It was on August 29, 1967 that I saw Cecil B. DeMille’s 1952 The Greatest Show on Earth here, in re-release. Earlier in the day I had seen Beach Red and The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre at the Savoy (Opera House, etc.) downtown.
I only went here once or twice. I saw the atmospheric and engrossing Tony Bui film made in Vietnam, Three Seasons back in May of 1999. It played here before it was shown in Providence, and I believe was reviewed/listed in the Providence paper.
Hiroshi Inagaki’s Chushingura was kind of a big-deal offering here in early 1967. It’s a stunning 3½ hour wide-screen epic based on the famous “47 Ronin” story that all Japanese learn about. I saw it here in January, 1967, and went to four other films in Manhattan that day as well.
I saw John Frankenheimer’s Seven Days in May here on January 24, 1967, late at night after a five-film movie marathon in Manhattan that day. I had just gotten out of the Air Force and was spending several days in New York satisfying movie-lust and other urges before returning home to mamma. The theatres I visited during that stint were the Coronet, Carnegie Hall Cinema, the Museum of Modern Art film auditorium, Fifth Avenue Cinema, Liberty, Regency, 8th Street Playhouse, Waverly, Festival, Studio, and New Yorker. The only ones that still survive as cinemas are MoMA and the now-resurrected IFC/Waverly.
Here is a flyer-ad for the Myrtle from 1940. The address “1361 Plainfield Street” was to help people find the building. The actual entrance was on Myrtle Avenue. Thornton is a village in Johnston.
When the Strand Theatre closed in August of 1978, about 500 of its seats were donated to a non-profit froup from Jamestown called the Jamestown Theater, Inc. A Providence Journal article of August 20th said:
“The group plans to install them in that town’s theater on which it holds a 90-day option to buy. There are hopes of renovating the Jamestown Theater and booking movies and live shows. Jane Sprague, president of the group, said, ‘We took as many seats as we could possibly take with four U-Haul trips.’
“The projectors, a sound system and concession and lobby equipment also were removed to Jamestown. Other theater pieces will end up at the Lederer Theater, the Ocean State Theater and the Rhode Island School for the Deaf.”
When the Strand Theatre in Providence closed in August of 1978, about 500 of its seats were donated to a non-profit froup from Jamestown called the Jamestown Theater, Inc. A Providence Journal article of August 20th said:
“The group plans to install them in that town’s theater on which it holds a 90-day option to buy. There are hopes of renovating the Jamestown Theater and booking movies and live shows. Jane Sprague, president of the group, said, ‘We took as many seats as we could possibly take with four U-Haul trips.’
“The projectors, a sound system and concession and lobby equipment also were removed to Jamestown. Other theater pieces will end up at the Lederer Theater, the Ocean State Theater and the Rhode Island School for the Deaf.”
In a March 27, 1986 piece in the R.I. Italo-American weekly The Echo, writer Joe Fuoco reports a conversation with Elmo Vendettuoli.
EV: “My father and mother started the movie business in the family. They operated a theatre still standing as an empty building* in Silver Lake. It was called the Star Theatre and it ran silent movies. My sister Mary ran the three turntables and I was the projectionist at the age of 13. I had to stand on a can to operate the machine.”
JF: “What are you talking about when you say three turntables?”
EV: “Phonograph recordings that my sister would play according to what was going on in the picture. If it was a horse scene, she’d play the horse music; if it was a love scene, she’d turn on the sweet old-fashioned love music. Each 78 rpm had its own music and you had to know which one to play. These were days following the end of piano accompaniment and long before the days of sound.”
*The Star has since been demolished. This neighborhood of Cranston and just-over-the-line Providence is known as Silver Lake. The Vendettuolis later operated the Rainbo, further down Dyer Avenue. (My note)
In a March 27, 1986 piece in the R.I. Italo-American weekly The Echo, writer Joe Fuoco reports a conversation with Elmo Vendettuoli.
