Nice to read about a cinema named after a great movie classic, in this case Jean Renoir’s 1937 masterpiece. There is a cinema in Paris called Accattone in honor of the Pasolini film. Is there a “Citizen Kane Cinema” somewhere, a “Psycho Theatre” or a “Ben Hur Multiplex”? I think it’s a wonderful idea. Anyone know of others?
I visited the drive-in and took these four photos. The address of the Ponta del Gada is 70 Shove Street, which is at the corner of Walnut Street. It is a block away from the center of North Tiverton, a neighborhood in the town of Tiverton. North Tiverton’s main street is Main Street, which is also Route 138. The drive-in, in its heyday, must have attracted lots of filmgoers from the Tiverton/Fall River area. The screen is no longer there, only the projection/concession building and the entry sign and marquee. Photo of entrance marquee Marquee and concession and projection booth Projection booth exterior Projection booth interior
The only think I didn’t like about this theatre was that the auditoriums (when they were a twin theatre) had screens that had sort of funnel-like metallic sides. I believe they were grayish. When the left-as-you-enter auditorium was twinned, I believe each then had fixed black masking. There were no curtains and no variable masking in the house. CinemaScope films filled the screen, but in standard aspect-ratio movies, there was a blank area of white screen on either side. As a purist, I’ve always felt that correct screen masking is essential to full enjoyment of what you were watching and part and parcel of a good projection system as much as good focus, brightness, and sound quality.
These were really: Gina Lollobrigida in “La provinciale”; Silvana Mangano in “Il brigante Musolino”; Eleonora Rossi-Drago and Silvana Pampanini in “La tratta delle bianche”. These girls were making the rounds not only of U.S. art houses and naughty houses but of drive-ins.
This was a popular place during its not-long life. The newspaper ads all said “STRAIGHT OUT SMITH STREET” so that people from Providence would know how to get there. Smith Street (Rte. 44) leads out to Putnam Pike, where the drive-in was. Because of my life-long interest in Italian films I’ve saved ads of movies that played various theatres, including this drive-in. In 1953 they ran “Bitter Rice,” a hit with siren Silvana Mangano with the clarification “NOW! IN ENGLISH.” In 1958 they ran the rarely-seen “Woman”, i.e. Rossellini’s “Desiderio”…“There’s a girl like her in every town!” It was paired with “Shamed”….“a whole town knew her sin!” I’d love to have seen this double bill here. Both films are completely unfindable now.
In May of 1959 they had a “daring” double bill called “Wasted Lives” (about unwed mothers) along with an interwoven color featurette called “The Birth of Twins.” A group of us went to see this program when we were seniors in high school. It pretty much played only at drive-ins like numerous similar packages of exploitation films masquerading as serious sex-ed.
The Rustic still operates and shows first run movies during the warm months around the same time some of the multiplexes get them. I believe admission is around $17 per car. In the 1970s it operated as a porno theatre for a time. Hard and soft. I believe this is where I saw Sylvester Stallone in his early semi-infamous “Italian Stallion” where he is seen in full frontal nudity.
The “daring” bill I saw at the Bay State with three high school buddies in October of 1958 was “Because of Eve” and “She Shoulda' Said No!” “Because of Eve” depicted both normal and Cesarean type childbirths as well as warning about the dangers of V.D. “She Shoulda' Said No” was a cautionary film about the effects of drugs, especially marijuana, on one girl. Sensationalized ads and promotion were used to lure young people in to see these didactic films that were ultimately very dull and poorly made. I called the first one “informative” and judged the second one “horrible” in my notes made at the time.
I believe around 1958 they had some “daring” double bill called “Wasted Lives” (about illicit sex) along with a featurette called “The Birth of Twins.” We talked about it when we were seniors in high school. I believe I saw that program but in 1959 at the Quonset Drive-In in North Kingstown, RI. It pretty much played only at drive-ins.
The ads always said “Providence.” It was on the Providence side of the city line with Pawtucket. I too remember going to the Lonsdale Twin for some horror triple bill.
Johnson’s Hummocks was a popular seafood restaurant (primarily) on Allens Avenue in the 1960s and earlier. The building is still there. I’m guessing it’s some kind of club. That whole area is a given over to the sex trade: porno emporiums, sex clubs, gay bathhouses, almost the Bangkok of New England…well, not quite. But people come from all over. Um, excuse that.
