Since we now know that the street address for the Liberty is somewhere around 724/730 Blue Hill Avenue, this means that it is fairly close to another surviving theater, the Franklin Park Th., which is at 616 Blue Hill Ave. The latter is a church and its interior was damaged by a fire last winter.
I just went to Google Street View for 724 Blue Hill Avenue in Dorchester, and there is no doubt whatsoever that the Liberty Theatre, (the entrance structure at least), is still standing. So is the old apartment building to its left, which has been “modernized” to some extent.
The Boston Herald entertainment section today has a list of some upcoming music concerts in the Boston area for Sept and Oct., and there are 2 listed for the Orpheum for late-Sept. Someone told me that he heard that not a lick of work was done in the Orpheum this summer – no repairs and no refurbishment. I hope that’s not true.
The Boston Herald today has an article about the move from the Wang Theatre to the Opera House of the Boston Ballet Company. It says that the orchestra pit at the Opera House has just been rebuilt and enlarged. It can now accomodate up to 60 musicians.
Thank you, EdFindlay, for estimating the street address, and for the news that it is still standing. Charlie Stewart in 1983 wrote that it was serving as a warehouse at that time.
Someone writing in yesterday’s Quincy Patriot Ledger briefly mentions the Plimoth Cinema and its daily offerings of “first run independent, art and foreign films”. He says that it has been operating “for two years”. I did not become aware of it until the Fall of 2008, but have no doubt that it was running before then.
This cinema is currently part of the Opera in Cinemas network which features performances from various European opera houses. The other 2 cinemas in MA in the network are the Loring Hall in Hingham and the Capawock on Martha’s Vineyard island.
Showcase ran a big ad in the Quincy Patriot Ledger yesterday stating that today will be a “Special Preview Day” with free admission to a Disney Film Festival and to a Silver Screen Classics program. The cinema will officially open on Friday, Aug. 28th. They have opened on or ahead of schedule, because I seem to recall that the target day for opening was in the Fall. The cinema’s name at the top of their ad is “Showcase Cinema de Lux at Legacy Place”.
According to today’s Boston Herald, there will be a 75th birthday celebration for the Coolidge Corner tomorrow at 7PM. The news item says that the theater opened in December 1933, which means that it turned 75 last December. There is also a new book (or “booklet”, which implies that it’s not a full-size book) entitled “Only at the Coolidge: The Story of a Remarkable Movie Theater” by Susan Quinn. Those who attend the celebration will receive a copy of the book. The celebration will include prsentations by Susan Quinn and by Justin Freed. Admission: $15.
Phantom- “Barber Avenue” vs. “Barker Avenue” – this is the classic kind of mistake which occurs on the MGM Reports. So you are probably correct. It apparently was a very nice contemporary-design neighborhood movie theater.
I think it opened early this year, but the film organization which runs it dates back awhile. The basic admission currently is $9, but members of the film organization get a discount, as do senior citizens.
Although it is an “upstairs house”, access to the auditorium on the second floor is ADA-compliant with an elevator available. The space is a former club function room with a dance floor.
The new Hingham Shipyard Cinema opened during the last week of July. It has 6 screens and a total of about 1,000 seats, all stadium-style. Although it is close to Loring Hall, Patriot Cinemas say that the latter will remain open. I believe that the new cinema is all-new construction and did not go into an existing structure.
It’s not necessary to buy a ticket to the Plimoth Plantation in order to attend movies. The admission price was raised one dollar several months ago to $9.50. However, members of the museum’s support group receive a discount and, according to the class of membership, you can get in for as little as $6.
In the photo which J.F.Lundy has posted, note the attraction, the Fadettes Women’s orchestra. They played at Keith’s for the entire summer of 1906. This very nice photo shows the Tremont Street entrance for B.F Keith’s Theater (later the Normandie and the Laffmovie) on Washington St. This entrance was later adapted for the RKO Keith Memorial Theater (now the Opera House). After WW II, the structure was “modernized.” The 2 theaters are not to be confused with the subject of this page, the RKO Boston Theatre. In the photo, note how people overdressed in the old days— hey, it’s summer and they all have jackets and coats on !
