Warwick Cinema
780 Post Road,
Warwick,
RI
02886
780 Post Road,
Warwick,
RI
02886
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I was a lucky child growing up. My parents had season tickets to the Warwick Musical Theater, and I was taken to many shows there over the years. It was a unique, intimate theater-in-the-round – the stage was actually round and it rotated! You sat in director’s chairs – they were red, yellow or green! We had front row seats behind the orchestra. I saw many great performances there like Liberace, Tom Jones, Air Supply, Eddie Murphy, Jerry Seinfeld, Kenny G, Anne Murray, Johnny Mathis, Sonny & Cher, Englebert Humperdink, Neil Sedaka and many more – great memories I will always cherish! They would hand you a freshly printed program for that night’s show when you enetered your row – we have hundreds saved and some autographed! I can still smell that ink smell on those programs! It was a unique place, in that some people WOULD dress up to go there, but as time went on it became more and more casual. There was no air conditioning, so the performances were always HOT! I can remember some of the stars sweating so badly that they had to change every 15 minutes or so! It was a great place, and it is truly missed by many!
The Warwick Musical Theatre began its life as a large tent and then later became the large rectangular building I linked to above. Here is an image from a postcard pictured for sale on eBay right now.
Thank you so much Mr. Deluca for that memory of it! Wow……fascinating…it sounds like something out of a movie! I had no idea! You described it perfectly as it’s amazing to picture it! (reminds me of ‘cirque de soleil’ as their performers enter from the back of the seating and they often walk down the aisles between the audience too — of course, with ‘cirque de soleil’ they also use such moments to “harass” and tease audience members…finding some way to embarrass them…if anyone prefers not to have the limelight I would suggest getting a seat in the middle of a row and NOT on an aisle! never a dull moment!) thank you so much!!!!
I recall it vaguely as being a kind of very large circus tent and with a center stage and seating on all or at least three sides. It was very basic and unadorned, like an instant building. Only minimal props were used for productions, I think. Performers ran up and down aisles to enter or exit the stage area. I believe patrons generally dressed casually. I honestly don’t remember very many details at all. I should have gone more often. There has to be a Warwick Historical Society that might have programs, photos, etc. The Providence Public Library has a card catalog by topics of Providence Journal articles. I’m sure those could be a big help, since I have used them to research the history of old RI movie theatres and with good results. The WMT was certainly a major summer attraction in that city and drew people from all over Rhode Island and beyond.
Thank you again Mr. Deluca, if you have a moment could you please describe what the theatre looked like inside? I’m so curious! Was it simple or fancy? It must have been a fun era! (‘Annie Get Your Gun’ must have been wonderful!) I would assume people did get ‘dressed up’ to go out? Well, I guess my main question is what the theatre looked like inside. thank you so much.
Yes, the Warwick Musical Theatre was in Warwick, Rhode Island, a number of miles from this Warwick Cinema. I believe I was there only once, for the musical show Annie Get Your Gun, with Howard Keel, back in the 1960s. I will look at the website you refer to.
This is a fascinating article about the “Warwick Musical Theatre”—http://www.warwickonline.com/news/searchnews.asp?ID=8694
Thank you so much Mr. DeLuca. May I please ask you this, was there more than one “Warwick Musical Theatre”? I found one in the UK too? (but it’s called the “Warwick Arts Centre, so that can’t be it) but you are referring to a ‘Warwick Musical Theatre’ in RI? Thank you so much for the interesting photo. I smiled as my silly romantic notions of it are almost dashed as the photo looks like an old race horse track….somehow I can’t see this beautiful vintage purse accompanying an elegant lady there. :–) smiles — the tickets look like true theatre tickets, pre-paid – like expensive ballet tickets. I wonder if that one on Quaker Lane would have such ‘fancy’ tickets. thank you so much for your help — it’s my own little mystery story that I would love to solve.
To “lifeistrulybeautiful”:
No, those tickets sound like they might be for the Warwick Musical Theatre, at 522 Quaker Lane. It was a large seasonal structure and presented musicals and popular performers during the summer for many decades. The place no longer exists. Try Googling “Warwick Musical Theatre” for whatever information or photos you can find. I found this picture.
Hello to all. I have 2 old yellow ticket stubs stamped “Warwick Theatre” July 11, 1964 found in old and very beautiful purse – is this the same theatre? They have “Section A — Row D — Seat 6” (and also Seat 7) I would love to find out the history of the theatre or at least be able to identify it. Any ideas please?
