Stuart Theatre

The Stuart Theatre was located at 700 Washington Street, and had 458 seats.

It was the kind of grind-run movie theatre (cheap, tacky, dingy, wino-populated) that we used to call a "scratch house." And yet, snobbery aside, what a film education you could get by going there...so many movies, new and old...in constant turnover. A poor man's cinematheque. Nothing like it exists any more.

It's now a McDonald's.

These theatres taught me more about film then any book or class could. I saw so many second features I would have never been exposed to in single feature first run houses. Sometimes on 42nd St or at The Thalia you would get a triple bill.

I found a note that I saw the following western double bill here in September, 1972: Frank Perry's "Doc" paired with William Witney's "Arizona Raiders" from 1965.

In its final declining years, the Stuart became the 'Pussycat Cinema' which I believe was the name of a chain of porno theaters. At the same time, the old E.M. Lowe's West End Cinema became the 'West End Pussycat'.

Correction. The old Stuart is not now a McDonalds, but is right next to it. The most vivid memory I have of the Stuart was the smell of Lysol which permeated it. As a side note, the storefront which is now a McDonalds was in the 1930's the Boston office of the "Daily Worker" newspaper, the official mouthpiece of the American Communist Party. How times have changed.

Are you saying the old theatre is still there somewhere? Or did it get converted to something other than McDonald's?

The Stuart Theatre designed by Clarence H Blackall, opened in 1907 as the Unique Theatre with 458 seats. It was later named the Stuart Theatre because of its proximity to Stuart Street.

I have a booklet called "Boston Theatre District: A Walking Tour", published by the Boston Preservation Alliance in 1993. It says:

[In 1907] the Unique Theatre, an early nickelodeon, opened at the corner of Washington and Kneeland Streets. It became the Stuart in 1925 and the X-rated Pussycat in 1976, before giving way to McDonald's in the late 1980's.

In his 1968 unpublished draft manuscript entitled The Puritan Muse (available in the Fine Arts room of the Boston Public Library), Douglas Shand-Tucci refers to the Stuart as the last surviving nickelodeon in Boston.

I'm now looking at a photo of the Stuart, published in the Third Quarter 1974 issue of the Theatre Historical Society's magazine Marquee. It sure looks to me like the Stuart was right on the corner, where McDonald's is now. The Stuart's marquee advertises a movie called I MET A MURDERER.

I believe that the Stuart was open 24 hours a day back during the early '60's.

According to Donald C. King's new book The Theatres of Boston: A Stage and Screen History, this one started out as an amusement called Hale's Tours, where "customers sat in mockups of train coach interiors, which shook, rattled and rocked as film scenery rushed by on a motion picture screen. This was a short-lived attraction. The location then became the Unique Theatre, then the Stuart."

As the Unique Theatre, it opened in January 1907, with 250 seats.

The "Stuart Theatre", in its final days was like a toilet! The place reeked of urine and bodu odor and was raided on many occasions by police for illicit sexual activity!

Do you mean the final days when it was still called the Stuart (showing second-run double features), or the final days as the Pussycat (showing X-rated films)?

It satarted when it was still the "Stuart", housing many homeless and prostitute types due mainly to its cheap admission policy!

I went to the Stuart a number of times in the 1950s and 1960s. It had a flat floor and an asymmetrical middle aisle - I think that the right side of the aisle had more seats than the left. It was really sort of an old Nickleodeon, and had been constructed in an existing building. The restrooms were on either side of the screen. The admission circa 1960 was only 25 cents for 2 last-run double features. It smelled like a horse-stable inside. I don't believe I ever saw a woman in there, although there was no "Men Only" sign out front! Young males, especially teens who were alone, were "prey" in there. The outside right wall, along Stuart St., was solid brick and had 2 double fire doors, painted red. I don't believe that it was ever open 24 hours, like the Rialto in Scollay Square. When it was taken over and renovated into the Pussycat, I assume they got rid of the stable odors! Around 1990 it was converted into a McDonalds. All traces gone, even the right brick wall with the 2 firedoors is gone. It was orignally the Unique, then Stuart, then Pussycat. Interestingly, the only other downtown Boston theatre to be converted into a restaurant is right next door, the Globe/Center/Pagoda. (Or, I should say, converted in recent years, because the old Keith's just north of the Paramount became the Normandie ballroom and bar in the 1930s.) along

The Pussycat closed some time between the 2nd half of 1987 and the first half of 1988; The West End Pussycat (ex-Lancaster Th.) also closed in this same timeframe. I don't recall that the Stuart remained closed for a very long time before being converted into a McDonald's.

An good friend, the sound man at the Ark/Tea Party, saw "Earthquake" in NYC and was wowed big time by the sun-sonic sound provided in the film. Coming back with this story of being shaken big time, he and his wife got a group of about 15 of us to go see "Earthquake," hoping to catch what they had experienced in NYC. Entering, we could see the amplifiers and speakers that were on the floor to make this a real unforgetable cinematic experience.
Not only had the actual earthquake scenes been unmercifully cut to shreds, but the sound had been turned down so as not to bring the house down, which was probably wise, considering what an old old building this theater was. Another Sack Theater memory.
We left the theater a bit miffed but kind of into being able to kid these folks that dragged us there.
Never set foot in the theater again. This would have to have been early '70s.

That should read "sub sonic..."
I recall this as being on Stuart St and not on Washington - or am I thinking of another place?
It was some really old building not too far away from Jacob Wirth's?

Are you sure you saw it here? This was never a Sack Theatre.

