Liam, no, the auditorium portion was demolished for a parking lot. Only the front part with shops was retained. If you look carefully at the top center of the façade, you can make out a trace of the lettering that said “Rialto Theatre.” It’s very faint. If you click here and expand the image, you can make it out at the top center of the building.
In April of 1993, when they re-opened after a long closure, refurbished and with additional screens, they were a discount house. The first day…they were charging only 50 cents per film. I saw Forever Young and * Body of Evidence* for 50 cents each. Needless to say, there were long lines.
I saw that at the Fine Arts in Boston. Regarding Baby Doll, when I was a sophomore at LaSalle in 1956, we had to take a “pledge” not to go see the movie (playing at the Majestic.) It was years later before I saw it. Of course there were tons of foreign films condemned by the CLOD, some truly great ones like L'Avventura, Jules and Jim.
I kind of liked it for its intimacy, actually, although I wish it had had a real lobby! I saw a large number of excellent films there, some of which I mentioned in an earlier posting. Hardbop’s posting is right. The place is turning into a ghost mall.
Yes, I went too and I remember that “promise.” Incidentally, that is one of my least favorite Mastroianni films. I never liked it, despite the fact that I am really into Italian movies and Elio Petri is a fine director.
Yes, Midnight Cowboy was rated X too and won the Academy Award for best film. The letter X got hijacked by porno-makers to mean something other than what it was intended to be by the MPAA.
Baby Doll; Kiss Me, Stupid & The Moon is Blue and so many others that met problems in those decades now are shown on Turner Classic Movies and no one blinks an eye.
Yes, it was more fun to read. Later ads for Marty, which was a big hit at the Avon, showed a cartoon of someone “stretching the walls” to accomodate all the people who wanted to get in.
The first movie I saw here was Federico Fellini’s And the Ship Sails On (…and on, and on, and on!) on July 24, 1984. When this place re-opened, all fresh and spiffy, there were real high hopes that it would succeed. What a pity, especially since there is no other art house in the New Bedford/Fall River area.
In July of 1984, when this was the Galleria, I saw Electric Dreams. The last films I saw here were Zelary, a very long Czech film, and the director’s cut of Donnie Darko on November 6, 2004, shortly before the place closed.
I found out that I saw these two movies there on August 23, 1983. One was La terrazza by Ettore Scola. It was dubbed in French, as was their preference here. The other was Carlos Saura’s Blood Wedding, which I believe is wordless and a ballet. Don’t any Montrealers remember or care about this respected place? Why am I, someone from Providence, Rhode Island, the only one to post?
That Flickers showing of The Shop on Main Street that I saw was on May 5, 1983. The film society was run, if I am not wrong, by George Marshall, who has been heading the R.I. International Film Festival for nearly a decade. Flickers also used other venues, including the Jane Pickens Theatre and a second floor hall off Washington Square that I forget the name of.
I was here once only, in July of 1978, to see an excellent and unusual double bill of Ramparts of Clay and the Egyptian-made The Night of Counting the Years.
On June 23, 1982 I came up to the Stadium with a friend to see a special presentation of the French-language film from Quebec called Les Plouffe, a family saga based on the very popular novel by Roger Lemelin and directed by Gilles Carle. I remember the showing was rather crowded. The print was 16mm, with subtitles. Details on the film can be found here. Woonsocket, of course, has a large population of French-Canadian ancestry. This is the kind of movie that would easily have found its way into the Laurier in the Social district, had that theatre still been around.
I remember enjoying a double bill of Pigskin Parade & Mother Wore Tights here when visiting Los Angeles, on July 18, 1977. It was unfortunately the only time I went to any movies here.
Liam, no, the auditorium portion was demolished for a parking lot. Only the front part with shops was retained. If you look carefully at the top center of the façade, you can make out a trace of the lettering that said “Rialto Theatre.” It’s very faint. If you click
here and expand the image, you can make it out at the top center of the building.
I saw the Turkish film Yol here on November 27, 1982.
In April of 1993, when they re-opened after a long closure, refurbished and with additional screens, they were a discount house. The first day…they were charging only 50 cents per film. I saw Forever Young and * Body of Evidence* for 50 cents each. Needless to say, there were long lines.
