A February 24, 1933 Fall River Herald article (replete with extensive detail not included here) reported that the Bijou had been sold at auction the day before at $7,000 to Nathan Yamins, who announced the the theatre entrance at 162 North Main Street would be remodeled for business purposes and that the auditorium itself on Durfee Street would be razed for a public garage and a gasoline station.
For the previous thirty years the theatre had been used for theatrical productions as well as sporting events. The Bijou had been constructed as a modification of the original Casino which had been there and had been the sports center of the community. The Casino had been built in 1895 and had a polo-rink/skating-rink (47 x 100 feet), pool and billiard tables, bowling alleys, banquet and assembly rooms. Ephraim E. Wood of Boston, builder of the Casino, had been a big polo enthusiast. Polo matches with teams from area cities such as Providence, Pawtucket, New Bedford and Salem were presented. The Casino was used too for indoor baseball games. In 1903 the Casino was restructured and rebuilt so that it became the Bijou. Interestingly, the bowling alleys remained.
The Bijou finally opened in 1904, with an incomplete stage roof. Actors had to wait in the wings with umbrellas before going on! In a show with Eph Thompson’s elephants, the animals had to make their entrance to the stage by entering the lobby and parading down the aisles of the theatre. Vaudeville shows became part and parcel of the Bijou presentations. The theatre seated 1,800 people. There was for a time a vaudeville war between the Bijou and the Savoy (down North Main Street a bit). In 1915 and 1916 the Bijou was the home of Loew’s Vaudeville with Louis Boas as manager. The best movie attractions came here and to the nearby Savoy. The Bijou was the second theatre in New England to be wired for the showing of sound movies (the first may have been the Majestic in Providence). The end of the Bijou can be attributed to the end of the Savoy in the fire that raged two blocks away in 1928 and destroyed that theatre, for out of the ashes of the Savoy would emerge the grand Durfee, which would overshadow the Bijou and precipitate its demise after the elegant new showplace opened in 1929.
A man on horseback and dressed like a cowboy would ride through the city’s main streets promoting the films playing at the various nickel theatres of the city during the early silent era.
Lost Memory, that sounds very likely. I discovered Rich’s Theatre was originally built in 1882 and operated by A.A. Spitz of Providence, who in 1917 turned the property over to the Nathan Yamins interests. So Daniel Nugent was about 16 when Rich’s Theatre was built. The theatre was then demolished or incorporated into the new Empire Theatre which opened in 1918 on that same site but with a front on South Main Street. I found this info in a September 29, 1962 article in the Fall River Herald relating to the demolition of the Empire. It spoke of the connection between the Empire and Rich’s.
The Durfee Theatre opened on August 31, 1929 and was termed a “showpiece” among New England theatres and was said, perhaps hyperbolically, to be unrivaled east of Chicago. It is certain that no other Fall River Theatre surpassed it in beauty, and its loss is one of the saddest that ever befell the city. The first film attraction presented was The Coconuts with the Marx Brothers. The Spanish-Moorish decor was modeled after the Alhambra Palace in Spain, including the ceilings, wall-hangings and drapes. The lobby was lavish, had a beautiful staircase, a marble pool for fish on the ground level and an elaborate chandelier. A great deal of information on and many memories about this magnificent lost theatre have been found in the clippings file at the Fall River Public Library and will appear in these pages over the coming weeks.
In a 1983 article in the Fall River Herald (August 20), the manager wrote of this theatre.
“At the Somerset Playhouse, the boiler room was located under the stage. The boiler room itself was built over a spring, which necessitated a pump working all the time. When the pump would go into action, it would make a noisy click quite audible to the performers on stage. One week we had a star whose image was angelic and demure, just sugary sweetness itself. Off stage she was just the opposite, a tough cookie from the word go, who possessed a colorful vocabulary laced with four-letter words.
