I found a note that I saw the following western double bill here in September, 1972: Frank Perry’s “Doc” paired with William Witney’s “Arizona Raiders” from 1965.
I have an old Record-American ad here from November, 1963, at the time of the Kennedy assassination listing the Uptown as showing “Dream Wife” with Cary Grant and “Rampage” with Robert Mitchum. Coming attractions: “The Leopard” with Burt Lancaster and “For Love or Money” with Gig Young.
To br91975: No, that’s wrong. This theater wasn’t “on Broadway” between 48th and 49th. It was on 49th Street, north side, between 6th and 7th Avenue, just east of 7th Avenue, as their ads stated, and was previously known for many decades as the World, as detailed in Bryan Krefft’s description and history.
I was here yesterday to see that remarkable Italian film “I Am Not Scared.” What an unlikely little twin cinema in an unlikely place, an art house on a country road! Also currently in program is “Supersize Me” and the Korean gem “Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter…and Spring.” It’s a likable place with comfy seats, good sound and projection, memorabilia and posters, including one of Bertolucci’s “Stealing Beauty” in the men’s room.
The Columbus is now closed for regular movies but opened for special events: musical performances, the Rhode Island International Film Festival, special film programs, etc.
Yes, it is listed as the Narragansett Cinemas, but the signs on the front marquee and on the side of the building actually say Narragansett Theater. I checked my photos. Why are some theaters called theatres, while some theatres are theaters? I’ve always preferred -re but the more common spelling is -er. Anyway, moot point. We must call it “cinemas” because of how it publicizes itself. At any rate, the place has a bit of gray-shingled charm despite the sterility, for me, of the whole complex. I wish the theater/theatre/cinemas success.
The address is 3 Beach Street. In newspaper ads the theatre is referred to as “Narragansett Cinemas.” The lettering on the side of the theatre says “Narragansett Theatre.”
The Narragansett Theatre has been closed for a good while. I thought it had bitten the dust after the opening of the not-too-far-away Entertainment Cinemas multiplex in South Kingstown, but it re-opens today with “The Terminal” and two other features. Whether it is to remain open only for the summer tourist/beachgoer season or year-round remains to be seen. The three-screen Campus in nearby Wakefield is closed and up for sale, a victim of the Entertainment Cinemas. This three-screen theatre is located a few hundred feet from where the long-gone Casino Theatre was.
I believe the theatre was also called the Pier Cinema in its last days. In June of 1967 I saw THE WAR WAGON here. I have a photo I took that day showing the entrance to the theatre, the “Casino” sign, and a poster-window displaying a one-sheet of THE WAR WAGON. I believe it was the only time I visited the place, which seemed weather-beaten and moldy in a kind of almost charming summer-colony manner. The theatre did not survive another decade, if that. The three-screened Narragansett Theatre now stands a few hundred feet away in a complex of condominiums and small shops.
Roger, I checked it. The entrance to the porn emporium is through a newer door on the left SIDE of the former cinema auditorium. Videos and mags are sold from racks in the auditorium itself (the floor has been leveled.) There is also a storage area in what was the front of the auditorium, to the right of the sales counter. The former lobby area is where the booths are. The original entrance is sealed off. I couldn’t spot any indications of the former projection booth.
Oops, in addition to THE ENDLESS SUMMER, I also saw Godard’s LA CHINOISE here in 1968. It’s about as different as you can get from the surfing film: a radical Maoist late New Wave revolutionary tract.
Excuse me, that shop next to where the Olympia was is the Olympia FLOWER Shop, not coffee shop. But again, this is not the Olympia/Pilgrim at 658 Washington Street. It is the Olympia at 1723 Washington Street.
No, it’s not still standing. The whole building has been razed, and right now they seem to be readying the area for a new high rise. I was there today.
The Pilgrim Theatre was at 658 Washington Street, in the “combat zone” and diagonally across from the Publix (Gayety). It is said to have been called the Olympia at one time. It is not to be confused with the neighborhood Olympia at 1723 Washington Street.
The address above is incorrect. It should be 1723 Washington Street (at Massachusetts Avenue.) The Pilgrim in the center of town at 658 Washington Street may have been called the Olympia too at one time, but the theatre I had in mind when I added this listing was the neighborhood one at 1723 Washington Street. Comments on the Olympia/Pilgrim at 658 Washington Street…a different theatre…should be added to the Pilgrim Theatre listing, elsewhere on this site. I finally was able to check the location myself today. A professional building occupies the site of the demolished theatre. And next door to it is the (closed) Olympia Coffee Shop.
