I recently saw a photo of the Weymouth Theatre taken in 1937. The photographer was standing at the edge of the sidewalk to the west of the theater and shooting eastward down the street. On the marquee is posted Disney’s “Snow White”. The caption says that the marquee was new and had just been installed. The theater had commercial structures on both sides including a large brick building to its right (east). My hazy memory of the Weymouth Theatre in the 1950s is that it was free-standing and did not have buildings next to it, but I could be wrong.
I have the 1977 reprint edition, which was published by that company in Vestal NY which was such a great source of theater publications back in the 1970s and 1980s. The 1977 edition was not as nicely done as this new THSA edition. It’s one of my favorite theater books, and of course was originally published in the late-1920s when the Movie Palace era was booming. I’m sure that the typical CT member will like this book.
The Billboard trade paper of Sept 8, 1906 has an artice by their Boston correspondent about the opening of the Fall theater season in Boston. The Palace opened with Bob Manchester’s “Cracker Jacks” on stage. The busy Bob Manchester also had another show opening at the same time at the Lyceum Theatre (which was demolished to make way for the Gayety/Publix) on Washington Street downtown.
I went by the site of the Publix today and there is still nothing there but a brick-strewn empty lot. The Billboard trade paper of Sept 8, 1906 mentions the Lyceum Theater which was located on this lot and was demolished to make way for the Gayety/Publix. There is a report of the new Fall season in Boston theaters and it says that the Lyceum opened for the season the previous Monday with Bob Manchester’s Vanity Fair Company. There were a variety of vaudeville acts including “The Wang Doodle Four”. A man named Bacheller was the manager, and the report says that there have been “big houses” .
The Billboard trade paper has an article in its Sept 8, 1906 edition reporting on the opening of the Fall season in Boston theaters. For the first week in September, the Old Howard had a vaudeville show with no less than 15 acts headed by The Albas, a high-wire circus act. There were singers, dancers, and comedy sketches. Closing the show was the “Howardscope” – movie short subjects on screen.
In the “Billboard” trade paper of Sept 8, 1906, there is an article about the opening of the Fall season in Boston theaters written by their Boston reporter, Frank Voorhies. He says that the first week of September was actually the last week of Keith’s summer season and marked the 13th and final week of the Fadettes Women’s orchestra. The show consisted of Junie McCree & Company in “The Man from Denver” plus assorted vaude acts, such as Clare Beasy’s Performing Cats, acrobats, singers, comics, dancers, ending with the Kinetograph – movie short subjects on screen. “Good business”, he says.
I walked within a block of the Wang yesterday afternoon and it does indeed have one of those colorful, ever-changing electronic cartoon -type marquees. There is one also on the Shubert across the street. They are both large rectangular devices attached perpendicular to the building facade.
I went to the rear of the Opera House (Mason Street) yesterday. The new Emerson College building is finished on the exterior, and it has a recessed loading dock about one truck-length deep from the street. At the north end of this dock there is a large freight door which is perpendicular to the south side wall of the Opera House. I am guessing that this freight door is for loading sets onto the Opera House stage. If that is true, it means that the Opera House’s scene loading door is on someone else’s property, an unusual arrangement.
Those are 2 nice photos, especially the second one. I visited the Modern yesterday. There is nothing left but a busted remnant of the left (south) sidewall which doesn’t even go out to the sidewalk. There is a sign which points out the facade restoration, so I guess they must have dismantled the facade and stored it away for reconstruction in the future. Everything else is gone.
Lost- that photo shows a really old theater, perhaps from the 19th century. In the 1897-98 edition of the Julius Cahn Official Theatrical Guide, there is a Clement Opera House in Berlin NH run by one F. Clement. Possibly, Mr. Clement opened a theater with his name on it in Dover, later. In the same Guide there is a City Opera House in Dover, but Mr. Clement was not associated with it.
The MGM Theatre reports of May 1941 list 3 movie theaters in Dover NH, the Strand, the State and the Broadway. So “Broadway” must have been the name in 1941.
