Some important Italian neo-realist films opened here, including Rossellini’s Paisan and Germany Year Zero as well as Outcry (Il sole sorge ancora) by Aldo Vergano in 1949-1950.
Rossellini’s Open City played here in 1946. I came across this review in the Harvard Crimson from May 7, 1946.
A search of Old South in the online Crimson archives showed these films as having been programmed in these years: 1947 – Alexander Nevsky, Carmen, Children of Paradise; 1948 – Dreams that Money Can Buy; 1949 – Grand Illusion & The Baker’s Wife, The Private Lives of Henry VIII, Top Hat. Some of these were revivals.
Here is a Harvard Crimson review from March 2, 1957 of a Trans-Lux program of a French and an Italian film: La Sorcière & Three Forbidden Tales. This may have been the typical kind of programming here during that decade, i.e., racy foreign films, but not necessarily without artistic merit. These were both very good movies.
In 1952 owner Bryant Haliday received a phone threat when he planned to convert the Brattle Theatre into a cinema, according to a pice in the Harvard Crimson.
In the second part of this 1969 Harvard Crimson article, Tim Hunter provided an interesting description of the Gary and the film Inga, which he reviewed. Student Hunter later became a Hollywood director, with films like Tex, Sylvester, River’s Edge, The Maker and many TV productions.
Here is a 1969 Harvard Crimson article about Peter Bogdanovich’s film Targets opening at this theatre, instead of at one of the top houses. The article was written by Tim Hunter, then a student and active in Harvard film societies, who went on to become a Hollywood director of considerable merit with movies like Tex, River’s Edge, Sylvester, The Maker and numerous TV films.
The building at the address now appears to be a subsidized housing unit. I could not tell whether the theatre building was gutted and converted or whether it was torn down and a new one put up. Some of the building’s features and the foundation suggest it could have been the Lee Theatre at one time. The site is located across from the beautiful old public library.
Looks similar to the ad I posted for the Providence Opera House showing of the Griffith film, and same $2.00 top admission, enormous for a film in 1915.
I caught a second-run showing here in July of 1982 of Francesco Rosi’s lyrical Three Brothers. At this point they were showing the occasional well-reviewed or well-performing foreign films on the smallest of their screens. The Swedish My Life as a Dog ran here also. And I just found a news blurb about a free screening in December, 1981 of François Truffaut’s 1958 The 400 Blows, part of the Kent County Mental Health Center’s series on Cinema and Mental Health: Exploring Emotional Crisis Through Film. These occasional showings of foreign-language films (there were a few others) were probably the only ones ever in the town of East Greenwich. East Greenwich currently has no movie theatres. The Showcase Warwick Cinemas effectively ended that.
PAWTUCKET – “The old LeRoy Theatre resounded last night with the cheers and laughter of a crowd that had come to save it.
“The older members of the audience appeared to delight in the parade of film clips and song and dance numbers which depicted their own lives as much as the theater’s history. And the young simply knew a good time when they saw it.
“For the most part, the crowd of about 250 dressed casually, as if they were ducking into a twin cinema for an hour or two. But once inside, their eyes kept reaching upward, past the mezzanine toward the dome, with its parade of classical sculpted figures, toward a kaledidoscope of colored lights.
“Despite peeling paint, dusty seats and the smell of stale damp air, this was still a theater with gold leaf and brass rails that could make one feel underdressed.
“Put together in only two weeks by the Leroy Center for Cultural and Performing Arts Inc., a non-profit group organized last November, the benefit show was intended to raise money to reopen the building for community use as well as for plays and movies, according to treasurer Stanley Weyman.
“He said proceeds from the show would be used by the group to help refurbish and acquire the theater, which is located at the corner of Broad and Exchange Streets.
“Taking proceeds from last night’s performance alone (at $5 a ticket, about $1,250), the organization faces an uphill climb.
“They have offered Associates Realty, a group of businessmen who own the building, $5,000 on an option to buy it and are curently making plans to lease it, according to Weyman. Estimates of the cost of refurbishing the theater range as high as $800,000.
“But most of the people who came last night were not thinking of that. For various reasons, they just wanted the Leroy to be again.
“Young people, like Missy Lewis, 16, a cast member, just wanted a pace to sing and dance.
“Some of the audience, including Mayor Henry S. Kinch, recalled going to the theater for Saturday afternoon movies.
“One Pawtucket woman said she recalled coming in at 7:15 and emerging well after 11: ‘two movies, the news and the whole bit.’ She was one of the people who stopped going to the Leroy when it was taken over a few years ago by rock promoter Frank Russo. The city closed the theater in 1979, citing safety code violations.
“Bruce Tillinghast, a member of the organization to save the Leroy, explained that it was simply wrong to tear down a building that, for financial reasons, could not be built today. He pointed to the neoclassical design and sculpted chandeliers. It cost $1 million to construct the theater in 1923.”