A personal recollection: on the way back to Rhode Island after a cross-country drive in 1973, I spent the night in Flagstaff. The Clint Eastwood movie “High Plains Drifter” was playing at the Orpheum on July 5th and I went to see it in this very nice little theatre, not far from my motel.
What kind of programming does the Pamir have? Is this where that incredible Afghani film “Osama,” directed by Siddiq Darmak and currently showing in the United States, played in Kabul?
According to a review of “Ten Days that Shook the World” in the New York Times, the theatre opened on November 2,1928 with that silent Russian film by Sergei Eisenstein. The review by Mordaunt Hall bears the heading “New Little Cinema Opens” and mentions that part of the theatre was once Roger Wolfe Kahn’s Le Perroquet Club de Paris, with an entrance on 56th Street. The space was expanded to create the cinema and the entrance was transferred to 57th Street, just a few yards from Carnegie Hall.
This sorely missed little cinema was programming art and specialty fare even in the 1920s, showing films like Lang’s “Dr. Mabuse,” “Madre” (“Cenere”) with Eleonora Duse, “The Legend of Gosta Berling” with Greta Garbo. Between 1958 and 1960 they premiered the three films of Satyajit Ray’s Apu trilogy, “Pather Panchali,” “Aparajito,” and “The World of Apu.” For some reason I particularly remember seeing Adolfas Mekas' zany “Hallelujah the Hills” here in 1963 and a revival of Herbert J. Biberman’s “Salt of the Earth” another time. I’d love to have complete list of everything that played here. The Fifth Avenue Playhouse/Cinema belongs in the pantheon of art houses. The only negative I can recall is that the sight-lines were not always the best because of minimal raking in the auditorum and a lower-than-optimal ceiling.
I found a note that I saw the following western double bill here in September, 1972: Frank Perry’s “Doc” paired with William Witney’s “Arizona Raiders” from 1965.
I have an old Record-American ad here from November, 1963, at the time of the Kennedy assassination listing the Uptown as showing “Dream Wife” with Cary Grant and “Rampage” with Robert Mitchum. Coming attractions: “The Leopard” with Burt Lancaster and “For Love or Money” with Gig Young.
To br91975: No, that’s wrong. This theater wasn’t “on Broadway” between 48th and 49th. It was on 49th Street, north side, between 6th and 7th Avenue, just east of 7th Avenue, as their ads stated, and was previously known for many decades as the World, as detailed in Bryan Krefft’s description and history.
I was here yesterday to see that remarkable Italian film “I Am Not Scared.” What an unlikely little twin cinema in an unlikely place, an art house on a country road! Also currently in program is “Supersize Me” and the Korean gem “Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter…and Spring.” It’s a likable place with comfy seats, good sound and projection, memorabilia and posters, including one of Bertolucci’s “Stealing Beauty” in the men’s room.
Shouldn’t the Century and the Center listings be consolidated into one, since they are the same theatre?
Shouldn’t the Century and the Center listings be consolidated into one, since they are the same theatre?
The Columbus is now closed for regular movies but opened for special events: musical performances, the Rhode Island International Film Festival, special film programs, etc.
Yes, it is listed as the Narragansett Cinemas, but the signs on the front marquee and on the side of the building actually say Narragansett Theater. I checked my photos. Why are some theaters called theatres, while some theatres are theaters? I’ve always preferred -re but the more common spelling is -er. Anyway, moot point. We must call it “cinemas” because of how it publicizes itself. At any rate, the place has a bit of gray-shingled charm despite the sterility, for me, of the whole complex. I wish the theater/theatre/cinemas success.
The address is 3 Beach Street. In newspaper ads the theatre is referred to as “Narragansett Cinemas.” The lettering on the side of the theatre says “Narragansett Theatre.”
Wasn’t film critic Pauline Kael involved one time in the programming of the Telegraph Rep?
The Narragansett Theatre has been closed for a good while. I thought it had bitten the dust after the opening of the not-too-far-away Entertainment Cinemas multiplex in South Kingstown, but it re-opens today with “The Terminal” and two other features. Whether it is to remain open only for the summer tourist/beachgoer season or year-round remains to be seen. The three-screen Campus in nearby Wakefield is closed and up for sale, a victim of the Entertainment Cinemas. This three-screen theatre is located a few hundred feet from where the long-gone Casino Theatre was.
