Among the handouts at the 1983 Boston conclave of the Theatre Historical Society was a page full of copies of small Somerville Theatre ads from the collection of Robert “Bob” Viano, who was a cousin of the Viano family which had owned the theater. He was also a THS member. There is an ad from the Somerville Journal of 4-30-1915 which states that beginning Monday May 10th, The Somerville Theatre Stock Company would begin their summer series on stage. Matinees daily at 230PM and evenings at 8PM. Tickets ranged from 10 cents to 35 cents. It seems that a serial movie “The Diamond from the Sky” had started, with a new chapter each week. Not to worry, movie goers! Each weekly chapter of the serial would continue to be shown during the intermission of the stage play “Within the Law”, and subsequent plays. Talk about getting your money’s worth !
In his Boston theaters history book, Don King also mentions that the Pastime Th. opened in February 1908, but has nothing more to say about it. It is not listed in Joe Cifre’s essay “Saga of the Movie Industry in Boston”, but I don’t think his summary of early Boston cinemas was meant to be comprehensive. Charles Grandgent, in his 1932 essay, “The Stage in Boston in the Last Fifty Years” says that the Pastime was on Washington Street, “over the old Clark’s Hotel”, but the Boston Globe description above seems to imply that the Pastime was of new construction. At that time Avery Street was little more than an alley and it did not go through to Tremont Street at its west end as it does today. So it was widened, and the comment above that the Pastime was in the way of the widening construction makes sense.
In his Boston theaters history book, Don King mentions that as of May 1, 1908, the Theatre Premier advertised that it had installed 14 electric fans. On May 4th, they presented a film “that talked – the Humanova”! This consisted of live actors sitting behind the screen, reading the dialog, if you can imagine something quite so zany!
JackCoursey’s 2 photos are beautiful. Yes, it is definitely a church; please see comments above. It was designed by a theater architect. It is the 4th Tremont Temple church on the same site. The very first was indeed a theater converted into a church. Each succeeding church was designed to look like a theater. The current one, opened in 1896, was used as a first-run movie house from about 1910 into the 1920s. It has 2582 seats, not 2852 as above.
The new opening date of Oct. 30th is also posted on their website. I hope they make that date because if they continue to postpone it , people will lose interest.
The old Globe Theatre was renamed Center Theatre on Feb. 18, 1947 according to Don King’s Boston theaters history book. It was purchased by E.M.Loew and remodeled.
The chronological list in the back of Don King’s Boston theaters history book says that the Washington Theatre opened on Oct. 2, 1911 at 720 Washington St. It was demolished sometime in the 1930s.
In the business news in yesterday’s Quincy Patriot-Ledger there is an article titled “Prospects for Westgate theater dim”. It says that the site of Macy’s store is clear and ready for construction. But it now looks highly unlikely that National Amusements will proceed there with their plan for a 12-screen cinema. “Ward 7 Councilor Christopher MacMillan said the theater plan may be dead. ‘It looks like it’s not going to happen’, he said.”
The Plumb Opera House is listed under Streator in the 1897-98 edition of the Julius Cahn Official Theatrical Guide. J. E. Williams was Mgr and Press Agent. The seating was 1,101. The auditorium was on the first floor and had gas illumination. Ticket prices ranged from 25 cents to 75 cents. The proscenium opening was 27 feet wide and the stage was 33 feet deep. There were 6 members of the house orchestra. There were 3 daily papers and 3 weeklies, one of which was German language. There were 4 hotels for show folk, including the Plumb House. The 1897 population of Streator was 15,000.
Krakatoa volcano is west of Java, between Java and Sumatra. The correct title of the movie should have been “Krakatoa – East of Sumatra”. But it is surprising that there was only one Cinerama presentation in New Haven.
George F. Will, the noted opinion piece writer at the Washington Post, has a piece “COLA’s Just Keep on Coming” in today’s Boston Herald. He writes that the automatic cost-of-living increase for Social Security recepients was originated by Rep. Wilbur Mills, Democrat of Arkansas, as a means to buy elderly votes when he was seeking the Democrat’s 1972 party nomination for President. Three years later, writes Will, Mills “had his fling with a stripper named Fanne Foxe, aka ‘The Argentine Firecracker’. (Mills joined her on stage at Boston’s exquisitely named Pilgrim Theatre, which specialized in what Time Magazine primly called ‘ecdysiast exhibitions’.)”
