Avon Cinema
Providence, RI, USA
The Avon Cinema is owned by Kenny Dulgarian and managed by his brother Richard. It has been in the family since it was built in 1938. It is located on the “east side” of Providence right in the middle of the Brown University campus. In the mid 1980’s they briefly closed the theatre and restored it in the hopes of preserving the ambience of what the movie going experience was like before the days of the multi and mega plexes.
It is still open and doing well showing art films and other non
mainstream
product.
Marquee and front during the daytime.
Marquee and front at night. Notice that they have continued to use neon.
Lobby clock. It was originally located at the bottom of the stage left proscenium.
Snack Bar.
Doors to auditorium.
Auditorium from rear near entry.
Right side of house taken from the stage.
Left side of house taken from floor in front of stage.
Equipment consists of Century C heads, Brenkert Enarc lamps, and Western Electric Universal Bases. Except for the Century heads, all equipment is original from 1938.
Reverse shot of the #2 machine with the rewind/inspection bench in the background.
Inside of the Enarc lamp. Check out the nice, shiny new reflector! The Avon burns 8mm/7mm carbons and has the brightest picture in town.
Unusual film path through the Western Electric base/soundhead.
Close-up of the soundhead. There is no sound drum!
Handcrank rewind bench for film inspection.
Motorized rewind bench with home-made auto-stop device. The idea is that the film leader will slap the wire loop attached to the switch and turn off the motor when the reel is completely rewound. It used to work about half the time, but now it has been reworked to be more reliable, although if the owner keeps teasing Scott about it then it might magically become unreliable again. Right Scott? :P
Close up of the switch.
MARC 300 16mm projector and Kelmar sound system. This is a mono system with a Voice of the Theatre speaker behind the screen.
Check out those short carbon stubs!
Carbon arc flame.
Special thanks to Scott Norwood and Paul Carpenter for the pics.