Cinema 4, built as a single-screen theatre in 1973 to supplement the Walnut Hill Cinemas 1-2-3 and located a short throw away at 2000 Diamond Hill Avenue can be found by clicking here. The Woonsocket Cinemas, built in the same general area of Diamond Hill Road in 1989, can be found here.
The theatre was built by Cinema Systems of America, Inc. of Boston, headed by Jon Boorn, 31, president, of Newton. Dave Connor, 28, also of Newton was president of Cinema Systems of Boston.
General manager of the new cinema was Esther (Pandura) Stevens.
Opening night films on January 29, 1971 were The Traveling Executioner, There’s a Girl in My Soup, and Russ Meyers' Vixen. This last title was rated X but was not pornographic. Kiddie matinees were promised for upcoming bookings.
Two of the three auditoriums had 225 seats each. One had 250 seats.
The day this theatre opened, the Stadium Theatre, Woonsocket’s only other operating theatre, was showing Lovers and Other Strangers.
Some programs illustrating a progression:
1-29-71: Lovers and Other Strangers (This was the day the Walnut Hill Cinemas opened on Diamond Hill Road.)
12-72: Slaughterhouse Five
1-73: Superfly
7-73: Inga and Oh, Calcutta!
1-1-74: Climax and Feel (porno)
The 8-screen Woonsocket Cinemas opened on Friday, November 17, 1989, according to a feature in The Woonsocket Call announcing the event. It meant, for the first time in many years that city natives would be able to see first-run movies in their own town. The theatre was housed in the shell of the one-time Big G Supermarket, next door to Caldor.
The cinema was associated with Melrose Enterprises of Boston, which ran more than 100 screens in New England. Stephen Menasian and Clem Desmaarais were partners in the venture. Desmarais was also the owner and operator of the Rustic Drive-In on Route 146 in North Smithfield.
The conversion from supermarket to cinema complex had begun the previous May and the resulting cinemas had a combined seating capacity of 1680. Part of the decor featured tile from Brazil and Italian marble behind the snack bar. The lobby had an art deco theme.
The films that were shown opening day were Harlem Nights, Shocker, The Bear, Immediate Family, All Dogs Go to Heaven, Staying Together, Look Who’s Talking, The Fabulous Baker Boys.
The day after opening, a picture story in the same paper showed a photo of patrons who had lined up to get in. One was of Estelle Anger and her daughter Paula, both from Woonsocket, who were the theatre’s first two customers. Both avid movie fans, mom was treating daughter in celebration of the latter’s birthday.
There were 1,000 customers on that opening day. Look Who’s Talking was a sellout for two shows.
(Some of the above is paraphrased from Woonsocket Call material.)
Lockwood & Gordon Enterprises of Boston was a chain of New England theatres that bought the Art Cinema in September of 1958, according to a Providence Journal article September 17. At the time they also operated the Avon, Hope, and Castle in Providence. An art house policy with internatonal films was promised. The theatre had been remodeled and redecorated a year before and equipped with modern upholstered seats.
It should be noted that the theatre had been opened as the Art Cinema the previous January with Gervaise. Before that it had been the neighborhood Liberty Theatre since 1921. I do not know who ran the place when it first became the Art, but will find out. But apparently Lockwood & Gordon did not run in its first days under this policy, as I implied in my description.
A newspaper ad from October, 1962, the era of art-house mania. Both the Art and the Avon on the other side of town, were run at the time by the Lockwood Gordon chain of Boston.
A newspaper ad from October, 1962, the era of art-house mania. Both the Avon and the Art, on the other side of town, were run at the time by the Lockwood Gordon chain of Boston.
I am told by a former employee that the Metropolitan did not have air-conditioning (when he worked there in the 1940s) and for this reason would close during the summer months.
Bsilva, yes, I thought it was in the South End, near the Orpheum. I’m from Providence and don’t know the city that well. I paid a visit to the Orpheum a while back and took some photos. I found the exterior overwhelming. Have you been inside? Could you post something on its page?
