Holyoke Mall Cinemas
50 Holyoke Street,
Holyoke,
MA
01040
50 Holyoke Street,
Holyoke,
MA
01040
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Both the Holyoke Mall and its eight-screen Holyoke Mall Cinemas opened at the same time in July 1979. The theater was first managed by Kendall McClintock.
This was originally a CCC (Cinema Centers Corp) theatre out of Boston. It was purchased by Hoyts in the mid 80’s. This was part of my territory as district manager for Hoyts. I wanted to convert this to art but the company dsn’t understand or back the idea.
This cinema actually had eight screens. They were opened in 1980 with the mall. Absolutely the nadir of theater construction – eight identical shoeboxes, narrow, approx 250 seats each, cheap vinyl seats. Plain red and purple curtains on the walls, and small screens. It was all done on the cheap.
The biggest problem is this was part of the “cafe square” section which for some reason was in the basement level one floor below all of the stores. the whole cafe square was out of the way for shoppers as a result and the cinemas were really tucked out of sight, so they really never had a chance. They started with a mix of 1st and 2nd run films and quickly dropped to all 2nd run. Only thing they accomplished was to run the remaining downtown theatres out of business. But they couldn’t compete with Showcase Cinemas in west springfield and barely lasted ten years before being gutted and converted into a mini-golf establishment. That lasted less than two years and it is now a Filene’s basement store.