Broadway Theatre
514 Broadway,
Pawtucket,
RI
02860
514 Broadway,
Pawtucket,
RI
02860
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Additional Info
Previous Names: Circle Theatre
Nearby Theaters
Opened as the Circle Theatre prior to 1928. The Broadway Theatre was a neighborhood house showing second-run films until the 1950’s, after which the theatre was razed.
Contributed by
Gerald A. DeLuca
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Recent comments (view all 15 comments)
I have an aunt looking for photos of this theater. I am working diligently trying to obtained photos of every theater where I’ve made comment.
Those who are younger might recall A&S Wheel and Brake Service which occupied the building until it was razed to put in the small strip of stores. I never knew this building was a theater and I remember when the building was razed somewhere around 1978.
For those familiar with Pawtucket and Broadway, the theater was indeed to the right of Risho’s Market in the big parking lot.
A 1929 city directory lists a theatre at this address under the name of Circle Theatre. That must have been the Broadway’s earlier name.
Item in Boxoffice magazine, June 7, 1941, page 75. Hardly earth-shattering, but it gives us the name of the manager at the time:
“Al Ward of the Broadway in Pawtucket has had new lamps installed at the house.”
Operators of various theatres in the Pawtucket-Lincoln-Valley Falls area in 1951, gave their opinions on ways to combat the effects of TV on their theatres. Written as a report for the Pawtucket Times, the results were also reported in Boxoffice magazine in the issue of January 27, 1951:
View link
Report on a concert held in 1928 at the Circle Theatre, as the Broadway was then known:
CLICK HERE
The Theatre Historical Society archive has the MGM Theatre Reports for the Broadway. Card # 531 has no info, with an exterior photo with no date. Card # 537 has a similar exterior photo dated Sept. 1946. The street address is obscured. There were 550 seats. It was over 15 years old, and was not showing MGM films. Someone wrote on the report that the theater was in Poor condition, but it was renovated in the fall of 1944, and is now in Good condition.
Ron Salters, Can’t you scan and post a photo of this theatre (and a few others) from these M.G.M. cards? It’s really frustrating hearing there is a photo of this place and not being able to see it. This would be very helpful especially in the case of places like this where no other known photos seem to survive.
Ron, I didn’t realize you were working from their website. I was able to find that image of the Broadway and others.
Gerry- Yes, the entire series of MGM Theatre Report cards, over 600 of them from MA,ME, NH, RI and VT, are now on the THS website, historictheatres.org. They are in the “New England Special Collection”.
The photos above in my May 25, 2015 posts seem to have been taken in 1946, after the theatre was refurbished, though the report and grading was from 1941.