It served as a church, known as “The Met”. I got inside for a brief look-around in the mid-1980s. A really huge house, with typical opera house tiered seating and lots of boxes. It was in deteriorated status at that time. The stage was massive. I have heard that it was demolished within recent years — can anyone confirm? Oscar Hammrstein’s opera house in New York is now the Manhatten Center near Penn Station, off Eighth Avenue. The Philadelphia Met was indeed a prominent movie theatre on North Broad St.
I read somewhere (I think it was in a Landmarks booklet) that the fancy facade on Avery Street, with “Tremonth Theatre” carved into it, was added around 1914 when Avery Street was extended up to Tremont Street. The theatre’s entrance from 1889 to the end was always on Tremont St., in a building which pre-dated the theatre. Donald King claimed that the entrance was originally one-storefront to the south (or was it north?) and was moved over a bit. It originally had 2 balconies and a very ornate interior. Its left sidewall was very similar to the right sidewall of the old Broadway Th. in New York, designed by McElfatrick at about the same time. When I started going there, it was the Astor, a first-run movie house with a “draped” interior. A draped house is one whose walls are covered with long drapes. Boring ! The entrance from Tremont St. led to a high-ceiling inner foyer which ran along the right side of the auditorium. I sat in the balcony once, to see “Splendor in the Grass”; main floor was full. The orchestra seating extended into the stage area. The 2nd balcony was removed. Seats from this theatre, removed during the mid-1940s renovations, are in the Highfield Theatre in Falmouth, MA. The Tremont had about 1400-plus seats, and the Astor had about 1700 seats. The name “Astor” in big pink neon script letters could be seen from a distance across the Common when the leaves were off the trees. After the Union Station arcade occupied tthe house, there was a fire in the outer lobby structure. The house was demolished in July 1983.
During the 1940s and to mid-1950s, the Plymouth was a very busy Shubert legit house , booked up almost every week from Sept to May of each year. Hard to believe today. It had 2 balconies and close to 1500 seats. The entrance faced the side of the Shubert. The auditorium and stage were directly behind the Majestic. The rear orchestra foyer was directly behind the rear stage wall of the Majestic/ Saxon. It presented mostly straight plays, no musicals. In February 1953, I saw a young Paul Newman in the pre-Bway tryout of the play “Picnic” by William Inge. Sat in the first balcony. Full house. After Sack took it over and renamed it Gary, a new marquee was mounted. I think that Sack closed off the 2nd balcony, but am not sure of that. At first, and for a long while, it was used mostly for “roadshow” film engagements. Demolition in 1978 sounds about right to me. The new State Transportation Building occupies the Gary’s entrance and lobby, but the auditorium and stage area were covered with gravel and not built upon until Emerson College constructed its new Tufte Building on the site circa 2002. In fact, for a while Emerson placed a one-story pre-fab building containing dressing rooms right up against the Majestic’s rear stage wall. This pre-fab building occupied the site of the Gary’s inner foyer. My memory is that “Gary” was Ben Sack’s son, nephew or grandson.
NDSPete- after you receive your additional material, are you planning to create a Page for this theatre in the Theatre files? There isn’t one at present.
I knew this theatre as “Bowdoin” without the “Square”. It was still open when I was a kid showing double-features. I regret that I never went into it. It was located just to the north of Scollay Square, on the east side of the street. Had a bulb-studded arch above the entrance if I recall correctly. It opened as a legit house designed by Clarence Blackall on Feb. 15 1892 and had about 1500 seats. Around the turn of the 20th Century, there was a theatre called the Olympic just a few doors to the north of the Bowdoin. It was just a small theatre and didn’t last long. The Bowdoin remained open until about 1953 0r 1954 or so. The demo year of 1955 sounds right to me.
The Columbia was still open in the early 1950s, and I regret that I never went into it. I have heard demolition years of both 1956 and 1957, so I think it’s safe to assume it was razed sometime between 1955 and 1957. It was on the east side of Washington Street just south of the cut which contains the railroad tracks (and today, the Mass. Turnpike extension as well). I have seating capacities of 2079 originally, and 1750 after the Thomas Lamb rebuild. J. Paul Chavanne and Donald King had a disagreement about the origins of the theatre – Paul claimed that it was a reconstruction of an old church, while Don believed that it was built new in 1891. Around 1901, just as the elevated railway was being erected, the lobby was enlarged by going into the building to the south. After the Thomas Lamb rebuild, it reopened on Sept. 24, 1917.
