I’ve got to admit to one thing: The fact that many, if not most of the great oilder classic films, including my alltime favorite film, West Side Story, are available on DVD has not stopped me from going to see WSS and other great old classics on the great big wide movie theatre screen when they come to the two repertory movie houses left in our area.
Interesting article, Michael. Thanks for this. I was aware of a place called Rochester, NH, and the Scenic Theatre, but I wasn’t aware of the fact that the multiplex cinemas that now dot most of America’s landscape really began to crop up in the 1960’s. I thought that the 1970’s and 1980’s and beyond were when multiplex cinemas really began to develop in earnest.
Hi, ErikH. Thanks for your input. I see where you’re coming from regarding bicycling to the cinema with friends to catch a weekend matinee, or going with other people (i. e. family or whoever) during the evening hours, but, as a woman, I was not really comfortable with the idea of going to such a secluded place by myself in the evening, particularly because of the problems that they did have there at that time. Don’t know what that general area’s like right now, but regarding that grisly incident I mentioned in my earlier post, that secluded area by the Lincoln-Waltham line is where those two teenaged boys got taken, and badly beat up by a pair of nasty drunks who’d picked them up. Scary indeed.
You’re right, thought about economics, industrial needs, the proliferation of home video in the early 1980’s, and the lack of room for the Waltham Cinema’s expansion due to that office retail building.
As kids, my sister and I frequently went to the old, vintage Embassy Theatre in Waltham, on Moody Street, either by ourselves, or with our friends and/or family. That theatre was a real palace of a theatre—it was cool. Fond memories abound, but it’s no more, and, since I no longer live near that area, I don’t much think about it any more.
I wish there were more of these great big cinemas, and that the older classics, such as West Side Story, Lawrence of Arabia, Dr. Zhivago, Wizard of Oz, to name afew, would be shown on them.
I don’t live in the Columbus, Ohio area, but, imho, there are far, far too many multiplex theatres dotting the American landscape and making tons of money by charging exhorbitant admission and concession prices, in addition to playing the crummiest, schlockiest movies that’re overblown, overly graphic, and have too much exploding on the screen. Inotherwords, they’re long on style (if one can call it that) and woefully short on substance. While there’s an occasional good or OK film to be had at some of these multiplexes, mostly they’re not good. There are some rare movie theatres (i. e. the Coolidge Corner Theatre and the Somerville Theatre) that started off as single screens, added afew more movie screens and have survived as theatres that play good movies), not to mention the Brattle Theatre, which is still a single-screen movie theatre that plays retrospect films and has survived due to people’s goodwilld, etc., but theatres like that are few and far between.
Would it be possible to add afew more screens (not a whole lot) to the Grandview Theatre and still preserve it as a movie that plays independent films, classic films., etc? Just curious.
Well….saw ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark" last night at the Coolidge Corner Theatre, as I’d planned. Prior to the movie, however, there was an archaeologist who spoke, and presented a slide show. Interestig indeed.
Hi, ErikH. I grew up in a town that abutted Waltham, and remember the old, original Embassy Theatre very well. My sister and I often went to that movie theatre as kids, with friends, by ourselves, or with family, before we were of the driving age. A very elegant, baroque-looking theatre the old, original Embassy Theatre it was…both inside and out.
I remember the Waltham Cinema I and II quite well, despite my having gone there only once or twice, and it didn’t have nearly the feel, decor and magnetism that the old, original Embassy Theatre on Moody Street did. The intersection of 128 and Winter Street, which was right near the Lincoln-Waltham border, was not the best location for a cinema, especially because the cinema was so isolated and secluded. Moreover, it was close to the part of Winter Street, near the Lincoln-Waltham border, which was a notorious Lovers' Lane—people would regularly go there, park and make out, at all hours of the day, but especially at night. Not only was that stretch of Winter Street near the Waltham Cinema a notorious Lovers' Lane, but there were also a lot of fights down there, and one girl even got assaulted, at one point.