“One night during a performance, the pump clicked into operation. Its noise took Miss Goody Two Shoes by surprise. She let out with a loud, ‘What the…was that?’ A vulgarism completely out of character with her projected pose of innocence. The expression stunned the audience into silence. They didn’t even laugh, it took them so much by surprise. That outburst ruined the evening’s proceedings. The audience just wouldn’t buy her brand of goodness after that gaffe.
“The lavatories at the Somerset were located almost on the stage. Actors had to be warned not to use them during a performance, because the flush could be heard in the audience. This situation prompted one star to comment, ‘This is the only theatre in the United States where the bathrooms are on the stage.’ Only she expressed it in more pungent terms.
“The air conditioning at Somerset could not be used during a performance as the cooling unit was also in the boiler room, and when operating, the actors could not hear each other talk. And the boiler room did not have an inside entrance, just an outside one.”
In a 1976 Fall River Herald feature, Women’s Page editor Jean Judge wrote:
“The old Premier on Rock Street was typical of the movie houses here in those early days. At least one movie patron of old remembers going to that theatre, also owned by W. J. Dunn, and getting a box of bonbons with his ticket to the silent movie, all for the price of a dime.”
The Savoy was later renamed the Rialto. It was destroyed in a 1928 fire. The Durfee Theatre was built on the pretty much same site that had been occupied by the Savoy/Rialto. The address for the Savoy/Rialto was 28 North Main Street. The Durfee was 30 North Main Street.
The Somerset Playhouse was described in its promotion as “America’s Most Beautiful Summer Theatre.” A list I found of attractions for the 1950-1952 seasons included plays with the following performers: Kay Francis in Goodbye My Fancy, Edward Arnold in Apple of His Eye, Zasu Pitts in Post Road and later Ramshackle Inn, Franchot Tone, Barbara Payton and Margaret Lindsay in The Second Man, Melvyn Douglas and Signe Hasso in Sacred and Profane, John Garfield in Golden Boy, Constance Bennett in Skylark, Eve Arden in Here Today, Burgess Meredith in The Silver Whistle, Miriam Hopkins in Told to the Children, Bert Lahr in Burlesque, Veronica Lake and Jackie Cooper in Remains to be Seen, Joan Blondell in Come Back, Little Sheba, June Havoc in Rain, Mae West in Come On Up, Ring Twice.
Some history and facts about the Capitol from information found in the “Theatres” clippings-file at the Fall River Library:
The Capitol Theatre opened on Tuesday, February 2, 1926. 2,000 people lined the snow-banked streets as the first night audience made its way in to see Richard Barthelmess in Just Suppose. Mayor Edmond C. Talbot was among the guests and the activities of the first show were broadcast over radio station WTAB. The owners, artists, and architects who built the Capitol were all from Fall River. The interior style of the theatre was a modified Italian Renaissance. Its lobby flooring was of terrazzo marble. The Capitol was equipped with some love seats, deeply cushioned to give the settee effect. The foyer boasted the largest mirror in the city, 8 x 15 feet. The mural painted over the main entrance was by the Czech Roderic Riseman, a duplicate of the famous futuristic work which hangs in the Louvre in Paris. The Capitol had a workable stage, comlete with dressing rooms and had stage shows during the 1930s.
For much of its life the Capitol was a “move-over house.” It generally played for a second week movies that had already played the Durfee, except when the Durfee had a fire in 1945. Then the Capitol was a first-run house for a while. One of the top-grossing films was the 1946 sudser with Gene Tierney Leave Her to Heaven.
A delightful extended recollection of the Plaza Theatre appeared in the Fall River section of The Providence Sunday Journal on April 29, 1984. It was in the column “Fall River Line” by Jud Sullivan:
Here are some excerpts:
The Plaza was a ‘reel’ good time
“…Situated on the west side of South Main Street, near Morgan Street, the Plaza was a Saturday-afternoon haven for kids from throughout the city. Its forte was the cowboy film – two western thrillers, a comedy, a cartoon, a serial chapter and a month-old newsreel, all for a dime.
