I was no stranger to the Boston Cinerama. My Dad had a business across the street at 611 Washington St. for over 50 years. I was lucky to have seen several films there during the 1960’s.
Inside the roughly six-month gap between the end of the 36-week run of “Grand Prix” (somewhere around September 1967) and the April 1968 opening of “2001: A Space Odyssey”, the Boston played the reserved-seat engagement of MGM’s “Far From The Madding Crowd”. It was presented in 70mm on the Cinerama screen but was not made as a Cinerama film nor advertised as such. It was shot in 35mm and blown up to 70mm. The previous engagement, “Grand Prix” marked the change in the cinematography of Cinerama films from Ultra Panavision 70 to Super Panavision 70, and an attendant reduction of screen aspect ratio (and width) from 2.55:1 to 2.2:1. “Grand Prix”,“Madding Crowd”, “2001” and “Ice Station Zebra” all fit this format. All 70mm films at the Boston were projected through the custom-fitted Applied Optics and Mechanics Cinerama curved-focal field projection lenses mounted on two Century JJ 35-70mm projectors installed in the center booth.
To Howard Haas. When This is Cinerama in 70mm played here in Boston it played at the non Cinerama Beacon theatre. It was a medium size Flat Screen and lousy stereo. This is the theatre that the subway ran under, not the Boston Cinerama theatre as you mentioned. Saw a few other movies Little Big Man and Towering Inferno at the Beacon. Lousy projection and sound and what was really annoying was the subway noise every 10mins or less. The Boston Cinerama theatre was terrific. Saw 5 of the 3strips there. HTWWW was projected beautifully with great sound and I sat in the 1st row of the balcony. Saw WWOTBG in 3 strip at the San Diego Cinerama. Saw 2001 in 70mm, Cinerama in San Francisco and also at the Seattle Cinerama. What a great theatre. Saw Ice Station Zebra at the Providence Cinerama. A very nice old theatre remodeled and similar in design as the San Diego Cinerama. Both owned by Lockwood & Gordon theatres. Saw a couple of 3strips at the Warner in D.C. Also Greatest Story Ever Told in 70mm Cinerama at the Uptown in D.C. Projected lousy. Finally I saw a 70mm blowup of Doctor Zhivago at the Rotterdam, Holland Cinerama. Looked great. Had already seen it before at the Florida theatre in Pensacola in 35mm. It looked good but the 70mm print blew it out of the water.
Boston must have been one of the only cities with 1 Cinerama theatre continuously. They ran Cinerama 3 strip and 70mm For 20yrs. Did any other major US city do this? The RKO Boston theatre was changed to Boston theatre after the advent of Cinerama. It was always The RKO way back to the 20’s.
Thanks Coate, now I understand. And to King Biscuits: I hope that you were being only sarcastic about snipping(censoring) Cinerama films. It never happened. Mr Sinnott was nuts and the old feeling about Boston censoring all movies was just not true. Mostly European were snipped but most got by. Movies like I am Curious Yellow/Blue, Deep Throat, Debbie Does Dallas and even Ecstasy with Hedy Lamarr back in the day were ran uncut for Boston Audiences. Legitimate theatre was watched more closely like Hair and Oh Calcutta. Movie like I am curious yellow and plays like Hair were both raided by the cops but reopened within a week with the Judges approval uncut. I happened to be at the 2 that I mentioned. In fact I went back to see them both after they re-opened. Not very many movies were really snipped here. I bet more were not shown or really cut down south or in the Bible Belt than were here.Sorry to get on the Band Box but I like protecting Boston because we were the #1 Box Office city prior to the closing of so many Big Theatres, ship shod management, especially Sack(USA) Lowes and some other chains. We must now go to the suburbs and visit the little band box multi screens like everywhere else or visit the Lowes Common or the Regal Fenway 14, both with fake IMAX or RPX systems.
dick… No correction is needed. If you read closely what I wrote you’ll see that what I claimed was the Boston Theater was Cinerama installation #10 and that St. Louis was the 10th market to show Cinerama. The first theater in St. Louis to show Cinerama (Ambassador) was installation #11. The theater and market numbers do not correspond because by the time Boston and St. Louis started showing Cinerama, one market (New York) had two Cinerama installations.
