RKO Boston Theatre
614 Washington Street,
Boston,
MA
02111
614 Washington Street,
Boston,
MA
02111
6 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 98 comments found
I saw 2001 at the Cinerama in Seattle the after it had played for just a few months probably when I was very young. That theatre was built around 1962 and was planned just for Cinerama. It was all screen and fastastic. Also saw Blade Runner years later there in a Cinerama like lense presentation. Wow! Nothng but the biggest and widest screen ever. The theatre is still open and the best place to see a film. All the lastest advances in film presentation show up here.
I would like to make the correction, dick, but I am not sure to which photograph you are referring. The photograph of the Fox Theatre in Brooklyn, NY has the Paramount in the background, but the photograph is taken in Brooklyn, not Boston. Would you please identify the photograph to which you refer?
dick… There were a LOT more than “a half dozen or so” CineMiracle installations. There were at least two dozen, and many of them are cited in my “Remembering Cinerama (and its clones)” series. By the way, I’m not sure if you read it, but I answered your Boston Cinerama installation number question in the Boston entry of the Remembering Cinerama series.
To Dennis Obrien. Just to let you know that when the RKO switched to Cinerama in Dec 1953 it had 3 booths not one booth for 3 projectors. The sound man sat in front of the Center booth and the booth for the sound was down on the right hand of the theatre. The balcony was huge with aboutn 1400 seats. I sat in the front row of the balcony for How The West Was won. Sat in the floor seats for many other presentations. When Windjamer played it was not in Cinemiracle it was presented in 3 strip and was converted into Cinerama by Cinerama when they aquired the process. There were ony a half a dozen or so Cinemiracle equipped theatres. 1 in N.Y. 1 in Chicago and I believe 1 in Philly. A few others maybe. Boston was not one of them. Boston did not go to a single booth until 70mm and It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad world. Boston was one of the only Major Cities that had only one real Cinerama theatres from beginning to end. When they Re-released This Is Cinerama in 1973 it played lousily at the Beacon Hill theatre on a Flat or almost Flat screen. More people walked out than the line coming in. The Beacon Hill was NOT a Cinerama theatre or even a facsimile of one.
To Mondo Justin. Isaw 2001 on its first run at the cinerama theatre in San Francisco and then a short time later at the Cinerama in Seattle. Seattle had the best presentation. San Fran was ok but there was too much GREEN smoke in the Auditorime(Pot). I never saw it here in my hometown of Boston because I was in the Navy. After coming back East to Wash. D.C. I saw it at the Uptown. What a great theatre. I have never seen it after its first runs escept on Video.
Brad Smith. The picture with the Paramount in the distance doe not show the Boston Cinerama. It is across from the Paramount and at the bend on Washington, St.
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…
Link to map image above
Here’s a view of the property in 1928.
[IMG]http://i1080.photobucket.com/albums/j324/MarkBul/keithalbee1928.jpg[/IMG]
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
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.
Here’s another photograph of the RKO Keith-Boston Theatre taken in 1933 by George Mann of the comedy dance team, Barto and Mann.
In a 1918 Boston street directory, there was a Bacon and Company department store on the site of the RKO Boston.
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.
That building seen in the lower right (that reads, “Delicates…”) is now the RMV.
This photograph of the RKO Keith-Boston Theater was taken in 1935 by George Mann of the comedy dance team, Barto and Mann.
In the photo which J.F.Lundy has posted, note the attraction, the Fadettes Women’s orchestra. They played at Keith’s for the entire summer of 1906. This very nice photo shows the Tremont Street entrance for B.F Keith’s Theater (later the Normandie and the Laffmovie) on Washington St. This entrance was later adapted for the RKO Keith Memorial Theater (now the Opera House). After WW II, the structure was “modernized.” The 2 theaters are not to be confused with the subject of this page, the RKO Boston Theatre. In the photo, note how people overdressed in the old days— hey, it’s summer and they all have jackets and coats on !
Keith’s Theater on Tremont in 1906, large format photo:
http://www.shorpy.com/node/6560?size=_original
Yes, Chuck1231’s photo is of the grand staircase in the lobby of the RKO Keith Memorial/Opera House.
Thanks Ian, The caption only RKO Keith’s.
Chuck, I believe that is the RKO Keith’s Memorial (now Boston Opera House) and not the RKO Boston.
1964 Interior photo
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I walked around the building yesterday for the first time in a while. On the east side, the right side-wall, the fire escapes have been removed and most of the exit doors have been concreted-over. On the north wall, the rear stage wall, the stage door now has a metal roll-up cover over it. The scene door has been reduced in height. It is now harder to tell that there is a theater inside.
You can use Google Maps to see what use to be the entrance of the theater (now an MBTA entrance), and you can “walk” around the building to see the blank walls on the Hayward Plaza side and Harrison Ave. Extension in back at:
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