In the 1942-43 edition of the Motion Picture Almanac, the Bradley Theatre in Putnam is listed under the Interstate Theatre Corp. of Boston. The list also includes the Victory Theatre in Putnam. A post above suggests that the Putnam and the Victory were one in the same. At the time, Interstate Theatres also ran the Palace in Rockville and the Orpheum and the Majestic in Danielson CT.
There is a short news item in Boxoffice Mag., July 16, 1949, under “Baintree” Mass. which reports that Robert Grossman had applied for a permit to operate an open air theater on former US Navy property at 444 Quincy Avenue.
In the 1942-43 edition of the Motion Picture Almanac, the Interstate Theatre Corp. of Boston is listed as operating both the Colonial and the Scenic theaters in Rochester NH. Interstate is also listed as the operator in the 1949 Boxoffice Mag. article mentioned above.
There is a short item in Boxoffice Magazine for July 16, 1949 which says that the Colonial in Rochester has been refurbished and renamed State Theatre and was due to reopen on July 15, 1949. This date conflicts with info above which indicates that the Colonial name lasted into the 1950s.
According to today’s Boston Herald, a live magic show will play at the Stuart Street on Sat. evening and again on July 24 and Aug. 28. But there will be only 55 tickets per show which means that it will not be performed in the auditorium which has the movie screen, but elsewhere on the premises. The “Backstage Magic Show”.
When it was reopened as the Center Theatre in Feb. 1949, it was an E.M. Loew circuit house. EML’s designer William Reisman and Associates was in charge of the remodeling and refurbishment.
As of 1897 there was an earlier opera house in Skowhegan. It was called the Coburn Opera House, had 855 seats, and was on the second floor. I don’t know the address; it was run by Charles Fairbrother.
to D Bird- the City Theatre in Brockton was the leading theater there circa-1900. It was the subject of a one-page article in Marquee Magazine (quarterly journal of the Theatre Historical Society of America) a long time ago (1970s?, 1980s?). There was a Hathaway’s Theatre in Brockton; also one in New Bedford and one in Lowell. (the Hathaway’s in New Bedford has a page here in Cinema Treasures). A few years ago I was made aware of a website which covered Brockton from a historical perspective and it had a list of Brockton theaters, with some info. The list was long and I suspect that it included theaters which had been renamed as if they were new buildings.
n the 1942-43 Motion Picture Almanac, Graphic Theaters Circuit of Boston is listed as the operator of the Camden Theatre in Camden Maine; however, it also lists the Comique in Camden as part of Graphic Theatres. But from the above, I gather that the Camden and the Comique were the same theater. Graphic ran a number of movie theaters in Maine, NH, VT and MA at that time.
The Camden Opera House is listed under Camden in the 1897-98 edition of the Julius Cahn Official Theatrical Guide. The Mgr was W.V. Lane, and it is listed with 800 seats. The proscenium opening was 22 feet square, and the stage was 30 feet deep. It says that the auditorium was up on the second floor. There was a weekly newspaper which published on Fridays, and there was one hotel for show folks, the Bay View House. The nearest railroad was at Rockland, and there was an electric trolleycar which connected there. The 1897 population of Camden was 5,000.
The Strand in Lewiston is listed in the 1942-43 Motion Picture Almanac as being run by John Ford, a Paramount affiliate. At that time John Ford/Paramount operated 3 additional theaters in Lewiston: the Empire, the Music Hall, and the Priscilla Theatre. John Ford operated a number of theaters in Maine, plus a few in New Hampshire, Vermont and Mass. The John Ford theaters were not part of Mullin & Pinanski/Paramount at that time, but listed seperately.
I read the Sept 3, 1949 BoxOffice Magazine article, as posted above by Gerry DeLuca. As usual, there are some errors in it. It was not the Laffmovie, but the adjacent Bijou which was a very early electric-powered theater. I think also that the second balcony at the Laffmovie was closed off rather than “removed” to reduce the seating capacity to 1,200. The Mgr, Ray Daugaweet, was a friend of Donald King’s and lived into recent years.
The time-line or chronology in the back of Donald King’s Boston theatres book also states that the name was changed to “Art-Movie” in 1949. This policy did not last long. He says that in 1950 the name was changed again, to “Mirth Movie”. I know that in 1950 it was presenting comedy shorts; it was known as the “Laff Movie” among my junior highschool/ middle school friends. I wish I had gone into it, I had the opportunity many times. I had friends who went to the comedy movies/cartoons there often.
In the aerial photo the screen is canted away from Route 138, but it appears that there would be some view, albeit at an angle, depending on intervening buildings and trees.
