Bomes Theatre
1017 Broad Street,
Providence,
RI
02907
1017 Broad Street,
Providence,
RI
02907
3 people
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Showing 26 - 50 of 90 comments
Abrunner,
I worked for Ed’s replacement when I was at the Avon. Pat Carter, who later became a district manager for SBC, ran the Avon and then moved over to Cinerama. I was hired by Larry Johnson; his son commented on the Cinerama page.
When I became a DM for SBC we had offices in the theatre district and then later in the burbs. Jack spoke of the Cameo, which I believe is still running. He lived in Rockland when I worked in Providence.
Of course, in my younger years, I would run film to the Art. The manager was Charlie and I would rush to deliver so I could catch a few minutes of the ‘racy’ films. They were rated R at best by today’s standards (I have a feeling my earlier post was removed so I am being very delicate.) The Art I knew was quite different than the one you knew!
Abrunner,
Very fascinating comments. You should repost them on the Modern Theatre/Westminster Playhouse page: /theaters/6596/
When Bread Love and Dreams played there it was alone on a single bill. I have the Providence Journal newspaper ad, but perhaps it was paired in a later run? On that solo run it was a move-over from the Avon where it had played for “four record-breaking weeks.” The times were 2:10, 4:00, 5:55, 7:45, 9:35 in that ad I have.
Small world indeed! Jack O'Sullivan invited me to his house for dinner one night and I believe he lived in Randolph or Norwell. I remember dinner with his wife but I don’t know if his daughter was born yet. The date I believe was mostg likely 1960, as I filled in at the Cameo Theatre in S. Weymouth for a month after leaving the Art Cinema. This forum by Cinema Treasures is great as you can talk about the “good old days” making $40 bucks a week though I believe Jack bumped me up to $50 bucks for the Cameo job and I was commuting from Providence. I forgot to mention to you that my first manager deal after working at the Hope was the Westminster Playhouse, formerly E.M.Loews Victory and before that the Modern Theatr. It was on Westminster St. just up past Empire and a three block or so down from the Capitol Theatre. The Playhouse to me was a facinating theatre. Backstage and in the office there were tons of old playbills, payroll info, and advertising stuff when it was a live theatre.It had a small lobby but had around 1400-1500 seats wich orchestra and balcony. There were a lot of dressing rooms backstage and lighting equipment etc. including a piano. The stage door was on something lane, a very narrow street and 10 feet from the stage door was the Golden Dragon Restaurant and Hotel. They had a tiny bar with about six seats and tables for the Chinese restaurant. I was about20 or so but the bar was very happy to serve me. After work, we would go there for a couple of beers and some food. The hotel had about 8 rooms and it was a place that was rented out to prostitutes. Ah,downtown Providence!!! The theatre was rented to L&G who ran it as a “art” house. Let me clarify…I was the assisted manager and the Manager was Harry Sullivan, I believe. He was an easy going guy and had just retired from a career with the FBI. The biggest hit while I was there was a double bill of Italian exports…“Bread, Love, & Dreams' With Gina Lolabridigida (spelling wrong?)and another movie starring Anna Magnanni but I don’t recall the name. What I do remember was that it was springtime and when we opened on the first saturday there was a line outside waiting to get in. The show was to start at 6:30 and we decided to open up a little early because of the line. Good thing we did as the line drew and we had to open up the balcony! I don’t recall that the balcony was even clean as we never used it before as business didn’t warrant opening the balcony. Well, I can’t really recall if we sold out the house, and if not, we camepretty close. It did well enough that it was extended into a three week run. We were all pretty excited about the big crowds. I wasn’t there for the whole run by L&G, but I think the theatre was open for about three years. Iloved that theatre. I can barely remember that in the early fifties it rand as a legit house with plays and a resident cast.
Do you remember Ed Stokes who ran the Avon and Larry Johnston who ran the Castle? Ed Stokes is around and still lives in the Boston area though Larry Johnston passed away a number of years ago. I remember he ran the Elmwood for awhile.
I don’t understand the time that is given when our notes are posted. For instance it is now 7:15 in London so it is 2:15 in Providence. I’ll check the time it will say on the post.
Ha! If you had taken the Avon job, we probably would have met. I started there in ‘67. Jack was my mentor. I believe he passed about 10 years ago. His daughter Jackie, commented on the Cinerama page as Jackie O. He always spoke of her but I never got to meet her. I did become friendly with his wife as well.
Small world!
Yes, I knew both and I oftenthink of Jack O'Sullivan. I liked him very much. He was firm but very fair. He has passed on but I don’t know when. I knew he smoked a lot. He got such pleasure from smoking, so he would be most displeased rules put on smokers today. In Europe, people still smoke a lot. Hey, you can’t smoke in a pub anymore in England. Same in Paris. Doug Amos was the big cheese but he was very aloof. Couldn’t get much out of him. I remember Amos calling me and offering me the Avon a few years after leaving the company. I was heading in another direction as a young man, but managing the Avon would have been a good job I think with Brown University around the corner and Thayer Street being a bustling place.
