This first photo shows Main Street in 1920 with the Bijou on the right just beyond the bridge. Note the white dome and the figure atop it. It is an eagle.
This second photo shows that eagle now serving as a souvenir on a local lawn.
According to additional information provided by Mr. Laurence J. Sasso, Jr., editor of The Observer, an area newspaper, and a February 13, 1997 article in that paper, Diamond Hall was located in Wilkinson Block, which contained Wilkinson’s Store and Diamond Hall, situated on the second floor. That upstairs hall received its name “Diamond” from a diamond shade in darker colored wood in the center of the floor.
Over the decades of its existence Diamond Hall was used for stage plays, movies, and graduations, and, no doubt, for meetings, dances, and other social events. Greenville Grammar School was located diagonally across Austin Avenue. There was a fire in the 1930s, according to the recollections of many locals, and the building was torn down after that. It is not yet clear what year that was, and as I wrote above, the place is listed in a 1935 business directory as showing movies during that time. The spot where the building once was is now occupied by a cleaning establishment.
The name of the place was also Wilkinson Hall, according to an October 11, 1913 program for a minstrel show, put on by a local group, “20th Century Minstrel Troup,” under the leadership of musical director Phil McConnell.
Rhode Island had many such local halls built for a multitude of purposes and showing movies on either a regular or part-time basis. Others that come to mind are Myrtle Hall in Johnston, Peacedale Opera House in Peacedale, Music Hall in Pascoag.
Interesting that roadshow-type films played here, way out in a neighborhood, rather than in or near downtown. That’s pretty much like the Elmwood in Providence. A gas station now occupies the spot that was once the Baylies Square/Arcade Theatre. I drove up there a few months ago looking for the spot.
Here is a photo of Main Street in Pembroke. The caption in Roger Davies' book of photos, Old Pembrokeshire, reads:
“A view of Main Street, Pembroke looking into Castle Terrace and showing the Castle in the background. On the right is Williams' Shoe Shop with its impressive portico, alas no longer standing; then there is Halls the Bakers, next to Pembroke Cinema. Another impressive card by Mortimer Allen of Tenby.”
Information from various websites indicate this was also known as Filmmakers' Cooperative, an intended permanent home for a peripatetic group of that same name, founded by Jonas Mekas, and which ultimately, after assorted peregrinations, became the Anthology Film Archives. The organization promulgated the work of mostly American independent experimental filmmakers.
With Shirley Clarke and Lionel Rogosin, Mekas organized the Film-Makers' Distribution Center to serve what they hoped would be a circuit of art theaters showing at least the feature-length works of the avant-garde. The artists screened their films at a place called The Filmmakers' Cinematheque, which was in the basement of the now-demolished Wurlitzer building on West 41st Street in New York. Increasing losses eventually forced Mekas to discontinue the Cinematheque at the Forty-First Street theatre.
On September 10,1966 Andy Warhol’s two-projector The Chelsea Girls opened here to a good deal of acclaim, and continued a run later at the Regency on Broadway.
Ha ha! That’s great. I too “appreciated” Yul Brynner. Do you have any other recollections that you could post about the Durfee on its page? Growing up in the Providence area, I never had much opportunity to go to Fall River theatres. The Academy was the only one I visited, much later, when it was the only one left. And I regret most not having been to the Durfee, especially the night Lillian Gish appeared there to show some of early films and also because it was considered Fall River’s finest.
There was at least one very big auditorium here for many years after it opened. By the late 1990s everything had been subdivided into bite-size cinemas.
