Bijou Theatre

164 Westminster Street,
Providence, RI 02903

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Showing 26 - 33 of 33 comments

Marialivia
Marialivia on April 12, 2005 at 7:16 am

Thanks again — this is wonderful!! I never knew there was ever a theater at that location. Childs' Restaurant would have been between it and the Arcade in “my day,” but I don’t know if it’s actually the same building.

Gerald A. DeLuca
Gerald A. DeLuca on April 12, 2005 at 6:42 am

Here is a postcard from the 1920s showing Westminster Street from the Union Trust Building. On the right you can see the vertical marquee for the first Bijou Theatre along with a bit of its white façade. Further down you can make out the Arcade Building.
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Marialivia
Marialivia on April 11, 2005 at 2:55 pm

I’ll put my meager recollection’s at the Fay’s site.

Gerald A. DeLuca
Gerald A. DeLuca on April 11, 2005 at 2:53 pm

Yes, the Liberty is included under “Art Cinema.” It was on Broad Street. The building is still there. I posted lots of comments there. I just submitted a listing for the second Bijou. It seems to have been a burlesque house referred to as “The Sink” or “Sinkhole of Depravity” according to a Journal article. What do you remember about Fay’s? (That’s listed too.)

Marialivia
Marialivia on April 11, 2005 at 2:42 pm

Oh I’m not sure exactly why it acquired the reputation that it did. The prevailing rumor was that the place was overrun by bugs and vermin, etc. and that undesirable people hung out there. One of my fellow music students at that time told me that “the seats are so low, a man sat on my brother.” This is about all I can recall of the Bijou. It and the Empire disappeared seemingly at the same time, although I seem to remember that the Empire went on to present road show musicals for a time. It’s hard to imagine now that there were so many theaters in downtown Providence! Besides the magnificent, palatial Loew’s State (now “PPAC”), there was the Albee, the Strand, the Majestic (which is still glorious and is home to the inimitable Trinity Square Repertory Company’s two theaters), The Metropolitan, Fay’s, The Carlton, the Capitol (another “undesirable” place)along with the aforementioned Bijou and Empire. And the area where all these were located is probably less than a square mile. I haven’t checked to see if the Liberty Theater is included Cinema Treasures. It was not downtown but in South Providence, probably on Broad Street, and was a neighborhood theater that I remember from my high school days.

Gerald A. DeLuca
Gerald A. DeLuca on April 11, 2005 at 2:23 pm

My goodness! Why? I’m going to add a listing for the newer Bijou. Maybe you and others can post your recollections there.

Marialivia
Marialivia on April 11, 2005 at 2:14 pm

Yes, this later one is the one I remember, but it closed sometime in the late 40s — I used to pass it when I was going up the street to my piano lesson!! By that time it had a terrible reputation and was the kind of place your mother wouldn’t allow you to go into!!

Gerald A. DeLuca
Gerald A. DeLuca on April 2, 2005 at 7:41 am

According to a Providence Journal article on old theatres on October 20, 1996, this silent-era theatre was closed on July 3, 1925. Another later Bijou, formerly called the Westminster, was further up Westminster St. at Snow Street.