Royal Theatre
277 Brightman Street,
Fall River,
MA
02720
277 Brightman Street,
Fall River,
MA
02720
No one has favorited this theater yet
Additional Info
Previous Names: Pastime Theatre
Nearby Theaters
The Pastime Theatre was located in a section of the city known as the “Village”. It was opened in 1896. By 1932 it had been renamed Royal Theatre. There were kiddie matinees on Saturday and Sunday afternoons; evenings were for adults. First-run movies that had run their course in the bigger movie houses now could be seen for less at the Royal Theatre. Monday evening was “Ladies Night” where either dishes or towels were given out.
The theatre was owned by the Moniz Family. On Saturday afternoon for 12 cents a kid could see a serial, cartoon and two full feature films, one of which was always a western. With so many kids it got so noisy you could hardly hear what the actors were saying. On many an occasion, Mr. Moniz would turn up the lights, shut off the movie and walk to the front of the theatre to proclaim, “If you kids don’t keep quiet, I’ll shut the movie off and send you all home”. He never did! Ah, what great times.
The Royal Theatre was still open in 1952, but had closed by 1955. The building was purchased by St. Joseph’s church and downstairs converted to a banquet hall and the upstairs theatre into a basketball court. It was then sold by the church to a company that made caskets.
The Royal Theatre was planned to be restored as the home of the Youth Musical Theater. But this never happened. The vacant building was destroyed by a fire on September 19, 2023 and the remains were demolished on September 21, 2023.
Contributed by
George H. Petrin
Want to be emailed when a new comment is posted about this theater?
Just login to your account and subscribe to this theater.
Recent comments (view all 12 comments)
The article that you linked to says Royale, not Royal. Which is correct?
Here are two recent photos I took of the Royal. ONE TWO
In a 1990 Fall River Herald article on the city’s theatres, John McAvoy wrote, “The Royal Theatre (capacity 500) was located on the south side of Brightman Street near the railway tracks. I was only in the Royal once, but I remember when a train passed by you could feel the vibrations in the theatre.”
This 1941 photo of the marquee and front of the Royal, though from a photocopy of very poor quality, gives an idea of what the place looked like. It is from the M.G.M. Theatre Photograph and Report. The condition was described as good, the type of patronage was stated as “mill and low income.” The seating at the time was 600 with 550 on the main floor and 50 in the balcony. The Royal had been playing M.G.M. product for three years. A competing theatre was given as the Strand.
Anyone know what happened to the plans to renovate this? I can’t find anything on it since February of 2005.
There aren’t any references to this address on the Youth Musical Theater website:
http://www.ymtc.org/
Nice 1941 photo.
The Fall river Herald did a write-up about this theater in 2016 when it was auctioned off (well, they tried to. No one bid on it). It appears that the attempt from 2005 to restore it has long since been abandoned. It should be moved out of the restoring category.
article link here: https://www.heraldnews.com/news/20160803/side-streets-piecing-together-history-of-royal-theater-building-no-one-wants
The building burned last night. The article says it was vacant but most recently housed a casket manufacturer. https://www.wpri.com/news/local-news/se-mass/fire-rips-through-fall-river-building/
Being torn down today - https://www.wpri.com/news/local-news/se-mass/historic-fall-river-building-to-be-torn-down-after-fire/. The article says the building was sold a year ago for $10k to an owner who wanted to restore it as a theater.