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.
Some of you have misunderstaood the topic! This is about “black and W-I-D-E” films, i.e. black and white films made in CinemaScope or other wide-screen ratios. “Citizen Kane” does not qualify. Nor do any of the ones you mention, Ron.
I would contribute the following black-and-white anamorphic (CinemaScope) wide-screen films:
“The 400 Blows"
"Jules and Jim"
"Schindler’s List"
"La Dolce Vita"
"In Cold Blood"
"Is Paris Burning?"
"Compulsion"
"Hud"
"The Outrage"
"Blue Denim"
"Advise and Consent"
"In Harm’s Way"
"The Three Faces of Eve"
"Flood Tide"
"The Tarnished Angels"
"The Condemned of Altona"
"Love and Larceny"
"Love at Twenty"
"The Innocents"
"High and Low"
"Yojimbo"
"Sanjuro"
"The Bad Sleep Well"
"The Hidden Fortress"
"Andrei Roublev”
Newspaper ads don’t refer to the theatre any more as the Sala Trevi Alberto Sordi, but simply as Sala Trevi, perhaps to avoid confusing folks who might think the place is located in the Galleria Alberto Sordi, the nearby 19th Century galleria/mall formerly called the Galleria Colonna. The former Cinema Trevi is actually occcupied by the Mondadori Trevi bookstore. The Sala Trevi Cinema is below ground, to the rear of the former Cinema Trevi, amid rediscovered ruins (you can see them from the cinema before the show begins, when a curtain closes on them.) The fact that the entrance to the cinema is from an obscure rear alley means that there are never any passers-by as with the bookstore which is practically adjacent to the busy Fountain of Trevi.
According to a Village Voice ad the 8th Street Playhouse presented an interesting “Sleaze Festival” in March of 1983. A line in the ad read: “FILMS NOT SEEN OUTSIDE OF DRIVE-INS IN THE DEEP SOUTH.” The program:
March 9: Night of the Bloody Apes & The Last Survivor (imported horror)
March 10: Good Morning – and Goodbye! & Common Law Cabin (early Russ Meyer films)
March 11 & 12: I Spit on Your Grave & Axe (female revenge)
March 13: Bloodthirsty Butchers & The Man With Two Heads (Andy Milligan horror)
March 14: Africa Addio & Mondo Cane (Mondo gross-outs)
March 15: The Big Bird Cage & The Girl in Room 2A (women in chains)
Ron, I got that piece of info from Warren’s posting on the Loew’s State Theatre (q.v.) I don’t know the history of Jewett Repertory. Perhaps the venues were not used simultaneously but during different periods. I don’t know.
re: “Where did they show films before Remis opened?"
There was another auditorium that was accessed by walking in directly from the main entrance which was then on Huntington Avenue. (The entrance is still there but not used.) The auditorium , as I recall, was straight ahead once you walked in. I have a feeling you had to walk up a flight of stairs first. The gift shop was on the right of that Huntington entrance. The auditorium was fitted with ancient cast-iron frame seats which were about as comfortable as medieval torture racks. It was a nice space, however, and the screen-to-audience angle was better than the weird one in Remis. There was excellent programming even back in the 1960s when I started going, generally 16mm rentals from the standard distributors, although there wasn’t the length and breadth of offerings that you have now, and they weren’t every day. Later on the programs became more extensive. I remember a nice series of rarities from George Eastman House that included a 35mm print of the German version of Garbo’s "Anna Christie.” Does anyone know when the new auditorium opened?
At last night’s Town Council meeting, the Council voted unanimously to support the Bristol Pastime Theatre Foundation in its endeavors to keep the theatre as a valued part of the downtown Bristol area. The Board of Directors of the Bristol Pastime Theatre Foundation wants to thank every one of you for his or her support, especially during this past week. Whether it was through phone calls, personal meetings, letters of support, coming out to last night’s meeting, or just positive thoughts and good wishes, we want you to know that you are an essential part of the plan “…to revitalize and sustain the historic Pastime Theatre as a community-based center for the performing arts and cinema”. We thank you greatly and look forward to your continued support.
