Thanks for the info on the Pru/Famous Classics Cinema. I also noticed someone wrote about the South Station Cinema. Now will anyone give info on the infamous ‘Art Cinema’ between the Commons and the current Cutler Majestic Theatre. When I worked at the Saxon I would pass the entrance which was as non descript a door as you’ll ever see on any building. A tiny marquee with room for maybe 2-3 words was above the door and there was a long unused ticket booth outside. It was a gay porn theatre with an infamous reputation. For years and years you could not really tell if it was open or not.
Main reason for my interest is a proposal for its renovation I heard about years ago that would have featured a cafe/bar in its balcony. Just how big was this place, it looked like a hole in the wall from outside so I always assumed it was a tiny screening room.
I went to see Flesh Gordon here during one of its numerous re-issues so the year is suspect but it was one of the last films to play there.
I was amazed how huge the place was and even though very run-down you could still see signs of a true movie palace.
The owners of The Cabot also own or likely owned another theatre in Beverly whose name escapes me. For decades it was a minor blight in local papers since it was a porn house. The management of the Cabot tried to rehab it (must have been a job since it was twinned) and did the magic shows from there during weekdays. Anyone know the name of the place?
My memory of the Sack Savoy days is that it was a shortcut from Washington St to the Commons. You could cut through the theatre via a very long corridor lined with movie posters of current and coming attractions then cross a very narrow & smelly alley/street and then continue along another corridor and even more posters till you ended up across the street from Boston Commons.
I was a poster collector and would take the route just to see what was new.
Related note about the BU Bookstore Mall, the place was supposed to be a shoplifters paradise with registers on different floors frequently not manned leaving the outside just an escalator away.
Yes, Where’s Boston did show only during the day.
The theatre itself was a rather souless affair very unlike Off the Wall’s old home.
The biggest crowd they ever had at Faneuil Hall location was a Disney cartoon retrospective which also put them badly in debt.
At Cambridge they had a Betty Boop cartoon show that ran for months.
Also they had the infamous Heart Throbs adults only shorts show that was shut down at least twice by the local police.
Some memories from when I worked there during its action film days in the 80s.
The tunnel was still there and the brave ushers said you could go down it on a wooden plank, it led up to a blank wall though. Door at the top of the stairs that led to it said ‘Majestic Theatre’ in gold leaf.
Backstage was a mess, catwalks survived but looked really unsafe, the ushers would go on these too. Lights were dimmed by a chain attached to some massive knife swtches, looked like something from a Frankenstein movie. Dressing rooms below stage level had several inches of dirt in them from flooding.
First balcony was usable and had nude statuary along the walls.
Second balcony was incredibly dangerous looking with a very steep angle, one missed step and you’d be gone. Also it had a separate exit, was told it was from days of racially separated audiences.
Projection booth had access to a stone balcony outside the theatre front, I was told a projectionist used to go out here and watch the action across the street at a sleazy hotel above the Saxon Coffee House.
On a separate note does anyone remember another art house in Copley Square called Famous Classics Cinema or something similar. It was very short lived but had an interesting history. Location was between the Paris and the fire station. It was supposed to have a full service bar inside it. Theatre as an art house lasted only a few months but before that it was a porn house regularly shut down for showing Deep Throat.
I moved this rant from the listings for The Paris Cinema.
The Copley Place Cinema closing?
Couldn’t happen to a more deserving theatre.
Badly designed and done strictly so Sack Theatres (or whatever they were called at the time) could control the art house movies. When it opened it was widly reported that they had raised the price for art house films. distributors could get paid more for running there than traditional art houses in Boston. All part of the chain attempting to control the city. They all ready had the only regular theatres in town, so it was only art films & revival houses as alternatives.
Anyone remember the Beacon Hill triplex as an art house?
The Copley Place Cinema closing?
Couldn’t happen to a more deserving theatre.
Badly designed and done strictly so Sack Theatres (or whatever they were called at the time) could control the art house movies. When it opened it was widly reported that they had raised the price for art house films. distributors could get paid more for running there than traditional art houses in Boston. All part of the chain attempting to control the city. They all ready had the only regular theatres in town, so it was only art films & revival houses as alternatives.
Anyone remember the Beacon Hill triplex as an art house?
It was a triplex with Walter Reade, I recall seeing ‘Quackser Fortune Has a Cousin In the Bronx’/ ‘The Twelve Chairs’ double feature downstairs, this was after Gene Wilder & Mel Brooks became hot properties. I also recall seeing a very obscure film called ‘All This and WWII’ upstairs with fantastic sound and almost no audience.
