Capri Theater

The 1960 remodel as the Capri was handled by architect Louis Chiarmonte.

An interesting ‘could have been’ for this theater. The book “Movie Roadshows; A History and Filmography of Reserved-Seat Limited Showings 1911-1973” mentions in the section on Around The World In 80 Days about future plans for the Todd-AO 70mm widescreen process. Mike Todd mentions he had an agreement to buy Boston’s Copley Theatre with plans for a chain similar to the Cinerama houses. Oddly it also mentions Todd opposed the sale of popcorn in theaters.

Opened as a cinema with the ‘Capri’ name, I assume you mean? As the comments and description show, this theatre had a long history before that.

Yes, it was a Shubert house when I first knew it circa-1948 or so. It was the least-used of their Boston theaters. Dark most of the time, it presented both plays and films but very infrequently. So when Sack took it over and renamed it “Capri”, it was a real re-launch.

Yes, the Copley/Capri was nowhere near Dartmouth Street. You walked in from Huntington Ave, to an inner foyer, and then turned right to enter the back of the auditorium. The left side of the auditorium and stage were on Stuart St. The original Toy Theater on Dartmouth Street was apparently jacked up and turned around and then reused for the Copley/Capri. I have never really understood what exactly was done to reuse the Toy Theatre. By the way, there was a real landmark building at the corner of Dartmouth Street and Huntington Avenue, the S.S. Pierce building. It was a handsome old heap and housed an upscale grocery and food shop. That building lasted at least as long as the Capri Theatre lasted.

The photo which MarkB posted shows the Toy Theatre on Dartmouth St., more or less across from the side of the Copley Plaza Hotel. This was before the house was reconstructed with its main entrance on Huntington Avenue, which was where, later, the entrance and marquee for the Capri were located. Sweetmel posts above that he wishes he could see a photo of the Capri before it “got seedy”. It never got seedy ! Right up until it was demolished, it was still in good condition. The entrance was directly across from the side of the Boston Public Library. dickneeds111 mentions the State Theatre on Washington St. (former T Trans Lux) I was inside it in July 1983 and it was not twinned, still a single-screen. Closed in 1985.

The State theatre was a real theatre not a peep show. As a single it had plenty of seats and when they twinned it it still had plenty of PORNO seats.

When in 1960 Ben Hur moved over from the Saxon was it still shown in 70mm stereo or was it in 35mm? How many weeks did it last at the Capri?

As the “Copley Theatre”, this house was listed in a 1918 Boston street directory at 186 Dartmouth Street, west side of street, between Harwich St. and Huntington Ave. This was before the theater was reconstructed with its main entrance on Huntington Ave.

In an article in the old Boston Post of May 14, 1950 “Many Hits Made Upon Hub Stages” by drama critic Elliot Norton, mention is made of the play “Harvey” which opened at the Copley Theatre on Tues. Oct. 7, 1944. Written off by everyone as a quick flop, the Boston audiences at the Copley liked it from the start and it went on to New York where it became one of the most popular plays of the 1940s. It was later made into a sucessful movie.

I believe that the “Capri Theatre” at 701 Washington St. was a very small, rather dingy place that shared space with a porno bookstore…I suspect it was more of a cruising site than a movie house. I think there was a very similar movie/bookstore joint in the late 1970’s next to the Publix, though I don’t recall its name. Possibly these places had names for incorporation purposes, but not for exhibition on any kind of sign or marquee…it is likely that they got their “viewing audiences” from the clientele of the porn stores, so names really didn’t matter.

I have seen those other two (three, actually — as there’s reference to another North Station II on Portland), so I guess I knew the answer to my question. I can’t imagine it’s very easy to get an accurate record of those storefront porn theatres, but they’re interesting to those interested in theatre histories (return of the nickelodeon..? sorta…). I found ads in either the Phoenix, Globe, or Real Paper for the Art Cinema, the Pussycats, and the South Station, but not the ones referenced in the article (or, as far as I recall, the North Station — though I’ll have to check on that one).

In any case, I’ve consulted the Boston Business Directory Theatre & Cinema section for 62, 67, 72, and 77 for a googlemap experiment which is a sort of sidebar (for my own use) to an essay I’m writing (settled on theatres in Boston/Camb/Somerville & what they were playing Mem Day 1977 vs. Mem Day 2008 — if anyone’s interested, I’ll post links), and I don’t believe I saw any indication of those Combat Zone theatres, though some of the previously legit theatres make the list.

Thanks for the reply. Awesome site. It’s been really helpful in filling in Boston theatre history.

Here in Boston, we have listings for two theatres that (to my knowledge) showed only X-rated movies: North Station Cinema and South Station Cinema. We don’t have listings for the Twin-X or for the ‘Art Cinema’ that was across Tremont Street the Saxon/Majestic. If anyone knows more about either of these, please add them.

I suspect any movie theatre at 701 Washington was fairly short-lived, and probably was little more than a storefront.