I got another e-mail from Lee after submitting the above item. There will be one demonstration in front of the theatre this week (not one per day). It will take place at noon on Thursday, January 6.
I got another e-mail from Lee after submitting this item. There will be one demonstration in front of the theatre this week (not one per day). It will take place at noon on Thursday, January 6.
As of New Year’s Eve I can report that The Gaiety has had another reprieve!
In a brief submitted to Judge Francis Spina of The Massachusetts Supreme Court, the lawyer for The Glass Slipper argued that demolition of the theatre would deprive his client of the right to several substantial arguments in cases still open in Massachusetts Land Court.
Judge Spina asked Kensington Development for assurances that they would refrain from demolition until after Judge Spina decides the case which will be heard on Friday, January 7, 9:30 am at 1 Beacon Street 3rd floor. Kensington has assented to this request. The public and press may attend.
The Supreme Court has very high standards for accepting cases. They must believe that a message needs to be sent to the lower courts. There are some substantial legal issues here that need enlightened adjudication.
Starting Monday, I would like to have half-hour lunchtime vigils in front of the theatre every day through Friday. Please let me know if you will participate.
As of New Year’s Eve I can report that The Gaiety has had another reprieve!
In a brief submitted to Judge Francis Spina of The Massachusetts Supreme Court, the lawyer for The Glass Slipper [a strip club next to the Gaiety, also threatened with demolition] argued that demolition of the theatre would deprive his client of the right to several substantial arguments in cases still open in Massachusetts Land Court.
Judge Spina asked Kensington Development for assurances that they would refrain from demolition until after Judge Spina decides the case which will be heard on Friday, January 7, 9:30 am at 1 Beacon Street 3rd floor. Kensington has assented to this request. The public and press may attend.
The Supreme Court has very high standards for accepting cases. They must believe that a message needs to be sent to the lower courts. There are some substantial legal issues here that need enlightened adjudication.
Starting Monday, I would like to have half-hour lunchtime vigils in front of the theatre every day through Friday. Please let me know if you will participate.
The Chinese restaurant now occupying the theatre space is called the “Emperor’s Garden” on signs outside, but “Empire Garden” in the phone book. It used to be called “Grand China”. Its address is 690 Washington Street.
I e-mailed Lee Eiseman to ask what the latest news is, if any. He told me that he heard the Glass Slipper was appealing to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. But this is unconfirmed information for now.
When this theatre was still open as a double-feature second-run house in the 1970s, it never advertised in any newspaper. To find out what was playing here, you had to look in the (probably unpaid) fine-print listings in the Boston Globe, Boston Phoenix, or Real Paper.
The last few times I’ve walked by this theatre, the ticket window (which faces out to the mall) was not open. Instead, a sign told people to go inside and buy tickets at the concession stand.
In its final few years as a movie theatre, the Saxon was involved in several controversies.
In 1979, the Saxon showed the movie “The Warriors”. A young man who attended the film then took the subway to Fields Corner in Dorchester and fatally stabbed a teenager. Two years later, the murder victim’s family sued Sack Theatres and Paramount Pictures for wrongful death, claiming that the movie was an incitement to violence. The lawsuit dragged on until 1989, when the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled that Paramount and Sack could not be held responsible.
In May, 1980, the Saxon showed Fredrick Wiseman’s 1967 documentary “Titicut Follies” as part of a film festival. Audience members were required to sign a statement that they were involved in professions related to mental health care, because of a 1971 injunction that stemmed from a lawsuit claiming the film infringed the privacy of Bridgewater State Hospital inmates. Many people falsely signed these statements to attend the film.
In June, 1980, Boston police seized a print of Bob Guccione’s movie “Caligula” from the Saxon few days after it opened. Sack Theatres and Guccione’s Penthouse Pictures were charged with “disseminating obscene material”. A Boston municipal court judge found them innocent on August 1, saying that while the film had no literary, artisitic or scientific value, it was not legally obscene because it had a “serious political theme”. I don’t know whether the film reopened after the judge returned the print to Sack.
The last film to show at the Saxon was the horror film “XTRO”, which had its final showing on May 26, 1983.
[all information above is from Boston Globe online archives]
In the early 1990s, Garen Daly (formerly of the Somerville, and later of the Dedham Community Theatre) brought a few live music shows to the Wollaston.
But he didn’t keep it up for very long, and I recall him telling me that the physical condition of the theatre was a big reason that he stopped.
Just about every other suburban second-run theatre advertises in the Globe — the Somerville Theatre, the Capitol in Arlington, the Belmont Studio, the Lexington Flick, the Dedham Community, even the Mill Wharf in far-off Scituate.
This theatre never advertised in the Boston Globe, even though it is easily reached from Boston on the MBTA Red Line. I have to wonder whether that unnecessarily limited his audience.
