The Scenic had the same address (156 Main) as the Loew’s Capitol/Center/State. I wonder if it had been demolished or simply renamed. I will use this information and post the theatres that are not listed. Have you ever found any information on the Crown?
Thanks very much, Roland. Although I do believe I saw movie listings for it from the year 1935 when the Providence Journal had a Sunday listing for all the week’s upcoming movies in area theatres, not just Providence. The place could have had multiple uses over the decades. I will re-check tomorrow. It’s certainly good to know exactly where it was…even if I haven’t found a numerical address yet. By the way, I just discovered yesterday that Charlie Chaplin performed in Providence in person before he became famous through films, at the first Empire. Click and read my entry.
Was it closer to East Avenue or up where Broad Street begins? I’m going to check for ads for it in pre-1935 Pawtucket Times years on microfilm. This will merit a listing. Incidentally I have posted a great deal of information on the downtown Providence theatres. Roger Brett’s book Temples of Illusion has been a big help, and I am finding a lot of early Journal articles by using the card file at the Providence Public Library.
An August, 1928 article in the Providence Journal reported that the Publix Theatre Corporation took over the lease of the Keith-Albee interests of the Bijou Theatre that month. The lease had ten more years to run. This had been a Keith-Albee theatre for the previous 21 years. The Bijou seated 960 people.
“Bullock’s, wounded mortally when the Emery opened, changed its name to the Globe Theater for the season of 1915-16 and closed in the spring. After remodeling, it opened as the Globe Roller Rink in November of 1916.”
Roger Brett wrote in Temples of Illusion about Spitz and Nathanson’s Bijou Theatre:
“With its unveiling on March 28, 1908, Abe and Max became the city’s first showmen to operate three theatres at once. This was the original Bijou at the corner of Westminster and Orange Streets, nestled against the big Union Trust Building. A rarity among Providence Theaters, it had only one name and policy, movies, from its inception until its closing in July of 1925.
“Like the short-lived Lyric, it was a converted store and took up the entire ground floor of a high-ceilinged wood framed building dating from the early 1800’s. It was razed in 1925 and the present [1976] concrete building, for many years occupied by a Waldorf Restaurant, immediately replaced it. (…) When it became a theater a huge false front was erected and the roof appeared to be flat when viewed from Westminster Street.
“In style, this façade can best be described as ‘High Coney Island.’ It was elaborate in the extreme, painted white, and contained 2000 light bulbs. These were not in a sign but were actually mounted on the woodwork and traced the curves, arches, and parapets in brilliant relief for the benefit of evening crowds. Grime, generated by the city’s traffic and chimneys in the early 1920s, forced the management to abandon white paint in favor of green and the Bijou lost some of its amusement park glamour towards the end.
“The Bijou sat 407, all on one level. From the beginning the theater was very popular and consequently very sucessful. Although the term was not in use at the time, the Bijou, along with the Nickel, were Providence’s first-run movie houses. Abe Spitz, improving upon Charlie Lovenberg’s initial booking arrangements, had the necessary contacts with the right people to insure getting the very best films for his theaters. The policy here, as at the Nickel, was always movies and illustrated songs, but no vaudeville.”
Roger Brett wrote in Temples of Illusionon the birth of this theatre:
“Bullock’s Theater and Temple of Amusement” was the jaw beaking name of the next movie house after the [Bijou] to throw open its doors to the public. Taking a lead from Charles F. Allen, Mr. T. R. Bullock leased the lofty Richmond Street Baptist Church with its twin towers faintly suggesting Notre Dame of Paris on a small scale, and opened it as a theater with movies, vaudeville and illustrated songs on May 26, 1909. R. B. Royce was Mr. Bullock’s manager.
