Pilgrim Theatre

ummm you should have stepped inside!

The Pilgrim was the best for everything!

As a Houstonian, I used to thoroughly enjoy my business trips to Boston during the 80s and early 90s, for one reason and one reason only: the venerable Pilgrim Theater. I’d stay at a nearby Swissôtel, which cost me a fortune, but it was just a few blocks' walk to/from the theater, which was all that mattered. When I got off work, I couldn’t wait to go to the Pilgrim and get off many times again. It was like heaven all evening long, right up until they turned on the house lights at 2:45 AM and made everyone leave. I did that every night for as long as I could make my business trip last. I even wanted to get a job in Boston, just so I could go to the Pilgrim every single night. Man, I loved that old theater … and all the patrons who joined me there.

They did not work in recent years. I don’t know when the installation took place, but it surely was in working order at first. I first went in there around 1955 and a number of times afterward, and never saw the escalator running. It was on the right side of the lobby as you walked in from the street.

I remember those at Downtown Crossing. One went from the southbound Red Line platform up to Chauncey Street; the other, from the northbound Red Line platform up to Arch Street. Both have been replaced by conventional escalators.

I was in the theatre in the early 80’s and I remember 2 escalators (no longer operational) as you entered the lobby. These were the old wood-tread escalators that went clackity-clack.

Just to illustrate how fickle things can be in the lives of old theatres: In Dec.1992, as mentioned above, just after the facade was painted and the marquee renovated, the newspapers reported that the Pilgrim was to be demolished ! The MGM Theatre Photograph and Report card for this theatre has a photo taken in April 1941. It was still the Washington Street Olympia then. The attractions on the bulb-studded marquee are: James Stewart and Hedy LaMarr in “Come Live with Me” and Jane Withers in “Golden Hoofs”. The Report states that the theatre has been showing MGM product for over 10 years; that it is in Fair condition; with the following seating: main floor, 818; balcony, 990; boxes, 104; Total: 1912 (but no mention of the 2nd balcony.) Clarence Blackall was the architect, and it opened on May 6, 1912.

The message on the marquee was one they didn’t have to change weekly.It read something like “XXX Three Big XXX Features” or something like that. Possibly, if you go thru the various photo links above, you might find it. In December 1992, the distinctive facade of the Pilgrim received a paint job, and the marquee was repaired or renovated. But I think they put the same message back on it as before.

I went into the Pilgrim a number of times in the 1950s and 60s. It was an ATC house for years. It had 2 balconies and numerous big boxes on the sidewalls. But the stage wasn’t very big. The rear of the stage was one building in from Harrison Ave. The scene door and the stage door were in an alley back there, at stage-left. It did show first-run films years ago. I never saw the escalator operating; it was always stopped every time I went in. I never went up into the balconies. Just to the southeast of the theatre there is a big parking garage with entrances on Beach St. Someone told me that he had read that an entrance passageway was built circa 1948 between the northwest corner of the groundfloor of the garage and some point on the south wall of the Pilgrim lobby. I have no memory of this at all. The burlesque shows started circa 1971 and ended circa-1975. This was the last gasp of traditional Burley in Boston, following closure of the Casino in Spring 1962. Then, the Pilgrim went on triple-feature XXX films; the message on the marquee remained the same for many years afterward. It closed October 1995, and was razed summer 1996. It was originally a Nathan Gordon house and was “sister” to the Scollay Sq. Olympia, although not physically identical. It probably did have over 2000 seats, although not maybe the 2500 often attributed to it.

Did this theatre ever show 7omm films?

This week’s Boston Phoenix, on page 20, has a 1985 photo of the Pilgrim Theatre and two neighboring strip clubs — all of which have been demolished. The photo is also online here, but the online version is much too small.

Yes; please read all of the comments above.