Richard, that was the Avon’s “golden era”…in my opinion.
I don’t know if I went to this theatre more than once, but I noted seeing A Few Good Men here on January 18, 1993.
I saw that at the Fine Arts in Boston. Regarding Baby Doll, when I was a sophomore at LaSalle in 1956, we had to take a “pledge” not to go see the movie (playing at the Majestic.) It was years later before I saw it. Of course there were tons of foreign films condemned by the CLOD, some truly great ones like L'Avventura, Jules and Jim.
I kind of liked it for its intimacy, actually, although I wish it had had a real lobby! I saw a large number of excellent films there, some of which I mentioned in an earlier posting. Hardbop’s posting is right. The place is turning into a ghost mall.
Yes, I went too and I remember that “promise.” Incidentally, that is one of my least favorite Mastroianni films. I never liked it, despite the fact that I am really into Italian movies and Elio Petri is a fine director.
Yes, Midnight Cowboy was rated X too and won the Academy Award for best film. The letter X got hijacked by porno-makers to mean something other than what it was intended to be by the MPAA.
Baby Doll; Kiss Me, Stupid & The Moon is Blue and so many others that met problems in those decades now are shown on Turner Classic Movies and no one blinks an eye.
Yes, it was more fun to read. Later ads for Marty, which was a big hit at the Avon, showed a cartoon of someone “stretching the walls” to accomodate all the people who wanted to get in.
The first movie I saw here was Federico Fellini’s And the Ship Sails On (…and on, and on, and on!) on July 24, 1984. When this place re-opened, all fresh and spiffy, there were real high hopes that it would succeed. What a pity, especially since there is no other art house in the New Bedford/Fall River area.
In July of 1984, when this was the Galleria, I saw Electric Dreams. The last films I saw here were Zelary, a very long Czech film, and the director’s cut of Donnie Darko on November 6, 2004, shortly before the place closed.
One of the last movies, if not the last,that I saw there, was The Natural with Robert Redford. That was on June 29, 1984.
I found out that I saw these two movies there on August 23, 1983. One was La terrazza by Ettore Scola. It was dubbed in French, as was their preference here. The other was Carlos Saura’s Blood Wedding, which I believe is wordless and a ballet. Don’t any Montrealers remember or care about this respected place? Why am I, someone from Providence, Rhode Island, the only one to post?
That Flickers showing of The Shop on Main Street that I saw was on May 5, 1983. The film society was run, if I am not wrong, by George Marshall, who has been heading the R.I. International Film Festival for nearly a decade. Flickers also used other venues, including the Jane Pickens Theatre and a second floor hall off Washington Square that I forget the name of.
I noted seeing the movie Betrayal, with Jeremy Irons and Ben Kingsley, at this theatre in April, 1983.
I told a lie. Also saw Tender Mercies here in April, 1983.
I believe the Turkish movie Yol was the last picture I saw here, on March 19, 1983, before the theatre closed.
I was here once only, in July of 1978, to see an excellent and unusual double bill of Ramparts of Clay and the Egyptian-made The Night of Counting the Years.
On June 23, 1982 I came up to the Stadium with a friend to see a special presentation of the French-language film from Quebec called Les Plouffe, a family saga based on the very popular novel by Roger Lemelin and directed by Gilles Carle. I remember the showing was rather crowded. The print was 16mm, with subtitles. Details on the film can be found here. Woonsocket, of course, has a large population of French-Canadian ancestry. This is the kind of movie that would easily have found its way into the Laurier in the Social district, had that theatre still been around.
I am asking if the theatre is posted on Cinema Treasures under another name, since I cannot find one by that name.
I remember enjoying a double bill of Pigskin Parade & Mother Wore Tights here when visiting Los Angeles, on July 18, 1977. It was unfortunately the only time I went to any movies here.
I noted seeing Werner Herzog’s Aguirre: The Wrath of God here on July 12, 1977.
I believe I saw Who’ll stop the Rain here in 1978. Was there a Montreal movie theatre actually called the “Westmount”?
I visited a theatre in Berkeley in 1978 called the “U.C. Theatre.” What was that?