Reel Harbor Theater
1 Mill Wharf Plaza,
Scituate,
MA
02066
1 Mill Wharf Plaza,
Scituate,
MA
02066
1 person
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Closed March 2020.
Mill Wharf Cinemas closed 07 Mar 2021, Sun The Boston Globe (Boston, Massachusetts) Newspapers.com
Linkrot repair: The 1938 ad with a photo of the Scituate Theatre’s lobby is now here.
Back last year when Frozen played, my wife and I went to see it and were late because of my stupidity. I went on line and read Fri times and we were there on Tues. I asked the young man in charge what time the movie had started. He said 7PM. It was then 7:15. I had wanted to see the Mickey Mouse cartoon that preceded Frozen. We missed it and the 1st 10 mins of Frozen. We stayed and at the end the young man told us to stay and he went to the booth and played the cartoon and Frozen(10 mins) for us. This was so nice of him. I would like to thank him right here. That’s life in a small town ell liked twin Cinema.
Back last year when Frozen played, my wife and I went to see it and were late because of my stupidity. I went on line and read Fri times and we were there on Tues. I asked the young man in charge what time the movie had started. He said 7PM. It was then 7:15. I had wanted to see the Mickey Mouse cartoon that preceded Frozen. We missed it and the 1st 10 mins of Frozen. We stayed and at the end the young man told us to stay and he went to the booth and played the cartoon and Frozen(10 mins) for us. This was so nice of him. I would like to thank him right here. That’s life in a small town ell liked twin Cinema.
Please change your seat count to approx 200 cinema 1 and 75 in cinema 2.
Perhaps someone with a long memory will recognize the photo a lower right on this page of the January 8, 1938, issue of Boxoffice. It illustrates an article about rubber mats for theater entrances, and shows the outer lobby of the Satuit Playhouse.
Scituate is in Mass but there is one in R.I.. The old scituate playhouse was called the Satuit Playhouse after the original spelling of the town. The old theatre was big and pretty and owned originally by Lockwood/Gordon then Sonderling and then run by others including Hoyts. When it was to be closed it was taken over and run by The present operators Brett and his wife for a couple of years. It was then torn down and replaced with a new Condo complex upstairs and a twin cinema and ice cream shop downstairs. It was then run by Patriot Cinemas. Patriot cinemas vacated it and the Cameo theatre in Weymouth and they were once again operated by Brett and his wife. The theatres are modern and clean. One is small with about 90 seats and the other is about a 200 or less seater. Both have good size screens, stadium seating and stereo sound. Very comfortable and good Popcorn.
Thanks for posting the updates…yes, my wife and I are the new operators at the Mill Wharf Cinema. We ran the old Playhouse for the final two years of its existence, and we’re happy to be back. It’s a small, friendly, boutique-style, two-screen cinema. Thank you.
Patriot Cinemas did not renew their lease on the Cameo in Weymouth and the Mill Wharf in Scituate. Bret and Michelle Hardy started a new company, South Shore Cinemas, to run these two theatres as of January 1. Today’s Globe South section has an article about them:
Cinematic revival: Couple’s love of movies inspired them to take over two-screen theaters
The Mill Wharf Cinemas' new website is: View link
The Old Victoria theatre in N. Scituate still stands. It is noe the office for a painter, landscaper etc. It didn.t close until the 30’s after the Satuit Playhouse was built and opened with sound, The Victoria owner didn’t think sound would catch on so he kept his movies silent along with Millie Whorff on piano. I guess he was stubborn and lost and shut the theatre down.
The 1927 FDY also lists a movie theater in North Scituate, the Victoria Theatre with 300 seats; plus the Town Hall auditorium in Cohasset with 340 seats.
The 1927 Film Daily Yearbook lists 2 movie venues for Scituate MA. One is the Idle Hour Theater with 400 seats and the other is the Satuit Playhouse with 600 seats, open for movies 2 days per week. I think that the Satuit Playhouse and the Scituate Playhouse are one in the same.
The Quincy Patriot-Ledger of July 10 reported that a plaque will be placed in the lobby in memory of Brian Marshall who led the move to either preserve the old Scituate Playhouse or replace it with a new cinema. Marshall died suddenly in 2001 just minutes after he spoke at a meeting in Scituate Town Hall.
I believe that the old Scituate Playhouse was originally a 1920s-era summer theatre, later turned into a single-screen cinema which lasted for many years before being twinned and then quaded. The old building had developed structural problems by 2000, and it was closed. But, as pointed out above, it did unexpectedly reopen for the summer of 2001 for one last fling.
Expanding on my earlier comment, after looking at some articles in the Scituate Mariner newspaper:
The former Scituate Playhouse, a four-screen cinema, closed in 2000 due to flooding problems, as much of the building was below street level. It was also not handicapped-accessible. Developer Steve Warner wanted to tear it down to make way for a new development.
But a groundswell of local public opinion, including a 2500-signature petition,
persuaded Warner to temporarily reopen the Playhouse for the summer of 2001, and to include a new two-screen cinema in the Mill Wharf Plaza project that replaced the Playhouse. The new theatre opened in the summer of 2004, with 12 condomiunium units above it and an ice-cream parlor next door.
In a 1998 Boston Globe movie ad, the Scituate Playhouse was a Hoyts cinema, but the new one belongs to the small local Patriot Cinemas chain.
From an article I read last year, this sounds like the old theatre was torn down and replaced by a new one, rather than a “remodeling”.
I believe you’ll find Situate Harbor is in Massachusetts, “MA”, not Maine