Wakefield Theatre
411 Main Street,
Wakefield,
MA
01880
411 Main Street,
Wakefield,
MA
01880
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The Wakefield Theatre was located in downtown Wakefield, a suburb north of Boston. It was one of two movie theatres in town. Any additional information welcomed.
Contributed by
Ron Salters
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Recent comments (view all 5 comments)
The Wakefield Theatre was listed in the 1927 Film Daily Yearbook has having 900 seats and operating 6 days per week. The MGM Theatre Photograph and Report form for the Wakefield has an exterior photo dated March 1941. The theatre had a narrow entrance in a brick commercial block. There was a small old-fashioned marquee with “Wakefield” in big letters on its front with a sunburst above, all outlined with bulbs. On the second floor, above the marquee, was a large arched Palladian-style window. The Report states that the Wakefield has been a MGM customer for over 10 years; that it’s over 10 years old; in Good condition, and has 900 seats.
Much of the Wakefield theater burned in early 1972. Ironically, the week before the fire “The Last Picture Show” was playing. As I remember “The Concert for Bangladesh” had just opened, the day before the fire. Part of the building still exists and houses a set of retail establishments, jointly called the “Old Theater Block”. The front portion, which contained the marquee and entrance is now the parking lot for the building. It is located on Main Street in downtown Wakefield.
This was my home town theatre growing up…I remember seeing “The Battle of Britain” as a kid, in the late 60’s.
When the ‘Add a Photo’ service returns, there are pictures available at the Digital Commonwealth site, www.digitalcommonwealth.org One example: http://is.noblenet.org/images/wak/mld88_march.jpg
The marquee on the Wakefield Theatre in the old 1920s photo posted above by DanH was still on the building when the MGM Report photo was taken in March 1941.
I saw the Beatles' movie, “A Hard Day’s Night” here back in 1964. It was wild! Whenever there was a close-up of a Beatle on-screen the girls in the jam-packed audience would start screaming and jump up and down like they were seeing a live performance! I have never seen anything like it before or since. There was also a bomb scare in the middle of the movie and we were all marched outside the theater. When we got the all-clear we were ushered back into the theater, the movie resumed, and the girls went right back to screaming! I’ll never forget it.