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Mission
The Jane Pickens Theater & Event Center will be a business with a sense of style and glamour based on history. We will become known for showing the best movies available, movies that are hand selected to play to the discriminating taste of our audience. We will present a mix of first run movies, documentaries and art films. We will also create events that utilize our stage to bring unique presentations to Newport.
Our mission is to develop key differentiators that make the Jane Pickens Theater special and able to compete. One of our most important goals will be to lease the theater for parties, meetings and events. We feel it is important to add variety to the experiences you can enjoy at the Jane Pickens Theater & Event Center.
For information on visiting or renting the Jane Pickens Theater & Event Center call our office at (401) 846-5474 or email us.
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Timeline
1834 - Our historic theater building was built in Washington Square in 1834 as the Zion Episcopal Church. One of Newport's first Greek Revival buildings, it was designed by the well known architect Russell Warren and built by William Weeden, a carpenter-builder.
1923 - This beautiful building became a theater in 1923 known as The Strand and was renamed The Jane Pickens thirty years ago by the former owner Joe Jarvis. Joe loved the theater business and we thank him for his dedication and caring for this wonderful Newport landmark for many years.
1974 - Jane Pickens and her sister Patti gave a concert at the dedication and renaming of the theater in 1974.
2004 - The theater was purchased in June of 2004 by Kathy and David Staab who have a genuine respect for the history of this wonderful building and have developed plans to enrich the entertainment experience in Newport.
2005 - The Jane Pickens Theater is renamed The Jane Pickens Theater & Event Center as special events become a meaningful part of the business.
2008 - The Friends of the Jane Pickens is established to preserve the building long term and to enhance the use of the theater for educational purposes.
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Jane Pickens (1919-1992)
Jane Pickens was a woman ahead of her times... talented and accomplished she truly did live a charmed existence. She was a very independent woman who lived from 1909 to 1992... though she never would have told you her age. She was passionate about everything in life. Jane was a singer, an actress, a star of the stage, radio and television, a politician, a philanthropist, a mother and a wife.
Jane had quite a life with the Pickens Sisters, and later as a solo. She was the toast of the club-and-radio circuit throughout the 30s and 40s and led a glamorous Park Avenue & Newport social life. Jane was married three times to TJ. Russell Clark (divorced), Stockbroker William Langley (deceased) & Walter Hoving (the head of Tiffany and Bonwit Teller) and had one daughter Marcella.
Her singing career began at a very young age with a very unique talent and
drive. Jane was born in Macon, Georgia into a musical family. Her
grandfather taught music at a Baptist girls' college and her mother, named
for an opera singer thought singing harmony was the best fun there was. Jane
went off to Philadelphia at age 14 on a scholarship to Curtis Institute of
Music. To quote Jane, "I went off to the Curtis School of Music when I was a
mere slip of a girl. Southern girls develop very early. My voice was a
full-blown voice when I was that age. I never wanted to be anything but a
singer."
So Jane became an accomplished pianist and singer, studied in Paris, and
took her master's at Julliard. Her sisters Helen, Grace and later Patti
joined her in New York. Their big break came at NBC Radio when NBC needed a
sister act to put up against the
Boswell Sister on CBS.
The Pickens Sisters sang together only five years. Jane went to work as a
single as a soloist with the New York Philharmonic & the Philadelphia
Orchestra. She had her own radio program on NBC. She kept up quite a pace
with her Saturday Night Party radio show each week and radio appearances 6
nights and 2 afternoons every week. She also went to music school every
morning to practice.
Jane appeared in the Ziegfield Follies in 1936 and 1937 with Fannie Brice,
Gypsy Rose Lee and Bobby Clark. The songs she preformed as solo were ISLE IN
THE WEST INDIES, MIDNIGHT BLUE AND WORDS WITHOUT MUSIC.
In May of 1946 Jane was the song star of CBS "American Melody Hour" at
theWaldorf Wedgewood Room. A typical day in her life in her apartment on
Park Avenue in New York City was described in one magazine as follows;
"Jane would wake whenever (often noon) and ring for her breakfast. She then
does her exercises on the living room floor. She dons a pastel-tinted
negligee (her work costume) and goes to the piano in the music room where
she remains for four to six hours. Jane plans her own programs, makes the
arrangements for her songs and accompanies herself on the piano. She even
designs about half of her own formal clothes."
On Broadway Jane appeared in Boys and Girls Together in 1940, Regina in 1949
and of course, Music in the Air.
Jane divided her time between Park Avenue and Bellevue Avenue in Newport.
She was one of Newport's most gracious hostesses & most sought after-guests..
She supported numerous charities. She lived in Bellevue House on the famed
Bellevue Avenue in Newport that she bought in 1963,reburbishing and
decorating it herself in vibrant colors & immense good taste. She was one of
the chief organizers fro the United Cerebral Palsy Annual telethon and was
the recipient of a Distinguished Volunteer Service Award presented by
President Lyndon B, Johnson in 1968.
In 1974 she ran as a Republican candidate for Congress from New York's "silk
stocking district" against Ed Koch who late became the mayor of NYC. Jane
was just plain a hard worker, always up for a challenge.
She lived her retirement years in Bellevue House in Newport, continuing to
stay involved in charity work, fundraisers and spending time with her
friends such as Doris Duke and Anita O'Day. The Jane Pickens Theater was
named after her in 1974 when she and sister Patti gave a dedication concert..
Indeed this was a charmed life.....
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