An ad in the 1936 commemorative book Tercentenary, Providence and Rhode Island by four downtown Providence theatres, listed theatre names and managers:
PROVIDENCE DOWNTOWN THEATRES
MAJESTIC
Bernard M. Fay, Manager
R.K.O. ALBEE
Edward A. Zorn, Manager
LOEW’S STATE
Howard C. Burkhardt, Manager
STRAND
Edward R. Reed Manager
An ad in the 1936 commemorative book Tercentenary, Providence and Rhode Island by four downtown Providence theatres, listed theatre names and managers:
PROVIDENCE DOWNTOWN THEATRES
MAJESTIC
Bernard M. Fay, Manager
R.K.O. ALBEE
Edward A. Zorn, Manager
LOEW’S STATE
Howard C. Burkhardt, Manager
STRAND
Edward R. Reed Manager
An ad in the 1936 commemorative book Tercentenary, Providence and Rhode Island by four downtown Providence theatres, listed theatre names and managers:
PROVIDENCE DOWNTOWN THEATRES
MAJESTIC
Bernard M. Fay, Manager
R.K.O. ALBEE
Edward A. Zorn, Manager
LOEW’S STATE
Howard C. Burkhardt, Manager
STRAND
Edward R. Reed Manager
An ad in the 1936 commemorative book Tercentenary, Providence and Rhode Island by four downtown Providence theatres, listed theatre names and managers:
PROVIDENCE DOWNTOWN THEATRES
MAJESTIC
Bernard M. Fay, Manager
R.K.O. ALBEE
Edward A. Zorn, Manager
LOEW’S STATE
Howard C. Burkhardt, Manager
STRAND
Edward R. Reed Manager
By an unknown author, as quoted in Oliver H. Stedman’s A Stroll Through Memory Lane, 1978:
What flushed me out of semi-retirement was the news report that Fagan’s is going to be torn down. Fagan’s Opera House still stands, at least for now, in the business center of Peace Dale Flats in South Kingstown. Ah, what memories, those great Saturday nights at Fagan’s. We young fellows came down from upper South County, while others arrived from the Pier [Narragansett] or as far south as Westerly. Still others, students, came down the line from the then R.I. State College [later University of R.I.] The Opera House was strictly a family movie theatre, but on Saturday nights we were all drawn there for the later dancing with the local belles.
Ah, what belles. They really rang our chimes, and they didn’t have to blow in out ears to follow them through any steps they cared to do on the dance floor.
When the movies had ended each Saturday night about ten o'clock, the crowd flocked to the rear of the theatre while the staff pushed back against the wall the rows of chairs with folding seats. The peanut shells, empty popcorn boxes and candy wrappers were swept away, and the orchestra set up in a corner near the stage that held the movie screen.
[A long description of the music and the dances ensues.]
Fagan’s soon will be but a memory, but what a happy memory…
From A Stroll Through Memory Lane, 1978, by Oliver H. Stedman, reprising an earlier article of his [year?] for The Spectator:
Through the years preceding and during the first World War, Frank J. Fagan (then a prominent businessman of that section of Peace Dale…) was possessed with the feeling that all the places of entertainment should not be confined to Wakefield [about a mile away], but that Peace Dale should have a place of amusement also. These thoughts were put aside somewhat during the war years, but early in 1920 Mr. Fagan was able to secure what seemed like an ideal place for his project, the lot formerly occupied by Easterbrook’s wood yard.
(…)
Work was soon started on a new theatre for Peace Dale, to be known as the Peace Dale Theatre and to others as Fagan’s Opera House. …The theatre building was well underway by midsummer of 1921 and practically finished by October of that year. It had a fine birch floor for dancing in the main hall, a balcony on both sides and in the rear, and a stage 20x20 on the north side. The general layout was much the same as Miller’s Opera House in Wakefield. There were small stores and a ticket office on each side of the main entrance and modern heating, plumbing and lighting throughout.
The dedication and opening took place on the evening of October 26th, 1921, as our local paper, “The Times,” said, “With a dash and vigor which augurs well for its future success.” It was a big night for Peace Dale. A line formed from the ticket office to the railroad bridge [the then Kingston-Narragansett Line, now a bike path] and cars were parked all around the streets and well into Rocky Brook and along High Street.
Roy Quigley, the new manager, had the ticket office and Frank Sims took charge of the main door. Roy remained for some time as manager and was succeeded by Frank Sims, who had charge of the theatre for many years. A band concert by the Peace Dale Band, ouside and inside the new building, opened the exercises. There was a short speech by Mr. Edmund Lyons noting the Flats [town square] progress, and the unveiling of a community flag for the flagpole on the green concluded the opening ceremonies. This was followed by a comedy and western movie and dancing to the music of Ben Eaton’s Orchestra until well after midnight.
From that night on, Fagan’s Opera House was the scene of fine moving pictures, community dances, fairs held by various organizations, baseball and football clubs and firemen. It was also the place where for many seasons the Champion South Kingstown Basketball teams held their home games.
With the coming of World War II, and television somewhat later,…attendance fell off. Frank Fagan, Sr. passed away and the surviving members of the family moved from town and lost interest in the property. Closing in the early 1950s and unused and unoccupied, it became a menace to adjoining property and was finally condemned by the town building authorities and about 10 years ago [late 1950s?] went under the wreckers' hammer. A sad ending for a project which had started only a few years before with such enthusiasm and good will.
