Broadway Theater
420 Broadway,
South Boston,
MA
02127
420 Broadway,
South Boston,
MA
02127
1 person
favorited this theater
Opened in 1920, the Broadway Theater was designed by architects Clarence H. Blackall, Clapp and Whittemore.
Contributed by
KenRoe
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Recent comments (view all 17 comments)
More information about the owner of the Broadway Theater can be found at this Boston Herald article: http://tinyurl.com/9wxr3 Here is a recent picture of the front of the building: http://tinyurl.com/86r7n The red placard with the white X tells the fire department not to enter the building unless there are people know to be inside. This photo: http://tinyurl.com/7q4t5 shows the footprint of the building.
In the fifties the front doors were set back about twenty feet from the street. There were two sets of double doors. Before them there was a ticket vendors booth on the right hand side. Both the right and left front of the building had display cases for movie posters. The left hand side of the entry way had at three or four additional display cases for up coming films. Once you entered through the right hand doors there was a concession stand on the left. After that there was another set of doors that led to the theater. If you look at the footprint picture, the screen was on the right hand side of the building (lower right or south east side).
At some point in the early seventies the main theater was split for two screens.
On Saturday afternoons in the fifties the usual fare was five cartoons, two or three Three Stooges shorts and full length film. All for twenty-five cents. During the rest of the week it showed regular Hollywood films on their second run.
Sometime before 1960 I remember a big hubbub about some “dirty” movie that was going to shown at the Broadway. It may have been one of Kroger Babb’s exploitation films.
Out of curiosity, did South Boston’s Broadway Theatre ever show any of the great classics, such as West Side Story, Dr. Zhivago, etc? If so, how much of an audience did films such as these gain there? Again, just curious.
Interesting. The actual address for this theater is 420 West Broadway Street. And if you put that into Google Maps, and click steet view…you get a shot of the back of the Broadway Theater, oddly enough. Apparently not only did the Google photography vehicle go down Athens Street(behind the theater), but the Street View defaults to that picture.
The sun interferes with most of the upper parts of the rear wall of the building, but lower dowh is clearly visible. A old door has been walled off, and just down the wall from that is what appears to be an old stage door(scenery door, maybe? I’m not really sure), closed by several plywood panels. I haven’t a clue what the inside of this building looks like…but I can’t imagine anything good.
I went to the Google Street View as per Phantom Screen’s experience above. Very interesting how it takes you around back to Athens Street. The stage house appears to be down at the left end of the building, with rows of little dressing room windows on the second, third, fourth floor; a scene loading door below on the street, and various plywooded exit doors. If you look at 424 Broadway, you can see the front, but you have to know what to look for. It probably is a mess inside; the plan was to renovate it and turn it into condos.
With all the beautiful restoration work on the Strand Theater in Uphams Corner, as well as the Paramount, Opera House, and soon Modern downtown, it wound be a pleasure to see the same with the Broadway. I wonder how a 1777 seat movie house can be left abandoned and in ruin. It would be nice to finally find out its future, if there is one.
I also wonder what’s going on with this property. The Broadway has been closed up for a very long time now. But, stevecimm, don’t expect to see “beautiful restoration” work at the Modern Theatre downtown- it has been totally demolished except for its facade which is now being re-erected in front of the new building on site.
Thanks for the update on the Modern, Ron. I had a feeling something was amiss. At least we have the other three gems.
There is an Olympia Theatre listed under “Theatres” in the Boston Register and Business Directory, Issue 83, 1918; and in the same directory, Issue 85, 1921. The address is 429 West Broadway. That would put it across the street from the Broadway Theatre. I don’t know anything about the Olympia.
The Broadway Theatre is listed in the 1921 edition of the Boston Register and Business Directory, Issue 85, at 420 West Broadway in South Boston. Across the street at 429 W. B'way was the Olympia Theatre. A near intersection was with F Street.
Here is a brief article from the October 18, 1919, issue of the weekly journal The Music Trades:
Photos and floor plans of the Broadway Theatre were published in the June 8, 1921, issue of The American Architect, which can be seen online here. Scroll down to see additional photos. They can be resized using the + and – signs in the toolbar at lower right, and individual pages of the size you’ve chosen can then be downloaded with the usual right click-save commands.