As the Grand Opera House, this theater is listed in the 1897-98 edition of the Julius Cahn Official Theatrical Guide. It was under the management of Staub, Jefferson, Klaw & Erlanger. Ticket prices ranged from 25 cents to $1. There were 747 orchestra seats, 582 balcony seats and 1,000 gallery seats, total: 2,329. The theater was on the ground floor and had both gas and electric illumination. The proscenium opening was 38 feet wide X 42 feet high, the stage was 65 feet deep. There were 9 in the house orchestra. The other theater listed under Memphis in this Guide was the New Lyceum Theatre with 2,010 seats. Memphis' population in 1897 was 100,000.
I have seen 2 more old photos of the Warren. One was taken from the front of the house looking toward the rear. There was no balcony. There was a 3-port projection booth up on the rear wall. The side walls were decorated with cloth banners or tapestries. There appear to be faux windows along the side walls above each emergency exit door. There appear to be at least 30 rows of seats with 4 aisles. There is also an exterior view. The marquee was supported by posts on its outer corners. It says “Talking Singing Shows”. The attraction is the film version of the hit play of the late-1920s, “Abie’s Irish Rose”. There is a verticle sign about 40 or 50 feet to the right of the marquee. The entrance and marquee are on the corner of the building. There are numerous poster frames around and near the entrance.
Boston film pioneer Joe Cifre wrote a long article (about 1950, I estimate) titled “Saga of the Movie Industry in Boston”. He also makes the claim, mentioned in the Intro at the head of this page, that the first movies shown to a theater audience in Boston took place at this theater in 1896. A small projection booth, draped in velour cloth, was placed at the balcony front. The film was 2 5/8 inches wide and each frame was 2 inches high. There were no sprocket holes; the film was run over velvet-covered rollers. A show about 10 to 12 minutes long was run at the very end of each vaudeville show.
In his lengthy article “Saga of the Movie Industry in Boston”, which I estimate was written about 1950, Boston film pioneer Joe Cifre says that when B.F. Keith renovated his Bijou and renamed it the Bijou Dream, there was a tiny projecton booth which had a unique turntable on which were mounted 2 projectors back to back. He says “When one machine was in operation facing the screen, the other, which was facing in the opposite direction, would be readied for use; at the end of the reel the turntable would be given a half-turn and the second projector would come into play.”
At the time the Egyptian in Brighton was under construction an article about it appeared in a movie industry trade magazine (title and date unknown). It says that the theater was being built for Netoco, New England Theatres Operating Company. The design was by “Eisenberg and Feer, Boston architects”, and it was based partly on the Great Temple of Karnak at Thebes on the Upper Nile River. From the sidewalk there is a long lobby, 22 feet wide and 100 feet long, leading to the foyer which is 56 feet long and 40 feet wide. Beyond that is the promenade, 70 feet long and 20 feet wide. The auditorium was to have been of the stadium style (but that did not happen). There was to have been an orchestra lift in the pit, plus a seperate lift for the organ console. The building measures 160 feet from the rear stage wall to the front foyer wall, and the auditorium is 100 feet wide. This article, with no date and no mention of what publication it came from, was reprinted in the 1983 souvenir booklet for the Boston convention of the THSA.
In the souvenir booklet for the 1983 convention in Boston of the Theatre Historical Society there is a set of 6 old photos of the Egyptian Th. probably made when the theater was new. There is one exterior view and 5 interior views of the lobby, what appears to be the inner foyer, and the auditorium. It was a very fancy and expensively decorated theater, with an Egyptian theme. All of the spaces were very spacious.
I forgot to include in the above list of Marcus Loew theaters in Boston in 1921 a theater simply listed as “Loew’s Theatre” at 530 Dudley Street in Roxbury.
