Mark Woods: Ever since San Marco Theatre's last picture show, moviegoers posting memories and pleas
Sunday is Oscars night. So while the stars gather at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles to celebrate, it seems like a fitting time to write about how some of us here in Jacksonville still are mourning that we won’t be gathering to watch movies at the San Marco Theatre.
Not today. Not tomorrow. Not, I fear, ever again.
After projecting images onto a big screen for 10 decades — from the 1930s to the 2020s — the theater is closed.
It opened on June 4, 1938 — described in the Times-Union as “the finest picture house in the South” — with a double feature, the comedy “A Slight Case of Murder” followed by the Western “Hopalong Rides Again.”
It shut down on Jan. 1, 2023, the day after New Year’s Eve showings in its two theaters of “How The Grinch Stole Christmas” and “Love Actually.”
The closing caught many by surprise. The latest owners — four San Marco residents who bought the theater in 2019 — posted a message on social media a few days earlier, pointing to how the movie industry had shifted since COVID. They said that with new releases available on all kinds of different streaming services “the movie theatre experience is quickly going the way of Blockbuster Video.”
“The San Marco Theatre occupies a warm place in a lot of people’s hearts, ours included,” they concluded. “Thank you all so much for your patronage.”
And that was it.
We went to one of the final showings. The place was packed. The conversation was about how it was such a shame that this was the end.
Even before this news, back in mid-December, I had considered writing a column about how San Marco Theatre and Sun-Ray Cinemas were showing holiday classics, the kind of movies that you could easily sit at home and watch at any hour of the day or night. And yet even in the age of streaming services (and especially in the age of big metroplexes), there still is something to be said for seeing a movie with others at theaters like these.
That was one of the things I missed when — three years ago this month — the world abruptly shut down, prompting the Sun-Ray Cinema to put a sign of the times on its marquee: “Cinema closed until real life doesn’t feel like a movie. Stay safe, be kind.”
For years, we often spent our Friday nights at San Marco Theatre. It was a nice, low-key way to unwind at the end of the week. We didn’t even necessarily care what was showing. We saw some great movies. We saw some mediocre ones. We didn’t have to cook. We could get pizza, popcorn, a beer. Sometimes we’d see some familiar faces, maybe catch up a bit, but then settle in for a rarity these days: a bit of time spent not checking a cell phone, not attempting to carry on a conversation. Just relaxing and watching a movie, in a way that felt different from doing it at home.
We didn’t go much to any theater in 2020 or 2021. But we had started going back to the San Marco Theatre in 2022. We saw one of the Oscar nominees there (“Top Gun: Maverick”). We saw holiday movies. We were looking forward to seeing more in 2023. And then we saw the news.
After 84 years, the last picture show.
The property manager has said that while what’s inside the building will change, the Art Deco exterior will remain.
The property manager has said that while what’s inside the building will change, the Art Deco exterior will remain.
I hope so. But in some ways, that doesn't make it better, just more bittersweet. I won’t take much comfort in seeing that familiar architecture in front of a Pottery Barn, or whatever else it ends up being. It will just make me miss when the place was a movie theater.
And I know I’m not alone.
The marquee now is blank. But in front of the theater, in the cases where movie posters used to hang, there are markers and Post-it notes. Hundreds of people have taken a moment to write down their thoughts, sometimes as if speaking to the theater itself.
There is something quaint and fitting that instead of online posts, this is a multi-colored Post-it note mosaic.
My kids and I have the most wonderful memories of watching movies here. Miss you so much. XOXO
Me and my boyfriend fell in love here.
I had a baby here.
Some recall the movies they saw.
I saw all the Disney classics here in the ‘70s.
I saw the first Harry Potter here.
Some express the variety of emotions.
I LOVE you (heart)
I’m depressed & need therapy. (Sad face)
Some are philosophical.
Each ending is a new beginning.
May the love shared in this space leave an everlasting imprint on San Marco.
Many beg for the theater to stay open.
Please, please don’t close!
One note might sum up how I felt after hearing the news
Many hearts will be broken if it closes! Please don’t close. I promise I’ll come more!
I feel like if people had known the theater was in jeopardy of closing, they would have rallied around it. Maybe it wouldn’t have made a difference. But it would’ve been nice to have had that opportunity.
What can you do now? At this point, it doesn’t sound like much can be done to save it as a movie theater. But one thing you can do is support what's across the river in 5 Points, Sun-Ray Cinema.
The theater opened in 1927, showing some of the movies that would be up for the first Academy Awards in 1929. In nearly 100 years, it has been through everything from Great Depression to pandemic. And it hasn’t gone the way of Blockbuster video. Tim Massett and Shana David-Massett still are showing motion pictures on big screens.
On Sunday, they have two showings of Oscar-nominated shorts (animation and documentary), along with a current movie (“Scream VI”) and, while Hollywood is gathered at the Dolby Theatre, an HBO production with a title that somehow feels fitting: “The Last of Us.”
mwoods@jacksonville.com
(904) 359-4212
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: After closing, San Marco Theatre patrons post memories and pleas