Yes, I knew both and I oftenthink of Jack O'Sullivan. I liked him very much. He was firm but very fair. He has passed on but I don’t know when. I knew he smoked a lot. He got such pleasure from smoking, so he would be most displeased rules put on smokers today. In Europe, people still smoke a lot. Hey, you can’t smoke in a pub anymore in England. Same in Paris. Doug Amos was the big cheese but he was very aloof. Couldn’t get much out of him. I remember Amos calling me and offering me the Avon a few years after leaving the company. I was heading in another direction as a young man, but managing the Avon would have been a good job I think with Brown University around the corner and Thayer Street being a bustling place.
I liked the L&G organization. Did you know Jack O'Sullivan or Doug Amos?
Hello Nick, Nice to hear you are a L&G alum. I cannot believe it was solong ago. My salary was $40 bucks a week….geez, if I stayed with them I’d be making $50 a week!!
Far better fare than the soft porn that ran there in later years. I worked for L&G and used to deliver films there while working at the Avon or Cinerama.
As a young man I was the manager of the Art Cinema from mid 1958 to mid 1960. It was leased to Lockwood & Gordon Enterprises of Boston. The most successful run at the theatre was a twin bill of two British exports, “Carry On Nurse” and “Carry on Sargeant”. “Nurse was showed at 6:30 & 9:30 and "Sargent” was screened at 8. The first two weeks of the run I hired a model who was dressed as a nurse amd she handed out plastic thermometers. This little promotion was a huge success as the crowds got bigger and bigger! The run lasted for seventeen weeks from late ‘58 into '59 so I put on the marquee “2nd Proud Year”!!! Weekends sold out and the crowds didn’t start to diminish until 12 or 13th week. I believe the admission was 85 cents for the double bill. It was a lot of fun watching the people come out of the theatre laughing and smiling especially when I had the model doing her thing. My gosh, that was fifty years ago. I remember as if it were yesterday. I moved on as a musician/actor on New York and London stages.
As a young man I was the manager of the Art Cinema from mid 1958 to mid 1960. It was leased to Lockwood & Gordon Enterprises of Boston. The most successful run at the theatre was a twin bill of two British exports, “Carry On Nurse” and “Carry on Sargeant”. “Nurse was showed at 6:30 & 9:30 and "Sargent” was screened at 8. The first two weeks of the run I hired a model who was dressed as a nurse amd she handed out plastic thermometers. This little promotion was a huge success as the crowds got bigger and bigger! The run lasted for seventeen weeks from late ‘58 into '59 so I put on the marquee “2nd Proud Year”!!! Weekends sold out and the crowds didn’t start to diminish until 12 or 13th week. I believe the admission was 85 cents for the double bill. It was a lot of fun watching the people come out of the theatre laughing and smiling especially when I had the model doing her thing. My gosh, that was fifty years ago. I remember as if it were yesterday. I moved on as a musician/actor on New York and London stages.
I lived on Gallatin St, the road adjacent to the theater during part of my childhood (early 60s) and enjoyed matinees there, with my siblings. I walked to Roger Williams JH, and during those years, had many an occasion to look up a the Bomes Theatre sign on my way home. The ornate facade on many of those old theaters were especially impressive to a young fellow. My Mom was born on Gallatin St and watched many double features at The Liberty in the 30s & 40s. A good friend of mine told me his recollection going to movies there in the 50s. He liked the Westerns in the double feature matinees. He realized later, it was the country music (Roy Rogers, Gene Autry) he especially enjoyed in those movies.
My college classmate, who played piano very well, is Ken Dulgarian’s brother. I remember seeing him in the College Hill Bookstore and told me he worked there sometimes as it was a family business. My older brother tells me of his high school classmate who was another of Ken’s brothers (who played bassoon). Later when I worked at Brown, some colleagues pointed out Ken to me, dressed in a nice suit, walking in front of the bookstore.. They told me, there goes the mayor of Thayer Steet. I only learned afterwards, it was in reference to him owning much of that block. Gerry and Brian, you both described the Art Cinema as being out-of-the-way. That is funny because I felt the Castle on Chalkstone that way, but that made it more fun to seek out and watch films there as well <grin>
Thanks to all the contributers on this post, to awaken fond memories of this old theater. Now for an update…
From notes of the RI Historical Preservation & Heritage Commission dated May 14, 2008.
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Notes to the commission follows regarding Bomes Theatre (aka Liberty, Art):
“ built in 1921. The neighborhood movie theater exhibits terracotta trim on the brick exterior; the original marquee appears to remain but has been boxed inside later panels; original storefronts have been altered; some deteriorated original windows appear to remain behind plywood panels. On the interior, the lobby area has been altered; the proscenium arch remains together with cornice, cove ceiling, and decorative details but all are quite deteriorated.”
