RKO Boston Theatre
614 Washington Street,
Boston,
MA
02111
614 Washington Street,
Boston,
MA
02111
6 people
favorited this theater
Opened as the Keith-Albee Boston Theatre on October 5, 1925, with 3,231 seats. This house still ran combo live shows and movies through the mid-1940’s.
Cinerama came in Christmas week of 1953 and stayed until around 1969. They sealed off balcony with a foot of cement and twinned the downstairs running Asian films and porn until around mid-1970’s.
Contributed by
Richard Dziadzio
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Recent comments (view all 92 comments)
That building seen in the lower right (that reads, “Delicates…”) is now the RMV.
Thank you, Riff. By clicking here you can see a more current view of the building with what is probably a “Delicatessen” sign. The business was likely frequented by vaudevillians that played the RKO Boston. Someone on this site will likely know more about it.
In a 1918 Boston street directory, there was a Bacon and Company department store on the site of the RKO Boston.
Here’s another photograph of the RKO Keith-Boston Theatre taken in 1933 by George Mann of the comedy dance team, Barto and Mann.
The large building which contains the RKO Boston predates the theater by some 20 years or so. There is a photo of the building under construction on page 122 of the Arcadia Press book “Boston in Motion” by Cheney and Sammarco, 1999. The photo looks north on Washington Street and was taken June 26, 1905. The 600 Washington Street building was well along in the photo, but not yet completed. There is a huge temporary sign on it advertising the Henry Siegel Company department store which went into the building.
Hello I’m currently working on a book about the film 2001: A Space Odyssey and am looking for photos and programs/newspaper clippings etc from each city in which the film premiered in originally in 1968. If you saw the film in it’s initial run in the theater have a good memory of your experience, I’d love to interview you about seeing it. To date I have interviewed over 20 people that have worked on the film, and several close members in the Kubrick camp as well. If you can help please email me at
Hello I’m currently working on a book about the film 2001: A Space Odyssey and am looking for photos and programs/newspaper clippings etc from each city in which the film premiered in originally in 1968. If you saw the film in it’s initial run in the theater have a good memory of your experience, I’d love to interview you about seeing it. To date I have interviewed over 20 people that have worked on the film, and several close members in the Kubrick camp as well. If you can help please email me at
Here’s a view of the property in 1928.
[IMG]http://i1080.photobucket.com/albums/j324/MarkBul/keithalbee1928.jpg[/IMG]
Link to map image above
So many memories of the Boston Cinerama Theater, but the one that still resonates is seeing WINDJAMMER there.
You may recall that the first 15-20 minutes of the film were shown on the central panel screen only,as the Christian Radich shoves off on her training voyage. Then there is a storm at sea, and the screen opened up all the way to expose the huge screen while the 7-channel surround sound really kicked in. I get goosebumps even now just thinking about it.
Don;t get me started on 2001…