Wang Theatre
270 Tremont Street,
Boston,
MA
02116
270 Tremont Street,
Boston,
MA
02116
19 people
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Showing 26 - 50 of 154 comments
thanks Chuck,Great pictures.
Great shots of the Wang Theatre.
In a 1918 Boston street directory, the site of the Wang Th., between the Wilbur Th. and Hollis St., was occupied by the New Richword Hotel.
Grand old theatre .great stories.
Thank you so much. That information is very helpful to me.
ginabiehn – for movie titles look at the Met’s ads in the entertainment section of Boston newspapers, such as the Globe and Post for the years you want to write about. The papers are on file on microfilm at the Boston Public Library. For many years after it opened, the Met was a first-run movie theater, so the ticket prices were a bit higher than in the neighborhood houses. (example: in 1955, about 75 cents at night, versus 45 or 50 cents in a “nabe”.)The Met attracted a wide mass audience.
Thank you all for your very informative discussion about the Metropolitan/Wang theatre in Boston. I am working on a project about the old movie palaces of the 1920’s and 30’s and I chose this theatre to research. Would anybody have any infomation or know of any places where I could research exactly what movies were playing there in that time period? Or about the people who attended? Any links or tips for research would be much appreciated. Thank you
Would like to see photos of the new electronic marquees.I hope it enhanced the theatres because the marquee on the Wang was very boring.brucec
The marquee which forms a rain canopy over the sidewalk has been redecorated. As posted above, there is a large electronic marquee above it, perpendicular to the facade. There are similar new electronic marquees next door at the Wilbur Theatre and across the street on the Shubert.
Click here for a photograph of the Metropolitan [Wang] Theatre taken in 1929 by George Mann of the comedy dance team, Barto & Mann.
Here’s a corrected link to the photos at the Conrad Schmitt studios. Some great before and after restoration photos!
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I have heard that there was a screening room in the Met with some 90 seats in it for showing new movies to “the trade”. It was located upstairs somewhere at the front of the house. The space is still there, but the mini-cinema is long gone.
The Music Hall/Metropolitan Theatre is one of the qualifying buildings for the Piano Row District listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Here is the narrative description from the nomination form:
Music Hall/Metropolitan Theatre
Architect: Chief Designers: Blackall, Clapp and Kenneth Franzheim, G. Nelson Meser
Builder: Olympia Construction Co.
Irregularly-shaped Renaissance Revival “palazzo skyscraper” with symetrical, 11-bay Tremont facade. Two-story colonnade of engaged fluted Greek Ionic columns at level 2-3. Shaft of building organized by rising piers, recessed spandrals and paired metal window units, with ornament concentrated at level 4 and 5. Building terminated by two-story colonnade of engaged Corinthian pilasters at level 12 and 13, plus denti cornice and roof cresting of palmettes and theatre masks.
The Music Hall/Metropolitan is highly significant as the largest theatre in Boston history and one of the largest in the country, as the best example of the sumptuous “movie palace” of the roaring twenties and as the last of Clarence Blackall’s 14 Boston theatres.
The theatre reputedly cost 8.5m, seats 4200-4400, and is housed in a large office building, first to be constructed in Boston under a new height limit of 14 stories. Architect Clarence Blackall (1857-1942), one of the leading U.S. theatre architects and designer of the Colonial, Wilbur, Modern and Pilgrim/Olympia. The interior, modeled after Garnier’s Paris Opera and decorated in the Louis XIV style, was appropriately advertised as “the public castle” with “a thousand and one wonders” including the grand lobby with four tiers of prominades, spacious lounges, marble doorways, rose jasper pillers, tow 1800-lb. gold plated chandeliers, bronze details by the Gorham Company, and $10,000 in gems decorating the central mural painting by Edmund Philo Kellog.
The entertainment was equally extravagant. The Met offered a combination of films and stage show, which might feature its resident ballet corps, 100-voice chorus, 55-piece orchestra and two console organ, all for 35 cents or 75 cents on weekend evenings. Resident producer John Murray Anderson arranged his own stage shows, headlined over the years with stars such as Rudy Vallee, Al Jolson, Burns and Allen, Jack Benny and Bob Hope. A seating board and cadre of 40 well-mannered, costumed ushers made sure that no seat remained empty long. Waiting patrons could arrange for bridge parties, lounge in comfortable chairs with the latest magazines, prominade to the music of two lobby orchestras, play ping pong, or visit the chic art deco restaurant which opened in 1932.
