Royal Theatre
277 Brightman Street,
Fall River,
MA
277 Brightman Street,
Fall River,
MA
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The Royal Theatre was located in a section of the city known as the “Village”. There were kiddie matinees on Saturday and Sunday afternoons; evenings were for adults. First-run movies that had run their course in the bigger movie houses now could be seen for less at the Royal. Monday evening was “Ladies Night” where either dishes or towels were given out.
The theatre was owned by the Moniz Family. On Saturday afternoon for 12 cents a kid could see a serial, cartoon and two full feature films, one of which was always a western. With so many kids it got so noisy you could hardly hear what the actors were saying. On many an occasion, Mr. Moniz would turn up the lights, shut off the movie and walk to the front of the theatre to proclaim, “If you kids don’t keep quiet, I’ll shut the movie off and send you all home”. He never did! Ah, what great times.
After closing as a movie theatre, the building was purchased by St. Joseph’s church and downstairs converted to a banquet hall and the upstairs theatre into a basketball court. It was then sold by the church to a company that made caskets.
The Royal is currently being restored as the home of the Youth Musical Theater.
Contributed by
George H. Petrin
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Recent comments (view all 12 comments)
The article that you linked to says Royale, not Royal. Which is correct?
I believe that the name is Royal without the “E”. This theater was hit by a car in Feb. 2005 so it will need additional work. Here is the story:
View link
Here are two recent photos I took of the Royal. ONE TWO
An impressive collection of rare photos of historic Fall River theatres can be seen by clicking here.
In a 1990 Fall River Herald article on the city’s theatres, John McAvoy wrote, “The Royal Theatre (capacity 500) was located on the south side of Brightman Street near the railway tracks. I was only in the Royal once, but I remember when a train passed by you could feel the vibrations in the theatre.”
This 1941 photo of the marquee and front of the Royal, though from a photocopy of very poor quality, gives an idea of what the place looked like. It is from the M.G.M. Theatre Photograph and Report. The condition was described as good, the type of patronage was stated as “mill and low income.” The seating at the time was 600 with 550 on the main floor and 50 in the balcony. The Royal had been playing M.G.M. product for three years. A competing theatre was given as the Strand.
Anyone know what happened to the plans to renovate this? I can’t find anything on it since February of 2005.
There aren’t any references to this address on the Youth Musical Theater website:
http://www.ymtc.org/
They must have found another location to perform at.
Nice 1941 photo.