“It played Tom Mix, Hoot Gibson, Ken Maynard, Rex Bell, Roy Rogers and Gene Autry pictures as a steady diet. The seeds for local John Wayne fans were planted there.
“Occasionally the Plaza management offered a Tarzan film, or a World War I epic which had not hit the ‘A’ ratings. A Rin-Tin-Tin serial was a big draw.
“At the Plaza everyone – except the couples romancing up in the dark corner of the balcony – cheered the heroes and hissed the villains. Also booed were the love scenes, and the projectionist when the dry old film broke.
“It took courage to sit in the orchestra seats, because you were then the target for the missile-launchers in the front row of the balcony. Peanuts, popcorn, paper clips, bolts from the seats, miscellaneous gum-drops – anything small but hard, could come out of that balcony on a Saturday afternoon.
“‘Red the Cop’ did his best to discourage such antics, but it was a losing game. He would make a spectaclke of hauling two or three kids out of the Plaza every Saturday afternoon, but the pals they left behind would open the fire exit to the alley for re-entry…
“…He always displayed a billy club with a leather thong, but never used it in violence. The thong was effective in slapping down legs that were stretched over the seat in front…
“Yes, the Plaza was also a haven for kids who skipped school. The common procedure was for the tallest of the group, claiming he was a dropout, to buy a ticket and, once inside, open that fire exit for his buddies…
“It was not unusual to see an irate father, or mother, stalking the aisles looking for kids who had been sent to school.
“Adult tickets were 15 cents, and in those Depression days the Plaza was where many of them went for an evening’s entertainment, or just to get out of the house….”
“The Premier Theatre (capacity 800) was located on Rock Street, right across from District Court. However, I have just a very vague memory of its front and watching a Jackie Coogan movie in its balcony. It was destroyed in the great fire of 1928, when I was eight.
“The Rialto Theatre was located in the spot where the Durfee Theatre later stood. I have only one memory of the Rialto – of seeing a Rin Tin Tin movie there. The Rialto was also destroyed in the 1928 fire."
~~~John McAvoy, "Under the Marquee,” Fall River Herald, February 11, 1990.
Fall River theatre manager, theatre historian and commentator wrote in a February 11, 1990 Fall River Herald piece in the column “Under the Marquee” the following memories of the Bijou:
“The Bijou Theatre (capacity 1400) was located on the west side of North Main Street between Pine and Elm Streets. The lobby of the theatre is still there – it is now the office of the Greater Fall River Community Development Agency. I was very familiar with the Bijou because I passed its side four times a day as I went up Pine Street to Sacred Heart School. The Bijou had a large billboard on its Pine Street side which advertised its current attraction. It also had a slogan on it: ‘Bijou Theatre – Home of Super Pictures.’ Since I was very young and couldn’t read very well, I thought the sign read” ‘Bijou Theatre – Home of Supper Pictures.’
“In my vivid imagination I thought when you attended the Bijou that you got your supper with the show (I told you I wasn’t smart!).
“On my way home from school I always stopped in the Bijou lobby to see the stills of the film playing there. I remember seeing glosssies of Norma Shearer in The Trial of Mary Dugan and Lon Chaney in Laugh, Clown, Laugh. I only went to the Bijou once to see a silent picture called Slide, Kelly, Slide starring William Haines. I recall the organ blaring out ‘Girl of My Dreams.’
“The Bijou Theatre closed in 1929 when the Durfee opened, and it was torn down in 1933.”
The 1949 Film Daily Yearbook lists the seating capacity as 278.
The 1949 Film Daily Yearbook lists the seating capacity of the Olympia as 1383.
The 1949 Film Daily Yearbook lists the seating capacity of the Lyric as 430.
The 1949 Film Daily Yearbook lists the seating capacity as 950.
The 1949 Film Daily Yearbook listed the seating capacity as 800.
The 1949 Film Daily Yearbook listed the seating capacity as 626.
The 1949 Film Daily Yearbook listed the seating capacity as 600.
