Jane Pickens Theatre
49 Touro Street,
Newport,
RI
02840
49 Touro Street,
Newport,
RI
02840
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The theatre e-newsletter just announced the following:
The Jane Pickens Theater is poised to become Washington Square’s first live performance center. The movie house on Touro Street will continue to show films, but owner Kathy Staab plans to add live performances. “This gives us more opportunities to bring in people with a variety of events,” Staab said.
More information can be found at the theatre’s website:
I was a projectionist at the Pickens in the early eighties. the biggest crowd I’ve seen there was the night around Halloween when we screened the silent version of Phantom of the Opera complete with live music from the then restored theater organ. Actually at one point the owner Joe Jarvis had moved much of the organ hardware, bells, whistles, percussion and such from one of the organ rooms that flanked the screen near the ceiling of the theater. He then converted the empty room into an apartment so he could stay over after those late night screenings of Rocky Horror.
Thanks Gerald. I am now a resident of Ellington, Conn. and seldom get back to RI these days, because I’d love to. I LOVE that library in Pawtucket (“Deborah Cooke Sayles,” if I remember correctly). I just might get there sometime! I no longer have family in RI so it would have to be a “day trip.” It surely would be fun though! Thanks for all you do on these boards. ML
Marialivia, my only suggestion would be (if ever feasible – I’ve forgotten where you now reside) ) to spend a day or two at the Pawtucket Library, looking at the old Pawtucket Times microfilm, week by week for 1940. If I am there at some point, I can try myself.
Thanks for yet another fine contribution, Gerald! I’m still looking for information on the Fairlawn (Pawtucket), mostly because I’m trying to remember when it actually opened. I remember seeing “Gone With the Wind” there with my family, and my recollection (which may be faulty) is that GWTW was the opening offering at the Fairlawn. In one of your previous postings, you state that GWTW had a “first-run” engagement at the Jane Pickens Theater in 1940, so it’s possible that it was 1940 when the Fairlawn opened. I don’t believe it was “first-run” (the Fairlawn was not a first-run theater), so it could have been later in 1940, when I would have been 8 years old. There was a great deal of talk about GWTW for along time before I saw it, so it’s possible that the second runs were late in 1940.
Thanks again!
This pre-1910 postcard shows, on the right, the Opera House and further up the columned Zion Congregational Church which would eventually become the Strand and the Jane Pickens.
The 1949 Film Daily Yearbook gave the seating capacity of the Strand as 800.
The organ in the theatre was originally in the Capitol Theatre in New London, Ct. I was house organist there from 1981 until 1990. The organ was played before the shows two nights a week, for occasional silent movies, and as a part of every stage show during that period. Unfortunately the organ now needs major maintenance.
The family sold the theatre to a woman in Massachusetts. The film policy has not changed so far.
This was and extrodinary Cinema i had visited this Cinema atlease 5 tiems a year and for what you might ask coming form Attleboro,Mass well let me tell you my friends the Jane Pickens theatre lost the most valuble person in Newport when Joe Jarvis past away the theatre Owner/Operator whom had changed the name of the theatre after the infamous Jane Pickens yes the solo singer and her picture stand brillant in the lobby a very good friend of mine and one whom never gave up even after his wife had pasted away all my prayers are with him my menture lil man from Massachusettes i have a questions does Joe son or family member still own this cinema
He might have been but I don’t know. That information was taken from a newspaper piece on the opening of the Paramount.
Gerald: Was Lou Boas in your June post any relation to Herman Boas who was manager of the Hope in Providence in the fifties ??
Another recent photo:
View link
What a beautiful place!! Thank goodness this one is still with us.
Recent photo from a different angle: View link
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!
Gone With the Wind had its first run engagement in Newport at this theatre (then called the Strand) beginning on March 29, 1940. It ran exactly one week only, and was not held over. There were continuous performances beginning at 10 A.M., reserved evening performances beginning at 7:30, and a reserved Sunday matinee at 2:00 P.M. Admission prices were 75¢ for matinees and $1.00 for reserved performances. Top admission prices for other films at the time in Newport theatres were 25 to 40 cents. Children’s prices and matinee prices for adults in Newport theatres were then as low as 10¢.
Thanks Warren!! Had I known during my RI days that the Jane Pickens is the former Strand, I would have gone inside!! Well, I guess I can still do so when the tourist season is over. I’m glad to have this piece of history you’ve provided about the ownership of the three theaters, and that the present Jane Pickens is indeed part of the package. ML
Rarnold: I am a born-and-bred Rhode Islander who is now firmly transplanted into Conn. I might be of the same “vintage” as you, as you mention visiting these theaters in the late 40s and 50s. I am trying to verify that the former “Strand” was owned by the same entity which owned the Strand in Pawtucket and Stadium in Woonsocket. Any ideas? When I worked as a “candy girl” at the Pawtucket Strand in 1948-49, I believe I earned 35-cents per hour, and the ushers earned 40 cents. The doorman and head usher earned the grand and glorious sum of 45 cents/hour!! The boss was a Mr. Lancaster, who had previously managed the theater in Newport. I’m thinking it MUST have been the Strand, but my previous statement about the (Pawtucket) Strand not showing Paramount flicks is in error. “My bad,” to use the current vernacular! ML
Rarnold,
The Paramount has a page and I would be interested in any additional recollections you may have about the place. As far as period photos of the Paramount go, there were a considerable number seen in the opening day article in the Newport Daily News for August 10, 1929. The paper is available on microfilm at the Newport Public Library. I have been trying to get good quality photos from the Newport Historical Society, so far without luck. I am posting now, on that page, low-quality photos of the theatre front and interior, made from the newspaper microfilm.
I remember well all three theatres (Strand, Paramount, and Opera House) in Newport during the early and mid fifties.
I during the late 40’s and early 50’s I spent Saturdays at the Strand for 25 cents. (10 cents round trip bus, 10 cents movie, 5 cents candy bar) I worked part time at the Paramount around 54-55 while a student at the old Rogers High School across the street from the theater on Broadway. Believe I earned 45 cents an hour.
I can also remember vaudville shows before the movies at either/both the Strand and Paramount, March of Dime Collections, and sing along with the bouncing ball, and some sorts of contests to win dishes and bowls. Would love to see a picture of the Paramount. Rarnold
I remember well all three theatres (Strand, Paramount, and Opera House) in Newport during the early and mid fifties.
I during the late 40’s and early 50’s I spent Saturdays at the Strand for 25 cents. (10 cents round trip bus, 10 cents movie, 5 cents candy bar) I worked part time at the Paramount around 54-55 while a student at the old Rogers High School across the street from the theater on Broadway. Believe I earned 45 cents an hour.
I can also remember vaudville shows before the movies at either/both the Strand and Paramount, March of Dime Collections, and sing along with the bouncing ball, and some sorts of contests to win dishes and bowls. Would love to see a picture of the Paramount. Rarnold
According to William H. Jordy’s Buildings in Rhode Island, the theatre building was at the very start the Zion Episcopal Church (1835), with numerous alterations later made up to 1976. It was designed by Russell Warren and once boasted a pure temple facade with a splendid free standing Ionic colonnade across the entire front.
As a matter of fact a photo of and short biography about singer/socialite Jane Pickens can be found on the theatre’s website under “about us.”
Yes, indeed. Singer and Newport socialite Jane Pickens died in Newport in 1992 at the age of 83. A photo-portrait of her hangs in the theatre that was re-named for her while she was still alive.