All the city directories I’ve consulted list the address as 116 North Main Street. North Main Street in Pawtucket later became known as Roosevelt Avenue.
The Providence Journal Almanac from 1914 gives the seating capacity of this theatre as 1460. Proscenium: 36x36 feet; footlights to back wall, 60 feet; between side walls, 70 feet.
The theatre was not a great movie palace, just a well-liked and economical place to see pictures in the Clyde/Riverpoint section of West Warwick. Here is a photo of Thornton’s as it was being demolished.
Although this is listed as having been called the Palace in past decades (i.e. the 1920s and later), it never called the “Bomes Theatre,” to my knowledge. Samuel Bomes was the founder and owner, as with the Hollywood in East Providence and the Liberty in Providence. “Bomes Theatre” carved over the entrance signifies this was a Bomes Theatre.
In October of 1928 when the Frank Borzage film Street Angel , with Charles Farrell and Janet Gaynor, was playing here, the Royal took out an Italian-language ad in the weekly “Eco del Rhode Island” in order to attract local Italians to the film. The silent movie is set in Naples, and Gaynor plays a “street angel,” which was a euphemism for “prostitute.” The Royal stood between two Italian enclaves in Providence: Federal Hill and Silver Lake.
Vesti la giubba!!!
An opera at a drive-in? Are you kidding? No, signore! The Pike showed Pagliacci on May 23 & 24 of 1951. This version starred Gina Lollobrigida and Tito Gobbi. An accompanying featurette was great bass-baritone Ezio Pinza in Rehearsal . The program was promoted in the R.I. Italian-American weekly “The Italian Echo” with an Italian-language ad.
On October 12 & 13 of 1951 the Cranston Auto Theatre was showing an unexpected program for a drive-in, De Sica’s The Bicycle Thief . The Italian movie had had a number of successful little runs at an art house in the area, the Avon, and the Uptown in Providence. But a drive-in? And subtitled? I don’t believe the distributor was circulating dubbed prints then or later. The program was even advertised in the Italian-American weekly “The Italian Echo.” The accompanying film on the double bill was a B-western (!) called California Passage. Certainly unusual.
Movies continued to be shown here through 1914. The theatre finally shut down on January 16 of 1915. Roger Brett writes in Temples of Illusion:
“The final performance by the Empire Stock Company had signaled the end of this large and popular theater. Old age or failing attendance were not the cause of its demise, but rather city planning.
"With traffic increasing as autos outnumbered horses, it was discovered that the city lacked a broad cross-town thoroughfare to link Washington, Westminster,and Weybosset Streets…"
"The Empire Theater facing Westminster Street, Central Baptist Church facing Weybosset Street and Warner’s Lane, which meandered along side them, was exactly where the highway department proposed to establish this link in the city’s traffic system.”
This photo shows the front of the Empire and, drawn in, the path that the Empire Street extension would take and result in the theatre’s destruction in 1915.
It must be! Many thanks. A while after it had opened in New York in August of 1947, Vittorio De Sica’s film Shoe Shine played at the Little and was in its sixth week at the time of publication of the 1948 Film Daily Yearbook where I saw a distributor ad (Lopert Films) which mentioned this theatre and others where that film had been booked. That shattering neo-realist movie was about the aftermath of World War II and a juvenile prison in Rome. I’m very much interested in the history of “early” exhibition of foreign-language films in the U.S. and older, often forgotten, art houses.
Yes, the Empire did run movies, but not for very long. Roger Brett in his book Temples of Illusion wrote:
“The Empire had a summer stock company for ten of its fifteen year existence, the exceptions being the summer of 1910 when the theater played its only season of vaudeville, and its final summer of 1914 when movies were exhibited.”
The Empire had been built in 1899 and was demolished around 1914 to make way for an extension of Empire Street.
The Italian film Anna also played here in that “final” April of 1953. It starred the luscious Silvana Mangano of Bitter Rice fame. Here she played a woman with a tainted past who decides to become a nun. There is a famous song/dance scene in the movie when Mangano sings “"El negro Zumbon,” a ‘bajon’ sung in Spanish. It became a popular song hit even in America. The movie was dubbed for wider release, and appeared in that version here.
The Italian film Anna played here in May of 1953. It starred the luscious Silvana Mangano of Bitter Rice fame. Here she played a woman with a tainted past who decides to become a nun. There is a famous song/dance scene in the movie when Mangano sings “"El negro Zumbon,” a ‘bajon’ sung in Spanish that became a popular song hit even in America. The movie was dubbed for wider release, especially for drive-in showings such as this one. It had played the now-closed Carlton in Providence about a month earlier.