EV: “My parents, Carmen and Laura Vendettuoli built a theatre called the V.C. Theatre. My father took his initials and reversed them. It later became known as the Rainbo, spelled without the ‘W.’ It seated 350 people and we played every serial there was. The serials ran about 18 to 20 minutes. All action! Now the Rainbo is gone. Demolished! Nothing there.”
JF: I’ve heard there were actual dangers running the old movies."
EV: “Sure there were. We had a couple of fires. You have to understand that old films were [nitrate] 35-millimeter. Combustible. And we used those big carbon arc lights. Well, a film would break and suddenly catch fire. A lot of films were lost that way.”
My note: the Vendettuolis had previously run the Star, just up the street. This neighborhood of Cranston and nearby Providence is called Silver Lake.
Several decades ago the theatre, which is located next to the public library was rented by the late Mario Votolato of Johnston for the purpose of showing films during the warmer months. He also used to own or run over the years the Myrtle, Johnston and Jamestown Theatres in Rhode Island. No doubt this theatre has other history besides Mr. Votolato’s ventures, and I would like to learn of them from any locals who are so acquainted.
In December of 1980 the Art ran a series of somewhat rare British films in great 35mm prints. I remember catching the 1936 Sweeney Todd: Demon Barber of Fleet Street on a double bill with Joseph Losey’s infrequently seen Time Without Pity from 1957.
Charles Chaplin’s The Gold Rush opened at the Strand on August 16, 1925, with Chaplin in attendance. He later recalled in his 1964 My Autobiography, “From the moment the film started, showing me blithely rounding a precipice unconscious of a bear following, the audience yelled and applauded. Throughout the laughter there was sporadic applause till the end of the picture.”
Charles Chaplin rented this theatre for the New York premiere run of his City Lights beginning on February 6, 1931. In his 1964 My Autobiography Chaplin recalled:
“The only [theatre] available in New York was the George M. Cohan Theatre with a seating capacity of eleven hundred and fifty, and that was of the beaten path and considered a white elephant. It was not even a cinema house. I could hire the four walls for seven thousand dollars a week, guaranteeing eight weeks rental, and I would have to supply everything else: manager, cashier, ushers, projectionist, stagehands and the expense of electric signs and publicity. As I was financially involved to the extent of two million dollars—-and my own money at that—-I might as well take the full gamble and hire the theatre.”
Astounded that United Artists had hardly publicized the opening at all, the angry Chaplin took out half-page ads in the New York papers:
CHARLES CHAPLIN
AT THE COHAN THEATRE
IN
CITY LIGHTS
CONTINUOUS ALL DAY AT 50 CENTS AND ONE DOLLAR
Chaplin wrote:
“I spent $30,000 extra with the newspapers, then rented an electric sign for the front of the theatre costing another $30,000. As there was little time and we had to hustle, I was up all night, experimenting with the projection of the film, deciding the size of the picture and correcting distortion. The next day I met with the press and told them the whys and wherefores of my making a silent picture. (…)
“At the premiere the picture went off very well. But premieres are not indicative. It is the ordinary public that would count. Would they be interested in a silent picture? These thoughts kept me awake half the night. In the morning, however, I was awakened by my publicity man, who came bursting into my bedroom at eleven o'clock, shrieking with excitement: ‘Boy, you’ve done it! What a hit! There’s been a line running round the block ever since ten o'clock this morning and it’s stopping the traffic. There are about ten cops trying to keep order. They’re fighting to get in. And you should hear them yell!’”
I’m wondering if the Lyric in nearby Pawcatuck/Westerly hovered over water also, since city directories gave its address as West Broad and added “on the bridge.”
