Those interested in theater/cinema buildings today could easily assume that the State II must have been a second screen within the State Theatre (ex-Trans Lux/ Park). But it was not – it was located in a storefront in the same building, and almost certainly must have been under the same management as the State. I never went into it, but remember it there in the 1970s.
The Hollowbrook Drive-In was mentioned once again on PBS-TV “Antiques Roadshow” on Mon Nov 5. There was a show poster signed by the folksinger Pete Seeger, who lived in the area. In 1949 there was a folk music concert at the drive-in featuring Pete Seeger and Paul Robeson. Both had reputations for being slightly on the Marxist side of the spectrum, so stones were thrown at them. Apparently, this resulted in a mini-riot, and Seeger wrote a note about it on the poster which he signed. I don’t recall the appraised value of the poster.
Bad news about the State appeared yesterday in the Quincy Patriot Ledger: an article “Stoughton May Seize Historic Theater” by Ben Berke. I had not realized that the State was sold about 2 years ago. The previous owner had been sympathetic to the “Friends of the State Theatre” group. But the new owner is tired of the stalled attempt (stalled due to lack of funds) to restore and reopen the house. He wants to demolish the building. The town is considering acquiring the theater thru eminent domain proceedings using Community Preservation funds. But this is a complicated procedure and requires voter approval. So the situation does not look good.
As the Bennington Opera House, this theater is listed in the 1897-98 edition of the Julius Cahn Official Theatrical Guide. The theater was on the ground floor and had 1,194 seats. F.M. Tiffany was Mgr. Ticket prices 25 cents to $1. The proscenium opening was 36 feet wide X 38 feet high, and the stage was 40 feet deep. There were 7 musicians in the pit band. Newspapers were the Troy Press, Banner and Democrat. Hotels for show folk: American, Putnam, Burgess and Columbia. The 1897 population of Bennington was 10,000.
The Call Opera House in Algona IA is listed in the 1897-98 Julius Cahn Official Theatrical Guide. C.H. Blossom was Mgr. There were 600 seats. Ticket prices 25 cents – $1. Oil lamp illumination. The proscenium opening was 21 feet wide X 20 feet high; the stage was 30 feet deep. The theatre was on the ground floor. There were 6 musicians in the house band. There were 3 weekly newspapers, and 2 hotels for show folk. The 1897 population was 3,000.
The Boston Childrens Theatre performed on stage here for many seasons, on Saturday mornings or afternoons. The lobby entrance was on Clarendon Street a few steps away from Boylston St.
The Art had a ticket window right at the street entrance, with a turnstyle next to it. After paying admission, one went through the turnstyle just like at a subway station.
This was a very busy venue for many years. Circa-1990 it was renamed “Copley Theatre” (because the original Copley Theatre nearby was gone). But I don’t think that name stuck. It has been closed for a long time now, and may have been remodeled out of existence.
This new cinema is located in a new area right next to downtown which formerly was filled with wharves, freight sheds, extensive rail freight yards, some commercial buildings. Now there are condos, apartments, convention center, court house, hotels, restaurants. It’s a promising place to locate a new cinema.
The number of seats in the Hollywood is currently less than the space available for seats. As of mid-July, they are removing seats and adding new seats, which came from Bowtie Cinemas. Seats removed are to be sent to the Diamond Th. in Ligonier for re-use. I don’t know what the seat total will be after this work is finished.
Is this theater now called the “Diamond Theatre” ? There is a Diamond Theatre at 210 W. Main St. which shows movies on weekends and occasional live shows for children on stage.
The Milton Cinema was the subject yesterday of the occasional feature “Whatever Happend to …?” in the Quincy Patriot Ledger. There is a 1987 exterior photo. For info about the cinema, the writer came here to this page in Cinema Treasures. The copy concludes with the news that the Novara restaurant opened in the space in 2016 and has “movie-themed decorations”. So the building is still standing with a restuarant inside.
Yes,the Astor was very old (1889). I admired it on the outside, on Avery Street and the wide alley which ran along its east side. As a kid, I had an interest in old theatres and rail stations. I thought the Astor was really interesting, until I bought a ticket and went inside. What a disappointment ! (I was about 15 at the time). There was a fire (not major) inside about 1915, and one or more small fires in the outer lobby circa 1980. During demolition you could see traces high up on the auditorium walls of some fancy gilt decoration.
The stage floor, proscenium arch and side boxes were removed years prior to 1959. Possibly as early as the late-1930s, or in 1947. I first went to the Astor in the early-1950s. It was what was known as a “draped house” – the entire front half of the auditorium was covered in long, dark drapes. The screen was on the rear stage wall, and where the stage and orchestra pit had been, there were rows of seats.