In his book Temples of Illusion Roger Brett writes of the Imperial’s history:
“The Imperial Theater was large, handsome and well designed. It was one of the best ever built in town and it opened [September 22, 1902] with none other than The Four Cohans (including George M.) in their hit musical comedy The Governor’s Son. Its beginnings could not have been more promising, yet it was born under a hex and, despite several fresh starts, could not escape its fate. Like a high-born derelict, it wound up on skid row as E. M. Loew’s Capitol Theater, a ‘scratch-house’ if there ever was one….
“Impressive as it was on the inside, the Imperial was decidedly unimperial on the Cathedral Square façade. Above the lobby and two flanking shops, were the bachelor apartments, completely separated from the auditorium by a fire wall. They rose five floors high and because they were apartments, they were provided with fire escapes. The entire front of this building was, in all probability, the largest jungle of fire escapes and ladders that have ever defaced the streets of Providence. They looked as if they had been erected by a demented crew of iron workers who didn’t know when to stop.”
Federico Fellini’s then-scandalous La Dolce Vita had its first R.I. showings here starting in September of 1961. It seems to have done very well, and the booking of a foreign-film in its original language version with subtitles was unusual for the place (although there was some history of the theatre occasionally presenting Italian-language films on slow nights for the Italian-speaking community.) Another Mastroianni film, Casanova ‘70, also later played here in a subtitled version sometime in 1965.
Actually, the theatre lingered on until the very end of the month with The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima and a double bill of The Mummy and The Mummy’s Curse. Peter Pan was announced for a return visit, but no ads appeared beginning around May 1st. The theatre had closed for good.
In The Saturday Evening Post of June 23, 1945 there was a long and fascinating article that discussed vaudeville at the Park and its owner/impresario Arthur Darman, dubbed “little Napoleon.” The article is entitled “Book me at Woonsocket,” by T. E. Murphy. It was subtitled “One man’s curious passion for making pets of vaudevillians has transformed yesterday’s ‘stinkeroo’ into a paradise for performers.”
The piece paints a picture of Mr. Darman as a generous, strong-willed, civic minded person, who had spent great sums ($150,000) to beautify the Park and the backstage areas used by performers. He would wine and dine then, do all he could to get them to like the Park and want to return, despite the fact that vaudeville at this time, the mid-‘40s, was not a real passion for citizens of Woonsocket.
Among the man’s eccentricities: he built an expensive vent system to drive the smell of popcorn away from the seating area, and he kept a cooled downstairs vault for chocolate so that it wouldn’t melt. Several color photos appear in the article, but mostly of performers and one of Mr. Darman at. There are no shots of the auditorum or theatre exterior.
Clarification. In an earlier entry I note that this had been called the “Bomes Theatre” at one time. I no longer believe so. The “Bomes Theatre” inscription above the theatre front refers to the original builder/owner Samuel Bomes. Like his Liberty on Broad Street in Providence, this was simply a Bomes Theatre. As far as I have been able to determine, it had always been called the Hollywood up to its 1959 closing. A January 1996 article in the Providence newspaper talks about how the empty house had been deteriorating for 15 years. It continues to remain closed, minus the marquee that had stayed attached for a time. It used to be used as a furniture warehouse by the owner, Henry Rose, owner of Rose Furniture Company in East Providence.
No, the Star under Mr. Allen’s tutelage was a place in Hoyle Square, Providence, at Westminster and Dean Streets. It had a fire in 1899, and had nothing to do with movies, not yet arrived. Besides the Star in Cranston and the one in Providence, there were theatres of that name in Natick and Pascoag and Pawtucket.
The 1919 R.I. directory lists a Bijou Theatre for Manville but no address. I do not know if it was the same theatre as this one.
A 1919 Pawtucket city directory lists a theatre at this address called the Scenic Theatre.
All the city directories I’ve consulted list the address as 116 North Main Street. North Main Street in Pawtucket later became known as Roosevelt Avenue.
The Providence Journal Almanac from 1914 gives the seating capacity of this theatre as 1460. Proscenium: 36x36 feet; footlights to back wall, 60 feet; between side walls, 70 feet.
The theatre was not a great movie palace, just a well-liked and economical place to see pictures in the Clyde/Riverpoint section of West Warwick. Here is a photo of Thornton’s as it was being demolished.
Although this is listed as having been called the Palace in past decades (i.e. the 1920s and later), it never called the “Bomes Theatre,” to my knowledge. Samuel Bomes was the founder and owner, as with the Hollywood in East Providence and the Liberty in Providence. “Bomes Theatre” carved over the entrance signifies this was a Bomes Theatre.
