I remember it way back as a single screen theatre with a very wide auditorium when I started going here regularly in the 1960s. Although the Park rarely had foreign-language or art-house fare, in July of 1963 I saw 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. “Bell'Antonio” was shown dubbed in English. “The Law” was in French with English subtitles. The same program day/dated with the Seekonk ‘Art’ Drive-In on Rte. 6 in nearby Massachusetts. 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 Journal ad proclaimed.
Mike, they had some really top-notch art-house programs or move-overs here for a time, with an emphasis on French and Italian films. A quick search of my notes produces Goretta’s “The Lacemaker,” Visconti’s “The Innocent,” Monicelli’s “My Friends,” Herzog’s “Nosferatu,” Moreau’s “Lumière,” “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” Huston’s “Fat City,” “Bugsy Malone,” Tavernier’s “Beau-père,” Fassbinder’s “Lola,” Beresford’s “Don’s Party,” a revival of “House of Wax” At that time one had three different choices in the area for art-house fare: the Avon, the Cinerama (two screens) and the Midland Mall.
When the Midland Mall Cinema first opened it was equipped only with 16mm projection! I remember peering into the projection booth and noticing this. 16mm prints required much less wattage to run and were cheaper to ship, but were hard to obtain from distributors for initial first-run showings. I believe that “The Sterile Cuckoo” with Liza Minnelli was one of the movies shown in 16mm here in 1970. Later they converted to standard 35mm projection.
This listing ought to be removed, since the theatre is already listed under the State Theatre, 611 Washington Street, Boston. They are one and the same.
Richard, it was in the building at the beginning of St. James Avenue, near the corner of Arlington. The building is located directly across from the former intercity bus station. It was not part of the Park Plaza building which is across Arlington. The cinema was on the first floor corridor. So, if you are walking up St. James, enter right, turn left on the long corridor filled with shops; cinema would have been immediately on the right, entered via a turnstile at the small ticket-window, I believe. Could that be the “Statler Building?” I’m not sure. I’m from Providence. I remember I could take a Bonanza bus to Boston, walk across the street from the station and be right there.
re: “no more than holes in the floor"
Not so the Japanese hi-tech ones which do all the work for you via selectable levels of rotation spray.
Less facetiously, I saw a good number of films here when it was the D. W. Griffith in the 1970s. I mentioned “Ossessione” earlier. Luchino Visconti’s “Conversation Piece” opened here in its first Italian-language showings in New York in a complete print. It had been booed at the New York Film Festival in its English-tracked shorter version.
Victor Erice’s magnificent Spanish film “Spirit of the Beehive,” with little Ana Torrent of the haunting eyes, also opened here in late 1976. The place may not have had a stunningly beautiful interior but the programming was top-notch then.
I always wondered where Vittorio De Sica’s “Ladri di biciclette” (“Bicycle Thieves” in the U.K., “The Bicycle Thief” in the U.S.) opened in London. Now I know. It was at the Curzon.
See the news article on the theatre at: http://cinematreasures.org/news/11924_0_1_0_C/
You folks who are talking about “Troy” are confusing this long-demolished Ziegfeld on 6th Avenue with the newer namesake on West 54th Street. The other newer one is currently listed under “The Ziegfeld.”
A magnificent marquee indeed. You can admire it from afar, walk up to it and stand under it while, with a little imagination, it casts a spell. But it leads, heartbreakingingly, to nothing…nothing…nothing at all.
The theatre is in fact being currently used for stage shows and other acts. Some are sponsored by the Colonial Theatre restoration organization in order to raise needed funds for that project.
I haven’t been inside this theatre yet, but the entrance is an ugly botched mess I hope is eventually improved and made more attractive.
I took one of the free tours today that they offer on Saturdays (10:30 and 11:00) and Sundays (12 noon and 12:30.) The theatre is a marvel but they really haven’t begun to do any real restoration yet, and there’s an enormous amount to be done. With funds originally vetoed by Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, work had come to a standstill. Now that state funds and other moneys are available again, we were told that work is about to recommence and that the theatre will be open to the public in the spring of 2006. Let’s cross our fingers.
And don’t forget we still have the Beekman and Paris, Rhett, both single screen art houses, though I concede they are hardly in the same “monumental” league as the Astor Plaza and Ziegfeld.
