RKO Boston Theatre
614 Washington Street,
Boston,
MA
02111
614 Washington Street,
Boston,
MA
02111
10 people
favorited this theater
Additional Info
Previously operated by: Keith-Albee, RKO
Architects: Arthur H. Bowditch, Thomas White Lamb
Styles: Adam
Previous Names: Keith-Albee Boston Theatre, RKO Keith-Boston Theatre, Boston Cinerama, Essex Theatre, Star Theatre
Nearby Theaters
News About This Theater
- Mar 31, 2013 — "2001: A Space Odyssey" 45th Anniversary – The Cinerama Engagements
- Jan 26, 2009 — Remembering Cinerama (Part 19: Boston)
Located at the corner of Washington Street and Essex Street. A conversion of the Henry Siegel Co. department store, to the plans of noted theatre architect Thomas W. Lamb. Opened as the Keith-Albee Boston Theatre on October 5, 1925 with Reginald Denny in “California Straight Ahead” & Charlie Chase in “The Caretakers Daughter” plus 6-acts of vaudeville on the stage. It was equipped with a $50,000 Wurlitzer theatre organ which was opened by organists A.D. Richardson (from the Rialto Theatre, New York) and William F. Frank. It had 3,231 seats. The entrance on Washington Street contained the mirrored lobby which contained Czechoslovakian crystal chandeliers and there was a second entrance on Essex Street. In 1928 it was renamed RKO Keith-Boston Theatre. This house still ran combo live shows and movies through the mid-1940’s attracting stars such as Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, the Ink Spots, the Andrews Sisters, Abbott & Costello and Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy.
Cinerama came in Christmas week of 1953 and stayed until around 1969. They sealed off balcony with a foot of cement and twinned the downstairs using the Essex Street entrance, running Asian/Chinese Kung Fu films as the Essex Theatre, and porn as the Star Theatre until at least 1986. Today part of the Washington Street entrance is a subway entrance. The office building surrounding the theatre is occupied by the city. The auditorium was used as a warehouse, but currently sits unused.
Contributed by
Richard Dziadzio
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Recent comments (view all 135 comments)
Forgive me for this piece of trivia but I can’t resist the joke. In 1960 the film “Scent Of A Mystery” was released only in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles in 70mm with the Smell-O-Vision gimmick. In 1962 the film was reissued in Boston as “Holiday In Spain” so the Boston Cinerama was the first place to show the film after it stopped stinking.
A good joke, da_Bunnyman, but it’s not true. “Scent of Mystery”/“Holiday in Spain” played sans stink in Minneapolis and Toronto before playing Boston.
My grandfather Edward “Eddie” Rosenwald was the conductor of this theater during its vaudeville period. I have an article from the Boston Herald in 1937 that I just added to the photos.
If you are able to scan it and it remains legible, you can create a jpeg and post it to the Photos section.
Great article— now THAT’S entertainment…!
The theater is still intact with it’s twinned orchestra and only part of the main entrance hallway to the theater’s lobby has been lost when it was converted into a subway station entrance. The state owns the building, which is filled with state offices, so it is safe from development and makes it the last major unused downtown theater available for restoration.
This theater’s numerous roadshow engagements are noted in this new article on Boston’s large format and roadshow history
The building contains state offices, but I don’t think the state owns it.
City of Boston records show the building has been owned by the MBTA since at least 1996 and is tax exempt property.
would love to see some new pics of interior! imagine what it looks like now!!!