When Sack took over the Charles, they dropped the “Charles East” and “Charles West” names for the smaller auditoriums, and just called the whole thing “Charles 1-2-3”.
It opened on October 29, 1928. Opening policy was “vaudeville at 2:15 and 8:15 P.M., photoplay at 1, 4, 7, and 10 o'clock, continuous shows Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays.” In May 1929 it dropped the feature films and played only vaudeville; I don’t know how long this policy lasted. In September 1933, it dropped vaudeville in favor of first-run double-feature films.
On October 7, 1953, the first CinemaScope feature, The Robe, opened here, on a screen 51 feet wide and 20 feet high.
Ben Sack bought it in June 1965 and reopened it as the Savoy Theatre on August 3, 1965. In September 1971, Sack built a wall within the proscenium arch and turned the stage into the Savoy 2 and the dressing rooms into apartments, temporarily ending the theatre’s use for live shows.
The Opera Company of Boston bought the Savoy from Sack for $885,000 on October 19, 1978 and burned the mortgage the following August.
Donald C. King’s new book The Theatres of Boston: A Stage and Screen History has many photos and an extensive 11-page description of this theatre. I got most of my initial information about this theatre from an earlier article that King published in the third quarter 1974 issue of the Theatre Historical Society’s journal Marquee.
When the theatre opened, its electric generating room was itself a major attraction, which had an elevated marble walkway for visits by patrons.
On May 18, 1896, Thomas Edison’s Vitascope motion pictures were shown here, for the first time in Boston. “The film show consisted of short subjects, none of which ran more than a few minutes, and featured were John C. Rice and May Irwin in a picture of a kiss from the stage comedy The Widow Jones.” Shows were at 11 am, 3:30 pm, and 9 pm, and included vaudeville. Newspapers speculated that the new invention could be used to permanently preserve copies of stage performances and deliver them all over the world.
In February 1913, B.F. Keith’s Theatre and the National both offered Edison’s Talking Pictures, “a phonograph and film device, some 13 years ahead of workable sound pictures. The problem was amplification: a phonograph horn, no matter how big, could not carry sound any further than a few rows.”
B.F. Keith’s no-longer-New Theatre closed on June 30, 1928, “featuring a stage-load of vaudeville stars including Ethel Barrymore, Will Cressy, Chick Sale, and Fred and Dorothy Stone.” The Keith-Albee organization no longer needed this house since they were about to open the larger and even more lavish Keith Memorial Theatre next door.
On April 1, 1929, it reopened as Shubert’s Apollo, but by 1930 had changed its name again to the Lyric. It was not successful as a legitimate stage, and then became the Normandie Ballroom (I posted a link to a photo of this above). Its auditorium became a dance floor with tables.
On December 16, 1939, it became a movie theatre, still called the Normandie. The first show was a double feature of I Was a Captive of Nazi Germany and The Fight For Peace. Soon afterwards, owner Fred Lieberman made it part of his “proven pictures” circuit, showing old movies or low admission prices.
The theatre was demolished in 1951, after further name changes to Laff-Movie, Art-Movie, and Mirth-Movie.
King says that the Bijou closed on December 31, 1943. The next day, stricter fire codes went into effect, which the Bijou could not have complied with. It sat empty until 1951, when both its auditorium and the neighboring B.F. Keith’s theatre were demolished.
According to Donald C. King’s new book The Theatres of Boston: A Stage and Screen History, the Boston Music Hall opened in November 1852, seating about 2500 patrons. When it opened, it had three entrances: Hamilton Place (off Tremont Street, still used today); Bumstead Place (off Tremont Street); and Central or Winter Place (later Music Hall Place, off Winter Street).
After the Boston Symphony Orchestra departed for a new Symphony Hall in the Fenway, the Music Hall needed a new use. William Morris had it converted into a vaudeville theatre. It reopened on Labor Day 1900, advertising “Continuous Refined Vaudeville – NOT CONTROLLED BY A TRUST”. The Bumstead Place entrance was closed.
