RKO Boston Theatre
614 Washington Street,
Boston,
MA
02111
614 Washington Street,
Boston,
MA
02111
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Thomas Lamb apparently advised Arthur Bowditch on the interior design of the Keith Boston- the foyers and auditorium definitely have a Lambesque look.
The theatre opened, as the Keith Albee Boston, on Oct. 5, 1925, with 3231 seats. Arthur Bowditch, architect. Constructed within the rear of an existing building, more or less on the footprint of the Globe Theatre of the 19th century, an elaborately decorated legit house with over 2000 seats. Like the RKO Boston, the Globe also had an entrance on Washington Street, and a rear foyer exit on Essex Street, as well as a scene door facing toward Hayward Place. But it must have been shorter in length, because its scene door was a short distance in from Hayward Place, rather than right on it, like the RKO’s. In the 1980s, that scene door became a garage entrance for pushcart vendors. Since the stage floor was a drop down below Hayward Place, they must have built a false floor in the stage house. Around this time, one day the stage door was wide open and I observed a notice affixed to the inside of the door which said something like “Attention Performers: Beware of Confidence men on the streets of Boston.” Since there are several floors of offices directly above the auditorium and stage, this is one closed-up theatre where there is no danger from a leaky roof. I understand that the building management uses it for storage and that’s why there are lights on in the auditorium. The front portion of the lobby entrance on Washington St. is now a MBTA Orange Line exit. There was a marquee and vertical sign above it in the old days.
We knew this theatre circa 1950 as the “RKO Boston” or “RKO Keith Boston” (never “Keith’s”). There were attractions on stage there from time to time, even though the Vaude era was long over. For example, late-January 1951: Jack Carson, Don Cherry, Janis Carter, Honey Bros., Cece & Bud Robinson on stage with “Under the Gun” on screen. The following bill, in Feb. 1951, included Mel Torme, Maxie Rosenbloom, DeMarco Sisters, and Harmonica Rascals; movie unknown. On Saturday May 19, 1951, “Snow White”, a touring musical version, was presented on stage several times during the day. I saw “Don Juan in Hell” by George Bernard Shaw on stage at a Sat. matinee, November 29, 1952, starring Vincent Price, Charles Boyer, Agnes Morehead, and Cedric Hardwick. This was really a glorified poetry reading.But it stayed at the RKO Boston for at least one week, maybe two. One year later, a similar poetry reading, “John Brown’s Body” was presented at the old Boston Opera House, with Tyrone Power, Raymond Massey and Anne Baxter.(Nov. 1953). I don’t know when the last stage use occured at the RKO Boston, sometime between Nov. 1952 and the Fall of 1953 when it was converted into a Cinerama operation. I went to a number of Cinerama showings there, which were very popular in the 1950s. I believe that it was the only Cinerama venue in the Boston area.
The Boston Cinerama was a beautiful theatre! Does that sealed off balcony still exist?
The RKO Boston advertised its 1949 in-person appearance of Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy even in the Providence paper. The program included a “big stage show” and, on the screen, the distinctly-B-movie Strange Bargain.
According to Donald C. King’s new book The Theatres of Boston: A Stage and Screen History, the Keith-Albee Boston opened on October 5, 1925, with nearly 4000 seats.
It was a replacement for the old Boston Theatre, which was about to be torn down and replaced on site by the Keith Memorial Theatre.
The first day’s program featured seven vaudeville acts and two movies: Carl Laemmle’s California Straight Ahead with Reginald Denny, and a Charlie Chase comedy, The Caretaker’s Daughter, accompanied by a $50,000 Wurlitzer organ. There were four shows a day.
By the 1930s, it was called the RKO Boston, and it began a stage show policy of big bands plus a feature film.
It became the Boston Cinerama on December 30, 1953, with two daily showings of This is Cinerama.
King says that the Cinerama closed in 1971, then reopened in July 1974 as the Essex I and II, “starting with an action film policy and then moving into pornography, joining most of lower Washington Street’s sex houses.”
From the Boston Globe, November 27, 2003:
It seems odd to us, that a 1905 advertisement in a Colonial Theatre playbill proclaimed, “Henry Siegel Co. – Strictly Fireproof Throughout.” But being fireproof was a real concern, given that no less than four major fires have managed to destroy various sections of downtown Boston since its incorporation, the most recent in memory then was 1872.
