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.”
A November 15, 1946 Fall River Herald article reported that the “former Academy of Music” was to re-open in a few days as a movie house after being closed for ten weeks for substantial redecoration and refurbishing. The theatre had been fitted with a new projection booth, and new sound equipment. The theatre at the time was incorporated as part of the Zeitz Theaters of Fall River, Inc. That was a chain of theatres run by Carl Zeitz in New Bedford (Zeiterion), Portland, and Newport (Paramount). The initial program was Canyon Passage and Cuban Pete. Without use of the upper balcony, which would remain closed, the seating capacity was noted as 1,300. Carl Zeitz himself, former Army captain, would manage the spiffed-up theatre.
On March 24, 1970 the Strand, then known as Cinema I Theatre, was among the 1,000 theatres in 300 cities which participated in a one-only showing of a full-length motion picture dealing with the life and work of the late Dr. Martin Luther King. The film was called King: A Filmed Record…Montgomery to Memphis. It was intended in part as a fundraiser to advance the slain civil-rights leader’s causes.
About Rich’s Theatre as a burlesque house, A. S. DeMarteau wrote this nostalgic reflection in a 1954 Fall River Herald article:
“It was a trial for men folks to gain access to the theater without being seen. In those days morals were of the highest character. It wasn’t the thing to be seen entering a burlesque theater to witness a show of this character.
“Any youth caught patronizing this theater was placed in the same category as the ‘wayward’ youth who smoked ‘coffin nails’ or hoisted a short beer now and then. All three were just cause for any young woman to shed herself of a boy friend if he had fallen that low.”
Correction to above: “The Empire was formally opened on November 18, 1918, practically at the start of America’s entry into World War I.”
~The date of the opening was correct, but the war, of course, had ended a week before on November 11. The source I was using said that the nation had been at peace for a week.
This old postcard image also comes from around 1907. It was mailed in 1909. Notice the signs for the Imperial on the left. The Imperial itself is on the right, decked out in the colors.
The Embassy opened on March 7, 1947 and drew approval for owner William C. Purcell Sr. Ther opening night audience included Mayor Grant. Rev. Frederick M. Brooks Jr., rector of the Church of the Ascension, offered invocation. The first program was Her Sister’s Secret with Nancy Coleman, Margaret Linday and Philip Reed, directed by Edgar G. Ulmer. The policy of the theatre would be continuous performances from 10:30 A.M. Seats could be reserved daily, except Sunday, after 4:30 P.M.
The theatre had an intimate lobby, embellished with red and gold carpeting, and walls covered in blue damask. There were twin staircases on opposite sides of the lobby, with an octagonal window over each. The Embassy had a small but elegant balcony. At 813 seats, the theatre was considered small in those days. It is generally said that the place had a cozy charm.
One of the biggest hits at the Embassy was the 1948 Johnny Belinda with Jane Wyman, who won an Academy Award for her performance. The film had played for a week at the Durfee, moved over to the Capitol for another week, then moved to the Embassy. After playing a week here, it was held over for another. That made it the longest playing movie ever in Fall River up to that time, four weeks.
The Embassy, like other theatres, had promotional gimmicks. They gave out dishes, later phonograph records. There were weekend “Small Fry Matinees”. Children generally walked to the theatre, often followed by their dogs. The dogs would then patiently wait patiently outside the theatre for their masters to come out at the end of the show!
(Synthesized from Fall River Herald articles)
Some history of the Empire:
The Empire was formally opened on November 18, 1918, practically at the start of America’s entry into World War I. An earlier theatre, Rich’s Theatre, going back to around 1882, had existed on part of the same land with an entrance a block over on Second Street. It had been razed along with some tenement property for the construction of the Empire. The Nathan Yamins interests were the new owners. The James H. Kay was mayor of Fall River at the time and attended the opening night presentation of D.W. Griffith’s Hearts of the World with Lillian and Dorothy Gish. Premiere-goers paid the very high price of between $1.00 to $1.50. There was one sour note at the opening. The cement had not fully hardened and some seats were starting to move about. The following week a policy of vaudeville combined with film fare became the standard for the Empire for about a decade and a half.