They go on to say, that although some features are deteriorated or missing, the theater has not been remodeled or irreversibly altered and has preliminary approval for nomination to the National Registry. The present owner is Michael Van Leesten who is planning to rehabilitate the theater to a community cultural center. As i noted from the earlier comments, this planning seems to be taking some time.
This theatre has been closed for decades and hasn’t shgown movies in nearly 30 years. A local cultural organization has purchased it with plans to use it for community activities. Still needs lots of work. See postings above for September 8, 2005. When it was an art house (1958 to early 1970s) the runs were open-ended. They sometimes did special film series (Bergman comes to mind.)
What are some of the bookings in this theatre? Are the runs open-ended?
I seem to remember coming home to R.I. & my brother would get the shedules and tape them to the refridgerator door and it seemed they would bring in art films and change the films every couple of days. Films wouldn’t even run for a week.
With all the art films that are released and the fact that only two or three theatres showing art films in Rhode Island you can’t say the pickings are slim.
Richard Chadbourne of Calgary, Alberta, sent me a recollection of his childhood in Providence and memories of the Liberty Theatre. He wrote:
“I was born in 1922 and grew up in South Providence, on Sackett St. between Broad St, and Elmwood Ave., not far from Roger Williams Pk. I remember many a delightful Sat. afternoon attending the Liberty Theatre…on Broad Street, just a couple of blocks from where I lived. I remember it cost 25¢ (or was it just 10¢?), often a double feature. Now and then in the earliest years there would be a silent film (with piano or organ). I still recall vividly today two horrifying scenes, one from Phantom of the Opera and the other from Frozen Justice. Lots of cowboy movies; my pals and I would leave the girls during the love scenes (boring!) and dash to the lobby for bubble gum.”
The Art Cinema had such a talent for booking a double bill of compatible foreign films even when they came from different countries. “Dear John” and “Red Lanterns” are a good example. I looked forward so much to the “Starts Tomorrow!” movie ads for the theater. Sadly, by the fall of 1967, the art house policy had ended.
Here is a nicely-designed ad for a double bill from early 1967. Dear John is a Swedish film; Red Lanterns is Greek. Both had spicy content but were films of some class.
Just as David and Lisa moved over to the Art from its successful run at the Avon, so did Zorba the Greek in May, 1965. Before it arrived, the Art had been showing Lorna and Playgirl After Dark…sexy sizzlers starring Lorna Maitland and Jayne Mansfield respectively, but not porn.
The Art Cinema and the Castle Theatre on Chalkstone Avenue shared a programming of the film of the La Scala production of Puccini’s La Bohème on November 3 & 4, 1965. An unusual bit of day-dating shared by the two theatres.
Spanish-language programs appeared at the Art Cinema from 1972 and were run on Saturdays by promoters Raphael Nunes and Virgilio Grullon. A Providence Journal article of February 5, 1973 reported that in an article headlined “Films Please R.I. Latin Americans.” The program continued after that at the Elmwood Theatre.
Work continues on the Liberty Theater Cultural Center. This Providence Journal news-photo by Kathy Borchers shows the rear of the auditorium and the former projection booth.
Renewal plans for the Liberty Theatre/Art Cinema.
A photo-article in The Providence Journal of September 1, 2005 discusses continuing plans to convert the former Bomes-owned Liberty Theatre (later Art Cinema) to a neighborhood “community space where arts and culture are displayed and celebrated.”
The building is currently owned by the Providence Redevelopment Agency, which takes ownership of abandoned properties.
The consensus among area residents is to turn the building into the “Liberty Theater Cultural Center, a facility that could serve as a multi-cultural arts and education resource for the South Side and the entire city.” Under the plan, the center would have space for live theater and dance, musical performances, film and culturally diverse performing arts.
The article reports that plans would likely include gutting the interior and replacing electrical, plumbing, heating and air and sprinkler systems, according to an assessment by the Urban Design Group. Cost estimates range from $2.5 million to $3.5 million.
The theatre opened in 1921 and has been closed since 1975.
Three men were held in a plot to destroy the movie projector at the Liberty Theatre in September of 1931. One of the men, Conrad S. Lavigne, had worked there as a projectionist. He pleaded guilty and was given a jail term. The theatre was owned by Samuel Bomes, who several years before had brought injunction proceedings against the Moving Picture Operators' Union to enjoin picketing about the theatre and the case eventually went to the Supreme Court. An article about the attempted break-in appeared in the Providence newspaper on September 13, 1931.
From The Providence Journal, December 8, 1971:
Theater Is Denied Film Permit; Bd. Seeks Injunction
The Providence Bureau of Licenses denied yesterday an application by the Art Cinema, 1017 Broad St., to exhibit the film “Lies,” print number four, from today through Tuesday.
In a compaint filed in Superior Court, bureau memebrs said they viewed the film at the theater yesterday and determined it is probably obscene. They asked the court to judge it obscene and permanently enjoin its showing here.