Boston Opera House
539 Washington Street,
Boston,
MA
02111
539 Washington Street,
Boston,
MA
02111
19 people
favorited this theater
The B.F. Keith Memorial Theatre was a vaudeville house in Boston’s theater district. It opened on October 29, 1928 with the film “Oh Kay” starring Colleen Moore. This beautiful house later became part of the RKO theater chain and the RKO Keith’s switched to a movies only format.
Its name was later changed to the Savoy Theatre and was purchased by Sack Theatres. In 1978, the Savoy Theatre was sold by Sack to the Opera Company of Boston, and the theater became known as the Opera House, for which it was used until 1990.
The theater was renovated, restored, and reopened in July 2004 by Clear Channel Entertainment, and is now a site for touring Broadway shows and other live entertainment, known as the Boston Opera House.
Want to be emailed when a new comment is posted about this theater?
Just login to your account and subscribe to this theater
Recent comments (view all 132 comments)
The marquee and the verticle cloth banner above it have now been changed to read “Boston Opera House” instead of just plain “Opera House”. Most TV and newspaper ads for shows at this venue now have “Boston Opera House” as the theater name instead of “Opera House”.
“Signs of the Times” Magazine was a trade publication for the outdoor advertising industry. A 1939 issue (I don’t know which one) has a small item about a new billboard for the Keith Memorial Theatre in Boston. The billboard belonged to Donnelly Advertising. I don’t know if there was just one billboard, or several. It was illuminated at night, including neon in the theater name. The photo shows a billboard out somewhere with no buildings, only trees in the background. The sign reads “Keith Memorial Theatre – First in Boston for Generations”. Under “Now” is a poster for a movie whose title looks like “In Name Only”. It’s interesting that there is no “RKO” in the theater name. Also, it’s called “Keith Memorial”, not “Keith’s Memorial” (I never, ever, heard it called that). Of course, by 1939, it had only been “First in Boston” for half a generation, but Keith entertainment had been present in Boston since the 1880s.
Ron, this Globe movie page from October 1959 (linked from this blog entry) has an ad calling it “RKO KEITH’S Memorial”, with the apostrophe.
Yes, even the marquee said “Keith’s” at least for a time. But none of the Boston newspaper ad pages which I clipped starting in the late-1940s used any other name but “Keith Memorial”. And my point was that the name as “Keith’s” was not in common spoken usage. It was called the “Keith Memorial”, definitely not the “Keith’s Memorial”. In other cities which had Keith theaters, I believe that the houses were probably called “Keith’s Theater”.
This was a nice surprise finding this site by chance, following a link from the restoration of the Belasco Theater here in Los Angeles. It made me want to search for the elegant old theater where I began my film career – the Sack Savoy Theater.
It was 1972. My freshman college roommate and I wanted a part-time job where we could work together. I wanted to work in a movie theater as I was already an avid film buff and wanted free tickets. I saw an ad for the Sack Savoy and we hopped on the trolley from BU, talking the manager into hiring us but only if we worked the same shifts as this area was notorious for being in the middle of the seedy Combat Zone and just down the street from where Chesty Morgan was showing off her notorious attributes. The films were geared for the downtown action crowd, and sometimes it was a little spooky going through that damp tunnel into the main theater.
I started in the small theater in the back, first selling candy and popcorn, later promoted to tickets, first at the Tremont Street entrance, the next year upped to the main box office on Washington. Playing for what seemed like months was SOUNDER, the first serious crossover drama about a black family and earning Cicely Tyson an Academy Award nomination. The big theater was mobbed every night for the brand new action star, Bruce Lee, starring in FISTS OF FURY and the next year ENTER THE DRAGON.
Owner Ben Sack, who never emerged from his upstairs offices, called down every day at the same time to ask what the day’s gross was and what serial number on the ticket we were up to. We all had to be ready for the call and it was always nerve-wracking to make sure our numbers and BO take matched. The calls were always very abrupt. He never said his name. Just asked for the numbers and hung up. I worked for him for several years and laid eyes on him maybe once.
A couple of times the manager allowed us to explore the old areas upstairs from when it was a live music hall. I remember it being very dusty everywhere, with one room featuring a large old fashioned billiards table, and the old bathrooms or “lounges†were over the top. You could still see how glamorous and beautiful the theater had been, with the soaring marble columns and ornately painted ceilings everywhere, even upstairs covered under the dust and old equipment. I loved coming to work every day. Our pay was $10.10 a shift â€" a decent part-time pay in those days, plus the incredible good fortune of getting in free to every theater all over Boston to see whatever we wanted any day of the week. All we had to do was call the manager and he called ahead for passes. Being the home theater of the chain’s owner, working at the Savoy had its own prestige.