“Someone Who Was There” tells me that he found the plans for the Casino in an archive and that they were dated “1909”, and that the theater was open all through the 1910’s showing films. He believes that it is one of the oldest surviving movie theaters in the USA.
There is a Lyceum Theatre listed under Detroit in the 1897-98 edition of the Julius Cahn Official Theatrical Guide. Is it this one? There are no street addresses in this Guide. It says that the Lyceum was managed by Brady & Stair, had 2,605 seats, and had both gas and electric illumination. The proscenium opening was 36 feet wide and the stage was 38 feet deep. Ticket prices ranged from 15 cents to 75 cents. Other Detroit theaters listed in the Guide were the Detroit Opera House, Whitney Grand Theatre, Capitol Square Thatre and Campbell’s Empire Theatre.
I looked at the Google Street View for Fairmount Ave. in Hyde Park, at both #17, the Fairmount Theater, and #45, the Riverside Theatre Works. The Fairmount Th. building is definitely still standing, but there is no activity and no signage at the theatre’s entrance.
The Showcase Cinema, which was the Cinerama venue, was the former Loews Poli Palace, and is today the Hanover Theatre, a newly restored live theater complete with a huge Wurlitzer. Further north on Main St. is the Palladium Theater, formerly the Plymouth, now a rock music concert hall. Near it is Mechanics Hall, a 19th-century concert hall; further north is another smaller concert hall, Tuckerman Hall, which served as a silient movie theater decades ago. All of the theaters are listed here in CT. Worcester is not a “ghost town” by any means.
Tenants are beginning to move into the new Legacy Place mall on the site of the Showcase Dedham. The most prominent of these new tenants is LL Bean whose new store will open on July 24. Supposedly, the new Showcase Cinema de Lux is set to open in late-August.
Since we now know that the street address for the Liberty is somewhere around 724/730 Blue Hill Avenue, this means that it is fairly close to another surviving theater, the Franklin Park Th., which is at 616 Blue Hill Ave. The latter is a church and its interior was damaged by a fire last winter.
I just went to Google Street View for 724 Blue Hill Avenue in Dorchester, and there is no doubt whatsoever that the Liberty Theatre, (the entrance structure at least), is still standing. So is the old apartment building to its left, which has been “modernized” to some extent.
The Boston Herald entertainment section today has a list of some upcoming music concerts in the Boston area for Sept and Oct., and there are 2 listed for the Orpheum for late-Sept. Someone told me that he heard that not a lick of work was done in the Orpheum this summer – no repairs and no refurbishment. I hope that’s not true.
The Boston Herald today has an article about the move from the Wang Theatre to the Opera House of the Boston Ballet Company. It says that the orchestra pit at the Opera House has just been rebuilt and enlarged. It can now accomodate up to 60 musicians.
Thank you, EdFindlay, for estimating the street address, and for the news that it is still standing. Charlie Stewart in 1983 wrote that it was serving as a warehouse at that time.
Someone writing in yesterday’s Quincy Patriot Ledger briefly mentions the Plimoth Cinema and its daily offerings of “first run independent, art and foreign films”. He says that it has been operating “for two years”. I did not become aware of it until the Fall of 2008, but have no doubt that it was running before then.
This cinema is currently part of the Opera in Cinemas network which features performances from various European opera houses. The other 2 cinemas in MA in the network are the Loring Hall in Hingham and the Capawock on Martha’s Vineyard island.
Showcase ran a big ad in the Quincy Patriot Ledger yesterday stating that today will be a “Special Preview Day” with free admission to a Disney Film Festival and to a Silver Screen Classics program. The cinema will officially open on Friday, Aug. 28th. They have opened on or ahead of schedule, because I seem to recall that the target day for opening was in the Fall. The cinema’s name at the top of their ad is “Showcase Cinema de Lux at Legacy Place”.
According to today’s Boston Herald, there will be a 75th birthday celebration for the Coolidge Corner tomorrow at 7PM. The news item says that the theater opened in December 1933, which means that it turned 75 last December. There is also a new book (or “booklet”, which implies that it’s not a full-size book) entitled “Only at the Coolidge: The Story of a Remarkable Movie Theater” by Susan Quinn. Those who attend the celebration will receive a copy of the book. The celebration will include prsentations by Susan Quinn and by Justin Freed. Admission: $15.