The theatre had a 32-foot frontage on South Main Street. Second Street frontage was 143 feet on the west side, giving the place a total area of 15,444 square feet. The Empire was the only theatre in the United States without outside fire escapes, because all the exits were directly on the street. Some of the rear exits provided means of entering without paying for young boys who would help each other gain admission. The Empire was generally considered a misshapen monstrosity and many joked that it had been designed by Edgar Allan Poe and Charles Adams. Actor Cary Grant actually played the Empire as a stilt walker in a company of acrobats! Other live performers here were violinist Fritz Kreisler,German contralto Madame Schumann Heink, Guy Kibbee, Irene Rich, The Three Stooges, the Mills Brothers, Cab Calloway, Dick Powell. The Empire stage was one of the largest on New England and with the asbestos curtain down, the stage and the auditorium became two separate buildings.
In a 1990 Fall River Herald article, John McAvoy recalled a number of things about the Empire. In the 1930s it had its box office on the south side of the lobby and was in the wall. There was a girl named Julia Lawlor who worked in the box office and another girl called Ellen McCoomb. He recalled several of the stage shows and reviews such as the Jimmie Evans Revue, Billy Rose’s Sweet and Low.
He wrote of another unusual feature of the Empire, the candy man. He always wore a white jacket and he could not talk. He was mute. He would sit in the rear at a small table or else walk the aisles with a tray of candy suspended from his neck. Everyone called him “the dummy”, not unkindly but in affection and would say “let’s buy a bar of candy from the poor dummy.” He was part of the mystique of the Empire and well-respected, according to McAvoy, who later became assistant manager at the Empire.
In November of 1953 the Empire closed for one week for the installation of CinemaScope. November 26th saw the opening of The Robe, projected on the new screen in that new process. The dimensions of the Empire’s new large screen to accomodate CinemaScope were 26 feet in height and 40 feet in width.
The theatre would survive less than ten more years. Demolition of the Empire began the last week of December, 1962 and for a time the site was turned into a parking lot, expanding one that was already there.
(Compiled from information in various articles in the Fall River Library’s clippings-file entitled “Theatres.”)
When the great blizzard of the millenium struck the Northeast on Tuesday, February 6, 1978, people came in off the street seeking refuge in the Center lobby. Saturday Night Fever with John Travolta was on one screen, Heroes with Henry Winkler was on the other. As the weather worsened, the few customers were sent home. The Center Twin closed for three days. After that, with a city still under snow, it re-opened with Walt Disney’s Candleshoe on one screen and Saturday Night Fever on the other. The next day The Betsy replaced Fever. The theatre was extremely busy that weekend. Cars were banned from the streets but the theatre was very crowded as people walked in droves to see movies there and escape cabin fever. The Sunday-after-the-storm audience was extremely rough and tough but the manager could not hire a policeman since they were all busy with emergency work related to the snow.
(Adapted from a full story in the Fall River Herald News, April 9, 1983.)
The Park Theatre, built by Nathan Yamins, opened on December 13, 1920 and supplied the residents of Globe Corners with a movie house of their own. The first film shown was the tear-jerker Everybody’s Sweetheart, with Olive Thomas. South End postmaster James Arkinson addressed the first audience at the Park. The Park was completely renovated in the fall of 1942 and was said to be one of the most modern theatres in southern New England. The Park had push-back seats so that patrons would not have to get up to let someone pass.
In later years manager Joseph Gosciminski drew larger crowds through promotional ideas such as “Ladies' Dish Night” on Wednesdays. For 35c admission, women would see the show and receive a dish to add to a set.
It was not uncommon to have up to 1800 children in the audience watching Shirley Temple or a western on Saturday afternoons. For 10 cents kids would get an admission and a free five-cent ice cream. The theatre was like a baby-sitter for parents. Their kids could be safely sent off to a matinee at 1 P.M., with a bag lunch, and remain at the movies until 8 P.M. through two complete shows.
During the showing of All Quiet on the Western Front, manager Gosciminski rented a shotgun, which he would fire into a barrel, making a sound like a cannon…and creating holes in the floor!
Joe also would let a child in for free if the kid approached him and said he had no money to buy a ticket.