I heard recently that this theater is still intact inside and has not been gutted out. It has been made whole and is no longer a 2-screen auditorium. I saw a photo of the proscenium and stage. The seats in front have been removed. The stage is remarkably shallow. I have no idea what plans are in place for this building.
When I first went to the Colonial in the late-1940s and early-1950s, the auditorium was green, with a green house curtain. I mostly went to musicals, but I saw some straight plays, too, such as “Death of s Salesman”, “Darkness at Noon, "Stalag 17”, “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolfe”, and had no problem hearing the dialog. (we usually sat in the second balcony, or in the top tier of boxes). In those days, the sound was all acoustic, with no “mics”. I never saw a movie there because occasional film presentation had ended by then.
In the 1942-43 Motion Picture Almanac, Sharby Theatres of Keene NH is listed, but by that time Fred Sharby was running theaters in NH and Maine, but nothing in Mass. So he must have sold his interest in the Capitol.
Barrow is located in far northern Alaska. In early- winter there is no daylight and the temp could easily drop to -40 degrees F. So a cinema would need a good heating plant. The local people are Inuit; “Eskimo” is no longer used.
The Ideal Th. in Milford MA is listed in the 1927 Film Daily Yearbook as open 6 days per week, with 500 seats. They also list the Opera House in Milford, also open 6 days per week, and also having 500 seats. The MGM Theatre Report for the Ideal was not included in the set of MGM reports at the Loews Theatres office in New York (which later went into the THSA archives).
The Nantasket Beach station of the railroad is still standing and is the location of the old carousel from the Paragon Park amusement park at the Beach. Very close by to the west was the dock for the excursion boats from downtown Boston. Hull was a lively place in the summer many years ago.
The “Kenberma station” referred to in Joe Vogel’s posting could be a local post office, or could be the rail station on the New Haven RR line which ran from Nantasket Junction, south of Hingham, almost all the way to the end of the Hull peninsular and which had frequent passenger trains as of 1916. The Apollo Theatre was near Nantasket Beach while the Bayside Th. was further north in the Bayside area, so this 1916 item seems certainly to refer to the South Shore Theatre in the Kenberma neighborhood.
Those interested in theater/cinema buildings today could easily assume that the State II must have been a second screen within the State Theatre (ex-Trans Lux/ Park). But it was not – it was located in a storefront in the same building, and almost certainly must have been under the same management as the State. I never went into it, but remember it there in the 1970s.
The Hollowbrook Drive-In was mentioned once again on PBS-TV “Antiques Roadshow” on Mon Nov 5. There was a show poster signed by the folksinger Pete Seeger, who lived in the area. In 1949 there was a folk music concert at the drive-in featuring Pete Seeger and Paul Robeson. Both had reputations for being slightly on the Marxist side of the spectrum, so stones were thrown at them. Apparently, this resulted in a mini-riot, and Seeger wrote a note about it on the poster which he signed. I don’t recall the appraised value of the poster.
Bad news about the State appeared yesterday in the Quincy Patriot Ledger: an article “Stoughton May Seize Historic Theater” by Ben Berke. I had not realized that the State was sold about 2 years ago. The previous owner had been sympathetic to the “Friends of the State Theatre” group. But the new owner is tired of the stalled attempt (stalled due to lack of funds) to restore and reopen the house. He wants to demolish the building. The town is considering acquiring the theater thru eminent domain proceedings using Community Preservation funds. But this is a complicated procedure and requires voter approval. So the situation does not look good.
As the Bennington Opera House, this theater is listed in the 1897-98 edition of the Julius Cahn Official Theatrical Guide. The theater was on the ground floor and had 1,194 seats. F.M. Tiffany was Mgr. Ticket prices 25 cents to $1. The proscenium opening was 36 feet wide X 38 feet high, and the stage was 40 feet deep. There were 7 musicians in the pit band. Newspapers were the Troy Press, Banner and Democrat. Hotels for show folk: American, Putnam, Burgess and Columbia. The 1897 population of Bennington was 10,000.
The Call Opera House in Algona IA is listed in the 1897-98 Julius Cahn Official Theatrical Guide. C.H. Blossom was Mgr. There were 600 seats. Ticket prices 25 cents – $1. Oil lamp illumination. The proscenium opening was 21 feet wide X 20 feet high; the stage was 30 feet deep. The theatre was on the ground floor. There were 6 musicians in the house band. There were 3 weekly newspapers, and 2 hotels for show folk. The 1897 population was 3,000.
The Boston Childrens Theatre performed on stage here for many seasons, on Saturday mornings or afternoons. The lobby entrance was on Clarendon Street a few steps away from Boylston St.