That section of Norway Street doesn’t exist any longer, having been replaced, along with the Loew’s State Theatre and other buildings, by what seems like a mile-long concrete monstrosity. The Fine Arts was part of the Loew’s State building, with its entrance on Norway Street, but very close to Massachusetts Avenue.
Were the three films in the recent Alliance Française French Film Festival 35mm prints??? Since I had read that they were being shown in the balcony, I suspected video projection would be used.
Another later name for the Belmont seems to have been “Cinema 48.” A New York Times ad for the Italian film “Under the Olive Tree” refers to it as the Belmont Cinema 48. The New York Times review of that film on October 5, 1951 calls it simply “Cinema 48.” That would mean that the description information about its closing in 1950 and being razed a year later could be inaccurate or approximate, assuming this is the same place, and one would surmise that it is. The address in the ad is 121 W. 48th Street (not 123 as described above) between 6th and 7th Avenues. So it must be the same place. Perhaps “Cinema 48” should be added to the “also known as” list here.
There is a remarkable photo of Columbus Circle, with a view of the exterior of Loew’s Circle Theatre in the book of photographs called “New York, Empire City 1920-45” by Daniel Stravitz. The photo must be from the 1920s silent era because the signage on the theatre reads “Photoplays: Symphony Orchestra and Organ.”
BoxOfficeBill, De Sica’s “Shoe Shine” did not open at the World. It premiered at the Avenue Playhouse on 6th Avenue and 47th Street on August 26, 1947 where it settled in for a long run.
I think I visited this place once or twice in my youth but am not positive. I certainly drove by it often enough. It is located just up the road from the former Jerry Lewis Cinema/Johnston Cinema, which is now an Amazing Express porno shop. I’m looking now at a newspaper ad for the Pike dating back to May, 1963 when they were showing an odd double-bill of Italian films (dubbed in English.) The program was “Rice Girl” with Elsa Martinelli, in the tradition of the earlier “Bitter Rice,” and “Fatal Desire” with Anthony Quinn. “Fatal Desire” was actually “Cavalleria Rusticana,” famed as an opera by Pietro Mascagni.
The come-on was “2 explosive motion pictures – 1 big show!” For “Rice Girl” we read: “Pietro worshipped her…Mario wanted her…Gianni took her.” For “Fatal Desire” it says, “There is a special kind of payment for ‘borrowing’ another man’s wife. As a fan of Italian cinema I’m only familiar with "Rice Girl” and have never seen “Fatal Desire.” It is interesting that a program of imported films like this would make the rounds of drive-ins and exploitation houses of the time. Both are pretty hard to see today. The distributor was Ultra Pictures.
Decades ago I used to go to this theatre from time to time when in New York. My stronget memories go back to the summer of 1965 when AFFS (the American Federation of Film Societies) had a number of special morning 35mm screenings at this then-very-spiffy place for members during one week. Among the films I saw there in those screenings were Munk’s “The Passenger,” Bertolucci’s “Before the Revolution,” Buñuel’s “Nazarin,” and Rossif’s “To Die in Madrid.” They were all revelations. The AFFS also had 16mm screenings that year in a room at the U.N. building.
re: “It isn’t used anymore for movies"
Well, technically that’s not entirely so. On November 2, 2002 I saw Godfrey Reggio’s "Koyaanisqatsi” here in a special event with composer Philip Glass conducting a live performance of his score for the film. I don’t know if the projection equipment was specially installed for that show or if there is still equipment in the booth. From the visual and musical standpoint I thought the whole event was top-notch.
For nice views of the Cinema Barberini, outside and inside, see the Criterion Collection DVD set of Luchino Visconti’s “The Leopard.” Disc 2 features newsreels of the gala premiere of that film here in March 1963.
Jean Renoir’s landmark film masterpiece “Grand Illusion” opened here in September 1938, when the theatre was called the Filmarte. That alone would give this place significance.
Yes, Ron, that is truly sad. Imagine a similar situation in New York, where all Manhattan residents could see such movies only in Brooklyn, Queens, or Westchester.
