Loew's State Theatre
205 Massachusetts Avenue,
Boston,
MA
02115
205 Massachusetts Avenue,
Boston,
MA
02115
4 people
favorited this theater
Showing 26 - 50 of 53 comments
I saw Eric Burdon and the Animals here on September 25, 1964. Just after they released House Of The Rising Sun. My parents would have killed me if they knew I was in town at a rock concert that night.
I think the Back Bay Theatre was where I saw a Beach Boys Concert in 1967. Lead in acts were the Buckinghams doing “Kind of a Drag” which was their hit, and Tommy James and the Shondells with “I Think We’re Alone Now”.
Nearby, I think next to the Uptown, a few months later, The Doors with lead-in act Linda Ronstadt and the Stone Ponys.
When I was a kid in late-1940s and 1950s, the State was Loew’s uptown house. It often played films day-and-date with the Orpheum downtown, so one thought of them as “Loew’s State and Orpheum”. When the Royal Ballet performed at the State in October 1957, I was sent to the stage door to pick up a publicity packet for the student radio station at which I was a volunteer. The stage door was at stage-right off the street in the rear. I was surprised at how cramped it was backstage at that theatre. The Royal Ballet was there because the old Boston Opera House on Huntington Avenue had been closed and was due for demolition in Jan-Feb 1958. In mmid-1959, the theatre was sold to the Boston Archdiocese and renamed Donnelly Memorial Theatre, and later, Back Bay Th. As for the word “decadent”, I have seen it used before, usually meaning “over-decorated”. Some restaurants even refer to very rich desserts on their menus as “decadent”. Some of the Movie Palaces of the Twenties certainly could be considered by some as “decadent” !
According to Donald C. King’s new book The Theatres of Boston: A Stage and Screen History, the Loew’s State was intended as a vaudeville theatre, featuring a fully equipped stage and a separate rehearsal hall (which soon became the Fine Arts).
However, when the State opened on March 13, 1922, it showed first-run films accompanied by an organ and, initially, a 30-piece symphony orchestra. It never became a full-time vaudeville house.
The last movie was shown here on August 24, 1959.
I see it now, thanks!
The Bostonian Society Library server was briefly down. It should be working now.
I get the site, but is says unable to process your request! :(
TJ, The pic works ok for me!
Ron, I’ve tried the picture and it doesnt work.
Warren,
I have just notified the web-master’s here of that omission. Although I told them the F.D.Y. 1950 capacity given as 3,583.
Just to the right of the word “Society” in that photo would have been the theatre that was or would become the Fine Arts. That is Norway Street, and the Fine Arts was in the same building as Loew’s.
A 1956 photo of the Loew’s State, described here.
According to an unpublished 1968 draft manuscript by Douglas Shand-Tucci entitled The Puritan Muse (available in the Fine Arts room of the Boston Public Library), the Archdiocese of Boston acquired the Loew’s State on August 21, 1959, changing its name to the Donnelly Memorial. It became the Back Bay Theatre in 1963. The last opera to be performed there was Tosca, on March 13, 1968.
The Judy Garland concert was at the Back Bay (aka Donnelly Memorial, aka Loew’s State), Fri-Sat, May 24-25, 1968. May 25 was a ‘no show’.
Hmm, i really can’t tell the date of the interview. There is an apartment building on the site now and a strip mall under the aparments. I have also just found a copy of a conmcert Ray Charles did there, Ray let me record it, it has some drops in the tape I am going to try to clean it up so it sounds better. I am into listening to my old radio shows and tapes right now, looking for sound bites I can use on my new radio show called “Rewind” again feel free to contact me if I can be of any help to anyone. Jimmy Jay 617-773-0690
Can you tell us the date of that last concert? How soon did they start demolishing the building after that show?
Is the Church Park apartment building now on the former site of this theatre? I don’t see any parking lots around there today.