(Information synthesized from various articles in the clippings file on Fall River theatres at the Fall River Library.)
The Center Theatre opened on Friday , October 16, 1940. The feature presentation was The Howards of Virginia starring Cary Grant and Martha Scott. The style and structure of the theatre was like that of the Cinema de la Cour in Paris. Its front facade was meant to give the appearance of a pipe organ. It had the widest aisles between rows of any theatre in the city. The scenic decorations in the theatre were the work of the Spanish artrist Juan y Alonzo. The theatre’s three-week engagement of Gone With the Wind was the longest running movie in Fall River up to that time. There were two staircases leading to the mezzanine and balcony. The murals on either side of the auditorium were 14 feet wide and 30 feet tall. One depicted War and the other Peace. Screen star Diana Lynn, who appeared on the Center stage, said that the Center was the ideal motion picture theatre.
The theatre was renovated in 1968 with a new facade, marquee, and refurbished lobby and a relocated boxoffice. Projection was upgraded and permitted the showing of 70MM prints.
In 1970 the theatre was converted to a twin facility and became Center Cinema I & II. The inaugural films for the twinned Center were Goodbye, Mr. Chips for Cinema I and M.A.S.H. for Cinema II.
The Center closed in May, 1977. The last films were shown on Sunday, May 1st and were Freaky Friday and Black Sunday. Edward Lider, president of the Allston-based Fall River Theatre Corporation that ran the theatre, cited the doubling of taxes in the previous five years after renovations. Surrounding businesses had either closed of been torn down and the theatre had been left all alone, according to Lider.
City Councillor Roderick led a fight to save and re-open the Center Twin Cinema. “The closing deprives the city of its only family theater. A city with only two X rated movie houses and nothing else doesn’t set a good precedent.”
The Center never re-opened.
(Information synthesized from various newspaper reports found in the “Theatres” Fall River file in the Fall River Library.)
The Bijou’s seating capacity was 1400. It opened in 1904, closed in 1929, and was sold and converted to other uses in 1933. The year that it closed saw the opening of the Durfee Theatre, further down the street.
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.”
A November 15, 1946 Fall River Herald article reported that the “former Academy of Music” was to re-open in a few days as a movie house after being closed for ten weeks for substantial redecoration and refurbishing. The theatre had been fitted with a new projection booth, and new sound equipment. The theatre at the time was incorporated as part of the Zeitz Theaters of Fall River, Inc. That was a chain of theatres run by Carl Zeitz in New Bedford (Zeiterion), Portland, and Newport (Paramount). The initial program was Canyon Passage and Cuban Pete. Without use of the upper balcony, which would remain closed, the seating capacity was noted as 1,300. Carl Zeitz himself, former Army captain, would manage the spiffed-up theatre.
On March 24, 1970 the Strand, then known as Cinema I Theatre, was among the 1,000 theatres in 300 cities which participated in a one-only showing of a full-length motion picture dealing with the life and work of the late Dr. Martin Luther King. The film was called King: A Filmed Record…Montgomery to Memphis. It was intended in part as a fundraiser to advance the slain civil-rights leader’s causes.
About Rich’s Theatre as a burlesque house, A. S. DeMarteau wrote this nostalgic reflection in a 1954 Fall River Herald article:
“It was a trial for men folks to gain access to the theater without being seen. In those days morals were of the highest character. It wasn’t the thing to be seen entering a burlesque theater to witness a show of this character.
“Any youth caught patronizing this theater was placed in the same category as the ‘wayward’ youth who smoked ‘coffin nails’ or hoisted a short beer now and then. All three were just cause for any young woman to shed herself of a boy friend if he had fallen that low.”
Correction to above: “The Empire was formally opened on November 18, 1918, practically at the start of America’s entry into World War I.”
~The date of the opening was correct, but the war, of course, had ended a week before on November 11. The source I was using said that the nation had been at peace for a week.
This old postcard image also comes from around 1907. It was mailed in 1909. Notice the signs for the Imperial on the left. The Imperial itself is on the right, decked out in the colors.