SiliconSam- when I looked at it briefly when it was first posted, I couldn’t seem to make sense of it. But now I can see that the place was in an obscure location. The only view of the screen would be from some industrial buildings to the south, probably not open at night. I can see now that this was the type of drive-in where the back of the screen is on the street by the entrance.
Since X-rated movies were shown here circa-1971 and later, it seems logical that the screen could not be seen from outside the boundaries of the drive-in. Otherwise there would undoubtedly have been objections from the local community. The 1981 visit posted above says that it was in a wooded area; probably the back of the screen may have faced the street.
The Canton Journal “Looking Back”, posted above, says that the Canton Drive-In closed in August, 1984. I suspect that Melrose Associates owned the land in 1990-1995, but the theater was not operating then.
I looked at the Canton section of my Arrow street atlas from 2001; It shows Whitman Road, a dead-end running east off of Turnpike Street (Route 138); north of it is Pequit Brook; north of the brook is Pequot Park, another dead-end street. This area is very close to the Blue Hills Reservation.
I have no idea where exactly it was located. The name “Blue Hills” suggests that it was at the northerly end of Route 138 in Canton, which is near the Blue Hills reservation. Also, the person who wrote about his July 1981 visit to see “Groove Tube” mentions that it was in a wooded area.
In its Ledger Archives section yesterday, the Quincy Patriot Ledger ran an ad for the Blue Hills Drive-in from the Ledger of June 8, 1960. Admission was $1 per carload. Movies were “The Robe” and “Tarnished Angels”. The place was apparently closed on Wednesday evenings.
Emerson College is hosting an Open House at the Paramount Center on Sat.-Sun., Sept 25-26, 2010. This was reported in the Quincy Patriot Ledger recently.
I also wonder what’s going on with this property. The Broadway has been closed up for a very long time now. But, stevecimm, don’t expect to see “beautiful restoration” work at the Modern Theatre downtown- it has been totally demolished except for its facade which is now being re-erected in front of the new building on site.
In the 1942-43 Motion Picture Almanac, the Opera House in Bangor is listed as part of Mullins & Pinanski circuit of Boston, which was affiliated with Paramount. M&P also ran the Bijou and Park theaters in Bangor at that time. Regarding the info in the introduction above, it should be pointed out to younger CT members that all of these movie theaters were single-screen years ago. The concept of having two or more screens did not start until the 1960s and 1970s.
In the 1942-43 edition of the Motion Picture Almanac, the Bradley Theatre in Putnam is listed under the Interstate Theatre Corp. of Boston. The list also includes the Victory Theatre in Putnam. A post above suggests that the Putnam and the Victory were one in the same. At the time, Interstate Theatres also ran the Palace in Rockville and the Orpheum and the Majestic in Danielson CT.
There is a short news item in Boxoffice Mag., July 16, 1949, under “Baintree” Mass. which reports that Robert Grossman had applied for a permit to operate an open air theater on former US Navy property at 444 Quincy Avenue.
In the 1942-43 edition of the Motion Picture Almanac, the Interstate Theatre Corp. of Boston is listed as operating both the Colonial and the Scenic theaters in Rochester NH. Interstate is also listed as the operator in the 1949 Boxoffice Mag. article mentioned above.
There is a short item in Boxoffice Magazine for July 16, 1949 which says that the Colonial in Rochester has been refurbished and renamed State Theatre and was due to reopen on July 15, 1949. This date conflicts with info above which indicates that the Colonial name lasted into the 1950s.
According to today’s Boston Herald, a live magic show will play at the Stuart Street on Sat. evening and again on July 24 and Aug. 28. But there will be only 55 tickets per show which means that it will not be performed in the auditorium which has the movie screen, but elsewhere on the premises. The “Backstage Magic Show”.
When it was reopened as the Center Theatre in Feb. 1949, it was an E.M. Loew circuit house. EML’s designer William Reisman and Associates was in charge of the remodeling and refurbishment.
As of 1897 there was an earlier opera house in Skowhegan. It was called the Coburn Opera House, had 855 seats, and was on the second floor. I don’t know the address; it was run by Charles Fairbrother.
The Strand is listed in the 1942-43 edition of the Motion Picture Almanac as part of Lockwood & Gordan theaters of Boston.
to D Bird- the City Theatre in Brockton was the leading theater there circa-1900. It was the subject of a one-page article in Marquee Magazine (quarterly journal of the Theatre Historical Society of America) a long time ago (1970s?, 1980s?). There was a Hathaway’s Theatre in Brockton; also one in New Bedford and one in Lowell. (the Hathaway’s in New Bedford has a page here in Cinema Treasures). A few years ago I was made aware of a website which covered Brockton from a historical perspective and it had a list of Brockton theaters, with some info. The list was long and I suspect that it included theaters which had been renamed as if they were new buildings.
n the 1942-43 Motion Picture Almanac, Graphic Theaters Circuit of Boston is listed as the operator of the Camden Theatre in Camden Maine; however, it also lists the Comique in Camden as part of Graphic Theatres. But from the above, I gather that the Camden and the Comique were the same theater. Graphic ran a number of movie theaters in Maine, NH, VT and MA at that time.
