Cinema 733
733 Boylston Street,
Boston,
MA
02116
733 Boylston Street,
Boston,
MA
02116
2 people
favorited this theater
A hole-in-the-wall sharing its street address with two popular jazz nightclubs (Paul’s Mall and the Jazz Workshop), the Cinema 733 was known for its calendar of ever-changing double features.
They flooded the city with monthly calendars that simply listed the names of films, dates, and times, with no descriptions. They assumed that you had already heard of the films but had missed them in their first or second runs, or just wanted to see them again.
Each double feature would play for a day or two, then be replaced by another one. The films were usually recent Hollywood or art-house hits, interspersed with occasional older films such as a Marx Brothers festival.
After the 733 closed in the late 1970s, the same owners put out similar schedules for first the Harvard Square Theater and then the Janus Cinema.
Contributed by
Ron Newman
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Recent comments (view all 8 comments)
Was this the first revival house in Boston?
The Brattle Theatre surely predates it, but that’s across the river in Cambridge. The other Boston revival houses I remember from the 1970s were the Park Square and Kenmore Square, both owned by Justin Freed. I don’t know which of these three theaters came first.
The 733’s programming was considerably more mainstream than the other revival theaters.
Part of a Pizzeria Uno location currently occupies the former Cinema 733 space.
I always thought that the downfall of 733 was the fact that you could buy refreshments at the drugstore next door and bring them into the theater without paying the theater prices.
My best friend and I would sip on a couple of scorpion bowls at Tiki Ports(?) and run across Boylston St. to view Jaggar in “Performance.” Performed this ritual many, many times. Stayed late one night and caught “Clockwork Orange” – sure opened up our innocent minds…. Then we’d go over to NE Music City and buy an album for $5.00. Memories…..
I worked at the Cinema 733 in the summer of 1975. (Common phoned-in question: What time is the midnight show?) One of the best summers of my life. Randy wanted to teach me how to be a projectionist—or so he said! Double features for 99 cents: Bergman, Fellini, Bertolucci, etc. I got such an education there! (and not just in the booth)
Oh Wow! I remember this and the Orson Wells in cambridge. I wish we had small theatres like these again.I remember seeing Marx Brothers triple features there and in cambridge.
We do have small theatres like this. They are called Multi union Cinemas in every Mall across the country but they don’t book like the Orson Welles. The Brattle., The Janus or the Cinema 733 did.