Small, shallow, sloping, boxes where movies were shown. I saw many movies here, after a shopping trip or just before one. It was convenient-and that was it’s greatest attribute.
I left Fall River in the late 1990’s and had no idea that this place had closed.
For me the best of the place was that it was local (and didn’t involve a drive out of the city), and that it opened with such great intentions…including in honoring the city’s adopted daughter Betty Hutton, with a theater named after her.
I saw hundreds of movies here and watched the theater invigorate the dying mall, and then keep it afloat as other things closed. I didn’t hae a love of the place as I did the older Fall River theaters, but it meant something to me as a portal to to the dreams of other things that movies bring.
I don’t recall going to the Capital when it was a functioning theater, but I do recall being taken to the bowling ally, as well as the furniture store, after it had closed. During those times my grandmother always took pains to try to show me where the theater was, although it was not open. I was bewildered by this- a theater that was still there, but not? I’d love to see photos of what is , and what was.
I’m not sure why it was, but my family almost never took me to the academy. We visited the Durfee and the Center, we went to other movie houses but very rarely the Academy.
Still, I recall the seventies with it’s horror/kung fu weekend features. I thrilled with the re running of old chapter plays with those types of films.
…and I recall the wonder of it, and it’s block’s architecture. Gargoyles and flourishes, wood and brick. Even in the seventies, when the joke was that if you dropped any popcorn…rats would run out and eat what you dropped…there was enough to tell you that this theater still had grace.
I grew up in Fall River, and was privileged to have a grandparent who took me to the movies every Saturday. Often to the Durfee. Even as a child I was struck by the grandness of the place. The marble, the gold fish pond, even the velvet rope that separated the lobby from the area up stairs. Any movie I saw at the Durfee was special, felt like an event, due to it’s accoutrement and the relative seriousness it’s employees gave their jobs.
I’d stair at the goldfish, and marvel at the surroundings, as much as the film. I miss the Durfee, and what Fall River was.
Downtown was abandoned by retail, and parking there was a problem, by the late seventies. Movie houses in malls offered more to do, and far better parking. The cinema was doomed by this, as well as all the other factors that affected Downtown Fall River.
…but I’ll always remember the films I saw, the carpeted stairs, and all that made the space a special one.
There was indeed a XXX film place across from the old capital and that was one of the places counselor Roderick was referring to.
I remember well the center, it being my well looked forward to, destination every Saturday afternoon. This throughout the sixties and seventies.
It lacked the glamor of the Durfee but ran all the movies I ever wanted to see.
As a child I remember the church newspaper condemning the showing of “the robe” at the Center…but I also remember walking to it with my school group from St. Louis School to see a saints biography shown there.
I can confirm that the Center Theater was open in 1978.
…and it did offer it’s services to those during the great Blizzard. During that storm buses ceased running prior prior to some school closings, and roads became impassible. Several I knew took shelter in the Center, which welcomed, and allowed to stay, in it’s facility for the next few days. These souls unable to make it home through the storm, and away from the places they had worked or went to school, now shut down.
Tiny.
Small, shallow, sloping, boxes where movies were shown. I saw many movies here, after a shopping trip or just before one. It was convenient-and that was it’s greatest attribute.
I left Fall River in the late 1990’s and had no idea that this place had closed.
For me the best of the place was that it was local (and didn’t involve a drive out of the city), and that it opened with such great intentions…including in honoring the city’s adopted daughter Betty Hutton, with a theater named after her.
I saw hundreds of movies here and watched the theater invigorate the dying mall, and then keep it afloat as other things closed. I didn’t hae a love of the place as I did the older Fall River theaters, but it meant something to me as a portal to to the dreams of other things that movies bring.
What ever happened to the ideas of refurbishment?
I don’t recall going to the Capital when it was a functioning theater, but I do recall being taken to the bowling ally, as well as the furniture store, after it had closed. During those times my grandmother always took pains to try to show me where the theater was, although it was not open. I was bewildered by this- a theater that was still there, but not? I’d love to see photos of what is , and what was.
I’m not sure why it was, but my family almost never took me to the academy. We visited the Durfee and the Center, we went to other movie houses but very rarely the Academy.
Still, I recall the seventies with it’s horror/kung fu weekend features. I thrilled with the re running of old chapter plays with those types of films.
…and I recall the wonder of it, and it’s block’s architecture. Gargoyles and flourishes, wood and brick. Even in the seventies, when the joke was that if you dropped any popcorn…rats would run out and eat what you dropped…there was enough to tell you that this theater still had grace.
I grew up in Fall River, and was privileged to have a grandparent who took me to the movies every Saturday. Often to the Durfee. Even as a child I was struck by the grandness of the place. The marble, the gold fish pond, even the velvet rope that separated the lobby from the area up stairs. Any movie I saw at the Durfee was special, felt like an event, due to it’s accoutrement and the relative seriousness it’s employees gave their jobs.
I’d stair at the goldfish, and marvel at the surroundings, as much as the film. I miss the Durfee, and what Fall River was.
Thank you so much mr DeLuca for the photo links.
Downtown was abandoned by retail, and parking there was a problem, by the late seventies. Movie houses in malls offered more to do, and far better parking. The cinema was doomed by this, as well as all the other factors that affected Downtown Fall River.
…but I’ll always remember the films I saw, the carpeted stairs, and all that made the space a special one.
There was indeed a XXX film place across from the old capital and that was one of the places counselor Roderick was referring to.
I remember well the center, it being my well looked forward to, destination every Saturday afternoon. This throughout the sixties and seventies.
It lacked the glamor of the Durfee but ran all the movies I ever wanted to see.
As a child I remember the church newspaper condemning the showing of “the robe” at the Center…but I also remember walking to it with my school group from St. Louis School to see a saints biography shown there.
I can confirm that the Center Theater was open in 1978.
…and it did offer it’s services to those during the great Blizzard. During that storm buses ceased running prior prior to some school closings, and roads became impassible. Several I knew took shelter in the Center, which welcomed, and allowed to stay, in it’s facility for the next few days. These souls unable to make it home through the storm, and away from the places they had worked or went to school, now shut down.