Lexington Venue

The 'Flick' people also owned a theatre that was part of the Sherwood Plaza strip mall on Route 9 in Natick. That particular venue closed in the summer of '89 with 'Field of Dreams' as one of its final attractions - I recall a special mentioning of the Natick Flick's closing within its listing in its Boston Globe Movie Clock listing at the time - and has since been converted to retail.

My uncle owned the Westborough Flick 1/2, also known as the Ruth Gordon Cinema, on Route 9 in Westborough, but it was not affiliated with the other Flicks.

The marquee in front suggests that it might have once been a 3-screen cinema. I don't know where the third screen could have been, since the existing two are both quite small.

Sometimes theatres put more then one number on the marquee for when they run split screens.

I remember the Lexington Flick being a triplex through sometime around the late '80s - I think through the time it was a Loews property - but have no knowledge of what became of the third auditorium; perhaps it became retail?

I believe the third house was separate cinder block
structure built in back with a separate entrance.
The current existing Theatre was twinned upstairs/downstairs
with the original screen end intact, similiar to to Coolidge Corner
and Harvard Sq.

I ran this theatre for a few years in the late 80's. It was one of the best theatres I've ever run in my 15+ year career. The third theatre was located in a separate building behind the main theatre. It was a bit of a pain to move a print intact through the small alleyway. The building is now known as the "Muzzey Mall" and contains a number of small retail shops.

It's great to hear from you. Do you happen to know what the theatre's original name was, before Sack owned it? Or when the main auditorium was split into separate upstairs and downstairs screens?

I used to work at the Natick Flick. "Route 9's quality discount theater" as I used to say on the answering machine that gave the movies titles and times. It was the best time of my life. The owner, Andy, was an amazing boss and a great man. At the ripe old age of 15 I was the office manager and learned many of the skills I still hold dear today. I worked there until the summer before my freshman year in college. I moved to Michigan in the summer of 88 and when I came home and saw it was a drug store...I wanted to cry. But..life goes on. Andy..if you read this...HI!! Thanks for everything!
Sue (Kabler) Rowland

I was wondering if anybody knew when the Lexington Flick first opened?

Here is a recent photo of the Lexington Flick.

There is a MGM Theatre Photograph and Report form for the Lexington Theatre with an exterior photo dated 1941. The building is most definitely the same structure as shown in the color photo above posted by Lost on Oct. 1, 2006. In 1941, the theatre had a small vertical blade sign above the entrance. Above the doors was a flat panel on which attractions were posted. The blade sign says "Viano's Lexington" which means that it was run by the Vianno family who controlled the Somerville Theatre and others at that time. The Report says that the Lexington Theatre is on Mass. Ave. in Lexington, that there are no competing theatres there; that the theatre has been a MGM customer for 10 years; that it was built about 1915 and is in Good condition; and has 330 seats on the main floor and 120 balcony seats, total: 450 seats.

When it was a triplex it used to be sort of an art house (showing different films each day) mostly 2nd and 3rd run films. Have great memories going there as a kid.

UPDATE: The Lexington Flick is currently showing FIRST-run movies, not second-run. This week it's JUNO and ATONEMENT. Both are in the Top 10 box office this week.

The line between first- and second-run is getting very blurred lately. If a movie opens here a few weeks into its first run elsewhere (which I think is the case here), is that a first run or a second?

I agree with you- I think the traditional "first run/second run" model probably still stands for major motion pictures which open on thousands of screens, then taper off over a few months. JUNO and ATONEMENT's nationwide screen counts have been going *up* every week since they opened.

When a film adds screens during its initial release, it's referred to as an expanded first-run or something of the sort. At least in the Boston area (with the Arlington Capitol, Studio Cinema in Belmont, and Lexington Flick - and, to a degree, the Somerville Theatre, now that the majority of films they show are double-booked with the AMC Harvard Square 5), some distributors are most likely allowing former second-run-only theatres to book their films first-run in order to generate better box office grosses.

The Lexington Theatre was also a nice little theatre. Growing up in a town that abutted Lexington, this was yet another theatre that my sister and I would occasionally attend. However, it was small enough so that if people failed to arrive early enough, they'd end up getting shut out of the movie they'd wanted to see. I do remember seeing the movie "Saturday Night Fever" at that theatre, roughly 30 years ago when it first came out, and enjoying it.