Park Theatre

It’s not quite finished, but the theater is opening its doors for a sneak peek tonight!

The Park Café and 848 martini lounge are open! The second-floor LOL Comedy Lounge opens September 12. As for the theater itself, they have hired a manager who is traveling the country booking entertainment.

Cranston Herald article #1
Cranston Herald article #2
Cranston Herald article #3

Video tour of the project with mayoral candidate Cindy Fogarty and Councilman Emilio Navarro, from August 2008. “The restaurant and bar should be open within the next two months” – well, not quite.

Work on the theater is progressing. There is a very large two-story building rising west of the existing theater building (visible as steel framework in Roland’s photos) with windows on the north (Park Avenue) and west sides. It looks like the auditorium will be expanded into part of the first floor of the building. As Roland’s photos indicate, there is nothing left of the lobby and Park Avenue storefronts except the exterior walls.

Last time I was by a few weeks ago, construction seemed to be in progress, with a massive rear-of-stage area being readied. But there have been so many starts and stops here that I can only believe it when I see the final results.

July, 1963 program shared with the Seekonk “Art” Drive-In.

Okay, looks like it is still a go as it is now GOING!

Taken from my ISP online newspage.

Park Cinema Renovations Underway
03-13-2007 11:41 AM

(Cranston, RI) — Renovations at the Park Cinema in Cranston are finally underway. Beams for the planned addition arrived last week as did a refurbished portion of the 1920s-era stage. Crews are hard at work and city officials tell the “Providence Journal,” final work is scheduled for the end of July. When complete, the downtown building will contain the cinema, an upscale Mediterranean-style restaurant and gourmet coffee shop.<

The theatre owners finally secured funding for the project in May, 2006. Construction was to have restarted, but some elements of the building needed to be redesigned following review by the Cranston Historic District Commission. Now the owners say sidewalk demolition and erection of scaffolding will happen this month, and steel will be delivered in mid-January.

When completed, the theatre will have 1,100 seats and will feature a “Cyber Café” and a second-floor upscale Meditteranean-style restaurant where the Park Avenue storefronts were.

Here’s more from the Providence Journal, 12/5/06.

That was an interim period before the Paris went hardcore. Gay on one screen, straight on the other, I believe.

Lonesome Cowboys, which I actually saw there, is not porno. It was an Andy Warhol factory film co-directed by Paul Morrissey, with Joe Dallessandro. Raunchy, yes. Porno, no. A very bad film.

Great ad, Gerald, brought back memories. We lived near Hugh B. Bain and used to go to the Park often when it was a single theatre. I remember seeing some horror movie there on a double bill with THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE (1964? 65?) that scared me so much that my mom had to take me into the ladies' room until it was over. I can’t remember the title and always wonder what the film was. The ladies' bathroom was probably original to the theatre, with tiles and a big iron radiator. The original interior was still nice even if it was very worn out. Remember seeing lots of other films there including MY SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN and HELLO DOWN THERE. We noticed them bulldozing around it when we visited in August.

The manager at the Park in the 1950s was Charles Nelson.