Salem Theater
295 Essex Street,
Salem,
MA
01970
295 Essex Street,
Salem,
MA
01970
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Hi camera65
I know the (new) Salem Theater was demolished around 1985. It seemed to me that I had seen a newspaper article, probably from the Salem Evening News, that noted that before demolition there had been a fire there. I wish I could locate that reference again, but cannot. If you’re sure there was no fire, then I’d defer to you on that.
David
Just reading the Salem Theatre info. I don’t recall that this burned. In its last few years, it was bought and operated independently with films and concerts by, I think, John Finsbury. Eventually he couldn’t keep it viable and took it down for the condo development that stands there today. I attended this house as a kid in the fifties. Then, the ads called it the “New Salem Theatre”, to separate it from the old, defunct house of that name, which I think was between the Plaza and Town House Square on the same side. I was a projectionist there in the 70s when Loew had it. The original booth operators were Percy Judge, Harlan Cole, Walter Caron and one other I can’t recall.
Hi Joe,
That’s great information. The Federal Theater was always a mystery to my generation—it was there but yet it was not. I imagine that the businesses occupying space there were likely tenants who would not have had access to the theater. It would be great to know what the interior looked like. Being closed for so long though, if there were roof leaks, it was probably quite deteriorated by then.
I checked out the picture of the older Salem Theatre. Interesting! All those pictures were fun to look at. On page 34
there’s a picture of the YMCA. The rooftop loggia they mention we called “The Colleseum”. Years later it was removed. On the second floor of that building is Ames Memorial Hall which is being fully restored to its earlier splendor. They’ve done something right!
Dave, the biography of the Koen brothers I linked to in my previous comment mentions the Comique and the Federal, and even gives the Federal’s opening date, March 23, 1913. John Koen’s first theater was a 144-seat storefront operation called the Cozy.
There’s a picture of the old Salem Theatre in this book, and the caption says the view is along Essex Street from Barton Square toward Washington Street. The Salem Theatre was on the right corner in the foreground, so it was about a block and a half east of the site of E.M. Loew’s later Salem. It opened in 1901, as one of Julius Cahn’s operations, and closed in the 1930s.
Hi Joe,
I can’t answer your exact question. But during the silent picture era, I know from my parents that there were The Comique, Nickelodian, and Federal Theaters downtown. The first two were quite small and disappeared a very long time ago. The Federal was still standing for years, but the theater itself was closed. I believe the first floor was then occupied by a First National grocery store with a candlepin bowling alley on the lower level. When you viewed the Federal’s exterior, it was unmistakenly a theater, with the high stage structure for “flying” screens, curtains and scenery for plays and vaudville shows. During Salem’s urban renewal frenzy in the 1960s, they put the wrecking ball to the Federal shortly before the Paramount was leveled. I am quite sure that where the Plaza Theater (an E. M. Loew theater) stood, there was an earlier Plaza Theater there destroyed by fire. So the one that most of us remember was actually the “New Plaza”. I believe the word “New” actually appeared in small stylized letters before the name on the marquee. I can tell you for sure that E. M. Loew’s Salem was not sited where the Empire Theatre had stood, as I clearly recall the Paramount, Plaza, E.M. Loew’s Salem and the closed Empire all coexisting during the 1950s.
Does anyone know if E.M. Loew’s Salem Theatre was built on the site of an earlier house also called the Salem Theatre? There was a Salem Theatre in operation at least as early as the 1910s. During the silent era it was operated by the Koen Brothers, pioneer movie exhibitors in Salem and other towns in the area.
There’s a brief biography of the Koen Brothers in this 1922 book. It mentions several of their theaters.
THANKS DAVE1.At one time he owned 70 hardtop theatres 17 drive-ins,some hotels and motels.Check out the Gulfstream Drive-in he owned that and it had a 52 unit motel built on both sides of the drive-in screen,it is listed on Cinema,Treasures,he also owned a racetrack.E.M. Loews theatres are listed under the Loews chain link but were really another company.
Hi tlsloews,
Thanks for that bit of history on Elias M. Loew. I had sometimes wondered if there was a connection to Marcus Loew, but it turns out only in the similarity of the name.
Elias M. Loew 1898-1984, not related to Marcus Loew of Loews Theatres,based his company out of Boston,Mass.
As far as I know, after the Plaza Theater was demolished it was left as just a parking lot. The site that the Salem Theater and Mary’s Lunch once occupied is now a condo complex called “289 Essex St”. Flint St. is no where near this area, it is a street connecting Mason St. in north Salem to Dalton Parkway.
Address given by Dave1 on 7/12/09:
295 Essex Street.
What is now on this site?
The Salem Theater did not directly abut the Plaza at all. Abutting the Salem on the left side was the Nancy Lee coffee shop later to become Mary’s Lunch. Next to this still going left was a parking lot followed by Crombie St. The next building after that (on the corner of Essex and Crombie) housed Thomkins Furniture. The Plaza was the next thing after that. I should know because I walked downtown nearly everyday. The Plaza was opposite Bowman’s bakery. The Salem was opposite the YMCA.
The Salem Theater was open and exhibiting films from 1953-1985.
Oops, I had just switched back and forth between the Plaza and Salem Theaters, and lost track that I was on the Salem Theater page. Sorry about that! So yes, this picture is perfect for this particular thread. And in addition to having that great picture you posted, Ken, we also now have the exact address of the Salem Theater—295 Essex Street.
Actually, Ken, that is a picture of the Salem Theater at 295 Essex Street, but very close to the Plaza Theater which abutted it at the immediate left of the photo at 273 Essex Street. (Jerry’s Army & Navy was immediately to the Salem Theater’s right, and you can see a little of that in the photo too). One would think that the Plaza’s address would have logically been #293, but for some odd reason it was 273, even though the two buildings shared a common wall between them. Both were also owned by the E. M. Loew Co.
Here is a 1980 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/deo77m
Hi jph,
I live in Maine now, so can’t give you the exact address. I can tell you it was on the west end of Essex Street, close to the intersection with Flint Street quite near Jerry’s Army & Navy, and on that same side of Essex Street. The Plaza Theater was to the left of the Salem Theater, but when the former was demolished, there was just a parking lot left there next to the Salem Theater. I hope that helps.
Hi Gerald,
Yes, it was E. M. Loew’s. I realized I misspelled it, but could find no editing feature in the software here, so had to let it go. Sorry for the confusion.
David April…could you contact me if you have info on theaters in Salem 1896-1910?
Thanks.
Eventually used for concerts. I have a concert list stating that Hot Tuna performed there on 11/5/83.
burned in SALEM very strange
when did this burn and what was the exact address?
“Lowes'”? Isn’t it E.M. Loew’s?