Gardner Cinemas 1 & 2
34 Parker Street,
Gardner,
MA
01440
34 Parker Street,
Gardner,
MA
01440
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The Orpheum Theatre, which opened in 1919, was located on Parker Street. Seating was provided for 702 in the orchestra, 416 in the balcony and 40 in the loges. In 1925 an Estay theatre organ opus 2333 size 2/17 was installed in the Orpheum Theatre. In the 1940’s it was operated by the George Giles circuit of Cambridge.
It was later twinned as the Gardner Cinemas 1 & 2. After closing as a movie theater in 1999, the building was converted to retail use. It most recently housed a health food store and Chinese restaurant. On May 5, 2007, the former Gardner Cinemas was destroyed by a fire.
Contributed by
Bryan
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This article talks about the fire that destroyed the former Gardner Cinemas on May 5th.
As of December 24, 2007, it hasn’t been demolished, but it is falling apart. A story from WCVB explains that a 25 foot section of the roof gave way under the weight of melting ice and snow. The building is now condemned.
As the Orpheum, this theater was included in the MGM Theatre Photograph and Report project. The form has an exterior photo taken in 1941. The theater had a narrow entrance with a small rectangular marquee and a vertical blade sign above. Movies posted were “That Night in Rio” and “Man Who Lost Himself”. To the right of the entrance was Student Bros. shoe store. The Report says that the Orpheum had been playing MGM films for over 15 years; it was over 15 years old (as of 1941), and in Good condition, and had 1158 seats, with the same breakdown as in the heading above. The theatre was on Parker St., and the competing theater was the Uptown.
Here is a 1939 photo from a new collection of Life Magazine images on Google:
http://tinyurl.com/5celtq
The link to the Life magazine photo was originally found by a new member named “misterboo”. Your thanks should go to “misterboo” for the photo. Welcome to Cinema Treasures “misterboo”.
According to the article mentioned above, the building had been triplexed by the time of its closing. From the looks of the google photo, the building had a very long narrow lobby going to the auditorium which was well back from the street.
The marquee in the 1939 Life photo found by mister boob is the same marquee which was on the Orpheum in the 1941 photo on the MGM Theatre Report. This theater did have a narrow entrance.
The Orpheum in Gardner is listed in the 1927 Film Daily Yearbook as having 1,000 seats and open 6 days per week.