Avon Cinema

During the 50's the Avon Theatre seated 528 people.

I have been going to the programs at the Avon Cinema since around 1948 when I first accompanied my parents to see opera movies shown there like IL TROVATORE. With my parents I also saw THE BICYCLE THIEF, PAISAN, the 1954 ROMEO AND JULIET. Later I started going on my own in high school, to matinees of naughty-naughty Brigitte Bardot movies to risqué French films like MITSOU, to the now-classic DIABOLIQUE and THE WAGES OF FEAR. Here is where I first saw OPEN CITY, PAISAN, THE BICYCLE THIEF, NGHTS OF CABIRIA, LA STRADA, GENERAL DELLA ROVERE. I fell in love with Satyajit Ray’s PATHER PANCHALI in 1959 and saw it several times during its one-week run. In the 60’s I saw Bergman, Truffaut, Antonioni and Fellini movies, many British comedies. The theatre had especially nice repertory programming in the 70’s with about three changes a week of great double bills. The Avon is still Rhode Island’s premiere art house and shows first run pictures as such, and it is inconceivable how film buffs in the state could live without it. A little known fact is that the theatre was previously called “The Toy Theatre” when it opened in the teens. Later it was shuttered, became a garage, then re-opened as a theatre with the name Avon Cinema in 1938. Abel Gance’s LIFE AND LOVES OF BEETHOVEN was the first film shown under that incarnation. This popular single screen theatre, surrounded by Brown University on Providence’s East Side, has a clean but plain interior. The curtain over the screen, when it is used, is unidirectional, moving from left to right. I’m going there this afternoon to see Robert Altman’s THE COMPANY. Also playing is TOUCHING THE VOID and a midnight screening of Scorsese’s GOODFELLAS.

Incidentally, there is an error in the heading above. This is the Avon Cinema, not "Cinemas." Singular. It is a single screen theatre.

Here are more programming memories on the theatre I have been going to continuously since around 1948. In the month of August in 1957 and 1958, because August was slack time, the Avon did a repertory "August Film Festival". They were a cinematic education for a youngster like me. The double-bill programs for August of 1957 were: CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA & LA TRAVIATA, THE GRAPES OF WRATH & TOBACCO ROAD, REAR WINDOW & THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY, THE CRUEL SEA & IN WHICH WE SERVE, OPEN CITY & PAISAN, LUST FOR LIFE & GABY, THE BED & MANON, WOMAN OF ROME & FRISKY, DIABOLIQUE & WAGES OF FEAR, BORIS GODUNOV & STARS OF THE RUSSIAN BALLET, TO CATCH A THIEF & LOVE IS A MANY-SPLENDORED THING. Not bad! In August of 1958 I saw TEAHOUSE OF THE AUGUST MOON & 12 ANGRY MEN, SUSPICION & THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH, TOBACCO ROAD & THE GRAPES OF WRATH, I VITELLONI & THE BICYCLE THIEF, PRIVATE'S PROGRESS & WEE GEORDIE, PAGLIACCI & AIDA, SABRINA & THREE COINS IN THE FOUNTAIN, LA STRADA & NIGHTS OF CABIRIA, FERNANDEL THE DRESSMAKER & THE SHEEP HAS FIVE LEGS. Wow!

http://www.film-tech.com/pics/avon/avon.html some pics here

As a Brown student, I spent many hours procrastinating at the Avon. Films like BODY HEAT, GONE WITH THE WIND, and DIVA complemented my Semiotics curriculum with more mainstream fare. One of my favorite memories is bounding to the front row to dance under a giant David Byrne during STOP MAKING SENSE. My dream was always to win the lottery, buy the Avon and spend the rest of my life finding the perfect double feature to show.