The Charkarohen Theater in Lincoln is listed in the 1942-43 edition of the Motion Picture Almanac. It was operated at that time by the Interstate Theatre Corp. of Boston. It was one of 9 movie theaters in New Hampshire run by Interstate. Lincoln is a small town in northern NH which was in the center of timber logging many years ago.
I went there to the “flicks” from the mid-1940s until it closed and it was always the “Adams” Theatre. But the building which contained the entrance could have had another name, like “Arthorp”.
It should be pointed out that the Adams was undoubtedly named for President John Adams and President John Quincy Adams whose side-by-side birthplaces are located only a 10 or 12 minute walk from the theater and are maintained by the National Park Service.
In ken mc’s photo from August 1980, not only is this theater still open, but also the Pussycat next to it, as well as the Pilgrim up the street, plus the Publix across from the Pilgrim, plus even the former RKO Boston/Cinerama in the far background. A nice photo.
There is a Columbia Theatre listed under Brooklyn in the 1897-98 edition of the Julius Cahn Official Theatrical Guide. There are no street addresses in this Guide, unfortunately. The Columbia was run by Daniel Frohman and Al Hayman, and Harry Mann was their Mgr. Ticket prices ranged from 25 cents to $1.50. The seating was 1,728 broken down as: parquette 288, parquette circle 355, dress circle 322, family circle 399, gallery 300, 12 boxes 64. There was both electric and gas illumination. The proscenium opening was 43 feet square, and the stage was 52 feet deep. The auditorium was on the ground floor and there were 10 in the house orchestra.
To Minstrel777- re: John Noble. According to the little article in the Paragon Ragtime Orchestra newsletter, he died after the 1920s. If his middle name was Arthur, then maybe the “gravestone” backstage at the Strand was some sort of inside joke. You seem to know a lot about Ithaca theaters, so perhaps you could write pages here in CT for those not already in the data base, such as the Lyceum.
ken mc- very interesting. I didn’t realize that it dated from the 1940s and not the 1930s and that it was a remodeled skating rink. It probably opened in late-1941 or in 1942.
Claire- what you describe was known as “Dish Night”. Movie theaters which participated in this incentive usually held one “Dish Night” per week. Do you remember anything about what the Adams Theater looked like on the inside?
An article in the Patriot Ledger of March 24, “Credit Crunch – Westgate Mall Theater on Hold” says that financing problems have put a temporary halt to construction of the new 12-screen National Amusements cinema on the site of Macy’s at Westgate Mall. The site has been cleared and is ready to go. Construction was to have begun this spring. The mall owner says that construction is now postponed to within a year. A Brockton city councilor expects a delay of 6 to 12 months.
The Colonial in Nashua is listed in two places in the 1942-43 edition of the Motion Picture Almanac. 1) under the Fred Lieberman circuit (“Proven Pictures”) headquartered in Boston; 2) under the Charles Morse Theatres, also of Boston. It’s possible that one of those circuits sold it to the other as the Almanac was going to press.
The State Th. in Nashua is listed in 1942-43 edition of the Motion Picture Almanac as part of Shea-Chain Inc. & Affiliates, 1540 Broadway, New York City. Shea also ran the Tremont Th. in Nashua at that time.
In the long list of movie theater circuits in the 1942-43 Motion Picture Almanac, there is an entry for Shea-Chain Inc. & Affiliates. Its address was 1540 Broadway in New York City. Among its theaters in New Hampshire were the Tremont Th. and the State Th. in Nashua. There was also a Tremont Th. in Claremont NH run by Sharby Theatres of Keene.
Stetson Hall opens today. There will be a ceremony at 6PM outside, and 730PM is curtain time for the musical “1776” on stage, the first of 5 performances this month. They are currently looking for a development manager. The effort to rehabilitate the building goes back 12 years, and the total cost has been $2.5M.
Ian Judge should be given credit for being able to keep the “secret” that Bono/U2 had been booked into the Somerville Theatre. Despite the best efforts of the local media to get the facts, he kept his mouth shut, CIA/military- style. For the 24 hours prior to the concert, there were many great shots on local TV of the load-in on stage and at the rear of the stage-house.