In an even grislier scenerio, there was an incident back in the early 1970’s, where a bunch of high school kids from Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School were out on a double date one Saturday night, when, for some reason, they hitched a ride and got picked up by a couple of men who, although they were clearly intoxicated, didn’t seem unfriendly. The girls were let off before the guys, but then, things took a nastier, more vicious turn. One of the boys received a concussion from being hit over the head with a blunt, heavy instrument, and the other one almost got run over by their attacker’s car while they were escaping and going for help.
My hunch is that the Waltham Cinema failed after a relatively short stint due to its secluded location, the kind of movies that were played there, and the fact that this area was kind of a rough area where many people probably didn’t feel safe going into at night. But that’s my guess.
I agree with your last sentences, danpetitpas. I had a Friend of the Film Series Membership at the Wang for afew years, but when they gave up their annual Classic Film Series, I allowed my membership to lapse. I remember seeing the film “Ciao America”, “To Sir With Love”, ‘Ben-Hur", and, last but not least, my alltime favorite movie, “West Side Story”, at least three times at the Wang. How I miss their Classic Film Series. I wish they’d bring them back. I think there was some sort of ominous thing taking place when they began showing really junky-soounding classic films, too.
I remember Loring Hall, from the time back in the fall of 1964, when my parents took me and my younger sister to see the then-new Beatles movie “A Hard Day’s Night”, which was a cool film. I was an 8th grader back then, and the Beatles were still quite popular and in vogue. Loring Hall’s a very attractive, homey-looking little theatre, with an intimate air to it, both outside and in. We all enjoyed the movie for a very cheap price.
I may sound a little bit like an old prude saying this, but I think there are more risks to walking through an unlocked door and through the interior of a dark, abandoned movie theatre than just simply being caught by the police, who might rail at you some a bit:
A) There’s the risk of a large chunk of heaven-knows-what falling down on somebody’s head who walks in there, whether it be alone or with someone else.
B) One never knows who may be hiding out in there—it’s possible to encounter a bullet, a switchblade, or to get beat up, assaulted, or worse. Imho-it’s not worth the risk of walking in there, whether one’s alone or accompanied.
I didn’t get to see “Sound of Music” during any 40th-year anniversary screenings of it, but I did see it when it first came out, at a theatre in Boston (though I forget which one), and, as a teenager about to enter high school, was quite impressed by it. Years later, I saw it on TV, and then, some years after that, I saw a sing-a-long of SOM at the Coolidge Theatre, in Brookline, MA.
I first saw “Pink Floyd: The Wall” at the Orson Welles Cinema, in Cambridge, MA, back in the spring of 1982, when I was living right around the corner from that cinema. My brother and I took in a midnight screening of it, and it was a cool film. Not long ago, “Pink Floyd: The Wall” played again, at the Brattle Theatre, and I went to see it again. I enjoyed this intense film immensely…both times.
Out of curiosity, did South Boston’s Broadway Theatre ever show any of the great classics, such as West Side Story, Dr. Zhivago, etc? If so, how much of an audience did films such as these gain there? Again, just curious.
That’s really a shame. However, it’s not surprising that a lot of these multiplex cinemas that’re located right off the big highways here in the United States are so badly kept up. I still recall the last time I went to the (formerly Lowes) Assembly Square Multiplex Cinema (now AMC), in Somerville, MA, for a movie a little over a year ago, and the place had gone downhill; the place, including the restrooms, was none too clean. Moreover, there was always a big problem with people, especially teens, using and texting on their cellphones during the movie. I ignored it as best I could, but it was still a distraction, nonetheless. Most surprising, however, was the fact that the person who sold me a ticket, and a concession was super-nice and friendly—friendlier than they’d ever been. Now that I think back on that, I wonder if the woman was friendly because she knew it was probably her last day or week working there, because the cinema was going to close. Hmm..
Anyway, Somerville’s Assembly Square Lowes Multiplex Cinema was bought by AMC, who, for whatever reason(s), didn’t want to keep it, so the cinema is still standing, but it’s now closed. That cinema was part of Somerville’s Assembly Square Mall, where people could go shopping, go have something to eat, and then take in a movie, but I wonder if malls are going out of fashion these days.
