Scott, what a fascinating recollection! I knew who King Odell was. We both had experience teaching Italian, he at Moses Brown, I at La Salle. And when I ran the Italian Film Society of RI at the Cable Car Cinema in Providence, I believe he occasionally patronized our programs.
Here is a photo of the Empire’s antique ticket booth which I took in 2005.
A newspaper ad for April 24, 1949 shows that the Empire (New Empire, formerly Bijou) was showing a double bill of Shoe Shine and About Face. Shoe Shine, the Italian neorealist tragedy by Vittorio De Sica, was hardly a typical film for this flea-pit theatre. Its pairing with About Face, a 1942 B-film with William Tracy and Joe Sawyer, was certainly very weird. Two months later, in June of 1949, the theatre would have its last programs (see above) and then be closed and soon demolished.
Ming, as you have seen by now, my friend Douglas Brown confirmed (on the Carlton page) that William R. Walker & Sons also did the Carlton Theatre. I should have referred you to him in the first place since he has detailed historical knowledge about all of downtown Providence’s buildings. A year ago last June we walked together to all the sites of former theatres in that area and shared what we knew. I saw movies at the Carlton in the early 1950s, but never at the Rialto, which closed in the 1930s, before I was born. Be sure to post any additional findings of your own.
A week before the Central Square closed on April 1, 1980, I saw the last two films I would see there: revivals of To Be or Not to Be (1942) and Sunnyside Up (1929). They ran programs here in both 35mm and 16mm.
A Christmas Day newspaper ad in 1960 listed the films High Time and Young Jesse James with the reminder: “Attention, kids, there will be a matinee Monday.”
I wrote in my log about going to see at film at the “new” Lincoln Mall Cinemas in July 1975. So the place had to have opened in the summer of 1975. The first film I saw there, shortly after opening, was Jaws. I described the decor as being “bomb shelter” style.
Here is an entire PROGRAM BOOKLET for the end of 1928, listing current and coming attractions, both films and vaudeville acts, including Maurice Chevalier.
Boston Symphony Orchestra program booklets give a history of the hall. Included in that history is the fact that the Boston premiere of Cecil B. De Mille’s film version of Carmen, starring Geraldine Farrar, took place here in 1915.
Would it not be nice if at some point a public tour could be offered of the interior? It was done recently with the Orpheum in New Bedford. This might stir up some public support for the restoration of the building, a project that, if I gather correctly, is languishing. A web site devoted to this theatre, with photos, might be nice. Look at the Orpheum, New Bedford site put up by O.R.P.H.
In the summer of 1970 the single-screen Kent was triplexed. Its main auditorium was split in two resulting in one cinema in the front, one in the rear. A third smaller cinema was added on the right side of the building.
The Amherst Cinema Arts Center in nearby Amherst shows the same type of films as the Pleasant Street. It re-opened last year after being shut for a very long time. It has three screens. Amherst is not really walking distance from Northampton but it is a short drive.
For the opening of the theatre as the Orson Welles Cinema on April 8, 1969, Frank Rich, then a student at Harvard, wrote THIS ARTICLE for the Harvard Crimson.
An article in the New Bedford paper described the October 7, 2007 opening of the Orpheum theatre for a “rope light tour.” In it some of the history of the ownership of the Casino is referred to. READ HERE
The theatre opened on February 14, 1964, according to my private notes. It was called the Esquire then. The first film was Emile de Antonio’s documentary Point of Order! about the 1954 Senate Army-McCarthy hearings and consisted entirely of edited TV footage. I went there with two friends the following day after our dinner at Würsthaus off Harvard Square.
The Italian film Mafioso, successfully revived not too long ago, had its original 1964 American premiere at the Murray Hill and the Rialto.
I believe the name Hanover comes from the Hanover Insurance Group of Worcester which provided some substantial funding for the theatre’s restoration.
Here is MY PHOTO of the Capawock in 2003.
Here are two photos of the Strand from 2003:
EXTERIOR
INTERIOR
Scott, what a fascinating recollection! I knew who King Odell was. We both had experience teaching Italian, he at Moses Brown, I at La Salle. And when I ran the Italian Film Society of RI at the Cable Car Cinema in Providence, I believe he occasionally patronized our programs.