The Beacon Hill was indeed one of Boston’s prime art houses in the 1950s and 1960s and, I believe, earlier, with many of the top foreign films playing here. I remember movies like the French version of “Gigi” playing here in the early 50s. I was too young to come to Boston to see it at the time, but I used to like to check out movie ads in the Boston papers. I believe the first movie I ever saw here was Nanni Loy’s “The Four Days of Naples” in 1963. I came up from Providence as a college student just to see that. The other art houses in the period of the 1950s and 1960s were the Kenmore Cinema (torn down to build I-90), the Exeter Street Theatre, and the Telepix (later Park Square Cinema), the West End Cinema (1960s). I would love to hear other people’s memories of Boston art houses in the pre-1960s era.
I can tell you with certainty that the Beacon Hill was indeed one of Boston’s prime art houses in the 1950s and 1960s and, I believe, earlier, with many of the top foreign films playing here. I remember movies like the French version of “Gigi” playing here in the early 50s. I was too young to come to Boston to see it at the time, but I used to like to check out movie ads in the Boston papers. I believe the first movie I ever saw here was Nanni Loy’s “The Four Days of Naples” in 1963. I came up from Providence as a college student just to see that. I too saw “Casanova” here, but I don’t remember it as being reserved seat at the time. The other art houses in the period of the 1950s and 1960s were the Kenmore Cinema (torn down to build I-90), the Exeter Street Theatre, and the Telepix (later Park Square Cinema), the West End Cinema (1960s).
To CConnolly:
I’m not positive, but from your description it sounds like it could have been the Cinema Rendezvous (57th Street Playhouse, etc.) It is now the Directors Guild of America Theatre and is listed at: /theaters/7049/
Fine Arts!!!
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.
Some of you have misunderstaood the topic! This is about “black and W-I-D-E” films, i.e. black and white films made in CinemaScope or other wide-screen ratios. “Citizen Kane” does not qualify. Nor do any of the ones you mention, Ron.
I would contribute the following black-and-white anamorphic (CinemaScope) wide-screen films:
“The 400 Blows"
"Jules and Jim"
"Schindler’s List"
"La Dolce Vita"
"In Cold Blood"
"Is Paris Burning?"
"Compulsion"
"Hud"
"The Outrage"
"Blue Denim"
"Advise and Consent"
"In Harm’s Way"
"The Three Faces of Eve"
"Flood Tide"
"The Tarnished Angels"
"The Condemned of Altona"
"Love and Larceny"
"Love at Twenty"
"The Innocents"
"High and Low"
"Yojimbo"
"Sanjuro"
"The Bad Sleep Well"
"The Hidden Fortress"
"Andrei Roublev”
Newspaper ads don’t refer to the theatre any more as the Sala Trevi Alberto Sordi, but simply as Sala Trevi, perhaps to avoid confusing folks who might think the place is located in the Galleria Alberto Sordi, the nearby 19th Century galleria/mall formerly called the Galleria Colonna. The former Cinema Trevi is actually occcupied by the Mondadori Trevi bookstore. The Sala Trevi Cinema is below ground, to the rear of the former Cinema Trevi, amid rediscovered ruins (you can see them from the cinema before the show begins, when a curtain closes on them.) The fact that the entrance to the cinema is from an obscure rear alley means that there are never any passers-by as with the bookstore which is practically adjacent to the busy Fountain of Trevi.
According to a Village Voice ad the 8th Street Playhouse presented an interesting “Sleaze Festival” in March of 1983. A line in the ad read: “FILMS NOT SEEN OUTSIDE OF DRIVE-INS IN THE DEEP SOUTH.” The program:
March 9: Night of the Bloody Apes & The Last Survivor (imported horror)
March 10: Good Morning – and Goodbye! & Common Law Cabin (early Russ Meyer films)
March 11 & 12: I Spit on Your Grave & Axe (female revenge)
March 13: Bloodthirsty Butchers & The Man With Two Heads (Andy Milligan horror)
March 14: Africa Addio & Mondo Cane (Mondo gross-outs)
March 15: The Big Bird Cage & The Girl in Room 2A (women in chains)
Ron, I got that piece of info from Warren’s posting on the Loew’s State Theatre (q.v.) I don’t know the history of Jewett Repertory. Perhaps the venues were not used simultaneously but during different periods. I don’t know.
re: “Where did they show films before Remis opened?"