For a time in 1983, after the Cinerama I & II on Hope Street in Providence had closed, this theatre planned to run some of the foreign films that people were accustomed to seeing at the Cinerama. In an article in the Providence Journal of March 16, 1983, Michael Janusonis wrote:
“[George] Mansour, who operates his Cinema Selections in Boston’s Park Square Building, said one of the Four Seasons' six screens will show foreign and specialized films on a trial basis. Films include Lianna, a highly praised American film about a lesbian relationship.”
A September 29, 1957 article in the Providence Journal discussed the installation of Todd-AO equipment at the Elmwood:
“The Elmwood Theater in Providence is experiencing a transformation now that would bring joy to [Mike] Todd’s showmanlike soul.
“All of the old equipment has been dismantled and removed. In its place a crew of more than 10 men is placing the brand new machines and materials to show Around the World in 80 Days which opens on a reserved seat basis on October 10. (…)
“All of this equipment cost the Elmwood Theater about $30,000, James Randall, theater manager, reported.
“‘We are going to make this as close as possible to a performance on the legitimate stage,’ he said. ‘No popcorn will be sold and soda will be sold only during intermission.’
“After installation is complete, a Todd representative will make a final check and have seats removed where the view of the screen is not quite perfect. The first five rows of seats have already been taken out.”
Two August, 1978 double bills playing at the same time were Corvette Summer & Coma on the south screen (John Street entrance) and The Cheap Detective & The Boys in Company C on the north screen (Lonsdale Avenue entrance.) The drive-in was located on Route 122 in Lincoln.
This theatre was renamed Cinema I at some point and was showing the X-rated The Senator’s Daughter, with John Holmes and Leslie Bovee (“Complete uncut-uncensored version”) in August, 1978, according to an ad giving that address.
It was on August 29, 1967 that I saw Cecil B. DeMille’s 1952 The Greatest Show on Earth here, in re-release. Earlier in the day I had seen Beach Red and The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre at the Savoy (Opera House, etc.) downtown.
The John Street Theatre of Valley Falls, mentioned in an above comment, has now been posted.
A comment on this theatre appears on the Mayfair Theatre page.
I only went here once or twice. I saw the atmospheric and engrossing Tony Bui film made in Vietnam, Three Seasons back in May of 1999. It played here before it was shown in Providence, and I believe was reviewed/listed in the Providence paper.
Hiroshi Inagaki’s Chushingura was kind of a big-deal offering here in early 1967. It’s a stunning 3½ hour wide-screen epic based on the famous “47 Ronin” story that all Japanese learn about. I saw it here in January, 1967, and went to four other films in Manhattan that day as well.
I saw John Frankenheimer’s Seven Days in May here on January 24, 1967, late at night after a five-film movie marathon in Manhattan that day. I had just gotten out of the Air Force and was spending several days in New York satisfying movie-lust and other urges before returning home to mamma. The theatres I visited during that stint were the Coronet, Carnegie Hall Cinema, the Museum of Modern Art film auditorium, Fifth Avenue Cinema, Liberty, Regency, 8th Street Playhouse, Waverly, Festival, Studio, and New Yorker. The only ones that still survive as cinemas are MoMA and the now-resurrected IFC/Waverly.
Here is a flyer-ad for the Myrtle from 1940. The address “1361 Plainfield Street” was to help people find the building. The actual entrance was on Myrtle Avenue. Thornton is a village in Johnston.
When the Strand Theatre closed in August of 1978, about 500 of its seats were donated to a non-profit froup from Jamestown called the Jamestown Theater, Inc. A Providence Journal article of August 20th said:
“The group plans to install them in that town’s theater on which it holds a 90-day option to buy. There are hopes of renovating the Jamestown Theater and booking movies and live shows. Jane Sprague, president of the group, said, ‘We took as many seats as we could possibly take with four U-Haul trips.’
“The projectors, a sound system and concession and lobby equipment also were removed to Jamestown. Other theater pieces will end up at the Lederer Theater, the Ocean State Theater and the Rhode Island School for the Deaf.”