Landed a job at General Cinema on graduation (as a receptionist, but I got the job because of my long experience at the Savoy!), and a couple of jobs later for Warner Bros (because of my extensive film background!) for almost two decades, ultimately as VP of Worldwide Acquisitions. When people asked me how I started in this business, I always happily reported: selling tickets and popcorn. Those were the glory times and many happy memories. An aside – my freshman roommate continued in the film biz too, a long time agent and now a talent manager.
I was downtown today and went by the theater’s Washington Street lobby entrance. Set back several inches from the sidewalk just inside the entrance (under the marquee) there is a prison-like wall of heavy metal bars. The wall has a double gate which opens and swings out. This area looks like the entrance to Alcatraz Prison or the Bastille.
Like Elyse19 I just happened upon this site during one of my sleepless nights. I also worked at the savoy in 1972 to 1973. It was such a cool place. I started as an usher and porter cleaning the butts and trash in the theatres and in the hall that ran from washington to the alley behind the tremont st. entrance. The movies that played in addition to sounder were, the mechanic with charles bronson, live and let die, superfly, lady sings the blues with diana ross and the charles manson documentary by vincent bugliosi, Helter Skelter. We would explore the dressing rooms under the theatre which hadn’t been used in years. Pretty spooky place. Fran the candy lady was one of my favorites who worked there. Barbara worked the box office on washington st and we had our first movie start every morning at 10. When i collected tickets in the big theatre, I was responsible for the button that buzzed people into the sack offices upstairs. The door was a few steps down the hall. I would talk to Alan Friedburg, Ben Sack and Nat Segaloff daily. i worked my way up to assistant manager in 1973 and left shortly after for another career. But I’ll never forget my times at the old savoy. In addition to the main theatre there was a smaller screen theatre further down the hall and sack owned an apartment building next door in the back alley.
@floridaskater2003 – we worked the same years. Do you remember me and my roommate Risa, two BU students? I worked mostly for two managers in those years but I forget their names. The main guy worked there for several years and is the one who hired us. He was dark haired and slight, possibly Italian but don’t remember exactly. Worked with Alan Friedberg and ran into him a few years later when I was working for WB. It was at a NATO meeting in Miami and he invited me to be his mistress. I declined.
Hi Else19,
The manager of the Savoy at that time was Laurie Arnoney. There were two others who were assistant managers before me… one was a black guy whose last name was Henderson and the other was named Goyeyak. (I’m sure the spelling is wrong) But Laurie Arnoney was a small guy with dark hair. Goyeyak went on to work at the Music Hall and the Cheri, two other sack theatres. I do remember a tall blond girl who worked there. Would that be you? I was friends with an italian kid who was an usher. He was from revere and his name was George. We used to hang out together and smoke pot up on the mezzanine. I helped the maintenance guy too. I can’t remember his name but we would lower the huge chandelier in the lobby with a winch and replace the burnt out bulbs. There was an old usher named Tony who had worked there for years. We had a mouse problem in the theatre and one day he killed one in the middle of the lobby by stomping on it with his shoe. This was around the time when they tore down Raymond’s department store accross the street. You might remember Barbara who worked the box office on Washington street also worked the box office down the street at one of the combat zone movie theatres at night. She always had a butt in her mouth and a cup of coffee in front of her. Oh, and by the way, my name is Dennis. I was 6 feet tall average weight with long blond hair. Let me know if any of that sounds familiar.
It was definitely Laurie who hired us. I worked for him from Sept 72 through May 74, excluding summers when I went home. Spent a year abroad and didn’t work there when I came back, but Laurie still got me free passes through 76. Lost touch with him when I went to work for General Cinema’s corporate offices in Chestnut Hill in 77.
Thanks for triggering the memory. I’m not sure if the other guy I knew was Goyeyak, but it could have been. Was he about 5'10" with light brown straight hair, medium build and – I think – glasses? Risa and I were both long dark haired tall girls. I think Risa just worked there for 72-73. I remember Barbara well. She was a classic type and scared me a litltle. I think I have a vague memory of you. For sure we must have worked together. I know I was very friendly for a while with an assistant manager, but think it might have been Goyeyak if he looks like I described. Best, Elyse