“Bullock’s had a balcony of sorts, formerly the choir loft. Seats up there afforded a better view than did those on the flat orchestra floor and Bullock’s had the distinction of being the only theater where balcony seats were priced higher than orchestra seats. They could not have numbered more than 100 and went for 15¢. The orchestra is known to have had 500 seats for 10¢ apiece. Although the interior was remodeled under the direction of a real designer, Rene Quentin, no effort was made to change the outward appearance of the old brick church save for the addition of a few "three-sheet” sign boards.
“It was all very unpretentious, a typical small family theatre of the period and conveniently located on the Eddy Street carline which made it easily accessible to the working class people of South Providence. As its name suggested, it was a very popular temple of amusement.”
And, in fact, there was indeed a “Ben-Hur Drive-In” in Indiana…also a “New Merry Widow Theatre” in St. Louis, possibly named after the operetta rather than the Ernst Lubitsch/Jeanette MacDonald film.
I’m trying to compile a list of movie theatres that were actually named after real movies. So far I have this “Ben-Hur Drive-In,” “Accattone” in Paris after the Pasolini film, a “Cinema Paradiso” in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, “Smultronstället” (Wild Strawberries) in Stockholm, “New Merry Widow Theatre” in St. Louis (may be named after the operetta), “Rear Window” (a series at various Boston locations,) “Grand Illusion Cinema” in Seattle. Any others?
I’m wondering if the original owner named this theatre after Lubitsch’s The Merry Widow of 1934 with Jeanette MacDonald or perhaps because he just liked the Franz Lehár operetta. (The name Komm sounds German.) I’m trying to compile a list of movie theatres that were actually named after real movies. So far I have a “Ben-Hur Drive-In,” in Indiana, “Accattone” in Paris after the Pasolini film, a “Cinema Paradiso” in Florida.
I remember reading that business about the Modern Times seizure at the time it happened. The Birth of a Nation must have been the severely truncated version, about half its original length and with added soundtrack, that was re-issued decades after the 1915 release. That accounts for the showings every two hours with a short included. The tinted integral version is available on video and I think DVD today from Kino.
In an essay in The Providence Journal-Bulletin from December 26, 1964, Marc Greene recalls seeing Charlie Chaplin, live, on the stage of this theatre!
Chaplin at the Empire
He played a drunken lord here before he became a famous tramp.
“Sometime back…in the dim mists of antiquity, I was a kind of assistant theatre critic on these papers…
"My job was the old Empire on upper Westminster Street, operated by Spitz and Nathanson, devoted to lesser artists and productions and in the summer to a stock company. One winter I also covered Keith’s vaudeville theatre, and that is a pleasant memory.
"During my tenure at the Empire, there appeared a company presenting a skit, "A Night in an Old Music Hall.” One of the company portrayed a kind of tipsy, down-at-the-heel English lord. He sat in the right-hand lower box, and at one point in the doings he climbed unsteadily over the rail of the box onto the stage, where he proceded to take a clown’s part, mainly in pantomime.
He was Chaplin.
Nobody paid any particular attention to this, but if you had the gift of dramatic discernment and understanding you gathered at once that this minor character in the play had, as the vernacular goes, ‘something.’ You would have been right, because he was Charles Spencer Chaplin….
“Not long after the foregoing episode he was ‘discovered’ by Hollywood, (Mack Sennett to be specific,) and in no time at all he was a world-figure. This was because his art appealed to all ages, from children to aged and decrepit.” (…)
I just revisited the site the other day, and construction is under way full steam. For the first time in decades, you can see the original proscenium, which had been obscured by the triplexing and new screens. A large behind-the-stage area is being constructed. Several of the original shops on the Park Avenue side have been removed.
The Park Theatre opened on November 17, 1924. The Providence Journal reported:
“Completion of the new Park Theatre at the junction of Pontiac and Park Avenues in Auburn marks the latest development in an efort to establish the civic center of Cranston at this point. (…)
"Park Theatre, Inc., of which A. A. Spitz is president and general manager, owns the building and will operate the theatre. (…)
"The main building which house the theatre and three stores…rises to a height of two storeys…the theatre itself has no balcony. (…)
"The auditorium of the theatre, which has a seating capacity of 988, is approximately 100 feet long. (…)
"Old ivory, gold, brown and blue are the colors used for the inerior decoration. (…)
"One of the features of the equipment is a large two-manual Moller p[ipe organ…. The stage is large enough for vaudeville and legitimate performances… For the present motion pictures will be shown, but in the future vaudeville acts may be given also.