How come you say that Boston was installatio #10 and then later on St. Louis you say they were #10. For years I had always read that Boston was #5. Give us a correction.
Like Ron said the Beacon Hill was where they showed the flat screen revival of This is Cinerama supposedly in 70mm. I and my wife were 2 of those in line to get out. Also this is the theatre where you heard the subway trains running by. We saw Little Big Man and The Towering Inferno there and the trains were very annoying.
I saw How The West Was Won and it was technically awful. My friends and I were working our way through school at various movie houses so I knew that the theater’s failure to replace aging filaments was the reason the color temperatures on the three screens was so far off. It didn’t make that much of a difference in regular 35mm projection, but in Cinerama, where the screns were supposed to blend into one big picture, it was a disaster. I also recall the three screens not being perfectly aligned. Equipment back then wasn’t as “nailed down” as it is now and, as an earlier poster pointed out, the subway vibrated the building. Maybe one reason Cinerama didn’t last was the failure to enforce quality control on the theaters playing it.
The Beacon Hill had a Stanley Kubrick film festival in 1974 (I believe) and showed the uncut 2001: A Space Odyssey in SuperPanavision 70 in quadraphonic sound. So not quite Cinerama, but a great experience anyway. During the “apes” sequences in the beginning of the film, you could hear the apes all around you from the four channels. It was the best sound I had heard in a theater.
By the way, the Boston Theater is the RKO Boston. I guess they renamed it because RKO was a competing film company at the time.
I think KingBiscuits is referring to the late Richard Sinnott, who served from 1960-80 as the City of Boston’s “official censor” (and the catalyst for the famed term “Banned In Boston”).
Oh, btw, I did see “2001: A Space Odyssey” when it first came out 41 years ago. Good movie. I’ve seen it at least 2-3 times since, each time forgetting how freaky it is.
Glad to see that there’s now a Boston chapter of the Cinerama. I was too young to see most of those films, since I was a young preteen when most of them came out, but some of the other films that came out in the 1960’s I could’ve seen with no problems. I was a kid growing up in a suburb, so I didn’t get to go to movies as often as I would’ve if I’d grown up in or closer to the city. Too bad about the subway causing the theatre to vibrate. Scary! Didn’t know there were lines for refunds. Nowadays, one has to wait in line with the rest of them in order to get refunds. Wierd. Sign of the times, I guess.
from Beacon Hill page:
An odd thing about this theatre was that the subway ran fairly close behind the screen vibrating the entire house when it did.
They showed a ripoff revival of ‘This Is Cinerama’ one time. Supposedly a new lens enabled them to show Cinerama with one projector. A manager who worked there at the time told me during that run they had 2 boxoffice lines. One waiting to buy tickets and another waiting for refunds.
Supposed to be a scary place to work because of it being 2-3 floors below street level anything could happen and no one outside would notice anything.
posted by BJY on Jan 5, 2005 at 10:11am
I was no stranger to the Boston Cinerama. My Dad had a business across the street at 611 Washington St. for over 50 years. I was lucky to have seen several films there during the 1960’s.
Inside the roughly six-month gap between the end of the 36-week run of “Grand Prix” (somewhere around September 1967) and the April 1968 opening of “2001: A Space Odyssey”, the Boston played the reserved-seat engagement of MGM’s “Far From The Madding Crowd”. It was presented in 70mm on the Cinerama screen but was not made as a Cinerama film nor advertised as such. It was shot in 35mm and blown up to 70mm. The previous engagement, “Grand Prix” marked the change in the cinematography of Cinerama films from Ultra Panavision 70 to Super Panavision 70, and an attendant reduction of screen aspect ratio (and width) from 2.55:1 to 2.2:1. “Grand Prix”,“Madding Crowd”, “2001” and “Ice Station Zebra” all fit this format. All 70mm films at the Boston were projected through the custom-fitted Applied Optics and Mechanics Cinerama curved-focal field projection lenses mounted on two Century JJ 35-70mm projectors installed in the center booth.