I recently saw a photo of the Weymouth Theatre taken in 1937. The photographer was standing at the edge of the sidewalk to the west of the theater and shooting eastward down the street. On the marquee is posted Disney’s “Snow White”. The caption says that the marquee was new and had just been installed. The theater had commercial structures on both sides including a large brick building to its right (east). My hazy memory of the Weymouth Theatre in the 1950s is that it was free-standing and did not have buildings next to it, but I could be wrong.
I have the 1977 reprint edition, which was published by that company in Vestal NY which was such a great source of theater publications back in the 1970s and 1980s. The 1977 edition was not as nicely done as this new THSA edition. It’s one of my favorite theater books, and of course was originally published in the late-1920s when the Movie Palace era was booming. I’m sure that the typical CT member will like this book.
The Billboard trade paper of Sept 8, 1906 has an artice by their Boston correspondent about the opening of the Fall theater season in Boston. The Palace opened with Bob Manchester’s “Cracker Jacks” on stage. The busy Bob Manchester also had another show opening at the same time at the Lyceum Theatre (which was demolished to make way for the Gayety/Publix) on Washington Street downtown.
I went by the site of the Publix today and there is still nothing there but a brick-strewn empty lot. The Billboard trade paper of Sept 8, 1906 mentions the Lyceum Theater which was located on this lot and was demolished to make way for the Gayety/Publix. There is a report of the new Fall season in Boston theaters and it says that the Lyceum opened for the season the previous Monday with Bob Manchester’s Vanity Fair Company. There were a variety of vaudeville acts including “The Wang Doodle Four”. A man named Bacheller was the manager, and the report says that there have been “big houses” .
The Billboard trade paper has an article in its Sept 8, 1906 edition reporting on the opening of the Fall season in Boston theaters. For the first week in September, the Old Howard had a vaudeville show with no less than 15 acts headed by The Albas, a high-wire circus act. There were singers, dancers, and comedy sketches. Closing the show was the “Howardscope” – movie short subjects on screen.
In the “Billboard” trade paper of Sept 8, 1906, there is an article about the opening of the Fall season in Boston theaters written by their Boston reporter, Frank Voorhies. He says that the first week of September was actually the last week of Keith’s summer season and marked the 13th and final week of the Fadettes Women’s orchestra. The show consisted of Junie McCree & Company in “The Man from Denver” plus assorted vaude acts, such as Clare Beasy’s Performing Cats, acrobats, singers, comics, dancers, ending with the Kinetograph – movie short subjects on screen. “Good business”, he says.
I walked within a block of the Wang yesterday afternoon and it does indeed have one of those colorful, ever-changing electronic cartoon -type marquees. There is one also on the Shubert across the street. They are both large rectangular devices attached perpendicular to the building facade.
I went to the rear of the Opera House (Mason Street) yesterday. The new Emerson College building is finished on the exterior, and it has a recessed loading dock about one truck-length deep from the street. At the north end of this dock there is a large freight door which is perpendicular to the south side wall of the Opera House. I am guessing that this freight door is for loading sets onto the Opera House stage. If that is true, it means that the Opera House’s scene loading door is on someone else’s property, an unusual arrangement.
Those are 2 nice photos, especially the second one. I visited the Modern yesterday. There is nothing left but a busted remnant of the left (south) sidewall which doesn’t even go out to the sidewalk. There is a sign which points out the facade restoration, so I guess they must have dismantled the facade and stored it away for reconstruction in the future. Everything else is gone.
Lost- that photo shows a really old theater, perhaps from the 19th century. In the 1897-98 edition of the Julius Cahn Official Theatrical Guide, there is a Clement Opera House in Berlin NH run by one F. Clement. Possibly, Mr. Clement opened a theater with his name on it in Dover, later. In the same Guide there is a City Opera House in Dover, but Mr. Clement was not associated with it.
The MGM Theatre reports of May 1941 list 3 movie theaters in Dover NH, the Strand, the State and the Broadway. So “Broadway” must have been the name in 1941.
