As stated in my description above, it is located a few steps from the Fountain of Trevi. Walking away from the Fountain of Trevi, look at the church on the left. The Sala Trevi entrance in on the street just to the right of the church, beyond the Dunkin' Donuts!
I truly enjoyed going to this theatre from the time I was in high school in the late 1950s until the years before it was closed in the 1970s. The first film I ever saw here, I believe, was Cecil B. DeMille’s “The Ten Commandments.” If memory does not fail, the film “A Man for all Seasons” had its R.I. area premiere here in 1966, unusual for a suburban movie house known for playing second-run programs after they had shown in Providence.
The Jerry Lewis cinemas, wherever they were built (as single screeners), seemed to be totally identical in size and configuration to each other but were fairly pleasant and comfortable. At this one, still called the Jerry Lewis Cinema, Coventry, I noted seeing “Wild Rovers,” “The Graduate,” and “Blue Water, White Death” in July-August, 1972.
I believe I visited this cinema only once, on July 22, 1978, to see Barbara Stanwyk in “Sorry, Wrong Number.” The place reminded me of the film programs at Theatre 80 St. Marks in Manhattan, which I believe also employed rear-projection.
It seems that whenever I am in New York there is ALWAYS something of interest playing at the Quad to appeal to the serious (jaded?) film buff. When I brought a small group of high-school students to the city in April of 2000 for Broadway shows and the opera, I also took them here on one free night to see the beautiful Iranian film “The Color of Paradise,” about the travails of a blind boy. They all came out teary-eyed. The place is horribly cramped but utterly essential.
When in Boston in the 1960s and 1970s I used to go to the Cheri frequently, less so after that. I lived in Providence, where films generally used to open much later than in Boston. Sometimes, with friends or alone, I would make the rounds of movie theatres, from the West End to the Exeter Street, the Paris to the Brattle. One strong memory I have from April of 1970 was taking a small group of high school seniors, students of Italian, to see “Fellini Satyricon” at the Cheri 3. Given the subject matter of the film and the fact that this was a Catholic school I taught in, I could have been fired.
I saw a good number of films at the Charles including the opening attraction,“You’re A Big Boy Now!” of Francis Ford Coppola. I remember the terrific sound for Scorsese’s “The Last Waltz” in the main auditorium. I also especially enjoyed the revival of Kubrick’s “Spartacus” in a restored version in May of 1991. It was a great spacious auditorium with top-notch projection, making every movie you watched there seem even better.
The South Station Cinema was a twin cinema that showed gay porno films from about 1972-1983, located, I believe on Atlantic Avenue and carved, I am certain, out of an existing building. According to articles on the web, one John Mitzel, associated with various Boston gay bookstores at different times, ran the South Station. Boston-based art-house programmer George Mansour was responsible for some of the selections. A specially arranged premiere showing of John Waters' “Pink Flamingos” took place here. According to some commentators it was a disaster and there was more action in the toilets than there was on the screen. Other movies known to have been shown here are “Red Ball Express” and the 1972 steamer “The Other Side of Joey”…a long-lost adolescent seduction film with a weighty score taken from the Gustav Mahler Symphony No. 6. The theatre seems to have had a legendary status as a renegade gay movie house in its day and was, as such, a Boston gay Mecca.
As stated in the description, Philippe de Broca’s KING OF HEARTS played here for at least four years as a cult attraction in the 1970s. Late in the run, perhaps to expand interest, it was paired on the same bill with de Broca’s GIVE HER THE MOON. As a prank one evening, some folks re-arranged the words of the titles on the marquee to create a funny message. Does anybody remember that and what the message was? I’ve forgotten and didn’t save the newspaper piece that included a photograph.
Warren, re: “would never attend a dubbed movie even if it was the only version available.”
That would prevent you from seeing some movies at all…particularly Italian ones which have routinely used international casts where many of the performers don’t speak Italian and are dubbed by other professsional dubbers.
Example: Fellini’s “La Strada.” See the Italian version and you get an Italian-dubbed Anthony Quinn and Richard Basehart. See the English version and you get an English-dubbed Giulietta Masina. In the recently re-issued “The Leopard,” you get an Italian-dubbed Burt Lancaster as with the French-speaking Alain Delon. See the English version and you get Lancaster’s voice while the Italian performers are dubbed in English. Claudia Cardinale dubs her own voice in both versions, but her lip movements reveal she is filmed speaking English with Lancaster, French with Delon, Italian with Paolo Stoppa.
Does that mean one who hates dubbing should not see these two masterpieces at all, since there is no thing as an “original language” version? Certainly, though, for these two films Italian is the “authentic” version. All this doesn’t even take into account the Italian films where Italian-speaking actors are dubbed by other Italian speakers who the directors believe have more appropriate-sounding voices.
