Cinerama Theatre
811 Hope Street,
Providence,
RI
02906
811 Hope Street,
Providence,
RI
02906
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Hi all,
(Like Jackie O’s post…) My love for movies started when I was very young as my father, Larry Johnson, was the manager of the Cinerama Theatre in the early sixties. I watched many Cinerama movies from the front row. The one that has the most lasting memory for me is Grand Prix (starring the young James Garner). I still remember the opening credits with the screen splitting into multiple images, and the amazing racing scenes on the super wide projection.
I have some pictures of those days I can post (have to dig them out of the basement). Perhaps people may recognize their own father in the pictures. I had books from all the big Cinerama movies (including This is Cinerama) that were unfortunately damaged by water.
My Dad moved on to other theatres throughout Rhode Island over the years, but Cinerama was the grandest of them all. It pains me to drive by there now and see that CVS.
I’ll post pics if when I find them.
The Cinerama is the birthplace of the audience participation movie the Rocky Horror Picture Show in Rhode Island. It ran there from 1978 -1983.
I actually performed the Rocky Horror Picture Show at the Cinerama on the last night of the show in March of 1983. It may well have been the last movie played there ever. It was PACKED! The manager there was Gerry Corbett, whom went at least as far back as 1980 (when I first saw the movie there). The projectionist was named Elliot. I remember the name John O'Sullivan being what we thought of as the ‘District Manager’.
Once the movie ended there, we moved on to the Avon Cinema a few months later and many theatres later the show continues on to this day in Rhode Island.
We never heard again of Gerry Corbett. Last I heard of Elliot he was involved in the Rustic Drive In in the 90’s. Did anyone ever hear where Gerry went after the Cinerama?
Still have my untorn opening night tickets to “This is Cinerama”
My father, John O'Sullivan, was a Regional manager for Lockwood & Gordon for many years. His territory included Rhode Island and the Hope/Cinerama, Art and Avon theatres. He oversaw the conversion of this house to Cinerama, and I remember well the thrill this 4 year-old budding cinephile experienced when she saw “This is Cinerama!”
I only wish I had found this site before my father’s death. I would have loved to trace his career, which began at the beautifully respored Warner in Torrington, CT, with him.
I remember the HOPE around 1955 or 56 when it was operated by Lockwood and Gorden, Boston, Mass. and the manager was Herman Boas.
The 1949 Film Daily Yearbook lists the seating capacity as 1,011.
The Cinerama Theatre was twinned in 1974 and after twinning re-opened on Wednesday, June 26, 1974. The features first shown as a twin theatre were Chinatown and Claudine.
When the Cinerama Theatre was twinned, two pleasant and not too tiny auditoriums resulted, since the original theatre was fairly wide, and the screens were substantially sized too. One oddity, though, was that they did not change the positioning on the seats. The result was that in the left auditorium the arc of the rows of seats curved forward toward the left, while in the right auditorium they curved forward to the right, as though the place were still one big auditorium with a wall down the center from front to rear.
I believe the Turkish movie Yol was the last picture I saw here, on March 19, 1983, before the theatre closed.
Liam, no, the entrance was from the front as it always had been. The two auditorium entrances were to the left and right of the candy concession. I believe there were side exit doors, one to the parking lot on the right, one to a side street on the left that were opened after crowded shows. One thing about this place that sticks in the mind about this place when it ws the Cinerama, is the plush-red drapes, curtains, everything. It had the decor of a bordello. I used to go here in the late 1950s and the 1960s, when it was the nabe Hope Theatre, to see double bills of movies that I might have missed elsewhere.
Three theatres that I know of were converted into drug stores. All are in Philadelphia, PA:
1: Stanley Warner’s Aldine / Viking / Rugoff’s Cinema 19 / United Artists-Eric Theatres' Sam’s Place Twin: CVS Pharmacy
2: Mayfair Theatre: Eckerd
3: Parkwood Twin Theatre: Rite Aid and office building
I’m curious if the layout of this building changed when it was twinned. I remember going with my folks when it was doing arthouse fare in the early 80’s, but I somehow remember entering from the side of the building and not the front main entrance as you see in the pictures.
This theatre by far was one of the best for sound and projection. I saw many movies here. I will never forget Kubick’s “2001”. The sound quality was superb and surpassed anything we have today.
Here is a 1928 photo of the Hope Theatre.
The original seating capacity as the single-screen Hope was 1137, according to the Providence Journal Almanac of 1940.
Just how many great theatres have we lost to CVS and Rite Aid?
The projection here was top-notch…whether showing a revival of SINGIN' IN THE RAIN or a 70mm DAYS OF HEAVEN. Aspect ratios were respected, masking was correct, and you could trust the theatre to get things right with sound and focus. The theatre, by the way, kept its name “Cinerama Theatre” even after it no longer showed Cinerama.