Olympia Theater At Gusman Center For The Performing Arts

History:
The Olympia Theater opened in 1926 as a silent movie palace and amazed the public with its stunning Moorish architecture, perfect acoustics and simulated night sky, complete with wafting clouds and twinkling stars. It also achieved fame as the first air-conditioned building in the South.

The "talkies" and Vaudeville soon arrived at the Olympia, and for more than 40 years the theater was the number one entertainment center in Miami. It was one of the last theaters in the country to showcase Vaudeville acts.

Throughout its history, the Olympia - now better known as the Gusman Center - has been host to the world’s most exciting performers in the arts and entertainment community. Cultural icons such as Elvis Presley, B.B. King, Luciano Pavarotti and Etta James have provided memorable evenings under the Gusman Center’s stars. The theater has also hosted today’s best-known pop stars and is a favored venue for MTV concerts.

South Florida business tycoon and philanthropist Maurice Gusman saved the aging theater and the adjacent Olympia Office Building from demolition and donated them to the City of Miami in 1975. The complex was renamed the Gusman Center for the Performing Arts in his honor. Thanks to extensive restorations in the 1970s, overseen in part by famed architect Morris Lapidus, the theater was named to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.