I saw “The Red Shoes” there about 1948, a beautiful film in a beautiful theatre. It had a movie-style marquee with a lot of pink neon on it. I have a very vague memory of using the pedestrian subway which ran from the Boylston transit station under Boylston St., under the sidewalk along Tremont St., and then turned up Allen's
Alley alongside the Majestic. From this subway you could access the lobby of the Little Bldg, the north end of the Majestic’s lobby, and the rear of the Plymouth Theatre. In the late-1990’s when Emerson was getting ready to build their new Tufte Building on the site of the Plymouth/Gary Theatre, the opened up the subway alongside the Majestic – took the roof right off of it, and then filled it in. Otherwise, they could not safely bring heavy construction equipment up the alley to the construction site. After 1950, there was very little stage activity at the Majestic. Uta Hagen in “The Country Girl” played there. I saw “Goodnight Ladies”, a WW I-era farce comedy on stage at a Saturday matinee Nov. 1, 1952. I sat in the 1st balcony, as the 2nd balcony was closed and had been for some time. In addition to a very few stage shows, there were movies from time to time. When Sack took it over, they added a larger new marquee, and white brick across the ground floor of the facade, plus new attraction frames. The name was changed to Saxon Th., and I saw “Around the World in Eighty Days” there on screen at a Sunday matinee, April 21, 1957. Full house, reserved seats. We sat in the last row of the balcony next to the projection booth. The rear orchestra foyer of the Plymouth/ Gary Theatre was directly in back of the Majestic’s rear stage wall.
The Emerson College alumni magazine “Expression” devoted an entire special issue (Summer 2003) to the Majestic with lots of color photos and some vintage ones, as well. Plus a great deal of text. The chief error in the text is that it states that Sack closed the house to movies in 1977, so it was dark when Emerson acquired it in the Spring of 1983, but this is not true and it showed movies, albeit rather low-class ones, right up to the time of the sale. I attended a reception in the Majestic in July 1983 and I recall that the stage floor was badly warped due to rainwater leaking from the stage roof. Emerson wisely fixed the worst problems first ! Another point made in the magazine is that a projection booth was installed , apparently at the rear of the 1st balcony, in 1921. Visitors to the theatre today should note that the stepped stadium-style seating in the rear orchestra is not original. The theatre had an ordinary sloped floor which started at the rear head of each aisle at the back of the orchestra section.
When I was a kid I had the chance many times to go into the Laffmovie, but didn’t because I did not like Abbott & Costello movies which were often presented there. I thought it was just a hole in the wall and had no idea what a grand house it was. A friend who was a year younger than me went there several times and, since his mother had taken him to the Colonial on Boylston Street, he likened the Laffmovie to that theatre in terms of size and rococco decoration. The Laffmovie had a semi-circular marquee over its entrance just north of the Paramount. It closed at the end of February 1951 and was demolished beginning in July 1951. The Bijou was also demolished at that time. A famous book on the ten best theatres in America published in the 1890s lists Keith’s New Theatre as one of the ten. Rarely does Yankee Magazine ever discuss New England theatres, but this house was the subject of an article entitled “The Furnace Room had a Velvet Rug” in the March 1974 issue.Much was made in the article of the fact that when the theatre was new the public was invited to tour the basement utility spaces.
t because
I remember it as the Esquire Th. circa 1948-49, presenting British and other foriegn films. In the large space in the front left of the building I have a vague memory that there was a restaurant at one time. I attended 2 plays there on stage presented by the Boston University Gershwin Workshop on May 9, 1953. I was back again on Dec. 3, 1954 for another play in what had been renamed “Boston University Theatre”. So, the purchase by B.U. and the name change took place sometime betwen May 1953 and Dec. 1954. After B.U. took it over they rented it out to various groups, but I don’t think that it ever showed films again. It’s a good -looking theatre, inside and out. I think that when Fred Lieberman ran it in the 1930s he kept the original name “Repertory”. The Esquire name was definitely of 1940s origin, but I don’t know exactly when.
A list of theatres in a 1927 Film Daily shows this house still operating as the Casino Th., open 7 days a week, and having 774 seats. The MGM Theatre Photograph and Report form for this house shows that it had been presenting MGM product for at least 15 years, that it was in Good condition, that it was built around 1920, and had 740 seats on the main floor, and 202 in the balcony. The photo is dated Sept 1946 and shows the entrance in the center of a 2-story building with stores on either side. The film on the marquee is Norma Shearer & Robert Taylor in “Escape”. The photo is washed-out and difficult to look at.
The conversion to a twin cinema took place in 1985. The Cameo has a very nice traditional marquee and nice details around the front entrance. Right next door is the old 19th century Fogg Building in whose upper floors was the Fogg Opera House, but that ancient auditorium was remodeled out of existance apparently around 1950. The architects Mowll and Rand also designed the Calvin Th. in Northampton MA, and at least one theatre in Vermont.