Anyway, back to what I was saying, the reason I found out about the closing of the Assembly Square cinema is because I scanned the Arts/Movies section of our biggest, most prominent local newspaper one day, and found that cinema was no longer listed. I learned from another person in my building that AMC had bought it and didn’t want to keep the cinema, so it was closed. And so it goes.
The Totten Pond Cinema, in Waltham, which was built sometime during the 1970’s, and located just off of Route 128, and near Totten Pond Road, and Winter Street, also didn’t last long. I went in there once or twice—it was sort of creepy, and none too clean, either. It ended up closing shortly after it was built, in the early 1980’s.
The Somerville, Coolidge and the Brattle Theatres are my favorite Boston-area theatres, and they’ve shown some wonderful independent and classic films at all of these theatres.
My favorite out-of-state theatres are:
Clearview Ziegfeld Cinema and Radio City Music Hall, NYC, NY. These are wonderfully huge screens, and the great, golden oldie-but-goody classic film, West Side Story, looked beautiful on both of these really large screens. The Radio City Hall screen was huge, but not as long and narrow as the screen at the Ziegfeld, but they’re both great theatres.
Albany Palace Theatre, Albany, NY: This is a rather rustic-looking old palace of a theatre, which also does live performances as well as monthly classic films. Although the screen’s not super-large, it, too was a wonderful place to show West Side Story.
CineStudio Theatre, Hartford, CT: This particular theatre is part of Trinity College, which is a very pretty campus, but it’s abutted by poorer, run-down Hartford neighborhoods. Nonetheless, I had no problems, although I did lose almost an hour when the traffic on the Mass Tpke backed up at least 8-10 miles before the I-84 Exit, and through the tollbooth. Once I got past all that and through the tollbooth, however, I had no more trouble, and the rest of the drive down there went smoothly.
Anyway, back to the subject at hand: I went for a screening of West Side Story at the CineStudio Theatre about three weeks ago. It’s a wonderful-looking classic theatre, with just under 500 seats, including a balcony, and a 40-50 foot screen that’s somewhat more noticeably curved than other screens that I’ve seen. There was a beautiful new 35mm print of West Side Story, the same as I’d seen at the Brattle two months before, and the chairs were comfortable, to boot. I love seeing classics, especially WSS, in theatres where there’s a balcony.
btw—the Somerville Theatre’s main theatre is still intact….balcony and all, and I’m glad of it.
Star Wars I and Star Wars II (The Empire Strikes Back): I remember seeing both of these Star Wars Episode films at the now-defunct Charles Cinema, in what’s now Boston’s old West End neighborhood. It was wonderful.
“Close Encounters of the Third Kind” and “Saturday Night Fever”
I saw both of those when they first came out-“Close Encounters” at the (soon to be defunct) Circle Cnema, which is right smack at the Boston (Brighton)-Brookline Line, in Cleveland Circle, and “Saturday NIght Fever” at a theatre in Lexington, MA, with some friends. I also saw “Saturday Night Fever” again years later, at the Brattle Theatre, Cambridge, MA.
Not long ago, I spoke with somebody who was predicting an eventual disappearance of most of the multiplex cinemas that’re now located off of many, if not most of the United States' highways, and afew movie palaces will be preserved and remain open, for people who still like to go to see older classics, independent films, etc., in a real movie theatre.
Btw—the El Capitan looks like a gorgeous theatre..and a perfect place to show films such as “Sleeping Beauty”, as well as a whole host of other classic films.
The advent of computers and the computer age has permanently changed the way that animated cartoon films are made. That’s how it goes. Yet, I agree that there’s nothing like the old, original animated films. I remember seeing the film “Sleeping Beauty”, as a preteen, when it first came out. It was in 70mm. The parents of a classmate had taken her and several other kids, including myself, to see “Sleeping Beauty” for her birthday. I forgot how cool that film was until I looked at the submitted photos.
I’ve got to admit to one thing: The fact that many, if not most of the great oilder classic films, including my alltime favorite film, West Side Story, are available on DVD has not stopped me from going to see WSS and other great old classics on the great big wide movie theatre screen when they come to the two repertory movie houses left in our area.