The Flagship Cinemas (formerly Showcase, formerly Entertainment Cinemas) at Quincy Center never advertise in the Globe either. I almost wonder if there’s a law in Quincy prohibiting theatres from advertising in newspapers…
The owner of the Wollaston Theatre is Arthur Chandler. The theatre closed in the spring of 2003 for repairs, according to the Boston Globe archives. Unfortunately, it has yet to reopen. When it was last open, admission was just $1 on Mondays and Tuesdays.
This theatre is not to be confused with the General Cinema, and later independent, “Stoneham Cinema” in the Redstone Shopping Center a mile north of the town center. I think that was a 2-screener, built in the 1960s and closed in the late 80s.
A Boston Globe article from August 29, 1991, says that E.M. Loew was the last operator of the Capri, and that he sold it to the Christian Science Church (not the Prudential Center) for the construction and expansion of their complex.
I think Christian Science expansion also cost us several other nearby theaters on Mass. Ave. — the Uptown, the Loew’s State, the Fine Arts.
The Publix and Paramount were two separate theaters — BUT, the Paramount has a logo on it that says “Publix Theatres”. You can see it near the top right of the Paramount’s (restored) façade.
In the Boston Globe and Herald archives, I find several references to this incident:
“No. 658 Washington St. in the Combat Zone, now a parking lot, was once the site of the Pilgrim Theater. On a December night in 1974, a tipsy US Representative Wilbur Mills, an Arkansas Democrat, pursued on stage the notorious Annabella Batistella — a.k.a. burlesque dancer Fanne Foxe. She had already stripped; it would take only a few weeks for Mills to be stripped of his chairmanship of the House Ways and Means Committee.”
The Crimson Galeria (one “l”) is a small shopping mall in Harvard Square, which used to have this theatre in its basement. I think it opened in the early 1970s. It was already open when I arrived in Cambridge in 1975.
The CambridgeSide Galleria (two “l"s) is a large regional shopping mall in East Cambridge, which has never had a movie theatre in it. It opened in 1991. It’s what most people around here now think of if you say the word "Gal[l]eria” out loud.
Were Cinerama films ever shown here?
I got another e-mail from Lee after submitting the above item. There will be one demonstration in front of the theatre this week (not one per day). It will take place at noon on Thursday, January 6.
I got another e-mail from Lee after submitting this item. There will be one demonstration in front of the theatre this week (not one per day). It will take place at noon on Thursday, January 6.
The latest e-mail missive from Lee Eiseman of Friends of the Gaiety Theatre:
As of New Year’s Eve I can report that The Gaiety has had another reprieve!
In a brief submitted to Judge Francis Spina of The Massachusetts Supreme Court, the lawyer for The Glass Slipper argued that demolition of the theatre would deprive his client of the right to several substantial arguments in cases still open in Massachusetts Land Court.
Judge Spina asked Kensington Development for assurances that they would refrain from demolition until after Judge Spina decides the case which will be heard on Friday, January 7, 9:30 am at 1 Beacon Street 3rd floor. Kensington has assented to this request. The public and press may attend.
The Supreme Court has very high standards for accepting cases. They must believe that a message needs to be sent to the lower courts. There are some substantial legal issues here that need enlightened adjudication.
Starting Monday, I would like to have half-hour lunchtime vigils in front of the theatre every day through Friday. Please let me know if you will participate.
Thanks,
Lee
The latest e-mail missive from Lee Eiseman of Friends of the Gaiety Theatre:
As of New Year’s Eve I can report that The Gaiety has had another reprieve!
In a brief submitted to Judge Francis Spina of The Massachusetts Supreme Court, the lawyer for The Glass Slipper [a strip club next to the Gaiety, also threatened with demolition] argued that demolition of the theatre would deprive his client of the right to several substantial arguments in cases still open in Massachusetts Land Court.
Judge Spina asked Kensington Development for assurances that they would refrain from demolition until after Judge Spina decides the case which will be heard on Friday, January 7, 9:30 am at 1 Beacon Street 3rd floor. Kensington has assented to this request. The public and press may attend.
The Supreme Court has very high standards for accepting cases. They must believe that a message needs to be sent to the lower courts. There are some substantial legal issues here that need enlightened adjudication.
Starting Monday, I would like to have half-hour lunchtime vigils in front of the theatre every day through Friday. Please let me know if you will participate.
Thanks,
Lee
In Boston, the Opera House (orignally B.F. Keith Memorial, later Savoy Theatre) reopened in July 2004 with a production of Disney’s “The Lion King”.
Boston, MA: Also, both the Orpheum Theatre and the Berklee Performance Center (originally Fenway Theatre) will host First Night events.
The Chinese restaurant now occupying the theatre space is called the “Emperor’s Garden” on signs outside, but “Empire Garden” in the phone book. It used to be called “Grand China”. Its address is 690 Washington Street.
I e-mailed Lee Eiseman to ask what the latest news is, if any. He told me that he heard the Glass Slipper was appealing to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. But this is unconfirmed information for now.