I never went to the Trans-Lux in the 1950s. I was a young child and lived in Providence. But I remember looking at newspaper ads of the theatre and it suggested to me a world of the forbidden. Memory plays tricks sometimes, but I seem to recall that Julien Duvivier’s film “Deadlier than the Male” played here. It starred Jean Gabin and Danièle Delorme. I don’t think I had yet actually ever seen one, but French films of the time seemed to have an aura of the forbidden, enough to educe from me many a prepubescent blush, often just from the titles of the films. I associated the names of many of the stars of that era with a special privileged adult world that was closed to us little ones: names like Gèrard Philipe, Françoise Arnoul, Danielle Darrieux and many others. I believe the Trans-Lux may also have done second-run art-house fare (again preferring the racier entries) that had already played other venues such as the Beacon Hill, Kenmore, or Exeter. I would really like to hear additional information from those who may have clearer recollections concerning ambience and programming at the Trans-Lux.
Yes, Ron, I remember eating in that restaurant where initially you were asked to share tables with strangers in a spirit of social camaraderie. Late in the evening remaining food was served free to the needy. I remember attending the pilot session of an auteurist film class given by a gentleman named Benson. We watched Douglas Sirk’s “The Tarnished Angels” and were invited to sign up for his course at the Orson Welles Film School which also existed there at the time. I also remember attending a film and discussion session with Hollywood director Nicholas Ray, of “Rebel Without a Cause” fame. This took place in the downstairs screening room, the smallest of the three. And I remember some very rowdy near-violent anti-Vietnam-war demonstrations taking place outside on Massachusetts Avenue (near Harvard) in 1970 as I came out of a showing of Sergio Leone’s “Once Upon a Time in the West.” I also remember the place when it was called the Esquire and had a single screen. “Point of Order”, a documentary compilation of the Joe McCarthy hearings, was the first film I ever saw there.
Vincent, it IS biased because it is slanted toward a a point of view. So what? It is not a documentary (that’s why I referred to it as op-ed). It presents the truth about Bush and his slimy Machiavellian cohorts from the point of view of antipathy. Viva antipathy! The facts are researched and no-one has successfully refuted them. You call it shrill. I call it Swiftian. It is not anti-American; it is anti-Bush (unless you equate the two as do the orgasmic wacko fundamentlists of the religious right.) The jury at Cannes had only one Frenchman. Four members, I believe, were American. Leni Riefenstahl prize? She EXTOLLED a monster in “Triumph of the Will”; Moore’s film EXCORIATES a dangerous and failed leader. Hardly the same. Moore does the world and America a noble service. Incidentally, while I do not shy away from friendly arguments, this will be my last word here…having gone on already, probably ad nauseam, on another part of “Cinema Treasures” in regard to the Iowa cinema chain. There are plenty of places to see the movie. And it comes out on DVD around the time of the Republican convention. I’d like to be in the rafters of Madison Square Garden then, dropping down DVD’s of F 9/11 like manna from Democratic heaven into the Valley of the Republicans. Of course I jest. (Gotta be careful of the Patriot Act!)
Finito, basta.
Movie,
“Fahrenheit 9/11” IS playing in your area by now. You may already know this, but here is a link to all the U.S. theatres Moore’s op-ed filmic masterpiece is now showing. http://www.f911tix.com/
Then click on the image of Florida. Florida, hmmmmmmm! Make sure your vote is counted this time!
Dave, in the listing for the 57th Street Normandie, Warren posted a comment stating that it was named after the former one on 53rd Street one. /theaters/7049/
Dave-Bronx, that 57th Street Normandie you talk about is not to be confused with this earlier Normandie on 53rd Street. The 57th Street Normandie/Playboy/Cinema Rendezvous that you describe is now listed under the Directors' Guild of America Theatre. It is a different theatre from this one. The DGA still exists. The Normandie of this listing is long-gone.
Barton, I placed “Eclipse” on my list recently. I keep adding. I love the movie a great deal and showed it when I used to run the Italian Film Society of RI from 1981 to 1996. I still have the little four-page program booklet the Little Carnegie distributed at that film. Martin Scorsese includes a nice tribute to “Eclipse” in his “My Voyage to Italy,” now available on DVD. Another thing I liked about the Little Carnegie, besides what you mention, was the very plush and spacious lobby/waiting area. It began to the rear of the auditorium and then went left along the side.