An unconfirmed rumor is that the first run of Jaws at the Charles caused Ben Sack to be booted out as the head of Sack Theatres. He was still insisting on exclusive Boston runs for big pictures before they opened in the suburbs but Universal wanted to open Jaws everywhere at once. As a result the still Reade owned Charles played the pic and did incredible business. Sack took off on a vacation flight as the head of the chain but was out by the time he landed.
I recall the theatre as a twin in the 70’s under a different name. For some reason essex does ring a bell as the name. Star was the name when it changed to kung fu.
Under Essex it had a weird grab bag triple feature policy. Seems like almost anything from exploitation could turn up on them.
For some strange reason it ended up with an exclusive run of Elizabeth Taylor’s film The Drivers Seat as one of its last attractions.
An odd story I have never been able to confirm is that during the run of Earthquake the Sensurround caused plaster to fall giving added realism to the disaster movie.
I can confirm the tunnel between the Gary & Saxon theatres. I worked at the Saxon and it was still there even after the Gary was torn down. It was supposed to go to a now closed subway stop.
An odd thing about this theatre was that the subway ran fairly close behind the screen vibrating the entire house when it did.
They showed a ripoff revival of ‘This Is Cinerama’ one time. Supposedly a new lens enabled them to show Cinerama with one projector. A manager who worked there at the time told me during that run they had 2 boxoffice lines. One waiting to buy tickets and another waiting for refunds.
Supposed to be a scary place to work because of it being 2-3 floors below street level anything could happen and no one outside would notice anything.
A great single screen house.
At one point in its history it was owned by the same group that owned the Welles who tried to bring a sense of fun to it including an ‘Paris goes ape’ film marathon the year the horrible King Kong remake came out.
Mostly it was neglected by the Sack chain that owned it afterwards.
It’ll always be in my memory because when he was filming Bostonians in town, Christopher Reeve came by to see Zelig and stayed around to talk a bit afterwards.
I worked at the Pi Alley in 85 as a manager/projectionist, a unique thing about working there was you could get hit by a speeding car going to the booth since you had to cross a spiraling exit ramp to reach it.
Also from the booth you could not see the entire screen in cinema 1, just a small corner of it.
Thanks for the info on the Pru/Famous Classics Cinema. I also noticed someone wrote about the South Station Cinema. Now will anyone give info on the infamous ‘Art Cinema’ between the Commons and the current Cutler Majestic Theatre. When I worked at the Saxon I would pass the entrance which was as non descript a door as you’ll ever see on any building. A tiny marquee with room for maybe 2-3 words was above the door and there was a long unused ticket booth outside. It was a gay porn theatre with an infamous reputation. For years and years you could not really tell if it was open or not.
Main reason for my interest is a proposal for its renovation I heard about years ago that would have featured a cafe/bar in its balcony. Just how big was this place, it looked like a hole in the wall from outside so I always assumed it was a tiny screening room.
I went to see Flesh Gordon here during one of its numerous re-issues so the year is suspect but it was one of the last films to play there.
I was amazed how huge the place was and even though very run-down you could still see signs of a true movie palace.
The owners of The Cabot also own or likely owned another theatre in Beverly whose name escapes me. For decades it was a minor blight in local papers since it was a porn house. The management of the Cabot tried to rehab it (must have been a job since it was twinned) and did the magic shows from there during weekdays. Anyone know the name of the place?
My memory of the Sack Savoy days is that it was a shortcut from Washington St to the Commons. You could cut through the theatre via a very long corridor lined with movie posters of current and coming attractions then cross a very narrow & smelly alley/street and then continue along another corridor and even more posters till you ended up across the street from Boston Commons.
I was a poster collector and would take the route just to see what was new.
Related note about the BU Bookstore Mall, the place was supposed to be a shoplifters paradise with registers on different floors frequently not manned leaving the outside just an escalator away.
Yes, Where’s Boston did show only during the day.
The theatre itself was a rather souless affair very unlike Off the Wall’s old home.
The biggest crowd they ever had at Faneuil Hall location was a Disney cartoon retrospective which also put them badly in debt.
At Cambridge they had a Betty Boop cartoon show that ran for months.
Also they had the infamous Heart Throbs adults only shorts show that was shut down at least twice by the local police.
Some memories from when I worked there during its action film days in the 80s.
The tunnel was still there and the brave ushers said you could go down it on a wooden plank, it led up to a blank wall though. Door at the top of the stairs that led to it said ‘Majestic Theatre’ in gold leaf.
