This is creditable archeology! My fondest wish as a classic film and movie theatre buff is to be able to travel back in time to these places! Perhaps that link to the photo of the Imperial and the Leroy across the street could be added here.
“Scorpio Rising” and “Chafed Elbows”? Didn’t know about those, but I was away a great deal durng that period. I thought they were available only in 16mm. I wonder if the Art ever had 16mm shows. The Avon does from time to time. Todd Haynes' “Poison” was shown in 16mm because it was made available only in that format.
Totally unrelated, but yesterday I went to New Bedford and took photos of the old Orpheum. I posted them if you want to check them out. I was bowled over by the façade.
I liked “Such Good Friends” a little more than you did. I saw it at the Palace in Arctic. I remember a very funny “oral” scene between James Coco and Dyan Cannon, I believe.
Yes, I actually saw “Two Women” at the Art and I have that ad in front of me. It played in March, 1962 with “Fruits of Summer,” a French steamer with Etchika Choureau. “Two Women” also played the Strand downtown in a dubbed version. There is a powerful scene where Loren and Belmondo encounter a demented woman whose child has been killed in the bombings and the woman insanely offers her breast for milk. When she did that, some rowdy guy at the Strand shouted, “I’ll take some!” When I ran the Italian Film Society of R.I., “Two Women” was our first film on May 18, 1981 at the Cable Car Cinema.
The French Renaissance façade of this century-plus old theatre has an epic monumentality to it that knocked me out when I first saw it, after having thought that no such theatre even existed in New Bedford. I felt like I had been thrust face-to-face with some courtly palace of spectacles. But there it is, like a grandiose mirage, with the front of the theatre virtually touching the Route 18 expressway that replaced the portion of South Water Street that it was originally on.
The organization ORPH (Orpheum Rising Project Helpers) is an all-volunteer group formed to save and restore the building and eventually register it with the National Register of Historic Places. I hope some day that it does get restored, inside and out, but that might be a difficult project considering the impoverished neighborhood, New Bedford’s South End, in which it is ensconced.
The building was constructed at the end of the 19th Century (by residents of French background?), and the front bears the inscription “1891 Salle Francs-Tireurs 1911.” It was the French Sharpshooters' Hall, with a shooting range as well as a social hall in the structure when it was first built. There are six stunning carved stone faces on the front. Heavy chains drop over either side of what was the entrance (now sealed) and supported at one time a marquee or canopy. Its early years in the 20th Century saw it as a neighborhood silent-movie palace and vaudeville theatre. It lasted into the 1950s showing double bills of popular Hollywod movies in second run. The theatre is used now as a storage facility for for a nearby food store and seems to be under some minimal maintenance. There is a “for sale” sign posted in it.
I took a drive out from Providence to see this place yesterday and it made my day. I would love to see the interior which OrphMaria says is beautiful. I have no doubts.
A treasure trove. Sound like great old gentlemen. You must still mean the Imperial across from the Leroy, though.
Webmaster, alternate names for this theatre are now confirmed as Shea Theater and Roosevelt Theater.
Brian,
I too saw “The Damned” there. In that decade they started doing some art-house type programming. I remember seeing Erich Rohmer’s “Claire’s Knee” there as well. De Sica’s “Two Women” premiered there, Germi’s “The Birds, the Bees and the Italians.” When they showed 70mm blockbusters, their 70mm projection and sound were stunning.
By the time the 80s rolled round, they were twinned and back to second-run shows here, which is what the theatre policy was when it had first opened as a nabe. Here is a photo I found in the Providence Sunday Journal Magazine, October 18, 1981, in an article about R.I. second-run movie theatres. It shows manager Al Leone at the entrance area of the Elmwood. He also managed the Holiday (Lafayette) in Central Falls. The photo is credited to John L. Hanlon. View link
The logo was the same lettering style as though someone were cloning Paris Cinemas (same script and star as a dot over the “i”.) The same thing was true of various Art Cinemas. The one in Hartford, for example, resembled the Providence one.
One vivid recollection I have was of attending a children’s matinee program at the Art around 1958/59 because they were showing the boy ‘n bull film “The Brave One,” which I happened to like a lot and had already seen several times during those teenage years. An infuriating thing occurred during the projection. The first reel was switched to the second reel before it had ended, like about five or more minutes. Then reel 2 began not at the start but about five minutes or more into the reel…and so on and so forth. You get the idea. The projectionist, probably some dude who was in a hurry to get it on with his girl, was shaving about 10 minutes from each reel or almost an hour from the movie! (He could never have done that in later years with a platter system.) I was furious that this movie, which I knew and liked, was being butchered by some nincompoop projectionist who didn’t give a crap, figuring that there was just a bunch of stupid kids in the audience. I think I complained and got my money back…but I’m not certain.
This theatre was previously known as the Strand before it opened as E.M. Loew’s Center on October 6, 1950…according to an article in the New Bedford Standard-Times from that month.