The exact address of the Gaiety was 226 Weybosset Street.
In October of 1928 when the Frank Borzage film Street Angel , with Charles Farrell and Janet Gaynor, was playing here, the Royal took out an Italian-language ad in the weekly “Eco del Rhode Island” in order to attract local Italians to the film. The silent movie is set in Naples, and Gaynor plays a “street angel,” which was a euphemism for “prostitute.” The Royal stood between two Italian enclaves in Providence: Federal Hill and Silver Lake.
Vesti la giubba!!!
An opera at a drive-in? Are you kidding? No, signore! The Pike showed Pagliacci on May 23 & 24 of 1951. This version starred Gina Lollobrigida and Tito Gobbi. An accompanying featurette was great bass-baritone Ezio Pinza in Rehearsal . The program was promoted in the R.I. Italian-American weekly “The Italian Echo” with an Italian-language ad.
On October 12 & 13 of 1951 the Cranston Auto Theatre was showing an unexpected program for a drive-in, De Sica’s The Bicycle Thief . The Italian movie had had a number of successful little runs at an art house in the area, the Avon, and the Uptown in Providence. But a drive-in? And subtitled? I don’t believe the distributor was circulating dubbed prints then or later. The program was even advertised in the Italian-American weekly “The Italian Echo.” The accompanying film on the double bill was a B-western (!) called California Passage. Certainly unusual.
Movies continued to be shown here through 1914. The theatre finally shut down on January 16 of 1915. Roger Brett writes in Temples of Illusion:
“The final performance by the Empire Stock Company had signaled the end of this large and popular theater. Old age or failing attendance were not the cause of its demise, but rather city planning.
"With traffic increasing as autos outnumbered horses, it was discovered that the city lacked a broad cross-town thoroughfare to link Washington, Westminster,and Weybosset Streets…"
"The Empire Theater facing Westminster Street, Central Baptist Church facing Weybosset Street and Warner’s Lane, which meandered along side them, was exactly where the highway department proposed to establish this link in the city’s traffic system.”
This photo shows the front of the Empire and, drawn in, the path that the Empire Street extension would take and result in the theatre’s destruction in 1915.
It must be! Many thanks. A while after it had opened in New York in August of 1947, Vittorio De Sica’s film Shoe Shine played at the Little and was in its sixth week at the time of publication of the 1948 Film Daily Yearbook where I saw a distributor ad (Lopert Films) which mentioned this theatre and others where that film had been booked. That shattering neo-realist movie was about the aftermath of World War II and a juvenile prison in Rome. I’m very much interested in the history of “early” exhibition of foreign-language films in the U.S. and older, often forgotten, art houses.
Yes, the Empire did run movies, but not for very long. Roger Brett in his book Temples of Illusion wrote:
“The Empire had a summer stock company for ten of its fifteen year existence, the exceptions being the summer of 1910 when the theater played its only season of vaudeville, and its final summer of 1914 when movies were exhibited.”
The Empire had been built in 1899 and was demolished around 1914 to make way for an extension of Empire Street.
The Italian film Anna also played here in that “final” April of 1953. It starred the luscious Silvana Mangano of Bitter Rice fame. Here she played a woman with a tainted past who decides to become a nun. There is a famous song/dance scene in the movie when Mangano sings “"El negro Zumbon,” a ‘bajon’ sung in Spanish. It became a popular song hit even in America. The movie was dubbed for wider release, and appeared in that version here.
The Italian film Anna played here in May of 1953. It starred the luscious Silvana Mangano of Bitter Rice fame. Here she played a woman with a tainted past who decides to become a nun. There is a famous song/dance scene in the movie when Mangano sings “"El negro Zumbon,” a ‘bajon’ sung in Spanish that became a popular song hit even in America. The movie was dubbed for wider release, especially for drive-in showings such as this one. It had played the now-closed Carlton in Providence about a month earlier.
In his book Temples of Illusion Roger Brett writes of the Imperial’s history:
“The Imperial Theater was large, handsome and well designed. It was one of the best ever built in town and it opened [September 22, 1902] with none other than The Four Cohans (including George M.) in their hit musical comedy The Governor’s Son. Its beginnings could not have been more promising, yet it was born under a hex and, despite several fresh starts, could not escape its fate. Like a high-born derelict, it wound up on skid row as E. M. Loew’s Capitol Theater, a ‘scratch-house’ if there ever was one….
