For a few years, the Capitol operated a full-fledged ice cream parlor as part of the concession stand in the lobby. You could just walk into the lobby and buy ice cream, and then sit down and eat it or take it out, without ever buying a movie ticket.
The Capitol concession stand still sells some ice cream, but only a few flavors, not the 15 or 20 they once had. And they no longer advertise it to non-movie patrons.
Does Entertainment Cinemas still exist at all? Their Quincy cinema became a Showcase for awhile, and is now a Flagship Cinema showing third-run films for $2.50. The Stoughton cinema pub no longer carries the Entertainment name, and I think their other former South Shore properties are now run by Patriot Cinemas.
What theatres in this area does Boston Concessions Group own?
It’s an unfortunate local trend: move the theatre entrance onto a small side street or alley, then convert the old entrance and lobby into retail or restaurant use. You see it not just at the Harvard Square, but also at the Brattle, the Coolidge, and the Orpheum in downtown Boston. At least the Coolidge still has a marquee on the main street.
When it was a General Cinema in the 1970s, I recall newspaper ads referring to it as “Cinema Cambridge” rather than “Fresh Pond”. This may have been to avoid confusion with the nearby Fresh Pond Drive-In (which deserves its own listing here).
If anyone knows, I’d like to find out when this opened, when it closed as a General Cinema, and whether it was originally a single-screen or a twin. I know that it was still open in September 1982 when the Boston Globe included it in an article about discount second-run movie houses. Did General Cinema always operate it as a second-run house?
When Entertainment reopened it with ten screens, the Globe praised it as “a model of slick mainstream moviegoing. The complex features chairs with raised backs and cupholders; three concession stands; a three-tiered atrium lobby with a glass elevator and a waterfall; and a glass wall behind which one can observe the workings of a projection system. Also, customers can order tickets by telephone.” It quoted Entertainment’s Bill Hanney as saying, “You’ve got to give people a nice place to go if you’re going to pull them out of their living rooms.”
Another Globe article published around the same time said, “to movie buffs nothing is as important as good-sized screens and the proper projection of unblemished prints in soundproofed rooms. Fresh Pond, a state-of-the-art operation under enthusiastic management, is making moviegoing the pleasure it ought to be. May it long continue to do so.”
An earlier article, published the previous year before it opened, said that its largest screens would have 70mm projectors and six-track Dolby sound.
It’s my impression that Loews has not kept this place up to the standards envisioned by Entertainment Cinemas. On the Copley Place page here at CinemaTreasures, there’s a lot of speculation about whether the Fresh Pond will soon close.
From a Boston Globe article published on March 12, 1982:
The last picture show. Another of the neighborhood movie theaters, once numerous in the Boston area, has reached the final fade-out.
The Broadway in Somerville, which had been a leading movie theater in that city since the days of the silents in the 1920s, has closed.
Arthur Viano of Viano Theaters, which has been active in neighborhood theaters for more than 40 years, said poor business was the main reason for the shutdown.
“You could say it’s a change in moviegoing habits, and, of course, when Sack Theaters opened its six-theater complex at Assembly Square in Somerville a few months ago, that didn’t help,” Viano said.
“The downhill slide really began several years ago, when they pushed Rte. 93 through Somerville and took out so many two- and three-family houses that the neighborhood was diminished.”
Viano Theaters also operates the Somerville Theater and two houses in Arlington, the Capital and Regent.
actually, Assembly Square opened in 1981 with eight screens (though it had originally been announced with six).
The Somerville and the Capitol (correctly spelled) are run today by FEI Theatres, while the Regent is open under different management and is now used primarily for live shows.
I believe the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge used the Broadway for a number of years to store stage sets.
The Harvard Square is now one of only two former USACinemas in Massachusetts that Loews still operates. The other is the Assembly Square 12-plex in neighboring Somerville.
