Bomes Theatre
1017 Broad Street,
Providence,
RI
02907
1017 Broad Street,
Providence,
RI
02907
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Showing 76 - 92 of 92 comments
One vivid recollection I have was of attending a children’s matinee program at the Art around 1958/59 because they were showing the boy ‘n bull film “The Brave One,” which I happened to like a lot and had already seen several times during those teenage years. An infuriating thing occurred during the projection. The first reel was switched to the second reel before it had ended, like about five or more minutes. Then reel 2 began not at the start but about five minutes or more into the reel…and so on and so forth. You get the idea. The projectionist, probably some dude who was in a hurry to get it on with his girl, was shaving about 10 minutes from each reel or almost an hour from the movie! (He could never have done that in later years with a platter system.) I was furious that this movie, which I knew and liked, was being butchered by some nincompoop projectionist who didn’t give a crap, figuring that there was just a bunch of stupid kids in the audience. I think I complained and got my money back…but I’m not certain.
Yes, I saw that, but in Boston at the Fine Arts.
You’re right. It was a bit out-of-the-way. I recall that my mother and father would refer to the theater as “way down Broad Street.” Furthermore, as you stated, business probably peaked in the early sixties. The film that played one of the longest engagements there was “La Dolce Vita.” After a successful first run at the Majestic, it opened at the Art Cinema in November, 1961. Every Friday, the newspaper ran a large ad with the addendum “Held Over!” printed above it. On the occasion of its fifth week, the theater pulled its usual ad that Friday, the one with Anita Ekberg holding a kitten, and replaced it with a more provocative one, Anita Ekberg in a long strapless dress, girating. It most certainly stood out from all the other bland advertisements on the page. When the movie finally ended its run, yet another controversial film followed, “A Cold Wind in August.” Do you remember that one?
The place was probably doomed from the time it started with the art house policy in 1958. It was a bit out-of-the way and could not attract much of the neighborhood audience since those folks were not interested in those kinds of films. I do believe the Ingmar Bergman series shown in the early 1960s, at the time of the director’s great popularity, attracted some sizeable audiences. I remember a guy in the audience saying out loud during “The Seventh Seal,” “Is this supposed to be symbolic?” and then going to sleep. Russ Meyer’s “Lorna” may have done well during the cinema’s soft-core period. When they first started the art house policy, I believe they served free espresso in the little lobby. FREE espresso, like some of the Manhattan art houses of the time where it was a trend. Can you imagine any movie theatres serving you free espresso today? Yeah, right.
Gerald DeLuca,
Thank you, I enjoyed the photos. Perhaps you will remember this. The Art Cinema had a sign or inscription permanently printed on each side of the marquee (and I think on the front, as well) that stated “Distinctive Fare from the Film Capitals of the World” or something like that. It was an apparent reference to the many foreign films that played there.
My first visit to the Art Cinema was in May, 1966. The feature presentation was “To Die in Madrid,” a documentary about the Spanish Civil War. The co-feature was a British comedy with Peter Sellers, “Two Way Stretch,” made early in his career. However, I was too young at the time, in my early teens, to appreciate either film. What I especially remember is the number of patrons in the theater that evening that I could count on one hand. Even then, I wondered how the theater would stay in business with such low attendance. The answer, of course, came the following year. By fall of 1967, the Art Cinema was regularly showing exploitation films, a precursor to the soft core variety which played a couple of years later.
I love the NY Mirror review…..LOL. I bet by todays’s standards this would be G rated.
Brian Michela,
Here is one of those films you refer to that got a “C-Condemned” rating by the Catholic Legion of Decency. It was shown at the Art in June, 1962 as part of a double bill.
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And a photo I took a couple of years ago.
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Yes, I remember. I also remember all the unique films I MISSED that were shown there because I was away at college, some of which I have never been able to see since, like “From a Roman Balcony.” Here are photos of a two-page flyer announcing a special series of films they ran in the fall of 1958.
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Memories of the Art Cinema. Growing up in the 1960s, I just loved to read the movie page. But what fascinated me most were the ads for the Art Cinema (and, after that, those of the Avon). It showed the most unusual movies, usually foreign, but also unconventional American films as well. In fact, in those days, any motion picture that was on the “C-Condemned” list of the Catholic Church was eventually booked at the Art Cinema. The newspaper ads for these films were quite intriguing to me, even though I was too young for admission.
When Joseph Strick’s film “James Joyce’s Ulysses” played here in March of 1967, the unheard-of admission price (for that time) was $5.50! That was about two to three times what normal admission prices were in the area.
Bits of programming esoterica for the theatre when it was called the Liberty. Shown in January of 1933: MAZELTOV with Molly Picon, a reworking with Yiddish narration and framing sequence of the 1923 silent OST UND WEST. Shown in March of 1937: HIS WIFE’S LOVER, a 1931 Yiddish film.
As an art house, the Art Cinema was doomed. It was located in what was even then a semi-depressed part of Providence. The clientele was never really of local or neighborhood origin. People would have to get there from other parts of town. It was not like the Avon which had and still has a nearby affluent patron-base, and of course being located next to Brown University, the Avon benefitted from the perpetual foot-traffic on busy Thayer Street. I believe the Lockwood Gordon chain, which used to run the Avon in the 1950s, took over the Liberty to be used as an sister venue, renaming it the Art Cinema.
Here is a programming memory of the Art Cinema. In November of 1958 the cinema offered the “First Annual Cinema Harvest of Films Unique.” I still have the flyer. The double bills shown were: SPECTER OF THE ROSE & GOYA, LA STRADA & I VITELLONI, THE STONE FLOWER & IVAN THE TERRIBLE, TONIGHT AT 8:30 & CASABLANCA, THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO & EROICA, THE BIRTH OF A NATION and THE W.C. FIELDS FESTIVAL. To follow, beginning a regular run on Thanksgiving Day, was Fernandel in THE MAN IN THE RAINCOAT.
This listing should be merged. It is a duplicate of the Bomes Theatre which is already listed at /theaters/6034/ .
Yes, I indicated that in giving other names to the theatre, but that didn’t show in the posting. As a young film nut, I went to the Art Cinema frequently and saw pictures here like THE MIRACLE OF MARCELINO, RIFIFI, THE STONE FLOWER, JAMES JOYCE’S ULYSSES, numerous Ingmar Bergman films in series they would run, even a revival of Griffith’s THE BIRTH OF A NATION. They even showed rarely screened films like Rossellini’s STRANGERS (VIAGGIO IN ITALIA), Malaparte’s STRANGE DECEPTION, Germi’s MADEMOISELLE GOBETTE. The theatre may have had some agreement with Art Film Booking Service, because they seemed to show everything in that distributors vault of interesting but commercially unviable esoterica.