Based on your reply just above mine, I'm going to guess that you actually saw Earthquake at the Gary Theatre, not the Stuart.

Yes it played The Gary!

This 1928 map shows at least 11 downtown Boston theatres. West is at the top of this map.

The UNIQUE THEATRE is on the east side of Washington Street, at the corner of Kneeland Street, at the far left edge of this map. In an earlier comment, I quoted from a pamphlet which said the theatre's name changed to Stuart in 1925. Either this was inaccurate, or the mapmaker didn't notice the change.

A Boston Globe article published on December 28, 1982, lists the Stuart as one of several cinemas showing Chinese-language movies in the 1960s.

I remember this as the Pussycat cinema. I remember going there to catch and adult flick in '84. Yes, the place smelled like what a brothel probably smells like...

I never went to it as the Stuart though.

I went into the McDonalds a few years ago though. There's a Falafel Palace (or there was a few years ago) that looks like it may have been a White Castle Burger joint years ago.

The MGM Theatre Photograph and Report form for the Stuart Theatre has an exterior photo taken in May 1941. There was a fairly small marquee with "Stuart" on the front outlined in bulbs. On the sides were 2 lines of black letters on a white background. Attraction was "I Met a Murderer" (they should have added "Inside"). Just above the marquee is a very fancy long carved stonework panel, in the center of which is a large head of a "muse" looking out at Washington St. There is a centered boxoffice just under the marquee. In the right distance, across the street, is an Albiani's restaurant on the site of the Washington Theatre. The Report states that the Stuart is not showing MGM product; that it was built in 1905 (close); that it's in Poor condition; and has 457 seats, all on one floor.

Boston has lost a great many theatrical treasures; the Stuart is NOT one of them! It had no redeeming qualities in the late 1950's, other than perhaps being the cheapest ticket in town. I only went there once when I was about 14, but it was just as described above, and worse! While I was not fighting off a middle-aged sexual predator, I saw part of the worst film I have ever seen, something called "Prehistoric Women."

Most of the films I saw at the Stuart were last runs of mainstream feature films. As for the predators, you could tell who they were because they were constantly changing seats. Sometimes if they saw some youth in there by himself they would all sit around him at once, like bees around honey. Those who objected to this attention could loudly stand up and move elsewhere, or even walk out. Those who did not object could leave later counting their "tip" money. Such was life at the Stuart Theatre after school in the 1950s.

The Stuart was a trip, all of the above! in the early sixties my friends and I would skip school and make the trip to Boston from Waltham and hide out in the theatre's away from the truant officers. were my dad worked at the Embassy in Waltham going to theatres in Boston was like school for me! it was neat checking out the different houses. It was like $1.75 to get in to the Stuart! I remember you could hear the projectors running inside the booth from the seats, after we'd fend off the chicken hawks we would head for the Astor cause they opened at 11am. Ah the memories

markedmunds- are you sure you paid $1.75 to get into the Stuart during the day in the early 1960s? Or was that the total for your entire party of friends? The day admission as of 1960 was only 25 cents; might have gone up to 35 cents by 1962 or 63. It was the cheapest of the downtown Boston theaters in that period.

ron, your right I was thinking like .75 admission. typing something else, do you know who owned the stuart?

No, I don't know. It was a little "indie" the entire time that I knew it until it closed and then became a "Pussycat".

it had a wild mens room! lol

Here is a view of the current location from Google maps:
http://tinyurl.com/6jeq4z

Nice photo.

This site has a 1973 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/c7yyg4

This is a 1971 close-up photo.

This is the place at which I have discovered my homosexuality.

I have such fond memories of this place! I was a 20 year old student when I discovered this place. Some of the men there; I wonder where they are now??

Well aside from that, here is what I remember:

First of all, it was on right hand side of the building. What is tricky is the fact they subleased the front right hand corner (about 100 square feet) to a sandwich shop. So, the *very* corner of that building was the sandwich
shop. The theater itself, however, surrounded the sandwich shop and the
projection boot was on top of the sandwich shop.

Inside, the restrooms were not astride the screen as someone else mentioned
but in the back.

As you enter, there is a bulkhead hard on your right (that is the side of the
sandwich shop). On your left is the entrance of the mens restroom. It was down
a short flight of about four stairs.

Going past that, both the left and right bulkhead open up to the theater itself. If you proceed around to the left (which is behind the left hand
section of seats, you would see the entrance to the womens restroom.

What was frustrating was that there was no vestibule. The front entrance doors were directly exposed to the screen. Whenever someone entered or left, there would be a **HUGE** splash of light on the screen and the picture would be wiped out.

An the reason that you heard the projector was that the projection booth, if
you want to call it that, was not fully enclosed. It had partial wall, similar to the cubicles found in offices today.

Perhaps modern cubicle offices go the idea from the Stuart's projection booth???

And the sound system? It had less power than the mp3 player I use while riding my bicycle (I am a 40 mile per day bicycle commuter in Portland, Oregon). You had to strain to hear the movie.

Of course, about 70 percent of the people there did not care whether the
sound or projection even worked.

I would go there on Sunday afternoons (I went to college in Worcester, so Sundays were the only times I could go there). No matter the season; Winter, Spring, Summer, or Fall; the Stuart was **crowded** on Sunday afternoons.

Aside from myself, on some of those days, the average age would be pushing 50 to 55.

And, by the way, the admission in the early 70's was 50 cents. And it was
older movies.

Cleara
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Portland, Oregon
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