How can you convert an existing 2-D film to 3-D? Doesn’t 3-D require shooting with two cameras that are in slightly different locations (thus producing perspective)?
That would be cool, though it’s mostly beyond my area of knowledge. A few suburban ones I remember seeing newspaper ads for, that aren’t on this site yet:
Puritan Mall Cinema, Dorchester
Nu-Pixie, Hyde Park
Rialto, Roslindale
Needham Cinemas
Paramount, Newton
Park Theatre, Everett
Parkway Plaza Twin, Chelsea
I usually don’t post theatres that I haven’t visited (or at last visited the former sites of), so I’m going to leave these to other folks.
An unpublished manuscript by King, which is probably an earlier version of this book, is in the Boston Public Library’s Fine Arts room. That manuscript is called ‘A History of Boston’s theatres as seen through its newspapers, periodicals, and its contemporaries’.
Other resources I’ve consulted:
An unpublished manuscript by Douglass Shand-Tucci, also in the Fine Arts room, entitled “The Puritan Muse : a study of the theatres of Boston and a history of the development of the performing and visual arts (1750-1950)”
“The Boston Rialto” chapter of Shand-Tucci’s published book Built in Boston: City and Suburb, 1800-2000
“Boston Theatre District: A Walking Tour” published by the Boston Preservation Alliance (2nd printing, 1996)
“The Boston Theatre District”, the January 1978 issue of the City Conservation League’s newsletter Drumlin. I don’t think this organization still exists.
The online archives of the Boston Globe and Boston Herald, which are available free here to anyone with a Massachusetts library card. Unfortunately the Globe archives go back only to 1979, the Herald to 1991.
Not really, I didn’t stay long enough. I was somewhere that I obviously didn’t belong, and it didn’t feel very safe to wander around, with rubble and vent pipes and the like all over the place.
I assume the new Barneys store will have a flat floor!
The Tremont Theatre (later Astor, now demolished) was a different building from the Tremont Temple Baptist Church, which still stands five or six blocks further north. I’ve read somewhere that the Temple was used as a movie theatre at some point (maybe only on weekdays?) but would like to confirm this.
There were two Selwyn theatres in Boston. The first Selwyn, on Washington Street, became the first Globe, which then burned and was replaced on site with the second Globe. That theatre in turn was torn down to build the 600 Washington-Essex building that eventually contained the RKO Boston. These Globes were unrelated to the third Globe, a block away, that eventually became the Center and is now a Chinese restaurant.
The second Selwyn, originally the Cort, was in Park Square. Here’s a 1925 photo (described here). I believe this was a live stage but I’m trying to determine whether it also showed movies at any point. I’m also curious exactly where it was located in Park Square – perhaps where the Park Plaza Hotel is today?
I walked into the mall again this evening. Someone had left a door to the construction area unlocked, so I wandered around a bit. The whole interior of the cinema complex has been demolished. There are big piles of rubble where the cinemas and lobby were.
All the theatres I listed above were (or, in some cases, still are) known for live entertainment. I’m just trying to determine whether at any time they also showed movies. I know that some other Boston theatres, such as the Majestic and the Tremont (later called Astor), went back and forth between live shows and movies during the first few decades of the 20th century.
The Lancaster and Waldron’s Casino are not errors; these are the former names of theatres later known as the West End and the Casino.
Do Film Daily Yearbooks give the street addresses of theatres, or a list of films that played in them during the year?
Judging from these photos, I conclude that the Tremont’s entrance was always on Tremont Street, and that the etched “Tremont Theatre” sign on the Avery Street wall was simply an advertisement for it.
Several Boston playhouses were named Tremont Theatre (built in 1827, 1889 and 1908, respectively), but the major one represented in the Athenæum’s playbill collection is the Tremont built in 1889 by J.B. McElfatrick and Sons, and located on Tremont Street at the corner of Avery. Extremely successful and fashionable in the 1890s, this theater is famous for hosting the great Sarah Bernhardt, who enraptured Bostonians in 1891 with her performance of La Tosca.