I’m almost positive this was the place I saw the off-beat 1965 Canadian film Winter Kept Us Warm in April of 1968. At the time I noted only that I saw it at a “42nd Street cinema” which was more like a company auditorium located a bit inside a commercial building. It was a 16mm showing. The film itself, directed by David Secter, made a strong impression on me at the time, but it seems to have disappeared from any general consciousness, including mine.
To my mind, this theatre seems to book the best of the crop of current films, while the ones of lesser interest seem to be put into the chain’s Showcase Cinemas Seekonk 1-10, about a mile away. But that judgment may simply reflect my tastes. I went there tonight to see the Ron Howard film Cinderella Man with Russell Crowe. I wasn’t fired up about yet another boxing-theme film this year, after Million Dollar Baby, but it turned out to be quite amazing, moving, and downright exciting, and with some excellently constructed period settings of the 1930s. This multiplex is located at Seekonk Square, a large shopping plaza on Route 6. People undoubtedly confuse this place with Showcase Cinemas Seekonk 1-10 as they do with the Showcase Warwick and Showcase Warwick Mall. A good bountiful and cheap place to eat at before or after the movie is Old Country Buffet, located a few hundred feet away in the same plaza.
Yes, the original building still stands, with some addition in the rear. It is now a store/showroom called Fireplace Showcase. Showcase, get it? Like the cinema it once was. Looks like the original theatrical lettering for “Showcase” on the front was kept, with “Fireplace” added in the same style.
In addition to the bound volumes of Variety film reviews, the N.Y. Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center should have Variety Magazine complete on microfilm. (Where I live, U.R.I. has it all on microfilm.)
I saw the Stephen Frears' film The Grifters here in February, 1991. I have a note that the place was called Showcase Cinemas Seekonk 9-10 at the time. Perhaps the larger place across the street subdivided subsequently and they had to rename this twinner 11-12. Go figure.
Here are two photos relating to the Bijou:
This first photo shows Main Street in 1920 with the Bijou on the right just beyond the bridge. Note the white dome and the figure atop it. It is an eagle.
This second photo shows that eagle now serving as a souvenir on a local lawn.
According to additional information provided by Mr. Laurence J. Sasso, Jr., editor of The Observer, an area newspaper, and a February 13, 1997 article in that paper, Diamond Hall was located in Wilkinson Block, which contained Wilkinson’s Store and Diamond Hall, situated on the second floor. That upstairs hall received its name “Diamond” from a diamond shade in darker colored wood in the center of the floor.
Over the decades of its existence Diamond Hall was used for stage plays, movies, and graduations, and, no doubt, for meetings, dances, and other social events. Greenville Grammar School was located diagonally across Austin Avenue. There was a fire in the 1930s, according to the recollections of many locals, and the building was torn down after that. It is not yet clear what year that was, and as I wrote above, the place is listed in a 1935 business directory as showing movies during that time. The spot where the building once was is now occupied by a cleaning establishment.
The name of the place was also Wilkinson Hall, according to an October 11, 1913 program for a minstrel show, put on by a local group, “20th Century Minstrel Troup,” under the leadership of musical director Phil McConnell.
Rhode Island had many such local halls built for a multitude of purposes and showing movies on either a regular or part-time basis. Others that come to mind are Myrtle Hall in Johnston, Peacedale Opera House in Peacedale, Music Hall in Pascoag.
Here is an image of Diamond Hall (top) from a photocopy of an old postcard.
Interesting that roadshow-type films played here, way out in a neighborhood, rather than in or near downtown. That’s pretty much like the Elmwood in Providence. A gas station now occupies the spot that was once the Baylies Square/Arcade Theatre. I drove up there a few months ago looking for the spot.
Is this the same Robert L. Lippert, film producer/distributor of many noted B-productions?
Here is a photo of Main Street in Pembroke. The caption in Roger Davies' book of photos, Old Pembrokeshire, reads:
“A view of Main Street, Pembroke looking into Castle Terrace and showing the Castle in the background. On the right is Williams' Shoe Shop with its impressive portico, alas no longer standing; then there is Halls the Bakers, next to Pembroke Cinema. Another impressive card by Mortimer Allen of Tenby.”
This is a great breakthrough. Maybe you know something about New Bedford theatres as well.
I agree with everything you say here and am just as sad. I missed Lawrence of Arabia here but I did see Around the World in 80 Days, South Pacific.
Clarification: Filmmakers' Cooperative was name of the distribution outfit. Filmmakers' Cinematheque was a name for the screening facility.