For a very short time in 1963 the place was known (at least in newspaper ads) as the Seekonk Art Drive In…a drive-in art house! In July of 1963 there was a double bill here of Bolognini’s “Bell'Antonio” starring Marcello Mastroianni and Claudia Cardinale playing with Jules Dassin’s “The Law,” also with Mastroianni and featuring Gina Lollobrigida. The same program day/dated with the Park Theatre in Cranston, RI. Very odd bit of programming for both venues except that Mastroianni had recently received a great deal of popular acceptance in Fellini’s “La Dolce Vita” and “8½.” “Adults Only!” the Providence Journal ad proclaimed.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower is seen in this 1960 photo of the dedication of Eisenhower Park, directly across Touro Street from the Strand (now the Jane Pickens.) The president liked Newport as a retreat and for golfing. This photo was taken on September 26 of that year.
Yes, lostmemory. Allens Avenue is correct. 1 Washington Avenue is wrong, in fact it is VERY AMUSING because that was the address for the U.S. Selective Service induction center at one time, located near the Providence shipyard and not far from the drive-in. It’s where you went for your draft physical and had to line up with a bunch of other naked guys to be examined. I know. I had to go there in the early 1960s.
Fay’s was also previously known as the Union Theatre. Old city directories list both the Union and Fay’s addresses as 60 Union Street. In a 1915 city directory there is listed a Union Theatre at 60 Union Street but no Fay’s.
Here’s an excellent article with photos on the cinema, published in The Seattle Times.
Nice to read about a cinema named after a great movie classic, in this case Jean Renoir’s 1937 masterpiece. There is a cinema in Paris called Accattone in honor of the Pasolini film. Is there a “Citizen Kane Cinema” somewhere, a “Psycho Theatre” or a “Ben Hur Multiplex”? I think it’s a wonderful idea. Anyone know of others?
Here is a photo of the auditorium exterior. For a time the theatre was a bowling alley.
I visited the drive-in and took these four photos. The address of the Ponta del Gada is 70 Shove Street, which is at the corner of Walnut Street. It is a block away from the center of North Tiverton, a neighborhood in the town of Tiverton. North Tiverton’s main street is Main Street, which is also Route 138. The drive-in, in its heyday, must have attracted lots of filmgoers from the Tiverton/Fall River area. The screen is no longer there, only the projection/concession building and the entry sign and marquee.
Photo of entrance marquee
Marquee and concession and projection booth
Projection booth exterior
Projection booth interior
Hardbop, you must be thinking of the Boro Drive-In in North Attleboro on Route 1.
The theatre was used by Sock and Buskin, the Brown University theatre group, for a number of years until they had their own campus theatre.
The only think I didn’t like about this theatre was that the auditoriums (when they were a twin theatre) had screens that had sort of funnel-like metallic sides. I believe they were grayish. When the left-as-you-enter auditorium was twinned, I believe each then had fixed black masking. There were no curtains and no variable masking in the house. CinemaScope films filled the screen, but in standard aspect-ratio movies, there was a blank area of white screen on either side. As a purist, I’ve always felt that correct screen masking is essential to full enjoyment of what you were watching and part and parcel of a good projection system as much as good focus, brightness, and sound quality.
March, 1962: TRIPLE SHOCK-SHOW! “Wayward Wife”…“Girls Marked Danger”…“Outlaw Girl.”
These were really: Gina Lollobrigida in “La provinciale”; Silvana Mangano in “Il brigante Musolino”; Eleonora Rossi-Drago and Silvana Pampanini in “La tratta delle bianche”. These girls were making the rounds not only of U.S. art houses and naughty houses but of drive-ins.
This was a popular place during its not-long life. The newspaper ads all said “STRAIGHT OUT SMITH STREET” so that people from Providence would know how to get there. Smith Street (Rte. 44) leads out to Putnam Pike, where the drive-in was. Because of my life-long interest in Italian films I’ve saved ads of movies that played various theatres, including this drive-in. In 1953 they ran “Bitter Rice,” a hit with siren Silvana Mangano with the clarification “NOW! IN ENGLISH.” In 1958 they ran the rarely-seen “Woman”, i.e. Rossellini’s “Desiderio”…“There’s a girl like her in every town!” It was paired with “Shamed”….“a whole town knew her sin!” I’d love to have seen this double bill here. Both films are completely unfindable now.
