Avon Cinema

The Theatre Historical Society archive has the MGM Theatre Report for the Avon; it’s Card # 539. There is an exterior photo taken April 1941. It’s at 260 Thayer St., and the condition is Good. It was opened in 1938, shows MGM product, and has 519 seats. The 1940 population of Providence was 253,500.

The Avon Cinema in the aftermath of the blizzard of 1978. Article from Boxoffice magazine, February 13, 1978:

What happened to Ken Dulgarian, manager of the Avon Cinema, Providence, during a recent weekend storm could well make for story-line of a screen project. The cinema screened Warner Bros.‘ “Casablanca” plus “Flesh Gordon” that weekend; advertised was Paramount’s “Barbarella,” 1968 release. It was learned that the Paramount exchange in Boston found another film in the can that was supposed to contain “Barbarella,” and, as a result, Dulgarian continued his engagement of “Casablanca.” On Friday, Dulgarian, cognizant of the heavy snow, hired a limousine to get from his home to the theatre. There was nary a taxi to be had. As matters wended their way, the short ride expanded to two-and-a-half hours; Dulgarian picked up his projectionist on his way. An “almost sold-out” house that night, an evening when the competition either was shut down or played to skimpy numbers, brought out ever-loyal Avon Cinema patrons indeed! He showed “Casablanca” and “The Maltese Falcon” Saturday. “Barbarella?” It’ll be along!

[Note: in those years the Avon was a repertory cinema showing revivals of both classics and more recent films with several changes of programs a week.]

Long run for Never on Sunday. Item in Boxoffice magazine, July 10, 1961:
“The Avon Cinema, which broke all boxoffice records when it showed "Never on Sunday” for the seventh straight week, did not quit there. It announced the movie was being carried for its eighth week."

From Boxoffice Magazine, December 2, 1950:
“Employees of the Avon Cinema had plenty of cause to be thankful on Thanksgiving. Charles R. Darby, manager, presented every employee a big plump turkey! Recently Darby scored with plenty of well-planned publicity on his twin bill of "The King’s Jester” and “Pagliacci.” The city has a large Italian population and Darby arranged a quiz program on a local radio station offering guest tickets. “The Red Shoes,” which ran for eight weeks at the Avon some time ago, has been scheduled for a return engagement."

The ladder used to be kept outside in the alley on the opposite side of the building. In the 60’s we used to have a spotter to prevent Brown & RISD kids from toppling the ladder while you were up there!

Ichanged that marquee more times than I can remember 40 years ago!

Providence Business News recently ran a story about the Avon today:

http://pbn.com/detail.html?sub_id=e7078fae5da2

Nick,
Regarding “art house conversion” coming sometime after Love Story, the Avon had been an art house long before that, briefly after its 1938 opening, then throughout the postwar period up to the later 1960s, when it became more mainstream. The 1970s saw it as a repertory cinema (it was renamed “Avon Repertory Cinema”) and showed double bills of generally classy foreign and domestic films with two or three program changes per week, mostly revivals but with some new ones thrown in.

I remember the 1950s and 1960s when the theatre opened every day at 2:00 P.M. and had continuous showings. Admission back then ranged from 75 to 90 cents. There was no snack concession, probably because they considered themselves to be in the same league as a legit theatre, where people don’t buy candy, popcorn or drinks to eat at their seats. Their motto then was “Choice of the Discerning.” I used to go there as a high school student in the 1950s and would buy a couple of candy bars beforehand at the next door Rexall Drugstore to eat during the show.

There was a taint of the forbidden associated with the cinema at that time, because a number of the films that played there were “condemned” by the Catholic Legion of Decency, which were often films of international acclaim. When I was in the seminary, we were expresssly forbidden from attending the Avon during our breaks because of this reputation it had. But many of us went anyway, and so did priests! The quality of the films shown back then was very high. It still is now, pretty much, though sometimes there is daydating with the Showcase Seekonk Route 6. In its heyday, the Avon ran programs that were exclusive to the area and would play almost nowhere else in Rhode Island.

Times have changed. They have a hard time getting large audiences for anything at the Avon any more, though the size is decent on many shows. It may be heresy, but this is a theatre I think would benefit from multiplexing (or add-ons of small auditoriums up top) with three or four smaller cinemas. They could increase their boxoffice, provide a wider variety of films. Many films that we see trailers or posters for never show up. Others remain far too long. Still, it is an indispensable place for many.

Films about classical composers as well as opera films were very popular here in the 1940s and 1950s especially. Here is a DOUBLE BILL of Lucia di Lamermoor and Rossini scheduled for November 1949, after a revival run of the Marx Brothers' duo Animal Crackers and Duck Soup.

A big selection of exterior and interior photos of the Avon, including the projection booth, can be seen if you CLICK HERE.

Jeremy, I have encountered no documentation or ads showing that those films you mention were shown at the Avon, or in our area. There was no Stanley or Cameo in Rhode Island that programmed Russian films routinely. Any that showed up on local screens during that period would have been rare exceptions. That is not to say there weren’t screenings by private organizations or at Brown University, for example. Moscow Strikes Back might have filled out bills in regular mainstream theatres, since it was distributed by Republic Pictures and had Edward G. Robinson as the narrator! Heroic Leningrad was distributed by Paramount. So I would guess they filled out wartime programs in some regular theatres across the country, especially in major cities.

The Dulgarian family runs it as a prestige venture and owns the entire block of real estate, indeed much other real estate in Providence. Even if it lost money, I’d hope they would continue the operation…although the College Hill Bookstore, at the corner of the Avon’s block, was shut down not too long ago because of declining business. Everyone hopes it is not an omen for the Avon. The theatre gets very decent though not huge audiences for most of its offerings and the owners are aware of the enormous good-will generated by this theatre…plus off-shoot business in the nearby shops and restaurants. The Avon is the oldest movie theatre in Providence that is still showing movies on a regular basis. It is one of the three single-screen movie theatres in Rhode Island that are still regularly showing movies: the other two are the Cable Car Cinema in Providence and the Jane Pickens Theatre in Newport. Revival House in Westerly is not in the running, being essentially a café with a DVD-projection set-up.

In May of 1965 the Avon was running the film The Cool World, directed by Shirley Clark and produced by Boston documentarian Frederick Wiseman. It was a harrowing portrayal of Harlem street life in the 1960s. From a distribution point of view it is very interesting to note that the Avon run of the film actually day-dated with showings at Johnston’s Pike Drive-In and the Seekonk Drive-In! The Avon sharing a program with two area drive-ins! So strange. But that was a movie that could appeal to both art house audiences and mass audiences, even youth audiences. So it was a clever marketing move by the distributor, Cinema V.