Apple Cinemas Cambridge
168 Alewife Brook Parkway,
Cambridge,
MA
02138
168 Alewife Brook Parkway,
Cambridge,
MA
02138
10 people
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Showing 1 - 25 of 47 comments
Reopened by Entertainment Cinemas on March 30th, 1990. Grand opening ad in photo section.
NOTE CAMBRIDGE OPEN NOV. 23, 1965, SEE CINEMA TOURS FOR DATE
Dennis, Was Fresh Pond a replica of Garden City originally? I was the Projection Supervisor of Fresh Pond during the union lockout in 2003. We had an artist rendering of what was supposedly Fresh Pond. It looks identical to the rendering in your Garden City advertisement. We were told that the windows on the front of the building were smashed in the first weeks of opening and that GC bricked them up as it is today. Is this true? It looks very much like Garden City and seems to have the same dimensions.
AS A GENERAL CINEMA THEATER WHEN IT OPENED WE HAD 1200 SEATS
Ron go to the top of this page click on photo then you should see photos when I was manager when GENERAL CINEMA ran and built the theater
Where are these photos you are referring to?
PHOTOS WHEN I WAS MANAGER OF CINEMA FRESH POND CAMBRIDGE A 1200 SEAT THEATER OF GENERAL CINEMA DENNIS MAHANEY
This changed its name to Apple Cinemas according to the showtime websites. offical website at http://applecinemas.com/
does bill hanney still own it? returning the waterfall?
I remember that general area before it became a strip mall, when the Fresh Pond Drive-In was there, and afterwards, when the Drive-in Theatre closed and the present Fresh Pond Cinema went up. Movies I’ve seen there more recently (back in the 1990’s and 1980’s) were Titantic, Tomorrow Never Dies, Wizard of Oz, and An Officer and a Gentleman.
One thing I’ve recently noticed, however, when I’ve driven past Fresh Pond Cinema is the fact that the theatre hasn’t seemed as crowded, even on a Saturday evening, as it used to be. Wonder what gives.
Without a doubt my favorite memory of this theater – from its single screen days I think – was the ladies room. To this day I’ve never seen its match. Each stall had its own vanity with a sink. Sweet! A super bathroom and a huge screen – you can’t beat that!
I went there too many times in the mid-1990s, and it was easily the worst place to see a movie. The clientele was young and rowdy, the theaters + lobby were dingy, and at least one screen was criminally small.
I like this theatre it’s small and never crowded.
The Entertainment Cinemas logo has now permanently replaced Lowes on the top of the parking lot sign. However, on the front on the cinema itself all they’ve done is take off the “LOEWS” … it still says “THEATRES” in the Loews font.
It was already closed down when Cambridge Seven Architects used it as a prototype to display their new design elements to the executives. It was a one-time deal, not an ongoing program. And not used as a prototype while opened. (grey paint replaced white, grey formica and fabric covered wall panels over old white formica and alpro, and black ceilings, with hanging fixtures, to make the theatre darker. Carpets went from red to blue, and concessions got back-lit back bar graphics. After the executives looked at the makeover, the Cambridge Seven went ahead and did over the theatre in Columbia Maryland, Chestnut Hill, Arlington Texas, Parmatown Mall, and probably a few others, to one degree or another. They also begain to use Cambridge Seven Design when building new theatres. I believe this was around 1986.
North Cambridge’s newspaper The Alewife has a long article about this theatre, its history, and Bill Hanney’s plans to return it to its former glory:
Fresh Pond Mall Cinema redux; Prior owner, waterfall return
Something I didn’t know: “General Cinemas would test new seats, snacks and interior decorations at the location before making decisions for the rest of the chain.”
And something that surprises me: “The other problem was the building’s footprint. Hemmed in by railroad tracks and the rest of the Mall, it was impossible to expand without losing parking spaces.”
That parking lot is rarely more than about 1/5 full. They could easily have expanded the theatre outward instead of upward, and made the walking environment more pleasant at the same time.
A banner has been placed over the sign, where the “Loews” used to be now it somewhat unintelligibly says “Entertainment Cinemas.” Other than that everything looks the same. The Loews spotlights are still up there.
The big sign next to Route 16 still has the old Loews Cineplex “spotlights” logo, but the word LOEWS has been painted over, so it now just says THEATRES on top.
The sign looks pretty ratty, as does the exterior of the building itself, which also now just says THEATRES on it.
Bill Hanney’s promised improvements can’t come too soon.
Today’s Cambridge Chronicle says that the theatre will reopen tomorrow as an Entertainment Cinema.
[quote]The lineup will remain first-run movies, but the new operator vows patrons a better experience than under Loews.
“It’s just in rough shape,” said Bill Hanney, owner of Entertainment Cinemas. “It just needs an updating.”
Hanney plans to refurbish the lobbies, install all-digital sound and restore the defunct two-story indoor waterfall.
“It’s been drab. The outside needs a facelift,” said Hanney, who did the original overhaul of the 1950 building back in 1989.
…
Having an operator with headquarters in Massachusetts will mean better customer service, Hanney said.
“We’re a local company and we’re more hands-on,” he said.
The Fresh Pond cinema is slated to reopen tomorrow. The renovations will be done while keeping most of the screens open, Hanney said. He said the resulting look will be similar to his company’s recently renovated South Dennis theater. [/quote]
I went to the theater as a kid (most likely early 70’s) and I clearly remember it being a wonderfully large single screen cinema with a large curved screen and a balcony.
It was very strange when they changed it to a twin, it was split right down the middle by a new wall, and the screens in both theaters still pointed to the middle, there were no changes in the seating layout either, all the seats still pointed to the center of the old layout, not the centers of the new screens
If you phone the theatre today at (617) 661-2900 , you will hear a recording announcing that the theatre is “temporarily closed due to a change of ownership.” The recording says it will soon reopen as the “all new Entertainment Cinemas Fresh Pond, with new lobbies, all digital sound, a cafe seating area, and the return of our two-story waterfall.” It does not give a date for the reopening.
I posted about this theatre’s closing to a few local LiveJournal communities. You may find the resulting comments interesting:
LiveJournal: Cambridge, Mass.
LiveJournal: Davis Square
LiveJournal: Boston
So it’s closed today — but may not stay closed for long.
From today’s Boston Herald:
Loews leaves Cambridge site to new operator
[quote]The Loews Fresh Pond Cinema closed its doors last night, but it may not stay dark for long, as a South Easton-based theater operator plans to take over the site.
Bill Hanney, principal with Entertainment Cinemas in South Easton, says his company has a deal to operate the cinema and plans to show first-run movies, perhaps starting in a week. [/quote]
If I were the one taking over this place, I’d want much more than a week to fix it up and rebrand it. It does not have a good reputation right now.
From The Alewife, a North Cambridge newspaper blog:
Loews letters lowered; ‘King Kong’ the last picture show
“The letters spelling out L-O-E-W-S at the movie theater at Fresh Pond Mall were removed today before employees reported for work at 3 p.m.”
If you follow the link above, you will in fact see a photo of the façade with those letters removed.
That’s correct. The two Framingham booths were seperated, and they did manual changeovers. They also used carbon arcs. I don’t remember exactly when they automated, probably early seventies. They still used two projectionists, as the Cinema II booth was seperated from Cinema I by going down a hall past the popcorn room, up some steps past the balcony Men’s room, then through a door and up some more steps. Not to mention that both projectionists, Walter King and either Herb Kenney or Vin Kane seemed about 70 years old.
I think Henry Cummings briefly ran Worcester Center and Waltham.