Royal Theatre

Fall River, MA

277 Brightman Street

, Fall River, MA, United States

(map)

Status:	Restoring
Screens:	Single Screen
Style:	Unknown

Function:	Unknown
Seats:	200
Chain:	Unknown

Architect:	Unknown
Firm:	Unknown

The Royal Theatre was located in a section of the city known as the "Village". There were kiddie matinees on Saturday and Sunday afternoons; evenings were for adults. First-run movies that had run their course in the bigger movie houses now could be seen for less at the Royal. Monday evening was "Ladies Night" where either dishes or towels were given out.

The theatre was owned by the Moniz Family. On Saturday afternoon for 12 cents a kid could see a serial, cartoon and two full feature films, one of which was always a western. With so many kids it got so noisy you could hardly hear what the actors were saying. On many an occasion, Mr. Moniz would turn up the lights, shut off the movie and walk to the front of the theatre to proclaim, "If you kids don't keep quiet, I'll shut the movie off and send you all home". He never did! Ah, what great times.

After closing as a movie theatre, the building was purchased by St. Joseph's church and downstairs converted to a banquet hall and the upstairs theatre into a basketball court. It was then sold by the church to a company that made caskets.

The Royal is currently being restored as the home of the Youth Musical Theater.

Contributed by George H. Petrin

YOUR COMMENTS

The building is being
restored as a theater again!Hopefully,it will be the new home of the Youth Musical Theater.This group has already been using the space for rehearsals,and hope to have a performance there in September.

posted by jmed on Feb 24, 2005 at 8:47pm

See article at http://www.projo.com/massachusetts/content/projo_20050224_fr24bldg.2449b38.html . Status should be changed to restoring.

posted by Roger Katz on Mar 8, 2005 at 3:53am

The article that you linked to says Royale, not Royal. Which is correct?

posted by Ron Newman on Mar 8, 2005 at 6:59am

I believe that the name is Royal without the "E". This theater was hit by a car in Feb. 2005 so it will need additional work. Here is the story:
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=13986209&BRD=1710&PAG=461&dept_id=99784&rfi=6

posted by Lost Memory on Mar 8, 2005 at 7:08am

Here are two recent photos I took of the Royal. ONE TWO

posted by Gerald A. DeLuca on Apr 16, 2005 at 9:25am

An impressive collection of rare photos of historic Fall River theatres can be seen by clicking here.

posted by Gerald A. DeLuca on Jun 6, 2006 at 4:39am

In a 1990 Fall River Herald article on the city's theatres, John McAvoy wrote, "The Royal Theatre (capacity 500) was located on the south side of Brightman Street near the railway tracks. I was only in the Royal once, but I remember when a train passed by you could feel the vibrations in the theatre."

posted by Gerald A. DeLuca on Jun 26, 2006 at 7:23am

This 1941 photo of the marquee and front of the Royal, though from a photocopy of very poor quality, gives an idea of what the place looked like. It is from the M.G.M. Theatre Photograph and Report. The condition was described as good, the type of patronage was stated as "mill and low income." The seating at the time was 600 with 550 on the main floor and 50 in the balcony. The Royal had been playing M.G.M. product for three years. A competing theatre was given as the Strand.

posted by Gerald A. DeLuca on Jul 5, 2006 at 10:56am

Anyone know what happened to the plans to renovate this? I can't find anything on it since February of 2005.

posted by Roger Katz on Jan 28, 2008 at 7:15am

There aren't any references to this address on the Youth Musical Theater website:
http://www.ymtc.org/

posted by ken mc on Feb 5, 2009 at 5:01pm

They must have found another location to perform at.

posted by Lost Memory on Feb 5, 2009 at 5:09pm

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