When D.W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation opened at the Tremont in 1915, a riot broke out. Until that time, motion pictures had been a relatively minor entertainment medium, but Griffith’s pioneering, albeit admittedly racist epic, inaugurated a new era for films and film-making. Twelve years later, the first sound film, The Jazz Singer, was also seen here. One then can then say that the Tremont Theatre exemplified the cultural transitions of an era when many “legitimate” stage theaters were either razed or converted into movie houses featuring the new entertainment of choice.
“This playhouse was located at 109 Court Street and specialized in vaudeville acts and burlesque as well as more conventional theater as part of its twice daily performances. Program covers include an illustration of the theater’s interior.”
The Athenaeum has copies of programs from this theatre in 1891 and 1892.
The Jacks-Uncle Bunny’s building was replaced with new high-rise development, but the Orson Welles just became a row of small retail stores; it wasn’t really redeveloped.
I never knew that you or other employees were sued. I would have written about it for some newspaper had I known about it. Who were the building owners?
I recall another fire across the street from the Welles that destroyed Jack’s nightclub and Uncle Bunny’s ice cream parlor.
Hi, Bill! I think I remember you from the Somerville Theatre. I may even have interviewed you for a newspaper article that I wrote about the theatre. Were you also involved with the Somerville Books & Records store on Highland Avenue in Davis Square?
The ‘Opera House’ sign is back, but now in white-on-black letters that match the ‘Phantom of the Opera’ logo in style. Maybe they’re going to wait until June, when Phantom’s run is scheduled to end, before renaming the theatre.
How can you convert an existing 2-D film to 3-D? Doesn’t 3-D require shooting with two cameras that are in slightly different locations (thus producing perspective)?
what is ‘PSP’ ? The article doesn’t explain.
What would be really cool would be to have the member profile include a list of all the theatres s/he ever added.
Any chance of adding this feature?
Does Symphony Hall (or the others, for that matter) have a projection booth?
That would be cool, though it’s mostly beyond my area of knowledge. A few suburban ones I remember seeing newspaper ads for, that aren’t on this site yet:
Puritan Mall Cinema, Dorchester
Nu-Pixie, Hyde Park
Rialto, Roslindale
Needham Cinemas
Paramount, Newton
Park Theatre, Everett
Parkway Plaza Twin, Chelsea
I usually don’t post theatres that I haven’t visited (or at last visited the former sites of), so I’m going to leave these to other folks.
An unpublished manuscript by King, which is probably an earlier version of this book, is in the Boston Public Library’s Fine Arts room. That manuscript is called ‘A History of Boston’s theatres as seen through its newspapers, periodicals, and its contemporaries’.
Other resources I’ve consulted:
An unpublished manuscript by Douglass Shand-Tucci, also in the Fine Arts room, entitled “The Puritan Muse : a study of the theatres of Boston and a history of the development of the performing and visual arts (1750-1950)”
“The Boston Rialto” chapter of Shand-Tucci’s published book Built in Boston: City and Suburb, 1800-2000
“Boston Theatre District: A Walking Tour” published by the Boston Preservation Alliance (2nd printing, 1996)
“The Boston Theatre District”, the January 1978 issue of the City Conservation League’s newsletter Drumlin. I don’t think this organization still exists.
The Boston Athenaeum’s theatre history pages; eventually I’ll visit them in person.
The Bostonian Society’s online photo and postcard library
The online archives of the Boston Globe and Boston Herald, which are available free here to anyone with a Massachusetts library card. Unfortunately the Globe archives go back only to 1979, the Herald to 1991.
I’m looking forward to this book which has just been published by McFarland:
The Theatres of Boston: A Stage and Screen History by Donald C. King (who wrote the 1974 Marquee article we’ve both read.) Here’s a Table of Contents.
Here’s a nice photo of the Paramount façade and marquee as it appears today.
Not really, I didn’t stay long enough. I was somewhere that I obviously didn’t belong, and it didn’t feel very safe to wander around, with rubble and vent pipes and the like all over the place.
I assume the new Barneys store will have a flat floor!
The Tremont Theatre (later Astor, now demolished) was a different building from the Tremont Temple Baptist Church, which still stands five or six blocks further north. I’ve read somewhere that the Temple was used as a movie theatre at some point (maybe only on weekdays?) but would like to confirm this.