I’ve noted in some old copies of International Film Guide that there were at least three other Smultronstället cinemas, run by Svensk Filmindustri in Göteborg, Vasteras, and Malmo.
The magazine Entertainment Weekly has named the Cable Car Cinema one of the top ten theatres in the nation in its August 8, 2005 edition. It cites a variety of reasons. Here is a report from the Providence Journal.
I saw the enormously controversial Japanese slicing-of-the-penis film, In the Realm of the Senses, here in July of 1977. The “amour fou” tale was directed by Nagisa Oshima. Earlier, I believe its showing at the New York Film Festival had to be cancelled because the print was confiscated by U.S. Customs.
A newspaper article from March, 1970 reported that owner Sully Altieri gave up efforts to show X-rated movies, which entailed a $100 per performance licensing fee, and said that the theatre would “show the kind of movies that people in the area have indicated they like.” The theatre name was changed from Pussycat to Roxy and the policy became family fare. John and Mary, with Mia Farrow and Dustin Hoffman, was put in. Kiddie matinees of other films were added on weekends.
Ron, in answer to your question of July 30th, the last downtown Providence theatre still showing movies before this had to have been PPAC/Loew’s State/Ocean State/Palace, which was still showing movies in the 1980s with repertory and then a short period of first run. Although a performing arts center, it still has special movie events from time to time. The porno-video VIP Luxury Cinema, which closed in 1986, is not under consideration. The Majestic is now Trinity Rep and the Strand is now Diesel. Everything alse has been demolished. The Cable Car Cinema has been operating since 1975 but cannot be truly considered “downtown,” since it is located in the RISD area on South Main Street.
For a while this place became a dollar house and was known as “Movies Warwick.” A newspaper ad from 1982 indicates this. This had to have been its last gasp before demise.
Some important Italian neo-realist films opened here, including Rossellini’s Paisan and Germany Year Zero as well as Outcry (Il sole sorge ancora) by Aldo Vergano in 1949-1950.
I think the University Theatre was referred to as the “U.T.” in this 1948 review of To Live in Peace from the Harvard Crimson.
Here is a 1968 Harvard Crimson article about the sex film venues on Washington Street. The writer discusses the Pilgrim, the Mayflower, and the State.
Here is a 1968 Harvard Crimson article about the sex film venues on Washington Street. The writer discusses the Pilgrim, the Mayflower, and the State.
Here is a 1968 Harvard Crimson article about the sex film venues on Washington Street. The writer discusses the Pilgrim, the Mayflower, and the State.
Rossellini’s Open City played here in 1946. I came across this review in the Harvard Crimson from May 7, 1946.
A search of Old South in the online Crimson archives showed these films as having been programmed in these years: 1947 – Alexander Nevsky, Carmen, Children of Paradise; 1948 – Dreams that Money Can Buy; 1949 – Grand Illusion & The Baker’s Wife, The Private Lives of Henry VIII, Top Hat. Some of these were revivals.
Here is a Harvard Crimson review from March 2, 1957 of a Trans-Lux program of a French and an Italian film: La Sorcière & Three Forbidden Tales. This may have been the typical kind of programming here during that decade, i.e., racy foreign films, but not necessarily without artistic merit. These were both very good movies.
In 1952 owner Bryant Haliday received a phone threat when he planned to convert the Brattle Theatre into a cinema, according to a pice in the Harvard Crimson.
Here is a Harvard Crimson review of the first film to play at the Brattle when it opened in 1953: the 1931 German film The Captain from Koepenick.
In the second part of this 1969 Harvard Crimson article, Tim Hunter provided an interesting description of the Gary and the film Inga, which he reviewed. Student Hunter later became a Hollywood director, with films like Tex, Sylvester, River’s Edge, The Maker and many TV productions.
Here is a 1969 Harvard Crimson article about Peter Bogdanovich’s film Targets opening at this theatre, instead of at one of the top houses. The article was written by Tim Hunter, then a student and active in Harvard film societies, who went on to become a Hollywood director of considerable merit with movies like Tex, River’s Edge, Sylvester, The Maker and numerous TV films.
The building at the address now appears to be a subsidized housing unit. I could not tell whether the theatre building was gutted and converted or whether it was torn down and a new one put up. Some of the building’s features and the foundation suggest it could have been the Lee Theatre at one time. The site is located across from the beautiful old public library.
Looks similar to the ad I posted for the Providence Opera House showing of the Griffith film, and same $2.00 top admission, enormous for a film in 1915.
