My favorite experience at the Cheri was being one of only two people in the main theatre during the opening night of Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles – a sign, saddy, that the end was nigh. That said, hearing the firetrucks and traffic scream by on the street during the movies there was not exactly “endearing”.
PS – And yes, it was a boxy, unpleasant, junked old theatre, but for some reason the Allston’s very crappiness made it endearing. Often I found myself gravitating up the street after working at a grand old theatre like the Coolidge, just to see the worst movies just at a little junky twin. Why? Well, even though it was no movie palace, the Allston was a throwback to a different era, when neighborhood theatres were the norm, not multiplexes (in the suburbs of the midwest, where I grew up, these were mostly twins in strip malls). You just don’t have memorable experiences in a Staples…you have them in public places where people are allowed to interact. Yeah, like movie theatres – even the crappy ones. So, the Allston does still hold a certain little place in my heart.
Indeed, I was programmer for the Coolidge Corner Theatre, and also did the “Underground” programming at the Allston in the summer of 2003 (independent of the Coolidge). We did some fun programs there, everything from Kung Fu to Matthew Barney’s Cremaster films to a hip-hop film festival to, yes, antique stag loops (a program called The Good Old Naughty Days). Unfortunately, that programming was constantly butting heads with the Bombay’s programs, and so we parted ways. Not long after the building was sold and demolised.
My favorite experience at the Cheri was being one of only two people in the main theatre during the opening night of Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles – a sign, saddy, that the end was nigh. That said, hearing the firetrucks and traffic scream by on the street during the movies there was not exactly “endearing”.
PS – And yes, it was a boxy, unpleasant, junked old theatre, but for some reason the Allston’s very crappiness made it endearing. Often I found myself gravitating up the street after working at a grand old theatre like the Coolidge, just to see the worst movies just at a little junky twin. Why? Well, even though it was no movie palace, the Allston was a throwback to a different era, when neighborhood theatres were the norm, not multiplexes (in the suburbs of the midwest, where I grew up, these were mostly twins in strip malls). You just don’t have memorable experiences in a Staples…you have them in public places where people are allowed to interact. Yeah, like movie theatres – even the crappy ones. So, the Allston does still hold a certain little place in my heart.
Indeed, I was programmer for the Coolidge Corner Theatre, and also did the “Underground” programming at the Allston in the summer of 2003 (independent of the Coolidge). We did some fun programs there, everything from Kung Fu to Matthew Barney’s Cremaster films to a hip-hop film festival to, yes, antique stag loops (a program called The Good Old Naughty Days). Unfortunately, that programming was constantly butting heads with the Bombay’s programs, and so we parted ways. Not long after the building was sold and demolised.