The same photo mentioned above also appears on page 87 (top) of the new Arcadia Press book “Scollay Square” by David Kruh, only here it is less cropped so slightly more of the Palace front can be seen. I don’t know if one went straight in from the street, of if one turned left inside to face the screen. The bottom photo on page 87 shows the front of the Palace marquee on the left edge of the picture. The top photo on page 88 of the book also shows a little bit of the Palace— Above the subway entrance is a sign reading “Subway to All Points” — just above that sign in the distance can be seen the white south wall of the Palace building, with chimneys on top and the outline of the dormer windows on the top floor.
Larry Murphy above mentions that he, as a kid, never went “to the movies”, but went “to a show”. This reminded me of a friend who grew up in the far west suburbs of Chicago in the 1950s who always referred to movie theatres as “shows”, i.e. “there is a beautiful Show over in Aurora called the Paramount”. The theatre itself was a “Show”. I have heard this expression a few other times, including in our own Boston-area.
I don’t know how “Triplex” got into the above description – it was a single screen house. I never went into it since it was too far from where I lived, and a very long walk or bus ride from Quincy Square. I once talked with someone who ran a retail store near the theatre and he was very interested in leasing it as a classic repertory film theatre. This was sometime in the 1970-era, and the theatre had been dark for awhile at the time. Nothing came of his efforts.
I just created a page for the Lincoln Theatre a few minutes ago! The Art Theatre is listed under its original name , Alhambra. The Strand is also listed under “Strand”. There is also a page already for the Adams Theatre, plus a page for the Quincy Theatre, under that name, rather than the later name of Capitol Th. I believe mb848 created most, or all of these pages. In addition to the Patriot-Ledger article of April 30, 1962, visit the Quincy Theatre page for the dates of 2 other P-L articles, both about the Capitol Th. I think that there are files of Quincy P-L newspaper at the Thomas Crane library in Quincy. Happy reading to all !
I found the MGM Theatre Photograph and Report form for this house. The report is dated May 1941. It indicates that the Dorchester Theatre was not a MGM customer, that it had 850 seats, all on one floor, that it was in “poor” condition and that it was a Nabe. The rather poor photo (mine is a Xerox) had on the marquee Barbara Stanwyck in “Stella Dallas”; hanging from the marquee is a banner which states in big letters “25th Anniversary”, with some additional illegible words. That would indicate the theatre opened in 1915 or 1916. I never went in it, but went by it all the time on the bus from Quincy Square to Fields Corner which ran before the Red Line was extended to Quincy.
To Ron Newman- yes, my recent comments under the Adams Theatre in Quincy about the “Fields Corner Theatre” actually refer to this one, the Park Th. in Fields Corner on Dot Ave (east side) across from the big playground. However, my memory is that it was closed for awhile before being twinned and reopened.
I was a regular patron (junior-size) at the Strand from mid-1940s to late-1950s. It stood on the east side of Chestnut St. across from the side of the Granite Trust bldg. It had a brick facade which I have heard described as “Georgian”. There was a 2-sided marquee making a somewhat flat triangle. There were 2 small shops on each side of the entrance. The box-office was on the right. The inner foyer had a refreshment stand. 1600 seats sounds about right. The lounge upstairs under the balcony was called the “mezzanine” – first time I think I had encountered that word. It had a fairly good-sized stage. There was an odd structure at stage-right — many live theatres have a scene-dock on one side of the stage or at rear. The Strand had an oblong brick structure that came all the way out to Maple Street, with a roll-up overhead garage door at its sidewalk end. After lunch on inclement days during school vacation weeks, one had to stand in long lines to get in. The Strand showed sub-run features with a “B” movie as “extra added attraction”. Up in hte mezzanine lounge there was a drink machine- you put your dime in, (4 quarters today), pressed a button, and instead of getting your choice of a can of sodapop, a cardboard cup dropped down, ice chips went into in, and then your choice of pop flowed into it. This theatre enjoyed very good houses on Fri and Sat nights. It was definitely the leading theatre in Quincy. I’m going to guess that it closed circa 1970 or so; there were some live pop music concerts there occasionally afterward.(I think). I recall that it was demolished around 1981. The site eventually became a parking lot.
One of the members above mentions a theatre on Washington Street which he thought was named Publix. This is the Lincoln Theatre, orginally the Casino, and dating to WW I years. It was on the right side of Washington St., halfway between Southern Artery and the Fore River Bridge. It was a typical Nabe, but I never went there as a kid, as it was too far. But all the kids in Quincy Point loved it. I think it closed around 1960 or so. For an overview of Quincy theatres see the Quincy Patriot-Ledger of April 30, 1962 which ran a long historical/nostalgic type of article. There was a theatre on the 2nd floor of the building on the west side of Hancock Street opposite Cottage Avenue, the building whose 2nd floor is faced with white brick. It later was Remick’s Dept. Store for many years. I think the theatre up there was called the Music Hall, but it was long before my time. The Wollaston is the last survivor of all of the Quincy theatres.