There was another auditorium that was accessed by walking in directly from the main entrance which was then on Huntington Avenue. (The entrance is still there but not used.) The auditorium , as I recall, was straight ahead once you walked in. I have a feeling you had to walk up a flight of stairs first. The gift shop was on the right of that Huntington entrance. The auditorium was fitted with ancient cast-iron frame seats which were about as comfortable as medieval torture racks. It was a nice space, however, and the screen-to-audience angle was better than the weird one in Remis. There was excellent programming even back in the 1960s when I started going, generally 16mm rentals from the standard distributors, although there wasn’t the length and breadth of offerings that you have now, and they weren’t every day. Later on the programs became more extensive. I remember a nice series of rarities from George Eastman House that included a 35mm print of the German version of Garbo’s "Anna Christie.” Does anyone know when the new auditorium opened?
Copy of an e-mail sent out today:
Dear Supporters of the Pastime Theatre,
At last night’s Town Council meeting, the Council voted unanimously to support the Bristol Pastime Theatre Foundation in its endeavors to keep the theatre as a valued part of the downtown Bristol area. The Board of Directors of the Bristol Pastime Theatre Foundation wants to thank every one of you for his or her support, especially during this past week. Whether it was through phone calls, personal meetings, letters of support, coming out to last night’s meeting, or just positive thoughts and good wishes, we want you to know that you are an essential part of the plan “…to revitalize and sustain the historic Pastime Theatre as a community-based center for the performing arts and cinema”. We thank you greatly and look forward to your continued support.
With deepest appreciation,
The Board of Directors
Bristol Pastime Theatre Foundation
That section of Norway Street doesn’t exist any longer, having been replaced, along with the Loew’s State Theatre and other buildings, by what seems like a mile-long concrete monstrosity. The Fine Arts was part of the Loew’s State building, with its entrance on Norway Street, but very close to Massachusetts Avenue.
Were the three films in the recent Alliance Française French Film Festival 35mm prints??? Since I had read that they were being shown in the balcony, I suspected video projection would be used.
Another later name for the Belmont seems to have been “Cinema 48.” A New York Times ad for the Italian film “Under the Olive Tree” refers to it as the Belmont Cinema 48. The New York Times review of that film on October 5, 1951 calls it simply “Cinema 48.” That would mean that the description information about its closing in 1950 and being razed a year later could be inaccurate or approximate, assuming this is the same place, and one would surmise that it is. The address in the ad is 121 W. 48th Street (not 123 as described above) between 6th and 7th Avenues. So it must be the same place. Perhaps “Cinema 48” should be added to the “also known as” list here.
There is a remarkable photo of Columbus Circle, with a view of the exterior of Loew’s Circle Theatre in the book of photographs called “New York, Empire City 1920-45” by Daniel Stravitz. The photo must be from the 1920s silent era because the signage on the theatre reads “Photoplays: Symphony Orchestra and Organ.”
BoxOfficeBill, De Sica’s “Shoe Shine” did not open at the World. It premiered at the Avenue Playhouse on 6th Avenue and 47th Street on August 26, 1947 where it settled in for a long run.
I think I visited this place once or twice in my youth but am not positive. I certainly drove by it often enough. It is located just up the road from the former Jerry Lewis Cinema/Johnston Cinema, which is now an Amazing Express porno shop. I’m looking now at a newspaper ad for the Pike dating back to May, 1963 when they were showing an odd double-bill of Italian films (dubbed in English.) The program was “Rice Girl” with Elsa Martinelli, in the tradition of the earlier “Bitter Rice,” and “Fatal Desire” with Anthony Quinn. “Fatal Desire” was actually “Cavalleria Rusticana,” famed as an opera by Pietro Mascagni.