Incidentally, both Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni began their cinematic careers having their lines dubbed by other actors. It wasn’t until they became well known that they were afforded the privilege of having their own voices heard by the public.
Tom, the theatre near North Station must have been the West End Cinema, later the Pussycat, but I don’t remember it being particularly small. When they were an art house, they had super programming. It is listed on Cinema Treasures. There was a hole-in-the-wall place near SOUTH Station, called the South Station Cinema. It showed (gay) porno in the late 60s, early ‘70s.
I wondered about the history of this place as I walked by it a couple of days ago on the way to the Capitol Center for the Arts. The Phenix is right near the former Capitol Theatre. Are there any photos available of the interior of the Phenix? I took one of the outside.
The Copley Place has long been the venue for the annual Boston Film Festival. Where would it move to in the event of the theatre’s demise? Loew’s Boston Common? The Kendall Square???…even though it is in Cambridge. http://www.bostonfilmfestival.org/
From the outside you would never know that this is a classic movie/vaudeville theatre, unless you walked around the side and back of the building and could clearly see the original part of the complex. The original entrance and foyer (though I have never seen them) were entirely restructured to give a “modern cultural center” look to the place, creating a kind of functional if radical hybrid. There is a large waiting rooom off the new lobby where banquet functions can be provided.
The auditorium is a place of simple elegance, and the Egyptian motif alluded to in the description is rather subdued and employs the asp symbol in various decorative configurations. The waiting area has some nice framed Capitol publicity posters of mostly early sound movies that played here: Four Sons, Unfaithful, Ladies Love Brutes, Dawn Patrol, East Lynne, The Vagabond King, Remote Control, Little Accident, Once a Sinner.
The theatre maintains a professional 35mm projection booth, and there is a big-screen movie series in addition to the cultural and theatrical bookings. This year people can see Rear Window, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Godfather, Babe, The Magnificent Seven, Grease, A Night at the Opera, A Day at the Races.
The William H. Gile Community Concert Series provides several FREE programs a year, through an endowment. Last night I saw, absolutely free, the renowned Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra here. Earlier in the week thay had performed twice at Carnegie Hall in New York at premium prices!
A wide variety of Broadway plays, popular acts, opera, children’s programs, dance, symphony add to the yearly line-up which includes something for every taste.
The Capitol Center for the Arts represents what can be successfully done with old theatres in towns across America where they have not been wantonly destroyed.
On May 29, 1981 I brought a group of Italian students to the (first) Nickelodeon (formerly Abbey) by bus from Providence to see Federico Fellini’s CITY OF WOMEN with Marcello Mastroianni. Anyone have an idea exactly when this theatre closed and was replaced by the newer Nickelodeon?
The Abbey was actually located on Brandford Street, at the corner of Cummington Street. “600 Commonwealth Avenue” was the address given in newspapers so that people could more easily find where it was. The Green Line stop was at the corner of Brandford St. and Commonwealth Ave. The theatre building and entrance were on that side street. There was a parking lot between the theatre and Commonwealth Avenue along Brandford Street. In time the theatre became the (first) Nickelodeon, then was closed a few years later. The second Nickelodeon, replacing the Abbey/ first Nickelodeon, was constructed about a hundred feet away on Cummington Street and is listed as a separate theatre on Cinema Treasures.
That bus, mentioned above, would first go by the R.K.O. Albee and what was then called the Westminster Playhouse, both on Westminster Street, both now gone, before passing the Capitol.
As a kid in the 1950s I went to this theatre a good number of times…but I wish I had gone more and spent all of my allowance there. It was unique and cheap and always showed double bills. I believe admission at the time was 35¢. It was located right near downtown Providence, between the city and Hoyle Square. The bus I took would go right by it as it went up Westminster Street. The same bus would then pass the Olympia (which I never went to) at Olneyville Square as well as the long-abandoned Royal, also in Olneyville at Plainfield Street and Hartford Avenue. Among the movies I remember seeing at the Capitol were a revival of THE YEARLING and the boy-loves-bull film THE BRAVE ONE, which I went back to see several times. As we all know, this kind of place does not exist and cannot exist any more. Sad.
As stated in my description above, it is located a few steps from the Fountain of Trevi. Walking away from the Fountain of Trevi, look at the church on the left. The Sala Trevi entrance in on the street just to the right of the church, beyond the Dunkin' Donuts!
I truly enjoyed going to this theatre from the time I was in high school in the late 1950s until the years before it was closed in the 1970s. The first film I ever saw here, I believe, was Cecil B. DeMille’s “The Ten Commandments.” If memory does not fail, the film “A Man for all Seasons” had its R.I. area premiere here in 1966, unusual for a suburban movie house known for playing second-run programs after they had shown in Providence.