Liam, no, the entrance was from the front as it always had been. The two auditorium entrances were to the left and right of the candy concession. I believe there were side exit doors, one to the parking lot on the right, one to a side street on the left that were opened after crowded shows. One thing about this place that sticks in the mind about this place when it ws the Cinerama, is the plush-red drapes, curtains, everything. It had the decor of a bordello. I used to go here in the late 1950s and the 1960s, when it was the nabe Hope Theatre, to see double bills of movies that I might have missed elsewhere.
Neither did I. I went to those also. I think Marathon Man was one of the ones they got too. A theatre that size costs it something like $5,000 just to open the door!
Yes, true. I remember the 1965 Sylvia played there forever, and it was such a mediocre film. I think the competition from these theatres, especially the Cinerama, is why the Avon would find its niche in repertory in the 1970s. The death of the Cinerama in 1983 was bad for filmgoers, good for the Avon. I don’t think the Four Seasons was much competition for very long in the 1960s, although they got first-run on some important films like Juliet of the Spirits (if I remember correctly) which was really Avon stuff, if they had cared about it at that point. By the end of the 1960s the Columbus/Studio had already moved to ultra-sexy stuff before descending into outright porn.
A Providence Journal newspaper article on August 13, 1956 carried the banner “Thornton Girl to Star in Movie.” The girl was 13-year-old Frances Manfredi who had a role in the film Rock, Rock, Rock under the name of Fran Manfred. The film starred Tuesday Weld and Alan Freed. Ms. Manfredi surely saw movies many times at this theatre in the village of Thornton. I don’t know what became of her, and her name does not appear on IMDb, apart from the credits of this one movie.
The world premiere of the wartime film about an aircraft carrier, Wing and a Prayer, took place here on July 28, 1944. A day later stars Dana Andrews and Sir Cedric Hardwicke made appearances on stage at the Majestic. The Quonset Officers Glee Club sang. Here is the opening day newspaper ad for the program.
On April 5, 1940 singer Nelson Eddy, born in the Olneyville section of Providence, performed at the Metropolitan after an absence of three years. Ticket price range: $1.00 – $3.50.
Liam, thank you very much for this much-needed clarification. The Providence Journal article I based the posting on said the Woonsocket Cinemas opened in 1989 without mentioning that it had been the Walnut Hill Cinemas as far back as the 1970s. I have vague memories of having visited the place under both names. Do you have any other information on in-town places like the Bijou, Olympia, Rialto, Laurier, Park? Of course, we have plenty on the beautiful Stadium.
Article in The Providence Journal, February 9, 1971:
Tiverton Bars X-Rated Films
The Tiverton Town Council, acting on complaints that X-rated films at a local drive-in theater can be seen from the street by Children, last night passed an ordinance to ban such films in the town.
Councilmen also received petitions signed by 961 residents against the showing of X-rated films. The theatre is the Ponta Del Gada Drive-In on Shove Street, the town’s only movie theater.
After being advised that the ordinance probably would not survive a court test, the council unanimously directed town solicitor William B. Sullivan to draft another ordinance that would require the licensing of films shown in the town.
A mother who attended the meeting, Mrs. David Silvia of 8 Clement Street, said her children could see the films at the drive-in from the kitchen window of the home. “It’s a disgrace,” she said.
In late December of 1964 the Warwick Cinema withdrew the Billy Wilder film Kiss Me, Stupid, which had been playing just a fews days, at the insistence of the Warwick Board of Public Safety. The film had been “condemned” by the Catholic Legion of Decency, and an original agreement between the city and the theatre was that no C-rated films would be shown. Alfred Oddi, manager of the 1,000 seat theatre at the time, said it was too late to schedule an alternate movie and told callers that a “sneak preview” was being shown and that the name of the new film could not be divulged. Kiss Me, Stupid was the first major Hollywood film to be rated C by the Legion since the 1956 Baby Doll, which had played at the Majestic in Providence.
