AMC Loews Harvard Square 5
10 Church Street,
Cambridge,
MA
02138
10 Church Street,
Cambridge,
MA
02138
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I’ve visited this theater for over forty years, although much more in the 1960s and 1970s when it was an ample single-screen cinema. I believe it used to be run by the same outfit that ran the nearby repertory cinema, the Brattle. One recollection: on October 3, 1973 I went to a showing of Francois Truffaut’s “Day for Night” (“La Nuit americaine.”) Director Truffaut himself made a personal appearance in this Harvard-sponsored event and fielded questions from the audience. I remember that Francophone members of the audience were being very tetchy because the translator was giving imprecise translations of Mr. Truffaut’s comments!
Robert,
The main auditorium, or #1, is comprised of the middle and front of the old orchestra level, and has around 550 seats. The screen is quite large, about 40 feet wide when open for widescreen movies, and the original organ loft grill-work is still in place on either side of the screen, but all other architectural elements are behind dropped-ceiling tiles or drapery. The screen in #1 is actually about 2 feet in front of the old proscenium opening (which is walled up) and hovers over the old orchestra pit.
I think that #1 is a great place to see a movie. Before 2002, it was capable of 70mm presentation and had presented a 70mm copy of “Vertigo” in 1998 that looked great. Unfortunately, the projection system was changed since then and now only screens 35mm.
Is the main auditorium here still large?
Actually, the Rocky Horror play was indeed performed at the Harvard Sq. Theatre, before the movie ever played there. You can read the review of it in the Boston Globe Archives. A live version of “Oh Calcutta” was also staged there, with the result that the police shut the show down for lewdness!
Also of note, the recent Bob Dylan album “Live 1975” was recorded in part at the Harvard Sq. in 1975. And Bruce Springsteen opened for Bonnie Raitt there in 1974.
This is untrue. They never ran “The Rocky Horror Show” (The Play) They have only had “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” The info on this page is incorrect.
The Rocky Horror Preservation Foundation
www.rhpf.org