The Warwick Cinema was showing The Poseidon Adventure in early 1973. That’s not odd, but day-dating the film with the usually art-house Avon Cinema in Providence certainly was. They shared newspaper ads too.
The Warwick Cinema was host to the series of films in the “American Film Theatre” package, beginning in 1973 and continuing in 1974. Among the films shown, all based on well-known plays, were Butley, A Delicate Balance, The Homecoming, The Iceman Cometh, Lost in the Stars, Luther, Rhinoceros, Three Sisters. I do not remember if any of the films in the second season in 1975 played here, though I remember seeing some of them elsewhere. Most of the movies featured superb casts and fine directors.
I saw that at the Fine Arts in Boston. Regarding Baby Doll, when I was a sophomore at LaSalle in 1956, we had to take a “pledge” not to go see the movie (playing at the Majestic.) It was years later before I saw it. Of course there were tons of foreign films condemned by the CLOD, some truly great ones like L'Avventura, Jules and Jim.
Also, while “Kiss Me, Stupid” was the first major American film rated C by the Legion of Decency since “Baby Doll,” a few years earlier, another American film “A Cold Wind in August” made the list. It played several weeks during its RI premiere at the Art Cinema in 1961. The theater even brought it back the following year for another engagement.
Yes, Midnight Cowboy was rated X too and won the Academy Award for best film. The letter X got hijacked by porno-makers to mean something other than what it was intended to be by the MPAA.
Baby Doll; Kiss Me, Stupid & The Moon is Blue and so many others that met problems in those decades now are shown on Turner Classic Movies and no one blinks an eye.
The agreement that forced the theater to withdraw “Kiss Me, Stupid” in 1964, had obviously ended by 1969 when it booked “Heironymus Merkin,” not only rated C-Condemned by the Catholic Legion of Decency, but also X by the ratings board. Of course, this was when the X rating was not yet synonymous with pornography.
The Warwick Cinema rarely showed foreign language films. When “Marriage Italian Style” ended it run there, the movie then moved to the Art Cinema for several weeks. “Now in Providence!” said the ad.
In late December of 1964 the Warwick Cinema withdrew the Billy Wilder film Kiss Me, Stupid, which had been playing just a fews days, at the insistence of the Warwick Board of Public Safety. The film had been “condemned” by the Catholic Legion of Decency, and an original agreement between the city and the theatre was that no C-rated films would be shown. Alfred Oddi, manager of the 1,000 seat theatre at the time, said it was too late to schedule an alternate movie and told callers that a “sneak preview” was being shown and that the name of the new film could not be divulged. Kiss Me, Stupid was the first major Hollywood film to be rated C by the Legion since the 1956 Baby Doll, which had played at the Majestic in Providence.
“In 1965 it achieved a major coup (beating Providence’s Elmwood) when it became the Rhode Island theatre to show ‘The Sound of Music’ in an exclusive 70mm run. It played here for over a year on a reserved-seat roadshow basis.”
“The theater was famous for showing ‘The Sound of Music’ for such a long duration.”
Mar 24, 1965 – Nov 15, 1966 (86 weeks).
For a while this place became a dollar house and was known as “Movies Warwick.” A newspaper ad from 1982 indicates this. This had to have been its last gasp before demise.
I believe the first film shown here when the theatre opened in 1964 was One Man’s Way with Don Murray, a biography of Norman Vincent Peale.
The theater was famous for showing “The Sound of Music” for such a long duration. But, does anyone remember the protest when it booked “Kiss Me, Stupid”? The film was “Condemned” by the Legion of Decency, and a controversy ensued. If I recall correctly, the film’s engagement there was abruptly halted.
I grew up in Warwick and remember my parents talking me to see “The Sound of Music.” Lucky for me, I didn’t make it through the entire film, nodding off at one point. I remember they had an intermission and I remember getting an Italian Ice outside the theatre. For some reason — I could be imagining this — an exit door next to the screen was open and they allowed people to walk outside and they were selling the Italian ices.
I think the mall that the Warwick Cinema was located in was the first “surburban” shopping mall in Rhode Island. In addition to the Warwick Cinema, the long-defunct W.T. Grant’s retail chain had a store in the plaza.
Last time I went there was my freshman year in college. I think it was Christmas break and I remember taking a date to the second “Dirty Harry” film.
I think the theatre lasted a bit longer than than the 80’s. I recall laying over there on bus runs, and, though closed, it was still there. I think it was used as storage by a pool service company. When Wal-Mart came in, I think they tore down the whole little shopping centre there.
I loved that Cinema! I remember seeing The Sound of Music there when it came back for its second run in the mid-seventies….so sad to see it go!