If you have access to files of the Quincy Patriot-Ledger: Sept 25 1952 has a long article about the Capitol, with a current facade photo, but it gives the impression that the house had just closed when in fact it had been closed for some time. The April 5, 1962 issue has a demolition photo taken from the balcony toward the stage just after demo began. The April 30 1962 issue has a very long article about the Capitol and other Quincy theatres.
The Flagship Cinema and Quincy Fair Mall are not totally new buildings, but very heavily modified from existing structures which housed the Sears store. Partly on the site was the Kincaide-Quincy-Capitol Theatre. The Kincaide was built by the owner of Kincaide’s Furniture. It was a vaudeville house with about 1350 seats and had one balcony. It opened in 1912, and was the leading theatre in Quincy until the Strand was built. The stage door, painted dark green, was down the alley on the left side; it had a little wood weather shelter around it. There was a row of dressing rooms along the back wall of the stage. The facade was a pale cream stucco, and the rear stage wall was painted white. There was a faded sign on the rear stage wall which said something like “Quincy Theatre – Vaudeville and Photo Plays”. This large painted sign was there to the very end, easily read by anyone in the parking lots (now Parkingway, to the rear. The name was changed in 1926 to Quincy Theatre. Milton Berle and Billy DeWolf performed there. Well, actually, Billy Dewolfe worked there as an usher. There was no organ but instead there was a piano and a violinist in the pit. Eugene O'Neil’s play “Strange Interlude”, fresh from a long B'Way run, was booked into the Hollis Street Th. (near the Wang) for a Sept 1929 opening, and was “Banned in Boston”, so it went into the Quincy, and was a big hit, played 4 weeks instead of 2. The New Haven RR ran a special theatre special from South Station to Quincy which carried both the theatre goers and the cast! The name was changed to Capitol Th. in 1944. I went there countless times. It had no A.C., so it closed summers. It closed in the early-summer of 1950, and then never reopened in the Fall. The last performance that I know of occured on Sunday May 20, 1951, when a touring company of “Snow White” played on stage, after appearing the previous day at the RKO Boston. The theatre was closed up— I do NOT recall that any sort of business used it. It was demolished in April 1962. The seagulls which used to love to perch on top of the Capitol’s stagehouse, had to find someplace else to sit!
The Art Theatre in Quincy Square was on the west side of Hancock Street, a little way south of the old cemetary. It was opened as the Alhambra Theatre around 1918. Next to the lobby entrance on the right was the Alhambra coffee shop, and after the theatre changed its name to Art circa 1945 the coffee shop kept its original name and did not change. The Alhambra presented touring burlesque shows, such as those troupes which played in Boston at the Gayety, Old Howard and Casino theatres. It had no balcony and probably about 900 seats. Along the sidewalls were a row of orchestra boxes, but these box seats had been removed when I started going there in the 1940s. I saw movies such as “Bambi” there, also “State Fair”, maybe “The Yearling” and “My Friend Flicka” – my mother took me to a lot of these flicks aimed at kids. It had a tall white-brick stagehouse w hich backed up to the railroad tracks. (The tracks were at-grade in those days, not down in a cut like today.) The name was change to Art Theatre around 1945 or so. I went there countless times as a teenager. A friend in highschool was an usher and doorman there circa 1953-54. I’m not sure when it closed, maybe circ 1960 or so.
It was razed circa 1970- part of the site in front is now an open plaza and to the rear is that big office building set back from the street at the north intersection of Hancock and Granite streets.
I remember the Regent but never went into it, it was a bit too far out of my way. It was in the Norfolk Downs section of Quincy, on the east side of Hancock Street about halfway between Wollaston center and the North Quincy High School. It may or may not have had a balcony. It was a typical double-feature 2nd-run Nabe. It was included in the MGM 1941 Theatre Photograph and Report project. The data in these Reports is not always accurate! MGM lists the address as 440 Hancock St. They indicate that the Regent is an MGM customer.
They list 800 seats, all on one floor. The photo (mine is a Xerox copy, somewhat washed-out) was apparently taken in May 1941. The entrance was in the center of the brick facade, with a center box-office, and a double door on each side. Movies listed on the marquee are “Western Union” and “High Sierra”. My memory is that the Regent closed sometime in mid- or late-1950s. The building was still there the last time I drove by.