In May of 1959 they had a “daring” double bill called “Wasted Lives” (about unwed mothers) along with an interwoven color featurette called “The Birth of Twins.” A group of us went to see this program when we were seniors in high school. It pretty much played only at drive-ins like numerous similar packages of exploitation films masquerading as serious sex-ed.
RobertR, that is not a photo of the Rustic!
The Rustic still operates and shows first run movies during the warm months around the same time some of the multiplexes get them. I believe admission is around $17 per car. In the 1970s it operated as a porno theatre for a time. Hard and soft. I believe this is where I saw Sylvester Stallone in his early semi-infamous “Italian Stallion” where he is seen in full frontal nudity.
The “daring” bill I saw at the Bay State with three high school buddies in October of 1958 was “Because of Eve” and “She Shoulda' Said No!” “Because of Eve” depicted both normal and Cesarean type childbirths as well as warning about the dangers of V.D. “She Shoulda' Said No” was a cautionary film about the effects of drugs, especially marijuana, on one girl. Sensationalized ads and promotion were used to lure young people in to see these didactic films that were ultimately very dull and poorly made. I called the first one “informative” and judged the second one “horrible” in my notes made at the time.
The 1951-52 Motion Picture Almanac says the place could accomodate 800 cars.
I believe around 1958 they had some “daring” double bill called “Wasted Lives” (about illicit sex) along with a featurette called “The Birth of Twins.” We talked about it when we were seniors in high school. I believe I saw that program but in 1959 at the Quonset Drive-In in North Kingstown, RI. It pretty much played only at drive-ins.
The ads always said “Providence.” It was on the Providence side of the city line with Pawtucket. I too remember going to the Lonsdale Twin for some horror triple bill.
Johnson’s Hummocks was a popular seafood restaurant (primarily) on Allens Avenue in the 1960s and earlier. The building is still there. I’m guessing it’s some kind of club. That whole area is a given over to the sex trade: porno emporiums, sex clubs, gay bathhouses, almost the Bangkok of New England…well, not quite. But people come from all over. Um, excuse that.
For a very short time in 1963 the place was known (at least in newspaper ads) as the Seekonk Art Drive In…a drive-in art house! In July of 1963 there was a double bill here of Bolognini’s “Bell'Antonio” starring Marcello Mastroianni and Claudia Cardinale playing with Jules Dassin’s “The Law,” also with Mastroianni and featuring Gina Lollobrigida. The same program day/dated with the Park Theatre in Cranston, RI. Very odd bit of programming for both venues except that Mastroianni had recently received a great deal of popular acceptance in Fellini’s “La Dolce Vita” and “8½.” “Adults Only!” the Providence Journal ad proclaimed.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower is seen in this 1960 photo of the dedication of Eisenhower Park, directly across Touro Street from the Strand (now the Jane Pickens.) The president liked Newport as a retreat and for golfing. This photo was taken on September 26 of that year.
Yes, lostmemory. Allens Avenue is correct. 1 Washington Avenue is wrong, in fact it is VERY AMUSING because that was the address for the U.S. Selective Service induction center at one time, located near the Providence shipyard and not far from the drive-in. It’s where you went for your draft physical and had to line up with a bunch of other naked guys to be examined. I know. I had to go there in the early 1960s.
Fay’s was also previously known as the Union Theatre. Old city directories list both the Union and Fay’s addresses as 60 Union Street. In a 1915 city directory there is listed a Union Theatre at 60 Union Street but no Fay’s.
A 1928 city directory lists a “Star Theatre” as existing at 116 North Main Street. Might the Star and the Crown have been one and the same?
The theatre MAY have also been known as the Scenic Theatre. A city directory from 1928 lists a Scenic Theatre but not a Midway for Oakland Beach.
At one point the Pike was known as “Highway Open Air Theatre.”
The entrance seems to have been on Prichard Street. So perhaps “Prichard Street” that can be added as the address. Anyone know the exact address?
Thanks, lostmemory. Here’s another old postcard view with the actual entrance visible.