http://community.webshots.com/photo/156756546WmdZRE

Another marquee shot

Thew Avon is doing well as far as I can tell. It is owned by Ken Dulgarian who owns the entire business block, not to mention other holdings throughout Providence's East Side and elsewhere. The cinema has a large faithful core audience for the first-run art and independent films it programs and attracts an enormous number of students from nearby Brown University. There are four movie theatres open in Providence. Three of them are single screen: Avon, Cable Car, and the part-time multi-use Columbus. The other is the Providence Place Mall 16 Cinemas. When the Dulgarian-owned College Hill Bookstore closed a few months back, there was fear that the Avon would be next. But it seems to occupy an important niche and generates enormous prestige. Mr. Dulgarian is not likely to give that up. Too bad they don't consider adding additional screens for versatility, not by carving up the current auditorium, but by building a second level over adjacent shops.

The Avon was not the first art house in Rhode Island. The Modern Theatre, downtown at 440 Westminster Street, had opened three years earlier with an "art" policy in February of 1935 and calling itself the Modern Fine Arts Theatre or variations of that name.

The original architects for this theatre (as the 1915 Toy Theatre) were William R. Walker & Sons, architects of the Majestic in Providence, which is now the Trinity Rep (Lederer) Theatre. In 1938 there was a Moderne remodeling when it became the Avon.

So, what is playing at the Avon these days? The indie and foreign flicks that screen here don't play for a week right? Don't they play for two or three days? I bet most of the fare that plays here plays nowhere else in Rhode Island.

And do they still show revivals. I remember, back in the 1980s, I went to a Woody Allen double bill here. I can't remember the movies, but they were not new Allen films.

March of the Penguins has been here for over three weeks now. Films play one, two, three weeks usually and there are generally two different films with separate admissions. No more repertory. Revivals are extremely rare, except sometimes for the weekend midnight shows. After movies leave here, they often play at the Cable Car Cinema on South Main Street. The Cable Car is pretty much a move-over house but with occasional exclusive first-runs, like the French Happily Ever After which is there now. Some of the Avon movies do play elsewhere in Rhode Island, usually at the Jane Pickens Theatre in Newport. It too is an art house, and some of their shows are simultaneous with the ones at the Avon.

In February of 1939 The Providence Journal reported the banning of two films scheduled for the Avon. One was Amphitryon; the other was the Russian-made Professor Mamlock. The Journal wrote, "On recommendation of George W. Cowan, the Providence Bureau of Police and Fire yesterday denied to the Avon Theatre permission to show [the pictures] on the ground that they 'do not meet with the standards of decency set up for public exhibitions in this city.'
"Capt. Cowan...reported that some scenes in the fils were salacious and immodest."

Later it was reported that the theatre threatened court action. The film Professor Mamlock had won critical acclaim elsewhere and had appeared on the New York Times 10-best list. The picture dealt with the plight of persecuted Jews in Nazi Germany.

In another article the Journal said that "the amusement inspector held that the Soviet film tended to incite racial hatred and contained Communist propaganda."

One asks, racial hatred of whom? The Jews? But the film was against racism. In its most famous scene, the Jewish doctor, Professor Mamlock, his white overall inscribed with the yellow star and the word "Jude", marches with great dignity through a crowd of Brown Shirts.

I don't have any data yet about the film's subsequent showings in Providence, if they eventually occurred. One thing I have noticed, however, is that the Avon, from around this point up until the end of World War II, generally booked "safe" programs, free of controversy.

Well, not so. In November of 1940 Cowan banned another Avon-booked movie, the French film Daybreak (Marcel Carné's Le Jour se lève) because it had been condemned by the National (Catholic) Legion of Decency. That film, starring Jean Gabin, was one of the great masterpieces of the pre-war French cinema! Again, the final disposition is unclear from the information I curently have.