Interesting article, Michael. Thanks for this. I was aware of a place called Rochester, NH, and the Scenic Theatre, but I wasn’t aware of the fact that the multiplex cinemas that now dot most of America’s landscape really began to crop up in the 1960’s. I thought that the 1970’s and 1980’s and beyond were when multiplex cinemas really began to develop in earnest.
Too bad there’s never, ever been a theatre like that in Boston.
Hi, ErikH. Thanks for your input. I see where you’re coming from regarding bicycling to the cinema with friends to catch a weekend matinee, or going with other people (i. e. family or whoever) during the evening hours, but, as a woman, I was not really comfortable with the idea of going to such a secluded place by myself in the evening, particularly because of the problems that they did have there at that time. Don’t know what that general area’s like right now, but regarding that grisly incident I mentioned in my earlier post, that secluded area by the Lincoln-Waltham line is where those two teenaged boys got taken, and badly beat up by a pair of nasty drunks who’d picked them up. Scary indeed.
You’re right, thought about economics, industrial needs, the proliferation of home video in the early 1980’s, and the lack of room for the Waltham Cinema’s expansion due to that office retail building.
As kids, my sister and I frequently went to the old, vintage Embassy Theatre in Waltham, on Moody Street, either by ourselves, or with our friends and/or family. That theatre was a real palace of a theatre—it was cool. Fond memories abound, but it’s no more, and, since I no longer live near that area, I don’t much think about it any more.
I wish there were more of these great big cinemas, and that the older classics, such as West Side Story, Lawrence of Arabia, Dr. Zhivago, Wizard of Oz, to name afew, would be shown on them.
I don’t live in the Columbus, Ohio area, but, imho, there are far, far too many multiplex theatres dotting the American landscape and making tons of money by charging exhorbitant admission and concession prices, in addition to playing the crummiest, schlockiest movies that’re overblown, overly graphic, and have too much exploding on the screen. Inotherwords, they’re long on style (if one can call it that) and woefully short on substance. While there’s an occasional good or OK film to be had at some of these multiplexes, mostly they’re not good. There are some rare movie theatres (i. e. the Coolidge Corner Theatre and the Somerville Theatre) that started off as single screens, added afew more movie screens and have survived as theatres that play good movies), not to mention the Brattle Theatre, which is still a single-screen movie theatre that plays retrospect films and has survived due to people’s goodwilld, etc., but theatres like that are few and far between.
Would it be possible to add afew more screens (not a whole lot) to the Grandview Theatre and still preserve it as a movie that plays independent films, classic films., etc? Just curious.
Thanks, longislandmovies! Keeping my fingers crossed.
The Paris sounds like a beautiful theatre. Hope it stays on forever and ever.
Well….saw ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark" last night at the Coolidge Corner Theatre, as I’d planned. Prior to the movie, however, there was an archaeologist who spoke, and presented a slide show. Interestig indeed.
Hi, ErikH. I grew up in a town that abutted Waltham, and remember the old, original Embassy Theatre very well. My sister and I often went to that movie theatre as kids, with friends, by ourselves, or with family, before we were of the driving age. A very elegant, baroque-looking theatre the old, original Embassy Theatre it was…both inside and out.
I remember the Waltham Cinema I and II quite well, despite my having gone there only once or twice, and it didn’t have nearly the feel, decor and magnetism that the old, original Embassy Theatre on Moody Street did. The intersection of 128 and Winter Street, which was right near the Lincoln-Waltham border, was not the best location for a cinema, especially because the cinema was so isolated and secluded. Moreover, it was close to the part of Winter Street, near the Lincoln-Waltham border, which was a notorious Lovers' Lane—people would regularly go there, park and make out, at all hours of the day, but especially at night. Not only was that stretch of Winter Street near the Waltham Cinema a notorious Lovers' Lane, but there were also a lot of fights down there, and one girl even got assaulted, at one point.