It served as a church, known as “The Met”. I got inside for a brief look-around in the mid-1980s. A really huge house, with typical opera house tiered seating and lots of boxes. It was in deteriorated status at that time. The stage was massive. I have heard that it was demolished within recent years — can anyone confirm? Oscar Hammrstein’s opera house in New York is now the Manhatten Center near Penn Station, off Eighth Avenue. The Philadelphia Met was indeed a prominent movie theatre on North Broad St.
I read somewhere (I think it was in a Landmarks booklet) that the fancy facade on Avery Street, with “Tremonth Theatre” carved into it, was added around 1914 when Avery Street was extended up to Tremont Street. The theatre’s entrance from 1889 to the end was always on Tremont St., in a building which pre-dated the theatre. Donald King claimed that the entrance was originally one-storefront to the south (or was it north?) and was moved over a bit. It originally had 2 balconies and a very ornate interior. Its left sidewall was very similar to the right sidewall of the old Broadway Th. in New York, designed by McElfatrick at about the same time. When I started going there, it was the Astor, a first-run movie house with a “draped” interior. A draped house is one whose walls are covered with long drapes. Boring ! The entrance from Tremont St. led to a high-ceiling inner foyer which ran along the right side of the auditorium. I sat in the balcony once, to see “Splendor in the Grass”; main floor was full. The orchestra seating extended into the stage area. The 2nd balcony was removed. Seats from this theatre, removed during the mid-1940s renovations, are in the Highfield Theatre in Falmouth, MA. The Tremont had about 1400-plus seats, and the Astor had about 1700 seats. The name “Astor” in big pink neon script letters could be seen from a distance across the Common when the leaves were off the trees. After the Union Station arcade occupied tthe house, there was a fire in the outer lobby structure. The house was demolished in July 1983.
During the 1940s and to mid-1950s, the Plymouth was a very busy Shubert legit house , booked up almost every week from Sept to May of each year. Hard to believe today. It had 2 balconies and close to 1500 seats. The entrance faced the side of the Shubert. The auditorium and stage were directly behind the Majestic. The rear orchestra foyer was directly behind the rear stage wall of the Majestic/ Saxon. It presented mostly straight plays, no musicals. In February 1953, I saw a young Paul Newman in the pre-Bway tryout of the play “Picnic” by William Inge. Sat in the first balcony. Full house. After Sack took it over and renamed it Gary, a new marquee was mounted. I think that Sack closed off the 2nd balcony, but am not sure of that. At first, and for a long while, it was used mostly for “roadshow” film engagements. Demolition in 1978 sounds about right to me. The new State Transportation Building occupies the Gary’s entrance and lobby, but the auditorium and stage area were covered with gravel and not built upon until Emerson College constructed its new Tufte Building on the site circa 2002. In fact, for a while Emerson placed a one-story pre-fab building containing dressing rooms right up against the Majestic’s rear stage wall. This pre-fab building occupied the site of the Gary’s inner foyer. My memory is that “Gary” was Ben Sack’s son, nephew or grandson.
NDSPete- after you receive your additional material, are you planning to create a Page for this theatre in the Theatre files? There isn’t one at present.
I knew this theatre as “Bowdoin” without the “Square”. It was still open when I was a kid showing double-features. I regret that I never went into it. It was located just to the north of Scollay Square, on the east side of the street. Had a bulb-studded arch above the entrance if I recall correctly. It opened as a legit house designed by Clarence Blackall on Feb. 15 1892 and had about 1500 seats. Around the turn of the 20th Century, there was a theatre called the Olympic just a few doors to the north of the Bowdoin. It was just a small theatre and didn’t last long. The Bowdoin remained open until about 1953 0r 1954 or so. The demo year of 1955 sounds right to me.
The Columbia was still open in the early 1950s, and I regret that I never went into it. I have heard demolition years of both 1956 and 1957, so I think it’s safe to assume it was razed sometime between 1955 and 1957. It was on the east side of Washington Street just south of the cut which contains the railroad tracks (and today, the Mass. Turnpike extension as well). I have seating capacities of 2079 originally, and 1750 after the Thomas Lamb rebuild. J. Paul Chavanne and Donald King had a disagreement about the origins of the theatre – Paul claimed that it was a reconstruction of an old church, while Don believed that it was built new in 1891. Around 1901, just as the elevated railway was being erected, the lobby was enlarged by going into the building to the south. After the Thomas Lamb rebuild, it reopened on Sept. 24, 1917.
