Harvard Square Theatre
10 Church Street,
Cambridge,
MA
02138
10 Church Street,
Cambridge,
MA
02138
14 people
favorited this theater
This theater opened in 1926 with 1,700 seats and a huge 40 foot screen. The lobby faced Mass Avenue, looking straight into the heart of Harvard Square. The balcony had box seats and a loge section with wicker rocking chairs and velvet cushions. The asbestos fire curtain had a scene of George Washington crossing the Delaware.
Decorated in a very reserved Italian Renaissance manner, with many murals, and two great organ grilles bordering the proscenium, this theater was built as the University Theatre, before changing its name in the 1960’s.
It became well known as an art house, hosting many special screenings and double features. Alfred Hitchcock screened “Torn Curtain” here, and directors like Sidney Lumet and Woody Allen have also used the theater. Concerts began in the 1960’s, with such notables as David Bowie, Iggy Pop, The Clash, and Bob Dylan.
The first US live performance of the ‘Rocky Horror Show’ also took place here, while the cult film itself found a home at the theater in 1984, after it’s old home, the venerable Exeter St. Theatre, closed. It still plays every Saturday night, with live accompaniment.
In 1981, the balcony was partitioned into two smaller screens. Additionally, the lobby was turned into retail space, moving the entrance around the corner to Church Street.
In 1987, two more screens were stacked in the former stage space. Most of the decor is still in place, though hidden behind new construction and dropped ceilings. A mural for the awareness of Breast Cancer was painted on the side of the building recently, with space for the mural donated by Loews, who owns the building.
Contributed by
Andy Blesser
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Recent comments (view all 85 comments)
Hi my name is Ron Hooper and i believe my grandfather Lindsay Hooper owned the theater in the 1930’s. My mother who is 95 remembers going there in 1932 with my father to be Lindsy Hooper Jr. My grandfather owned an investment business Hooper,Kimball, and Williams in Boston. I’m not sure if they built the theater though. My mother thinks the manager’s name was Garrett,but she isn’t sure.
I can now say I have seen at least one film in each of the 5 auditoriums in this complex.
cinemas 4 and 5 are generally closets mainly to be avoided.
cinema 3 now has DLP capacity.
I was, for a year or so, the manager of the Harvard Sq. Theatre at the time when it was transitioning from USA CINEMA to LOEWS. It was a very demanding period. But even amidst the confusion, I was enchanted with the idea of being the manager of the old University Theatre that I had attended as a small child in the early 1940’s on Saturday afternoons. I think Bill White had been the manager before me and maybe was still the “House Manager” for a while when I started.
Tom Heathwood 1/28/10
For the past week, AMC has not advertised the Harvard Square theatre in the Boston Globe’s movie directory. Are they planning to close or sell it? AMC still advertises their other cinemas at Boston Common, Braintree, Burlington, Chestnut Hill, Danvers, and Framingham (but not Methuen or Tynsboro).
I have been trying to recall the names of some very good films I saw in eighties, very often in Harvard square theatre, and it would help if there were a list of films shows in Harvard Square theatre – also if someone can recall the name of a film made in Brazil, mid eighties, about an upper class woman realising that her adopted daughter is actually a child of massacred political opponents of the regime, and that her husband was party to it, please do tell.
DrJG,
The movie you’re thinking of is The Official Story (1985). It opened in America in November of that year.
Great movie. I saw it on cable a few years ago.
Got the particular name I was looking for, but still, it would be good to find a listing of films shown in HST during eighties.
What I reported here back in March 2010 seems to have been just a temporary aberration that lasted a week or so. AMC still advertises the Harvard Square Theatre, and all of its other local cinemas (Loews Boston Common, Braintree, Burlington, Loews Liberty Tree Mall in Danvers, Framingham, and Chestnut Hill) in the Globe’s “g” section.
Does anyone recall seeing the Wizard of Oz on release in 1939 at the Theatre? Or have any documentation that it was shown? (I asked this before and got some useful feedback, but not a definitive yes or no). Thanks.
Tom, I had quit managing the theatre before you came in, and you rehired me as house manager.