The Jerry Lewis cinemas, wherever they were built (as single screeners), seemed to be totally identical in size and configuration to each other but were fairly pleasant and comfortable. At this one, still called the Jerry Lewis Cinema, Coventry, I noted seeing “Wild Rovers,” “The Graduate,” and “Blue Water, White Death” in July-August, 1972.
I believe I visited this cinema only once, on July 22, 1978, to see Barbara Stanwyk in “Sorry, Wrong Number.” The place reminded me of the film programs at Theatre 80 St. Marks in Manhattan, which I believe also employed rear-projection.
It seems that whenever I am in New York there is ALWAYS something of interest playing at the Quad to appeal to the serious (jaded?) film buff. When I brought a small group of high-school students to the city in April of 2000 for Broadway shows and the opera, I also took them here on one free night to see the beautiful Iranian film “The Color of Paradise,” about the travails of a blind boy. They all came out teary-eyed. The place is horribly cramped but utterly essential.
One memorable bit of programming at this theatre in 1981, after it became the first Nickelodeon, was Hans-Jürgen Syberberg’s “Our Hitler,” which had a running time of over seven hours! (The film posits that Hitler was the answer to the Germans' most profound dreams.) It was shown in two parts, with a long dinner break between the parts. It started out as a Sunday matinée. My two friends and I then had dinner at the Dolphin Restaurant in Cambridge and afterwards returned for the evening portion.
I only went here two or three times over the years. I have a note that I saw Lina Wertmüller’s “Love and Anarchy” at the Allston in August of 1974.
When in Boston in the 1960s and 1970s I used to go to the Cheri frequently, less so after that. I lived in Providence, where films generally used to open much later than in Boston. Sometimes, with friends or alone, I would make the rounds of movie theatres, from the West End to the Exeter Street, the Paris to the Brattle. One strong memory I have from April of 1970 was taking a small group of high school seniors, students of Italian, to see “Fellini Satyricon” at the Cheri 3. Given the subject matter of the film and the fact that this was a Catholic school I taught in, I could have been fired.
Isn’t there any movie theatre buff out there, familiar with Newport, who remembers anything about this place?
I saw a good number of films at the Charles including the opening attraction,“You’re A Big Boy Now!” of Francis Ford Coppola. I remember the terrific sound for Scorsese’s “The Last Waltz” in the main auditorium. I also especially enjoyed the revival of Kubrick’s “Spartacus” in a restored version in May of 1991. It was a great spacious auditorium with top-notch projection, making every movie you watched there seem even better.
The South Station Cinema was a twin cinema that showed gay porno films from about 1972-1983, located, I believe on Atlantic Avenue and carved, I am certain, out of an existing building. According to articles on the web, one John Mitzel, associated with various Boston gay bookstores at different times, ran the South Station. Boston-based art-house programmer George Mansour was responsible for some of the selections. A specially arranged premiere showing of John Waters' “Pink Flamingos” took place here. According to some commentators it was a disaster and there was more action in the toilets than there was on the screen. Other movies known to have been shown here are “Red Ball Express” and the 1972 steamer “The Other Side of Joey”…a long-lost adolescent seduction film with a weighty score taken from the Gustav Mahler Symphony No. 6. The theatre seems to have had a legendary status as a renegade gay movie house in its day and was, as such, a Boston gay Mecca.
Given the name, could the theatre possibly have been used for Italian-language ethnic film programs?
As stated in the description, Philippe de Broca’s KING OF HEARTS played here for at least four years as a cult attraction in the 1970s. Late in the run, perhaps to expand interest, it was paired on the same bill with de Broca’s GIVE HER THE MOON. As a prank one evening, some folks re-arranged the words of the titles on the marquee to create a funny message. Does anybody remember that and what the message was? I’ve forgotten and didn’t save the newspaper piece that included a photograph.
Warren, re: “would never attend a dubbed movie even if it was the only version available.”
That would prevent you from seeing some movies at all…particularly Italian ones which have routinely used international casts where many of the performers don’t speak Italian and are dubbed by other professsional dubbers.
Example: Fellini’s “La Strada.” See the Italian version and you get an Italian-dubbed Anthony Quinn and Richard Basehart. See the English version and you get an English-dubbed Giulietta Masina. In the recently re-issued “The Leopard,” you get an Italian-dubbed Burt Lancaster as with the French-speaking Alain Delon. See the English version and you get Lancaster’s voice while the Italian performers are dubbed in English. Claudia Cardinale dubs her own voice in both versions, but her lip movements reveal she is filmed speaking English with Lancaster, French with Delon, Italian with Paolo Stoppa.