Barton, that was the American Film Theatre series, funded in part by American Express, in which various directors were commissioned to make films of important plays. Among the others were Brecht’s “Galileo” directed by Joseph Losey, Harold Pinter’s “Butley” directed by the playwright, Maxwell Anderson’s “Lost in the Stars” directed by Daniel Mann, Pinter’s “The Homecoming” directed by Peter Hall, John Osborne’s “Luther” directed by Guy Green, Jean Genet’s “The Maids” directed by Christopher Miles, Eugene Ionesco’s “Rhinoceros” directed by Tom O'Horgan, and “Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris” directed by Denis Heroux. The series did not go into wide release but usually played one theatre in the larger metropolitan areas. The two you mentioned, Albee’s “A Delicate Balance” and O'Neill’s “The Iceman Cometh” were directed respectively by Tony Richardson and John Frankenheimer. They were among the best of the bunch.
Jim, that is an utterly hilarious story. It could be part of a movie. If you have other stories and recollections of Fall River movie theatres, please post them. That’s what this site is all about.
The Nickelodeon had several screens. It was a premiere art house for the Boston area especially in the 1980s and 1990s and replaced an earlier incarnation down the corner of Cummington Street and another street that leads to Huntington Avenue. The place was one Green-Line stop or a short walk from Kenmore Square. After the Kendall Square Cinemas in Cambridge was built, there was some day/dating in the programming. I used to go to the Nickelodeon often. The programming was great. The projection was usually first rate, and they served terrific ice cream by the scoop. The last time I went there was when I brought some Italian club students to see Giuseppe Tornatore’s “Malena” on February 10, 2001. One week later the Nickelodeon was closed!
I remember it way back as a single screen theatre with a very wide auditorium when I started going here regularly in the 1960s. Although the Park rarely had foreign-language or art-house fare, in July of 1963 I saw 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. “Bell'Antonio” was shown dubbed in English. “The Law” was in French with English subtitles. The same program day/dated with the Seekonk ‘Art’ Drive-In on Rte. 6 in nearby Massachusetts. 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 Journal ad proclaimed.
Mike, they had some really top-notch art-house programs or move-overs here for a time, with an emphasis on French and Italian films. A quick search of my notes produces Goretta’s “The Lacemaker,” Visconti’s “The Innocent,” Monicelli’s “My Friends,” Herzog’s “Nosferatu,” Moreau’s “Lumière,” “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” Huston’s “Fat City,” “Bugsy Malone,” Tavernier’s “Beau-père,” Fassbinder’s “Lola,” Beresford’s “Don’s Party,” a revival of “House of Wax” At that time one had three different choices in the area for art-house fare: the Avon, the Cinerama (two screens) and the Midland Mall.
When the Midland Mall Cinema first opened it was equipped only with 16mm projection! I remember peering into the projection booth and noticing this. 16mm prints required much less wattage to run and were cheaper to ship, but were hard to obtain from distributors for initial first-run showings. I believe that “The Sterile Cuckoo” with Liza Minnelli was one of the movies shown in 16mm here in 1970. Later they converted to standard 35mm projection.
This listing ought to be removed, since the theatre is already listed under the State Theatre, 611 Washington Street, Boston. They are one and the same.
I posted this comment regarding the theatre when it was known as the Trans-Lux in a separate Trans-Lux posting (which probably should be removed.)
I never went to the Trans-Lux in the 1950s. I was a young child and lived in Providence. But I remember looking at newspaper ads of the theatre and it suggested to me a world of the forbidden. Memory plays tricks sometimes, but I seem to recall that Julien Duvivier’s film “Deadlier than the Male” played here. It starred Jean Gabin and Danièle Delorme. I don’t think I had yet actually ever seen one, but French films of the time seemed to have an aura of the forbidden, enough to educe from me many a prepubescent blush, often just from the titles of the films. I associated the names of many of the stars of that era with a special privileged adult world that was closed to us little ones: names like Gérard Philipe, Françoise Arnoul, Danielle Darrieux and many others. I believe the Trans-Lux may also have done second-run art-house fare (again preferring the racier entries) that had already played other venues such as the Beacon Hill, Kenmore, or Exeter. I would really like to hear additional information from those who may have clearer recollections concerning ambience and programming at the Trans-Lux.
Richard, it was in the building at the beginning of St. James Avenue, near the corner of Arlington. The building is located directly across from the former intercity bus station. It was not part of the Park Plaza building which is across Arlington. The cinema was on the first floor corridor. So, if you are walking up St. James, enter right, turn left on the long corridor filled with shops; cinema would have been immediately on the right, entered via a turnstile at the small ticket-window, I believe. Could that be the “Statler Building?” I’m not sure. I’m from Providence. I remember I could take a Bonanza bus to Boston, walk across the street from the station and be right there.
re: “no more than holes in the floor"
Not so the Japanese hi-tech ones which do all the work for you via selectable levels of rotation spray.