The Art had a ticket window right at the street entrance, with a turnstyle next to it. After paying admission, one went through the turnstyle just like at a subway station.
I remember this little cinema, but never went into it. I seem to recall that it was created out of a branch bank office.
This was a very busy venue for many years. Circa-1990 it was renamed “Copley Theatre” (because the original Copley Theatre nearby was gone). But I don’t think that name stuck. It has been closed for a long time now, and may have been remodeled out of existence.
This new cinema is located in a new area right next to downtown which formerly was filled with wharves, freight sheds, extensive rail freight yards, some commercial buildings. Now there are condos, apartments, convention center, court house, hotels, restaurants. It’s a promising place to locate a new cinema.
The Orienta Theatre was located on the east side of Washington Street to the north of Dudley Sq.
This venue was apparently called “Orenta Hall” originally, a meeting and function hall which was converted into an early cinema for awhile.
The number of seats in the Hollywood is currently less than the space available for seats. As of mid-July, they are removing seats and adding new seats, which came from Bowtie Cinemas. Seats removed are to be sent to the Diamond Th. in Ligonier for re-use. I don’t know what the seat total will be after this work is finished.
Is this theater now called the “Diamond Theatre” ? There is a Diamond Theatre at 210 W. Main St. which shows movies on weekends and occasional live shows for children on stage.
The Milton Cinema was the subject yesterday of the occasional feature “Whatever Happend to …?” in the Quincy Patriot Ledger. There is a 1987 exterior photo. For info about the cinema, the writer came here to this page in Cinema Treasures. The copy concludes with the news that the Novara restaurant opened in the space in 2016 and has “movie-themed decorations”. So the building is still standing with a restuarant inside.
There was a brief reopening ceremony at the Colonial on Wed. June 27, attended by the Mayor of Boston and other “dignataries”.
Yes,the Astor was very old (1889). I admired it on the outside, on Avery Street and the wide alley which ran along its east side. As a kid, I had an interest in old theatres and rail stations. I thought the Astor was really interesting, until I bought a ticket and went inside. What a disappointment ! (I was about 15 at the time). There was a fire (not major) inside about 1915, and one or more small fires in the outer lobby circa 1980. During demolition you could see traces high up on the auditorium walls of some fancy gilt decoration.
The stage floor, proscenium arch and side boxes were removed years prior to 1959. Possibly as early as the late-1930s, or in 1947. I first went to the Astor in the early-1950s. It was what was known as a “draped house” – the entire front half of the auditorium was covered in long, dark drapes. The screen was on the rear stage wall, and where the stage and orchestra pit had been, there were rows of seats.
I heard recently that this theater is still intact inside and has not been gutted out. It has been made whole and is no longer a 2-screen auditorium. I saw a photo of the proscenium and stage. The seats in front have been removed. The stage is remarkably shallow. I have no idea what plans are in place for this building.
When I first went to the Colonial in the late-1940s and early-1950s, the auditorium was green, with a green house curtain. I mostly went to musicals, but I saw some straight plays, too, such as “Death of s Salesman”, “Darkness at Noon, "Stalag 17”, “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolfe”, and had no problem hearing the dialog. (we usually sat in the second balcony, or in the top tier of boxes). In those days, the sound was all acoustic, with no “mics”. I never saw a movie there because occasional film presentation had ended by then.
In the 1942-43 Motion Picture Almanac, Sharby Theatres of Keene NH is listed, but by that time Fred Sharby was running theaters in NH and Maine, but nothing in Mass. So he must have sold his interest in the Capitol.
Barrow is located in far northern Alaska. In early- winter there is no daylight and the temp could easily drop to -40 degrees F. So a cinema would need a good heating plant. The local people are Inuit; “Eskimo” is no longer used.
The Ideal Th. in Milford MA is listed in the 1927 Film Daily Yearbook as open 6 days per week, with 500 seats. They also list the Opera House in Milford, also open 6 days per week, and also having 500 seats. The MGM Theatre Report for the Ideal was not included in the set of MGM reports at the Loews Theatres office in New York (which later went into the THSA archives).
The Nantasket Beach station of the railroad is still standing and is the location of the old carousel from the Paragon Park amusement park at the Beach. Very close by to the west was the dock for the excursion boats from downtown Boston. Hull was a lively place in the summer many years ago.
The “Kenberma station” referred to in Joe Vogel’s posting could be a local post office, or could be the rail station on the New Haven RR line which ran from Nantasket Junction, south of Hingham, almost all the way to the end of the Hull peninsular and which had frequent passenger trains as of 1916. The Apollo Theatre was near Nantasket Beach while the Bayside Th. was further north in the Bayside area, so this 1916 item seems certainly to refer to the South Shore Theatre in the Kenberma neighborhood.