Does that mean one who hates dubbing should not see these two masterpieces at all, since there is no thing as an “original language” version? Certainly, though, for these two films Italian is the “authentic” version. All this doesn’t even take into account the Italian films where Italian-speaking actors are dubbed by other Italian speakers who the directors believe have more appropriate-sounding voices.
Incidentally, both Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni began their cinematic careers having their lines dubbed by other actors. It wasn’t until they became well known that they were afforded the privilege of having their own voices heard by the public.
Tom, the theatre near North Station must have been the West End Cinema, later the Pussycat, but I don’t remember it being particularly small. When they were an art house, they had super programming. It is listed on Cinema Treasures. There was a hole-in-the-wall place near SOUTH Station, called the South Station Cinema. It showed (gay) porno in the late 60s, early ‘70s.
“Taxi zum Close”?????
You mean “Taxi zum Klo” or “Taxi to the Toilet”
Something the likes of which we are never likely to see again in either mainstream theatres or art houses.
I wondered about the history of this place as I walked by it a couple of days ago on the way to the Capitol Center for the Arts. The Phenix is right near the former Capitol Theatre. Are there any photos available of the interior of the Phenix? I took one of the outside.
The Copley Place has long been the venue for the annual Boston Film Festival. Where would it move to in the event of the theatre’s demise? Loew’s Boston Common? The Kendall Square???…even though it is in Cambridge.
http://www.bostonfilmfestival.org/
Re: Dresden…“twice at Carnegie Hall in New York"
My mistake. That was actually Avery Fisher Hall.
From the outside you would never know that this is a classic movie/vaudeville theatre, unless you walked around the side and back of the building and could clearly see the original part of the complex. The original entrance and foyer (though I have never seen them) were entirely restructured to give a “modern cultural center” look to the place, creating a kind of functional if radical hybrid. There is a large waiting rooom off the new lobby where banquet functions can be provided.
The auditorium is a place of simple elegance, and the Egyptian motif alluded to in the description is rather subdued and employs the asp symbol in various decorative configurations. The waiting area has some nice framed Capitol publicity posters of mostly early sound movies that played here: Four Sons, Unfaithful, Ladies Love Brutes, Dawn Patrol, East Lynne, The Vagabond King, Remote Control, Little Accident, Once a Sinner.
The theatre maintains a professional 35mm projection booth, and there is a big-screen movie series in addition to the cultural and theatrical bookings. This year people can see Rear Window, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Godfather, Babe, The Magnificent Seven, Grease, A Night at the Opera, A Day at the Races.
The William H. Gile Community Concert Series provides several FREE programs a year, through an endowment. Last night I saw, absolutely free, the renowned Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra here. Earlier in the week thay had performed twice at Carnegie Hall in New York at premium prices!
A wide variety of Broadway plays, popular acts, opera, children’s programs, dance, symphony add to the yearly line-up which includes something for every taste.
The Capitol Center for the Arts represents what can be successfully done with old theatres in towns across America where they have not been wantonly destroyed.
Ron, I would like to know when the old Abbey/Nickelodeon closed down and when the newer Nickelodeon opened. Do you have the dates?
On May 29, 1981 I brought a group of Italian students to the (first) Nickelodeon (formerly Abbey) by bus from Providence to see Federico Fellini’s CITY OF WOMEN with Marcello Mastroianni. Anyone have an idea exactly when this theatre closed and was replaced by the newer Nickelodeon?
The Abbey was actually located on Brandford Street, at the corner of Cummington Street. “600 Commonwealth Avenue” was the address given in newspapers so that people could more easily find where it was. The Green Line stop was at the corner of Brandford St. and Commonwealth Ave. The theatre building and entrance were on that side street. There was a parking lot between the theatre and Commonwealth Avenue along Brandford Street. In time the theatre became the (first) Nickelodeon, then was closed a few years later. The second Nickelodeon, replacing the Abbey/ first Nickelodeon, was constructed about a hundred feet away on Cummington Street and is listed as a separate theatre on Cinema Treasures.
That bus, mentioned above, would first go by the R.K.O. Albee and what was then called the Westminster Playhouse, both on Westminster Street, both now gone, before passing the Capitol.
As a kid in the 1950s I went to this theatre a good number of times…but I wish I had gone more and spent all of my allowance there. It was unique and cheap and always showed double bills. I believe admission at the time was 35¢. It was located right near downtown Providence, between the city and Hoyle Square. The bus I took would go right by it as it went up Westminster Street. The same bus would then pass the Olympia (which I never went to) at Olneyville Square as well as the long-abandoned Royal, also in Olneyville at Plainfield Street and Hartford Avenue. Among the movies I remember seeing at the Capitol were a revival of THE YEARLING and the boy-loves-bull film THE BRAVE ONE, which I went back to see several times. As we all know, this kind of place does not exist and cannot exist any more. Sad.