It was substantially remodeled yet again and reopened as the Empire Theatre on Feburary 12, 1905, with an additional entrance added at 415 Washington Street. On September 3, 1906, it became the Orpheum, still presenting vaudeville. On Sptember 13, 1909, it briefly became the American Music Hall, but in 1910 it was once more the Orpheum. William Morris sold it and his other theatres to Marcus Loew, and it became Loew’s Orpheum, featuring “pictures and vaudeville, 10-15-25 cents”.
Loew closed the Orpheum in 1915, then gutted and rebuilt it with 3320 seats after acquiring additional land. He reopened it on January 20, 1916 with continuous vaudeville and movies, whose titles were initially not advertised. The Music Hall Place entrance was abandoned; it eventually became part of a department store.
By the early 1930s, the Orpheum had dropped vaudeville and instead played first-run double-feature films. Gone With the Wind played an exclusive long run at the Orpheum in 1939.
Loew’s Theatres abandoned the Orpheum on January 18, 1972. It reopened as the Aquarius, but by 1974 was once again the Orpheum. Sarah Caldwell’s opera company performed here while searching for a more permanent home. The Orpheum eventually lost its Washington Street entrance.
“The Metropolitan presented a first-run film, symphony orchestra overture and ballet, followed by vaudeville. It booked famous stars like Amos and Andy, Kate Smith, and Rudy Vallee, whose acts were not completely absorbed by the house’s vastness and grandeur. Such huge auditoriums hastened the demise of vaudeville, whose very intimacy had been its greatest attraction.”
In February 1938, the Metropolitan droped its stage shows. Ben Sack took it over and renamed it the Music Hall on July 13, 1962. During Sack’s operation, the Music Hall presented occasional road stage productions, opera, and ballet, as well as movies.
Erik, I think the author moved out of the Boston area in the 1970s or 80s and therefore his coverage of events after that is pretty spotty. Among the things he doesn’t mention, but are familiar to me:
Some public and college libraries offer free access to something called ProQuest, which serves up page images from old issues of the New York Times. Check with your local library.
King says that the Park presented its first motion picture in May 1912, at the end of its stage season. “The house was probably leased by Universal Film Manufacturing Company to show its Rainey’s African Hunt.”
Adolph Zukor leased the Park in 1914 for his Famous Players Corporation, gutting and rebuilding the theatre. King refers to it as “Boston’s first movie palace”. It had 1200 seats after the reconstruction. It was remodeled again in 1929.
In November 1933, the Park became Minsky’s Burlesque, featuring striptease acts. Minsky left in 1937, and it was remodeled yet again, becoming the Hub Theatre.
After still another reconstruction, it became the Trans-Lux on September 10, 1938. The Trans-Lux no longer had a stage or boxes, and featured Boston’s first turnstile box office. Other Trans-Lux chain theatres featured rear projection, but there was not enough space here for that system. The Trans-Lux initially showed a combination of newsreels and short subjects, but by 1939 had added a feature film to its program.
In 1960, the Trans-Lux became the first Washington Street theatre to show sex films. The company’s stockholders demanded that the theatre change its name, and it became the State.
According to Donald C. King’s new book The Theatres of Boston: A Stage and Screen History, the Lancaster Theatre opened on February 17, 1917. It was operated by E.M. Loew and “for most of its life was a late-run film house, ideal for travelers waiting for trains.”
King say that the elevated trolley tracks on Causeway Street “passed through a portion of its marquee”, but unfortunately he provides no photo.
In 1963, Loew gutted the Lancaster, demolished its lobby building, and constructed “a 30-foot-high all-glass entrance…in anticipation of the elevated train structure being demolished.” The new entrance “presented a view of a big abstract mural, designed by Normal Ives, which reflected the colors used in the interior’s black ceiling, white walls, and scarlet carpet.” The theatre got a new name, the West End Cinema.
In retrospect, this all seems like a grave miscalculation. E.M. Loew expected the elevated tracks to come down by 1965, but in fact they were not demolished until 2004. He renamed his theatre the West End, but by then West End neighborhood no longer existed; an “urban renewal” project had utterly obliterated it.
By the time I arrived in Boston in 1975, E.M. Loew’s West End Cinema was an X-rated movie house. I believe it became the West End Pussycat a couple of years later.