Designed by noted architect Arthur Bowditch, Siegel’s came to occupy the corner of Essex and Washington streets, now the Washington/Essex Building. This was the first Boston branch of the New York- and Chicago-based department store.
Promising one-stop shopping, Siegel’s had it all: Ladies' writing and reception room, photo studio, delicatessen, bakery, post and telegraph office, bank and 1,000 seat restaurant.
Ads bragged that the store had “everything to wear, everything to eat, and everything for the home.” Despite all the amenities, the store closed in 1914, seven years after opening. In its place came a Keith’s Circuit Theatre designed by prominent New York theatre architect Thomas Lamb.
Reports of the day tell of spacious marble foyers, gold brocaded black satin panels, crystal chandeliers, and a $50,000 Wurlitzer organ.
The swank theatre also included the city’s first women’s smoking room. People lined up for blocks to see the latest in entertainment, a mix of vaudeville and movies. Now the massive tan brick and white terra cotta trim building houses Mr. Alan Clothing, Boston Bakery, and the Chinatown MBTA Stop. The massive Ritz Carlton is its neighbor across the street.
There is a photo of the lobby of the Albee-Boston Theatre in the THSA Marquee magazine Vol 7 #3. Taken in 1944-45 it has adverts for the RKO picture “Zombies on Broadway” with Cab Calloway and his band appearing on stage. The architect is given as Thomas Lamb.
That photo does not show the RKO Boston, which was at 614 Washington Street.
It shows the RKO Keith’s, now called the Opera House, at 539 Washington Street. That’s a half block up from the RKO Boston and on the other side of the street.
Pictured here in 1945 along with the Paramount:
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A picture postcard of Washington Street, from sometime between 1930 and 1945, described here.
In the left foreground is the vertical sign and marquee for the RKO Keith-Boston theatre. Further down the left side of the street you can see vertical signs for the Olympia (later renamed to Pilgrim) and the Globe (later renamed to Center).
On the right side of the street is the marquee for the Park (later renamed to Trans-Lux and finally to State) and, further down, a vertical sign for the Gayety (later renamed to Victory and finally to Publix).
In this 1958 photo (described here), the theatre marquee has been changed to “BOSTON CINERAMA” and advertises “Search for Paradise”.
And here’s a wonderful 1944 photo of this theatre, then apparently called “RKO Keith-Boston”. (Scroll down to the second photo.) A live radio show, “Blind Date” with Arlene Francis, is being broadcast from the theatre. Also featured are Bob Chester and His Orchestra, and the movie Seven Days Ashore with Wally Brown.
The Washington-Essex building still stands, but the scene is otherwise nearly unrecognizable today. All of the chain stores shown in the photo — Bond Clothes, Thom McAn, Kay Jewelers — are long gone from this block. The grand marquee and the theatre entrance itself have also vanished, replaced by an entrance to the Chinatown Orange Line subway station. Which is most unfortunate, because as a result, people have forgotten that this theatre even exists anymore.
I’ve seen several old photos of Washignton Street from the 1940s or earlier, showing a vertical sign attached to this theatre reading “KEITH ALBEE”.
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 RKO Boston presented its last live show in 1951.
I recall the theatre as a twin in the 70’s under a different name. For some reason essex does ring a bell as the name. Star was the name when it changed to kung fu.
Under Essex it had a weird grab bag triple feature policy. Seems like almost anything from exploitation could turn up on them.
For some strange reason it ended up with an exclusive run of Elizabeth Taylor’s film The Drivers Seat as one of its last attractions.
When it was the Star Cinema, the address was 38 Essex Street.
Thanks for the info, Ron. Star Cinema rings a bell with me, as does Essex Cinema. It must have gone under both those names before it closed, as I remember them both. I lived in a loft next to the Paramount Theatre in the mid-80’s, I recall the entrance on Essex St – pretty sure that was the Star Cinema then. I never knew they had live music during the 40’s/50’s, but it was certainly a big enough stage. Maybe someday someone will attempt to reopen this space and do something with it. Especially if The Gaiety/Publix gets demolished, which, sadly, is looking more likely every day.