When the Strand Theatre in Providence closed in August of 1978, about 500 of its seats were donated to a non-profit froup from Jamestown called the Jamestown Theater, Inc. A Providence Journal article of August 20th said:
“The group plans to install them in that town’s theater on which it holds a 90-day option to buy. There are hopes of renovating the Jamestown Theater and booking movies and live shows. Jane Sprague, president of the group, said, ‘We took as many seats as we could possibly take with four U-Haul trips.’
“The projectors, a sound system and concession and lobby equipment also were removed to Jamestown. Other theater pieces will end up at the Lederer Theater, the Ocean State Theater and the Rhode Island School for the Deaf.”
In a March 27, 1986 piece in the R.I. Italo-American weekly The Echo, writer Joe Fuoco reports a conversation with Elmo Vendettuoli.
EV: “My father and mother started the movie business in the family. They operated a theatre still standing as an empty building* in Silver Lake. It was called the Star Theatre and it ran silent movies. My sister Mary ran the three turntables and I was the projectionist at the age of 13. I had to stand on a can to operate the machine.”
JF: “What are you talking about when you say three turntables?”
EV: “Phonograph recordings that my sister would play according to what was going on in the picture. If it was a horse scene, she’d play the horse music; if it was a love scene, she’d turn on the sweet old-fashioned love music. Each 78 rpm had its own music and you had to know which one to play. These were days following the end of piano accompaniment and long before the days of sound.”
*The Star has since been demolished. This neighborhood of Cranston and just-over-the-line Providence is known as Silver Lake. The Vendettuolis later operated the Rainbo, further down Dyer Avenue. (My note)
In a March 27, 1986 piece in the R.I. Italo-American weekly The Echo, writer Joe Fuoco reports a conversation with Elmo Vendettuoli.
EV: “My parents, Carmen and Laura Vendettuoli built a theatre called the V.C. Theatre. My father took his initials and reversed them. It later became known as the Rainbo, spelled without the ‘W.’ It seated 350 people and we played every serial there was. The serials ran about 18 to 20 minutes. All action! Now the Rainbo is gone. Demolished! Nothing there.”
JF: I’ve heard there were actual dangers running the old movies."
EV: “Sure there were. We had a couple of fires. You have to understand that old films were [nitrate] 35-millimeter. Combustible. And we used those big carbon arc lights. Well, a film would break and suddenly catch fire. A lot of films were lost that way.”
My note: the Vendettuolis had previously run the Star, just up the street. This neighborhood of Cranston and nearby Providence is called Silver Lake.
Several decades ago the theatre, which is located next to the public library was rented by the late Mario Votolato of Johnston for the purpose of showing films during the warmer months. He also used to own or run over the years the Myrtle, Johnston and Jamestown Theatres in Rhode Island. No doubt this theatre has other history besides Mr. Votolato’s ventures, and I would like to learn of them from any locals who are so acquainted.
In December of 1980 the Art ran a series of somewhat rare British films in great 35mm prints. I remember catching the 1936 Sweeney Todd: Demon Barber of Fleet Street on a double bill with Joseph Losey’s infrequently seen Time Without Pity from 1957.
This theatre was called the Criterion Center 4 when, around Christmas of 1980, I saw Martin Scorsese’s Raging Bull here in a kind of basement cinema.
Charles Chaplin’s The Gold Rush opened at the Strand on August 16, 1925, with Chaplin in attendance. He later recalled in his 1964 My Autobiography, “From the moment the film started, showing me blithely rounding a precipice unconscious of a bear following, the audience yelled and applauded. Throughout the laughter there was sporadic applause till the end of the picture.”