I saw “The Red Shoes” there about 1948, a beautiful film in a beautiful theatre. It had a movie-style marquee with a lot of pink neon on it. I have a very vague memory of using the pedestrian subway which ran from the Boylston transit station under Boylston St., under the sidewalk along Tremont St., and then turned up Allen's
Alley alongside the Majestic. From this subway you could access the lobby of the Little Bldg, the north end of the Majestic’s lobby, and the rear of the Plymouth Theatre. In the late-1990’s when Emerson was getting ready to build their new Tufte Building on the site of the Plymouth/Gary Theatre, the opened up the subway alongside the Majestic – took the roof right off of it, and then filled it in. Otherwise, they could not safely bring heavy construction equipment up the alley to the construction site. After 1950, there was very little stage activity at the Majestic. Uta Hagen in “The Country Girl” played there. I saw “Goodnight Ladies”, a WW I-era farce comedy on stage at a Saturday matinee Nov. 1, 1952. I sat in the 1st balcony, as the 2nd balcony was closed and had been for some time. In addition to a very few stage shows, there were movies from time to time. When Sack took it over, they added a larger new marquee, and white brick across the ground floor of the facade, plus new attraction frames. The name was changed to Saxon Th., and I saw “Around the World in Eighty Days” there on screen at a Sunday matinee, April 21, 1957. Full house, reserved seats. We sat in the last row of the balcony next to the projection booth. The rear orchestra foyer of the Plymouth/ Gary Theatre was directly in back of the Majestic’s rear stage wall.
The Emerson College alumni magazine “Expression” devoted an entire special issue (Summer 2003) to the Majestic with lots of color photos and some vintage ones, as well. Plus a great deal of text. The chief error in the text is that it states that Sack closed the house to movies in 1977, so it was dark when Emerson acquired it in the Spring of 1983, but this is not true and it showed movies, albeit rather low-class ones, right up to the time of the sale. I attended a reception in the Majestic in July 1983 and I recall that the stage floor was badly warped due to rainwater leaking from the stage roof. Emerson wisely fixed the worst problems first ! Another point made in the magazine is that a projection booth was installed , apparently at the rear of the 1st balcony, in 1921. Visitors to the theatre today should note that the stepped stadium-style seating in the rear orchestra is not original. The theatre had an ordinary sloped floor which started at the rear head of each aisle at the back of the orchestra section.
When I was a kid I had the chance many times to go into the Laffmovie, but didn’t because I did not like Abbott & Costello movies which were often presented there. I thought it was just a hole in the wall and had no idea what a grand house it was. A friend who was a year younger than me went there several times and, since his mother had taken him to the Colonial on Boylston Street, he likened the Laffmovie to that theatre in terms of size and rococco decoration. The Laffmovie had a semi-circular marquee over its entrance just north of the Paramount. It closed at the end of February 1951 and was demolished beginning in July 1951. The Bijou was also demolished at that time. A famous book on the ten best theatres in America published in the 1890s lists Keith’s New Theatre as one of the ten. Rarely does Yankee Magazine ever discuss New England theatres, but this house was the subject of an article entitled “The Furnace Room had a Velvet Rug” in the March 1974 issue.Much was made in the article of the fact that when the theatre was new the public was invited to tour the basement utility spaces.
t because
The architect was J. William Beal and Son and it opened on November 10, 1925, and has about 950 seats.
I remember it as the Esquire Th. circa 1948-49, presenting British and other foriegn films. In the large space in the front left of the building I have a vague memory that there was a restaurant at one time. I attended 2 plays there on stage presented by the Boston University Gershwin Workshop on May 9, 1953. I was back again on Dec. 3, 1954 for another play in what had been renamed “Boston University Theatre”. So, the purchase by B.U. and the name change took place sometime betwen May 1953 and Dec. 1954. After B.U. took it over they rented it out to various groups, but I don’t think that it ever showed films again. It’s a good -looking theatre, inside and out. I think that when Fred Lieberman ran it in the 1930s he kept the original name “Repertory”. The Esquire name was definitely of 1940s origin, but I don’t know exactly when.
A list of theatres in a 1927 Film Daily shows this house still operating as the Casino Th., open 7 days a week, and having 774 seats. The MGM Theatre Photograph and Report form for this house shows that it had been presenting MGM product for at least 15 years, that it was in Good condition, that it was built around 1920, and had 740 seats on the main floor, and 202 in the balcony. The photo is dated Sept 1946 and shows the entrance in the center of a 2-story building with stores on either side. The film on the marquee is Norma Shearer & Robert Taylor in “Escape”. The photo is washed-out and difficult to look at.
The conversion to a twin cinema took place in 1985. The Cameo has a very nice traditional marquee and nice details around the front entrance. Right next door is the old 19th century Fogg Building in whose upper floors was the Fogg Opera House, but that ancient auditorium was remodeled out of existance apparently around 1950. The architects Mowll and Rand also designed the Calvin Th. in Northampton MA, and at least one theatre in Vermont.