Information from various websites indicate this was also known as Filmmakers' Cooperative, an intended permanent home for a peripatetic group of that same name, founded by Jonas Mekas, and which ultimately, after assorted peregrinations, became the Anthology Film Archives. The organization promulgated the work of mostly American independent experimental filmmakers.
With Shirley Clarke and Lionel Rogosin, Mekas organized the Film-Makers' Distribution Center to serve what they hoped would be a circuit of art theaters showing at least the feature-length works of the avant-garde. The artists screened their films at a place called The Filmmakers' Cinematheque, which was in the basement of the now-demolished Wurlitzer building on West 41st Street in New York. Increasing losses eventually forced Mekas to discontinue the Cinematheque at the Forty-First Street theatre.
On September 10,1966 Andy Warhol’s two-projector The Chelsea Girls opened here to a good deal of acclaim, and continued a run later at the Regency on Broadway.
Ha ha! That’s great. I too “appreciated” Yul Brynner. Do you have any other recollections that you could post about the Durfee on its page? Growing up in the Providence area, I never had much opportunity to go to Fall River theatres. The Academy was the only one I visited, much later, when it was the only one left. And I regret most not having been to the Durfee, especially the night Lillian Gish appeared there to show some of early films and also because it was considered Fall River’s finest.
My photo of the Island from 2003.
There was at least one very big auditorium here for many years after it opened. By the late 1990s everything had been subdivided into bite-size cinemas.
An ad in the 1936 commemorative book Tercentenary, Providence and Rhode Island by four downtown Providence theatres, listed theatre names and managers:
PROVIDENCE DOWNTOWN THEATRES
MAJESTIC
Bernard M. Fay, Manager
R.K.O. ALBEE
Edward A. Zorn, Manager
LOEW’S STATE
Howard C. Burkhardt, Manager
STRAND
Edward R. Reed Manager
An ad in the 1936 commemorative book Tercentenary, Providence and Rhode Island by four downtown Providence theatres, listed theatre names and managers:
PROVIDENCE DOWNTOWN THEATRES
MAJESTIC
Bernard M. Fay, Manager
R.K.O. ALBEE
Edward A. Zorn, Manager
LOEW’S STATE
Howard C. Burkhardt, Manager
STRAND
Edward R. Reed Manager
An ad in the 1936 commemorative book Tercentenary, Providence and Rhode Island by four downtown Providence theatres, listed theatre names and managers:
PROVIDENCE DOWNTOWN THEATRES
MAJESTIC
Bernard M. Fay, Manager
R.K.O. ALBEE
Edward A. Zorn, Manager
LOEW’S STATE
Howard C. Burkhardt, Manager
STRAND
Edward R. Reed Manager
An ad in the 1936 commemorative book Tercentenary, Providence and Rhode Island by four downtown Providence theatres, listed theatre names and managers:
PROVIDENCE DOWNTOWN THEATRES
MAJESTIC
Bernard M. Fay, Manager
R.K.O. ALBEE
Edward A. Zorn, Manager
LOEW’S STATE
Howard C. Burkhardt, Manager
STRAND
Edward R. Reed Manager
Those Saturday Nights at Fagan’s
By an unknown author, as quoted in Oliver H. Stedman’s A Stroll Through Memory Lane, 1978:
What flushed me out of semi-retirement was the news report that Fagan’s is going to be torn down. Fagan’s Opera House still stands, at least for now, in the business center of Peace Dale Flats in South Kingstown. Ah, what memories, those great Saturday nights at Fagan’s. We young fellows came down from upper South County, while others arrived from the Pier [Narragansett] or as far south as Westerly. Still others, students, came down the line from the then R.I. State College [later University of R.I.] The Opera House was strictly a family movie theatre, but on Saturday nights we were all drawn there for the later dancing with the local belles.
Ah, what belles. They really rang our chimes, and they didn’t have to blow in out ears to follow them through any steps they cared to do on the dance floor.
When the movies had ended each Saturday night about ten o'clock, the crowd flocked to the rear of the theatre while the staff pushed back against the wall the rows of chairs with folding seats. The peanut shells, empty popcorn boxes and candy wrappers were swept away, and the orchestra set up in a corner near the stage that held the movie screen.
[A long description of the music and the dances ensues.]
