2 million project would include features “never before
attempted in the entire country.” For starters, its marquee was to be so large that
30 automobiles could pull up at once to discharge passengers. A drive-in ticket
window would be available where patrons could view available seating and
purchase tickets before parking their cars. A restaurant and lounge seating
1,000 theatergoers would operate near another lounge with a soda fountain and
dining area for teenagers.
There’s more. Much more.
The ambitious plans also included a library for playwrights,
producers and directors, a private room for the press, an art gallery and
exhibit hall for artists and students, and a theater memorabilia room featuring
thespian history since Greek and Roman times.
A penthouse and club would operate late into the night for
dining and dancing. Also, a model of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre would be
constructed featuring manikins draped in clothes of that era. A drama and art
school was to operate at this very busy facility. The entire complex and its
offerings were to be run by a Society of Theatre Arts that would coordinate
activities and performances at the Coconut Grove Playhouse … and a theater in
Nassau, Bahamas (a tropical paradise teaming with theatergoers).
Engle proposed a 99-year lease on an 800-ft frontage
property along A1A. A condition of the project would be a substantial advance
subscription sale. That never happened. What were they thinking? People came to
Fort Lauderdale (and still do) for surf, sun and fun, and depending on the age
group, the fun might be boats, booze, and babes—not theater.
Theater sanity arrived with electrical engineer and
inventor, Louis M. Parker, Ph.D., who tired of driving to Miami and Palm Beach to
see plays. In 1966 it was announced that
Dr. Parker would
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| Parker Playhouse before 2020-2021 renovations |
The theater, run then by Zev Buffman, opened with about 2,000 seats, 48 shimmering chandeliers and two cocktail lounges, a much more realistic venture than the one proposed earlier. Its architect, John Volk was the last of the early 1920s Palm Beach architects that included Addison Mizner. Volk had also designed the Good Samaritan Hospital, parts of the Everglades Club, the Royal Poinciana Theater—all in Palm Beach—and a long list of other landmarks.
The Parker Playhouse is now run by the Performing Arts
Center Authority, which includes the Broward Center for the Performing Arts. The Playhouse recently underwent renovation.
Copyright © 2015, 2022 All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.
*The play that night was Neil Simon’s “The Odd Couple,”
starring E.G. Marshall and Dennis O’Keefe. It was directed by Danny Simon, the
playwright’s brother.
Sources:
New York Times,
Nov. 15, 1959
Pittsburgh Press, Nov. 25,
1966
Palm Beach Daily News, Feb. 22, 1984
New York Times,
Feb. 6, 1967
Tags: Fort Lauderdale theater, Parker Playhouse, Jane Feehan, film researcher, Alfred Browning Parker. Louis M. Parker, Fort Lauderdale in the 1950s, Fort Lauderdale in the 1960s, Fort Lauderdale history, architects