In 1904, Charles Frohman leased the hall, enlarged its stage, and presented the morality play Everyman along with Shakespeare repertory.
In 1912, real estate developer M.H. Gulesian gutted and expanded Chickering Hall. It reopened on August 30, 1912 as the Saint James Theatre, with 1800 seats. Marcus Loew leased it in February 1913, showing low-priced vaudeville and movies. In 1925, the Keith-Albee circuit took over and began presenting a stock company on the Saint James stage.
In 1929, the Saint James became part of the Paramount-Publix chain and was renamed the Uptown. In 1968, it was sold to the Christian Science Church and demolished.
AMC owns the 5-screen Chestnut Hill Cinema, the former General Cinema flagship in Newton, Mass. Someone reported that last month that it had been sold, but its ads still carry the AMC logo today.
When Sack took over the Charles, they dropped the “Charles East” and “Charles West” names for the smaller auditoriums, and just called the whole thing “Charles 1-2-3”.
The Boston Athenaeum web site has a short piece on the Columbia. It says the theatre was razed in 1955. I don’t know which date is correct.
King’s book says this theatre opened “circa 1910”.
Donald C. King’s new book The Theatres of Boston: A Stage and Screen History has an extensive description of this theatre, with many photos.
It opened on October 29, 1928. Opening policy was “vaudeville at 2:15 and 8:15 P.M., photoplay at 1, 4, 7, and 10 o'clock, continuous shows Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays.” In May 1929 it dropped the feature films and played only vaudeville; I don’t know how long this policy lasted. In September 1933, it dropped vaudeville in favor of first-run double-feature films.
On October 7, 1953, the first CinemaScope feature, The Robe, opened here, on a screen 51 feet wide and 20 feet high.
Ben Sack bought it in June 1965 and reopened it as the Savoy Theatre on August 3, 1965. In September 1971, Sack built a wall within the proscenium arch and turned the stage into the Savoy 2 and the dressing rooms into apartments, temporarily ending the theatre’s use for live shows.
The Opera Company of Boston bought the Savoy from Sack for $885,000 on October 19, 1978 and burned the mortgage the following August.
Donald C. King’s new book The Theatres of Boston: A Stage and Screen History has many photos and an extensive 11-page description of this theatre. I got most of my initial information about this theatre from an earlier article that King published in the third quarter 1974 issue of the Theatre Historical Society’s journal Marquee.
When the theatre opened, its electric generating room was itself a major attraction, which had an elevated marble walkway for visits by patrons.
On May 18, 1896, Thomas Edison’s Vitascope motion pictures were shown here, for the first time in Boston. “The film show consisted of short subjects, none of which ran more than a few minutes, and featured were John C. Rice and May Irwin in a picture of a kiss from the stage comedy The Widow Jones.” Shows were at 11 am, 3:30 pm, and 9 pm, and included vaudeville. Newspapers speculated that the new invention could be used to permanently preserve copies of stage performances and deliver them all over the world.
In February 1913, B.F. Keith’s Theatre and the National both offered Edison’s Talking Pictures, “a phonograph and film device, some 13 years ahead of workable sound pictures. The problem was amplification: a phonograph horn, no matter how big, could not carry sound any further than a few rows.”
B.F. Keith’s no-longer-New Theatre closed on June 30, 1928, “featuring a stage-load of vaudeville stars including Ethel Barrymore, Will Cressy, Chick Sale, and Fred and Dorothy Stone.” The Keith-Albee organization no longer needed this house since they were about to open the larger and even more lavish Keith Memorial Theatre next door.
On April 1, 1929, it reopened as Shubert’s Apollo, but by 1930 had changed its name again to the Lyric. It was not successful as a legitimate stage, and then became the Normandie Ballroom (I posted a link to a photo of this above). Its auditorium became a dance floor with tables.
On December 16, 1939, it became a movie theatre, still called the Normandie. The first show was a double feature of I Was a Captive of Nazi Germany and The Fight For Peace. Soon afterwards, owner Fred Lieberman made it part of his “proven pictures” circuit, showing old movies or low admission prices.