I’ve been looking through the online Boston Globe and Herald archives for more information on this theatre. It was a venue for big band music in the 1940s and 50s. From an August 7, 1988 Globe article:
“The old RKO-Boston Theater on Washington Street near the Combat Zone has long since been closed, with few reminders that during the 1940s and into the early 1950s, it was the showcase for the nation’s favorite bands and vocal groups. Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Gene Krupa, Glen Gray, Charlie Spivak, Bob Chester, the Ink Spots, the Andrews Sisters, the Mills Brothers — they all played the RKO.
The Glenn Miller band made its final Boston appearance there on Thursday, Sept. 17, 1942, ten days before the band broke up after its last performance at the Central Theater in Passaic, N.J. Miller then joined the Army Air Force."
From a May 8, 1983 Globe article:
“After the Rock Hudson bomb "Ice Station Zebra,” the Boston Cinerama Theater on lower Washington street closed, re-opened briefly as a twin cinema with black and Chinese films. Now, a portion of the theater called the Star Cinema shows Chinese films exclusively on a small screen."
(Ice Station Zebra was released in 1968.)
In the 1980s, the owner of the 600 Washington Street building considered turning the theater into a parking garage. Fortunately, this didn’t happen.
It its declining years of the 1970s, I believe it was called “Essex Theatre” or “Essex Cinema”. It definitely wasn’t called “Boston Cinerama” or “RKO Boston” anymore.
And when they moved the entrance around the corner onto Essex Street and began showing Asian films, I think it got yet another name, “Star Cinema”.
I have a booklet called “Boston Theatre District: A Walking Tour”, published by the Boston Preservation Alliance in 1993, It says:
“In 1925 a theatre was installed in the rear of the [Washington-Essex] building, called the Keith Albee Boston, designed by Thomas Lamb, the country’s best known 20th century theatre architect. Its presentations of live entertainment continued through the 1940s. The theatre became Boston Cinerama from 1961 to 1966 and was subsequently subdivided and partially modernized. it is current vacant, following a short career as a Chinese theatre.”
Following up my earlier post regarding seeing the theatre from Essex Street:
You have to do this at night. If you try during the day, as I did a few hours ago, you won’t see much because of bright reflections off the glass doors.
I have no idea why the interior of the unused theatre appears to be lit at night.
The State has been torn down – one of the Millennium/Ritz-Carlton towers is now on its site.
The Pilgrim has been torn down – a condominium tower called “Park Essex” is now under construction on its site.
The Center is now a large, fancy Chinese restaurant.
Where the Stuart entrance was, there’s now a McDonald’s. I don’t know if any remnant of the theatre sits behind it.
The Publix (originally Gaiety) could be torn down literally any day now, as courts are rejecting litigation to preserve it. I’m posting regular updates on that situation.
re : the concrete/balconey issue — they cut the theatre up to make smaller theatres, to show the mostly kung-fu/grindhouse fare. I think they chopped it into 3 theatres, 1 in the balconey, 2 downstairs. Both The State and The Center got carved into smaller theatres as well, with the balconeys becoming the 2nd cinema. Or maybe I should say Sinema — I saw Deep Throat and The Devil In Miss Jones on a double bill in the balconey of The State – must have been around 1975. The Center and whatever the Cinerama was called then had the chop sockey fare, The Pilgrim had porn, The Stuart and Publix had 2nd/3rd run and Grade-Z fare. The Stuart went porn when it became the Pussycat.
Explain to me about the concrete and sealing off the balcony. I dont get it what was the purpose?
If you walk about ¾ block east on Essex Street from Washington Street, along the south side of the 600 Washington Street Building, you will come to a storefront called “Skin Care Adventure” with the address 36 Essex Street.
Just beyond it, and before the next storefront called “Hair Adventure” at 42 Essex Street, there is a see-through metal gate. If you look through the gate you’ll see glass doors, and if you look through the doors, all the way to the right, you’ll see what appears to be the fully intact rear of the raked theatre auditorium, with rows of seats. I’d love to get in there and look around to see what condition it’s in — and I’m amazed that it’s still sitting there totally unused.