In June, 1948 the Providence Police banned the 1941 French film Volpone by Maurice Tourneur, as “indecent and irreligious.” It was scheduled to be shown at the Avon. It had also been condemned by the Catholic Legion of Decency (CLOD). I don’t know yet if the decision was ever reversed. The movie, of course, had been based on Ben Jonson’s great comedy. It had played for over five months in New York at the Ambassador Theatre. Bradford F. Swan, author of a June 5th Providence Journal article reporting the ban, wrote, …“If its reputation as a period piece is kept in mind, and if it is taken as a mordant commentary on avarice and evil, ‘Volpone’ seemed hardly the movie to corrupt Providence.
During the World War II years the Avon Theatre generally showed selected revivals of U.S. films. The unavailability of most new European product would have made it difficult to show many European films. There were exceptions. The Avon put in a Russian-made film for the week beginning on January 17, 1943. Entitled Mashenka, it is a love story set during the Russian war with Finland and stars Valentina Karavayeva in the title role. The movie was favorably reviewed in the Providence Journal the following day by Bradford F. Swan who said that it “had its moments of deeply moving emotion.” HERE IS THE NEWSPAPER AD FOR OPENING DAY. The film ran for one week. It seems to have vanished without a trace since then.
The first film to play the Beekman, as shown in Warren’s posted marquee shot, was Never Take No for an Answer, a.k.a. Peppino e Violetta, a British-Italian co-production, about a boy named Peppino who wants to take his ailing donkey Violetta into the crypt of Saint Francis of Assisi. Denied permission, he goes to Rome to appeal to the Pope. The film was shot in Assisi and also in the Vatican, one of the few movies allowed to be filmed there.
The film was based on Paul Gallico’s sentimental novella called The Small Miracle. The Small Miracle was also the title of a TV remake of this film. This movie was not typical of the more “sophisticated” ones that were to play the Beekman over the years, but it was indeed an audience pleaser and a likable film. Bosley Crowther gave it a glowing review and even praised the donkey as “a real charmer.”
I used to own a 16mm print and am sorry to have sold it, since it is now so rare. After the Beekman, the film moved over to the Guild 50th where it continued a long succesful engagement.
The Warwick Cinema was showing The Poseidon Adventure in early 1973. That’s not odd, but day-dating the film with the usually art-house Avon Cinema in Providence certainly was. They shared newspaper ads too.
The Avon certainly went fairly mainstream when it was showing The Poseidon Adventure in early 1973, day-dating with the Warwick Cinema on Post Road in Warwick. They shared newspaper ads.
Although, as a shopping place, it’s a tad more characterful that many…if you like ersatz beach architecture. The single-screen Casino Theatre/Pier Cinema, demolished in the early 1970s and located a block from here, was a nicer building. Closing for two weeks? I didn’t know it had been open at all this past summer. Anyhow, I hope the new policy is successful. Rhode Island’s South County needs something with that kind of programming.
An excellent picture article entitled “Mr. Low’s ‘Hall’ Comes Down,” written by Robert L. Wheeler, appeared in The Providence Journal on May 30, 1948 at the time of the demolition of this venerable old theatre. The author traced the history of the place from its opening as Low’s Opera House in 1878 and enumerates many of the illustrious performers who had graced its stage, including Ethel Barrymore, Oscar Wilde (1883), Sophie Tucker, Lillian Russell (1911), Sarah Bernhardt (1881), Fanny Brice, Eddie Cantor, George Jessel, Fred Allen and others. In one of Wheeler’s concluding sentences, he asserted, “But in 1937 the Empire gave up and settled back to drowse out its twilight years in a coma of shopworn cinemas. Nobody mourned when they caved in the roof a few days ago.”
I was only six years old when this theatre ended its days, and I am certain I never was taken to it, but of all the lost Providence theatres I have read about in my research on the topic in recent years, this is the one I now most regret not having known.
Max, but when did it become an art or repertory house? This thread isn’t about the oldest neighborhood theatres, but specifically about those theatres that have been art/repertory movie theatres for the longest time.
Spanish-language programs appeared at the Art Cinema from 1972 and were run on Saturdays by promoters Raphael Nunes and Virgilio Grullon. A Providence Journal article of February 5, 1973 reported that in an article headlined “Films Please R.I. Latin Americans.” The program continued after that at the Elmwood Theatre.
The Spanish-language programs had appeared earlier at the Art Cinema, and had been run on Saturdays by the same promoters. A Providence Journal article of February 5, 1973 reported that in an article headlined “Films Please R.I. Latin Americans.”
The notorious Deep Throat played at the Johnston Cinema in 1975. A Providence Journal article of April 15 reported that councilman Joseph Falvo complained that the theater’s then current feature was…“the filthiest movie ever shown on the screen.” He promised to call a town council meeting to “decide what action should be taken.” A 1972 Superior Court ruling had restrained the council from interfering in the theater’s operation.