Charles Chaplin rented this theatre for the New York premiere run of his City Lights beginning on February 6, 1931. In his 1964 My Autobiography Chaplin recalled:
“The only [theatre] available in New York was the George M. Cohan Theatre with a seating capacity of eleven hundred and fifty, and that was of the beaten path and considered a white elephant. It was not even a cinema house. I could hire the four walls for seven thousand dollars a week, guaranteeing eight weeks rental, and I would have to supply everything else: manager, cashier, ushers, projectionist, stagehands and the expense of electric signs and publicity. As I was financially involved to the extent of two million dollars—-and my own money at that—-I might as well take the full gamble and hire the theatre.”
Astounded that United Artists had hardly publicized the opening at all, the angry Chaplin took out half-page ads in the New York papers:
CHARLES CHAPLIN
AT THE COHAN THEATRE
IN
CITY LIGHTS
CONTINUOUS ALL DAY AT 50 CENTS AND ONE DOLLAR
Chaplin wrote:
“I spent $30,000 extra with the newspapers, then rented an electric sign for the front of the theatre costing another $30,000. As there was little time and we had to hustle, I was up all night, experimenting with the projection of the film, deciding the size of the picture and correcting distortion. The next day I met with the press and told them the whys and wherefores of my making a silent picture. (…)
“At the premiere the picture went off very well. But premieres are not indicative. It is the ordinary public that would count. Would they be interested in a silent picture? These thoughts kept me awake half the night. In the morning, however, I was awakened by my publicity man, who came bursting into my bedroom at eleven o'clock, shrieking with excitement: ‘Boy, you’ve done it! What a hit! There’s been a line running round the block ever since ten o'clock this morning and it’s stopping the traffic. There are about ten cops trying to keep order. They’re fighting to get in. And you should hear them yell!’”
I’m wondering if the Lyric in nearby Pawcatuck/Westerly hovered over water also, since city directories gave its address as West Broad and added “on the bridge.”
I came here in June of 1982 to see Partners with Ryan O'Neal and John Hurt.
I saw E.T. a number of times in various places when it came out. Once here. It was just another mall theatre, but one hates to lose anything at all.
In June of 1940 Hitchcock’s Rebecca with Joan Fontaine and Laurence Olivier played here. There, isn’t that an earth-shaking fact?
JakeGittes, weren’t you the character played by Jack Nicholson in Roman Polanski’s Chinatown?
For a time in 1983, after the Cinerama I & II on Hope Street in Providence had closed, this theatre planned to run some of the foreign films that people were accustomed to seeing at the Cinerama. In an article in the Providence Journal of March 16, 1983, Michael Janusonis wrote:
“[George] Mansour, who operates his Cinema Selections in Boston’s Park Square Building, said one of the Four Seasons' six screens will show foreign and specialized films on a trial basis. Films include Lianna, a highly praised American film about a lesbian relationship.”
This policy did not last a very long time.
A September 29, 1957 article in the Providence Journal discussed the installation of Todd-AO equipment at the Elmwood:
“The Elmwood Theater in Providence is experiencing a transformation now that would bring joy to [Mike] Todd’s showmanlike soul.
“All of the old equipment has been dismantled and removed. In its place a crew of more than 10 men is placing the brand new machines and materials to show Around the World in 80 Days which opens on a reserved seat basis on October 10. (…)
“All of this equipment cost the Elmwood Theater about $30,000, James Randall, theater manager, reported.
“‘We are going to make this as close as possible to a performance on the legitimate stage,’ he said. ‘No popcorn will be sold and soda will be sold only during intermission.’
“After installation is complete, a Todd representative will make a final check and have seats removed where the view of the screen is not quite perfect. The first five rows of seats have already been taken out.”
Two August, 1978 double bills playing at the same time were Corvette Summer & Coma on the south screen (John Street entrance) and The Cheap Detective & The Boys in Company C on the north screen (Lonsdale Avenue entrance.) The drive-in was located on Route 122 in Lincoln.
This theatre was renamed Cinema I at some point and was showing the X-rated The Senator’s Daughter, with John Holmes and Leslie Bovee (“Complete uncut-uncensored version”) in August, 1978, according to an ad giving that address.