The Charkarohen Theater in Lincoln is listed in the 1942-43 edition of the Motion Picture Almanac. It was operated at that time by the Interstate Theatre Corp. of Boston. It was one of 9 movie theaters in New Hampshire run by Interstate. Lincoln is a small town in northern NH which was in the center of timber logging many years ago.
I went there to the “flicks” from the mid-1940s until it closed and it was always the “Adams” Theatre. But the building which contained the entrance could have had another name, like “Arthorp”.
It should be pointed out that the Adams was undoubtedly named for President John Adams and President John Quincy Adams whose side-by-side birthplaces are located only a 10 or 12 minute walk from the theater and are maintained by the National Park Service.
In ken mc’s photo from August 1980, not only is this theater still open, but also the Pussycat next to it, as well as the Pilgrim up the street, plus the Publix across from the Pilgrim, plus even the former RKO Boston/Cinerama in the far background. A nice photo.
There is a Columbia Theatre listed under Brooklyn in the 1897-98 edition of the Julius Cahn Official Theatrical Guide. There are no street addresses in this Guide, unfortunately. The Columbia was run by Daniel Frohman and Al Hayman, and Harry Mann was their Mgr. Ticket prices ranged from 25 cents to $1.50. The seating was 1,728 broken down as: parquette 288, parquette circle 355, dress circle 322, family circle 399, gallery 300, 12 boxes 64. There was both electric and gas illumination. The proscenium opening was 43 feet square, and the stage was 52 feet deep. The auditorium was on the ground floor and there were 10 in the house orchestra.
To Minstrel777- re: John Noble. According to the little article in the Paragon Ragtime Orchestra newsletter, he died after the 1920s. If his middle name was Arthur, then maybe the “gravestone” backstage at the Strand was some sort of inside joke. You seem to know a lot about Ithaca theaters, so perhaps you could write pages here in CT for those not already in the data base, such as the Lyceum.
ken mc- very interesting. I didn’t realize that it dated from the 1940s and not the 1930s and that it was a remodeled skating rink. It probably opened in late-1941 or in 1942.
Claire- what you describe was known as “Dish Night”. Movie theaters which participated in this incentive usually held one “Dish Night” per week. Do you remember anything about what the Adams Theater looked like on the inside?
An article in the Patriot Ledger of March 24, “Credit Crunch – Westgate Mall Theater on Hold” says that financing problems have put a temporary halt to construction of the new 12-screen National Amusements cinema on the site of Macy’s at Westgate Mall. The site has been cleared and is ready to go. Construction was to have begun this spring. The mall owner says that construction is now postponed to within a year. A Brockton city councilor expects a delay of 6 to 12 months.
The Colonial in Nashua is listed in two places in the 1942-43 edition of the Motion Picture Almanac. 1) under the Fred Lieberman circuit (“Proven Pictures”) headquartered in Boston; 2) under the Charles Morse Theatres, also of Boston. It’s possible that one of those circuits sold it to the other as the Almanac was going to press.
The State Th. in Nashua is listed in 1942-43 edition of the Motion Picture Almanac as part of Shea-Chain Inc. & Affiliates, 1540 Broadway, New York City. Shea also ran the Tremont Th. in Nashua at that time.
In the long list of movie theater circuits in the 1942-43 Motion Picture Almanac, there is an entry for Shea-Chain Inc. & Affiliates. Its address was 1540 Broadway in New York City. Among its theaters in New Hampshire were the Tremont Th. and the State Th. in Nashua. There was also a Tremont Th. in Claremont NH run by Sharby Theatres of Keene.
Stetson Hall opens today. There will be a ceremony at 6PM outside, and 730PM is curtain time for the musical “1776” on stage, the first of 5 performances this month. They are currently looking for a development manager. The effort to rehabilitate the building goes back 12 years, and the total cost has been $2.5M.
Ian Judge should be given credit for being able to keep the “secret” that Bono/U2 had been booked into the Somerville Theatre. Despite the best efforts of the local media to get the facts, he kept his mouth shut, CIA/military- style. For the 24 hours prior to the concert, there were many great shots on local TV of the load-in on stage and at the rear of the stage-house.