Charles Cinema
185 Cambridge Street,
Boston,
MA
02114
185 Cambridge Street,
Boston,
MA
02114
11 people
favorited this theater
Showing 26 - 50 of 93 comments
To Dan P and others. When Reade opened the Charles it had the 2nd largest ccreen in downtown Boston. #1 was the Music Hall and # 2 was the Astor which was never owned or run by Sack or USA or Lowes. Gettysburg opened at the Coolidge Corner and then 3 weeks later at the Charles. Both theatres ran it in 70mm. I believe the CC is still equipped with 70mm. I don,t believe the CitiWang(Music Hall) has 70mm anymore.
There are two pictures of the Charles Cinema (scroll down about a third of the way) on this webpage.
I think Loews had taken over the Charles by the time Gettysburg opened.
I believe that gettysburg opened 1st for about 3 weeks at the Coolidge Corner then Moved over to the Charles. Sack didnb’t want it because it was too long and he could only get about 3 screenings per day. So the coolidge tookit. The same thing happened to the 1st Muppetts movie. Sacl controlled downtown at that time and he thought it was probably too G to make money. So of all the theatres to take it was the Exeter and they laughed all the way too the bank for many weeks.
But I saw Gettysburg at the Charles. Maybe it opened simultaneously at Coolidge?
Not quite as famous as Leno or Fonzie, but I worked at the Charles with Mario Cantone, who was as high-energy then as he is now (and I mean that in a good way).
No one seems to know who the famous Bostonian was that ushered at the Charles. If i.m not mistaken it was Jay Leno while he was at Emerson. Another Emerson student, although not a Bostonian who may have worked there was “THE FONZ” Henry Winkler. I’m just guessing at this. I know he was an alumni speaker at Emerson colleges graduation back about 17 years ago when my son graduated. The Charles was a great movie house not a Palace like the Metropolitan(Music Hall-Wang ctr- Citi Wang ctr). Saw many films there especially the big ones like Deliverance, Pete and Tillie, The Wrath of God(Robert Mitchum, Star Wars(35 & 70mm) and Ryans Daughter in 70mm. Just to keep people informed I do believe that Ted Turners Gettysburg in 70 mm opened at the Coolidge Corner 1st because Sack did not want it because it was too long. Another movie that Sack didn;t want was the 1st Muppetts Movie, it went to the Exeter and played to packed houses for many weeks.
The Charles had a huge screen upstairs and two small screens downstairs. When Walter Reade still owned it, those were called the Charles East and Charles West.
The Charles was always a great place to see and hear BIG movies in the 70’s and 80’s. I have fond memories of seeing ALIEN, JAWS, THE LAST WALTZ, GLORY, the STAR WARS and BACK TO THE FUTURE trilogies… It was the only theatre in town that did justice to the restored LAWRENCE OF ARABIA in 1982.
After the Music Hall closed in the 70’s, the Charles was the one of the usual Sack houses for the Bond movies. I’m pretty sure I saw FOR YOUR EYES ONLY there.
Wasn’t there a smaller screen downstairs at the Charles too? Pretty sure that’s where I saw BLADE RUNNER.
By the late 1970s and early 80s, the Music Hall was almost exclusively a live stage and rarely showed films.
In the late 60’s / early 70’s When the Music Hall showed movies it was the largest screen, followed by the Astor and then I think the Savoy. Thanks to the the closing of those theatres the Charles moved up the ladder. I don’t remember the Cinema 57 screen being that large but if you guys say so, I’m willing to believe it.
This will always be the Star Wars theatre for me. I have very fond memories of the charles.
The Music Hall wasn’t showing movies on a daily basis in the 1980s. I’m started to read your comment that the Cinema 57 had a larger screen. I don’t recall what kind of movies they were showing. I don’t see photos online that depict a huge screen. I only see the few at cinematour. The best screen that I enjoyed was the Charles.
When I worked at the Charles in ‘78-'82, the general knowledge was that we were second-biggest – the Cinema 57 had a bigger screen and bigger seating capacity, but our sound system was better. (Feel free to call me a highly-biased source.) I’d forgotten about the Music Hall, that screen may well have been bigger.
to Roger A. Sorry roger but you are wrong about Sack theatres also had the Gary, Saxon, Music Hall, Cinema 57',Beacon Hill and the Capri and one cinema in Copley Place that was equipped with 70m. These theatres may have not been open at the time you are talking about. The largest screen in Boston was the Music Hall and the Charles was 2nd followed by the Astor. The Orpheum also had a large screen and ran 70mm. The Boston premiere of Gettysburg I believe was at Coolidge Corner and in 70mm. Boston had plenty of 70mm theatres but Sack controlled downtown and let all these theatres fall apart. When they became USA cinemas it got worse. I wish that READE had never sold to Sack/USA. Reade ran nice theatres.
I walked by the site of the Charles Cinema twice last week while going to a clinic at Massachusetts General Hospital, which is very close by. The address above is correct; the Map and the Google Street View are both incorrect.
When I was at Boston U School of Law (1982 to 1985), it WAS the largest screen in Boston!
The address is correct. There is more than one Cambridge Street in Boston, and the map is showing the wrong one.
The information on this site is pretty bogus sometimes. The address they have listed for this theater isn’t even close to where the theater was and it never was the largest screen in Boston!
The other film I’m pretty sure I saw in 70mm here is “Lawrence of Arabia”.
Yes that played in 70mm at the Charles. When Sack took over the theater it had two 35/70 Italian projectors with carbon arcs. After they were forced to install the sound processor for Star Wars the Charles ran 70mm more often and my source tells me that they ran Gettysburg in 70mm. Still they only ran 70mm when it was demanded of them. New York and Los Angeles Washington and other cities ran 70mm prints of many, many, films that were run in 35mm in smaller cities. There was a time almost every major film had a 70mm release print. Just about every major theater in the Los Angeles area was equipped to run 70mm. So theaters like the Chinese and the Avco had three 70mm prints of different movies all running at the same time. There were 8 movies released in 1993 in 70mm and Boston got one 70mm run maybe two. check out this theater in Boston http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/6447
I saw “Gettysburg” here. Wasn’t that in 70mm?
The Screen at the Charles was not huge by any standards. After Ben Sack lost control and Sack theaters was being run by a whole different management team things changed in Boston. The new management did not like to run 70mm except when they were forced to by the studios. I watched “Star Wars” the opening week and the presentation was so bad I called 20th century fox to complain. Shorty after that the Charles started to run a 70mm print and they had to install a Dolby CP100 to do it. Days of Heaven ran there in 70mm and again Sack had to upgrade the system and change out the left extra and right extra speakers. Sack management hated doing anything that cost extra. The only other Sack theater’s that could run 70mm were the Beacon Hill and the 57. The screen at the 57 was so small they put the left and right channel speakers over the exits.
Dan, webmaster can’t “move” picture but unlocked Street View in case anybod can manually guide locale to the ex-cinema. It might be miles, though.
The astoir never was operated by Sack/USa/Lowes.