Metropolitan Theatre
9 Chestnut Street,
Providence,
RI
02903
9 Chestnut Street,
Providence,
RI
02903
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Correction: great-granddaughter of Jacob Conn.
Here is a recently discovered photo of the Metropolitan Theatre from circa 1932, perhaps not long after it opened in August of that year. The marquee and roof signs show it was then called simply “Conn’s Theatre.” This is the Chestnut Street side. There was an entrance on Broad Street as well. Photo courtesy of Laura Frommer, granddaughter of original builder-owner Jacob Conn.
Harriet, yes, please email them. (italiangerry(at)gmail.com.)
I have pictures of the Gaiety, Metropolitan (I think), and a theater in Concord, NH, but don’t know how to post them on this website. I can email them to you if you would like to help identify them.
Harriet,
Please do post links to those photos. If one of them is the Olympia in Olneyville, that would be a first, since there have been no known photos of that place. There is a glossy photo of the Gaiety at the Rhode Island Historical Sciety. A good number exist of the Metropolitan, and I have posted links to them on this page.
Thank you very much. I have a postcard of the Gaiety Theater in Providence, which I will scan next month and post. I also have a photo of another Conn Theater, perhaps the Metropolitan or Olympia Theater, which I will also post next month.
Harriet, go to this weblink and type in Temples of Illusions.
http://library.provlib.org/
About the fifth entry down, click on the library title and it will show you the libraries where you can read this book. You will NOT be able to check it out though but there is a copier available.
Harriet, I found the book at the Pawtucket Library. Go to the second floor and tell them you want Temples of Illusions in the RI Reading room. The day I went, the room was locked and they only let just a couple of people in there at a time because of the sensitive rare collections.
I would like to read the story about Jacob Conn, my great grandfather, in Brett’s book. Where could I find this book? Does anyone have more information about Jacob Conn? Thank you.
The theatre didn’t fully close in 1954 as previously asserted. There were stage events, even films, in 1955. October 1, 1955 brought a production of the opera The Barber of Seville with Robert Merrill, Salvatore Baccaloni, under the direction of Maestro Danilo Sciotti.
The following comments were sent to me by Fred Deusch, who in the 1940s was a young usher and doorman and bus-and-trolley barker for the Metropolitan:
“I went through the book Temples of Illusion yesterday. Quite interesting. I liked the story about Jake Conn. In it Brett lists the Met as being owned by Associated Theatres. He also lists a manager I didn’t know. I started there in 1947 and it was run by Ralph E. Snyder (not sure of Snyder spelling) and the house manager was James E. Randall, when the Met closed Randall went to the Palace and then to the Elmwood when Todd-AO came in. The manager at the Park was Charles Nelson. The Pawtucket Fairlawn was owned by Dorothy Fisher and run by her son Harry Fisher. The Avon, Castle, Hope/Cinerama and Liberty/Art were owned by Lockwood & Gordon but these were later sold to someone else.
It’s interesting to see how Roger Brett saw the Met from the backstage side and I saw it from the front side. I only remember two regular stagehands there. On Tuesday nights they both worked in order to later the marquee. Outside of that we never saw the stage hands in the front end of the theatre. I assume when the big musicals and shows came in additional stage hands were also brought in to work. Again, they would use the stage entrance instead of the front entrance. There were also two firemen at the Met one was named Tony and the other was Art. Together they handled the nighttime cleaning of the theatre. Special art work for stage show signs and the marquee ends came from a sign shop on Richmond Street in the Loew’s Theatre building. Two gentlemen ran the shop one being Ernie the Frenchman. Funny, last names never entered the picture. I don’t ever remember a parking garage being a part of the Met. In fact I don’t remember any parking garage. There were a couple of stores to the left of the Chestnut entrance, one being a music store. There was also a radio station on the top floor of the building. I think it might have been WHIM.
“Being the only theatre without air conditioning it was mighty hot in the summer. Our uniforms were made of quite heavy material. Trying to beat the heat I bought some cardboard shirtfronts. These were worse than regular shirts. In true teenager fashion I took a couple of regular shirts and cut away everything but the collar and front. This helped somewhat but sent the man at the Chinese laundry on Broad Street tearing his hair out. He thought I was totally crazy. In the winter I had the barking duties at the Broad Street entrance. I would be out there from 1:00 PM until about 8:00 PM. Frozen feet were the order of the day.”
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.
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.
Gerald, how do I email my address to you? I have the ‘accept private email’ turned on in my profile but I do not know how to send private email to you.
Can you advise on how to do this? I realize that you don’t want you’re email addy displayed for all to see but I do not know how to do it otherwise.