Since the destruction of the Boston Opera House in 1958, the Metropolitan has been used for performances by the Royal Ballet, Metropolitan Opera Company, Bolshoi, Kirov and Stuttgart Opera. Has been “Music Hall” leased by Sach Theatres since 1962.
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The Wurlitzer (4 manual 26 rank)that was in the Metropolitan was removed in the early 70s, it was purchased by a group from Portand Oregon who operated a theatre organ-equipped pizza parlor there, the “Organ Grinder”. The Boston Met console was added to their existing organ, the core of which came from the Portland Oriental theatre (3-13 Wurlitzer), as did select ranks of pipes, the remaining pipes were sold off piecemeal, breaking up the original organ. After the restaurant closed in 1996 the 44 rank colossus was sold to a Chicago interest who broke it up for parts, the console is now back in the Boston area controlling a fine instrument at the Shanklin conference center, adjacent to the Shanklin Corporation’s plant.
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How I miss their Monday Night Motion Picture Series!
I walked within a block of the Wang yesterday afternoon and it does indeed have one of those colorful, ever-changing electronic cartoon -type marquees. There is one also on the Shubert across the street. They are both large rectangular devices attached perpendicular to the building facade.
Further to the comments above by Chet Dowling regarding a passageway in the Wang basement leading from backstage to the front of the house. I looked at a floorplan of the basement printed in the 1927 book “American Theatres of Today” which is about to be reprinted by the Theatre Historical Society of America. There were doorways and a short set of steps in the basement on either side of the base of the orchestra pit. If you went out the door on the east side (stage-left) it was pretty much a straight shot out to the lower lobby. If you went out the door on the west side (stage-right) you would need a guide to lead you thru the maze! But you would end up near the men’s room.
Thanks for the info Ron; Nice to hear that the old secret passage is still there. I live on the West coast these days; and have never been back to visit the new Wang Center.
I remember when Martin & Lewis played the Met. It was around 1952-53; I was in Quincy H.S. at the time and some students skipped school and went to see them. The stage house at the Met then has since been replaced by a new and much larger stage house. The stage door and the loading door were at stage-left originally. I have been told a couple of times that it is still possible to go from the lobby to back stage by way of a passageway in the basement which leads from the lounges at the lower level to the basement under the stage.
The attendance record at the Metropolitan was broken in the early fifties when Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis were booked live on stage for a week. The shows were continuous every day and featured Les Brown & his Orchestra, Helen O'Connell and Gene Sheldon. The crowds were almost uncontrollable. I was assigned backstage, and discovered that there is a secret door leading from the dressing rooms directly into the downstairs Mens' Lounge. This is how Martin & Lewis escaped the mobs at the Stage Door. They simply mingled with the patrons walking out of the Lounge and out into the street. They called it “Hide In Plain Sight”. I wonder if it still exists at The Wang?
I have heard that the upper marquee at the Wang, which is really sort of a short, wide vertical sign, has been converted to one of those electronic animated signs. And that there is a similar sign on the Shubert across the street. Anyone know for sure?
The new Corporate sponsor should restore its marquee to reflect the interior of this theatre. This is the missing link in the restoration of this theatre. Both the Wang and the Opera House have terrible marquees and the Paramount has the best marquee in the theatre district.bruce
I hope that’s not true, as I have tickets to the Old 97’s at the Wilbur on October 5!
There are some ‘08-'09 attractions posted on the citicenter.org website, mostly the final season at the Wang Th. for the Boston Ballet, plus a few other things; but virtually nothing for the Shubert Th. (although their resident opera company will be back). Times are tough on that block of Tremont St.— I read somewhere just recently that a number of the music concert attractions at the Wilbur Th. (next to Wang) have cancelled.
The ang doesn’t seem to be doing to well these days. Every other major local performing-arts organization has long since announced their 2008-09 calendar and starting selling subscriptions. Not the Wang. When I walked up to their box office a couple of weeks ago, they still had no information available about the upcoming season.