Old Howard Casino

Saturday, March 3, 1962, a typical day at the Old Howard, taken from the Boston Record American: film THE RIGHT APPROACH at 9 A.M. Film MAN TRAP at 10:13, 5:14. Stage show: 12:00 2:30, 7:15, 10:00. The stage show for that day featured one Cindy Parker.

The movie only played at the deadest time

The Old Howard was originally built as a temple, and was called the Old Howard Athenaeum in its early years. The exterior was gothic looking, like a church.

There was some small controversy about its demolition in the 60's. There had been a small but not devastating fire there and many people were pushing for a renovation of sorts, but before anything could go forward the city tore the building down rather quickly. This was at the height of urban renewal and not much was considered historic excepting colonial-era structures.

President Kennedy was a regular patron of the Old Howard in his Harvard days (as were many Harvard men).

A friend sent me this.. perhaps someone here has the rest of the article- see below ;) Dorothy
also pls ck out:
http://www.burlesquehistory.com (preserving the history!)

ACCORDING TO AN AD IN THE BOSTON HERALD JULY 23, 1946 from my mothers trunk:

TWO COMEDIANS TOP OLD HOWARD SHOW

The burlesque show at the Old Howard this week stars two old comedians, Harry Conley and Frank Silk. Diane Ross, Patricia Powers, Charlie Harris and ........
?? The rest is cut out.

We're talking two separate theaters here. The Old Howard (some call it 'the Old Howard Atheneum') , which was at one time a Millerite temple stood on the site that now houses most of the Saltonstall office building. The Old Howard Casino was down from Scollay Sq, on a part of Hanover Street that no longer exists, having been replaced by Boston City Hall. The Old Howard got condemned or something in the late 40s/early 50s, but was not demolished until the late 60s. Ann Corio autographed bricks from this when it was demolished. The Casino was running into the 60s, with performers such as Blaze Star, and showing films; one bizarre film selection was 'Saint Joan' w/ Jean Seberg! I never got into the Casino, but a guy that used to sell prizes and refreshments there years later worked as a floor waxer in my building.

This page says that after the city closed down the real Old Howard in 1953, the owners transferred its license to the Casino and renamed it the Old Howard Casino as a way of drawing customers.

So this entry needs to be split into two separate ones -- if, that is, movies actually showed at both theatres. Did they?

I don't think movies were ever shown at the Old Howard Atheneum, just the Casino.

For more information on the Old Howard AND on Scollay Square's other theaters, I invite you all to visit my Scollay Square web site at http://www.joeandnemo.com

David Kruh

On David's site are these two pages from an Old Howard Athenaeum program (not Old Howard Casino) from February, 1952. Along with the stage shows, it also lists two movies: "It's a Great Feeling" with Doris Day, and "Montana" with Errol Flynn.

David's book, Always Something Doing: A History of Boston's Infamous Scollay Square, says that the Casino originally presented movies, plays, talent shows, and operas, all in Italian to serve the population of the neighboring North End. Operas shared the stage with burlesque after the owners of the Old Howard bought the Casino in the 1930s. Movies ran from 9 am until noon, followed by the stage shows.

The Casino was apparently one of the later buildings demolished to make way for Government Center. A 1962 photo shows it and its Hanover Street neighbors still standing after Brattle Street and Cornhill had been removed. The John F. Kennedy Federal Building now stands on the site.

According to an article in the Harvard Crimson online archive, the Casino's last show was Saturday, May 5, 1962.

According to articles in the boston Globe archives, this opened as Waldron's Casino Theatre in 1910.

I've added a separate listing for the real Old Howard, after determining that movies were indeed shown there.

A 1945 photo of the Casino, described here.

According to Donald C. King's new book The Theatres of Boston: A Stage and Screen History, Waldron's Casino opened at 44 Hanover Street on January 3, 1910.

In the fall of 1928, NETOCO briefly leased the Casino, putting in a new Wurlitzer organ and featuring Paramount films and vaudeville.

In June 1958, it was renamed the Old Howard Casino. It closed in 1962 and was demolished to make way for Government Center.

Yes, there were 2 seperate theatres, and both showed movies. Both were primarily live Burlesque houses. The Casino was built in 1910 and was designed by Clarence Blackall. It was operated by Charlie Waldron, local Burley producer. He had been affiliated with the Palace Theatre, just across from the Olympia, and also with the Gaiety on Washington Street. The Casino had 2 balconies and boxes on the sidewalls. A unique feature was a staircase right in the middle of the orchestra floor that led down to basement lounges. At the age of 13, a 9th-grade friend and I got into the Casino at a Saturday evening performance. Had to sit in the 1st balcony, as the main floor was full. (the 2nd balcony was permenently closed by that time.) We loved the show. Funny, lowbrow comedy, and beautiful girls. I got into the Casino many times, in spite of being under-age.At the 12 noon show, you could see a 2nd-run movie, plus a stageshow over an hour long, with a 5-piece band in the pit, all for about 65 cents circa 1960. The theatre closed in the spring of 1962 and was demolished that summer. Victim of Urban Ruin-all. The rear portion of the JFK Building is about where it was.