More censorship: In June of 1959, at the urging of Providence Police Lt. George P. Blessing, city amusements inspector, the Avon Cinema made several cuts in the Brigitte Bardot film that was scheduled to be shown, Love is My Profession (En cas de malheur). A year earlier the Avon had been given permission to show another Bardot vehicle, And God Created Woman, after making cuts recommended by Lieutenant Blessing. What a blessing to have the lieutenant protect our morals! A court test was not sought by either the distributor, Kingsley International Pictures, or Thayer Amusement Corp., owners of the Avon.

Gerald--

I'm glad to hear that the Avon is thriving, as I should imagine it would in the neighborhood of Brown and RISD. In the early '60s I saw here a few European films--I can't recall which specific ones--upon visiting my college friend who hailed from RI, and I remember it as a terrific theater. The mid-century problems with censorship take our breath away. I don't at all know "Professor Mamlock," but you can imagine how reverse discrimination might stain the day. Some viewers could well have resented the chutzpah of "der Jude" who dared to resist the Brown Shirts.

For the life of me, however, I can't imagine why the NCD (or CLOD, as Theaterat called it on this site) condemned "Daybreak." In the '60s, some of my Roman-collared friends rated films for NCD; most of them were progressive-minded, evidently in reaction against their predecessors. Still, the very institution of an NCD as a further corrective to the secular policing of Lieut. Blessing and the like was outrageous.

How about this...? The film about the Spanish Civil War, The Spanish Earth, by Joris Ivens, was also banned in Providence in 1937, before the Avon was born. The police censor Thomas H. Roberts said the (pro-republican) film's dialog contained "unfriendly references to friendly powers," namely Germany and Italy. Can't offend the sensibilities of those two nice communist-fighting countries!

Whew-- that's quite a statement about "The Spanish Earth." When did the office of Police Censor shut down? In the early '60s? Or did it still chug along until the late 60's, when most of that stuff melted away?

I'm not sure how long it lasted, but probably through the 1960s. Johnston and Pawtucket had similar licensing interference in the 1970s. Roberts stated that the "showing of this picture [The Spanish Earth] in places of public entertainment...might lead to antagonize and stir up racial hatreds among a large number of people of foreign extraction. We are living peacefully together in this community."

Incidentaly, there was a great deal of pro-Mussolini public sentiment in this heavily Italian area. Pro-Mussolini documentaries were shown at the Uptown (Columbus) Theatre. There were Mussolini societies, a pro-fascist paper, and even a Mussolini Street on Federal Hill, changed when the war broke out, though a Balbo Avenue (named after a high-ranking Blackshirt and possible Mussolini successor) lingered on for years after until it finally became DePasquale Ave.

In the latter half of the sixties, the theater's reputation as an art house began to diminish, at least in my mind. It would schedule more mainstream fare and fewer foreign films. One reason is likely the competition from other theaters like the Columbus Theater/Studio Cinema, the newly opened Four Seasons Cinemas in East Providence, and, years later, the Midland and Cinerama Theater.

Yes, true. I remember the 1965 Sylvia played there forever, and it was such a mediocre film. I think the competition from these theatres, especially the Cinerama, is why the Avon would find its niche in repertory in the 1970s. The death of the Cinerama in 1983 was bad for filmgoers, good for the Avon. I don't think the Four Seasons was much competition for very long in the 1960s, although they got first-run on some important films like Juliet of the Spirits (if I remember correctly) which was really Avon stuff, if they had cared about it at that point. By the end of the 1960s the Columbus/Studio had already moved to ultra-sexy stuff before descending into outright porn.

A newspaper ad from October, 1962, the era of art-house mania. Both the Avon and the Art, on the other side of town, were run at the time by the Lockwood Gordon chain of Boston.

When the Four Seasons first opened, the theater announced that one of its two screens would show mostly foreign films, but the policy did not last. I saw "The Tenth Victim" when it opened there.

Yes, I went too and I remember that "promise." Incidentally, that is one of my least favorite Mastroianni films. I never liked it, despite the fact that I am really into Italian movies and Elio Petri is a fine director.