Fagan’s soon will be but a memory, but what a happy memory…
Origins of the theatre
From A Stroll Through Memory Lane, 1978, by Oliver H. Stedman, reprising an earlier article of his [year?] for The Spectator:
Through the years preceding and during the first World War, Frank J. Fagan (then a prominent businessman of that section of Peace Dale…) was possessed with the feeling that all the places of entertainment should not be confined to Wakefield [about a mile away], but that Peace Dale should have a place of amusement also. These thoughts were put aside somewhat during the war years, but early in 1920 Mr. Fagan was able to secure what seemed like an ideal place for his project, the lot formerly occupied by Easterbrook’s wood yard.
(…)
Work was soon started on a new theatre for Peace Dale, to be known as the Peace Dale Theatre and to others as Fagan’s Opera House. …The theatre building was well underway by midsummer of 1921 and practically finished by October of that year. It had a fine birch floor for dancing in the main hall, a balcony on both sides and in the rear, and a stage 20x20 on the north side. The general layout was much the same as Miller’s Opera House in Wakefield. There were small stores and a ticket office on each side of the main entrance and modern heating, plumbing and lighting throughout.
The dedication and opening took place on the evening of October 26th, 1921, as our local paper, “The Times,” said, “With a dash and vigor which augurs well for its future success.” It was a big night for Peace Dale. A line formed from the ticket office to the railroad bridge [the then Kingston-Narragansett Line, now a bike path] and cars were parked all around the streets and well into Rocky Brook and along High Street.
Roy Quigley, the new manager, had the ticket office and Frank Sims took charge of the main door. Roy remained for some time as manager and was succeeded by Frank Sims, who had charge of the theatre for many years. A band concert by the Peace Dale Band, ouside and inside the new building, opened the exercises. There was a short speech by Mr. Edmund Lyons noting the Flats [town square] progress, and the unveiling of a community flag for the flagpole on the green concluded the opening ceremonies. This was followed by a comedy and western movie and dancing to the music of Ben Eaton’s Orchestra until well after midnight.
From that night on, Fagan’s Opera House was the scene of fine moving pictures, community dances, fairs held by various organizations, baseball and football clubs and firemen. It was also the place where for many seasons the Champion South Kingstown Basketball teams held their home games.
With the coming of World War II, and television somewhat later,…attendance fell off. Frank Fagan, Sr. passed away and the surviving members of the family moved from town and lost interest in the property. Closing in the early 1950s and unused and unoccupied, it became a menace to adjoining property and was finally condemned by the town building authorities and about 10 years ago [late 1950s?] went under the wreckers' hammer. A sad ending for a project which had started only a few years before with such enthusiasm and good will.
I’m almost positive this was the place I saw the off-beat 1965 Canadian film Winter Kept Us Warm in April of 1968. At the time I noted only that I saw it at a “42nd Street cinema” which was more like a company auditorium located a bit inside a commercial building. It was a 16mm showing. The film itself, directed by David Secter, made a strong impression on me at the time, but it seems to have disappeared from any general consciousness, including mine.
To my mind, this theatre seems to book the best of the crop of current films, while the ones of lesser interest seem to be put into the chain’s Showcase Cinemas Seekonk 1-10, about a mile away. But that judgment may simply reflect my tastes. I went there tonight to see the Ron Howard film Cinderella Man with Russell Crowe. I wasn’t fired up about yet another boxing-theme film this year, after Million Dollar Baby, but it turned out to be quite amazing, moving, and downright exciting, and with some excellently constructed period settings of the 1930s. This multiplex is located at Seekonk Square, a large shopping plaza on Route 6. People undoubtedly confuse this place with Showcase Cinemas Seekonk 1-10 as they do with the Showcase Warwick and Showcase Warwick Mall. A good bountiful and cheap place to eat at before or after the movie is Old Country Buffet, located a few hundred feet away in the same plaza.
Yes, the original building still stands, with some addition in the rear. It is now a store/showroom called Fireplace Showcase. Showcase, get it? Like the cinema it once was. Looks like the original theatrical lettering for “Showcase” on the front was kept, with “Fireplace” added in the same style.
Wow! Apollonian? Perhaps closer to Dionysian. Thanks.
In addition to the bound volumes of Variety film reviews, the N.Y. Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center should have Variety Magazine complete on microfilm. (Where I live, U.R.I. has it all on microfilm.)
Note that behind the Selwyn marquee is the Apollo showing The Lost One (La Traviata). Opera on 42nd Street!
I saw the Stephen Frears' film The Grifters here in February, 1991. I have a note that the place was called Showcase Cinemas Seekonk 9-10 at the time. Perhaps the larger place across the street subdivided subsequently and they had to rename this twinner 11-12. Go figure.