In 1984, the Carefree was bought by John Stoll, who was the founder and president of Fantasma Productions, one of the world’s longest-standing and largest concert promoters and producers.
In the 1960s, the theater was managed by General Cinemas, and throughout the 70s and early-80s, it had become a second-run bargain house. Facing the street was retail space with offices and a dressing room located above it. The Carefree Theatre was also touted as the only theater in the South with a Cinemascope screen 43 feet wide and 16 feet high. It originally had 800 seats but the two front rows were removed for a curved stage constructed in front of the screen, reducing the seating to 772. Some sources though state that it opened with The Saxon Charm, a backstage drama starring Robert Montgomery and Susan Hayward. On November 18, 1948, the movie theater opened with The Egg and I starring Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray. “Pin boys” were used when it first opened who would manually set the pins and roll the balls back to the players until automatic pinsetters were later installed.
In 1939, the building was bought by Elias Chalhub who opened up a bowling alley across the hall, the Carefree Bowlaway, with wooden pins and 10 lanes that were the largest in the state at the time. The former Carefree Theater once located on the corner of Dixie Highway and Flamingo Drive began as an ice cream parlor and coin laundry.
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