I worked, as part of my training, at the Avon under then manager, Nelson Wright in the early fifties. Lockwood and Gordon Theaters of Boston, Mass. operated the Avon at the time as well as the Hope and Castle.

Richard, that was the Avon's "golden era"...in my opinion.

When did the Lockwood Gordon chain break ties with the Avon? My guess would be at the time that the theater became a revival house.

Toy Theatre, 1915-1916. The Avon, in its first incarnation

Article in The Providence Journal, November 2, 1915:

TOY THEATRE OF EAST SIDE OPENS ITS DOORS

Large Audience Attend First Public Performances

The Toy Theatre, at the corner of Thayer and Meeting Streets, opened its doors to the public yesterday [November 1, 1915] with two performances. Both were largely attended, and several features of decoration, lighting and seating arrangement caused considerable favorable comment. A private exhibition of "The Battle Cry of the Republic" was given in the theatre Sunday evening.

The principal picture shown at the initial public performance was "In the Palace of the King," a dramatization of the novel of the same name by F. Marion Crawford. "Broncho Billy Begins Life Anew," "The Animated Grouch Chaser," a series of humorous motion cartoons, and the Pathe current events were the other pictures shown.

The front of the floor of the theatre is composed of reserved seats, and the rear part is divided into 10 loges, containing eight seats each, and separated from each other by brass rails. Seats are reserved for the evening performances until 8:15, when the show starts. The ventilation system, worked by large suction pumps and motors, kept the air in the hall remarkably fresh and temperate throughout the performances.

A number of American flags, draped effectively in semi-circles beneath the mural decorative painting and pictures of dramatic stars in the rear wall of the theatre, are both artistic and in good taste. The theatre is lighted by inverted clusters of bulbs in huge brass holders underneath which smaller frosted lights are attached. The color scheme of the body of the theatre and the lobby is an effective combination of yellow and purple.

Article in The Providence Journal, exactly one year later on November 2, 1916 when the theatre was being sold:

TOY THEATRE MAY CHANGE HANDS IN NEXT FEW WEEKS

Members of The Players and Others Interested

An amateur theatre and gymnasiums will probably be established in this city within a few months. An option has already been taken on the Toy Theatre property on Thayer Street by a committee which is considering the matter.

Members of The Players, of the gymnasium class, which formerly met in the Talma Theatre* and representatives of Brown University are all interested in the project. Several plans have been broached, but the matter has finally narrowed down to two, one the purchase of the Toy Theatre, and the other the erection of a building on the Brown Campus.

It is the consensus of opinion of the committee that, with the close of the Talma Theatre, the last place where amateur theatricals can be given on a regular stage was gone, the only houses left being the down-town professional structures which would allow productions only for a week at a time.

Moreover the East Side is without gymnasium facilities of any kind. It is believed that the project can be put through, so that the Toy Theatre can be utilized for a theatre and for a gymnasium, including the installation of a swimming pool.
---------------
[Poster's notes: It remains unclear what exactly happened to the Toy Theatre building between the years 1916 until the place opened as the Avon Cinema in February, 1938. Many say it was an automotive garage. The current management is doubtful of that. Further research may bring more information to light.

*The Talma Theatre referred to in the newspaper piece was located on South Main Street at the corner of Power Street, across Power from what is today the Cable Car Cinema. It was later demolished. and The Players moved in 1932 into what is now known as Barker Playhouse on lower Benefit Street.]

Newspaper ad for the Toy Theatre, from December, 1915.

Here is a newspaper ad for opening day at the Avon Cinema, February 15, 1938. The film Life and Loves of Beethoven was the French film by Abel Gance, Un grand amour de Beethoven, made in 1936. The Avon was opened in the old Toy Theatre building, not previously used as a theatre since 1916...as far as we now know. Note the admission prices from 25 cents to 65 cents.