In an even grislier scenerio, there was an incident back in the early 1970’s, where a bunch of high school kids from Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School were out on a double date one Saturday night, when, for some reason, they hitched a ride and got picked up by a couple of men who, although they were clearly intoxicated, didn’t seem unfriendly. The girls were let off before the guys, but then, things took a nastier, more vicious turn. One of the boys received a concussion from being hit over the head with a blunt, heavy instrument, and the other one almost got run over by their attacker’s car while they were escaping and going for help.
My hunch is that the Waltham Cinema failed after a relatively short stint due to its secluded location, the kind of movies that were played there, and the fact that this area was kind of a rough area where many people probably didn’t feel safe going into at night. But that’s my guess.
I agree with your last sentences, danpetitpas. I had a Friend of the Film Series Membership at the Wang for afew years, but when they gave up their annual Classic Film Series, I allowed my membership to lapse. I remember seeing the film “Ciao America”, “To Sir With Love”, ‘Ben-Hur", and, last but not least, my alltime favorite movie, “West Side Story”, at least three times at the Wang. How I miss their Classic Film Series. I wish they’d bring them back. I think there was some sort of ominous thing taking place when they began showing really junky-soounding classic films, too.
I remember Loring Hall, from the time back in the fall of 1964, when my parents took me and my younger sister to see the then-new Beatles movie “A Hard Day’s Night”, which was a cool film. I was an 8th grader back then, and the Beatles were still quite popular and in vogue. Loring Hall’s a very attractive, homey-looking little theatre, with an intimate air to it, both outside and in. We all enjoyed the movie for a very cheap price.
ScottM and DBrenson:
I may sound a little bit like an old prude saying this, but I think there are more risks to walking through an unlocked door and through the interior of a dark, abandoned movie theatre than just simply being caught by the police, who might rail at you some a bit:
A) There’s the risk of a large chunk of heaven-knows-what falling down on somebody’s head who walks in there, whether it be alone or with someone else.
B) One never knows who may be hiding out in there—it’s possible to encounter a bullet, a switchblade, or to get beat up, assaulted, or worse. Imho-it’s not worth the risk of walking in there, whether one’s alone or accompanied.
I didn’t get to see “Sound of Music” during any 40th-year anniversary screenings of it, but I did see it when it first came out, at a theatre in Boston (though I forget which one), and, as a teenager about to enter high school, was quite impressed by it. Years later, I saw it on TV, and then, some years after that, I saw a sing-a-long of SOM at the Coolidge Theatre, in Brookline, MA.
I first saw “Pink Floyd: The Wall” at the Orson Welles Cinema, in Cambridge, MA, back in the spring of 1982, when I was living right around the corner from that cinema. My brother and I took in a midnight screening of it, and it was a cool film. Not long ago, “Pink Floyd: The Wall” played again, at the Brattle Theatre, and I went to see it again. I enjoyed this intense film immensely…both times.
Yup. This:
“ You mean they sent a 70mm print instead of 35mm one?”
is absolutely correct, Gerald.
Out of curiosity, did South Boston’s Broadway Theatre ever show any of the great classics, such as West Side Story, Dr. Zhivago, etc? If so, how much of an audience did films such as these gain there? Again, just curious.
That’s really a shame. However, it’s not surprising that a lot of these multiplex cinemas that’re located right off the big highways here in the United States are so badly kept up. I still recall the last time I went to the (formerly Lowes) Assembly Square Multiplex Cinema (now AMC), in Somerville, MA, for a movie a little over a year ago, and the place had gone downhill; the place, including the restrooms, was none too clean. Moreover, there was always a big problem with people, especially teens, using and texting on their cellphones during the movie. I ignored it as best I could, but it was still a distraction, nonetheless. Most surprising, however, was the fact that the person who sold me a ticket, and a concession was super-nice and friendly—friendlier than they’d ever been. Now that I think back on that, I wonder if the woman was friendly because she knew it was probably her last day or week working there, because the cinema was going to close. Hmm..