Less facetiously, I saw a good number of films here when it was the D. W. Griffith in the 1970s. I mentioned “Ossessione” earlier. Luchino Visconti’s “Conversation Piece” opened here in its first Italian-language showings in New York in a complete print. It had been booed at the New York Film Festival in its English-tracked shorter version.
Victor Erice’s magnificent Spanish film “Spirit of the Beehive,” with little Ana Torrent of the haunting eyes, also opened here in late 1976. The place may not have had a stunningly beautiful interior but the programming was top-notch then.
I always wondered where Vittorio De Sica’s “Ladri di biciclette” (“Bicycle Thieves” in the U.K., “The Bicycle Thief” in the U.S.) opened in London. Now I know. It was at the Curzon.
See the news article on the theatre at:
http://cinematreasures.org/news/11924_0_1_0_C/
Vittorio De Sica.
Seth, the Hungarian film you refer to might have been “Time Stands Still” by Petér Gothár. At the Embassy 72nd Street I recall seeing François Truffaut’s “The Soft Skin” in the 1960s and Salvatore Samperi’s “Ernesto” in the 1980s.
You folks who are talking about “Troy” are confusing this long-demolished Ziegfeld on 6th Avenue with the newer namesake on West 54th Street. The other newer one is currently listed under “The Ziegfeld.”
A magnificent marquee indeed. You can admire it from afar, walk up to it and stand under it while, with a little imagination, it casts a spell. But it leads, heartbreakingingly, to nothing…nothing…nothing at all.
The theatre is in fact being currently used for stage shows and other acts. Some are sponsored by the Colonial Theatre restoration organization in order to raise needed funds for that project.
I haven’t been inside this theatre yet, but the entrance is an ugly botched mess I hope is eventually improved and made more attractive.
I took one of the free tours today that they offer on Saturdays (10:30 and 11:00) and Sundays (12 noon and 12:30.) The theatre is a marvel but they really haven’t begun to do any real restoration yet, and there’s an enormous amount to be done. With funds originally vetoed by Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, work had come to a standstill. Now that state funds and other moneys are available again, we were told that work is about to recommence and that the theatre will be open to the public in the spring of 2006. Let’s cross our fingers.
And don’t forget we still have the Beekman and Paris, Rhett, both single screen art houses, though I concede they are hardly in the same “monumental” league as the Astor Plaza and Ziegfeld.
Yes, I remember the Abbey and went to many movies there before it became the (first) Nickelodeon. Perhaps that should be added as another listing.
I never went to the Trans-Lux in the 1950s. I was a young child and lived in Providence. But I remember looking at newspaper ads of the theatre and it suggested to me a world of the forbidden. Memory plays tricks sometimes, but I seem to recall that Julien Duvivier’s film “Deadlier than the Male” played here. It starred Jean Gabin and Danièle Delorme. I don’t think I had yet actually ever seen one, but French films of the time seemed to have an aura of the forbidden, enough to educe from me many a prepubescent blush, often just from the titles of the films. I associated the names of many of the stars of that era with a special privileged adult world that was closed to us little ones: names like Gèrard Philipe, Françoise Arnoul, Danielle Darrieux and many others. I believe the Trans-Lux may also have done second-run art-house fare (again preferring the racier entries) that had already played other venues such as the Beacon Hill, Kenmore, or Exeter. I would really like to hear additional information from those who may have clearer recollections concerning ambience and programming at the Trans-Lux.
Yes, Ron, I remember eating in that restaurant where initially you were asked to share tables with strangers in a spirit of social camaraderie. Late in the evening remaining food was served free to the needy. I remember attending the pilot session of an auteurist film class given by a gentleman named Benson. We watched Douglas Sirk’s “The Tarnished Angels” and were invited to sign up for his course at the Orson Welles Film School which also existed there at the time. I also remember attending a film and discussion session with Hollywood director Nicholas Ray, of “Rebel Without a Cause” fame. This took place in the downstairs screening room, the smallest of the three. And I remember some very rowdy near-violent anti-Vietnam-war demonstrations taking place outside on Massachusetts Avenue (near Harvard) in 1970 as I came out of a showing of Sergio Leone’s “Once Upon a Time in the West.” I also remember the place when it was called the Esquire and had a single screen. “Point of Order”, a documentary compilation of the Joe McCarthy hearings, was the first film I ever saw there.
