Avon Cinema
260 Thayer Street,
Providence,
RI
02906
260 Thayer Street,
Providence,
RI
02906
17 people
favorited this theater
Showing 51 - 64 of 64 comments
Well, not so. In November of 1940 Cowan banned another Avon-booked movie, the French film Daybreak (Marcel Carné’s Le Jour se lève) because it had been condemned by the National (Catholic) Legion of Decency. That film, starring Jean Gabin, was one of the great masterpieces of the pre-war French cinema! Again, the final disposition is unclear from the information I curently have.
In February of 1939 The Providence Journal reported the banning of two films scheduled for the Avon. One was Amphitryon; the other was the Russian-made Professor Mamlock. The Journal wrote, “On recommendation of George W. Cowan, the Providence Bureau of Police and Fire yesterday denied to the Avon Theatre permission to show [the pictures] on the ground that they ‘do not meet with the standards of decency set up for public exhibitions in this city.'
"Capt. Cowan…reported that some scenes in the fils were salacious and immodest.”
Later it was reported that the theatre threatened court action. The film Professor Mamlock had won critical acclaim elsewhere and had appeared on the New York Times 10-best list. The picture dealt with the plight of persecuted Jews in Nazi Germany.
In another article the Journal said that “the amusement inspector held that the Soviet film tended to incite racial hatred and contained Communist propaganda.”
One asks, racial hatred of whom? The Jews? But the film was against racism. In its most famous scene, the Jewish doctor, Professor Mamlock, his white overall inscribed with the yellow star and the word “Jude”, marches with great dignity through a crowd of Brown Shirts.
I don’t have any data yet about the film’s subsequent showings in Providence, if they eventually occurred. One thing I have noticed, however, is that the Avon, from around this point up until the end of World War II, generally booked “safe” programs, free of controversy.
March of the Penguins has been here for over three weeks now. Films play one, two, three weeks usually and there are generally two different films with separate admissions. No more repertory. Revivals are extremely rare, except sometimes for the weekend midnight shows. After movies leave here, they often play at the Cable Car Cinema on South Main Street. The Cable Car is pretty much a move-over house but with occasional exclusive first-runs, like the French Happily Ever After which is there now. Some of the Avon movies do play elsewhere in Rhode Island, usually at the Jane Pickens Theatre in Newport. It too is an art house, and some of their shows are simultaneous with the ones at the Avon.
So, what is playing at the Avon these days? The indie and foreign flicks that screen here don’t play for a week right? Don’t they play for two or three days? I bet most of the fare that plays here plays nowhere else in Rhode Island.
And do they still show revivals. I remember, back in the 1980s, I went to a Woody Allen double bill here. I can’t remember the movies, but they were not new Allen films.
The original architects for this theatre (as the 1915 Toy Theatre) were William R. Walker & Sons, architects of the Majestic in Providence, which is now the Trinity Rep (Lederer) Theatre. In 1938 there was a Moderne remodeling when it became the Avon.
The Avon was not the first art house in Rhode Island. The Modern Theatre, downtown at 440 Westminster Street, had opened three years earlier with an “art” policy in February of 1935 and calling itself the Modern Fine Arts Theatre or variations of that name.
Thew Avon is doing well as far as I can tell. It is owned by Ken Dulgarian who owns the entire business block, not to mention other holdings throughout Providence’s East Side and elsewhere. The cinema has a large faithful core audience for the first-run art and independent films it programs and attracts an enormous number of students from nearby Brown University. There are four movie theatres open in Providence. Three of them are single screen: Avon, Cable Car, and the part-time multi-use Columbus. The other is the Providence Place Mall 16 Cinemas. When the Dulgarian-owned College Hill Bookstore closed a few months back, there was fear that the Avon would be next. But it seems to occupy an important niche and generates enormous prestige. Mr. Dulgarian is not likely to give that up. Too bad they don’t consider adding additional screens for versatility, not by carving up the current auditorium, but by building a second level over adjacent shops.
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Another marquee shot
As a Brown student, I spent many hours procrastinating at the Avon. Films like BODY HEAT, GONE WITH THE WIND, and DIVA complemented my Semiotics curriculum with more mainstream fare. One of my favorite memories is bounding to the front row to dance under a giant David Byrne during STOP MAKING SENSE. My dream was always to win the lottery, buy the Avon and spend the rest of my life finding the perfect double feature to show.
http://www.film-tech.com/pics/avon/avon.html some pics here
Here are more programming memories on the theatre I have been going to continuously since around 1948. In the month of August in 1957 and 1958, because August was slack time, the Avon did a repertory “August Film Festival”. They were a cinematic education for a youngster like me. The double-bill programs for August of 1957 were: CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA & LA TRAVIATA, THE GRAPES OF WRATH & TOBACCO ROAD, REAR WINDOW & THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY, THE CRUEL SEA & IN WHICH WE SERVE, OPEN CITY & PAISAN, LUST FOR LIFE & GABY, THE BED & MANON, WOMAN OF ROME & FRISKY, DIABOLIQUE & WAGES OF FEAR, BORIS GODUNOV & STARS OF THE RUSSIAN BALLET, TO CATCH A THIEF & LOVE IS A MANY-SPLENDORED THING. Not bad! In August of 1958 I saw TEAHOUSE OF THE AUGUST MOON & 12 ANGRY MEN, SUSPICION & THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH, TOBACCO ROAD & THE GRAPES OF WRATH, I VITELLONI & THE BICYCLE THIEF, PRIVATE’S PROGRESS & WEE GEORDIE, PAGLIACCI & AIDA, SABRINA & THREE COINS IN THE FOUNTAIN, LA STRADA & NIGHTS OF CABIRIA, FERNANDEL THE DRESSMAKER & THE SHEEP HAS FIVE LEGS. Wow!
Incidentally, there is an error in the heading above. This is the Avon Cinema, not “Cinemas.” Singular. It is a single screen theatre.
I have been going to the programs at the Avon Cinema since around 1948 when I first accompanied my parents to see opera movies shown there like IL TROVATORE. With my parents I also saw THE BICYCLE THIEF, PAISAN, the 1954 ROMEO AND JULIET. Later I started going on my own in high school, to matinees of naughty-naughty Brigitte Bardot movies to risqué French films like MITSOU, to the now-classic DIABOLIQUE and THE WAGES OF FEAR. Here is where I first saw OPEN CITY, PAISAN, THE BICYCLE THIEF, NGHTS OF CABIRIA, LA STRADA, GENERAL DELLA ROVERE. I fell in love with Satyajit Ray’s PATHER PANCHALI in 1959 and saw it several times during its one-week run. In the 60’s I saw Bergman, Truffaut, Antonioni and Fellini movies, many British comedies. The theatre had especially nice repertory programming in the 70’s with about three changes a week of great double bills. The Avon is still Rhode Island’s premiere art house and shows first run pictures as such, and it is inconceivable how film buffs in the state could live without it. A little known fact is that the theatre was previously called “The Toy Theatre†when it opened in the teens. Later it was shuttered, became a garage, then re-opened as a theatre with the name Avon Cinema in 1938. Abel Gance’s LIFE AND LOVES OF BEETHOVEN was the first film shown under that incarnation. This popular single screen theatre, surrounded by Brown University on Providence’s East Side, has a clean but plain interior. The curtain over the screen, when it is used, is unidirectional, moving from left to right. I’m going there this afternoon to see Robert Altman’s THE COMPANY. Also playing is TOUCHING THE VOID and a midnight screening of Scorsese’s GOODFELLAS.
During the 50’s the Avon Theatre seated 528 people.