Interesting website about Scollay Square. I remember it as a young kid in the early to mid-1960’s, before the new Boston City Hall was put in. That was sort of the tail end of the “old” Scollay Square.
The West End was a cool place, before it got bulldozed out of existence. The theatre looked cool.
I grew up in a suburb that was roughly 20 miles due northwest of Boston. When my sister and I were kids, and, for quite some time even after my brother came along, we would often travel into the city for a live theatre show, or a movie. Often, though, my parents would travel into the city by themselve, without us kids, to see a movie or a show, too.
“What needs to happen is that when a major film come in to a metro are it should only be released to a single screen house for the first 2 weeks and then distributed to the multiplexes.
That can be something to think about with Ridgewood. Convert it back to a sibgle screen and make it a "Premier” first run house for both Brooklyn and Queens. A deal should be struck with the major studios. Call it going back to the future."
sounds like a fabulous idea, EastCoastRocker! Here’s wishing that somebody would run this idea by theatres here in our area.
As far as I know, movie theatres in my area are open and functioning as usual. It’s not at all surprising that, during this serious near-depression economic downturn, that people are flocking to the movies. People want to forget about reality for awhile, and to be immersed in a movie shown on a great big, wide screen, in a REAL movie theatre, with the lights down low. Imho, staying home and watching a movie on TV has never been much of a cheerer-upper.
That’s a good question, Ret. AKCl(NAC) Bob Jensen. Not only should a 70mm film festival like this be done here in the United States, but it should be done as a road show, in various big cities throughout the United States, including Boston.
Don S., I think the combination of movie piracy, coupled by VHS, DVD and Blu-Ray, as well as cam-corders all helped to undermine the movie business. I think that illegal piracy of movies started this trend, and, in the early 1980’s, the United States Supreme Court voted…by ONE vote, to allow movies to be made into videos to be played on VCR’s, which in turn led to DVD’s and, ultimately, Blu-Ray.
I don’t claim to be an expert at this stuff, and therefore, I don’t really have a dog in this discussion, but I’ll say this: It’s disgusting that people can and do get away with this kind of illegal pirating of movies, and it would be wonderful if a stop could be put to that once and for all, first because copyright infringement issues ARE involved here, and, secondly because this kind of illegal movie piracy really HAS helped to all but kill off the movie and movie theatre business.
Another longtime community movie cinema bites the dust. How sad. I read the story about the closing twice, and actually got a lump in my throat. I also feel sorry for the woman who’ll be out of a job, too. Even though I don’t reside in the area, it’s sad to read/hear about closures like this. Yet, in this day and age of DVD’s and crappy films, it comes as no surprise.
Sounds cool, Love movies-hate going! What a great first sentence to your post. I could see worse stuff coming from Hollywood these days with the recession.
Hey—speaking of older films, do you think that they’ll show more of the older classics now that we have a near-depression type recession? Just curious.
Ahhhhhh….the Orson Welles Cinema. That was a cool place, which I still miss to this very day. I used to go there a great deal in the seventies as a student, and in the early to mid eighties, after finishing school, and before it and the restaurant burned down. Movies that I saw there included Pink Floyd: the Wall, Performance, Bonnie and Clyde, Road Warrior, Blade Runner, The Harder They Come, Southern Cross, and, last but not least, to name a bunch of others, my alltime favorite film, West Side Story.
For a number of years after I finished school, I lived right around the corner from the Orson Welles Cinema and went there quite often. It was a cool place, with cool people working there.
Did I mention that I saw Gordon Lightfoot at the Orpheum in concert roughly 23 years ago? He was excellent.
Interesting website about Scollay Square. I remember it as a young kid in the early to mid-1960’s, before the new Boston City Hall was put in. That was sort of the tail end of the “old” Scollay Square.
The West End was a cool place, before it got bulldozed out of existence. The theatre looked cool.
Yup. I figured that out.
The Rivoli sounds like it was a neat theatre to attend!
Oh, well. 1900 of your closest friends? Didn’t know anybody had such a huge circle of friends. (lol)
Could very well be, JohnMLauter.
How awesome, rvb!!
