Images
Gordon's Olympia, Washington St., Boston, 1910s
Interior, 1910s
Advertisement, 1919
Street entrance, 1919
Interior, 1919
Advertisement, 1920
Gordon's Olympia Theatre (est. 1910s) in Boston, Massachusetts, was established by Nathan H. Gordon of Olympia Theatres, Inc. [1] [2] Architect Clarence Blackall designed the building at no.658 Washington Street, near Boylston Street in the theatre district. [3] It later became the Pilgrim Theater. The building was demolished in 1996. [4] [5]
In late 1974, the Pilgrim Theater was the site of a drunken rant and press conference by House Ways and Means Committee chairman Wilbur Mills at the height of his sex scandal with Fanne Foxe, which prompted his resignation from the committee shortly afterwards. [6]
"Combat Zone" was the name given in the 1960s to the adult entertainment district in downtown Boston, Massachusetts. Centered on Washington Street between Boylston Street and Kneeland Street, the area was once the site of many strip clubs, peep shows, X-rated movie theaters, and adult bookstores. It had a reputation for crime, including prostitution.
Annabel Battistella, known professionally as Fanne Foxe, was an Argentine-American stripper best known for being involved in a 1974 sex scandal surrounding Arkansas Congressman Wilbur Mills. At the time, Mills was the chair of the House Ways and Means Committee and a powerful Democratic politician. The scandal was one of the most reported political sex scandals of the 1970s. In 2009, Foxe was on the Time list of top 10 mistresses, and her affair with Mills was on the Bloomberg list of top 10 U.S. sex scandals.
The Shubert Organization is a theatrical producing organization and a major owner of theatres based in Manhattan, New York City. It was founded by the three Shubert brothers in the late 19th century. They steadily expanded, owning many theaters in New York and across the United States. Since then it has gone through changes of ownership, but it is still a major theater chain.
The Cutler Majestic Theatre at Emerson College, in Boston, Massachusetts, is a 1903 Beaux Arts style theater, designed by the architect John Galen Howard. Originally built for theatre, it was one of three theaters commissioned in Boston by Eben Dyer Jordan, son of the founder of Jordan Marsh, a Boston-based chain of department stores. The Majestic was converted to accommodate vaudeville shows in the 1920s and eventually into a movie house in 1956 by Sack Cinemas.
The change to film came with renovations that transformed the lobby and covered up much of John Galen Howard's original Beaux-Arts architecture.
Thomas White Lamb was a Scottish-born, American architect. He was one of the foremost designers of theaters and cinemas of the 20th century.
Arthur H. Vinal was an American architect who lived and worked in Boston, Massachusetts. Vinal was born in Quincy, Massachusetts, on July 1, 1855, to Howard Vinal and Clarissa J. Wentworth. Vinal apprenticed at the firm of Peabody & Stearns in Boston before leaving to start his own practice in 1875. Vinal started a partnership with Henry F. Starbuck in 1877; the firm broke up when Starbuck moved away. Vinal served as the second City Architect of Boston from 1884 to 1887. Vinal is principally known for his Richardsonian Romanesque High Service Building at the Chestnut Hill Reservoir (1887). In addition to his other public buildings, Vinal designed numerous residences in Boston and nearby suburbs.
Paramount Theatre is a theatre in Boston on Washington Street, between Avery and West Streets.
Clarence Howard Blackall was an American architect who is estimated to have designed 300 theatres.
The Boston Opera House, also known as the Citizens Bank Opera House, is a performing arts and esports venue located at 539 Washington St. in Boston, Massachusetts. It was originally built as the B.F. Keith Memorial Theatre, a movie palace in the Keith-Albee chain. The chain became part of RKO when it was established just before the theater opened on October 29, 1928, and it was also known as the RKO Keith's Theater. After operating for more than 50 years as a movie theater, it was rededicated in 1980 as a home for the Opera Company of Boston, which performed there until the opera company closed down in 1990 due to financial problems. The theater was reopened in 2004 after a major restoration, and it currently serves as the home of the Boston Ballet and also hosts touring Broadway shows.
The Exeter Street Theatre is a Richardsonian Romanesque building at the corner of Exeter and Newbury Streets, in the Back Bay section of Boston, Massachusetts. It was built as the First Spiritual Temple, 1884–85, by architects Hartwell and Richardson. For seventy years, from 1914 to 1984, it operated as a movie house. It now houses the Kingsley Montessori School.
