West End Cinema
75 Causeway Street,
Boston,
MA
02114
75 Causeway Street,
Boston,
MA
02114
2 people
favorited this theater
An old steeply-balconied theatre that became re-incarnated as an art house in the 1960’s, showing mostly new foreign films as well as revivals. It was located right near Boston Garden and North Station.
Contributed by
Gerald A. DeLuca
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Recent comments (view all 48 comments)
If anyone has any stories about going to/ working at this threatre in its adult days, I would love to hear them. I am chronicling the histories of adult theatres in the US. Please contact me at Thanks!
This opened as West End on November 7th, 1963. Ad posted here.
Also posted the Lancaster opening ad from February 18th, 1917.
Linkrot repair: A brief item about the opening of E.M. Loew’s West End Cinema appeared in Boxoffice of November 11, 1963 (lower right). The architect for the remodeling of the old Lancaster Theatre into the West End Cinema was William Riseman.
Why did they choose to rename the theatre ‘West End’ in 1963, years after the West End neighborhood was totally destroyed?
But remember it was replaced in the 60’s by a modern futuristic (at the time) new development, a shining “new” Boston rising from the old. I am sure in anticipation of the new upscale West End, the dumpy neighborhood Lancaster was “modernized” and reprogrammed to fit this new vision of the city.
True, but the name ‘West End’ was erased from the city’s geography. The new shining development wanted nothing to do with the name West End, preferring ‘Charles River Park’.
Perhaps there were trademark issues?
The area was stilled referred to as the “West End” after the widespread demolition and the construction of Charles River Park by the people who used to live there (patrons of the Lancaster) and others familiar with the area. Needless to say, plans to bulldoze the area created a firestorm back circa-1959 among the residents, who had no say in the matter. Caused a lot of lingering bitterness. For someone like E.M.Loew who had ties to the older Boston, it would have been natural to call the theater the “West End”. He also at the time of opening was under the impression that the elevated trolley structure in front of the new facade of the theater was to be shortly demolished, but that didn’t happen for a long while.
That didn’t happen until 2004, by which time this theatre was long gone ;–(