Temple Theater

Loew's Temple Theater was a vaudeville and motion picture theater located inside the Downtown Masonic Temple on the Southeast corner of 19th Street and 6th Avenue North with its entrance at 517 19th Street North.

The 3,100-seat theater, operated by the Loew's chain, opened on April 27, 1925 and featured vaudeville as well as large meetings, "legitimate" theater, and concerts. Motion pictures were screened there beginning in 1928. The Minneapolis Symphony performed there in 1933, with the performance recorded for broadcast. On February 12, 1944 Bela Lugosi appeared on the stage for two performances of "Arsenic and Old Lace".

On December 6, 1950 the Temple stage hosted the debut performance of "Born Yesterday" by James Hatcher's Town & Gown Theater company, with Tommy Dix starring. Metropolitan opera basso Jerome Hines gave the theater's final performance on March 31, 1970.

The building was demolished in September 1970 by the First National Bank of Birmingham and used for parking until the construction of the AmSouth-Harbert Plaza. The lobby chandelier was reinstalled at the Leslie S. Wright Performing Arts Center at Samford University.

References

• "Rubble is all that is left of old scenes of theater grandeur" (September 1970) Birmingham News - via Birmingham Rewound
• White, Marjorie Longenecker (1977) Downtown Birmingham: Architectural and Historical Walking Tour Guide. Birmingham: Birmingham Historical Society.