The Warwick Mall Cinemas closed on January 28, 1999 after the last showings of A Bug’s Life and Mighty Joe Young. It had opened in April of 1971 twenty-eight years earlier. A Providence Journal article from the previous day reported the closing. The Theatre had opened as a two-screener. Later one of the auditoriums was split in two. The seating capacities were 450, 360, and 330.
The actual opening date of this cinema was Friday, April 14, 2000. The total seating capacity was given as 4,100 seats. The opening-day attractions included Keeping the Faith, American Psycho, 28 Days, Where the Money Is, Rules of Engagement, High Fidelity, Return to Me, Ready to Rumble, The Road to El Dorado, Erin Brokovich, American Beauty and Skulls.
In January of 1947 the Avon began a “classy” reserved-seat engagement of Laurence Olivier’s Henry V. To my knowledge it is the only reserved-seat engagement that ever played this art house. Here is a newspaper ad from a few weeks before the opening. Note that the prices, ranging from $1.20 to $2.40, were about three to four times the going rates for that period. There were two showings per day.
Paul, that Chaplin re-issue series played at the Plaza, not the Little Carnegie. I remember seeing a number of them there, including City Lights at a late show. And I believe it was in the 1960s.
The Warwick Cinema was host to the series of films in the “American Film Theatre” package, beginning in 1973 and continuing in 1974. Among the films shown, all based on well-known plays, were Butley, A Delicate Balance, The Homecoming, The Iceman Cometh, Lost in the Stars, Luther, Rhinoceros, Three Sisters. I do not remember if any of the films in the second season in 1975 played here, though I remember seeing some of them elsewhere. Most of the movies featured superb casts and fine directors.
In June, 1948 the Providence Police banned the 1941 French film Volpone by Maurice Tourneur, as “indecent and irreligious.” It was scheduled to be shown at the Avon. It had also been condemned by the Catholic Legion of Decency (CLOD). I don’t know yet if the decision was ever reversed. The movie, of course, had been based on Ben Jonson’s great comedy. It had played for over five months in New York at the Ambassador Theatre. Bradford F. Swan, author of a June 5th Providence Journal article reporting the ban, wrote, …“If its reputation as a period piece is kept in mind, and if it is taken as a mordant commentary on avarice and evil, ‘Volpone’ seemed hardly the movie to corrupt Providence.
During the World War II years the Avon Theatre generally showed selected revivals of U.S. films. The unavailability of most new European product would have made it difficult to show many European films. There were exceptions. The Avon put in a Russian-made film for the week beginning on January 17, 1943. Entitled Mashenka, it is a love story set during the Russian war with Finland and stars Valentina Karavayeva in the title role. The movie was favorably reviewed in the Providence Journal the following day by Bradford F. Swan who said that it “had its moments of deeply moving emotion.”
HERE IS THE NEWSPAPER AD FOR OPENING DAY. The film ran for one week. It seems to have vanished without a trace since then.
The first film to play the Beekman, as shown in Warren’s posted marquee shot, was Never Take No for an Answer, a.k.a. Peppino e Violetta, a British-Italian co-production, about a boy named Peppino who wants to take his ailing donkey Violetta into the crypt of Saint Francis of Assisi. Denied permission, he goes to Rome to appeal to the Pope. The film was shot in Assisi and also in the Vatican, one of the few movies allowed to be filmed there.
The film was based on Paul Gallico’s sentimental novella called The Small Miracle. The Small Miracle was also the title of a TV remake of this film. This movie was not typical of the more “sophisticated” ones that were to play the Beekman over the years, but it was indeed an audience pleaser and a likable film. Bosley Crowther gave it a glowing review and even praised the donkey as “a real charmer.”
HERE IS AN AD publicizing this film at the Beekman.
I used to own a 16mm print and am sorry to have sold it, since it is now so rare. After the Beekman, the film moved over to the Guild 50th where it continued a long succesful engagement.
The Warwick Cinema was showing The Poseidon Adventure in early 1973. That’s not odd, but day-dating the film with the usually art-house Avon Cinema in Providence certainly was. They shared newspaper ads too.
The Avon certainly went fairly mainstream when it was showing The Poseidon Adventure in early 1973, day-dating with the Warwick Cinema on Post Road in Warwick. They shared newspaper ads.
Ad ad from December 8, 1978 asserts that Robert Altman’s film A Wedding was then in its “10th Unbelievable Week.”
The Stadium Theatre and the Palace Theatre in West Warwick shared ads for porno movie programs, in 1974 and 1975 at least.