"Plans for the building were prepared by William R. Walker & Sons, incollaboration with E. H. Bigney, the contractor and builder.”
The theatre opened with the Frank Borzage film Secrets with Norma Talmadge and the Hal Roach comedy The Battling Orioles.
The first art house in nearby Rhode Island was the Modern Theatre, in downtown Providence at 440 Westminster Street. It opened with an “art” policy in February of 1935 and calling itself the Modern Fine Arts Theatre or variations of that name. In an opening week article in the city newspaper. it was reported that the theatre would be modeling itself on the Fine Arts Theatre in Boston and the Westminster and Cameo Theatres in New York. The opening feature was Robert Flaherty’s Man of Aran and it received a glowing review from the local critic who termed it a masterpiece.
The Avon was not the first art house in Rhode Island. The Modern Theatre, downtown at 440 Westminster Street, had opened three years earlier with an “art” policy in February of 1935 and calling itself the Modern Fine Arts Theatre or variations of that name.
The Scenic had the same address (156 Main) as the Loew’s Capitol/Center/State. I wonder if it had been demolished or simply renamed. I will use this information and post the theatres that are not listed. Have you ever found any information on the Crown?
Thanks very much, Roland. Although I do believe I saw movie listings for it from the year 1935 when the Providence Journal had a Sunday listing for all the week’s upcoming movies in area theatres, not just Providence. The place could have had multiple uses over the decades. I will re-check tomorrow. It’s certainly good to know exactly where it was…even if I haven’t found a numerical address yet. By the way, I just discovered yesterday that Charlie Chaplin performed in Providence in person before he became famous through films, at the first Empire. Click and read my entry.
Was it closer to East Avenue or up where Broad Street begins? I’m going to check for ads for it in pre-1935 Pawtucket Times years on microfilm. This will merit a listing. Incidentally I have posted a great deal of information on the downtown Providence theatres. Roger Brett’s book Temples of Illusion has been a big help, and I am finding a lot of early Journal articles by using the card file at the Providence Public Library.
An August, 1928 article in the Providence Journal reported that the Publix Theatre Corporation took over the lease of the Keith-Albee interests of the Bijou Theatre that month. The lease had ten more years to run. This had been a Keith-Albee theatre for the previous 21 years. The Bijou seated 960 people.
I found a 1935 listing for a “Music Hall” in Pawtucket. Any idea of what or where this was? Other names?
This theatre still existed in February, 1935, according to a Providence newspaper listing of films playing.
I also found a 1935 listing for a “Music Hall” in Pawtucket. Any idea of what or where this was? Other names?
I found a 1935 listing for a “Music Hall” in Pawtucket. Any idea of what or where this was? Other names?
In 1924, when this theatre was known as the Empire, it showed the film He Who Gets Slapped with Lon Chaney.
Rhett, post your comment on the Walter Reade page. Who knows?…it might draw some attention.
This theatre also went by its Italian name, “Teatro La Sirena.”
Epilog…from Roger Brett’s above mentioned book:
“Bullock’s, wounded mortally when the Emery opened, changed its name to the Globe Theater for the season of 1915-16 and closed in the spring. After remodeling, it opened as the Globe Roller Rink in November of 1916.”
Loew’s State Theatre (now Providence Performing Arts Center) and adjacent shops in the theatre block eventually replaced both this theatre and the Gaiety.