Henry VIII banned from Woonsocket!
In July of 1944, the Rialto Theatre accepted without contest the city’s ban on The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933), with Charles Laughton and Robert Donat, and withdrew without seeking a license the intended co-feature Catherine the Great (1934) with Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and Elizabeth Bergner. Both films were already about ten years old and both had received acclaim when shown in Providence and elsewhere. The Rialto manager at the time was Maurice Safner.
In November, 1938 the Russian film Professor Mamlock premiered here. The movie dealt with the plight of Jews in Germany through the story of a German-Jewish doctor whose professional skills and war record were no defense against the grave sin of not being an Aryan. Proudly displaying the word “Jude” across his surgeon’s robe and proclaiming his faith in a better Germany, he is machine-gunned. The film was not without its share of heavy-handed Communist propaganda, but it touched a subject avoided by Hollywood at the time. The movie met with some oppposition and was banned in some cities in the U.S.
Here is the text of an ad for the upcoming The Cat and the Canary in December, 1939…and a clever promotion for it:
TONIGHT AT MIDNIGHT!
Miss Charlotte Alt, 100 Prospect Hill Street, will
witness a private showing of Paramount’s terrifying
thriller “THE CAT AND THE CANARY"
at the
STRAND THEATRE
SHE WILL BE THE ONLY PERSON IN THE THEATRE!
699 Empty Seats in a Completely Darkened Theatre!
For her daring in acepting this nerve-tingling
assignment, she will receive $5.00 in cash!
The Walnut Hill Cinemas, which Cinema 4 was built to supplement, can be found here.
The opening day film for Cinema 4 was Deliverance.
After the theatre was closed it became an Evangelical church, later was razed, and the area is now occupied by a Lowe’s store.
Cinema 4, built as a single-screen theatre in 1973 to supplement the Walnut Hill Cinemas 1-2-3 and located a short throw away at 2000 Diamond Hill Avenue can be found by clicking here. The Woonsocket Cinemas, built in the same general area of Diamond Hill Road in 1989, can be found here.
The theatre was built by Cinema Systems of America, Inc. of Boston, headed by Jon Boorn, 31, president, of Newton. Dave Connor, 28, also of Newton was president of Cinema Systems of Boston.
General manager of the new cinema was Esther (Pandura) Stevens.
Opening night films on January 29, 1971 were The Traveling Executioner, There’s a Girl in My Soup, and Russ Meyers' Vixen. This last title was rated X but was not pornographic. Kiddie matinees were promised for upcoming bookings.
Two of the three auditoriums had 225 seats each. One had 250 seats.
The day this theatre opened, the Stadium Theatre, Woonsocket’s only other operating theatre, was showing Lovers and Other Strangers.
Some programs illustrating a progression:
1-29-71: Lovers and Other Strangers (This was the day the Walnut Hill Cinemas opened on Diamond Hill Road.)
12-72: Slaughterhouse Five
1-73: Superfly
7-73: Inga and Oh, Calcutta!
1-1-74: Climax and Feel (porno)
Ads from the 1970s list the theatre as the Franklin Cinema.
Opening of the Woonsocket Cinemas
The 8-screen Woonsocket Cinemas opened on Friday, November 17, 1989, according to a feature in The Woonsocket Call announcing the event. It meant, for the first time in many years that city natives would be able to see first-run movies in their own town. The theatre was housed in the shell of the one-time Big G Supermarket, next door to Caldor.
The cinema was associated with Melrose Enterprises of Boston, which ran more than 100 screens in New England. Stephen Menasian and Clem Desmaarais were partners in the venture. Desmarais was also the owner and operator of the Rustic Drive-In on Route 146 in North Smithfield.