The Palace Theatre and the Stadium Theatre in Woonsocket shared ads for porno movies in 1974 and 1975 at least.
Although, as a shopping place, it’s a tad more characterful that many…if you like ersatz beach architecture. The single-screen Casino Theatre/Pier Cinema, demolished in the early 1970s and located a block from here, was a nicer building. Closing for two weeks? I didn’t know it had been open at all this past summer. Anyhow, I hope the new policy is successful. Rhode Island’s South County needs something with that kind of programming.
A photo of the Caine Lyric can be found in one of the links on the page of Logan’s Utah Theatre.
Here is a newspaper ad for the opening day of the Garden City Cinema on December 22, 1967. It includes a small photo of the theatre front.
The theatre was twinned in the fall of 1972 with auditoriums seating about 500 each.
An excellent picture article entitled “Mr. Low’s ‘Hall’ Comes Down,” written by Robert L. Wheeler, appeared in The Providence Journal on May 30, 1948 at the time of the demolition of this venerable old theatre. The author traced the history of the place from its opening as Low’s Opera House in 1878 and enumerates many of the illustrious performers who had graced its stage, including Ethel Barrymore, Oscar Wilde (1883), Sophie Tucker, Lillian Russell (1911), Sarah Bernhardt (1881), Fanny Brice, Eddie Cantor, George Jessel, Fred Allen and others. In one of Wheeler’s concluding sentences, he asserted, “But in 1937 the Empire gave up and settled back to drowse out its twilight years in a coma of shopworn cinemas. Nobody mourned when they caved in the roof a few days ago.”
I was only six years old when this theatre ended its days, and I am certain I never was taken to it, but of all the lost Providence theatres I have read about in my research on the topic in recent years, this is the one I now most regret not having known.
Max, but when did it become an art or repertory house? This thread isn’t about the oldest neighborhood theatres, but specifically about those theatres that have been art/repertory movie theatres for the longest time.
Spanish-language programs appeared at the Art Cinema from 1972 and were run on Saturdays by promoters Raphael Nunes and Virgilio Grullon. A Providence Journal article of February 5, 1973 reported that in an article headlined “Films Please R.I. Latin Americans.” The program continued after that at the Elmwood Theatre.
The Spanish-language programs had appeared earlier at the Art Cinema, and had been run on Saturdays by the same promoters. A Providence Journal article of February 5, 1973 reported that in an article headlined “Films Please R.I. Latin Americans.”
A 1979 ad for the theatre calls it “Hartford Showplace” and touts “Adult film and live exotic dancers.”
The notorious Deep Throat played at the Johnston Cinema in 1975. A Providence Journal article of April 15 reported that councilman Joseph Falvo complained that the theater’s then current feature was…“the filthiest movie ever shown on the screen.” He promised to call a town council meeting to “decide what action should be taken.” A 1972 Superior Court ruling had restrained the council from interfering in the theater’s operation.
The Warwick Mall Cinemas closed on January 28, 1999 after the last showings of A Bug’s Life and Mighty Joe Young. It had opened in April of 1971 twenty-eight years earlier. A Providence Journal article from the previous day reported the closing. The Theatre had opened as a two-screener. Later one of the auditoriums was split in two. The seating capacities were 450, 360, and 330.
The actual opening date of this cinema was Friday, April 14, 2000. The total seating capacity was given as 4,100 seats. The opening-day attractions included Keeping the Faith, American Psycho, 28 Days, Where the Money Is, Rules of Engagement, High Fidelity, Return to Me, Ready to Rumble, The Road to El Dorado, Erin Brokovich, American Beauty and Skulls.
Eileen Farrell, Woonsocket-born operatic contralto and star of the Metropolitan Opera, appeared in recital at the Stadium on October 3, 1961.
In January of 1947 the Avon began a “classy” reserved-seat engagement of Laurence Olivier’s Henry V. To my knowledge it is the only reserved-seat engagement that ever played this art house. Here is a newspaper ad from a few weeks before the opening. Note that the prices, ranging from $1.20 to $2.40, were about three to four times the going rates for that period. There were two showings per day.
Paul, that Chaplin re-issue series played at the Plaza, not the Little Carnegie. I remember seeing a number of them there, including City Lights at a late show. And I believe it was in the 1960s.
For the life of me, I cannot understand why Symphony Space and the Thalia cannot be separate listings!!!
The Warwick Cinema was host to the series of films in the “American Film Theatre” package, beginning in 1973 and continuing in 1974. Among the films shown, all based on well-known plays, were Butley, A Delicate Balance, The Homecoming, The Iceman Cometh, Lost in the Stars, Luther, Rhinoceros, Three Sisters. I do not remember if any of the films in the second season in 1975 played here, though I remember seeing some of them elsewhere. Most of the movies featured superb casts and fine directors.