This was a great old theater, I was the MC for the very last concert there and it was the 4 Seasons (Franky Valley) I infact just found my interview I did with them and transfered it to CD. In the interview we talked about the fact it was becoming a parking lot for the trucks so they could build a new building across the street. The building they were refering to is this christian scientist building. If anyone would like a copy of that last interview and a 1 song segment from the concert contact Jimmy Jay 617-773-0690
This was a great old theater, I was the MC for the very last concert there and it was the 4 Seasons (Franky Valley) I infact just found my interview I did with them and transfered it to CD. In the interview we talked about the fact it was becoming a parking lot for the trucks so they could build a new building across the street. The building they were refering to is this christian scientist building. If anyone would like a copy of that last interview and a 1 song segment from the concert contact Jimmy Jay 617-773-0690
Responding to both DavidUk and RobrtR about Judy’s concert.
It was not the 1967 concert on the Common. I was at that one too; she sang only a 45-minute selection, including “Old Man River” and wore the gold diamante pant-suit she stole from her never completed role in “Valley of the Dolls"
The concert at the then named ‘Back Bay’ was supposed to be two nights, but she refused to go on the second (Saturday) night. I was relectently, but lukily in retrospect only able to get tickets for the Friday night one. She was preceded by a stand-up comic, probably a local guy. People were nervous she wouldn’t appear. The comic told us she was back-stage, but wanted us to have the intermission before she went on. So we fretted some more, and they played her overture again. She did appear, wearing what appeared to be street closthes, a flowered pink and green dress with a huge bow right at the belly button. There was some audible comment, and she said "You don’t like my dress? Well, I bought it in Boston”. She started out kind of shaky, I think with “I feel a song coming on” rather than “when your Smiling”. The Orchestra was a lot of students and locals who really got into the arrangements. She sang Most of the Carnegie Hall stuff,
plus “How insensitive”, “Old man River” “What now my love” “Call me irresponsible”; her voice came through very well as she warmed to the orchestra and audience. It was a long concert, at least as long as Carnegie. The house manager stopped her, and wanted her to stop (so they wouldn’t have to pay overtime), and she got into a shouting match with him from the stage, and apparently decided to sing everyting they had, to the delight of the audience.
Lorna and Joe had a routine in the middle, did “Bob White”, a remnent of her more recent “Home at the Palace: performances. Near the end people were asking for SanFrancisco and Chicago; I think she did one of them, but said the arrangements for the other had been stolen. She wanted to do "Swanee” but said she had to change clothes.
She left Lorna on stage, bantering with the audience. People asked Lorna to sing “rainbow', but Lorna replied "She’d kill me” Lorna sang “Jingle bells”. Judy reappeared in black tights with a white sequined top, asked if the audience liked her ‘new’ outfit. Brought a young man onstage and asked for a round of applause for him for helping her get into her outfit. She sang Swanee, Rock-a-bye, Rainbow. (This was a rare return to the long concert format, most concerts in the last years were much shorter, such as the one on the Common.) During the Back Bay theater concert, the lighting cues were appantly messed up, and she would say from the Stage “no, not that hepatitus green!” For “How insensitive” she sat on a mini-runway (actually the ramp they use to access the stage in rehearsals). She had to cue them to turn on her Xmas tree lights, which were indeed what was laid out along the side of the ramp.
I think it’s in Lorna’s book that she relates Judy’s refusal to perform the second night, on the basis that she had done such a long concert the night before. I knew people who were supposed to go the second night, and they had trouble getting their money refunded because they were going to start demolition of the theater the following week.
In general it was a great experience, great singiing, and a very priviledged view of the ‘legendary Judy’ being herself in a way she wouldn’t have at Carnegie Hall.
Boris
Was this at the same time as the outdoor Back Bay concert or was that in 1967? I have a recording of that show.
Boris..