The conversion from supermarket to cinema complex had begun the previous May and the resulting cinemas had a combined seating capacity of 1680. Part of the decor featured tile from Brazil and Italian marble behind the snack bar. The lobby had an art deco theme.
The films that were shown opening day were Harlem Nights, Shocker, The Bear, Immediate Family, All Dogs Go to Heaven, Staying Together, Look Who’s Talking, The Fabulous Baker Boys.
The day after opening, a picture story in the same paper showed a photo of patrons who had lined up to get in. One was of Estelle Anger and her daughter Paula, both from Woonsocket, who were the theatre’s first two customers. Both avid movie fans, mom was treating daughter in celebration of the latter’s birthday.
There were 1,000 customers on that opening day. Look Who’s Talking was a sellout for two shows.
(Some of the above is paraphrased from Woonsocket Call material.)
Lockwood & Gordon Enterprises of Boston was a chain of New England theatres that bought the Art Cinema in September of 1958, according to a Providence Journal article September 17. At the time they also operated the Avon, Hope, and Castle in Providence. An art house policy with internatonal films was promised. The theatre had been remodeled and redecorated a year before and equipped with modern upholstered seats.
It should be noted that the theatre had been opened as the Art Cinema the previous January with Gervaise. Before that it had been the neighborhood Liberty Theatre since 1921. I do not know who ran the place when it first became the Art, but will find out. But apparently Lockwood & Gordon did not run in its first days under this policy, as I implied in my description.
A newspaper ad from October, 1962, the era of art-house mania. Both the Art and the Avon on the other side of town, were run at the time by the Lockwood Gordon chain of Boston.
A newspaper ad from October, 1962, the era of art-house mania. Both the Avon and the Art, on the other side of town, were run at the time by the Lockwood Gordon chain of Boston.
I am told by a former employee that the Metropolitan did not have air-conditioning (when he worked there in the 1940s) and for this reason would close during the summer months.
Bsilva, yes, I thought it was in the South End, near the Orpheum. I’m from Providence and don’t know the city that well. I paid a visit to the Orpheum a while back and took some photos. I found the exterior overwhelming. Have you been inside? Could you post something on its page?
Liam, no, the entrance was from the front as it always had been. The two auditorium entrances were to the left and right of the candy concession. I believe there were side exit doors, one to the parking lot on the right, one to a side street on the left that were opened after crowded shows. One thing about this place that sticks in the mind about this place when it ws the Cinerama, is the plush-red drapes, curtains, everything. It had the decor of a bordello. I used to go here in the late 1950s and the 1960s, when it was the nabe Hope Theatre, to see double bills of movies that I might have missed elsewhere.
Neither did I. I went to those also. I think Marathon Man was one of the ones they got too. A theatre that size costs it something like $5,000 just to open the door!
Yes, true. I remember the 1965 Sylvia played there forever, and it was such a mediocre film. I think the competition from these theatres, especially the Cinerama, is why the Avon would find its niche in repertory in the 1970s. The death of the Cinerama in 1983 was bad for filmgoers, good for the Avon. I don’t think the Four Seasons was much competition for very long in the 1960s, although they got first-run on some important films like Juliet of the Spirits (if I remember correctly) which was really Avon stuff, if they had cared about it at that point. By the end of the 1960s the Columbus/Studio had already moved to ultra-sexy stuff before descending into outright porn.
It is a neighborhood theatre…in Variety jargon.
A Providence Journal newspaper article on August 13, 1956 carried the banner “Thornton Girl to Star in Movie.” The girl was 13-year-old Frances Manfredi who had a role in the film Rock, Rock, Rock under the name of Fran Manfred. The film starred Tuesday Weld and Alan Freed. Ms. Manfredi surely saw movies many times at this theatre in the village of Thornton. I don’t know what became of her, and her name does not appear on IMDb, apart from the credits of this one movie.