The 1949 Film Daily Yearbook listed the seating capacity as 600.
The 1949 Film Daily Yearbook listed the seating capacity as 500.
The 1949 Film Daily Yearbook lists the seating as 1,000.
A February 24, 1933 Fall River Herald article (replete with extensive detail not included here) reported that the Bijou had been sold at auction the day before at $7,000 to Nathan Yamins, who announced the the theatre entrance at 162 North Main Street would be remodeled for business purposes and that the auditorium itself on Durfee Street would be razed for a public garage and a gasoline station.
For the previous thirty years the theatre had been used for theatrical productions as well as sporting events. The Bijou had been constructed as a modification of the original Casino which had been there and had been the sports center of the community. The Casino had been built in 1895 and had a polo-rink/skating-rink (47 x 100 feet), pool and billiard tables, bowling alleys, banquet and assembly rooms. Ephraim E. Wood of Boston, builder of the Casino, had been a big polo enthusiast. Polo matches with teams from area cities such as Providence, Pawtucket, New Bedford and Salem were presented. The Casino was used too for indoor baseball games. In 1903 the Casino was restructured and rebuilt so that it became the Bijou. Interestingly, the bowling alleys remained.
The Bijou finally opened in 1904, with an incomplete stage roof. Actors had to wait in the wings with umbrellas before going on! In a show with Eph Thompson’s elephants, the animals had to make their entrance to the stage by entering the lobby and parading down the aisles of the theatre. Vaudeville shows became part and parcel of the Bijou presentations. The theatre seated 1,800 people. There was for a time a vaudeville war between the Bijou and the Savoy (down North Main Street a bit). In 1915 and 1916 the Bijou was the home of Loew’s Vaudeville with Louis Boas as manager. The best movie attractions came here and to the nearby Savoy. The Bijou was the second theatre in New England to be wired for the showing of sound movies (the first may have been the Majestic in Providence). The end of the Bijou can be attributed to the end of the Savoy in the fire that raged two blocks away in 1928 and destroyed that theatre, for out of the ashes of the Savoy would emerge the grand Durfee, which would overshadow the Bijou and precipitate its demise after the elegant new showplace opened in 1929.
A man on horseback and dressed like a cowboy would ride through the city’s main streets promoting the films playing at the various nickel theatres of the city during the early silent era.
Lost Memory, that sounds very likely. I discovered Rich’s Theatre was originally built in 1882 and operated by A.A. Spitz of Providence, who in 1917 turned the property over to the Nathan Yamins interests. So Daniel Nugent was about 16 when Rich’s Theatre was built. The theatre was then demolished or incorporated into the new Empire Theatre which opened in 1918 on that same site but with a front on South Main Street. I found this info in a September 29, 1962 article in the Fall River Herald relating to the demolition of the Empire. It spoke of the connection between the Empire and Rich’s.
Here is a photo of the Savoy Theatre.
The Durfee Theatre opened on August 31, 1929 and was termed a “showpiece” among New England theatres and was said, perhaps hyperbolically, to be unrivaled east of Chicago. It is certain that no other Fall River Theatre surpassed it in beauty, and its loss is one of the saddest that ever befell the city. The first film attraction presented was The Coconuts with the Marx Brothers. The Spanish-Moorish decor was modeled after the Alhambra Palace in Spain, including the ceilings, wall-hangings and drapes. The lobby was lavish, had a beautiful staircase, a marble pool for fish on the ground level and an elaborate chandelier. A great deal of information on and many memories about this magnificent lost theatre have been found in the clippings file at the Fall River Public Library and will appear in these pages over the coming weeks.
Somerset Playhouse anecdotes:
In a 1983 article in the Fall River Herald (August 20), the manager wrote of this theatre.