The same photo mentioned above also appears on page 87 (top) of the new Arcadia Press book “Scollay Square” by David Kruh, only here it is less cropped so slightly more of the Palace front can be seen. I don’t know if one went straight in from the street, of if one turned left inside to face the screen. The bottom photo on page 87 shows the front of the Palace marquee on the left edge of the picture. The top photo on page 88 of the book also shows a little bit of the Palace— Above the subway entrance is a sign reading “Subway to All Points” — just above that sign in the distance can be seen the white south wall of the Palace building, with chimneys on top and the outline of the dormer windows on the top floor.
Larry Murphy above mentions that he, as a kid, never went “to the movies”, but went “to a show”. This reminded me of a friend who grew up in the far west suburbs of Chicago in the 1950s who always referred to movie theatres as “shows”, i.e. “there is a beautiful Show over in Aurora called the Paramount”. The theatre itself was a “Show”. I have heard this expression a few other times, including in our own Boston-area.
I don’t know how “Triplex” got into the above description – it was a single screen house. I never went into it since it was too far from where I lived, and a very long walk or bus ride from Quincy Square. I once talked with someone who ran a retail store near the theatre and he was very interested in leasing it as a classic repertory film theatre. This was sometime in the 1970-era, and the theatre had been dark for awhile at the time. Nothing came of his efforts.
I just created a page for the Lincoln Theatre a few minutes ago! The Art Theatre is listed under its original name , Alhambra. The Strand is also listed under “Strand”. There is also a page already for the Adams Theatre, plus a page for the Quincy Theatre, under that name, rather than the later name of Capitol Th. I believe mb848 created most, or all of these pages. In addition to the Patriot-Ledger article of April 30, 1962, visit the Quincy Theatre page for the dates of 2 other P-L articles, both about the Capitol Th. I think that there are files of Quincy P-L newspaper at the Thomas Crane library in Quincy. Happy reading to all !
I found the MGM Theatre Photograph and Report form for this house. The report is dated May 1941. It indicates that the Dorchester Theatre was not a MGM customer, that it had 850 seats, all on one floor, that it was in “poor” condition and that it was a Nabe. The rather poor photo (mine is a Xerox) had on the marquee Barbara Stanwyck in “Stella Dallas”; hanging from the marquee is a banner which states in big letters “25th Anniversary”, with some additional illegible words. That would indicate the theatre opened in 1915 or 1916. I never went in it, but went by it all the time on the bus from Quincy Square to Fields Corner which ran before the Red Line was extended to Quincy.
To Ron Newman- yes, my recent comments under the Adams Theatre in Quincy about the “Fields Corner Theatre” actually refer to this one, the Park Th. in Fields Corner on Dot Ave (east side) across from the big playground. However, my memory is that it was closed for awhile before being twinned and reopened.
I was a regular patron (junior-size) at the Strand from mid-1940s to late-1950s. It stood on the east side of Chestnut St. across from the side of the Granite Trust bldg. It had a brick facade which I have heard described as “Georgian”. There was a 2-sided marquee making a somewhat flat triangle. There were 2 small shops on each side of the entrance. The box-office was on the right. The inner foyer had a refreshment stand. 1600 seats sounds about right. The lounge upstairs under the balcony was called the “mezzanine” – first time I think I had encountered that word. It had a fairly good-sized stage. There was an odd structure at stage-right — many live theatres have a scene-dock on one side of the stage or at rear. The Strand had an oblong brick structure that came all the way out to Maple Street, with a roll-up overhead garage door at its sidewalk end. After lunch on inclement days during school vacation weeks, one had to stand in long lines to get in. The Strand showed sub-run features with a “B” movie as “extra added attraction”. Up in hte mezzanine lounge there was a drink machine- you put your dime in, (4 quarters today), pressed a button, and instead of getting your choice of a can of sodapop, a cardboard cup dropped down, ice chips went into in, and then your choice of pop flowed into it. This theatre enjoyed very good houses on Fri and Sat nights. It was definitely the leading theatre in Quincy. I’m going to guess that it closed circa 1970 or so; there were some live pop music concerts there occasionally afterward.(I think). I recall that it was demolished around 1981. The site eventually became a parking lot.
One of the members above mentions a theatre on Washington Street which he thought was named Publix. This is the Lincoln Theatre, orginally the Casino, and dating to WW I years. It was on the right side of Washington St., halfway between Southern Artery and the Fore River Bridge. It was a typical Nabe, but I never went there as a kid, as it was too far. But all the kids in Quincy Point loved it. I think it closed around 1960 or so. For an overview of Quincy theatres see the Quincy Patriot-Ledger of April 30, 1962 which ran a long historical/nostalgic type of article. There was a theatre on the 2nd floor of the building on the west side of Hancock Street opposite Cottage Avenue, the building whose 2nd floor is faced with white brick. It later was Remick’s Dept. Store for many years. I think the theatre up there was called the Music Hall, but it was long before my time. The Wollaston is the last survivor of all of the Quincy theatres.
