Bijou Theatre
350 Main Street,
Fairhaven,
MA
02719
350 Main Street,
Fairhaven,
MA
02719
4 people
favorited this theater
Additional Info
Previous Names: American Theatre, Keith's Theatre, New Keith's Theatre, Oxford Cinema
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Located near New Bedford, Fairhaven’s delightful Bijou Theatre programed independent and foreign films that tended not to be shown on the New Bedford screens as well as hand-picked popular releases.
The theatre began its life in 1923 as the American Theatre, then became known afterwards as Keith’s Theatre, the New Keith’s Theatre, and the Oxford Cinema. It had been the Bijou Theatre since 1990 when it opened with “Ghost”.
The Bijou Theatre closed in 2004.
Contributed by
Gerald A. DeLuca
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Recent comments (view all 15 comments)
The building is still there and it’s empty. No one has been there for at least a year.
I’m very interested in finding photos of the original facade of the earlier incarnations of this theatre.. the American, New American, Keith, New Keith, or Oxford. Please email me if you have any leads..
The building is still there and it’s empty.
I’m very interested in finding photos of the original facade of the earlier incarnations of this theatre.. the American, New American, Keith, New Keith, or Oxford. Please email me if you have any leads..
is this building for sale?? I am very interested in return the theater to it’s orignal state
The Keith’s in Fairhaven MA at 356 Main St. was included in the MGM Theatre Photograph and Report project, but the photo was not taken until July 1950, 9 years after most of the other project photos were taken. And the Report form was only partially filled out. The photo shows an entrance at the left end of a 2-story business block. There is a triangle marquee with only “Keith’s” on it, no room for attractions to be posted. The Report states that the theatre has been showing MGM product for 3 years, but no other info was included.
My children and I went to the Bijou regularly. I loved the intimate feel of this theater. Every seat was a comfy one, with a good sightline to the screen. The popcorn was excellent and inexpensive. There was a pizza place close by so pizza and a movie was easy and fun. My daughter and I saw Gladiator there 12 times. Yes, 12 times. We were so sad to see the Bijou close, and I still miss it.
The building is for sale at $375,000:
http://tinyurl.com/7lv4ub
There is one movie theater listed under Fairhaven MA in the 1927 Film Daily Yearbook, the Princess with 800 seats, open 6 days/week.
My father, Gilbert Hemenway, was a projectionist and he worked at the Keith and at many of the New Bedford area theaters, starting at the Allen Theater where he and his brother George were trained by their brother Floyd to be projectionists. In those days you had to study electronics and get a license to be a projectionist. Union contracts specified a 2-man booth, as the projection rooms were called. My father started as a ticket-taker and usher and thats how he met my mother.
In New Bedford he worked at the Empire, Capitol, New Bedford, Orpheum, Dartmouth Drive-In, and Fairhaven Drive-In. In Fall River it was the Plaza and the Embassy – and there was the Newport Theater in RI. In about 1948 when I was about 5 year old, my mother and I would go with my father to the Dartmouth Drive-In in our Chevy Coupe and I would sleep on the shelf in the back. I miss all those theaters. Before I was born my father worked other theaters. I think they were the Bailey Square (Arcade) in New Bedford and the Keith in North Fairhaven.
With television causing theaters to go dark, my father was squeezed out of the theaters in New Bedford and found some work with the Fall River Local. When the Fairhaven Drive-In opened, there wasnt a speaker in the projection booth so that the projectionist could hear the sound track. My father took a ramp speaker and ran a wire up along the ceiling and to the big amplifier. In 1990 I went to that booth 35+ years later and noticed his speaker. I now have it, as a momento of my father. I was amazed at the equipment that was still not vandalized. The same with the Dartmouth Drive-In and the Westport Drive-In. I took the reel of film that they played to announce intermission time and the last carbon arcs out of the projectors due to my sentimentality.
In 2014 I toured this theater. It sits in disrepair, sadly the building is not cared for at all and smells of mold. It looked like the entire building was abandoned.
KEITH"S THEATRE PHOTO, 1950, FROM MGM REPORT Thanks to Theatre Historical Society of America.