Phantom- “Barber Avenue” vs. “Barker Avenue” – this is the classic kind of mistake which occurs on the MGM Reports. So you are probably correct. It apparently was a very nice contemporary-design neighborhood movie theater.
I think it opened early this year, but the film organization which runs it dates back awhile. The basic admission currently is $9, but members of the film organization get a discount, as do senior citizens.
Although it is an “upstairs house”, access to the auditorium on the second floor is ADA-compliant with an elevator available. The space is a former club function room with a dance floor.
The new Hingham Shipyard Cinema opened during the last week of July. It has 6 screens and a total of about 1,000 seats, all stadium-style. Although it is close to Loring Hall, Patriot Cinemas say that the latter will remain open. I believe that the new cinema is all-new construction and did not go into an existing structure.
There are shows every day at 4:30PM and a second show at 7PM or 7:30PM on Thursday, Fridays and Saturdays. They feature “art house” -type product.
It’s not necessary to buy a ticket to the Plimoth Plantation in order to attend movies. The admission price was raised one dollar several months ago to $9.50. However, members of the museum’s support group receive a discount and, according to the class of membership, you can get in for as little as $6.
In the photo which J.F.Lundy has posted, note the attraction, the Fadettes Women’s orchestra. They played at Keith’s for the entire summer of 1906. This very nice photo shows the Tremont Street entrance for B.F Keith’s Theater (later the Normandie and the Laffmovie) on Washington St. This entrance was later adapted for the RKO Keith Memorial Theater (now the Opera House). After WW II, the structure was “modernized.” The 2 theaters are not to be confused with the subject of this page, the RKO Boston Theatre. In the photo, note how people overdressed in the old days— hey, it’s summer and they all have jackets and coats on !
“Someone Who Was There” got inside the Paramount very recently and confirmed that the decor in the new auditorium is very much like the old original.
“Someone Who Was There” tells me that he found the plans for the Casino in an archive and that they were dated “1909”, and that the theater was open all through the 1910’s showing films. He believes that it is one of the oldest surviving movie theaters in the USA.
There is a Lyceum Theatre listed under Detroit in the 1897-98 edition of the Julius Cahn Official Theatrical Guide. Is it this one? There are no street addresses in this Guide. It says that the Lyceum was managed by Brady & Stair, had 2,605 seats, and had both gas and electric illumination. The proscenium opening was 36 feet wide and the stage was 38 feet deep. Ticket prices ranged from 15 cents to 75 cents. Other Detroit theaters listed in the Guide were the Detroit Opera House, Whitney Grand Theatre, Capitol Square Thatre and Campbell’s Empire Theatre.
According to the site, the link to which was posted above by Lost, the name was changed from Strand to Studio in 1965.
I looked at the Google Street View for Fairmount Ave. in Hyde Park, at both #17, the Fairmount Theater, and #45, the Riverside Theatre Works. The Fairmount Th. building is definitely still standing, but there is no activity and no signage at the theatre’s entrance.
The Showcase Cinema, which was the Cinerama venue, was the former Loews Poli Palace, and is today the Hanover Theatre, a newly restored live theater complete with a huge Wurlitzer. Further north on Main St. is the Palladium Theater, formerly the Plymouth, now a rock music concert hall. Near it is Mechanics Hall, a 19th-century concert hall; further north is another smaller concert hall, Tuckerman Hall, which served as a silient movie theater decades ago. All of the theaters are listed here in CT. Worcester is not a “ghost town” by any means.
Tenants are beginning to move into the new Legacy Place mall on the site of the Showcase Dedham. The most prominent of these new tenants is LL Bean whose new store will open on July 24. Supposedly, the new Showcase Cinema de Lux is set to open in late-August.
Patriot Cinemas' new 6-screen Hingham Shipyard Cinema is almost finished and will open soon. It’s on the east side of Rt 3A in Hingham.
So according to the March 2001 Attleboro newspaper, it opened in early-Feb. 2001, with 2 screens.