Anyway, Somerville’s Assembly Square Lowes Multiplex Cinema was bought by AMC, who, for whatever reason(s), didn’t want to keep it, so the cinema is still standing, but it’s now closed. That cinema was part of Somerville’s Assembly Square Mall, where people could go shopping, go have something to eat, and then take in a movie, but I wonder if malls are going out of fashion these days.
Anyway, back to what I was saying, the reason I found out about the closing of the Assembly Square cinema is because I scanned the Arts/Movies section of our biggest, most prominent local newspaper one day, and found that cinema was no longer listed. I learned from another person in my building that AMC had bought it and didn’t want to keep the cinema, so it was closed. And so it goes.
The Totten Pond Cinema, in Waltham, which was built sometime during the 1970’s, and located just off of Route 128, and near Totten Pond Road, and Winter Street, also didn’t last long. I went in there once or twice—it was sort of creepy, and none too clean, either. It ended up closing shortly after it was built, in the early 1980’s.
The Somerville, Coolidge and the Brattle Theatres are my favorite Boston-area theatres, and they’ve shown some wonderful independent and classic films at all of these theatres.
My favorite out-of-state theatres are:
Clearview Ziegfeld Cinema and Radio City Music Hall, NYC, NY. These are wonderfully huge screens, and the great, golden oldie-but-goody classic film, West Side Story, looked beautiful on both of these really large screens. The Radio City Hall screen was huge, but not as long and narrow as the screen at the Ziegfeld, but they’re both great theatres.
Albany Palace Theatre, Albany, NY: This is a rather rustic-looking old palace of a theatre, which also does live performances as well as monthly classic films. Although the screen’s not super-large, it, too was a wonderful place to show West Side Story.
CineStudio Theatre, Hartford, CT: This particular theatre is part of Trinity College, which is a very pretty campus, but it’s abutted by poorer, run-down Hartford neighborhoods. Nonetheless, I had no problems, although I did lose almost an hour when the traffic on the Mass Tpke backed up at least 8-10 miles before the I-84 Exit, and through the tollbooth. Once I got past all that and through the tollbooth, however, I had no more trouble, and the rest of the drive down there went smoothly.
Anyway, back to the subject at hand: I went for a screening of West Side Story at the CineStudio Theatre about three weeks ago. It’s a wonderful-looking classic theatre, with just under 500 seats, including a balcony, and a 40-50 foot screen that’s somewhat more noticeably curved than other screens that I’ve seen. There was a beautiful new 35mm print of West Side Story, the same as I’d seen at the Brattle two months before, and the chairs were comfortable, to boot. I love seeing classics, especially WSS, in theatres where there’s a balcony.
btw—the Somerville Theatre’s main theatre is still intact….balcony and all, and I’m glad of it.
Star Wars I and Star Wars II (The Empire Strikes Back): I remember seeing both of these Star Wars Episode films at the now-defunct Charles Cinema, in what’s now Boston’s old West End neighborhood. It was wonderful.
“Close Encounters of the Third Kind” and “Saturday Night Fever”
I saw both of those when they first came out-“Close Encounters” at the (soon to be defunct) Circle Cnema, which is right smack at the Boston (Brighton)-Brookline Line, in Cleveland Circle, and “Saturday NIght Fever” at a theatre in Lexington, MA, with some friends. I also saw “Saturday Night Fever” again years later, at the Brattle Theatre, Cambridge, MA.
Not long ago, I spoke with somebody who was predicting an eventual disappearance of most of the multiplex cinemas that’re now located off of many, if not most of the United States' highways, and afew movie palaces will be preserved and remain open, for people who still like to go to see older classics, independent films, etc., in a real movie theatre.
Btw—the El Capitan looks like a gorgeous theatre..and a perfect place to show films such as “Sleeping Beauty”, as well as a whole host of other classic films.
The advent of computers and the computer age has permanently changed the way that animated cartoon films are made. That’s how it goes. Yet, I agree that there’s nothing like the old, original animated films. I remember seeing the film “Sleeping Beauty”, as a preteen, when it first came out. It was in 70mm. The parents of a classmate had taken her and several other kids, including myself, to see “Sleeping Beauty” for her birthday. I forgot how cool that film was until I looked at the submitted photos.