Regent Theatre Celebrating 100th Anniversary In Arlington

ARLINGTON (CBS) -- A movie theatre in Arlington is marking its centennial this weekend with a nostalgic look back.

The Regent Theatre opened its doors on April 23, 1916, when World War I was raging, Woodrow Wilson occupied the White House and Mary Pickford ruled the box office.

Regent co-owners Leland Stein and Rich Stavros began thinking about recreating that night.

"We had the zany idea of showing the movie 'Rags' which was shown at the grand opening, and also do what we've been doing best, which is a live performance on the stage," Stein said.

Period costumes, juggling acts, and a burlesque show are planned. The Mary Pickford movie will have live accompaniment by Jeff Rapsis, a New Hampshire-based performer who specializes in creating live music scores for silent film presentations. WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Jordan Rich and comedian Jimmy Tingle are the hosts.

The theatre has been in continuous operation, and with roughly 500 seats, making a go of it can be challenging. Along with plays, there have been charity fundraisers.

The 3rd annual house band Ultrasonic Rock Orchestra recently did a Battle of the Bands show and a percentage of the proceeds went to the Boston Marathon bombing victims and survivors.

Among the more popular events are the annual sing-alongs for "Mary Poppins" and "The Sound of Music." Stein said they can be quite loud.

"The movie goers are given tambourines to hit at different times during 'Mary Poppins,' and the big moment in 'The Sound of Music' is when the captain and Maria kiss for the very first time," he said. "So everyone has a party popper, and you instruct the crowd that at the very moment their lips touch, everybody pull their string at the same time and so when you hear 300-to-400 party poppers going off at the same time, it is quite dramatic."

Stavros remembered hosting live televised World Cup cricket matches in the late 90s at the request of the Indian community.

"I said no one is going to come to cricket matches, you know. Little did I know, 800 people were outside trying to get in here when we can only seat 500 people, at five o'clock in the morning and they started arriving at two o'clock at night," he said.

Mickey Rooney celebrated his 85th birthday at the Regent. Rock-n-roll Hall of Famer Herb Reed of the Platters had his funeral there. Stavros said the theatre is also blessed.

"When St. Agnes across the street had a fire in the church, they did the services here," he said. "We've held Jewish ceremony services and The Church of Christ, while undergoing renovations, did their services here. You'd have church in the morning and then a nitty-gritty blues band at night. It was like, okay."

The Regent has a bit of fun history, too. While rewiring the sound system, Stavros said they found a chamber under the stage that was 30-feet long and there were no trap doors.

"An elderly gentleman finally told us what it was used for. Everybody knew that the Regent Theatre was where Boston stored a lot of the bootleg during Prohibition," he said. "They used to come here to pick it up, and there are so many different exits here that nobody would ever see them leave. They'd go out back doors, hop into the cars and whatever and take off, so during Prohibition, the place was used as a storage house."

There is also the resident ghost.

"This woman walked up to me and said she really liked the way the little girl in the Communion dress walked behind them," Stavros says. "I said 'There is no little girl in the show.' And then another woman said she saw the girl, too."

Leland and Stein pointed with pride to a feature that the movie-plexes don't have, and that's a big 18-foot-by-28-foot screen.

"They downsized. They didn't upsize. They used to have 600 to 1,200 seats and couldn't fill them, so the way to do it now is to make the theaters smaller and more inviting," Stavros said.

He added that the Regent took out half of the seats to make it more inviting. The owners are looking forward to the Centennial Gala, which will also serve as a fundraising kickoff to remove the dropped ceiling and purchase two chandeliers, on Sunday.

Stavros said visitors are often nostalgic.

"It's amazing how many people say they were there in the 60s and there in the 50s, and say its a great feeling to come back to something like that," he said.

While ticket prices on the night of the grand opening ranged from 10-to-20 cents, the Centennial tickets start at $19.16.

WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Mary Blake reports