Cinema Shoppers World
1 Worcester Road,
Framingham,
MA
01701
1 Worcester Road,
Framingham,
MA
01701
3 people
favorited this theater
Built in 1951, this was the first shopping center theater in the US. It was used for summer stock the first two seasons, then opened year round for movies. The original theater was added onto in 1963 becoming one of the first twin cinemas, then in 1974, another addition and a couple of splits, made this a sixplex before it was demolished in the 1990’s when Shoppers World was torn down.
Contributed by
David Wodeyla
Want to be emailed when a new comment is posted about this theater?
Just login to your account and subscribe to this theater
Recent comments (view all 60 comments)
dwodeyla, do you know if the change from the company’s long-time architectural firm, Riseman Associates, to the Cambridge Seven group was due to the retirement or passing of Riseman or Joe Saunders (just speculating – I don’t know exactly when, in the scheme of things, those events happened.) or was it a ‘out with the old – in with the new’ type of decision once Paul Del Rossi ascended the throne?
Do you know approximately when Riseman became involved with the company? I see he isn’t credited with this theatre, the original architect here is Ben Schlanger. Mr Schlanger was a consulting architect on the Cinema I – Cinema II in New York (theatre #1075 on this site), opened in 1962. That theatre had the same ‘shadow box’ screen surrounds, the upper cinema was lit red, the lower cinema lit blue, and the gray Alpro paneling on the walls, elements used by General Cinema through the 1960s and 70s.
View link
This link is to the October 4, 1952 issue of Boxoffice where the construction and acoustic panels of the Cinema Shoppers World is discussed. There are some photos.
Dean W. Working for GCC had one draw back for this Georgia boy,NO COKE PRODUCTS.I drank a lot of LOTTA LEMON in my years at GCC.
If you check back in that issue, there’s also a nice article about the Cinema sign on the building, as well as a picture of the sign for Richard’s Drive In Restaurant, which was in Cambridge somewhere. Richard’s was Richard Smith’s restaurant venture. To Dave-Bronx, I don’t know about the use of Cambridge Seven, but the time frame sounds right. I wonder if Paul Delrossi has an answer?
dwodeyla, in a photo of Richards Drive-In in the Harcourt General book, the sign lists their specialties: Fried Jumbo Shrimp, Chicken-in-the-basket and Thick Cabinets. I guess it’s a New England thing, but what are Thick Cabinets?
The sign actually says Thick Frappes. Those are like milk shakes. The sign is clearer in Boxoffice Magazine of Oct 4, 1952, link above. You have to go back to page 121.
Actually, I’m looking at the picture in the Harcourt book with a magnifying glass and it quite clearly says ‘Thick Cabinets’. It’s a different photo than the one in Boxoffice, it is a photo of the building with signs on the edge of the roof. Is that another term for Frappe? For instance, carbonated soft drinks, i.e. Pepsi, in the midwest is called ‘Pop’, in NYC it’s called ‘Soda’ and my relatives in Worcester MA called it ‘Tonic’. I thought this might be another regional term that goes by other names in other areas.
The October 4, 1952, Boxoffice article about the construction of the Cinema is now online here, at the magazine’s own web site.
In a comment near the top of this page, dwodeyla said that the walls of the Cinema were built of “…panels of a straw and clay mixture…” The Boxoffice article says that “…the exterior of the theatre is no more than a thin skin of asbestos board held in place by thin aluminum strips.” The clay-like substance was probably some form of gypsum, and would have been used to hold the asbestos fibres in place. I hope dwodeyla didn’t discover the fibrous nature of the material by scraping at it.
Theater designer Benjamin Schlanger would not be the one who chose to use the asbestos panels in this building. That would have been Ketchum, Gina & Sharp, the architectural firm that designed the structure itself.
Mr. Schlanger’s role in a number of theatres in New York, DC and presumably this one was usually that of a consulting architect, advising the architect-of-record only on the technical aspects unique to a motion picture theatre. Specifically, things like acoustics, sight-lines, seating layout, floor and balcony pitch and arc, projection and audio equipment, electrical and space requirements for the projection booth were his expertise.
Who knew about asbestos dangers back in the fifties? The Kent micronite filter had it! My description of the panels was based on what we could see when damage occurred, either a delivery truck backing into an area, or kids vandalism while leaving down the balcony exit ways.