Regarding Professor Mamlock, which I spoke of on August 18: the Rhode Island Supreme Court, in an opinion written by Francis B. Condon, held that the Providence Bureau of Police and Fire was within its rights in banning a public showing here (in March, 1939)of the Soviet-made film, "Professor Mamlock," sought by the Thayer Amusemnent Company, operators of the Avon Theatre. The decision came on July 17, 1939 and was reported a day later by The Providence Journal. So the film was indeed banned and the ban upheld.

Between 1916, when the Toy Theatre closed, and 1938, when the Avon Theatre opened, the building was used as the Toy Garage. I assume it was an automobile service garage of some type. The Providence City Directory lists the establishment under this name during those years at the address of 460 Thayer Street and gives the names of various owners/managers during that time period.

In January of 1947 the Avon began a "classy" reserved-seat engagement of Laurence Olivier's Henry V. To my knowledge it is the only reserved-seat engagement that ever played this art house. Here is a newspaper ad from a few weeks before the opening. Note that the prices, ranging from $1.20 to $2.40, were about three to four times the going rates for that period. There were two showings per day.

The Avon certainly went fairly mainstream when it was showing The Poseidon Adventure in early 1973, day-dating with the Warwick Cinema on Post Road in Warwick. They shared newspaper ads.

During the World War II years the Avon Theatre generally showed selected revivals of U.S. films. The unavailability of most new European product would have made it difficult to show many European films. There were exceptions. The Avon put in a Russian-made film for the week beginning on January 17, 1943. Entitled Mashenka, it is a love story set during the Russian war with Finland and stars Valentina Karavayeva in the title role. The movie was favorably reviewed in the Providence Journal the following day by Bradford F. Swan who said that it "had its moments of deeply moving emotion."
HERE IS THE NEWSPAPER AD FOR OPENING DAY. The film ran for one week. It seems to have vanished without a trace since then.

In June, 1948 the Providence Police banned the 1941 French film Volpone by Maurice Tourneur, as "indecent and irreligious." It was scheduled to be shown at the Avon. It had also been condemned by the Catholic Legion of Decency (CLOD). I don't know yet if the decision was ever reversed. The movie, of course, had been based on Ben Jonson's great comedy. It had played for over five months in New York at the Ambassador Theatre. Bradford F. Swan, author of a June 5th Providence Journal article reporting the ban, wrote, ..."If its reputation as a period piece is kept in mind, and if it is taken as a mordant commentary on avarice and evil, 'Volpone' seemed hardly the movie to corrupt Providence.

Earlier I mentioned Henry V as being the only reserved seat engagement at the Avon that I knew of. Not so any more. Beginning June 1, 1949 there was a reserved seat run of another British movie, the beloved ballet story The Red Shoes, directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger and starring Moira Shearer. Here is AN AD FOR OPENING DAY. Admission prices ranged from 90¢ to $2.40.

In May of 1965 the Avon was running the film The Cool World, directed by Shirley Clark and produced by Boston documentarian Frederick Wiseman. It was a harrowing portrayal of Harlem street life in the 1960s. From a distribution point of view it is very interesting to note that the Avon run of the film actually day-dated with showings at Johnston's Pike Drive-In and the Seekonk Drive-In! The Avon sharing a program with two area drive-ins! So strange. But that was a movie that could appeal to both art house audiences and mass audiences, even youth audiences. So it was a clever marketing move by the distributor, Cinema V.

Here is a photo of the Avon Cinema.

It is nice to read that the Avon is still going strong. It is interesting that the "Poseidon Adventure" played here. Coincidentally, it played in New York last night at the Brooklyn Academy of Music's revival screen. I actually saw PA on first run, but I believe it was at a RI (or nearby Massachusetts drive-in).

The only other time I went to the Avon, as best I can recall, besides the Woody Allen film(s) I mentioned above, I caught THE PIANO on first run here back in the early-to-mid 1990s.

