Auditorium Theatre

The Auditorium was included in the MGM Theatre Photograph and Report project. There is an exterior photo dated May 1941. The cinema was located in a brick building with a stately facade about 4 stories high. Near the top is engraved “Orleans Municipal Building”. There is a center entrance with a double door. There is no marquee but there are large portable poster boards on either side of the entrance. There are 4 pilasters across the facade and a big cornice above. The Report states that the Auditorium is on Main Street, that it has been showing MGM films “for 20 years” , but then says that it opened in 1933, 8 years earlier. (typical of the mistakes found in these reports). It says that it is in Good condition, and has 500 seats, all on one floor. There are no competing theatres, and the 1940 population of Orleans is 1,300. Although “Vermont” is typed under “State” on the Report, it was for some reason filed alphabetically by town with the Reports for Massachusetts, so at first I thought it referred to Orleans MA on Cape Cod. It’s a good example of a 1940-era American rural movie theatre.