Roger Brett wrote in Temples of Illusion about Spitz and Nathanson’s Bijou Theatre:
“With its unveiling on March 28, 1908, Abe and Max became the city’s first showmen to operate three theatres at once. This was the original Bijou at the corner of Westminster and Orange Streets, nestled against the big Union Trust Building. A rarity among Providence Theaters, it had only one name and policy, movies, from its inception until its closing in July of 1925.
“Like the short-lived Lyric, it was a converted store and took up the entire ground floor of a high-ceilinged wood framed building dating from the early 1800’s. It was razed in 1925 and the present [1976] concrete building, for many years occupied by a Waldorf Restaurant, immediately replaced it. (…) When it became a theater a huge false front was erected and the roof appeared to be flat when viewed from Westminster Street.
“In style, this façade can best be described as ‘High Coney Island.’ It was elaborate in the extreme, painted white, and contained 2000 light bulbs. These were not in a sign but were actually mounted on the woodwork and traced the curves, arches, and parapets in brilliant relief for the benefit of evening crowds. Grime, generated by the city’s traffic and chimneys in the early 1920s, forced the management to abandon white paint in favor of green and the Bijou lost some of its amusement park glamour towards the end.
“The Bijou sat 407, all on one level. From the beginning the theater was very popular and consequently very sucessful. Although the term was not in use at the time, the Bijou, along with the Nickel, were Providence’s first-run movie houses. Abe Spitz, improving upon Charlie Lovenberg’s initial booking arrangements, had the necessary contacts with the right people to insure getting the very best films for his theaters. The policy here, as at the Nickel, was always movies and illustrated songs, but no vaudeville.”
Roger Brett wrote in Temples of Illusionon the birth of this theatre:
“Bullock’s Theater and Temple of Amusement” was the jaw beaking name of the next movie house after the [Bijou] to throw open its doors to the public. Taking a lead from Charles F. Allen, Mr. T. R. Bullock leased the lofty Richmond Street Baptist Church with its twin towers faintly suggesting Notre Dame of Paris on a small scale, and opened it as a theater with movies, vaudeville and illustrated songs on May 26, 1909. R. B. Royce was Mr. Bullock’s manager.
“Bullock’s had a balcony of sorts, formerly the choir loft. Seats up there afforded a better view than did those on the flat orchestra floor and Bullock’s had the distinction of being the only theater where balcony seats were priced higher than orchestra seats. They could not have numbered more than 100 and went for 15¢. The orchestra is known to have had 500 seats for 10¢ apiece. Although the interior was remodeled under the direction of a real designer, Rene Quentin, no effort was made to change the outward appearance of the old brick church save for the addition of a few "three-sheet” sign boards.
“It was all very unpretentious, a typical small family theatre of the period and conveniently located on the Eddy Street carline which made it easily accessible to the working class people of South Providence. As its name suggested, it was a very popular temple of amusement.”
Yes, the back-ends of the two auditorums were on opposite ends of the lobby, as I recall. They were not contiguous.
And, in fact, there was indeed a “Ben-Hur Drive-In” in Indiana…also a “New Merry Widow Theatre” in St. Louis, possibly named after the operetta rather than the Ernst Lubitsch/Jeanette MacDonald film.
I’m trying to compile a list of movie theatres that were actually named after real movies. So far I have this “Ben-Hur Drive-In,” “Accattone” in Paris after the Pasolini film, a “Cinema Paradiso” in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, “Smultronstället” (Wild Strawberries) in Stockholm, “New Merry Widow Theatre” in St. Louis (may be named after the operetta), “Rear Window” (a series at various Boston locations,) “Grand Illusion Cinema” in Seattle. Any others?
“Smultronstället” (Wild Strawberries) in Stockholm and “Grand Illusion Cinema” in Seattle were also named after movies.
I’m wondering if the original owner named this theatre after Lubitsch’s The Merry Widow of 1934 with Jeanette MacDonald or perhaps because he just liked the Franz Lehár operetta. (The name Komm sounds German.) I’m trying to compile a list of movie theatres that were actually named after real movies. So far I have a “Ben-Hur Drive-In,” in Indiana, “Accattone” in Paris after the Pasolini film, a “Cinema Paradiso” in Florida.