I e-mailed the contact address for BostonFilmFestival.org and asked what would happen to the festival now that Copley Place is closed. He replied:
“Thank you for your interest in The Boston Film Festival. This year’s dates are September 9 – 18. We will continue to use Loews Boston Common and are looking at other venues.”
According to Boston Globe newspaper archives, the Copley Place added its 10th and 11th screens some time in 1989. A March 23 article said the work would be done by Memorial Day of that year, but I don’t know if that actually happened. The Cheri added its fourth screen in November 1989.
So, here are the numbers of screens in the city of Boston for Sack/USACinemas/Loews, from 1983 to the present. (Doing research before 1983 would require me to visit a library and look through old newspapers and microfilms, to find out facts such as when the Gary and Savoy closed, the Paris was bought, the Pi Alley was twinned, the Beacon Hill was triplexed, etc.)
[Sack]
Jan 1983: 7 theatres, 15 screens
May 1983: 6 theatres, 14 screens (Saxon closes)
Feb 1984: 7 theatres, 23 screens (Copley Place opens)
[uSACinemas]
May 1986: 8 theatres, 28 screens (Nickelodeon bought)
Aug 1987: 7 theatres, 26 screens (Pi Alley closes)
[Loews]
End 1989: 7 theatres, 29 screens (two screens added to Copley Place, one to Cheri)
Nov 1992: 6 theatres, 26 screens (Beacon Hill closes)
Mar 1993: 5 theatres, 25 screens (Paris closes)
Oct 1994: 4 theatres, 22 screens (Charles closes)
May 1996: 3 theatres, 20 screens (Cinema 57 closes)
Feb 2001: 2 theatres, 15 screens (Nickelodeon closes)
Jul 2001: 3 theatres, 34 screens (Boston Common opens)
Nov 2001: 2 theatres, 30 screens (Cheri closes)
Jan 2005: 1 theatre, 19 screens (Copley Place closes)
According to Boston Globe articles published at the time, the Cheri’s fourth screen opened on Friday, November 17, 1989. The third paragraph of the description above should be corrected.
The side-alley location of the Orpheum’s only entrance also puts the place out of sight and out of mind for many people. It used to have an entrance on busy Washington Street, and later it still had at least a marquee there, but now even that is gone.
From a Boston Herald article published on July 7, 1992:
“The Beacon Hill was the first movie house in the Boston-based Sack Theaters chain. According to legend, scrap metal magnate Benjamin Sack won the Beacon Hill in a poker game in the 1950s, launching what would become the region’s largest theater chain. Sack’s own version of the story was that he returned to the gin rummy table to retrieve a gold pencil and fell into a conversation with another player, a film exhibitor. Sack said he lent the man $10,000, which later expanded into a $200,000 investment in three theaters, including the Beacon Hill.
The original Beacon Hill theater was demolished in 1969 to make way for the 1 Beacon St. office tower, but the underground Beacon Hill theater opened below the original site in 1971."
The article also says that the theatre was 41 steps below ground, with no elevator or other handicapped access.
From a Boston Herald article published on July 7, 1992:
“The Paris Theater’s claim to fame is that it has hosted the Boston premiere of every Woody Allen movie since 1975, when the Sack chain bought the Paris from an adult-entertainment film operator.”
Unless you go to rock shows, or occasionally jazz or country music shows, you don’t really think about the Orpheum. It isn’t used anymore for movies, opera, ballet, legit theatre, or anything else.
For a few years, the Capitol operated a full-fledged ice cream parlor as part of the concession stand in the lobby. You could just walk into the lobby and buy ice cream, and then sit down and eat it or take it out, without ever buying a movie ticket.
The Capitol concession stand still sells some ice cream, but only a few flavors, not the 15 or 20 they once had. And they no longer advertise it to non-movie patrons.
I’m curious how a theatre in Chicago came to be named after another city. (We’ve never had a Chicago Theatre in Boston, to my knowledge.)
Was the original theatre here called the ‘Beacon Hill’ or just the ‘Beacon’ ?
San Juan had both a Metro and a Metropolitan? Sounds confusing. Were they near each other?