New England Theatres' leasing of the Casino in 1928 and installing a Wurlitzer organ could explain an oddity inside-- The top tier of boxes on both sidewalls had grills over them. I could see that they were dummy boxes and thought that the grills had something to do with ventilation. Now it appears likely that the grills were for the organ. The Casino also had an inside stage door. Possibly the original stage door outside was located in a muddy dark alley. Performers came in through the front entrance, then down the right side aisle, through the right orchestra boxes and then through a door which led into the wings on stage-left. On that side of the stage was the pinrail for the rigging lines. The Casino obviously had a movie screen which was "flown" up out of the way when the stage shows began.

On this 1928 map, the theatre is shown as WALDRONS CASINO. It's a half block up Hanover Street from Scollay Square, on the left side of the street. This part of Hanover Street no longer exists.

On a Sunday evening in December 1952, I was returning to Boston by train from a weekend in New York with my older brother and his friends. While snacking in the lounge car, I overheard a nattily-dressed middle-aged man at the next table telling a college-age couple at his table that he was an actor heading for the Colonial Theatre in Boston to appear in a play. The next day I noted in the newspaper that there was no play opening that night at the Colonial. Later that week, while attending a matinee at the Casino Theatre, I was amused to see the man up on stage in the comedy sketches. The distinguished thespian was, in fact, a burlesque comic and had been "snowing" the gullible kids on the train.

The MGM Theatre Photograph and Report form for the Casino Theatre on Hanover St. has an exterior photo dated May 1941. The theatre had an old-fashioned 1920-era marquee. Despite the fact that the Report oddly omits that the Casino is a Burlesque house, it's obvious from the photo-- the two poster cases on each side of the entrance have large photos of semi-undressed strip-tease dancers. Some local wise-guys are milling about at the entrance. The Report states that the Casino is not a MGM customer; that it was built in 1910, that it's in Fair condition; and has 800 orchestra seats and 500 balcony seats; total: 1,300 seats (not including second balcony and boxes). There is no mention of Burlesque shows in the Casino's report.

In February, 1922, Waldron's Casino was offering "Something New--Burlesque--Vaudeville--Pictures--3 Big Shows in One":http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/boscasino22.jpg

As its attraction during Christmas week of 1921, the Casino presented the revue "Hello 1922" on stage. Their ad in the Boston Globe is headed "Waldron's Casino" with "Waldron's" in large letters. Their motto was "The House of Big Shows". There was a note that on New Year's Eve there would be performances at 7PM and 930PM. In my office in Boston in the 1970s there was an elderly man who worked part-time as an engineering ass't. He was a show buff and as a youth he had known Charlie Waldron and had attended shows at the Casino many times.

In the 50s, we used to hook school on Mondays and went to the Casino theater. First it was a movie and then the stage show. Monday morning was supposed to be the best show because it was said that the Boston censors didnt get there on Monday mornings becausze a new show started on Mondays and they got there later to censor parts of the show, so we went, allegedly, before they got there.

We saw some great names, Tempest Storm, Princes DoMay, Rose La rose and others.

BTW, the movies sucked as did the scroungy boxes of candy they sold between shows for a quarter, promising a priZe in every box, that we never got.

NEMike above mentions one of the sleaziest features of attending shows at the Casino or any other burley theater. At intermissions they had a pitchman at the edge of the stage who hawked various things like boxes of candy. He looked like the fast-talking guys selling stuff on late-night TV. He had a crew of "gentlemen" who worked the aisles. They looked like he had recruited them out of a skid-row flop house. I agree with NEMike that very few, if any, boxes ever contained the promised prize. The movies at the Casino, in my opinion, did not suck, they were mostly older second-run movies. As for censorship, I saw some amazing things on stage - not just some very smutty comedy, but young (18, 19) pretty show girls doing complete strips and very erotic dancing. They had colored gels over the follow-spotlight: the more she took off, the darker the gel would get, going from almost white to a dark blue at the end. The drummer got quite a workout during these long strip dances. The Casino did not enforce its age rule, so the place was sometimes full of schoolboys.

I copied a list of Boston theaters from 2 city directories at the library when I was a kid. In 1895 there was a "Nickleodeon" at 51 Hanover Street which would have been across from the site of the Casino Theatre. In the 1921 listing, it was still there, as the "New Nickleodeon". In his book about Boston theaters, Donald King says that the "Nickleodeon Musee and Parlor Theatre" opened on December 23, 1894 at 51-53 Hanover Street, utilizing 3 floors.