Memories For The Future - A History of Palm Beach's Royal Poinciana Playhouse

This is the story of a world-famous 50-year-old jewel box playhouse set on the water in Palm Beach, Florida, and today's furious attempts by Patrick Henry Flynn, actor Christopher Plummer, and others to save this national treasure.

Tossed in for added excitement are: an owner who danced to international fame in the early 1900s, later becoming a federal agent hunting liquor smugglers; a famous Florida architect who loved designing glorious mansions and estates; a director who starred in Oklahoma! in the 1940s and went on to build a highly popular Tennessee theater; and a noted muralist trained in World War I France who created a striking 45-foot-long masterpiece for the ceiling.

Magically bringing history back to life are 340 illustrations, 21 of them in color. The result is a riveting saga of American theater history, raw courage by a few patient dreamers, glittering Palm Beach society of the 1960s and 1970s, and a noble but bitter preservation fight to save America's perfect town. This book is being published hopefully to celebrate the reopening of the widely treasured Royal Poinciana Playhouse, as a reminder of what was and could be once again.

Writes Palm Beach Theater Guild President Patrick Henry Flynn, "If the present owners succeed in their demolition-by-neglect of this theater, this book will serve a dual purpose. It will not only justly condemn the theater's neglectful owners to infamy, but also continually remind Palm Beach and Palm Beach County of a cultural, social, community, artistic and architectural treasure either lost on account of a failure of public will-or gained by public resolve.