To Howard Haas. When This is Cinerama in 70mm played here in Boston it played at the non Cinerama Beacon theatre. It was a medium size Flat Screen and lousy stereo. This is the theatre that the subway ran under, not the Boston Cinerama theatre as you mentioned. Saw a few other movies Little Big Man and Towering Inferno at the Beacon. Lousy projection and sound and what was really annoying was the subway noise every 10mins or less. The Boston Cinerama theatre was terrific. Saw 5 of the 3strips there. HTWWW was projected beautifully with great sound and I sat in the 1st row of the balcony. Saw WWOTBG in 3 strip at the San Diego Cinerama. Saw 2001 in 70mm, Cinerama in San Francisco and also at the Seattle Cinerama. What a great theatre. Saw Ice Station Zebra at the Providence Cinerama. A very nice old theatre remodeled and similar in design as the San Diego Cinerama. Both owned by Lockwood & Gordon theatres. Saw a couple of 3strips at the Warner in D.C. Also Greatest Story Ever Told in 70mm Cinerama at the Uptown in D.C. Projected lousy. Finally I saw a 70mm blowup of Doctor Zhivago at the Rotterdam, Holland Cinerama. Looked great. Had already seen it before at the Florida theatre in Pensacola in 35mm. It looked good but the 70mm print blew it out of the water.
Boston must have been one of the only cities with 1 Cinerama theatre continuously. They ran Cinerama 3 strip and 70mm For 20yrs. Did any other major US city do this? The RKO Boston theatre was changed to Boston theatre after the advent of Cinerama. It was always The RKO way back to the 20’s.
How do I get in touch with the Boston Cinerama Chapter or is the site?
Thanks Coate, now I understand. And to King Biscuits: I hope that you were being only sarcastic about snipping(censoring) Cinerama films. It never happened. Mr Sinnott was nuts and the old feeling about Boston censoring all movies was just not true. Mostly European were snipped but most got by. Movies like I am Curious Yellow/Blue, Deep Throat, Debbie Does Dallas and even Ecstasy with Hedy Lamarr back in the day were ran uncut for Boston Audiences. Legitimate theatre was watched more closely like Hair and Oh Calcutta. Movie like I am curious yellow and plays like Hair were both raided by the cops but reopened within a week with the Judges approval uncut. I happened to be at the 2 that I mentioned. In fact I went back to see them both after they re-opened. Not very many movies were really snipped here. I bet more were not shown or really cut down south or in the Bible Belt than were here.Sorry to get on the Band Box but I like protecting Boston because we were the #1 Box Office city prior to the closing of so many Big Theatres, ship shod management, especially Sack(USA) Lowes and some other chains. We must now go to the suburbs and visit the little band box multi screens like everywhere else or visit the Lowes Common or the Regal Fenway 14, both with fake IMAX or RPX systems.
dick… No correction is needed. If you read closely what I wrote you’ll see that what I claimed was the Boston Theater was Cinerama installation #10 and that St. Louis was the 10th market to show Cinerama. The first theater in St. Louis to show Cinerama (Ambassador) was installation #11. The theater and market numbers do not correspond because by the time Boston and St. Louis started showing Cinerama, one market (New York) had two Cinerama installations.
How come you say that Boston was installatio #10 and then later on St. Louis you say they were #10. For years I had always read that Boston was #5. Give us a correction.