Roland, yes, I agree about those photos. I wish there were more. I had breakfast with Fred Deusch this morning. He had read an article about me and my love of old theatres that was published in The Observer and other papers two weeks ago. I asked the interviewer to include my e-mail address, and Mr. Deusch responded. A bit of good luck. He gave me those pictures and told me a few stories. See the Elmwood site for more. He told me that later as a projectionist, he worked at the Elmwood, Cinerama, the Pawtucket Strand, some others. I told him I’d ask him other stuff from time to time. He’s really a nice guy.
If you want a copy of the article about me that prompted it all, email me your address, and I can mail it to you.
Gerald, these pictures are truly exciting to see. We often forget about the faces behind the scenes to run these theaters.
Of interest to me is that I can print them out to show my neighbor.
Her husband was a some sort of display/artist/architect guy who did freelance work for the Providence to New Haven areas. She told me that her husband frequently did display work for the Majestic. Yes, I did ask if she had pictures of any of his work and she didn’t. I’m going to print these pictures to see if she remembers these people.
If permissible, I would LOVE to hear how you can across this Fred Deusch and his pictures.
Fred Deusch, usher and doorman at the Metropolitan Theatre in the 1940s, recalled that one of his tasks was to transport incoming prints of movies to the projection booth, which was located above the ceiling of the auditorium. A pulley device had to be used to hoist the containers up. One night when he was doing this, pianist José Iturbi was performing on stage. (The Met regularly had live performances: musicals, opera and symphony orchestras.) The pulley mechanism began to squeak loudly, and a visibly displeased Iturbi kept glancing up to see what was causing the noise. A photo of Fred Deusch appears in my previous posting.
Photos of the Metropolitan Theatre, 1948
(Thanks to Fred Deusch)
BROAD STREET ENTRANCE
CHESTNUT STREET ENTRANCE
In this next photo, beyond the bus, we see Empire Street. The Majestic Theatre is the white bit near the top right:
CHESTNUT STREET MARQUEE
FRED DEUSCH, DOORMAN
FRANK BURLINGHAM, USHER
TONY THE FIREMAN & EDGAR GRANT, USHER
PHIL THE TICKET TAKER
Here’s an ad for Rossellini’s Paisan which had its Providence premiere here in March of 1949.
Roland, I will check out the Conley book. That picture appears in several places including Roger Brett’s volume. I have a picture of Music Hall…don’t know if it is the same. Sure, I’d like to see it. I’ve been going from library to library across the state, spending time looking at local histories for stuff on local theatre history. I’ve found out lots of things, and wherever I go there is often material pertaining to other places in the state. I found a whole history of the construction of the Majestic in Arctic, which I will post later today.
Gerald, you beat me to it! I was just checking this listing to see if an interior shot was given and lo and behold, you already have it! Great job. For reference, the picture I have (which is the one you’ve posted) came from a book called Providence: A pictoral history by Patrick Conley. He is/was a prolific writer of RI history.
Thanks for those pictures though. I think nothing please the mind’s eye greater than a photo. I think we both have his desire to go back and see these great theaters in their heyday.
I came across an 1872 picture of the Providence Music Hall if you need another picture. I have a lot of picture scanning to do this weekend. So if you would like the picture, I can host it.
Here are two photos of the Metropolitan from the 1930s.
EXTERIOR – 1936 The marquee reads “New York Grand Opera."
INTERIOR – 1939
The interior, though very large, was extremely barren and plain, like an immense barn. It had no charm. The theatre was unable to successfully book major Hollywood films in first-run, and they all went to the Albee, Loew’s State, the Strand, and the Majestic. Some success was seen with touring Broadway shows, symphony concerts, operatic performances, but there were times when the place remained dark for some time between engagements. Roger Brett talks about this theatre extensively in his book Temples of Illusion. In fact he had worked here as a young stage hand for a time. The theatre was the failed brain child of Jacob Conn, who also built the Olympia Theatre in the Olneyville district of the city. The Metropolitan opened in 1932, closed in 1954, was demolished in 1961.
Roberto Rossellini’s Paisan premiered in Providence at this enormous house in March of 1949. That’s the kind of film that would normally have opened at the art-house Avon. It must have done reasonably well, because it appeared here and there at various second run theatres, even drive-ins. The Providence Journal review by Bradford F. Swan was ecstatic.
By some kind of mysterious confluence, Rossellini’s Europe ‘51, under the title of The Greatest Love, would play here in April of 1955. Although it starred Ingrid Bergman, you can be sure this ahead-of-its-time mystical-visionary piece was met with antipathy and snores.