Vincent, it IS biased because it is slanted toward a a point of view. So what? It is not a documentary (that’s why I referred to it as op-ed). It presents the truth about Bush and his slimy Machiavellian cohorts from the point of view of antipathy. Viva antipathy! The facts are researched and no-one has successfully refuted them. You call it shrill. I call it Swiftian. It is not anti-American; it is anti-Bush (unless you equate the two as do the orgasmic wacko fundamentlists of the religious right.) The jury at Cannes had only one Frenchman. Four members, I believe, were American. Leni Riefenstahl prize? She EXTOLLED a monster in “Triumph of the Will”; Moore’s film EXCORIATES a dangerous and failed leader. Hardly the same. Moore does the world and America a noble service. Incidentally, while I do not shy away from friendly arguments, this will be my last word here…having gone on already, probably ad nauseam, on another part of “Cinema Treasures” in regard to the Iowa cinema chain. There are plenty of places to see the movie. And it comes out on DVD around the time of the Republican convention. I’d like to be in the rafters of Madison Square Garden then, dropping down DVD’s of F 9/11 like manna from Democratic heaven into the Valley of the Republicans. Of course I jest. (Gotta be careful of the Patriot Act!)
Finito, basta.
Movie,
“Fahrenheit 9/11” IS playing in your area by now. You may already know this, but here is a link to all the U.S. theatres Moore’s op-ed filmic masterpiece is now showing.
http://www.f911tix.com/
Then click on the image of Florida. Florida, hmmmmmmm! Make sure your vote is counted this time!
Dave, in the listing for the 57th Street Normandie, Warren posted a comment stating that it was named after the former one on 53rd Street one.
/theaters/7049/
Dave-Bronx, that 57th Street Normandie you talk about is not to be confused with this earlier Normandie on 53rd Street. The 57th Street Normandie/Playboy/Cinema Rendezvous that you describe is now listed under the Directors' Guild of America Theatre. It is a different theatre from this one. The DGA still exists. The Normandie of this listing is long-gone.
Barton, I placed “Eclipse” on my list recently. I keep adding. I love the movie a great deal and showed it when I used to run the Italian Film Society of RI from 1981 to 1996. I still have the little four-page program booklet the Little Carnegie distributed at that film. Martin Scorsese includes a nice tribute to “Eclipse” in his “My Voyage to Italy,” now available on DVD. Another thing I liked about the Little Carnegie, besides what you mention, was the very plush and spacious lobby/waiting area. It began to the rear of the auditorium and then went left along the side.
Barton, that was the American Film Theatre series, funded in part by American Express, in which various directors were commissioned to make films of important plays. Among the others were Brecht’s “Galileo” directed by Joseph Losey, Harold Pinter’s “Butley” directed by the playwright, Maxwell Anderson’s “Lost in the Stars” directed by Daniel Mann, Pinter’s “The Homecoming” directed by Peter Hall, John Osborne’s “Luther” directed by Guy Green, Jean Genet’s “The Maids” directed by Christopher Miles, Eugene Ionesco’s “Rhinoceros” directed by Tom O'Horgan, and “Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris” directed by Denis Heroux. The series did not go into wide release but usually played one theatre in the larger metropolitan areas. The two you mentioned, Albee’s “A Delicate Balance” and O'Neill’s “The Iceman Cometh” were directed respectively by Tony Richardson and John Frankenheimer. They were among the best of the bunch.
Jim, that is an utterly hilarious story. It could be part of a movie. If you have other stories and recollections of Fall River movie theatres, please post them. That’s what this site is all about.
The Nickelodeon had several screens. It was a premiere art house for the Boston area especially in the 1980s and 1990s and replaced an earlier incarnation down the corner of Cummington Street and another street that leads to Huntington Avenue. The place was one Green-Line stop or a short walk from Kenmore Square. After the Kendall Square Cinemas in Cambridge was built, there was some day/dating in the programming. I used to go to the Nickelodeon often. The programming was great. The projection was usually first rate, and they served terrific ice cream by the scoop. The last time I went there was when I brought some Italian club students to see Giuseppe Tornatore’s “Malena” on February 10, 2001. One week later the Nickelodeon was closed!