Amherst Cinema Arts Center

The Amherst Theatre seated 846 people.

The web site for this theatre can be found at:
http://www.amherststagescreen.org/contact.html

The status that says "Renovating" is wrong. This cinema is set to be demolished (it may already have been demolished). A new cinema and live theatre will be built on its site.

If you go to the site listed above the artists rendering of the new venue does show a new building. There are no renderings of the old Amherst Theatre included at all.

They are now renovating. The theater is gutted and most of the seats were sold off to raise money. I bought 2 rows of 4 seats for $20 per row. By the way, the Hampshire Mall was also renovated, not demolished, but the theaters are still vacant and up for lease.

The theaters at Hampshire Mall were definitely demolished several years ago. Cinemark built on the site and continues to operate them successfully. Donald, are you sure you don't mean Mountain Farms Mall?

Yes, you are correct! I haven't got a clue why I wrote Hampshire mall theaters (now Cinemark theaters). I must have been sleeping or something.

The marquee has now been removed, and new renovations have started on the site.

I knew someone who, in the mid-1970s, began grad school studies at UMASS, fresh out of the Army. He rented an apartment above the Amherst Theatre on Amity St. He was approached to work part-time in the theatre as a projectionist. He had no background at all, but he was mechanically-inclined. He took the job and loved it! Certainly, the commute was easy ! He quickly learned how to aid flairs of showmanship to his screenings. As a union member, he also got assignments to help mount professional live shows when they came into the area. One memorable night at the Amherst Theatre occured at a Friday midnight show. Ordinarily, hard-core XXX features were shown, but the management must have taken some flack about it, because it was decided to switch to soft-core X. When the rowdy, boisterious audience realized that the change had been made, they got most indignant! For a moment, he feared for his safety and comtemplated leaving the booth and running for his apartment! He worked there for about 2 years. It was an example of how someone with no showbiz background or inclinations at all can sometimes fall into a job in the field.

The theatre is not listed in the 1927 Film Daily yearbook; what is listed for Amherst MA is the Town Hall, with 795 seats.In the 1942-43 Motion Picture Almanac, the Amherst Th. is listed under Shea-Chain, Inc. and Affiliates, and is shown as being part of the "Shea Circuit". It's not included under Western Massachusetts Theatres. None of this means much, because these industry sources seem to be full of errors !

The Amherst Cinema Arts Center, Inc. a nonprofit group is building a new three screen movie theater adjacent to the newly renovated Amherst Cinema Building. A local developer remodeled the existing building into shops, offices and restaurant spaces. There is already a coffee house open and the local chamber of commerce moved into the building March 1. The other businesses will be opening and moving in over the few months. The Amherst Cinema Arts Center is hoping to open in Fall 2006. The theater will have 35mm projectors, dolby digital sound and stadium seating, there will also be small stages in each theater for live performances.

This theatre reopened on November 22, 2006. It now has 3 screens. Article here.

In the 1980s, the Amherst Cinema showed 2nd run films and occasionally oldie double features. Once they had a science fiction movie festival there which became an assignment for one of my UMass classes.

The auditorium was long and narrow with plaster columns running down the sides with ornate corinthian tops and light coves with alternating blue and green lights. I always remember the glowing clock to the left of the screen saying "amherst savings bank" long after the bank was bought out. It was renovated in the early 1980s with new curtains hung on the walls between the pillers. The ceiling had been molded ornate tin like many of the older stores downtown, but in early 1970s a modern dropped ceiling was installed.

In the renovation the main building was gutted and converted into stores and the new cinema center is in the backmost part of the old building extending into a new extension. Haven't been into the new cinemas yet but the lobby looks well done. I imagine they did a good job with the auditoriums as well. they are different sizes, I believe the largest holds around 400. The retail portion is fully occupied now. I miss the old cinema but, being so long and narrow, there was no practical way to convert it to modern uses.

For many years there were two other venues in Amherst showing movies. the Town Hall Auditorium showed movies until 1955 when town offices were built in that space. The ceiling remained intact as attic space and when the 2nd floor rooms were removed in a 1980's renovation, they were revealed again and restored. Unfortunately they built a new 2nd and third floor in the building and once again, the old ceiling is attic space. The proscenium is sadly gone. This space must have seated close to 1,000.

The other venue was an auditorium built as part of the Jones Library in 1926. That seated about 300 and showed films for many years. In 1968 when the library was renovated, a 2nd floor sliced the auditorium horizontally, with book stacks going into the stagehouse area. The ceilings curved close down over patrons in the new room, curving to the floor on the sides. I believe it was called the Burnett Room.

In the late 80s or rearly 90s the library was renovated again and the floor removed and stage area walled off, and the room restored as the main adult meeting room. The curved deiling still remains but it's all modern white walls in the room now.

The architects for the renovation, Khun-Riddle Architects, describe the project thusly:

"A multi-use conversion of an unoccupied, 1920s town-center cinema to include a new 3-screen cinema addition, retail, restaurant and office space."

So this does confirm that the three current auditoriums are in an entirely new wing of the building, while the old theatre has been converted to other uses.

Here is a 1979 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/crvuvk

The Kuhn-Riddle page has a nice photo of the main auditorium. Sleek modern decor, black walls with horitontal silver lines and stylish square white lights across the walls. Bright blue stadium-style seating. Large screen, with great sound and projection. Seats about 175 (the other cinemas are around 80 and 45 seats.) Even the smallest one is stadium seating.) The other two screens have the same style decor. Film fare is first run, primarily of the art and foreign film genres.