In the souvenire booklet for the 1983 convention in Boston of the Theatre Historical Society there is an exterior view of the Liberty as well as an interior photo. The latter was taken from the center of the main floor looking towards the screen and probably dates from when the house was new. Inside the proscenium arch there is a second proscenium with drapes and curtains which cover the movie screen. On each sidewall there is a large box with 6 or more seats in it. There may have been a balcony as well. There are fancy metal grills above the boxes and capped pilasters and wall hangings on the side walls. There is a flat, plain ceiling with moulding around it and no chandeliers, but the photographer may have been standing too far forward for any lighting to show. It’s a nice, smaller theater which appears to have been purpose-built for movies.
Thanks to Louis Rugani for posting an interesting news story about Keith’s in Boston from the 1925 Lowell Sun. I assume that the perp Matthews was dismissed from his job. Today he would hire a lawyer and sue for discrimination since it is obvious that he is the victim here, a sufferer of Irrestible Violent Impulse Syndrome, or “IVIS”.
I took a closer look at the 1937 photo mentioned above. (It’s among a group of old photos posted on the wall of a barber shop in Weymouth Landing). The facade of the theater looks like real brick, and not the fake brick tar-paper as mentioned above. However, I still think that the stage-house was sided with the brick-patterned paper.
In the 1895 Boston city directory, in a list of theaters, there is a “Kinetoscope Parlor” located at 169 Tremont St., very near the entrance of the Tremont Theatre. Kinetoscopes were early moving picture machines.
As pointed out above in a June 2005 posting, this theater was operated by Marcus Loew for awhile before eventually being taken over by “the other Loew”, E.M. In a 1921 list of Boston theaters from a Boston city directory, it is listed as Loew’s Globe Theatre, 692 Washington St. Other Marcus Loew houses at that time in Boston were the Orpheum at 413 Washington St., and the New Columbia Theatre at 980 Washington St. in the South End.
I copied a list of Boston theaters from 2 city directories at the library when I was a kid. In 1895 there was a “Nickleodeon” at 51 Hanover Street which would have been across from the site of the Casino Theatre. In the 1921 listing, it was still there, as the “New Nickleodeon”. In his book about Boston theaters, Donald King says that the “Nickleodeon Musee and Parlor Theatre” opened on December 23, 1894 at 51-53 Hanover Street, utilizing 3 floors.
Among the handouts at the 1983 Boston conclave of the Theatre Historical Society was a page full of copies of small Somerville Theatre ads from the collection of Robert “Bob” Viano, who was a cousin of the Viano family which had owned the theater. He was also a THS member. There is an ad from the Somerville Journal of 4-30-1915 which states that beginning Monday May 10th, The Somerville Theatre Stock Company would begin their summer series on stage. Matinees daily at 230PM and evenings at 8PM. Tickets ranged from 10 cents to 35 cents. It seems that a serial movie “The Diamond from the Sky” had started, with a new chapter each week. Not to worry, movie goers! Each weekly chapter of the serial would continue to be shown during the intermission of the stage play “Within the Law”, and subsequent plays. Talk about getting your money’s worth !
Charles Grandgent, in his 1932 essay, “The Stage in Boston in the Last Fifty Years”, says that the Washington Theatre was “still running” in 1932.
In his Boston theaters history book, Don King also mentions that the Pastime Th. opened in February 1908, but has nothing more to say about it. It is not listed in Joe Cifre’s essay “Saga of the Movie Industry in Boston”, but I don’t think his summary of early Boston cinemas was meant to be comprehensive. Charles Grandgent, in his 1932 essay, “The Stage in Boston in the Last Fifty Years” says that the Pastime was on Washington Street, “over the old Clark’s Hotel”, but the Boston Globe description above seems to imply that the Pastime was of new construction. At that time Avery Street was little more than an alley and it did not go through to Tremont Street at its west end as it does today. So it was widened, and the comment above that the Pastime was in the way of the widening construction makes sense.
In his Boston theaters history book, Don King mentions that as of May 1, 1908, the Theatre Premier advertised that it had installed 14 electric fans. On May 4th, they presented a film “that talked – the Humanova”! This consisted of live actors sitting behind the screen, reading the dialog, if you can imagine something quite so zany!
JackCoursey’s 2 photos are beautiful. Yes, it is definitely a church; please see comments above. It was designed by a theater architect. It is the 4th Tremont Temple church on the same site. The very first was indeed a theater converted into a church. Each succeeding church was designed to look like a theater. The current one, opened in 1896, was used as a first-run movie house from about 1910 into the 1920s. It has 2582 seats, not 2852 as above.