The Embassy opened on March 7, 1947 and drew approval for owner William C. Purcell Sr. Ther opening night audience included Mayor Grant. Rev. Frederick M. Brooks Jr., rector of the Church of the Ascension, offered invocation. The first program was Her Sister’s Secret with Nancy Coleman, Margaret Linday and Philip Reed, directed by Edgar G. Ulmer. The policy of the theatre would be continuous performances from 10:30 A.M. Seats could be reserved daily, except Sunday, after 4:30 P.M.
The theatre had an intimate lobby, embellished with red and gold carpeting, and walls covered in blue damask. There were twin staircases on opposite sides of the lobby, with an octagonal window over each. The Embassy had a small but elegant balcony. At 813 seats, the theatre was considered small in those days. It is generally said that the place had a cozy charm.
One of the biggest hits at the Embassy was the 1948 Johnny Belinda with Jane Wyman, who won an Academy Award for her performance. The film had played for a week at the Durfee, moved over to the Capitol for another week, then moved to the Embassy. After playing a week here, it was held over for another. That made it the longest playing movie ever in Fall River up to that time, four weeks.
The Embassy, like other theatres, had promotional gimmicks. They gave out dishes, later phonograph records. There were weekend “Small Fry Matinees”. Children generally walked to the theatre, often followed by their dogs. The dogs would then patiently wait patiently outside the theatre for their masters to come out at the end of the show!
(Synthesized from Fall River Herald articles)
Some history of the Empire:
The Empire was formally opened on November 18, 1918, practically at the start of America’s entry into World War I. An earlier theatre, Rich’s Theatre, going back to around 1882, had existed on part of the same land with an entrance a block over on Second Street. It had been razed along with some tenement property for the construction of the Empire. The Nathan Yamins interests were the new owners. The James H. Kay was mayor of Fall River at the time and attended the opening night presentation of D.W. Griffith’s Hearts of the World with Lillian and Dorothy Gish. Premiere-goers paid the very high price of between $1.00 to $1.50. There was one sour note at the opening. The cement had not fully hardened and some seats were starting to move about. The following week a policy of vaudeville combined with film fare became the standard for the Empire for about a decade and a half.
The theatre had a 32-foot frontage on South Main Street. Second Street frontage was 143 feet on the west side, giving the place a total area of 15,444 square feet. The Empire was the only theatre in the United States without outside fire escapes, because all the exits were directly on the street. Some of the rear exits provided means of entering without paying for young boys who would help each other gain admission. The Empire was generally considered a misshapen monstrosity and many joked that it had been designed by Edgar Allan Poe and Charles Adams. Actor Cary Grant actually played the Empire as a stilt walker in a company of acrobats! Other live performers here were violinist Fritz Kreisler,German contralto Madame Schumann Heink, Guy Kibbee, Irene Rich, The Three Stooges, the Mills Brothers, Cab Calloway, Dick Powell. The Empire stage was one of the largest on New England and with the asbestos curtain down, the stage and the auditorium became two separate buildings.
In a 1990 Fall River Herald article, John McAvoy recalled a number of things about the Empire. In the 1930s it had its box office on the south side of the lobby and was in the wall. There was a girl named Julia Lawlor who worked in the box office and another girl called Ellen McCoomb. He recalled several of the stage shows and reviews such as the Jimmie Evans Revue, Billy Rose’s Sweet and Low.
He wrote of another unusual feature of the Empire, the candy man. He always wore a white jacket and he could not talk. He was mute. He would sit in the rear at a small table or else walk the aisles with a tray of candy suspended from his neck. Everyone called him “the dummy”, not unkindly but in affection and would say “let’s buy a bar of candy from the poor dummy.” He was part of the mystique of the Empire and well-respected, according to McAvoy, who later became assistant manager at the Empire.
In November of 1953 the Empire closed for one week for the installation of CinemaScope. November 26th saw the opening of The Robe, projected on the new screen in that new process. The dimensions of the Empire’s new large screen to accomodate CinemaScope were 26 feet in height and 40 feet in width.
The theatre would survive less than ten more years. Demolition of the Empire began the last week of December, 1962 and for a time the site was turned into a parking lot, expanding one that was already there.
(Compiled from information in various articles in the Fall River Library’s clippings-file entitled “Theatres.”)
