Colonial Theater
East Central St.,
Natick,
MA
01760
East Central St.,
Natick,
MA
01760
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A Wurlitzer theater organ opus 2078 style 150 was installed in the Colonial Theater on 10/31/1929. Status: sold.
Back in the 1970s there was a Natick community program called Vision in Action. One of the services offered there were volunteer musical instrument instruction where my older sister tried her hand at guitar and I once or twice tagged along. The location of this program was in the back of the building that the Colonial occupied and they were connected somehow. I remember roaming the corridors and sneaking into the old Colonial. It was dark and dank, but it seemed to even my very young eyes at the time that just a little effort could have transformed this back into the viable little theater that it once was.
The MGM Theatre Photograph and Report for the Colonial has a photo dated May 1941. The films playing are Clive Brook in"Convoy" and Gene Autry in “Back in the Saddle”. The marquee has “Colonial” across the front with 3 lines on the side, using white letters on a black background. There is a vertical above the marquee. The report states that the theatre has been a MGM customer for over 10 years, that the theatre is over 15 years old; that the theatre is in Good condition; and has 992 seats on the main floor and 342 in the balcony, plus 168 seats in the Loges. Total: 1502. There are no theatres competing; and the 1940 population of Natick is 13,800.
The opening day festivities were described in the Natick Bulletin of December 6, 1929. Here’s a link to the complete story.
http://natickmass.info/natickcolonial.htm
Check the main page, natickmass.info for stories about other theatres in the Framingham Natick area.
The Colonial belonged to the M&P Chain.