I grew up in a suburb that was roughly 20 miles due northwest of Boston. When my sister and I were kids, and, for quite some time even after my brother came along, we would often travel into the city for a live theatre show, or a movie. Often, though, my parents would travel into the city by themselve, without us kids, to see a movie or a show, too.
This:
“What needs to happen is that when a major film come in to a metro are it should only be released to a single screen house for the first 2 weeks and then distributed to the multiplexes.
That can be something to think about with Ridgewood. Convert it back to a sibgle screen and make it a "Premier” first run house for both Brooklyn and Queens. A deal should be struck with the major studios. Call it going back to the future."
sounds like a fabulous idea, EastCoastRocker! Here’s wishing that somebody would run this idea by theatres here in our area.
Sounds like you had lots of fun back in your youth, Joe G.
As far as I know, movie theatres in my area are open and functioning as usual. It’s not at all surprising that, during this serious near-depression economic downturn, that people are flocking to the movies. People want to forget about reality for awhile, and to be immersed in a movie shown on a great big, wide screen, in a REAL movie theatre, with the lights down low. Imho, staying home and watching a movie on TV has never been much of a cheerer-upper.
This, too, looks like a nice theatre inside.
Looks like another handsome movie theatre!
That’s a good question, Ret. AKCl(NAC) Bob Jensen. Not only should a 70mm film festival like this be done here in the United States, but it should be done as a road show, in various big cities throughout the United States, including Boston.
Don S., I think the combination of movie piracy, coupled by VHS, DVD and Blu-Ray, as well as cam-corders all helped to undermine the movie business. I think that illegal piracy of movies started this trend, and, in the early 1980’s, the United States Supreme Court voted…by ONE vote, to allow movies to be made into videos to be played on VCR’s, which in turn led to DVD’s and, ultimately, Blu-Ray.
Good luck to all of you down there. Hope they re-open the Patio Theatre for you.
Oh, and some of the Charlie Chaplin movies and the old James Bond movies, too, are wonderful.
longislandmovies, I’ve seen the following movies on your list and have found them very good:
Slumdog Millionaire
Waltz With Bashir
Defiance
Milk
Frozen River
Gran Turino
However, as much as I enjoyed all of the above-mentioned films, imho, NOTHING beats some of the older classics, such as :
West Side Story
Lawrence of Arabia
Midnight Cowboy
Dr. Zhivago
Sound of Music
Wizard of Oz
2001: A Space Odyssey
True Grit
oh…to name afew.
However, imho, as much as I enjoyed all of the
I don’t claim to be an expert at this stuff, and therefore, I don’t really have a dog in this discussion, but I’ll say this: It’s disgusting that people can and do get away with this kind of illegal pirating of movies, and it would be wonderful if a stop could be put to that once and for all, first because copyright infringement issues ARE involved here, and, secondly because this kind of illegal movie piracy really HAS helped to all but kill off the movie and movie theatre business.
Another longtime community movie cinema bites the dust. How sad. I read the story about the closing twice, and actually got a lump in my throat. I also feel sorry for the woman who’ll be out of a job, too. Even though I don’t reside in the area, it’s sad to read/hear about closures like this. Yet, in this day and age of DVD’s and crappy films, it comes as no surprise.
Sounds cool, Love movies-hate going! What a great first sentence to your post. I could see worse stuff coming from Hollywood these days with the recession.
Hey—speaking of older films, do you think that they’ll show more of the older classics now that we have a near-depression type recession? Just curious.
Okay.
Ahhhhhh….the Orson Welles Cinema. That was a cool place, which I still miss to this very day. I used to go there a great deal in the seventies as a student, and in the early to mid eighties, after finishing school, and before it and the restaurant burned down. Movies that I saw there included Pink Floyd: the Wall, Performance, Bonnie and Clyde, Road Warrior, Blade Runner, The Harder They Come, Southern Cross, and, last but not least, to name a bunch of others, my alltime favorite film, West Side Story.
For a number of years after I finished school, I lived right around the corner from the Orson Welles Cinema and went there quite often. It was a cool place, with cool people working there.
I second that, SNWEB.ORG.
This is such a sad story. I’m at a loss for words here.
Thanks for the link, vito. Observing what goes on behind the scenes in a film projection room was interesting.