Burns Theater

The Burns Theatre opened its doors on September 16, 1925 with Jack Holt in “The Thundering Herd” along with Pathe News, a Lyman H. Howe Hodge Podge reel, and musical performances by the Burroughs Orchestra.

Information about the Burns Theatre as of 1925 goes as follows: The theater is entered from a 12ft vestibule which were used for advertising purposes through four French styled doors into a lobby which measures 90x14ft. Four double action full plate glass doors open into the foyer which joins the lobby with the main theater. The original decorations featured panels of So. American Walnut finish in dark red birch extending over halfway from floor to ceiling with light cream plastered walls above and a steel ceiling of a lighter cream tilt. Heavy gray battleship linoleum with a 10in black border covers the floor through the lobby foyer and promenade to the extreme end of the theater. Seven electric fixtures in total extend through the entire length each with five light clusters of wrought iron, bronze trimmed with candle lights to match on the walls. At the extension left just beyond the entrance is the ticket office with a row of orange tinted lights above the window attracting attention to it. Beyond this is a stairway connects with the offices above, and there is a rented wall booth. At the left in the foyer is where a broad stairway ascends to the balcony. A booth is also placed where refreshments were sold and beyond this is the bathrooms. Farther along the hall is the manager’s office with the auditorium doors just beyond Handsome mirrors the woodwork of which matches the wall panels adorn the right-hand wall. A promenade 9ft in width extends 45ft along the back of the auditorium. A stairway from the extreme end of it descends to a smoking room and bathrooms. Both were protected by solid rail, standing 4ft2in in height finished in dark fir extends the back of the seats dividing the seat sections with the two aisles in the nearby Premier Theatre which closed a day before the Burns Theatre opened.

The seating space measures 14ft longer than the Premier and its original capacity of the Burns sit at 672 seats (with 526 in the orchestra pit and 146 in the balcony). The walls of the auditorium are in an old ivory finish with a bronze wainscoting, green tinted, and green rail bronze tinted. The ceiling is a light cream elaborated decorated in gold as well as electric light fixtures above are Florentine gold with Trojan glassware as well as six pendant lights with glass beaded shades and orange tinted bulbs shine from the walls. Two furnaces provide the necessary heat and the lobby was also being heated with vapor steam and the main theater with hot air. The building has a ventilating booth on the roof with a 36 inch motor driven exhaust which keeps the air continually changing. It is fully protected against any fire by self closing fire doors from auditorium to foyer, a brick wall between the theater and the connecting block, a fire escape from the extreme end of the balcony promenade and exit doors from either side of the lower theatre red lighted. And lastly, the ticket booth, manager’s office, foyer, and projection booth are all connected by a private telephone service.

The Burns Theatre was still open in the late-1970s.

Sorry for the late response – I just found this website. Update on the “baby raffle”. As we (Lloyd’s grandchildren) can recall: It was a ploy to drum up interest and get people into the theater. It caused outrage as it should have but the mayor if we remember correctly was in on it and in fact he participated in the big reveal. When the winner came up on stage instead of handing over baby (name withheld) who had been shown earlier instead they brought out a swaddling which was in fact a baby pig and gave that to the winner.

There is a “New Burns Theatre” listed under Newport VT as part of Graphic Theatres Circuit of Boston in the 1942-43 Motion Picture Almanac. RE: the “baby giveaway” at the Burns, mentioned above. Yes, times were different in those days. Things were done that seem shocking today. Now, of course, the State would get involved in a situation like that.

Demolished, now the site of a “Landing Clothing Co.” store.

About the middle of this article it mentions that the theater was named after Frank Burns, the former mayor of Newport:
http://www.tomifobia.com/burns.html