There were two Selwyn theatres in Boston. The first Selwyn, on Washington Street, became the first Globe, which then burned and was replaced on site with the second Globe. That theatre in turn was torn down to build the 600 Washington-Essex building that eventually contained the RKO Boston. These Globes were unrelated to the third Globe, a block away, that eventually became the Center and is now a Chinese restaurant.
The second Selwyn, originally the Cort, was in Park Square. Here’s a 1925 photo (described here). I believe this was a live stage but I’m trying to determine whether it also showed movies at any point. I’m also curious exactly where it was located in Park Square – perhaps where the Park Plaza Hotel is today?
I walked into the mall again this evening. Someone had left a door to the construction area unlocked, so I wandered around a bit. The whole interior of the cinema complex has been demolished. There are big piles of rubble where the cinemas and lobby were.
All the theatres I listed above were (or, in some cases, still are) known for live entertainment. I’m just trying to determine whether at any time they also showed movies. I know that some other Boston theatres, such as the Majestic and the Tremont (later called Astor), went back and forth between live shows and movies during the first few decades of the 20th century.
The Lancaster and Waldron’s Casino are not errors; these are the former names of theatres later known as the West End and the Casino.
Do Film Daily Yearbooks give the street addresses of theatres, or a list of films that played in them during the year?
(And it lists the Wilbur as closed, which it definitely is not.)
I see the Colonial and Wilbur listed there. Do you know when they showed movies, and what films they showed?
Judging from these photos, I conclude that the Tremont’s entrance was always on Tremont Street, and that the etched “Tremont Theatre” sign on the Avery Street wall was simply an advertisement for it.
I noticed that yesterday. What order is the history in? It doesn’t seem to be organized alphabetically by theatre name or by city.
From the Boston Athenaeum’s Theatre History page:
Several Boston playhouses were named Tremont Theatre (built in 1827, 1889 and 1908, respectively), but the major one represented in the Athenæum’s playbill collection is the Tremont built in 1889 by J.B. McElfatrick and Sons, and located on Tremont Street at the corner of Avery. Extremely successful and fashionable in the 1890s, this theater is famous for hosting the great Sarah Bernhardt, who enraptured Bostonians in 1891 with her performance of La Tosca.
When D.W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation opened at the Tremont in 1915, a riot broke out. Until that time, motion pictures had been a relatively minor entertainment medium, but Griffith’s pioneering, albeit admittedly racist epic, inaugurated a new era for films and film-making. Twelve years later, the first sound film, The Jazz Singer, was also seen here. One then can then say that the Tremont Theatre exemplified the cultural transitions of an era when many “legitimate” stage theaters were either razed or converted into movie houses featuring the new entertainment of choice.
The Boston Athenaeum’s Theatre History Page has several paragraphs about the Bijou, in its days as a live stage.
The Boston Athenaeum’s History of Boston Theatres lists “Austin’s Palace Theatre” at this address, from 1891 to 1897, and says:
“This playhouse was located at 109 Court Street and specialized in vaudeville acts and burlesque as well as more conventional theater as part of its twice daily performances. Program covers include an illustration of the theater’s interior.”
The Athenaeum has copies of programs from this theatre in 1891 and 1892.
The Jacks-Uncle Bunny’s building was replaced with new high-rise development, but the Orson Welles just became a row of small retail stores; it wasn’t really redeveloped.
I never knew that you or other employees were sued. I would have written about it for some newspaper had I known about it. Who were the building owners?
I recall another fire across the street from the Welles that destroyed Jack’s nightclub and Uncle Bunny’s ice cream parlor.
Bill, be sure to check out the Capitol, Somerville, and Orson Welles pages while you’re here. I’d love to read your stories from each place.
Hi, Bill! I think I remember you from the Somerville Theatre. I may even have interviewed you for a newspaper article that I wrote about the theatre. Were you also involved with the Somerville Books & Records store on Highland Avenue in Davis Square?
Google maps are cool technology, but unless you have a broadband connection, you shouldn’t even try to use them.
The ‘Opera House’ sign is back, but now in white-on-black letters that match the ‘Phantom of the Opera’ logo in style. Maybe they’re going to wait until June, when Phantom’s run is scheduled to end, before renaming the theatre.