According to a New York Times article on the day of the theatre’s opening, one of the founders of the cinema was Ilene Kristen, then 25 years old, who played Delia Ryan on the soap opera “Ryan’s Hope.” Others were Ray Blanco, then the owner of Brauer International, a distributor of art films, and Nancy Newhall, one of the first women ever admitted to the Projectionists Guild.
Astyanax: The excellent Spanish film “La Tia Tula” with Aurora Bautista played here in an exclusive run in 1965. To my knowledge it was not acquired for general U.S. distribution and was exhibited virtually nowhere else, not even in big cities, despite very good reviews.
The place was probably doomed from the time it started with the art house policy in 1958. It was a bit out-of-the way and could not attract much of the neighborhood audience since those folks were not interested in those kinds of films. I do believe the Ingmar Bergman series shown in the early 1960s, at the time of the director’s great popularity, attracted some sizeable audiences. I remember a guy in the audience saying out loud during “The Seventh Seal,” “Is this supposed to be symbolic?” and then going to sleep. Russ Meyer’s “Lorna” may have done well during the cinema’s soft-core period. When they first started the art house policy, I believe they served free espresso in the little lobby. FREE espresso, like some of the Manhattan art houses of the time where it was a trend. Can you imagine any movie theatres serving you free espresso today? Yeah, right.
A case can be made for listing Symphony Hall as a “cinema treasure” since, especially during the silent era, a goodly number of movies had showings here, with live orchestral accompaniment. There is a display panel in the first floor rear hallway on this topic, complete with memorabilia, programs, titles of the films. I believe “Salome'” was one of then, Eisenstein’s “Ten Days that Shook the World” another (but I’m operating on faulty memory here.) More recently Seiji Ozawa played the Prokofiev score to Eisenstein’s sound-era “Alexander Nevsky” with the movie being shown. It all becomes an interesting, perhaps academic, question. In New York would you list Avery Fisher Hall and Alice Tully Hall as “cinema treasures?” They are the home of the annual New York Film Festival, after all. The rest of the time, of course, they are purely concert halls.
I remember seeing “The Reivers” and “A Man Called Horse” when it was a spacious single-screener.
This is creditable archeology! My fondest wish as a classic film and movie theatre buff is to be able to travel back in time to these places! Perhaps that link to the photo of the Imperial and the Leroy across the street could be added here.
“Scorpio Rising” and “Chafed Elbows”? Didn’t know about those, but I was away a great deal durng that period. I thought they were available only in 16mm. I wonder if the Art ever had 16mm shows. The Avon does from time to time. Todd Haynes' “Poison” was shown in 16mm because it was made available only in that format.
Totally unrelated, but yesterday I went to New Bedford and took photos of the old Orpheum. I posted them if you want to check them out. I was bowled over by the façade.
I liked “Such Good Friends” a little more than you did. I saw it at the Palace in Arctic. I remember a very funny “oral” scene between James Coco and Dyan Cannon, I believe.
Yes, I actually saw “Two Women” at the Art and I have that ad in front of me. It played in March, 1962 with “Fruits of Summer,” a French steamer with Etchika Choureau. “Two Women” also played the Strand downtown in a dubbed version. There is a powerful scene where Loren and Belmondo encounter a demented woman whose child has been killed in the bombings and the woman insanely offers her breast for milk. When she did that, some rowdy guy at the Strand shouted, “I’ll take some!” When I ran the Italian Film Society of R.I., “Two Women” was our first film on May 18, 1981 at the Cable Car Cinema.
“The Hustler”!
The French Renaissance façade of this century-plus old theatre has an epic monumentality to it that knocked me out when I first saw it, after having thought that no such theatre even existed in New Bedford. I felt like I had been thrust face-to-face with some courtly palace of spectacles. But there it is, like a grandiose mirage, with the front of the theatre virtually touching the Route 18 expressway that replaced the portion of South Water Street that it was originally on.
The organization ORPH (Orpheum Rising Project Helpers) is an all-volunteer group formed to save and restore the building and eventually register it with the National Register of Historic Places. I hope some day that it does get restored, inside and out, but that might be a difficult project considering the impoverished neighborhood, New Bedford’s South End, in which it is ensconced.
The building was constructed at the end of the 19th Century (by residents of French background?), and the front bears the inscription “1891 Salle Francs-Tireurs 1911.” It was the French Sharpshooters' Hall, with a shooting range as well as a social hall in the structure when it was first built. There are six stunning carved stone faces on the front. Heavy chains drop over either side of what was the entrance (now sealed) and supported at one time a marquee or canopy. Its early years in the 20th Century saw it as a neighborhood silent-movie palace and vaudeville theatre. It lasted into the 1950s showing double bills of popular Hollywod movies in second run. The theatre is used now as a storage facility for for a nearby food store and seems to be under some minimal maintenance. There is a “for sale” sign posted in it.
