Milton Cinema
556 Adams Street,
Milton,
MA
02186
556 Adams Street,
Milton,
MA
02186
2 people
favorited this theater
The State Theatre, located in East Milton was opened by 1939 and operated for over five decades. It was renamed Milton Cinema in 1964 and closed on December 30, 1988 with Jessica Lang in “Everybody’s All-American”. The theatre is still standing, although the owners seem to have no plan to reopen it. It was used for storage and as a cafe. In 2016 it became a restaurant.
Contributed by
Bruce R Talanian
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Recent comments (view all 32 comments)
Re: ken mc’s photo of May 1 — note the name on the marquee “Milton Cinema”, NOT “East Milton Cinema”. My memory is that this theater was called the State for many years, then the Milton Cinema.
Under “E. Milton” (Mass.) there is one movie theater listed in the 1927 Film Daily Yearbook: the Cunningham Park with 386 seats, open one day per week. I know nothing about it; there is a large public park in East Milton called Cunningham Park.
Here is a Youtube video of a recent walk through the old State Theater/Milton Theater. Frankly, the video is not very good, and it is hard to hear much of the talking or see much. But the shell of the auditorium is still intact. Looks like there’s some sunlight peaking through the roof, though.
Yeah, that’s my crappy footage. The phone I took it with turned the video sideways. Apologies for the quality. First off, it was an experience I was looking forward to since I was a child. I missed that theater and it killed me every time I got a coffee in the “Java Joe’s that took over the front lobby area. The auditorium was walled off, basically keeping the auditorium intact. The seats were all removed, as well as the screen. The whole for the projection booth was still there however the room was made into storage for the coffee shop. The ceiling didn’t have any light coming in from it. The light was from the hanging workman’s lights they had in there. The fire that destroyed the coffee shop did do a lot of structural damage to the premise, and the floor was down to it’s concrete. The shell of it all is intact. It is easily a $7 million restoration. My Best and Oldest friend arranged the meeting with the owner and went over numbers and figures. We have been speaking with an investor although it looks like nothing will be happening soon. It’s still our goal to return the theater to as close to the old appearance as possible, as well as have it as a theater for performing arts. There is one definite guarantee. If we are blessed enough to have this happen the first movie to be shown will be "Jaws”. Keep your fingers crossed and hope to see you there sooner than later.
FYI. I just edited the video so it no longer appears sideways. Enjoy.
According to an item in the Quincy Patriot Ledger yesterday, the Falconi Companies hope to close on purchasing the building on June 15th. All 3 business tenants at the front of the building will remain. Falconi will form a company, Milton Theatre LLC, which will operate a restaurant in the theater space. The theater has been empty since the fire in 2007; prior to that it was used for storage.
A member of my high school graduation class was the owner at one point in time of the cinema. He could not compete with a 8 screen multiplex in Quincy MA
The Milton Cinema was the subject yesterday of the occasional feature “Whatever Happend to …?” in the Quincy Patriot Ledger. There is a 1987 exterior photo. For info about the cinema, the writer came here to this page in Cinema Treasures. The copy concludes with the news that the Novara restaurant opened in the space in 2016 and has “movie-themed decorations”. So the building is still standing with a restuarant inside.
The State Theatre opened as early as 1939 and was renamed the Milton Cinema in 1964. It was last known as the East Milton Cinema and closed on December 30, 1988 with “Everybody’s All-American”.
Markell Amusement Co. had built the Weymouth Theatre in 1927 and continued building here on East Adams. Just prior to launching, however, the city fought the opening of the $40,000 Milton Theatre in January of 1928. The theatre passed and opened in 1928 before closing as a silent house in 1930.
Varney & Gravy took over the Milton Theatre in 1931 creating Adams Theatre Corporation of East Milton that April. They first started advertising films at the Adams Theatre in May of 1931. It was renamed the State Theatre under new operators in 1933. The venue appears to have closed at the end of its 30 year-leasing period.
New operators refreshed it and rebranded it as the Milton Art Theatre. It opened on January 10, 1957 with “Vitelloni” and a string of art films direct from Boston after playdates there On September 23, 1964, it changed programming to more Hollywood hits as the Milton Cinema with “The Pink Panther.” It ran as a sub-run discount house until end of another 30-year leasing period on September 23, 1987.
The Milton got one more chance with a new set of operators but they didn’t make it too far. John McDonald Jr. and Frank Santoro took on the venue as a proposed playhouse but ran it as a movie house until getting the plan together. It opened with “Stakeout” on November 18, 1987 closing permanently on December 30, 1988. They returned the property to the City. It first became a coffee house with performance space before being turned into a restaurant.