The Dulgarian family runs it as a prestige venture and owns the entire block of real estate, indeed much other real estate in Providence. Even if it lost money, I'd hope they would continue the operation...although the College Hill Bookstore, at the corner of the Avon's block, was shut down not too long ago because of declining business. Everyone hopes it is not an omen for the Avon. The theatre gets very decent though not huge audiences for most of its offerings and the owners are aware of the enormous good-will generated by this theatre...plus off-shoot business in the nearby shops and restaurants. The Avon is the oldest movie theatre in Providence that is still showing movies on a regular basis. It is one of the three single-screen movie theatres in Rhode Island that are still regularly showing movies: the other two are the Cable Car Cinema in Providence and the Jane Pickens Theatre in Newport. Revival House in Westerly is not in the running, being essentially a café with a DVD-projection set-up.

I was fascinated by the discussion of 'Professor Mamlock' and 'Mashenka' here. I am researching the reception of Russian films in the West in this period and had no idea either had reached Rhode Island. 'Mashenka' enjoyed a 5 week run in December 1942 at New York's Stanley, which showed a lot of Russian films. I would be interested to know whther the Avon screened any of the Soviet wartime documentaries such as 'Moscow Strikes Back'(which won an Oscar), 'The Siege of Leningrad' or 'Heroic Stalingrad.' The latter also ran into censorship problems, as the League of Catholic Decency objected to its depiction of Nazi atrocities.

Jeremy, I have encountered no documentation or ads showing that those films you mention were shown at the Avon, or in our area. There was no Stanley or Cameo in Rhode Island that programmed Russian films routinely. Any that showed up on local screens during that period would have been rare exceptions. That is not to say there weren't screenings by private organizations or at Brown University, for example. Moscow Strikes Back might have filled out bills in regular mainstream theatres, since it was distributed by Republic Pictures and had Edward G. Robinson as the narrator! Heroic Leningrad was distributed by Paramount. So I would guess they filled out wartime programs in some regular theatres across the country, especially in major cities.

Another photo of the Avon Cinema can be seen here.

Delightful event here last night! I saw the 1926 German animation masterpiece, The Adventures of Prince Achmed of Lotte Reiniger, the first full-length animation film ever made. No computer graphics here. The entire thing was done with stop-action photography of cardboard and metal cutouts positioned in front of illuminated sheets of glass. Took her three years, and the results are dazzling. Everything is in silhouette. The story line is based on tales from The Arabian Nights and has a wicked sorcerer, Prince Achmed on a magical horse, a beautiful princess, demons, a genie in a lamp. Some of the scenes are eye-popping. (Get it on DVD.)

The Silk Road Ensemble accompanied the 35mm film showing with an original score composed for both Eastern and Western instruments. The ensemble is part of a program envisioned by renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma. The Silk Road Project, with artists in residence at Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) brings together artists and audiences around the globe. Mr. Ma, whom I've seen in concerts several times and whose recordings I have, was in attendance and watched the movie. I was thrilled. He almost stepped on my foot. The screening was sold out and the house was packed. Gratifying.

Pic 1
Pic 2

A big selection of exterior and interior photos of the Avon, including the projection booth, can be seen if you CLICK HERE.

This is a recent close-up of the Avon Cinema.

The façade above the marquee is covered in graffiti. Sad.

Here is a night view of the Avon.

Films about classical composers as well as opera films were very popular here in the 1940s and 1950s especially. Here is a DOUBLE BILL of Lucia di Lamermoor and Rossini scheduled for November 1949, after a revival run of the Marx Brothers' duo Animal Crackers and Duck Soup.

I worked at the Avon in the late 60's when it was sold by Lockwood & Gordon to SBC Theatres. I always hark back to the fact that it had no concession stand for most of its life; only having been added in the late 70's if memory serves me correctly.

The restrooms were upstairs (no elevator) where there was a tiny booth and managers office. I can remember us selling out Love Story at 550 seats, long before the art house conversion.

