The Edgewood Theater was the first movie theater in Murray Hill. The Edgewood opened in 1947, the Saturday before Easter. California was the first film screened. It was a western, directed by John Farrow, starring Ray Milland, Barbara Stanwyck, and Barry Fitzgerald.
Two thousand people attended the venue’s inaugural festivities, but only half were lucky enough to get tickets that night.
Mayor C. Frank Whitehead was present. The 75-member Robert E. Lee High School Band.provided music for the occasion and local radio station WJHP broadcast the event live from the lobby.
The Edgewood was described as a large, garden-style theater.
According to Bill Foley, the late, beloved Jacksonville historian, the Edgewood claimed to be the first River City theater to provide push-back chairs which allowed audience members to continue to sit comfortably while others moved by them.
The Edgewood was also the first suburban theater in Jacksonville to sell buttered popcorn. And the Edgewood was among the first in Jacksonville to have a soft drink dispenser. They sold three flavors, purple, green, and orange.
What a time to be a kid on a Saturday morning at the Edgewood Theater, enjoying a kiddy matinee for 14 cents.
The Edgewood Theater
1195 South Edgewood