When the great blizzard of the millenium struck the Northeast on Tuesday, February 6, 1978, people came in off the street seeking refuge in the Center lobby. Saturday Night Fever with John Travolta was on one screen, Heroes with Henry Winkler was on the other. As the weather worsened, the few customers were sent home. The Center Twin closed for three days. After that, with a city still under snow, it re-opened with Walt Disney’s Candleshoe on one screen and Saturday Night Fever on the other. The next day The Betsy replaced Fever. The theatre was extremely busy that weekend. Cars were banned from the streets but the theatre was very crowded as people walked in droves to see movies there and escape cabin fever. The Sunday-after-the-storm audience was extremely rough and tough but the manager could not hire a policeman since they were all busy with emergency work related to the snow.
(Adapted from a full story in the Fall River Herald News, April 9, 1983.)
The Park Theatre, built by Nathan Yamins, opened on December 13, 1920 and supplied the residents of Globe Corners with a movie house of their own. The first film shown was the tear-jerker Everybody’s Sweetheart, with Olive Thomas. South End postmaster James Arkinson addressed the first audience at the Park. The Park was completely renovated in the fall of 1942 and was said to be one of the most modern theatres in southern New England. The Park had push-back seats so that patrons would not have to get up to let someone pass.
In later years manager Joseph Gosciminski drew larger crowds through promotional ideas such as “Ladies' Dish Night” on Wednesdays. For 35c admission, women would see the show and receive a dish to add to a set.
It was not uncommon to have up to 1800 children in the audience watching Shirley Temple or a western on Saturday afternoons. For 10 cents kids would get an admission and a free five-cent ice cream. The theatre was like a baby-sitter for parents. Their kids could be safely sent off to a matinee at 1 P.M., with a bag lunch, and remain at the movies until 8 P.M. through two complete shows.
During the showing of All Quiet on the Western Front, manager Gosciminski rented a shotgun, which he would fire into a barrel, making a sound like a cannon…and creating holes in the floor!
Joe also would let a child in for free if the kid approached him and said he had no money to buy a ticket.
(Information synthesized from various articles in the clippings file on Fall River theatres at the Fall River Library.)
A capsule history of the Center Theatre:
The Center Theatre opened on Friday , October 16, 1940. The feature presentation was The Howards of Virginia starring Cary Grant and Martha Scott. The style and structure of the theatre was like that of the Cinema de la Cour in Paris. Its front facade was meant to give the appearance of a pipe organ. It had the widest aisles between rows of any theatre in the city. The scenic decorations in the theatre were the work of the Spanish artrist Juan y Alonzo. The theatre’s three-week engagement of Gone With the Wind was the longest running movie in Fall River up to that time. There were two staircases leading to the mezzanine and balcony. The murals on either side of the auditorium were 14 feet wide and 30 feet tall. One depicted War and the other Peace. Screen star Diana Lynn, who appeared on the Center stage, said that the Center was the ideal motion picture theatre.
The theatre was renovated in 1968 with a new facade, marquee, and refurbished lobby and a relocated boxoffice. Projection was upgraded and permitted the showing of 70MM prints.
In 1970 the theatre was converted to a twin facility and became Center Cinema I & II. The inaugural films for the twinned Center were Goodbye, Mr. Chips for Cinema I and M.A.S.H. for Cinema II.
The Center closed in May, 1977. The last films were shown on Sunday, May 1st and were Freaky Friday and Black Sunday. Edward Lider, president of the Allston-based Fall River Theatre Corporation that ran the theatre, cited the doubling of taxes in the previous five years after renovations. Surrounding businesses had either closed of been torn down and the theatre had been left all alone, according to Lider.
City Councillor Roderick led a fight to save and re-open the Center Twin Cinema. “The closing deprives the city of its only family theater. A city with only two X rated movie houses and nothing else doesn’t set a good precedent.”
The Center never re-opened.
(Information synthesized from various newspaper reports found in the “Theatres” Fall River file in the Fall River Library.)
The Bijou’s seating capacity was 1400. It opened in 1904, closed in 1929, and was sold and converted to other uses in 1933. The year that it closed saw the opening of the Durfee Theatre, further down the street.