AMC Braintree 10

To Tom N., John Norton was Technical Services Director, in the Home Office. Are you his son?

As mentioned by dwodeyla, The original Braintree was the South Shore Cinema, built in 1966. The architect and general contractor for the project was William Riseman and Associates, Architects, Boston, MA who designed most of the General Cinema Theaters in the east. Their designs were often duplicated and site adapted throughout the country. My father was the principal assoc architect with the firm from it’s formation in the early forties. My father is 92 and lives in Wrentham, MA.

dwodeyla: Yes, the listings should be made. Somewhere, in my piles of architecture stuff, I have some slides I took of the GCC Braintree theater, the one that’s a Circuit City now. I know some people at the Braintree Historical Society who might have a photo of the Braintree Theater in Braintree Square. bigred: I noticed when AMC took over the Braintree GCC that the quality of the place declined.

I think you’ve listed them all. I forgot that the Cameo in South Weymouth had been twinned, as well as the theater in Scituate Harbor. The Loring is a wonderful, local theater with a loyal following. They now have Dolby. I’ve never visited Stoughton. I live in hope that the Wollaston will revive, but I guess it’s beyond the pale. I had the same hope for the East Milton theater. I see the Norwood theater has been twinned. I haven’t been there in years. Anyway, in my note to Richard I said “HAD” some single venues, which is, alas, mostly the case.

Richard: <<If you think the matinee was bad you should have seen Friday nights. >> Yikes! Glad I missed those. I’m trying to remember, did the theater have a balcony? My recollection is that it did not. Do you recall the “Art” theater in Quincy Square? My memory of it is fading, though positive. I think it might have had a Deco style exterior and possibly interior. The South Shore had a number of decent, single-screen venues (some of which remain) before the ‘plexes took over. tom

Richard: The Braintree Theater was purchased by the owner of the then nearby Barile Plumbing company and converted into a commercial building in the early sixties. It may still be called the Barile Building. Barile Plumbing is gone, I believe. The building has professional offices on the second floor and a mix of retail and offices on the first floor. I recall friends of my parents saying the Braintree Theater was popular, drawing people from surrounding towns. I attended a few matinees there when I was very young, just before it closed. Kids matinees then were extremely noisy and rowdy. Such behavior would NEVER be tolerated today.

dwodeyla: I think AMC mainly just wants to get big. They just announced they were buying Loew’s. So, Boston is now a one company movie theater town again, I think, if you don’t count the Kendall in Cambridge, which is a a Landmark and or Samuel Goldwyn theater. I’m sure AMC figures obsessive attention to soap dispensers does little for the bottom line. I pay attention to such things. During the eighties and early nineties, I was a theater checker for the Braintree Cinemas. They figured out who I was, and I got moved down to the Hanover Cinema, a less glamourous assignment. They removed the Dolby equipment when I was there. That theater is open again under different ownership. I drove by about a month ago around nine in the evening. It was packed. Anyway, regarding the Braintree Ten—no more THX and no more Kodan screen certification either.

I saw Star Wars III at the Braintree AMC a few days ago. I was in Cinema 4, I think, the second largest auditorium size there. (The five auditoriums on the left side of the building are mirrored by the five screens on the right) The manager said SW didn’t draw enough of a crowd to run in the biggest venue (5 or 6, I think). The big auditoriums used to be designated as having THX sound. Not any more. Cinema 3 looked as though it still had the HPS-4000 sound equipment, which for my money is as good as or better than THX. The lobby looked about the same. The rest rooms looked shop worn and in need of repair and cleaning. Some of the faucets didn’t work, and they’d stuck the new soap dispensers on top of the old. :–(

The current Braintree 10-plex is a similar design to the current Burlington 10-plex (which was built a few years afterwards). Both are now operated by AMC.

With Six You Get Eggroll premiered at 3 General Cinemas on the same day, Braintree, Peabody, and Framingham, with a helicopter taking Barbara Hershey, et al to each location. When they arrived in the parking lot at Framingham, there was a High School band playing to greet them. Probably the same kind of local things happened at each location. There was even a Boston Record American with an extra front page wrap announcing the event, handed out at each theatre.

I don’t know why the Boston suburbs were chosen for the event.

Projection was handled by George Follis and John Grebauski, for most of the years, that the South Shore Plaza Cinema was in operation. Mr Follis was the business agent for the local, and ran a 16mm film rental business in Quincy on the side. Both men worked seven days a week, rather than allow a relief man in their booth.
The floor staffs generally were long tenured, and younger brothers and sisters followed in their siblings footsteps in working the Cinema. It was the only theatre in the circuit which had a Matron on the payroll, from 1966 until she retired in the late 1980’s. Her name was Miriam.

The new Braintree Cinema on Grandview is now an AMC Cinema with the demise of the General Cinema chain. It’s one of the last theaters to have been built by General Cinema with conventional seating before the advent of stadium style auditoriums. I attended a charity Star Wars Marathon they had for the opening. I paid extra to see the films in the THX auditorium. I think they have (or had) two of them. The smaller auditoriums are delightful, almost like private screening rooms. I saw the original plans for the building. They’d planned that half the auditoriums would have stereo equipment. By the time the building was finished, all the auditoriums had stereo. One auditorium has an HPS-4000 speaker system. It’s superb and has better mid-range than the THX venues. General Cinema was quality company. I’ve not visited the theater since it was bought by AMC.

The original Braintree was the South Shore Cinema, built in 1966. It eventually was split a couple of times to become Cinemas I,II,III,and IV. This theatre was one of General Cinema’s best grossing houses in the Boston area, especially when it played Disney films. It was managed by Izzy Strier from about 1967 until 1975 when he moved up the Home Office theatre in Chestnut Hill. I followed in his footsteps, running it from 1975 until 1977, and again from 1983 until 1986. Some great engagements included Herbie the Love Bug, the World Premier of With Six You Get Eggroll, Jaws, Star Wars, Return of the Jedi, Freaky Friday, Grease, and many others. One of the most interesting things about running this theatre, was the opportunity to do some fantastic paste ups for the ads in the Patriot Ledger. I used to try all sorts of special things, like reverse type inside the oval, with a slim white seperation. Those who used to take special care in paste ups, might remember stuff like that. The South Shore Cinema had a fine reputation in the town of Braintree, working with the Town Clerk, on charity shows, and an annual Safety Patrol kiddie show. In addition, we were right across the road from the South Shore Drive In, and the ushers and candy girls enjoyed the benefit of going to both places to see free movies.