Star Theater
479 Broadway,
Lawrence,
MA
01841
479 Broadway,
Lawrence,
MA
01841
No one has favorited this theater yet
Showing 22 comments
The Star in Lawrence is listed in the 1927 Film Daily Yearbook as having 900 seats and open daily.
Here is a photo of the Star Theater, courtesy the Lawrence Public Library
see http://www.pbase.com/image/122518333
I remember the Star Theater on Broadway north of Cross St. on the right hand side. I almost want to say they eventually built a KFC there. I don’t remember ever being in it but was in the IA Union local 256 with Nick Boscetti (see Frank’s posts above), though I only met him a couple of times. Nick worked the Starlite drivein in No Reading in the early 80s and I took it over when he left.
The Star Theater was a Saturday destination for kids all across Lawrence. “The Curse of Frankenstein” starring Peter Cushing was the first film I ever saw in a theater and I saw it, with a packed audience of screaming kids, at the Star. I fondly remember Nick and his wife (boy, did they have patience!), the great bargain prices for tickets and snacks (even for the early 1960s) and the Elvis, horror and Three Stooges films. Nick would always run what we kids wanted to see. I have only happy memories of the Star – the Saturday babysitter for Lawrencians.
to cgk – the theater you refer to down the street from Tripoli bakery was the Capitol theater and that was on Common St.
I spent many a Sunday with my date at the Central Theater on Oak St.
The owner, ValJean was a good friend of my father’s. I loved it when ValJean would wait for a passionate love scene to be on, and he would walk up and down the aisles spraying deoderizer. ValJean was also a musician and had his own orchestra when he was younger.
The Victoria Theater was across the street from the Palace or Broadway Theaters. My father was a well-known musician and owned a store/school on Newbury St. and he used to provide the sound effects for the silent movies at the Victoria back in the 1920’s and 1930’s.
I remember in the late 50s and early 60s standing in line for a ticket to either the Broadway or Palace and seeing across the street a vacant building that once housed a movie theater. Does anyone remember the name of the theater or have the same recall. Also I do believe there was also a movie theater down the street from Tripoli Bakery toward the North Common, opposite side of the bakery. Anyone remember?
No the Star was much further north on Broadway, not so much in the downtown area. It was across the street from Malden mills, near the Spickett Rver.
Great memories, there was also the Premier theater down on Essex St. toward Broadway. Was it the State theater across the Palace?
Great memories, there was also the Premier theater down on Essex St. toward Broadway. Was it the State theater across the Palace?
to Frank Bosketti and to novastorm- how about going into the pages for some of the other Lawrence theatres here in Cinema Treasures and writing about your memories of them?
The 25 cent admission lasted well into the 60’s. You got to see two movies for a quarter as the main movie was always followed by an older film !! I also remember the turkey in the lobby as well as give-away rabbits and chicks during Easter.
When I was a kid in the 50s, my sister, brother and I would walk down to the Star (on the corner of Holly and Broadway) whenever we had the $.25 admission. I remember a turkey raffle there once (a live turkey was crated up in the lobby area).
Sinister- you will lose your Novice status just by reading around here in CT. Some of the old single-screen theatres were cut up into several auditoriums. This was a cheaper alternative to building a brand-new multiplex, but it usually “ruined” the old theatre !
Ron-
I am a novice in this. I used to manage the adult bookstore that went into the McCook Theater in Dayton, Oh, and when we did renovations one year I saw all of the old screens and movie theater seats they just built over top of. The upstairs also had the old projector equipment and some old lettering for the marquee.
http://0mg.com
SinisterBanana- you must be a novice in the theatre hobby! – virtually all of the old-time theatres were single-screeners. Having more than one screen (“multiplex”) is a concept which began around the 1960s-70s. And thanks to Frank Bosketti for the info about the Star.
So this theater only had a single screen? Was that common in the old time theaters?
http://0mg.com
My grandfather, Frank Boschetti, owned the Star theatre in Lawrence, Mass. He along with his business partner, Siskind, owned several movie theatres and apartment buidlings. He opened the Star as a vaudeville house in the early 1900’s , then ran silent films, then talkies. The Star was run by my grandfather and his son, Nick (my father). My father took over ownership of the Star in 1954 upon his father’s death. He ran the theatre until around 1968, 1969 and sold it to the shoe store next door. The new owner demolished it shortly thereafter and made the lot into a parking lot. I remember it well, along with the Palace and the Broadway as I spent many Saturday mornings there watching movies. Please let me know if I can be of further help.
According to research by CT member Barry Goodkin, there was a Star Theatre in Lawrence. It’s listed in the 1931 Film Daily Yearbook as being run by Empire Amusement Company of 1 Lawrence St. in Lawrence. The company was managed by L.A. Siskind and it ran six Lawrence movie theatres: the Broadway, Colonial, Empire, Palace, Premier and, last but not least, the Star.
Lost- we need a knowledgable Lawrenceite at this point! There is no Star Theatre listed among the 1941 MGM Reports, but that doesn’t mean that there wasn’t a Star Theatre there at some point. Or that some other theatre could have been renamed the Star. Broadway is the main street in Lawrence and several theatres were located on it. Most of the Lawrence theatres here in CT were located on Broadway.
Lost- a link to that photo was posted on March 9 2007 to the page for the Central Theatre, 11 Oak Street, in Lawrence (CT 10483). As far as I could tell at the time, that photo matches an old 1941 MGM Report photo for the Central Theatre.