I remember reading that business about the Modern Times seizure at the time it happened. The Birth of a Nation must have been the severely truncated version, about half its original length and with added soundtrack, that was re-issued decades after the 1915 release. That accounts for the showings every two hours with a short included. The tinted integral version is available on video and I think DVD today from Kino.
Simple, post them on Photobucket.com and then link to the images.
In an essay in The Providence Journal-Bulletin from December 26, 1964, Marc Greene recalls seeing Charlie Chaplin, live, on the stage of this theatre!
Chaplin at the Empire
He played a drunken lord here before he became a famous tramp.
“Sometime back…in the dim mists of antiquity, I was a kind of assistant theatre critic on these papers…
"My job was the old Empire on upper Westminster Street, operated by Spitz and Nathanson, devoted to lesser artists and productions and in the summer to a stock company. One winter I also covered Keith’s vaudeville theatre, and that is a pleasant memory.
"During my tenure at the Empire, there appeared a company presenting a skit, "A Night in an Old Music Hall.” One of the company portrayed a kind of tipsy, down-at-the-heel English lord. He sat in the right-hand lower box, and at one point in the doings he climbed unsteadily over the rail of the box onto the stage, where he proceded to take a clown’s part, mainly in pantomime.
He was Chaplin.
Nobody paid any particular attention to this, but if you had the gift of dramatic discernment and understanding you gathered at once that this minor character in the play had, as the vernacular goes, ‘something.’ You would have been right, because he was Charles Spencer Chaplin….
“Not long after the foregoing episode he was ‘discovered’ by Hollywood, (Mack Sennett to be specific,) and in no time at all he was a world-figure. This was because his art appealed to all ages, from children to aged and decrepit.” (…)
I just revisited the site the other day, and construction is under way full steam. For the first time in decades, you can see the original proscenium, which had been obscured by the triplexing and new screens. A large behind-the-stage area is being constructed. Several of the original shops on the Park Avenue side have been removed.
The Park Theatre opened on November 17, 1924. The Providence Journal reported:
“Completion of the new Park Theatre at the junction of Pontiac and Park Avenues in Auburn marks the latest development in an efort to establish the civic center of Cranston at this point. (…)
"Park Theatre, Inc., of which A. A. Spitz is president and general manager, owns the building and will operate the theatre. (…)
"The main building which house the theatre and three stores…rises to a height of two storeys…the theatre itself has no balcony. (…)
"The auditorium of the theatre, which has a seating capacity of 988, is approximately 100 feet long. (…)
"Old ivory, gold, brown and blue are the colors used for the inerior decoration. (…)
"One of the features of the equipment is a large two-manual Moller p[ipe organ…. The stage is large enough for vaudeville and legitimate performances… For the present motion pictures will be shown, but in the future vaudeville acts may be given also.
"Plans for the building were prepared by William R. Walker & Sons, incollaboration with E. H. Bigney, the contractor and builder.”
The theatre opened with the Frank Borzage film Secrets with Norma Talmadge and the Hal Roach comedy The Battling Orioles.
The first art house in nearby Rhode Island was the Modern Theatre, in downtown Providence at 440 Westminster Street. It opened with an “art” policy in February of 1935 and calling itself the Modern Fine Arts Theatre or variations of that name. In an opening week article in the city newspaper. it was reported that the theatre would be modeling itself on the Fine Arts Theatre in Boston and the Westminster and Cameo Theatres in New York. The opening feature was Robert Flaherty’s Man of Aran and it received a glowing review from the local critic who termed it a masterpiece.
The Avon was not the first art house in Rhode Island. The Modern Theatre, downtown at 440 Westminster Street, had opened three years earlier with an “art” policy in February of 1935 and calling itself the Modern Fine Arts Theatre or variations of that name.