When this theatre was still open as a double-feature second-run house in the 1970s, it never advertised in any newspaper. To find out what was playing here, you had to look in the (probably unpaid) fine-print listings in the Boston Globe, Boston Phoenix, or Real Paper.
The last few times I’ve walked by this theatre, the ticket window (which faces out to the mall) was not open. Instead, a sign told people to go inside and buy tickets at the concession stand.
In its final few years as a movie theatre, the Saxon was involved in several controversies.
In 1979, the Saxon showed the movie “The Warriors”. A young man who attended the film then took the subway to Fields Corner in Dorchester and fatally stabbed a teenager. Two years later, the murder victim’s family sued Sack Theatres and Paramount Pictures for wrongful death, claiming that the movie was an incitement to violence. The lawsuit dragged on until 1989, when the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled that Paramount and Sack could not be held responsible.
In May, 1980, the Saxon showed Fredrick Wiseman’s 1967 documentary “Titicut Follies” as part of a film festival. Audience members were required to sign a statement that they were involved in professions related to mental health care, because of a 1971 injunction that stemmed from a lawsuit claiming the film infringed the privacy of Bridgewater State Hospital inmates. Many people falsely signed these statements to attend the film.
In June, 1980, Boston police seized a print of Bob Guccione’s movie “Caligula” from the Saxon few days after it opened. Sack Theatres and Guccione’s Penthouse Pictures were charged with “disseminating obscene material”. A Boston municipal court judge found them innocent on August 1, saying that while the film had no literary, artisitic or scientific value, it was not legally obscene because it had a “serious political theme”. I don’t know whether the film reopened after the judge returned the print to Sack.
The last film to show at the Saxon was the horror film “XTRO”, which had its final showing on May 26, 1983.
[all information above is from Boston Globe online archives]
In the early 1990s, Garen Daly (formerly of the Somerville, and later of the Dedham Community Theatre) brought a few live music shows to the Wollaston.
But he didn’t keep it up for very long, and I recall him telling me that the physical condition of the theatre was a big reason that he stopped.
It’s a block from the Red Line stop.
Just about every other suburban second-run theatre advertises in the Globe — the Somerville Theatre, the Capitol in Arlington, the Belmont Studio, the Lexington Flick, the Dedham Community, even the Mill Wharf in far-off Scituate.
This theatre never advertised in the Boston Globe, even though it is easily reached from Boston on the MBTA Red Line. I have to wonder whether that unnecessarily limited his audience.
The Flagship Cinemas (formerly Showcase, formerly Entertainment Cinemas) at Quincy Center never advertise in the Globe either. I almost wonder if there’s a law in Quincy prohibiting theatres from advertising in newspapers…
The owner of the Wollaston Theatre is Arthur Chandler. The theatre closed in the spring of 2003 for repairs, according to the Boston Globe archives. Unfortunately, it has yet to reopen. When it was last open, admission was just $1 on Mondays and Tuesdays.
What is now located on the site of the old Embassy?
This theatre is not to be confused with the General Cinema, and later independent, “Stoneham Cinema” in the Redstone Shopping Center a mile north of the town center. I think that was a 2-screener, built in the 1960s and closed in the late 80s.
A Boston Globe article from August 29, 1991, says that E.M. Loew was the last operator of the Capri, and that he sold it to the Christian Science Church (not the Prudential Center) for the construction and expansion of their complex.
I think Christian Science expansion also cost us several other nearby theaters on Mass. Ave. — the Uptown, the Loew’s State, the Fine Arts.
When it was the Star Cinema, the address was 38 Essex Street.
Responding to the very first comment above…
The Publix and Paramount were two separate theaters — BUT, the Paramount has a logo on it that says “Publix Theatres”. You can see it near the top right of the Paramount’s (restored) façade.
The Pilgrim Theater, in happier days (1961). From the Maureen O'Hara fan club site.
This web site shows the high-rise residential tower that is being built where the Pilgrim Theatre was:
http://www.ParkEssex.com
In the Boston Globe and Herald archives, I find several references to this incident:
“No. 658 Washington St. in the Combat Zone, now a parking lot, was once the site of the Pilgrim Theater. On a December night in 1974, a tipsy US Representative Wilbur Mills, an Arkansas Democrat, pursued on stage the notorious Annabella Batistella — a.k.a. burlesque dancer Fanne Foxe. She had already stripped; it would take only a few weeks for Mills to be stripped of his chairmanship of the House Ways and Means Committee.”
Just to clarify the “one l” business:
The Crimson Galeria (one “l”) is a small shopping mall in Harvard Square, which used to have this theatre in its basement. I think it opened in the early 1970s. It was already open when I arrived in Cambridge in 1975.
The CambridgeSide Galleria (two “l"s) is a large regional shopping mall in East Cambridge, which has never had a movie theatre in it. It opened in 1991. It’s what most people around here now think of if you say the word "Gal[l]eria” out loud.
Demolished in February 1990, according to a Boston Globe article from March 18, 1990.