Rex Theater
2 Western Avenue,
Cambridge,
MA
02139
2 Western Avenue,
Cambridge,
MA
02139
1 person
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The Olympia Theater near Central Square in Cambridge was located in a unique narrow triangular building, richly decorated and about four stories high. The unusual shape of the structure was dictated by the triangular lot bounded by River Street, Western Avenue and Franklin Street. The theater’s marquee was at the narrow end of the building, facing toward Central Square. The Olympia Theater was operating in 1916 and still operating in 1941.
By 1950 it was known as the Rex Theater.
Contributed by
Ron Salters
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Recent comments (view all 10 comments)
The Olympia is listed in the 1927 Film Daily yearbook as being open 7 days a week and having 900 seats. I can’t find it in the 1942-43 Motion Picture Almanac, which means that it was managed by a company with 4 or fewer theatres. The MGM Theatre Photograph and Report form for the Olympia has an exterior photo taken in April 1941. The marquee is at the narrow end of the oddly-shaped building and has 3 lines of white letters on a black background, above which is the word “Continuous”. Flat against the narrow wall above is a vertical sign “Olympia”. The Report states that the Olympia has been showing MGM product for over 10 years; that it’s over 15 years old; that it’s in Poor condition; and that it has 400 seats on the main floor and 200 in the balcony. To look at this distinctive building, one would never guess that it contained a theater.
This 1916 map shows the Olympia Theatre. It is near the map’s top left corner, colored brown, in the narrow triangle bounded by Western Avenue, River Street, and Franklin Street.
By the 1970s, this site contained a gas station. Some time in the 1990s, the gas station was torn down and replaced by the current not-very-useful open green space.
The Cambridge Historical Commission lists the period of existence for the Olympia Theatre as 1910 – 1954.
A Moller theater organ opus 2566 size 4/24 was installed in an Olympia Theater in Cambridge, MA in 1919. Could there have been another Olympia Theater in Cambridge because this organ seems kind of large for a 600 seat theater.
Seems very doubtful to me that there would have been two different theatres with this name.
Ass far as I know, there was just one Olympia Th. in Cambridge in 1919. Although the MGM Report says it had 600 seats, the 1927 FDY lists 900.
This Olympia theatre was the Rex theatre when I was growing up in Central Sq around 1950. I remember Superman there many times—RikS
The address given for the Rex Theater is 2 Western Avenue. It had 640 seats.
Thank you. Do you know when and why it closed and was torn down?
An article on the opening of the Rex can be found in Boxoffice Magazine, October 30, 1948:
http://issuu.com/boxoffice/docs/boxoffice_103048
Go to page 75.