I believe the theatre was also called the Pier Cinema in its last days. In June of 1967 I saw THE WAR WAGON here. I have a photo I took that day showing the entrance to the theatre, the “Casino” sign, and a poster-window displaying a one-sheet of THE WAR WAGON. I believe it was the only time I visited the place, which seemed weather-beaten and moldy in a kind of almost charming summer-colony manner. The theatre did not survive another decade, if that. The three-screened Narragansett Theatre now stands a few hundred feet away in a complex of condominiums and small shops.
The placque on the front of the building says “Patsy’s Hall” and gives the year of completion as 1930.
Roger, I checked it. The entrance to the porn emporium is through a newer door on the left SIDE of the former cinema auditorium. Videos and mags are sold from racks in the auditorium itself (the floor has been leveled.) There is also a storage area in what was the front of the auditorium, to the right of the sales counter. The former lobby area is where the booths are. The original entrance is sealed off. I couldn’t spot any indications of the former projection booth.
Oops, in addition to THE ENDLESS SUMMER, I also saw Godard’s LA CHINOISE here in 1968. It’s about as different as you can get from the surfing film: a radical Maoist late New Wave revolutionary tract.
Excuse me, that shop next to where the Olympia was is the Olympia FLOWER Shop, not coffee shop. But again, this is not the Olympia/Pilgrim at 658 Washington Street. It is the Olympia at 1723 Washington Street.
No, it’s not still standing. The whole building has been razed, and right now they seem to be readying the area for a new high rise. I was there today.
The Pilgrim Theatre was at 658 Washington Street, in the “combat zone” and diagonally across from the Publix (Gayety). It is said to have been called the Olympia at one time. It is not to be confused with the neighborhood Olympia at 1723 Washington Street.
The address above is incorrect. It should be 1723 Washington Street (at Massachusetts Avenue.) The Pilgrim in the center of town at 658 Washington Street may have been called the Olympia too at one time, but the theatre I had in mind when I added this listing was the neighborhood one at 1723 Washington Street. Comments on the Olympia/Pilgrim at 658 Washington Street…a different theatre…should be added to the Pilgrim Theatre listing, elsewhere on this site. I finally was able to check the location myself today. A professional building occupies the site of the demolished theatre. And next door to it is the (closed) Olympia Coffee Shop.
A personal recollection: on the way back to Rhode Island after a cross-country drive in 1973, I spent the night in Flagstaff. The Clint Eastwood movie “High Plains Drifter” was playing at the Orpheum on July 5th and I went to see it in this very nice little theatre, not far from my motel.
What kind of programming does the Pamir have? Is this where that incredible Afghani film “Osama,” directed by Siddiq Darmak and currently showing in the United States, played in Kabul?
According to a review of “Ten Days that Shook the World” in the New York Times, the theatre opened on November 2,1928 with that silent Russian film by Sergei Eisenstein. The review by Mordaunt Hall bears the heading “New Little Cinema Opens” and mentions that part of the theatre was once Roger Wolfe Kahn’s Le Perroquet Club de Paris, with an entrance on 56th Street. The space was expanded to create the cinema and the entrance was transferred to 57th Street, just a few yards from Carnegie Hall.
This sorely missed little cinema was programming art and specialty fare even in the 1920s, showing films like Lang’s “Dr. Mabuse,” “Madre” (“Cenere”) with Eleonora Duse, “The Legend of Gosta Berling” with Greta Garbo. Between 1958 and 1960 they premiered the three films of Satyajit Ray’s Apu trilogy, “Pather Panchali,” “Aparajito,” and “The World of Apu.” For some reason I particularly remember seeing Adolfas Mekas' zany “Hallelujah the Hills” here in 1963 and a revival of Herbert J. Biberman’s “Salt of the Earth” another time. I’d love to have complete list of everything that played here. The Fifth Avenue Playhouse/Cinema belongs in the pantheon of art houses. The only negative I can recall is that the sight-lines were not always the best because of minimal raking in the auditorum and a lower-than-optimal ceiling.
I remember seeing Jean-Luc Godard’s “Pierrot le Fou,” starring Jean-Paul Belmondo, in January 1969 here during its New York first run engagement.
The Castle has just recently closed, possibly for good.