“At the Somerset Playhouse, the boiler room was located under the stage. The boiler room itself was built over a spring, which necessitated a pump working all the time. When the pump would go into action, it would make a noisy click quite audible to the performers on stage. One week we had a star whose image was angelic and demure, just sugary sweetness itself. Off stage she was just the opposite, a tough cookie from the word go, who possessed a colorful vocabulary laced with four-letter words.
“One night during a performance, the pump clicked into operation. Its noise took Miss Goody Two Shoes by surprise. She let out with a loud, ‘What the…was that?’ A vulgarism completely out of character with her projected pose of innocence. The expression stunned the audience into silence. They didn’t even laugh, it took them so much by surprise. That outburst ruined the evening’s proceedings. The audience just wouldn’t buy her brand of goodness after that gaffe.
“The lavatories at the Somerset were located almost on the stage. Actors had to be warned not to use them during a performance, because the flush could be heard in the audience. This situation prompted one star to comment, ‘This is the only theatre in the United States where the bathrooms are on the stage.’ Only she expressed it in more pungent terms.
“The air conditioning at Somerset could not be used during a performance as the cooling unit was also in the boiler room, and when operating, the actors could not hear each other talk. And the boiler room did not have an inside entrance, just an outside one.”
In a 1976 Fall River Herald feature, Women’s Page editor Jean Judge wrote:
“The old Premier on Rock Street was typical of the movie houses here in those early days. At least one movie patron of old remembers going to that theatre, also owned by W. J. Dunn, and getting a box of bonbons with his ticket to the silent movie, all for the price of a dime.”
The Savoy was later renamed the Rialto. It was destroyed in a 1928 fire. The Durfee Theatre was built on the pretty much same site that had been occupied by the Savoy/Rialto. The address for the Savoy/Rialto was 28 North Main Street. The Durfee was 30 North Main Street.
The Somerset Playhouse was described in its promotion as “America’s Most Beautiful Summer Theatre.” A list I found of attractions for the 1950-1952 seasons included plays with the following performers: Kay Francis in Goodbye My Fancy, Edward Arnold in Apple of His Eye, Zasu Pitts in Post Road and later Ramshackle Inn, Franchot Tone, Barbara Payton and Margaret Lindsay in The Second Man, Melvyn Douglas and Signe Hasso in Sacred and Profane, John Garfield in Golden Boy, Constance Bennett in Skylark, Eve Arden in Here Today, Burgess Meredith in The Silver Whistle, Miriam Hopkins in Told to the Children, Bert Lahr in Burlesque, Veronica Lake and Jackie Cooper in Remains to be Seen, Joan Blondell in Come Back, Little Sheba, June Havoc in Rain, Mae West in Come On Up, Ring Twice.
Some history and facts about the Capitol from information found in the “Theatres” clippings-file at the Fall River Library:
The Capitol Theatre opened on Tuesday, February 2, 1926. 2,000 people lined the snow-banked streets as the first night audience made its way in to see Richard Barthelmess in Just Suppose. Mayor Edmond C. Talbot was among the guests and the activities of the first show were broadcast over radio station WTAB. The owners, artists, and architects who built the Capitol were all from Fall River. The interior style of the theatre was a modified Italian Renaissance. Its lobby flooring was of terrazzo marble. The Capitol was equipped with some love seats, deeply cushioned to give the settee effect. The foyer boasted the largest mirror in the city, 8 x 15 feet. The mural painted over the main entrance was by the Czech Roderic Riseman, a duplicate of the famous futuristic work which hangs in the Louvre in Paris. The Capitol had a workable stage, comlete with dressing rooms and had stage shows during the 1930s.
For much of its life the Capitol was a “move-over house.” It generally played for a second week movies that had already played the Durfee, except when the Durfee had a fire in 1945. Then the Capitol was a first-run house for a while. One of the top-grossing films was the 1946 sudser with Gene Tierney Leave Her to Heaven.
