Metropolitan Theatre
9 Chestnut Street,
Providence,
RI
02903
9 Chestnut Street,
Providence,
RI
02903
2 people
favorited this theater
The second largest movie palace in Rhode Island after Loew’s State Theatre was up the block from that theatre, which is now the Providence Performing Arts Center. At the corner of Broad Street and Chestnut Street, the Metropolitan Theatre opened on August 25, 1932 with Leo Carrillo in “Race Track” & Slim Summerville in “Bless the Ladies” plus 8-acts of vaudeville on the stage. It was the only theatre in the city with two entrances. Never as successful in its programs as its main rivals, Loew’s State Theatre, the Majestic Theatre, the Strand Theatre or the RKO Albee Theatre, it closed in 1955 and was demolished in 1961.
Today the location is occupied by an apartment complex, Beneficent House.
Contributed by
Gerald A. DeLuca
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“Testimony on Providence Metropolitan is Taken"
Boxoffice magazine on June 10, 1939 ran this long piece on the Metropolitan Theatre, dealing with an anti-trust suit in film bookings, and preference shown to the nearby Bijou in the supplying of films by distributors.
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Record Roundup Propgram is a Hit In Providence
Item on the Metropolitan Theatre, Boxoffice magazine, November 3, 1945:
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Report on the opening of Conn’s Metropolitan Theatre on August 25, 1932 at 10 a.m., in Boxoffice magazine, September 1, 1932:
http://issuu.com/boxoffice/docs/090132/3
Three months later Conn filed for bankruptcy. Item in Boxoffice magazine, November 3, 1932:
http://issuu.com/boxoffice/docs/110332/3
Opening day ad for the Metropolitan, August 25, 1932.
NEWSPAPER AD
In The Providence Journal, August 26, 2013, there appears this extensive (online) article on the birth, life, and death of the Metropolitan Theatre. Several rare and excellent photos are shown.
ARTICLE
The Theatre Historical Society has the MGM Theatre Report for the Metropolitan, Card # 548. There is an exterior photo dated May 1941. Address is 9 Chestnut. The theater is in “Fair” condition and is not showing MGM films. Seating: Orch., 1,786; Balcony, 927; Mezzanine, 382; total- 3,095. Someone crossed out that total and wrote in “Total 3,045.”
Where the Metropolitan Theatre was located there is now an apartment building, Beneficent House. I now live in that building. In the entrance lobby there is a painting of the former theatre that occupied that space.
As an avid Frank Sinatra fan, I frequently try to find out where and when Sinatra performed in Providence before the Civic Center. During a performance the other day, an elderly woman informed me that she remembers visiting ‘The Met’ and paying 15 cents to see a young Frank Sinatra with Tommy Dorsey sometime in 1940. This would mean he had been performing professionally for less than 10 months. Can anybody elaborate on this info?
Grand opening ad posted. Theatre did not place many ads in the newspapers.