Studio Cinema
376 Trapelo Road,
Belmont,
MA
02478
376 Trapelo Road,
Belmont,
MA
02478
6 people
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Here is another great little gem cinema that is gone but not forgotten and it is now a church
Wow I’m surprised that there was a beautiful little theater and being in Newton area it was always a busy And Belmont being a dry town said that was a beautiful theater one of the originals
And status should therefore be changed to ‘Closed’.
Theater was sold to Beacon Community Church on Sept 9th, they has been renting the theater for Sunday services. No other info available. Price tag was a million dollars.
Are they planning any special event for that 95th anniversary?
The Strand Theatre at Waverley was built in 1919-1920, opened on 9/3/1921 showing “The Fighter” from Selznick Pictures starring Conway Tearle and “The March Hare” from Realart Pictures (Zukor’s Paramount) starring Bebe Daniels. Both of these films are considered lost. The theater will celebrate its 95th year in business this September.
Change status to open. Theater reopened after code violations had been corrected. Currently showing Inside Out.
This theatre has been closed for two months now due to building and fire code violations. If and when they will reopen is uncertain.
great little theater, I did some “learners permit” time in the booth many years ago. glad to see it’s still going strong. I will post recent photos
It does look like a barn.
According to the site, the link to which was posted above by Lost, the name was changed from Strand to Studio in 1965.
I just saw There Will Be Blood there March 4, on 2-for-1 night ($8.25 adult, not bad!) The seats are old and saggy, but they’re re-painting the backs of the metal seats glossy black. Most of the seats are repainted already, but three or four rows were cordoned off, presumably while the paint dried. The whole theater smelled of spray paint. Why couldn’t they complete this project in the summer, when they could open all the doors during the day to air the place out?
The Strand in Belmont was listed in the 1928 Film Daily Yearbook as being part of the Boas Circuit of Boston. Boas ran 22 movie theatres at that time. It’s listed as being in the Waverly section of Belmont.
conccession stand before i built new one
Yes Allistair you are correct the booth is in the air when i ran the theatre i was the Manager /Projectionist i was gonna move the booth to the lower level but i like the idea of it being up stair s and hiding
As a boy, I lived in Belmont between 1978 and 80, and visited this theater a number of times. Its modest exterior hides the fact that it’s actually a good, medium-sized theater within. If I remember correctly, the lobby is fairly small, but my favorite detail of the Studio is that the projectionist had to climb a ladder up into the booth! I haven’t been there in about 26 years, so my memory could be flawed. What I know for sure is that I saw “The Magic of Lassie” there, starring an aging Jimmy Stewart in an attempt to revive the Lassie series, “The Black Stallion” and a wonderful, cheap Japanese “Star Wars” rip off called “Message From Space”!
Theatre Development did business under Samia realty the owners they ran Dedham,Norwood,belmont,Attleboro,Cinema 140 New Bedford, and then started to get invovled with Franklin i had worked in all five i was interested in taken them over as the Over all person but i went back home to Attleboro and i opened a pizzaria in the theatre Building.then moving along and on worked for six other theatre and life changed i got married had some children and then moved to florida and now i work for Disney.. My goal is to Open a DriveIn theatre one day just need some partners and money now!
How many theatres did ‘Theatre Development Enterprises’ operate? I recall they had this one, the Norwood, and the Dedham Community Theatre.
Belmont is still primarily dry, but like neighboring Arlington, they do now allow some beer and wine licenses for restaurants. Arlington has had much more success than Belmont in using this policy to attract restaurants.
The Belmont Studio is my third favorate Cinema to operat i was manger there in 1987-1989 then i went back home to Open the Union theatre i worked for the Samia realty dba Theatre Development Enterprizes Inc when i arrived at the Studio the conccession stand was falling apart and it still operated on 15 mins reels so i modenized it slightly not to alter the looks gave the Cinema an office and re built the conccession stand by hand. we even repainted the interrior, moving on to the projestion room i had decided to change over to hour long reels so we could go Manager/Operator just what i did sold out the cinema every Friday and saturday night and thru in some arty picture to mix the verity. magnuin P.I was even filmed on trapello Rd one other note Belmont waas and probably is stil a dry town no tollarent’s for alcholic’s i even rolled out the new carpets and added some wheel chair slot in the back trying to accommadate alli had the nices ladies there Ann and Noima,Sue
I do however miss the cinemas and would love to be back in the show busness sence of times
Mr. Van Bibber is correct. It was originally named the Strand Theatre. I have their monthly printed program for May 1927. At that time, they ran double features that changed every third day. Matinees daily and evenings at 7:45 (“All Seats Reserved Evenings”). Some of the double features that month were “The Scarlet Letter” starring Lillian Gish and Harry Myers in “The Bachelor’s Baby,” Bebe Daniels in “A Kiss in Taxi” and Ben Lyon in “A Perfect Sap,” and Adolphe Menjou in “Evening Clothes” on a bill with “Jewels of Desire” starring Priscilla Dean.
It is listed in the Film Daily Yearbook, 1950 edition as the Strand Theatre with a seating capacity of 627.
From the current edition of the West Newton Cinema weekly newsletter:
OUR OTHER THEATRE
And in case you haven’t heard, we now own and operate the only movie theatre in Belmont. It is a 425 seat, single screen gem called the Belmont Studio Cinema. Located at 376 Trapelo Road in Belmont, MA. The Studio plays a lot of the same films as West Newton but also shows some of the better commercial films as well.
Tonight and then for the next five Mondays, the Studio Cinema will present the Belmont World Film festival, featuring a different foreign film each night. The films are from Italy, Bhutan, Cuba, Romania, France, Scotland, and Korea.
The Studio will also present three days of foreign documentaries from April 30 to May 2.
It is the only remaining single-screen second-run theater that I know of in this area. I’m not sure how they stay in business, but I’m glad they’re still around.