Cine 1 & 2
1118 Elm Street,
Manchester,
NH
03101
1118 Elm Street,
Manchester,
NH
03101
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The Theatre Historical Society archive has the MGM Theatre Report for this theater when it was the State; it’s Card # 500. Address is Elm St. There is an exterior photo dated May 1941. Condition is Good. The report says the State is less than 15 years old, and is showing MGM films. There were 1,591 orchestra seats and 539 in the balcony, total 2,130. It was the largest theater in Manchester and had a nice big marquee. Demolished 1978.
The August 3, 1929, issue of Moving Picture News attributes the design of the State Theatre to the Boston architectural firm Hutchins & French. This weblog post at Cow Hampshire says that Hutchins & French are listed in John Eberson’s records, so there must have been some sort of collaboration. Possibly Hutchins & French acted as supervising architects.
Theatre opened 27 Nov 1929.
Our dumb… And bleak age.
This theater was named the Queen Cinema in the 1960s. It was later doubled and finished life known as Cine I and II.
The Library of Congress has this closeup photo of the State Theatre’s marquee and tower, dated 1937.
A catalog of copyrights issued in 1935 has an entry for a copyright issued to architect Victor A. Rigaumont for “…additions to State Theatre at Manchester, N. H., for M. A. Shea and associates.” It is dated April 12, 1935. There’s no indication as to the nature or extent of the additions.
There’s a 1939 photo of Elm Street showing part of the State Theatre at the bottom of page 32 of Manchester Streetcars, by O. R. Cummings (Google Books preview.)
In the 1942-43 Motion Picture Almanac, the State in Manchester is listed as part of the Shea Circuit, run by Shea-Chain Inc & Affiliates of 1540 Broadway in New York City. Other Manchester NH theaters run by Shea at that time were the Palace, Strand, Crown and the Vitaphone. Shea also ran 2 theaters in Nashua.
Architect was John Eberson.
Here is a video discussing the history of the State theater from it’s 1929 opening to it’s 1978 demolition. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nrmp71Rsn-g
The State Theatre was located at 1118 Elm Street and it seated 2130 people.
Someone had the forethought to save a chunk of this theater… a massive head which is now on the campus of St. Anselm college, in nearby Goffstown NH. A rough replica of the marquee is in the Manchester Historic Society’s new millyard Museum. Manchester misses this one.