I took a drive out from Providence to see this place yesterday and it made my day. I would love to see the interior which OrphMaria says is beautiful. I have no doubts.
Here are the exterior photos I took:
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A treasure trove. Sound like great old gentlemen. You must still mean the Imperial across from the Leroy, though.
Webmaster, alternate names for this theatre are now confirmed as Shea Theater and Roosevelt Theater.
Brian,
I too saw “The Damned” there. In that decade they started doing some art-house type programming. I remember seeing Erich Rohmer’s “Claire’s Knee” there as well. De Sica’s “Two Women” premiered there, Germi’s “The Birds, the Bees and the Italians.” When they showed 70mm blockbusters, their 70mm projection and sound were stunning.
By the time the 80s rolled round, they were twinned and back to second-run shows here, which is what the theatre policy was when it had first opened as a nabe. Here is a photo I found in the Providence Sunday Journal Magazine, October 18, 1981, in an article about R.I. second-run movie theatres. It shows manager Al Leone at the entrance area of the Elmwood. He also managed the Holiday (Lafayette) in Central Falls. The photo is credited to John L. Hanlon.
View link
The logo was the same lettering style as though someone were cloning Paris Cinemas (same script and star as a dot over the “i”.) The same thing was true of various Art Cinemas. The one in Hartford, for example, resembled the Providence one.
One vivid recollection I have was of attending a children’s matinee program at the Art around 1958/59 because they were showing the boy ‘n bull film “The Brave One,” which I happened to like a lot and had already seen several times during those teenage years. An infuriating thing occurred during the projection. The first reel was switched to the second reel before it had ended, like about five or more minutes. Then reel 2 began not at the start but about five minutes or more into the reel…and so on and so forth. You get the idea. The projectionist, probably some dude who was in a hurry to get it on with his girl, was shaving about 10 minutes from each reel or almost an hour from the movie! (He could never have done that in later years with a platter system.) I was furious that this movie, which I knew and liked, was being butchered by some nincompoop projectionist who didn’t give a crap, figuring that there was just a bunch of stupid kids in the audience. I think I complained and got my money back…but I’m not certain.
The address was 251 Union Street, according to the 1952 New Bedford City Directory.
The address was 1418 Acushnet Avenue, according to the New Bedford City Directory of 1952.
The address was 43 Weld Street, not Wild.
The address was actually 1777 Acushnet Avenue, not 177.
This theatre was previously known as the Strand before it opened as E.M. Loew’s Center on October 6, 1950…according to an article in the New Bedford Standard-Times from that month.
Yes, I saw that, but in Boston at the Fine Arts.
According to a New York Times article on the day of the theatre’s opening, one of the founders of the cinema was Ilene Kristen, then 25 years old, who played Delia Ryan on the soap opera “Ryan’s Hope.” Others were Ray Blanco, then the owner of Brauer International, a distributor of art films, and Nancy Newhall, one of the first women ever admitted to the Projectionists Guild.
Astyanax: The excellent Spanish film “La Tia Tula” with Aurora Bautista played here in an exclusive run in 1965. To my knowledge it was not acquired for general U.S. distribution and was exhibited virtually nowhere else, not even in big cities, despite very good reviews.
The place was probably doomed from the time it started with the art house policy in 1958. It was a bit out-of-the way and could not attract much of the neighborhood audience since those folks were not interested in those kinds of films. I do believe the Ingmar Bergman series shown in the early 1960s, at the time of the director’s great popularity, attracted some sizeable audiences. I remember a guy in the audience saying out loud during “The Seventh Seal,” “Is this supposed to be symbolic?” and then going to sleep. Russ Meyer’s “Lorna” may have done well during the cinema’s soft-core period. When they first started the art house policy, I believe they served free espresso in the little lobby. FREE espresso, like some of the Manhattan art houses of the time where it was a trend. Can you imagine any movie theatres serving you free espresso today? Yeah, right.
A 2002 photo of the Castle:
View link
A case can be made for listing Symphony Hall as a “cinema treasure” since, especially during the silent era, a goodly number of movies had showings here, with live orchestral accompaniment. There is a display panel in the first floor rear hallway on this topic, complete with memorabilia, programs, titles of the films. I believe “Salome'” was one of then, Eisenstein’s “Ten Days that Shook the World” another (but I’m operating on faulty memory here.) More recently Seiji Ozawa played the Prokofiev score to Eisenstein’s sound-era “Alexander Nevsky” with the movie being shown. It all becomes an interesting, perhaps academic, question. In New York would you list Avery Fisher Hall and Alice Tully Hall as “cinema treasures?” They are the home of the annual New York Film Festival, after all. The rest of the time, of course, they are purely concert halls.
Michael, I agree that this is a place well worth a trip. Here is a photo I took when I went a while back.
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Another photo of the former Eastwood Theatre, with a view of the business block:
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Here is a photo of the Union Theatre.
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