Central Square Cinemas
415 Massachusetts Avenue,
Cambridge,
MA
02139
415 Massachusetts Avenue,
Cambridge,
MA
02139
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A newspaper story about the King of Hearts 5 year stay mentioned that the theater had used up all the available prints of the film. They contacted the director who not only supplied a print but assured them they would be able to get prints when they needed them for the rest of it’s run.
Harvard Crimson article on the history of the theatre at the time of its closing in 1980.
The address on this entry should be changed to something more specific. The former theatre building is now occupied by Quest Diagnostics (originally “Bioran”), a medical lab whose address is 415 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge 02139.
A week before the Central Square closed on April 1, 1980, I saw the last two films I would see there: revivals of To Be or Not to Be (1942) and Sunnyside Up (1929). They ran programs here in both 35mm and 16mm.
If nothing good was at the Orson Welles, there was always something good at the Central Square.
It was a cramped theater, but the programming was so interesting, I never cared.
For the record, “King of Hearts” opened at the Central Square Cinema on January 10, 1971 and it ran until April 13, 1976.
This Boston Phoenix article shows a photo of the Central, whose marquee advertises “King of Hearts” (of course) and “Give Her the Moon”.
The Central Square closed just after midnight on Tuesday night, April 1, 1980, according to a Boston Globe article published two days later. At the time it closed, it was under the same ownership as the Brattle.
Another Globe article says it opened in 1968.
As stated in the description, Philippe de Broca’s KING OF HEARTS played here for at least four years as a cult attraction in the 1970s. Late in the run, perhaps to expand interest, it was paired on the same bill with de Broca’s GIVE HER THE MOON. As a prank one evening, some folks re-arranged the words of the titles on the marquee to create a funny message. Does anybody remember that and what the message was? I’ve forgotten and didn’t save the newspaper piece that included a photograph.
In the 1970s, this was part of a small art-house chain called “Sonny & Eddy’s Theatres”, which also ran the Allston Cinema, Exeter Street Theatre, Galeria Cinema (which under a later owner became the Janus), and Academy Twin Cinemas in Newton.
Typical of the kind of programming at this theatre: in July of 1969 one screen featured Max Ophüls' LOLA MONTES in a revival while the other had Jean-Luc Godard’s WEEKEND. It should be noted that the screens were not sizable here, the sight-lines were imperfect, and the seating was fairly cramped…but the programmnmg was top-notch. They could screen both 16mm and 35mm prints.
The space where the theatre had been became a medical lab.