The new opening date of Oct. 30th is also posted on their website. I hope they make that date because if they continue to postpone it , people will lose interest.
The old Globe Theatre was renamed Center Theatre on Feb. 18, 1947 according to Don King’s Boston theaters history book. It was purchased by E.M.Loew and remodeled.
The chronological list in the back of Don King’s Boston theaters history book says that the Washington Theatre opened on Oct. 2, 1911 at 720 Washington St. It was demolished sometime in the 1930s.
In the business news in yesterday’s Quincy Patriot-Ledger there is an article titled “Prospects for Westgate theater dim”. It says that the site of Macy’s store is clear and ready for construction. But it now looks highly unlikely that National Amusements will proceed there with their plan for a 12-screen cinema. “Ward 7 Councilor Christopher MacMillan said the theater plan may be dead. ‘It looks like it’s not going to happen’, he said.”
The Plumb Opera House is listed under Streator in the 1897-98 edition of the Julius Cahn Official Theatrical Guide. J. E. Williams was Mgr and Press Agent. The seating was 1,101. The auditorium was on the first floor and had gas illumination. Ticket prices ranged from 25 cents to 75 cents. The proscenium opening was 27 feet wide and the stage was 33 feet deep. There were 6 members of the house orchestra. There were 3 daily papers and 3 weeklies, one of which was German language. There were 4 hotels for show folk, including the Plumb House. The 1897 population of Streator was 15,000.
Krakatoa volcano is west of Java, between Java and Sumatra. The correct title of the movie should have been “Krakatoa – East of Sumatra”. But it is surprising that there was only one Cinerama presentation in New Haven.
George F. Will, the noted opinion piece writer at the Washington Post, has a piece “COLA’s Just Keep on Coming” in today’s Boston Herald. He writes that the automatic cost-of-living increase for Social Security recepients was originated by Rep. Wilbur Mills, Democrat of Arkansas, as a means to buy elderly votes when he was seeking the Democrat’s 1972 party nomination for President. Three years later, writes Will, Mills “had his fling with a stripper named Fanne Foxe, aka ‘The Argentine Firecracker’. (Mills joined her on stage at Boston’s exquisitely named Pilgrim Theatre, which specialized in what Time Magazine primly called ‘ecdysiast exhibitions’.)”
As the Grand Opera House, this theater is listed in the 1897-98 edition of the Julius Cahn Official Theatrical Guide. It was under the management of Staub, Jefferson, Klaw & Erlanger. Ticket prices ranged from 25 cents to $1. There were 747 orchestra seats, 582 balcony seats and 1,000 gallery seats, total: 2,329. The theater was on the ground floor and had both gas and electric illumination. The proscenium opening was 38 feet wide X 42 feet high, the stage was 65 feet deep. There were 9 in the house orchestra. The other theater listed under Memphis in this Guide was the New Lyceum Theatre with 2,010 seats. Memphis' population in 1897 was 100,000.
I have seen 2 more old photos of the Warren. One was taken from the front of the house looking toward the rear. There was no balcony. There was a 3-port projection booth up on the rear wall. The side walls were decorated with cloth banners or tapestries. There appear to be faux windows along the side walls above each emergency exit door. There appear to be at least 30 rows of seats with 4 aisles. There is also an exterior view. The marquee was supported by posts on its outer corners. It says “Talking Singing Shows”. The attraction is the film version of the hit play of the late-1920s, “Abie’s Irish Rose”. There is a verticle sign about 40 or 50 feet to the right of the marquee. The entrance and marquee are on the corner of the building. There are numerous poster frames around and near the entrance.
Boston film pioneer Joe Cifre wrote a long article (about 1950, I estimate) titled “Saga of the Movie Industry in Boston”. He also makes the claim, mentioned in the Intro at the head of this page, that the first movies shown to a theater audience in Boston took place at this theater in 1896. A small projection booth, draped in velour cloth, was placed at the balcony front. The film was 2 5/8 inches wide and each frame was 2 inches high. There were no sprocket holes; the film was run over velvet-covered rollers. A show about 10 to 12 minutes long was run at the very end of each vaudeville show.