Also, doesn’t San Juan now have a new subway, the Tren Urbano? Does it stop close enough to this theatre that you won’t need a parking lot anymore?
Do you have to pay for admission to Disneyland before you can attend this theatre? Or is it outside the gates?
Does Entertainment Cinemas still exist at all? Their Quincy cinema became a Showcase for awhile, and is now a Flagship Cinema showing third-run films for $2.50. The Stoughton cinema pub no longer carries the Entertainment name, and I think their other former South Shore properties are now run by Patriot Cinemas.
What theatres in this area does Boston Concessions Group own?
Why doesn’t the union complain about the poor working conditions? I would not want to work in any place where water and electricity coexisted.
It’s an unfortunate local trend: move the theatre entrance onto a small side street or alley, then convert the old entrance and lobby into retail or restaurant use. You see it not just at the Harvard Square, but also at the Brattle, the Coolidge, and the Orpheum in downtown Boston. At least the Coolidge still has a marquee on the main street.
I recall it being entirely boarded up, in white, during the years when it was closed.
Assembly Square is the only former Sack theatre that Loews still operates today.
When it was a General Cinema in the 1970s, I recall newspaper ads referring to it as “Cinema Cambridge” rather than “Fresh Pond”. This may have been to avoid confusion with the nearby Fresh Pond Drive-In (which deserves its own listing here).
If anyone knows, I’d like to find out when this opened, when it closed as a General Cinema, and whether it was originally a single-screen or a twin. I know that it was still open in September 1982 when the Boston Globe included it in an article about discount second-run movie houses. Did General Cinema always operate it as a second-run house?
When Entertainment reopened it with ten screens, the Globe praised it as “a model of slick mainstream moviegoing. The complex features chairs with raised backs and cupholders; three concession stands; a three-tiered atrium lobby with a glass elevator and a waterfall; and a glass wall behind which one can observe the workings of a projection system. Also, customers can order tickets by telephone.” It quoted Entertainment’s Bill Hanney as saying, “You’ve got to give people a nice place to go if you’re going to pull them out of their living rooms.”
Another Globe article published around the same time said, “to movie buffs nothing is as important as good-sized screens and the proper projection of unblemished prints in soundproofed rooms. Fresh Pond, a state-of-the-art operation under enthusiastic management, is making moviegoing the pleasure it ought to be. May it long continue to do so.”
An earlier article, published the previous year before it opened, said that its largest screens would have 70mm projectors and six-track Dolby sound.
It’s my impression that Loews has not kept this place up to the standards envisioned by Entertainment Cinemas. On the Copley Place page here at CinemaTreasures, there’s a lot of speculation about whether the Fresh Pond will soon close.
From a Boston Globe article published on March 12, 1982:
The last picture show. Another of the neighborhood movie theaters, once numerous in the Boston area, has reached the final fade-out.
The Broadway in Somerville, which had been a leading movie theater in that city since the days of the silents in the 1920s, has closed.
Arthur Viano of Viano Theaters, which has been active in neighborhood theaters for more than 40 years, said poor business was the main reason for the shutdown.
“You could say it’s a change in moviegoing habits, and, of course, when Sack Theaters opened its six-theater complex at Assembly Square in Somerville a few months ago, that didn’t help,” Viano said.
“The downhill slide really began several years ago, when they pushed Rte. 93 through Somerville and took out so many two- and three-family houses that the neighborhood was diminished.”
Viano Theaters also operates the Somerville Theater and two houses in Arlington, the Capital and Regent.
actually, Assembly Square opened in 1981 with eight screens (though it had originally been announced with six).
The Somerville and the Capitol (correctly spelled) are run today by FEI Theatres, while the Regent is open under different management and is now used primarily for live shows.
I believe the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge used the Broadway for a number of years to store stage sets.
The Harvard Square is now one of only two former USACinemas in Massachusetts that Loews still operates. The other is the Assembly Square 12-plex in neighboring Somerville.