If you have access to files of the Quincy Patriot-Ledger: Sept 25 1952 has a long article about the Capitol, with a current facade photo, but it gives the impression that the house had just closed when in fact it had been closed for some time. The April 5, 1962 issue has a demolition photo taken from the balcony toward the stage just after demo began. The April 30 1962 issue has a very long article about the Capitol and other Quincy theatres.
The Flagship Cinema and Quincy Fair Mall are not totally new buildings, but very heavily modified from existing structures which housed the Sears store. Partly on the site was the Kincaide-Quincy-Capitol Theatre. The Kincaide was built by the owner of Kincaide’s Furniture. It was a vaudeville house with about 1350 seats and had one balcony. It opened in 1912, and was the leading theatre in Quincy until the Strand was built. The stage door, painted dark green, was down the alley on the left side; it had a little wood weather shelter around it. There was a row of dressing rooms along the back wall of the stage. The facade was a pale cream stucco, and the rear stage wall was painted white. There was a faded sign on the rear stage wall which said something like “Quincy Theatre – Vaudeville and Photo Plays”. This large painted sign was there to the very end, easily read by anyone in the parking lots (now Parkingway, to the rear. The name was changed in 1926 to Quincy Theatre. Milton Berle and Billy DeWolf performed there. Well, actually, Billy Dewolfe worked there as an usher. There was no organ but instead there was a piano and a violinist in the pit. Eugene O'Neil’s play “Strange Interlude”, fresh from a long B'Way run, was booked into the Hollis Street Th. (near the Wang) for a Sept 1929 opening, and was “Banned in Boston”, so it went into the Quincy, and was a big hit, played 4 weeks instead of 2. The New Haven RR ran a special theatre special from South Station to Quincy which carried both the theatre goers and the cast! The name was changed to Capitol Th. in 1944. I went there countless times. It had no A.C., so it closed summers. It closed in the early-summer of 1950, and then never reopened in the Fall. The last performance that I know of occured on Sunday May 20, 1951, when a touring company of “Snow White” played on stage, after appearing the previous day at the RKO Boston. The theatre was closed up— I do NOT recall that any sort of business used it. It was demolished in April 1962. The seagulls which used to love to perch on top of the Capitol’s stagehouse, had to find someplace else to sit!
The Art Theatre in Quincy Square was on the west side of Hancock Street, a little way south of the old cemetary. It was opened as the Alhambra Theatre around 1918. Next to the lobby entrance on the right was the Alhambra coffee shop, and after the theatre changed its name to Art circa 1945 the coffee shop kept its original name and did not change. The Alhambra presented touring burlesque shows, such as those troupes which played in Boston at the Gayety, Old Howard and Casino theatres. It had no balcony and probably about 900 seats. Along the sidewalls were a row of orchestra boxes, but these box seats had been removed when I started going there in the 1940s. I saw movies such as “Bambi” there, also “State Fair”, maybe “The Yearling” and “My Friend Flicka” – my mother took me to a lot of these flicks aimed at kids. It had a tall white-brick stagehouse w hich backed up to the railroad tracks. (The tracks were at-grade in those days, not down in a cut like today.) The name was change to Art Theatre around 1945 or so. I went there countless times as a teenager. A friend in highschool was an usher and doorman there circa 1953-54. I’m not sure when it closed, maybe circ 1960 or so.
It was razed circa 1970- part of the site in front is now an open plaza and to the rear is that big office building set back from the street at the north intersection of Hancock and Granite streets.
I remember the Regent but never went into it, it was a bit too far out of my way. It was in the Norfolk Downs section of Quincy, on the east side of Hancock Street about halfway between Wollaston center and the North Quincy High School. It may or may not have had a balcony. It was a typical double-feature 2nd-run Nabe. It was included in the MGM 1941 Theatre Photograph and Report project. The data in these Reports is not always accurate! MGM lists the address as 440 Hancock St. They indicate that the Regent is an MGM customer.
They list 800 seats, all on one floor. The photo (mine is a Xerox copy, somewhat washed-out) was apparently taken in May 1941. The entrance was in the center of the brick facade, with a center box-office, and a double door on each side. Movies listed on the marquee are “Western Union” and “High Sierra”. My memory is that the Regent closed sometime in mid- or late-1950s. The building was still there the last time I drove by.