The world premiere of the wartime film about an aircraft carrier, Wing and a Prayer, took place here on July 28, 1944. A day later stars Dana Andrews and Sir Cedric Hardwicke made appearances on stage at the Majestic. The Quonset Officers Glee Club sang. Here is the opening day newspaper ad for the program.
On April 5, 1940 singer Nelson Eddy, born in the Olneyville section of Providence, performed at the Metropolitan after an absence of three years. Ticket price range: $1.00 – $3.50.
Liam, thank you very much for this much-needed clarification. The Providence Journal article I based the posting on said the Woonsocket Cinemas opened in 1989 without mentioning that it had been the Walnut Hill Cinemas as far back as the 1970s. I have vague memories of having visited the place under both names. Do you have any other information on in-town places like the Bijou, Olympia, Rialto, Laurier, Park? Of course, we have plenty on the beautiful Stadium.
Article in The Providence Journal, February 9, 1971:
Tiverton Bars X-Rated Films
The Tiverton Town Council, acting on complaints that X-rated films at a local drive-in theater can be seen from the street by Children, last night passed an ordinance to ban such films in the town.
Councilmen also received petitions signed by 961 residents against the showing of X-rated films. The theatre is the Ponta Del Gada Drive-In on Shove Street, the town’s only movie theater.
After being advised that the ordinance probably would not survive a court test, the council unanimously directed town solicitor William B. Sullivan to draft another ordinance that would require the licensing of films shown in the town.
A mother who attended the meeting, Mrs. David Silvia of 8 Clement Street, said her children could see the films at the drive-in from the kitchen window of the home. “It’s a disgrace,” she said.
In late December of 1964 the Warwick Cinema withdrew the Billy Wilder film Kiss Me, Stupid, which had been playing just a fews days, at the insistence of the Warwick Board of Public Safety. The film had been “condemned” by the Catholic Legion of Decency, and an original agreement between the city and the theatre was that no C-rated films would be shown. Alfred Oddi, manager of the 1,000 seat theatre at the time, said it was too late to schedule an alternate movie and told callers that a “sneak preview” was being shown and that the name of the new film could not be divulged. Kiss Me, Stupid was the first major Hollywood film to be rated C by the Legion since the 1956 Baby Doll, which had played at the Majestic in Providence.
Henry VIII banned from Woonsocket!
In July of 1944, the Rialto Theatre accepted without contest the city’s ban on The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933), with Charles Laughton and Robert Donat, and withdrew without seeking a license the intended co-feature Catherine the Great (1934) with Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and Elizabeth Bergner. Both films were already about ten years old and both had received acclaim when shown in Providence and elsewhere. The Rialto manager at the time was Maurice Safner.
In November, 1938 the Russian film Professor Mamlock premiered here. The movie dealt with the plight of Jews in Germany through the story of a German-Jewish doctor whose professional skills and war record were no defense against the grave sin of not being an Aryan. Proudly displaying the word “Jude” across his surgeon’s robe and proclaiming his faith in a better Germany, he is machine-gunned. The film was not without its share of heavy-handed Communist propaganda, but it touched a subject avoided by Hollywood at the time. The movie met with some oppposition and was banned in some cities in the U.S.
Here are some photos of the Casino Theatre as it is now.
VIEW FROM FREEBODY STREET
SIDE, LOOKING TOWARD FREEBODY STREET
REAR ENTRANCE
VAN ALEN PLAQUE
MAIN ENTRANCE AT SIDE
Here is the text of an ad for the upcoming The Cat and the Canary in December, 1939…and a clever promotion for it:
TONIGHT AT MIDNIGHT!
Miss Charlotte Alt, 100 Prospect Hill Street, will
witness a private showing of Paramount’s terrifying
thriller “THE CAT AND THE CANARY"
at the
STRAND THEATRE
SHE WILL BE THE ONLY PERSON IN THE THEATRE!
699 Empty Seats in a Completely Darkened Theatre!
For her daring in acepting this nerve-tingling
assignment, she will receive $5.00 in cash!