The theatre was demolished in 1951, after further name changes to Laff-Movie, Art-Movie, and Mirth-Movie.
King says that the Bijou closed on December 31, 1943. The next day, stricter fire codes went into effect, which the Bijou could not have complied with. It sat empty until 1951, when both its auditorium and the neighboring B.F. Keith’s theatre were demolished.
According to Donald C. King’s new book The Theatres of Boston: A Stage and Screen History, the Boston Music Hall opened in November 1852, seating about 2500 patrons. When it opened, it had three entrances: Hamilton Place (off Tremont Street, still used today); Bumstead Place (off Tremont Street); and Central or Winter Place (later Music Hall Place, off Winter Street).
After the Boston Symphony Orchestra departed for a new Symphony Hall in the Fenway, the Music Hall needed a new use. William Morris had it converted into a vaudeville theatre. It reopened on Labor Day 1900, advertising “Continuous Refined Vaudeville – NOT CONTROLLED BY A TRUST”. The Bumstead Place entrance was closed.
It was substantially remodeled yet again and reopened as the Empire Theatre on Feburary 12, 1905, with an additional entrance added at 415 Washington Street. On September 3, 1906, it became the Orpheum, still presenting vaudeville. On Sptember 13, 1909, it briefly became the American Music Hall, but in 1910 it was once more the Orpheum. William Morris sold it and his other theatres to Marcus Loew, and it became Loew’s Orpheum, featuring “pictures and vaudeville, 10-15-25 cents”.
Loew closed the Orpheum in 1915, then gutted and rebuilt it with 3320 seats after acquiring additional land. He reopened it on January 20, 1916 with continuous vaudeville and movies, whose titles were initially not advertised. The Music Hall Place entrance was abandoned; it eventually became part of a department store.
By the early 1930s, the Orpheum had dropped vaudeville and instead played first-run double-feature films. Gone With the Wind played an exclusive long run at the Orpheum in 1939.
Loew’s Theatres abandoned the Orpheum on January 18, 1972. It reopened as the Aquarius, but by 1974 was once again the Orpheum. Sarah Caldwell’s opera company performed here while searching for a more permanent home. The Orpheum eventually lost its Washington Street entrance.
According to Donald C. King’s new book The Theatres of Boston: A Stage and Screen History, the Metropolitan opened on October 17, 1925, with 4407 seats.
“The Metropolitan presented a first-run film, symphony orchestra overture and ballet, followed by vaudeville. It booked famous stars like Amos and Andy, Kate Smith, and Rudy Vallee, whose acts were not completely absorbed by the house’s vastness and grandeur. Such huge auditoriums hastened the demise of vaudeville, whose very intimacy had been its greatest attraction.”
In February 1938, the Metropolitan droped its stage shows. Ben Sack took it over and renamed it the Music Hall on July 13, 1962. During Sack’s operation, the Music Hall presented occasional road stage productions, opera, and ballet, as well as movies.
From the Boston Public Library’s photo collection:
Toy Theatre, Later the Copley Theatre. Photo taken some time between 1914 and 1922.
Music Hall Interior opposite Platform, July 4, 1876
From the Boston Public Library’s photo collection:
Washington Street showing Loew’s Orpheum, 1925
From the Boston Public Library photo collection:
Majestic Theatre exterior, “early 20th century”
Majestic Theatre interior, 1907
From the photo collection of the Boston Public Library:
Tremont Theatre, “early 20th century”
From the Boston Public Library’s photo collection:
A glimpse of the Old Howard, 1930
The Old Howard, ca. 1950
Demolition of the Old Howard, 1961
Burlesque performer Ann Corio visits the Old Howard in 1961, during its demolition
From the Boston Public Library’s photo collection:
Crawford House: Hotel and Theater, 1930
Burlesque star Sally Keith, 1940s
Cover of a Keith’s Theatre program from 1901, showing the lobby and staircase.
