Looking up

There's a new marquee in town. And it's not the one you're thinking of.

If I told you I’m about to write a story about a 1920s-era vaudeville theater in downtown Beverly that’s putting up a new marquee, you might say, Haven’t you done that already?

If you’re talking about The Cabot, yes. But what about the other 1920s-era vaudeville theater in Beverly, the one that many people don’t even know exists?

While hundreds of people driving by on Cabot Street have seen the ongoing renovation work at The Cabot over the last few weeks, another project has been going on mostly out of view at the Larcom Theatre.

Don Crowell showing off the new marquee at the Larcom Theatre.

The Larcom is located on Wallis Street, a one-way side street off Cabot. The last time it had a sign on the building was in the 1970s, when it was called The Fine Arts and showed anything but the fine arts. (Let’s just say the letters ‘XXX’ were included next to most of the movie titles.)

Last week the Larcom started putting up a beautiful new marquee. Don Crowell, who owns the theater with his wife, Lisa, said the new sign almost exactly replicates the one that adorned the theater when it first opened in 1912.

The Crowells are hoping the marquee will literally increase the Larcom’s visibility. Up until now, the only sign was the ‘Larcom Theatre’ etched into the cement above the entrance. Anyone looking down Wallis Street from busy Cabot Street would never know it’s there. Even people driving by don’t notice it, Don Crowell said.

When I met with Don at the theater this week, he told me that since the marquee went up a few days ago, both walkers and drivers have stopped to take pictures of it. On cue, a man walking by said, “Hey, is that new? It looks awesome.” Literally seconds later, a guy driving a school van slowed down and said out the window, “Looks great. I love it.”

The marquee was paid for with a $175,000 grant from the city’s Community Preservation Act, which is funded by a 1% surcharge on property taxes. The Larcom also raised over $20,000 in private donations. Don Crowell said they hired a company from Ohio that specializes in marquees and making them historically accurate.

Crowell said the marquee is the same size and in the same location as the original. The color of the original sign is unknown, since the only photo of it is in black and white. The Crowells chose blue and gold, which Don said was a common color of old marquees.

Here’s the Larcom in 1941, with the original marquee.

There are some new touches, of course. The sides of the marquee feature LED screens where upcoming shows can be advertised. There’s also a seal painted on the bottom of the marquee with the initials D, L, B and E — for Don, Lisa and their two sons, Benjamin and Elijah.

The Crowells bought the theater nine years ago and have made it work despite having no previous experience in the theater business, an 18-month shutdown due to Covid, and of course the looming presence of The Cabot down the street.

Don Crowell has always been blunt about his relationship with The Cabot. He has accused The Cabot, which has 850 seats, of refusing to work together with the 600-seat Larcom to avoid directly competing with each other, such as hosting the same kind of show on the same night. When The Cabot opened the Off Cabot comedy club right next door to the Larcom in 2022, the relationship got even worse, Crowell said.

At one point in our interview, he referred to The Cabot as “the evil empire.”

The Cabot’s now-former executive director, Casey Soward, told me a couple of years ago that The Cabot always supported The Larcom and he disagreed with Don Crowell’s characterization of the relationship. Soward left The Cabot last year to become the executive director of the Boch Center, which includes the Wang Theatre and the Shubert Theatre.

Don Crowell said he’s scheduled to sit down with The Cabot’s new executive director, Brian Ridolfo, this week, and is hoping for a better relationship. The two theaters have a long history together. They were both built by the Ware brothers, vaudeville performers from Marblehead. The Larcom opened in 1912, The Cabot in 1920. Both theaters were owned by the company that staged Le Grand David & His Own Spectacular Magic Company shows from 1977 to 2012.

I emailed Ridolfo to ask what he thinks of the relationship.

“The Cabot and the Larcom are two historic theaters just a few blocks apart. Off Cabot and the Larcom even share a wall,” he wrote. “Donnie and I met for the first time last week, so I don’t yet know what working together might look like, but being good neighbors and finding ways to support each other strengthens both venues, serves audiences, and benefits Beverly.”

Beverly, of course, is also home to the North Shore Music Theatre. And NSMT is planning to start holding some shows in the auditorium in the former Briscoe building, now Beverly Village for Living & the Arts. Crowell said he has a good relationship with the music theater.

The Larcom is always closed in July and August because the building has no air conditioning. It is scheduled to reopen for the season on Sept. 19 with a burlesque revue, “Liberated: The Boston She Party.” The season will include several shows by tribute bands as well as family shows like “The Little Mermaid.” The Larcom also rents out space for salsa dance classes and is available for private events, including weddings.

“It’s hard being the smallest of three theaters in a small city,” Crowell said. “We have to be creative.”

Looking up at the new marquee, he added, “This will get us more attention.”