It’s easy enough to miss if you’re not looking for it, in fact if you’ve lived in Concord for less than twenty years you probably don’t even know it existed. However, once upon a time the 3 doors that are located at 18 1/2 South Main Street, were opened so that well over one million people could lose themselves in the flickering images on the silver screen.
From 1934 until July of 1994, The Concord Theatre showed thousands of motion pictures to audiences that sat entranced at the comedies, westerns, musicals, dramas, thrillers, love stories, science fiction epics and horror movies that held their rapt attention.
Today, the theatre’s name is still etched on the tile outside the doors that led to the enormous lobby that could easily hold more than 200 patrons awaiting the evening’s second screening. With each passing year it becomes harder and harder to decipher the name and like the theatre itself, it is only a question of time before one more piece of our local history falls into such disrepair that the only option will be a wrecking ball.
Formerly the Norris Bakery, the building was converted into a motion picture theatre in 1934 by the contracting half of the business partners that had decided to open the film emporium. The contractor’s 20 year old daughter, Theresa Cantin, would sell tickets and handle the bookkeeping aspect of the business. She eventually became the sole owner of The Concord Theatre and was there until the last picture show, “Andre”, played to the last audience.
When the Concord Theatre first opened its doors, Concord had two full-time movie houses, the exquisite Capitol Theatre (now the Capitol Center for the Arts), and the Star Theatre, located at 15 Pleasant Street and currently housing White Mountain Coffee. The Concord City Auditorium occasionally played films and The Conn Theatre on School Street had recently closed its doors.
The Capitol and Star were part of the vast Maine and New Hampshire Theatre Corp, a piece of the Kennedy Family Empire run by Joseph P. Kennedy the father of the future President.
They looked at the Concord Theatre as an arrogant interloper and made it very difficult for the new movie house to get first-rate films. More often than not the Concord got stuck playing films made by small studios like Monogram and Republic. Much of the fare consisted of westerns, The Bowery Boys and The Three Stooges.
Pictures changed three times each week, running on Sunday and Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and then Thursday through Saturday.
Audiences starved for entertainment during the Depression nevertheless flocked in large numbers to the Concord where weekly attendance hovered around 3-4,000.
When Theresa bought out her partner, Mr. Charbonneau, in 1946 she was determined to improve the quality of films shown at the Concord and she did. The first film shown after the change was the Oscar winning Best Picture, “The Best Years of our Life”. “The Red Shoes” soon followed.
Theresa became so competitive with the other theatres in bidding for films and being awarded good titles, that The Star Theatre had to close its doors in the early 1950’s.
Despite the introduction of television and the Concord Drive-In becoming a popular local fixture during the 1950’s, The Concord Theatre managed to maintain a strong and steady audience. Overhead at the theatre was low thanks to the family participation of Theresa’s two sisters, Rena and Laurie, who manned the concession stand while brother Maurice, a Union Projectionist, made sure that the picture stayed on the screen.
I had barely started at Brady High in the latter 60’s when I began working at the Concord, an affiliation I maintained until the closing and even beyond.
Lots of Urban Legends sprung up about the Concord over the years, many of them from individuals who had never even stepped inside the 499 seat theatre. It was easy to say things about a theatre that lacked some of the pizazz the Capitol Theatre or many of the theatres in Manchester possessed in abundance. In 27 years of working there, I never found even one of those stories to be true.
What did change after I began working there was the variety of the titles shown.
An inveterate reader of Variety, the so-called “Bible of Show Biz”, I studied and knew film and began to analyze what worked in the Concord community.
Theresa and I made an effort to show films that would provide not just entertainment but quality and a good mix. Within six months we showed Michener’s “Hawaii”, Clavell’s “The Sand Pebbles” and Thomas Hardy’s “Far From the Madding Crowd”.
While we sometimes played something purely for commercial value (“The Valley of the Dolls”, shown in early 1968 played to sold-out performances for 6 weeks), it was important, we recognized, to not make it purely about the dollar.
Some of the most notable films of the 1969 – 1992 period first played The Concord Theatre. These titles include beloved classics, Oscar winners, and other films that were just entertaining or are fondly remembered as a part of one’s past.
The titles include, “Planet of the Apes”, Kubrick’s “2001”, “Women in Love” the Oscar winning film from Ken Russell, “The Towering Inferno”, “Young Frankenstein”, “Lenny”, “The Exorcist”, “Carrie”, “Annie Hall”, “The Spy Who Loved Me”, “The Turning Point”, “Superman”, “Halloween”, “Animal House”, “10”,”The Shining”, “The Blue Lagoon”, “Arthur”, “48 Hours”, “Pretty in Pink”, “Broadcast News”, “Moonstruck”, “The Last Emperor”, “Big”, “Die Hard”, “The War of the Roses” and “The Crying Game” to name but a few.
Musicals were a regular staple at the Concord Theatre and between 1968 and 1984, more musicals played the “House” than at any other cinema venue locally.
The musicals ranged from familiar blockbusters such as “Woodstock”, “Thoroughly Modern Millie”, “Camelot”, Saturday Night Fever”, “Grease” and “Yentl” to lesser known but still popular titles such as “Finian’s Rainbow”, “On a Clear Day…”, “Tom Sawyer”, “That’s Entertainment”, “New York, New York” and “The Boy Friend”.
Theresa never took a vacation and even battled cancer while showing up in her customary seat in the box-office every evening at 6:30. She found that her customers were like an extended family and she genuinely cared about what they thought regarding a particular film title. She would even apologize when the film failed to measure up and disappointed the audience.
Despite changes – the arrival of Cinema 93, the closing of the Drive-In and Capitol Theatre, which was later resurrected as a performing arts center, The Concord Theatre remained a part of the downtown community. Even the arrival of the multiplex theatres on the Concord Heights failed to dent Teresa’s passion for film.
In 1994, however, having recently turned 80 and finding her eyesight failing, she gave up the battle after six decades and decided to close the doors.
The last summer had been a good one with especially strong grosses for Mike Nichol’s “Wolf” starring Jack Nicholson. Some months earlier “The Crying Game” had played to more than 11,000 admissions during its run. She noted, “I’d rather close while the people are still coming rather than closing because nobody’s here….”
We continued to chat on the phone twice a week and began making plans for a local developer to buy the building, renovate it and then offer to lease it to Barry Steelman, the owner of Cinema 93. That theatre, which opened in the summer of 1967 was about to lose its lease and we felt that bringing life back to the Concord might be a great solution for all involved.
Unfortunately Theresa passed away in early 1998 and the theatre has sat empty ever since. I shudder to think of what the inside ay look like but from outward appearances it still appears to be solid.
The Concord City Auditorium and the Capitol Center were both “saved” from demise by the passionate support of members of the local community. People came together for a common good and we can all be very proud of the results.
Wouldn’t it be perfect if a similar movement developed to save the Concord Theatre before it becomes impossible and the only solution is a wrecking ball?
There are certainly funds available to refurbish and restore the 499 seat theatre into a performing arts venue that might seat 250-350, providing an alternative to groups or individuals who feel the “Audi’s” 800 seats or the more than 1200 at the Capitol Center are too many for their needs. It would also provide another piece for the ever-growing “Art Community” in Concord, as the Concord Theatre is directly across the street from Red River.
Shall we lose another piece of our local history, one that is irreplaceable, or shall we recognize the value contained in our past and rally around before it’s too late?