If I remember correctly, the Dulgarians refused to renew the SBC lease at expiration and took over the operation themselves.

No parking, no concession stand and a box-office the size of a 1950's ranch home closet...what a concept!

Nick,
Regarding "art house conversion" coming sometime after Love Story, the Avon had been an art house long before that, briefly after its 1938 opening, then throughout the postwar period up to the later 1960s, when it became more mainstream. The 1970s saw it as a repertory cinema (it was renamed "Avon Repertory Cinema") and showed double bills of generally classy foreign and domestic films with two or three program changes per week, mostly revivals but with some new ones thrown in.

I remember the 1950s and 1960s when the theatre opened every day at 2:00 P.M. and had continuous showings. Admission back then ranged from 75 to 90 cents. There was no snack concession, probably because they considered themselves to be in the same league as a legit theatre, where people don't buy candy, popcorn or drinks to eat at their seats. Their motto then was "Choice of the Discerning." I used to go there as a high school student in the 1950s and would buy a couple of candy bars beforehand at the next door Rexall Drugstore to eat during the show.

There was a taint of the forbidden associated with the cinema at that time, because a number of the films that played there were "condemned" by the Catholic Legion of Decency, which were often films of international acclaim. When I was in the seminary, we were expresssly forbidden from attending the Avon during our breaks because of this reputation it had. But many of us went anyway, and so did priests! The quality of the films shown back then was very high. It still is now, pretty much, though sometimes there is daydating with the Showcase Seekonk Route 6. In its heyday, the Avon ran programs that were exclusive to the area and would play almost nowhere else in Rhode Island.

Times have changed. They have a hard time getting large audiences for anything at the Avon any more, though the size is decent on many shows. It may be heresy, but this is a theatre I think would benefit from multiplexing (or add-ons of small auditoriums up top) with three or four smaller cinemas. They could increase their boxoffice, provide a wider variety of films. Many films that we see trailers or posters for never show up. Others remain far too long. Still, it is an indispensable place for many.

Gerald,

Agreed; I meant the modern conversion to art format. I worked for L&G and SBC for almost 15 years (see other posts) and, from the exhibition side of the business, found this house an oddity.

I think that stating they didn't have concessions because they considered themselves par with legit theatre may be a stretch. This is one of the smallest single screens (area wise, not seat)that I have been around. Considering the time frame built, it really was an odd configuration.

As for more screens, I think that is a romantic vision of this difficult business; one that I have been accused of many times. The cost/benefit would be hard to prove out, even for a family that owns the real estate. The existing house would have to live up to todays codes: elevators, sprinklers, ADA, etc, which causes even large companies distress.

Agreed that this is a great little house, but nothing really special. In an age of digital projection with THX as standard new formatting, the Avon is hanging on.

Nick

Here is a recent photo of the Avon.

This is another photo of the Avon Cinema.

Providence Business News recently ran a story about the Avon today:

http://pbn.com/detail.html?sub_id=e7078fae5da2

Here is another photo of the Avon.

1983 Photo

This is an August 2009 photo.

Nice looking Marquee,very old school.

Ichanged that marquee more times than I can remember 40 years ago!

Cool Nick.I have changed a few in my time too.

The ladder used to be kept outside in the alley on the opposite side of the building. In the 60's we used to have a spotter to prevent Brown & RISD kids from toppling the ladder while you were up there!

I recently was invited down by Richard Dulgarian to work the Carbon Arc Projectors, which are the original projectors in operation since 1938. I might be taking on the Saturday projection shift at the theater. It is a beautiful single screen movie house that still holds onto movie magic. One of Richard's tests for projectionists is "the start up" or when the show begins. The curtains are closed, you fire up the carbon arc, turn on the motor to the projector, open up the dowser, start the change over so the image spills onto the curtain, and then you open up the curtain...so you never see the projection screen without the magical carbon arc light hitting it. Its part of the magic of Cinema.