A photo of B.F. Keith, 1902
From the Boston Public Library’s photo collection:
Demolition of Keith’s Theatre, 1952
Demolition of Keith’s Theatre, from the roof
Demolition of Keith’s Theatre, showing workman
Normandie Ballroom, 1936 (formerly the B.F. Keith Theatre)
Act Drop, B.F. Keith’s Theatre, 1913
Red Room, Keith’s Theatre
Grand Stairway, Tremont Street Entrance, Keith’s Theatre
Erik, I think the author moved out of the Boston area in the 1970s or 80s and therefore his coverage of events after that is pretty spotty. Among the things he doesn’t mention, but are familiar to me:
The Strand appears on this 1928 map, on Scollay Square near the corner of Brattle Street.
Here’s a page about Sally Keith. For much more about Scollay Square, visit David Kruh’s site, JoeAndNemo.com .
Some public and college libraries offer free access to something called ProQuest, which serves up page images from old issues of the New York Times. Check with your local library.
Since I’ve posted many notes from his book on this site over the past week, I’d appreciate any corrections that you can add.
King says that the Park presented its first motion picture in May 1912, at the end of its stage season. “The house was probably leased by Universal Film Manufacturing Company to show its Rainey’s African Hunt.”
Adolph Zukor leased the Park in 1914 for his Famous Players Corporation, gutting and rebuilding the theatre. King refers to it as “Boston’s first movie palace”. It had 1200 seats after the reconstruction. It was remodeled again in 1929.
In November 1933, the Park became Minsky’s Burlesque, featuring striptease acts. Minsky left in 1937, and it was remodeled yet again, becoming the Hub Theatre.
After still another reconstruction, it became the Trans-Lux on September 10, 1938. The Trans-Lux no longer had a stage or boxes, and featured Boston’s first turnstile box office. Other Trans-Lux chain theatres featured rear projection, but there was not enough space here for that system. The Trans-Lux initially showed a combination of newsreels and short subjects, but by 1939 had added a feature film to its program.
In 1960, the Trans-Lux became the first Washington Street theatre to show sex films. The company’s stockholders demanded that the theatre change its name, and it became the State.
According to Donald C. King’s new book The Theatres of Boston: A Stage and Screen History, the Lancaster Theatre opened on February 17, 1917. It was operated by E.M. Loew and “for most of its life was a late-run film house, ideal for travelers waiting for trains.”
King say that the elevated trolley tracks on Causeway Street “passed through a portion of its marquee”, but unfortunately he provides no photo.
In 1963, Loew gutted the Lancaster, demolished its lobby building, and constructed “a 30-foot-high all-glass entrance…in anticipation of the elevated train structure being demolished.” The new entrance “presented a view of a big abstract mural, designed by Normal Ives, which reflected the colors used in the interior’s black ceiling, white walls, and scarlet carpet.” The theatre got a new name, the West End Cinema.
In retrospect, this all seems like a grave miscalculation. E.M. Loew expected the elevated tracks to come down by 1965, but in fact they were not demolished until 2004. He renamed his theatre the West End, but by then West End neighborhood no longer existed; an “urban renewal” project had utterly obliterated it.
By the time I arrived in Boston in 1975, E.M. Loew’s West End Cinema was an X-rated movie house. I believe it became the West End Pussycat a couple of years later.
According to Donald C. King’s new book The Theatres of Boston: A Stage and Screen History, Chickering Hall opened on February 8, 1901, as a concert or lecture hall with 800 seats.
In 1904, Charles Frohman leased the hall, enlarged its stage, and presented the morality play Everyman along with Shakespeare repertory.
In 1912, real estate developer M.H. Gulesian gutted and expanded Chickering Hall. It reopened on August 30, 1912 as the Saint James Theatre, with 1800 seats. Marcus Loew leased it in February 1913, showing low-priced vaudeville and movies. In 1925, the Keith-Albee circuit took over and began presenting a stock company on the Saint James stage.
In 1929, the Saint James became part of the Paramount-Publix chain and was renamed the Uptown. In 1968, it was sold to the Christian Science Church and demolished.
AMC owns the 5-screen Chestnut Hill Cinema, the former General Cinema flagship in Newton, Mass. Someone reported that last month that it had been sold, but its ads still carry the AMC logo today.