Like Ron said the Beacon Hill was where they showed the flat screen revival of This is Cinerama supposedly in 70mm. I and my wife were 2 of those in line to get out. Also this is the theatre where you heard the subway trains running by. We saw Little Big Man and The Towering Inferno there and the trains were very annoying.
“the subway vibrated the building” above referred to the Beacon Hill, not the RKO-Boston Cinerama which showed the film that you saw.
I saw How The West Was Won and it was technically awful. My friends and I were working our way through school at various movie houses so I knew that the theater’s failure to replace aging filaments was the reason the color temperatures on the three screens was so far off. It didn’t make that much of a difference in regular 35mm projection, but in Cinerama, where the screns were supposed to blend into one big picture, it was a disaster. I also recall the three screens not being perfectly aligned. Equipment back then wasn’t as “nailed down” as it is now and, as an earlier poster pointed out, the subway vibrated the building. Maybe one reason Cinerama didn’t last was the failure to enforce quality control on the theaters playing it.
The Beacon Hill had a Stanley Kubrick film festival in 1974 (I believe) and showed the uncut 2001: A Space Odyssey in SuperPanavision 70 in quadraphonic sound. So not quite Cinerama, but a great experience anyway. During the “apes” sequences in the beginning of the film, you could hear the apes all around you from the four channels. It was the best sound I had heard in a theater.
By the way, the Boston Theater is the RKO Boston. I guess they renamed it because RKO was a competing film company at the time.
Part 1: New York City
Part 2: Chicago
Part 3: San Francisco
Part 4: Houston
Part 5: Washington, DC
Part 6: Los Angeles
Part 7: Atlanta
Part 8: San Diego
Part 9: Dallas
Part 10: Oklahoma City
Part 11: Syracuse
Part 12: Toronto
Part 13: Columbus
Part 14: Montreal
Part 15: Northern New Jersey
Part 16: Charlotte
Part 17: Vancouver
Part 18: Salt Lake City
Part 19: Boston
Part 20: Philadelphia
Part 21: Fresno
Part 22: Detroit
Part 23: Minneapolis
Part 24: Albuquerque
Part 25: El Paso
Part 26: Des Moines
Part 27: Miami
Part 28: Orange County
Part 29: Pittsburgh
Part 30: Baltimore
Part 31: Long Island
I think KingBiscuits is referring to the late Richard Sinnott, who served from 1960-80 as the City of Boston’s “official censor” (and the catalyst for the famed term “Banned In Boston”).
That’s what I was thinking Michael…what cuts??
Huh?
Oh, btw, I did see “2001: A Space Odyssey” when it first came out 41 years ago. Good movie. I’ve seen it at least 2-3 times since, each time forgetting how freaky it is.
That’s a good question, KingBiscuits. It wouldn’t be surprising, if that was the case.
I wonder if the films were shown intact or did the hands of the censors make cuts to the films like they did with others.
Also, that’s a pretty amazing run of Cinerama for one theatre.
Glad to see that there’s now a Boston chapter of the Cinerama. I was too young to see most of those films, since I was a young preteen when most of them came out, but some of the other films that came out in the 1960’s I could’ve seen with no problems. I was a kid growing up in a suburb, so I didn’t get to go to movies as often as I would’ve if I’d grown up in or closer to the city. Too bad about the subway causing the theatre to vibrate. Scary! Didn’t know there were lines for refunds. Nowadays, one has to wait in line with the rest of them in order to get refunds. Wierd. Sign of the times, I guess.
from Beacon Hill page:
An odd thing about this theatre was that the subway ran fairly close behind the screen vibrating the entire house when it did.
They showed a ripoff revival of ‘This Is Cinerama’ one time. Supposedly a new lens enabled them to show Cinerama with one projector. A manager who worked there at the time told me during that run they had 2 boxoffice lines. One waiting to buy tickets and another waiting for refunds.
Supposed to be a scary place to work because of it being 2-3 floors below street level anything could happen and no one outside would notice anything.
posted by BJY on Jan 5, 2005 at 10:11am