In his lengthy article “Saga of the Movie Industry in Boston”, which I estimate was written about 1950, Boston film pioneer Joe Cifre says that when B.F. Keith renovated his Bijou and renamed it the Bijou Dream, there was a tiny projecton booth which had a unique turntable on which were mounted 2 projectors back to back. He says “When one machine was in operation facing the screen, the other, which was facing in the opposite direction, would be readied for use; at the end of the reel the turntable would be given a half-turn and the second projector would come into play.”
At the time the Egyptian in Brighton was under construction an article about it appeared in a movie industry trade magazine (title and date unknown). It says that the theater was being built for Netoco, New England Theatres Operating Company. The design was by “Eisenberg and Feer, Boston architects”, and it was based partly on the Great Temple of Karnak at Thebes on the Upper Nile River. From the sidewalk there is a long lobby, 22 feet wide and 100 feet long, leading to the foyer which is 56 feet long and 40 feet wide. Beyond that is the promenade, 70 feet long and 20 feet wide. The auditorium was to have been of the stadium style (but that did not happen). There was to have been an orchestra lift in the pit, plus a seperate lift for the organ console. The building measures 160 feet from the rear stage wall to the front foyer wall, and the auditorium is 100 feet wide. This article, with no date and no mention of what publication it came from, was reprinted in the 1983 souvenir booklet for the Boston convention of the THSA.
In the souvenir booklet for the 1983 convention in Boston of the Theatre Historical Society there is a set of 6 old photos of the Egyptian Th. probably made when the theater was new. There is one exterior view and 5 interior views of the lobby, what appears to be the inner foyer, and the auditorium. It was a very fancy and expensively decorated theater, with an Egyptian theme. All of the spaces were very spacious.
I forgot to include in the above list of Marcus Loew theaters in Boston in 1921 a theater simply listed as “Loew’s Theatre” at 530 Dudley Street in Roxbury.
In the souvenire booklet for the 1983 convention in Boston of the Theatre Historical Society there is an exterior view of the Liberty as well as an interior photo. The latter was taken from the center of the main floor looking towards the screen and probably dates from when the house was new. Inside the proscenium arch there is a second proscenium with drapes and curtains which cover the movie screen. On each sidewall there is a large box with 6 or more seats in it. There may have been a balcony as well. There are fancy metal grills above the boxes and capped pilasters and wall hangings on the side walls. There is a flat, plain ceiling with moulding around it and no chandeliers, but the photographer may have been standing too far forward for any lighting to show. It’s a nice, smaller theater which appears to have been purpose-built for movies.
Thanks to Louis Rugani for posting an interesting news story about Keith’s in Boston from the 1925 Lowell Sun. I assume that the perp Matthews was dismissed from his job. Today he would hire a lawyer and sue for discrimination since it is obvious that he is the victim here, a sufferer of Irrestible Violent Impulse Syndrome, or “IVIS”.
I took a closer look at the 1937 photo mentioned above. (It’s among a group of old photos posted on the wall of a barber shop in Weymouth Landing). The facade of the theater looks like real brick, and not the fake brick tar-paper as mentioned above. However, I still think that the stage-house was sided with the brick-patterned paper.
In the 1895 Boston city directory, in a list of theaters, there is a “Kinetoscope Parlor” located at 169 Tremont St., very near the entrance of the Tremont Theatre. Kinetoscopes were early moving picture machines.
As pointed out above in a June 2005 posting, this theater was operated by Marcus Loew for awhile before eventually being taken over by “the other Loew”, E.M. In a 1921 list of Boston theaters from a Boston city directory, it is listed as Loew’s Globe Theatre, 692 Washington St. Other Marcus Loew houses at that time in Boston were the Orpheum at 413 Washington St., and the New Columbia Theatre at 980 Washington St. in the South End.
I copied a list of Boston theaters from 2 city directories at the library when I was a kid. In 1895 there was a “Nickleodeon” at 51 Hanover Street which would have been across from the site of the Casino Theatre. In the 1921 listing, it was still there, as the “New Nickleodeon”. In his book about Boston theaters, Donald King says that the “Nickleodeon Musee and Parlor Theatre” opened on December 23, 1894 at 51-53 Hanover Street, utilizing 3 floors.