Quote from Boris “ I attended a concert performed by Judy Garland on the Friday before the domolition started in 1968. One of her last concerts, and the second to last use of the theater. ”
Boris, I was wondering if you could give me more details of this performance of judys.. It was indeed one of her last concerts in the States… What kind of shape was her voice in and what kind of concert did she give.. Any memories of this night would be gratefully appreciated. Thankyou.
David UK
The opening description of the Loew’s STATE in Boston uses the word ‘decadent’ to describe it, but that is unfortunate since that word cannot have a positive connotation as one would see if he looked up the dictionary definition of the word. Some have thought that it was a term meaning ‘camp’ as in ‘campy’ but that is not the case, and unless one wishes to denigrate a theater, the word ‘decadent’ has no place in theatre descriptions.
Indeed, as the article in 3rd Qtr. 1979 in MARQUEE magazine referred to by Warren in a previous post, brings out, the STATE was a wonderful theatre with nothing decadent about it! The article by J. Paul Chavanne states that the 4000 seats were in “Italian Renaissance” but one look at the photos in the article makes clear that it was another of the graceful Neo-Classical or Adam-inspired works which architect Thomas Lamb had perfected all over the East coast. As the famous theatres author, the late Ben M. Hall put it in his landmark book of 1961 (“The Best Remaining Seats: The Story of the Golden Age of the Movie Palace”): contemporaries of Lamb often referred to his firm jestingly as ‘Lamb & Adam.’
Lest one think that this was just another of Lamb’s graceful and restrained Adamesque designs, one should note that he did provide a few touches that put this theatre out of the ordinary, as many architects tried to do with their larger jobs. In this case it was not just the fish pond in the floor of the lobby and the well in the floor of the mezzanine lobby directly above it, and not the cascading waterfall next to the staircase, but also another feature that may not have been in any other theatre: an ornate, 15-foot-high by 20-foot-wide elliptical AVIARY where a number of birds, including a parrot named “Oh Boy!” and numerous canaries named after opera stars, resided! Done in polished brass with a mahogany crown piece carved in high relief, as was the wainscot base, the massive cage was as ornamental as the birds. Sad to say, it was replaced by a staircase to the balcony in the 1950s, possibly after the staff got tired of feeding, mucking-out, and listening to the indiscreet callings of the old parrot. Several early movie houses, such as the BUTTERFLY in Milwaukee, had bird cages in their lobbies, and architect John Eberson was famous for putting stuffed birds about his atmospheric-style theatres, but the STATE had possibly the only zoo-size aviary in the world in a theatre! It must have been a memorable sight (and sound!).
Then perhaps I shall be bold enough to add a separate listing for the Fine Arts Theatre to see what memories some folks may have of that place.
I believe that the Fine Arts Theatre,which I mentioned above, was part of the Loew’s State building, and continued showing its art repertory until the mid 60s even after Loew’s itself stopped showing movies. You entered from the street on the right of Loew’s, went up a staircase, and came into this recital-hall sized theatre. Can anyone verify this? They had great programs. I went countless times in those years.
I remember this theater very well from the 50s and 60s.
In the 60s in became the ‘Donnelly Memorial’, and was, I think somehow connected to the Boston Archdioces. I saw a production of the Opera ‘Carmen’ there in 62-63.
It then became the ‘Back Bay’; it housed the productions of Sarah Caldwell’s Boston Opera. I remember seeing ‘Moses and AAron’ there, probably around ‘67, a production so large in scope, that Moses’ mountain was built coming down from the boxes onto the stage, thus losing many seats, and the huge cast of Egyptian slaves were lined up freezing on the sidewalk beside the theater waiting for their
cues.
I remember the decor as somewhat ‘Hollywood spanish’, and that there was an ornate tringular staircase connecting the balconies with the main floor at the rear of the auditorium.
The theater hosted gigs later in the 60s; I attended a concert performed by Judy Garland on the Friday before the domolition started in 1968. One of her last concerts, and the second to last use of the theater.