Backstage was a mess, catwalks survived but looked really unsafe, the ushers would go on these too. Lights were dimmed by a chain attached to some massive knife swtches, looked like something from a Frankenstein movie. Dressing rooms below stage level had several inches of dirt in them from flooding.
First balcony was usable and had nude statuary along the walls.
Second balcony was incredibly dangerous looking with a very steep angle, one missed step and you’d be gone. Also it had a separate exit, was told it was from days of racially separated audiences.
Projection booth had access to a stone balcony outside the theatre front, I was told a projectionist used to go out here and watch the action across the street at a sleazy hotel above the Saxon Coffee House.
On a separate note does anyone remember another art house in Copley Square called Famous Classics Cinema or something similar. It was very short lived but had an interesting history. Location was between the Paris and the fire station. It was supposed to have a full service bar inside it. Theatre as an art house lasted only a few months but before that it was a porn house regularly shut down for showing Deep Throat.
I moved this rant from the listings for The Paris Cinema.
The Copley Place Cinema closing?
Couldn’t happen to a more deserving theatre.
Badly designed and done strictly so Sack Theatres (or whatever they were called at the time) could control the art house movies. When it opened it was widly reported that they had raised the price for art house films. distributors could get paid more for running there than traditional art houses in Boston. All part of the chain attempting to control the city. They all ready had the only regular theatres in town, so it was only art films & revival houses as alternatives.
Anyone remember the Beacon Hill triplex as an art house?
The Copley Place Cinema closing?
Couldn’t happen to a more deserving theatre.
Badly designed and done strictly so Sack Theatres (or whatever they were called at the time) could control the art house movies. When it opened it was widly reported that they had raised the price for art house films. distributors could get paid more for running there than traditional art houses in Boston. All part of the chain attempting to control the city. They all ready had the only regular theatres in town, so it was only art films & revival houses as alternatives.
Anyone remember the Beacon Hill triplex as an art house?
It was a triplex with Walter Reade, I recall seeing ‘Quackser Fortune Has a Cousin In the Bronx’/ ‘The Twelve Chairs’ double feature downstairs, this was after Gene Wilder & Mel Brooks became hot properties. I also recall seeing a very obscure film called ‘All This and WWII’ upstairs with fantastic sound and almost no audience.
An unconfirmed rumor is that the first run of Jaws at the Charles caused Ben Sack to be booted out as the head of Sack Theatres. He was still insisting on exclusive Boston runs for big pictures before they opened in the suburbs but Universal wanted to open Jaws everywhere at once. As a result the still Reade owned Charles played the pic and did incredible business. Sack took off on a vacation flight as the head of the chain but was out by the time he landed.
I recall the theatre as a twin in the 70’s under a different name. For some reason essex does ring a bell as the name. Star was the name when it changed to kung fu.
Under Essex it had a weird grab bag triple feature policy. Seems like almost anything from exploitation could turn up on them.
For some strange reason it ended up with an exclusive run of Elizabeth Taylor’s film The Drivers Seat as one of its last attractions.
An odd story I have never been able to confirm is that during the run of Earthquake the Sensurround caused plaster to fall giving added realism to the disaster movie.
I can confirm the tunnel between the Gary & Saxon theatres. I worked at the Saxon and it was still there even after the Gary was torn down. It was supposed to go to a now closed subway stop.
An odd thing about this theatre was that the subway ran fairly close behind the screen vibrating the entire house when it did.
They showed a ripoff revival of ‘This Is Cinerama’ one time. Supposedly a new lens enabled them to show Cinerama with one projector. A manager who worked there at the time told me during that run they had 2 boxoffice lines. One waiting to buy tickets and another waiting for refunds.
Supposed to be a scary place to work because of it being 2-3 floors below street level anything could happen and no one outside would notice anything.
A great single screen house.
At one point in its history it was owned by the same group that owned the Welles who tried to bring a sense of fun to it including an ‘Paris goes ape’ film marathon the year the horrible King Kong remake came out.
Mostly it was neglected by the Sack chain that owned it afterwards.
It’ll always be in my memory because when he was filming Bostonians in town, Christopher Reeve came by to see Zelig and stayed around to talk a bit afterwards.
I worked at the Pi Alley in 85 as a manager/projectionist, a unique thing about working there was you could get hit by a speeding car going to the booth since you had to cross a spiraling exit ramp to reach it.
Also from the booth you could not see the entire screen in cinema 1, just a small corner of it.