Here is a photo of the Empire’s antique ticket booth which I took in 2005.
A newspaper ad for April 24, 1949 shows that the Empire (New Empire, formerly Bijou) was showing a double bill of Shoe Shine and About Face. Shoe Shine, the Italian neorealist tragedy by Vittorio De Sica, was hardly a typical film for this flea-pit theatre. Its pairing with About Face, a 1942 B-film with William Tracy and Joe Sawyer, was certainly very weird. Two months later, in June of 1949, the theatre would have its last programs (see above) and then be closed and soon demolished.
Here is a PHOTO of Thames Street, circa 1908, with the sign for the Star Theatre on the right.
Ming, as you have seen by now, my friend Douglas Brown confirmed (on the Carlton page) that William R. Walker & Sons also did the Carlton Theatre. I should have referred you to him in the first place since he has detailed historical knowledge about all of downtown Providence’s buildings. A year ago last June we walked together to all the sites of former theatres in that area and shared what we knew. I saw movies at the Carlton in the early 1950s, but never at the Rialto, which closed in the 1930s, before I was born. Be sure to post any additional findings of your own.
Ming, I don’t know. But Roger Brett’s book Temples of Illusion may contain that information. I don’t remember.
Here is a New York Times article on the current situation of the Regent/Slave No. 1 Theatre.
A week before the Central Square closed on April 1, 1980, I saw the last two films I would see there: revivals of To Be or Not to Be (1942) and Sunnyside Up (1929). They ran programs here in both 35mm and 16mm.
A Christmas Day newspaper ad in 1960 listed the films High Time and Young Jesse James with the reminder: “Attention, kids, there will be a matinee Monday.”
I wrote in my log about going to see at film at the “new” Lincoln Mall Cinemas in July 1975. So the place had to have opened in the summer of 1975. The first film I saw there, shortly after opening, was Jaws. I described the decor as being “bomb shelter” style.
Here is an entire PROGRAM BOOKLET for the end of 1928, listing current and coming attractions, both films and vaudeville acts, including Maurice Chevalier.
Boston Symphony Orchestra program booklets give a history of the hall. Included in that history is the fact that the Boston premiere of Cecil B. De Mille’s film version of Carmen, starring Geraldine Farrar, took place here in 1915.
When Naples Sings at the Belmont circa 1931.
PUBLICITY FLYER.
Would it not be nice if at some point a public tour could be offered of the interior? It was done recently with the Orpheum in New Bedford. This might stir up some public support for the restoration of the building, a project that, if I gather correctly, is languishing. A web site devoted to this theatre, with photos, might be nice. Look at the Orpheum, New Bedford site put up by O.R.P.H.
On July 20, 1970 I noted in my log that I had seen Robert Aldrich’s Too Late the Hero at Cine 1.
In the summer of 1970 the single-screen Kent was triplexed. Its main auditorium was split in two resulting in one cinema in the front, one in the rear. A third smaller cinema was added on the right side of the building.
The Amherst Cinema Arts Center in nearby Amherst shows the same type of films as the Pleasant Street. It re-opened last year after being shut for a very long time. It has three screens. Amherst is not really walking distance from Northampton but it is a short drive.
“Salute to Italian Films Week,” October 1952.
PRINTED PROGRAM FLYER
For the opening of the theatre as the Orson Welles Cinema on April 8, 1969, Frank Rich, then a student at Harvard, wrote THIS ARTICLE for the Harvard Crimson.
An article in the New Bedford paper described the October 7, 2007 opening of the Orpheum theatre for a “rope light tour.” In it some of the history of the ownership of the Casino is referred to.
READ HERE
An article in the New Bedford paper described the October 7, 2007 opening of the theatre for a “rope light tour.”
READ HERE
The theatre opened on February 14, 1964, according to my private notes. It was called the Esquire then. The first film was Emile de Antonio’s documentary Point of Order! about the 1954 Senate Army-McCarthy hearings and consisted entirely of edited TV footage. I went there with two friends the following day after our dinner at Würsthaus off Harvard Square.