I always wondered why a General Cinema was located in the Redstone Shopping Center in Stoneham.
Here’s a cool page I just found, all about Shoppers World, with photos of the cinema and the rest of the shopping center:
http://natickmass.info/GCC.html
Answering my own question above, this page says the cinema was called the ‘County Playhouse’ during the two summer stock seasons.
I e-mailed the contact address for BostonFilmFestival.org and asked what would happen to the festival now that Copley Place is closed. He replied:
“Thank you for your interest in The Boston Film Festival. This year’s dates are September 9 – 18. We will continue to use Loews Boston Common and are looking at other venues.”
What was the theatre called when it opened as a live stage? It sounds odd to have actors performing in a place that has “Cinema” in its name.
Was this the only live venue that General Cinema ever operated?
According to Boston Globe newspaper archives, the Copley Place added its 10th and 11th screens some time in 1989. A March 23 article said the work would be done by Memorial Day of that year, but I don’t know if that actually happened. The Cheri added its fourth screen in November 1989.
So, here are the numbers of screens in the city of Boston for Sack/USACinemas/Loews, from 1983 to the present. (Doing research before 1983 would require me to visit a library and look through old newspapers and microfilms, to find out facts such as when the Gary and Savoy closed, the Paris was bought, the Pi Alley was twinned, the Beacon Hill was triplexed, etc.)
[Sack]
Jan 1983: 7 theatres, 15 screens
May 1983: 6 theatres, 14 screens (Saxon closes)
Feb 1984: 7 theatres, 23 screens (Copley Place opens)
[uSACinemas]
May 1986: 8 theatres, 28 screens (Nickelodeon bought)
Aug 1987: 7 theatres, 26 screens (Pi Alley closes)
[Loews]
End 1989: 7 theatres, 29 screens (two screens added to Copley Place, one to Cheri)
Nov 1992: 6 theatres, 26 screens (Beacon Hill closes)
Mar 1993: 5 theatres, 25 screens (Paris closes)
Oct 1994: 4 theatres, 22 screens (Charles closes)
May 1996: 3 theatres, 20 screens (Cinema 57 closes)
Feb 2001: 2 theatres, 15 screens (Nickelodeon closes)
Jul 2001: 3 theatres, 34 screens (Boston Common opens)
Nov 2001: 2 theatres, 30 screens (Cheri closes)
Jan 2005: 1 theatre, 19 screens (Copley Place closes)
Is it still standing? What is it used for now?
According to Boston Globe articles published at the time, the Cheri’s fourth screen opened on Friday, November 17, 1989. The third paragraph of the description above should be corrected.
The side-alley location of the Orpheum’s only entrance also puts the place out of sight and out of mind for many people. It used to have an entrance on busy Washington Street, and later it still had at least a marquee there, but now even that is gone.
From a Boston Herald article published on July 7, 1992:
“The Beacon Hill was the first movie house in the Boston-based Sack Theaters chain. According to legend, scrap metal magnate Benjamin Sack won the Beacon Hill in a poker game in the 1950s, launching what would become the region’s largest theater chain. Sack’s own version of the story was that he returned to the gin rummy table to retrieve a gold pencil and fell into a conversation with another player, a film exhibitor. Sack said he lent the man $10,000, which later expanded into a $200,000 investment in three theaters, including the Beacon Hill.
The original Beacon Hill theater was demolished in 1969 to make way for the 1 Beacon St. office tower, but the underground Beacon Hill theater opened below the original site in 1971."
The article also says that the theatre was 41 steps below ground, with no elevator or other handicapped access.
From a Boston Herald article published on July 7, 1992:
“The Paris Theater’s claim to fame is that it has hosted the Boston premiere of every Woody Allen movie since 1975, when the Sack chain bought the Paris from an adult-entertainment film operator.”
Unless you go to rock shows, or occasionally jazz or country music shows, you don’t really think about the Orpheum. It isn’t used anymore for movies, opera, ballet, legit theatre, or anything else.