The come-on was “2 explosive motion pictures – 1 big show!” For “Rice Girl” we read: “Pietro worshipped her…Mario wanted her…Gianni took her.” For “Fatal Desire” it says, “There is a special kind of payment for ‘borrowing’ another man’s wife. As a fan of Italian cinema I’m only familiar with "Rice Girl” and have never seen “Fatal Desire.” It is interesting that a program of imported films like this would make the rounds of drive-ins and exploitation houses of the time. Both are pretty hard to see today. The distributor was Ultra Pictures.
Decades ago I used to go to this theatre from time to time when in New York. My stronget memories go back to the summer of 1965 when AFFS (the American Federation of Film Societies) had a number of special morning 35mm screenings at this then-very-spiffy place for members during one week. Among the films I saw there in those screenings were Munk’s “The Passenger,” Bertolucci’s “Before the Revolution,” Buñuel’s “Nazarin,” and Rossif’s “To Die in Madrid.” They were all revelations. The AFFS also had 16mm screenings that year in a room at the U.N. building.
Beacon Hill.
jboger, I wholeheartedly share your enthusiasm for the Bleecker and Carnegie in that period and I don’t want to be a nitpicker, but the film you refer to was “Le Million” and it was not directed by Jean Renoir but by René Clair.
re: “It isn’t used anymore for movies"
Well, technically that’s not entirely so. On November 2, 2002 I saw Godfrey Reggio’s "Koyaanisqatsi” here in a special event with composer Philip Glass conducting a live performance of his score for the film. I don’t know if the projection equipment was specially installed for that show or if there is still equipment in the booth. From the visual and musical standpoint I thought the whole event was top-notch.
For nice views of the Cinema Barberini, outside and inside, see the Criterion Collection DVD set of Luchino Visconti’s “The Leopard.” Disc 2 features newsreels of the gala premiere of that film here in March 1963.
Jean Renoir’s landmark film masterpiece “Grand Illusion” opened here in September 1938, when the theatre was called the Filmarte. That alone would give this place significance.
Patsy, it’s listed as the Publix, its last name as a movie theatre.
Yes, Ron, that is truly sad. Imagine a similar situation in New York, where all Manhattan residents could see such movies only in Brooklyn, Queens, or Westchester.
The Beacon Hill was indeed one of Boston’s prime art houses in the 1950s and 1960s and, I believe, earlier, with many of the top foreign films playing here. I remember movies like the French version of “Gigi” playing here in the early 50s. I was too young to come to Boston to see it at the time, but I used to like to check out movie ads in the Boston papers. I believe the first movie I ever saw here was Nanni Loy’s “The Four Days of Naples” in 1963. I came up from Providence as a college student just to see that. The other art houses in the period of the 1950s and 1960s were the Kenmore Cinema (torn down to build I-90), the Exeter Street Theatre, and the Telepix (later Park Square Cinema), the West End Cinema (1960s). I would love to hear other people’s memories of Boston art houses in the pre-1960s era.
I can tell you with certainty that the Beacon Hill was indeed one of Boston’s prime art houses in the 1950s and 1960s and, I believe, earlier, with many of the top foreign films playing here. I remember movies like the French version of “Gigi” playing here in the early 50s. I was too young to come to Boston to see it at the time, but I used to like to check out movie ads in the Boston papers. I believe the first movie I ever saw here was Nanni Loy’s “The Four Days of Naples” in 1963. I came up from Providence as a college student just to see that. I too saw “Casanova” here, but I don’t remember it as being reserved seat at the time. The other art houses in the period of the 1950s and 1960s were the Kenmore Cinema (torn down to build I-90), the Exeter Street Theatre, and the Telepix (later Park Square Cinema), the West End Cinema (1960s).
To CConnolly:
I’m not positive, but from your description it sounds like it could have been the Cinema Rendezvous (57th Street Playhouse, etc.) It is now the Directors Guild of America Theatre and is listed at:
/theaters/7049/