Randolph Cinema 1 & 2
Memorial Parkway,
Randolph,
MA
02368
Memorial Parkway,
Randolph,
MA
02368
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The Randolph Shopping Center project dated back to the 1950s. It opened on October 1, 1964 theatre-less with a W.T. Grant and a BPM (Brockton Public Market) as its anchors. In a refresh, Patriot Cinemas added the Randolph Cinema I & II if it pledged to the Randolph selectmen to not show smut films like “Looking for Mr. Goodbar.” A contentious Sunday ice cream sales license and Sunday entertainment license also appear to have been granted. The Randolph Cinema I & II opened as a discount, sub-run house on November 17, 1978 with “Grease” and “An Unmarried Woman” at the $1.25 price point.
Patriot closed the venue on September 11, 1988 at the expiry of its ten-year lease with “Tucker” and “Clean and Sober.” Patriot also closed the Queen Anne Cinema - its last two discount cinemas at that point citing the impact of VCRs and home video rental on second-run fare.
The theater’s address was at 33 Memorial Parkway it was recaptured for other retail purposes.
This cinema was located on Memorial Parkway which is the location of Randolph High School. On the site of the cinema today is a retail store and a bank branch, but it’s unclear if they are within the former cinema building, or if the cinema was demolished and a new building constructed.
I know nothing about this cinema and never went there. But it was profiled in the “Whatever Happened to ?” feature in the Quincy Patriot Ledger of August 7, 2019. There is an exterior photo taken on the last day of operation, 9/11/1988. The final movie was “Clean and Sober” with 20+ patrons attending. The article states that Patriot Cinemas had trouble obtaining product for this cinema in a timely manner and that films sometimes played there after they had been released on video.