“Impressive as it was on the inside, the Imperial was decidedly unimperial on the Cathedral Square façade. Above the lobby and two flanking shops, were the bachelor apartments, completely separated from the auditorium by a fire wall. They rose five floors high and because they were apartments, they were provided with fire escapes. The entire front of this building was, in all probability, the largest jungle of fire escapes and ladders that have ever defaced the streets of Providence. They looked as if they had been erected by a demented crew of iron workers who didn’t know when to stop.”
Federico Fellini’s then-scandalous La Dolce Vita had its first R.I. showings here starting in September of 1961. It seems to have done very well, and the booking of a foreign-film in its original language version with subtitles was unusual for the place (although there was some history of the theatre occasionally presenting Italian-language films on slow nights for the Italian-speaking community.) Another Mastroianni film, Casanova ‘70, also later played here in a subtitled version sometime in 1965.
Actually, the theatre lingered on until the very end of the month with The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima and a double bill of The Mummy and The Mummy’s Curse. Peter Pan was announced for a return visit, but no ads appeared beginning around May 1st. The theatre had closed for good.
In The Saturday Evening Post of June 23, 1945 there was a long and fascinating article that discussed vaudeville at the Park and its owner/impresario Arthur Darman, dubbed “little Napoleon.” The article is entitled “Book me at Woonsocket,” by T. E. Murphy. It was subtitled “One man’s curious passion for making pets of vaudevillians has transformed yesterday’s ‘stinkeroo’ into a paradise for performers.”
The piece paints a picture of Mr. Darman as a generous, strong-willed, civic minded person, who had spent great sums ($150,000) to beautify the Park and the backstage areas used by performers. He would wine and dine then, do all he could to get them to like the Park and want to return, despite the fact that vaudeville at this time, the mid-‘40s, was not a real passion for citizens of Woonsocket.
Among the man’s eccentricities: he built an expensive vent system to drive the smell of popcorn away from the seating area, and he kept a cooled downstairs vault for chocolate so that it wouldn’t melt. Several color photos appear in the article, but mostly of performers and one of Mr. Darman at. There are no shots of the auditorum or theatre exterior.
Clarification. In an earlier entry I note that this had been called the “Bomes Theatre” at one time. I no longer believe so. The “Bomes Theatre” inscription above the theatre front refers to the original builder/owner Samuel Bomes. Like his Liberty on Broad Street in Providence, this was simply a Bomes Theatre. As far as I have been able to determine, it had always been called the Hollywood up to its 1959 closing. A January 1996 article in the Providence newspaper talks about how the empty house had been deteriorating for 15 years. It continues to remain closed, minus the marquee that had stayed attached for a time. It used to be used as a furniture warehouse by the owner, Henry Rose, owner of Rose Furniture Company in East Providence.
Alas, I can’t yet ascertain whether this theatre, which came down in the 1910s to make way for a street extension, ever showed movies or not.
No, the Star under Mr. Allen’s tutelage was a place in Hoyle Square, Providence, at Westminster and Dean Streets. It had a fire in 1899, and had nothing to do with movies, not yet arrived. Besides the Star in Cranston and the one in Providence, there were theatres of that name in Natick and Pascoag and Pawtucket.
According to Roger Brett in Temples of Illusion, the first regular movie operation in Providence was the Nickel Theatre on Westminster Street, beginning on April 18, 1906. Before that only a few helter-skelter presentations of the Vitascope and Lumière Cinématographe had take place, including a notable presentation of The Great Train Robbery at Music Hall, another Westminster Street theatre around 1905. At the end of 1906 the Scenic Temple (later to be known as the Rialto) also began showing movies regularly. It was the second such place in the city.
The theatre bore the name Scenic Temple until 1919, when it became the Rialto until 1936.
According to Roger Brett in Temples of Illusion, the first regular movie operation in Providence was the Nickel Theatre, beginning on April 18, 1906, the day of the San Francisco earthquake, which distracted from the cinema history being made locally. Before that only a few helter-skelter presentations of the Vitascope and Lumière Cinématographe as a novelty had taken place, such as a notable presentation of The Great Train Robbery at Music Hall, another Westminster Street theatre around 1905 as well as in Olneyville. The Nickel’s opening film program that day was four short movies: The Dream of the Rarebit Fiend, The Country Straw Ride, The Kentucky Feud, The Devil’s Dice. Nine months later the Scenic Temple (later “Rialto”) on Mathewson Street became the second theatre in the city to show movies regularly.
Um, no. According to Roger Brett in Temples of Illusion, the first regular movie operation in Providence was the Nickel Theatre on Westminster Street, beginning on April 18, 1906. Before that only a few helter-skelter presentations of the Vitascope and Lumière Cinématographe had take place, incluidng a notable presentation of The Great Train Robbery at Music Hall, another Westminster Street Theatre around 1905.