Showplace Theater
25 Chapman Court,
Greenfield,
MA
01301
25 Chapman Court,
Greenfield,
MA
01301
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As the Victoria Theater, this theater is listed in the 1927 Film Daily Yearbook as having 832 seats, and open 7 days per week.
The original name of the Showplace was the “Victoria”, and it was built and opened in 1913. The first name change came about in the late 1960’s or early 1970’s when it was renamed to “Showcase”. This was shortly changed to “Showplace”, as Showcase cinemas threatened a lawsuit against the owners at the time.
The MGM Theatre Report for the Garden Theatre in Greenfield, written in May 1941, lists this theater, the Victoria, as competition to the Garden, along with the Lawler Theatre.
Here are two 1983 photos:
Photo1
Photo2
The showplace appeared to have been built in the early 1920s. I went in one time – you’d walk straight back and turn right to enter the auditorium – fairly straightforward classical architecture, kind of like a smaller simplified version of the Calvin in Northampton. Greenfield’s downtown theatres survived doing first run right up into the mid 80s' due to the lack of any competition. Finally the Greenfield Cinemas opened in a strip mall off Route 2. Soon the Showplace closed and the Garden Cinema was split into seven screens. Then the Greenfield Cinemas closed. One rare case of the old palace (albeit multiplexed) driving the modern strip mall venue out of business!
If the above link doesn’t work, try this one. Scroll down to the Victoria photo and click on the thumbnail photo to enlarge it.