I caught a second-run showing here in July of 1982 of Francesco Rosi’s lyrical Three Brothers. At this point they were showing the occasional well-reviewed or well-performing foreign films on the smallest of their screens. The Swedish My Life as a Dog ran here also. And I just found a news blurb about a free screening in December, 1981 of François Truffaut’s 1958 The 400 Blows, part of the Kent County Mental Health Center’s series on Cinema and Mental Health: Exploring Emotional Crisis Through Film. These occasional showings of foreign-language films (there were a few others) were probably the only ones ever in the town of East Greenwich. East Greenwich currently has no movie theatres. The Showcase Warwick Cinemas effectively ended that.
Article in The Providence Journal, June 21, 1982:
Leroy Theatre show recalls its glory days
By M.J. Andersen
PAWTUCKET – “The old LeRoy Theatre resounded last night with the cheers and laughter of a crowd that had come to save it.
“The older members of the audience appeared to delight in the parade of film clips and song and dance numbers which depicted their own lives as much as the theater’s history. And the young simply knew a good time when they saw it.
“For the most part, the crowd of about 250 dressed casually, as if they were ducking into a twin cinema for an hour or two. But once inside, their eyes kept reaching upward, past the mezzanine toward the dome, with its parade of classical sculpted figures, toward a kaledidoscope of colored lights.
“Despite peeling paint, dusty seats and the smell of stale damp air, this was still a theater with gold leaf and brass rails that could make one feel underdressed.
“Put together in only two weeks by the Leroy Center for Cultural and Performing Arts Inc., a non-profit group organized last November, the benefit show was intended to raise money to reopen the building for community use as well as for plays and movies, according to treasurer Stanley Weyman.
“He said proceeds from the show would be used by the group to help refurbish and acquire the theater, which is located at the corner of Broad and Exchange Streets.
“Taking proceeds from last night’s performance alone (at $5 a ticket, about $1,250), the organization faces an uphill climb.
“They have offered Associates Realty, a group of businessmen who own the building, $5,000 on an option to buy it and are curently making plans to lease it, according to Weyman. Estimates of the cost of refurbishing the theater range as high as $800,000.
“But most of the people who came last night were not thinking of that. For various reasons, they just wanted the Leroy to be again.
“Young people, like Missy Lewis, 16, a cast member, just wanted a pace to sing and dance.
“Some of the audience, including Mayor Henry S. Kinch, recalled going to the theater for Saturday afternoon movies.
“One Pawtucket woman said she recalled coming in at 7:15 and emerging well after 11: ‘two movies, the news and the whole bit.’ She was one of the people who stopped going to the Leroy when it was taken over a few years ago by rock promoter Frank Russo. The city closed the theater in 1979, citing safety code violations.
“Bruce Tillinghast, a member of the organization to save the Leroy, explained that it was simply wrong to tear down a building that, for financial reasons, could not be built today. He pointed to the neoclassical design and sculpted chandeliers. It cost $1 million to construct the theater in 1923.”
And a post-closing photo here., possibly from the 1960s.
Here is a photo of the interior from the 1970s.
I’ve noted in some old copies of International Film Guide that there were at least three other Smultronstället cinemas, run by Svensk Filmindustri in Göteborg, Vasteras, and Malmo.
The magazine Entertainment Weekly has named the Cable Car Cinema one of the top ten theatres in the nation in its August 8, 2005 edition. It cites a variety of reasons. Here is a report from the Providence Journal.
I saw the enormously controversial Japanese slicing-of-the-penis film, In the Realm of the Senses, here in July of 1977. The “amour fou” tale was directed by Nagisa Oshima. Earlier, I believe its showing at the New York Film Festival had to be cancelled because the print was confiscated by U.S. Customs.
A newspaper article from March, 1970 reported that owner Sully Altieri gave up efforts to show X-rated movies, which entailed a $100 per performance licensing fee, and said that the theatre would “show the kind of movies that people in the area have indicated they like.” The theatre name was changed from Pussycat to Roxy and the policy became family fare. John and Mary, with Mia Farrow and Dustin Hoffman, was put in. Kiddie matinees of other films were added on weekends.
Ron, in answer to your question of July 30th, the last downtown Providence theatre still showing movies before this had to have been PPAC/Loew’s State/Ocean State/Palace, which was still showing movies in the 1980s with repertory and then a short period of first run. Although a performing arts center, it still has special movie events from time to time. The porno-video VIP Luxury Cinema, which closed in 1986, is not under consideration. The Majestic is now Trinity Rep and the Strand is now Diesel. Everything alse has been demolished. The Cable Car Cinema has been operating since 1975 but cannot be truly considered “downtown,” since it is located in the RISD area on South Main Street.
I thought you wrote “small rats” instead of “mall rats.” That would keep me from going too! On second thought, I’d prefer them to the teenagers.
For a while this place became a dollar house and was known as “Movies Warwick.” A newspaper ad from 1982 indicates this. This had to have been its last gasp before demise.
I agree that it was a pretty nice place, with less hysteria and madness than the biggerplex across the street had. Here is a photo of it now.