Miscellany: A Tribute to the Carefree Theatre

Movie theaters are, by and large, interchangeable places. Go to a cineplex in Spokane and it's about the same as one in Flagstaff. Same dull carpeting, same popcorn machines, same pimply teenagers cleaning the floors after a show. So when one sticks out, you know it's special.

The Carefree Theatre in West Palm was one such place. Of course, it was more than a movie theater, since it had a full stage and hosted live shows (including interactive screenings of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" that got genuinely raucous during Halloween). Many notable acts, including Weird Al and Jethro Tull, graced the venue.

I'll always remember it, though, for the indie and foreign movies that it used to screen. Even outside of hosting the Palm Beach Film Festival, the Carefree was a true art house cinema. We saw a butt-busting extended cut of "Apocalypse Now" (made worse by the Carefree's spartan, close-quarters seating). We saw "Amélie" several months before it went mainstream and stormed the Oscars.



Unfortunately, the aging theatre's roof was trashed by hurricanes in 2005 and the Carefree was demolished. Like so many unique places, it now exists only in memory: a flickering screen, a whirring projector.