(Source of image above: Florida State Archives)

A large, "garden-style" theater is how the Edgewood was described in its salad days.  Palms and other plants spruce up the building in this photo from October 27, 1948.  On the left is an adjoining paint & hardware store.  It would find a cute way to capture attention a few years later: One of its windows amused passerby's with a rocking paint can shaker named "Elvis." 

Seemingly the whole neighborhood celebrated when the Edgewood opened its doors in '47.  It flashed its first flick on the Saturday night before Easter.  A large audience watched "California," with Ray Milland and Barbara Stanwyck, shown on the left.  (She also starred in "Double Indemnity" and "The Big Valley").  An epic account, "California" featured a wagon train, a gold rush, a heartless saloon queen, and a low-down profiteer. 

Two thousand people attended the venue's inaugural festivities, but only half could get inside to see "California."  Mayor C. Frank Whitehead welcomed the crowd, which was serenaded by the 75-member Robert E. Lee High School Band.  Radio station WJHP broadcast the event live from the lobby. 

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