Landmark Kendall Square Cinema
1 Kendall Square,
Cambridge,
MA
02139
1 Kendall Square,
Cambridge,
MA
02139
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When I began working as an usher in 1966, minimum wage was $1.25, local bag boys in the supermarket were making $1.50, and the theatre was paying $1.00 an hour for an usher. I took the usher’s job just because it was the theatre. So did all my friends. And we all had a great time, because it was not only a job, but a social experience. (theater ushers in Massachusetts were classified as sub minimum wage, like golf caddies and waitresses).
Working as a floor staff in a theatre has always been a minimum wage part-time job without benefits. Trying to make it otherwise is probably futile, as the result of allowing the union in will be to cause expenses to increase, which will spiral into higher admission prices. Theatre owners won’t take a lower profit margin. Of course other greater Boston area theatre employees will be encouraged to do the same. One can empathize with the employees, as many theatre employees through the years eventually grew out of the part time job but one can understand the position of management too. The union will succeed, I’m sure, but ultimately, the customer will lose out because Management will schedule fewer staff on a shift in order to make up for the increased payroll. And we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that employees such as those interviewed lasted as long as they did, not because of the money, but because they loved “the business”.
A strike may be in the Kendall Square Cinema’s future:
It’s showtime: Movie theater workers set to vote on union
by Andrew LaVallee
Quincy Patriot Ledger
Published: July 21, 2005
CAMBRIDGE – Employees of the Kendall Square Cinema will vote next week on whether to join a union as the workers seek improved benefits and more structured wage increases.
The vote on July 30 will determine whether the 20 members of Kendall Square’s floor staff become part of United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 791, a chapter representing more than 6,000 workers in Massachusetts, Maine and Rhode Island.
The Kendall Square Cinema opened in Cambridge in September 1995 and quickly became one of the most popular art-house theaters in the country. It is owned by Landmark Theatres, a Los Angeles-based chain focused on art-house and foreign films. The company couldn’t be reached for comment yesterday.
If the union vote is successful, it will lead to the first union at any Landmark theater.
The floor staff are responsible for selling tickets and working the concessions, as well as cleaning the nine-screen theater. Starting wages have remained at $7.25 an hour since 2002, and few staffers are employed full-time.
The floor staff do not receive vacation pay or sick days, and are paid only time-and-a-half on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day, said Lauren Ryder, a 30-year-old Somerville resident who has worked at the theater for five and a half years. They also did not receive promised wage increases in January, she said.
“It was never a very good-paying job,” she said, but after Landmark Theatres was acquired by 2929 Entertainment in September 2003, reviews and raises nearly stopped.
Nancy Campbell, a 33-year-old Somerville resident who had worked at Kendall Square since its opening, resigned from her assistant manager position on July 17. She said she was asked by Landmark’s management to dissuade employees from voting for union participation.
“Ultimately, they do not want the movie-going public to know this is happening behind closed doors,” she said.
She said it was not uncommon for her to work 39-hour weeks. She said that after 10 years there, she has never received benefits such as health insurance.
As nearly all the Landmark Theatres I’ve seen pictures of, this one is stylish, and is run like theatres were in the “old days” with an emphasis on good customer service. The projectionist is a perfectionist, and the theatre is clean and well maintained. You’d expect being in a city that traffic would be a hassle, and parking would too. However, the Kendall has a large parking garage, the the roads leading there from Memorial Drive are no problem. It’s located not only in an area with lots of offices, but lots of homes too, all a shorter walk than Kendall Square. In my opinion, Landmark knows how to pick good locations, and make moviegoing a pleasure.
I remember that a few years after the Orson Welles burned, a group was trying to resurrect it at the One Kendall Square complex, going so far as to apply for building permits and cause public hearings to occur.
Obviously they didn’t succeed — I’m not sure why. But not too long afterwards, Landmark built this theatre at a different location in the same office complex.
My only complaint is that despite its name, it really isn’t in Kendall Square, and it’s a rather lonely, desolate walk from the Kendall T station.
Right – George Mansour. Having always lived in walking cities, I’ve never thought of 30-45 minutes as much of a hike, but I can see your point.
I think that’s George Mansour, who at various times programmed the Nickelodeon, Loews, and the Boston Film Festival.
The locations aren’t that near each other. I’d estimate that a walk between them would take at least a half hour, maybe even 45 minutes.
During a conversation I had with him in late 1996, legendary New England-area film booker and consultant Frank Mansour mentioned that the Kendall Square Cinemas were an indirect replacement for the Orson Welles Cinemas, which were located relatively nearby on Massachusetts Avenue between Central and Harvard Squares until they were destroyed by a fire in May of ‘86.
This theatre has 9 screens, not 8 as listed above.