The Camden Opera House is listed under Camden in the 1897-98 edition of the Julius Cahn Official Theatrical Guide. The Mgr was W.V. Lane, and it is listed with 800 seats. The proscenium opening was 22 feet square, and the stage was 30 feet deep. It says that the auditorium was up on the second floor. There was a weekly newspaper which published on Fridays, and there was one hotel for show folks, the Bay View House. The nearest railroad was at Rockland, and there was an electric trolleycar which connected there. The 1897 population of Camden was 5,000.
The Strand in Lewiston is listed in the 1942-43 Motion Picture Almanac as being run by John Ford, a Paramount affiliate. At that time John Ford/Paramount operated 3 additional theaters in Lewiston: the Empire, the Music Hall, and the Priscilla Theatre. John Ford operated a number of theaters in Maine, plus a few in New Hampshire, Vermont and Mass. The John Ford theaters were not part of Mullin & Pinanski/Paramount at that time, but listed seperately.
I read the Sept 3, 1949 BoxOffice Magazine article, as posted above by Gerry DeLuca. As usual, there are some errors in it. It was not the Laffmovie, but the adjacent Bijou which was a very early electric-powered theater. I think also that the second balcony at the Laffmovie was closed off rather than “removed” to reduce the seating capacity to 1,200. The Mgr, Ray Daugaweet, was a friend of Donald King’s and lived into recent years.
The time-line or chronology in the back of Donald King’s Boston theatres book also states that the name was changed to “Art-Movie” in 1949. This policy did not last long. He says that in 1950 the name was changed again, to “Mirth Movie”. I know that in 1950 it was presenting comedy shorts; it was known as the “Laff Movie” among my junior highschool/ middle school friends. I wish I had gone into it, I had the opportunity many times. I had friends who went to the comedy movies/cartoons there often.
In the aerial photo the screen is canted away from Route 138, but it appears that there would be some view, albeit at an angle, depending on intervening buildings and trees.
SiliconSam- when I looked at it briefly when it was first posted, I couldn’t seem to make sense of it. But now I can see that the place was in an obscure location. The only view of the screen would be from some industrial buildings to the south, probably not open at night. I can see now that this was the type of drive-in where the back of the screen is on the street by the entrance.
Since X-rated movies were shown here circa-1971 and later, it seems logical that the screen could not be seen from outside the boundaries of the drive-in. Otherwise there would undoubtedly have been objections from the local community. The 1981 visit posted above says that it was in a wooded area; probably the back of the screen may have faced the street.
The Canton Journal “Looking Back”, posted above, says that the Canton Drive-In closed in August, 1984. I suspect that Melrose Associates owned the land in 1990-1995, but the theater was not operating then.
I looked at the Canton section of my Arrow street atlas from 2001; It shows Whitman Road, a dead-end running east off of Turnpike Street (Route 138); north of it is Pequit Brook; north of the brook is Pequot Park, another dead-end street. This area is very close to the Blue Hills Reservation.
I have no idea where exactly it was located. The name “Blue Hills” suggests that it was at the northerly end of Route 138 in Canton, which is near the Blue Hills reservation. Also, the person who wrote about his July 1981 visit to see “Groove Tube” mentions that it was in a wooded area.
In its Ledger Archives section yesterday, the Quincy Patriot Ledger ran an ad for the Blue Hills Drive-in from the Ledger of June 8, 1960. Admission was $1 per carload. Movies were “The Robe” and “Tarnished Angels”. The place was apparently closed on Wednesday evenings.
Emerson College is hosting an Open House at the Paramount Center on Sat.-Sun., Sept 25-26, 2010. This was reported in the Quincy Patriot Ledger recently.
I also wonder what’s going on with this property. The Broadway has been closed up for a very long time now. But, stevecimm, don’t expect to see “beautiful restoration” work at the Modern Theatre downtown- it has been totally demolished except for its facade which is now being re-erected in front of the new building on site.
In the 1942-43 Motion Picture Almanac, the Opera House in Bangor is listed as part of Mullins & Pinanski circuit of Boston, which was affiliated with Paramount. M&P also ran the Bijou and Park theaters in Bangor at that time. Regarding the info in the introduction above, it should be pointed out to younger CT members that all of these movie theaters were single-screen years ago. The concept of having two or more screens did not start until the 1960s and 1970s.
In a Boston directory compiled in mid-1925, the Eagle is listed at 2227 Washington St in Roxbury, operated by Eagle Amusement Co.