The Park Theatre (est.1879) was a playhouse in Boston, Massachusetts, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It later became the State cinema. Located on Washington Street, near Boylston Street, the building existed until 1990.
The Globe Theatre was a playhouse and cinema in Boston, Massachusetts, located on Washington Street in Chinatown. Architect Arthur H. Vinal designed the building in 1903; it stands today at no.692 Washington St. opposite LaGrange Street, near the corner of Beach Street. In the 1910s it was also known as "Loew's Globe Theatre."
B.F. Keith's Theatre (1894–1928) in Boston, Massachusetts, was a vaudeville playhouse run by B.F. Keith. It sat across from Boston Common in the city's theatre district, with an entrance on Tremont Street and another on Washington Street. Personnel included Keith, E.F. Albee and H.E. Gustin. Virgilio Tojetti painted some of the interior decorations. In 1939, the theater was converted to a movie theater named the Normandie.
Chickering Hall (est.1883) was a concert auditorium in Boston, Massachusetts, in the late 19th century. It occupied the second floor of Chickering and Sons showrooms on Tremont Street, near the corner of West Street. "Bradlee, Winslow and Wetherell were the architects, and Mr. E.P. Treadwell, the decorator. The hall [was] lighted by the Edison electric light." By 1895: "Tremont St., towards Boylston, for some years has been called Piano Row, for a long row of piano agencies occupied a good portion of the block; but of late most of these have migrated to Boylston St. Chickering Hall, at 152 Tremont St., was for many years a favorite place for fashionable musicales, and the headquarters of the musical profession."
The Plymouth Theatre (1911–1957) of Boston, Massachusetts, was located on Stuart Street in today's Boston Theater District. Architect Clarence Blackall designed the building for Liebler & Co. Performers included Henry Jewett, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, 8-year-old Sammy Davis, Jr., and Bette Davis. In October 1911, the touring Abbey Theatre presented Synge's Playboy of the Western World at the Plymouth; in the audience were W. B. Yeats, Isabella Stewart Gardner and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy.
The Fenway Theatre (1915–1972) of Boston, Massachusetts, was a cinema and concert hall in the Back Bay, located at no.136 Massachusetts Avenue at Boylston Street.
The National Theatre (1911-1978) of Boston, Massachusetts, was a 3,500-seat multipurpose auditorium on Tremont Street in the South End. It functioned as a cinema, lecture hall, and stage. Performers included Jehovah's Witness founder Joseph F. Rutherford and "big-name entertainers like Duke Ellington and Ray Bolger." Movie screenings included The Battle of Gettysburg in 1913. The English High School held graduation exercises in the National. Around 1919 it was known as the "Waldorf Theater." In 1992, it was purchased by Philip Smith.
The St. James Theatre (1912–1929) of Boston, Massachusetts, was a playhouse and cinema in the Back Bay in the 1910s and 1920s. It occupied the former Chickering Hall on Huntington Avenue near Massachusetts Avenue, adjacent to Horticultural Hall. For some years Loew's theatre chain oversaw the St. James. In 1929 the theatre "became part of the Publix (Paramount) chain, and was renamed the Uptown."
The Bijou Theatre (1882–1943) in Boston, Massachusetts, occupied the second floor of 545 Washington Street near today's Theatre District. Architect George Wetherell designed the space, described by a contemporary reviewer as "dainty." Proprietors included Edward Hastings, George Tyler, and B.F. Keith. Around the 1900s, it featured a "staircase of heavy glass under which flowed an illuminated waterfall." The Bijou "closed 31 December 1943 and was razed in 1951." The building's facade still exists. It is currently a pending Boston Landmark by the Boston Landmarks Commission.
The Gaiety Theatre (1908–1949) or Gayety Theatre of Boston, Massachusetts, was located at no.661 Washington Street near Boylston Street in today's Boston Theater District. It featured burlesque, vaudeville and cinema. Performers included Clark and McCullough, Solly Ward, and Lena Daley; producers included Charles H. Waldron, Earl Carroll, and E.M. Loew. In 1949 it became the "Publix Theatre." The building existed until its razing in 2005.
42°21′6.78″N71°3′45.73″W / 42.3518833°N 71.0627028°W
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