A delightful extended recollection of the Plaza Theatre appeared in the Fall River section of The Providence Sunday Journal on April 29, 1984. It was in the column “Fall River Line” by Jud Sullivan:
Here are some excerpts:
The Plaza was a ‘reel’ good time
“…Situated on the west side of South Main Street, near Morgan Street, the Plaza was a Saturday-afternoon haven for kids from throughout the city. Its forte was the cowboy film – two western thrillers, a comedy, a cartoon, a serial chapter and a month-old newsreel, all for a dime.
“It played Tom Mix, Hoot Gibson, Ken Maynard, Rex Bell, Roy Rogers and Gene Autry pictures as a steady diet. The seeds for local John Wayne fans were planted there.
“Occasionally the Plaza management offered a Tarzan film, or a World War I epic which had not hit the ‘A’ ratings. A Rin-Tin-Tin serial was a big draw.
“At the Plaza everyone – except the couples romancing up in the dark corner of the balcony – cheered the heroes and hissed the villains. Also booed were the love scenes, and the projectionist when the dry old film broke.
“It took courage to sit in the orchestra seats, because you were then the target for the missile-launchers in the front row of the balcony. Peanuts, popcorn, paper clips, bolts from the seats, miscellaneous gum-drops – anything small but hard, could come out of that balcony on a Saturday afternoon.
“‘Red the Cop’ did his best to discourage such antics, but it was a losing game. He would make a spectaclke of hauling two or three kids out of the Plaza every Saturday afternoon, but the pals they left behind would open the fire exit to the alley for re-entry…
“…He always displayed a billy club with a leather thong, but never used it in violence. The thong was effective in slapping down legs that were stretched over the seat in front…
“Yes, the Plaza was also a haven for kids who skipped school. The common procedure was for the tallest of the group, claiming he was a dropout, to buy a ticket and, once inside, open that fire exit for his buddies…
“It was not unusual to see an irate father, or mother, stalking the aisles looking for kids who had been sent to school.
“Adult tickets were 15 cents, and in those Depression days the Plaza was where many of them went for an evening’s entertainment, or just to get out of the house….”
The Plaza was located directly across from the Capitol Theatre, which was at 390 South Main Street.
“The Premier Theatre (capacity 800) was located on Rock Street, right across from District Court. However, I have just a very vague memory of its front and watching a Jackie Coogan movie in its balcony. It was destroyed in the great fire of 1928, when I was eight.
“The Rialto Theatre was located in the spot where the Durfee Theatre later stood. I have only one memory of the Rialto – of seeing a Rin Tin Tin movie there. The Rialto was also destroyed in the 1928 fire."
~~~John McAvoy, "Under the Marquee,” Fall River Herald, February 11, 1990.
Sorry, I neglected to given the name of the person who wrote the above recollection. It was John McAvoy.
Fall River theatre manager, theatre historian and commentator wrote in a February 11, 1990 Fall River Herald piece in the column “Under the Marquee” the following memories of the Bijou:
“The Bijou Theatre (capacity 1400) was located on the west side of North Main Street between Pine and Elm Streets. The lobby of the theatre is still there – it is now the office of the Greater Fall River Community Development Agency. I was very familiar with the Bijou because I passed its side four times a day as I went up Pine Street to Sacred Heart School. The Bijou had a large billboard on its Pine Street side which advertised its current attraction. It also had a slogan on it: ‘Bijou Theatre – Home of Super Pictures.’ Since I was very young and couldn’t read very well, I thought the sign read” ‘Bijou Theatre – Home of Supper Pictures.’
“In my vivid imagination I thought when you attended the Bijou that you got your supper with the show (I told you I wasn’t smart!).
“On my way home from school I always stopped in the Bijou lobby to see the stills of the film playing there. I remember seeing glosssies of Norma Shearer in The Trial of Mary Dugan and Lon Chaney in Laugh, Clown, Laugh. I only went to the Bijou once to see a silent picture called Slide, Kelly, Slide starring William Haines. I recall the organ blaring out ‘Girl of My Dreams.’
“The Bijou Theatre closed in 1929 when the Durfee opened, and it was torn down in 1933.”