Astor Theatre
176 Tremont Street,
Boston,
MA
02108
176 Tremont Street,
Boston,
MA
02108
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favorited this theater
Showing 76 - 100 of 123 comments
Roger,
You might have known another projectionist at the Astor, David Kornfeld? He works for me now at the Somerville Theatre. David swears the Astor was his favorite booth/sound system that he’s ever worked. He loved those Norelco’s! We are actually getting a pair for Somerville’s main booth later this summer and David is thrilled to be working with them again.
Here are some rare photographs of the Astor View link
This, for now, seems like as good a place as any for these…
As part of an essay I’m writing, I’ve made googlemaps showing all of the theatres operating in Boston-Camb-Somerville in May 1977 and May 2008, including screen counts, what was playing on those screens, who distributed those films, what became of the cinemas, etc. CT has been very helpful in creating these, so it is only fair that I provide links. Here they are:1977 & 2008
These maps are still works in progress, especially around the edges of Boston, but I figured I might as well post them now, for anyone who is interested, might want to let me know if anything’s missing, or has suggestions of layout/methodology… if you’ve any feedback, please email me (addy linked to my profile). I’d like to keep the comments feature unused until I’ve got the things completed.
Too bad such a historic theatre came to such a tragic end.
In the autumn of 1902, the legendary Italian stage actress Eleonora Duse performed in a series of plays (in Italian) at the Tremont Theatre, as part of an American tour. She opened with D'Annunzio’s La Gioconda and was also seen in La città morta. Seats commanded high top prices, with the first three performances being sold at auction.
I don’t know what the last film run for a regular audience was. We were running Kung Fu films for a while and then started running more and more black exploitation films like Disco 9000 and Blackula. When it became a juice bar we had a few Planet of the Apes movies and a print of the Bible we would run just to put something on the screen. There was an article about the juice bar in either the Phoenix or the Real Paper and they commented on the movie the reviewer saw the night he attended. The last 70mm to run was two reels of 2001 but when they converted to a juice bar they cut the speaker feeds to the stage so there was no sound except what the disc jockey was playing.
What was the last film shown at the Astor, and what day was it shown?
I was the chief projectionist at the Astor for its last years of operation and ran the last film ever to be run there. The Astor had two Norelco Todd-AO projectors that were destroyed when the building was demolished. There were never three projectors in the Todd-AO booth. Raintree County never ran in 70mm as MGM never made a 70mm print. In the early 70’s it was taken over by the same company that ran the Orson Wells cinema in Cambridge. When gave up trying to run it the owner of the company that supplied security to the theater ran it for several years. The heating bill and rent were too high to make a go of it and it was closed in the mid seventies. Then it reopened as a juice bar but using the license as a theater. So while the sound system had been replaced by a night club type system and records were played so people could dance old movies were projected on the partially blocked screen. There were constant fights and incidents as it opened late at night and didnt close until in the early morning like four or five am. Shortly after opening as a juice bar the Federal Government shut them down as being a hazard. The building was vandalized and set fire many times until it was torn down in the early eighties.
For the record â€"
For the record â€"
Boris,
I knew that one of the grand old palaces had and used a curtain but I couldn’t remember if it was the Astor or the Music Hall. That magnificent moment when the curtain parted was dramatic and theatrical and only added to the experience of seeing a great film in that great theater.
I haven’t seen it yet, but the sepia tone print of “Reflections In a Golden Eye†has been re-created on the Warner DVD which is part of a 5 disc Marlon Brando box set.
The sepia “faded-color” version of Reflections in a Golden Eye, mentioned in the above comments, also played the Providence area at East Providence’s Four Seasons Cinema, now the Patriot Cinemas. I distinctly remember seeing it there.
I loved the comment above; I attended many ‘first runs’ at the Astor.
I have argued for years about the sepia or ‘golden’ version of ‘Reflexions in a Golden Eye’. Nobody else seems to have seen it; I was beginning to think I had imagined that print.
I saw ‘Matchmaker’ (Shirley Booth), ‘El Cid’, ‘10 North Frederick’. ‘I Could go on Singing’(Judy Garland) and either ‘Psycho’ or ‘The Birds’ there. I remember being facinated by the conversion of the old Tremont theater fronting on Avery St. by the removal of the stage and addition of a 50s modern stairway, refreshment stand, and the long corridor added to the Tremont Street entrance. I remember the brick walls of the old stage house painted a dark blue, fronted by the huge cinemascope curved screen covered by a similarly curved red curtain which whooshed back at the start of the show. An old friend, the late Jimmy Hulse, was house manager there when ‘El Cid’ was playing, (on sabbitcal from his jobs at the Wilbur and Colonial).
The Astor was perhaps my favorite, along with its neighbor the Savoy, of all the grand old Boston Theaters in the mid to late 1960’s. The screen was gigantic (51 feet!! according to the great post by Bill Liberman above) and the auditorium was wide, deep and comfortable. The box office was on the Tremont Street sidewalk and as Bill describes, once inside one had to walk down a rather long corridor to get to the ticket taker, the theater lobby, and the auditorium. The blank sign on the building façade above the overhanging marquee and below the script Astor lettering was actually a billboard, at least in the mid to late 60’s. When the Astor featured a first-run film which was expected to settle in for a long run, it displayed the ad of the film on the billboard which could be seen as one came across Boston Common. The script “Astor†lettering on the façade was a striking warm pink color when illuminated at dusk and was a familiar beacon when walking through the Common toward Tremont Street. If I drove into the city at night I would often park in the garage under Boston Common. When I came up from the garage all I needed to do was look for the Astor’s warm welcoming sign and cut across to the common to know where I was going.
I was only up in the balcony, which I believe was generally closed, once. They opened it to accommodate the overflow audiences for “Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolfâ€. I believe the rest room’s (at least the men’s) were in the basement which was common in many of the old theaters.
Most memorable experience at the Astor was seeing the rare and now virtually extinct sepia tone print of John Huston’s masterpiece “Reflections In A Golden Eye†on the Astor’s giant screen, on the day it opened in Boston in the fall of 1967. Huston wanted a unique look when he filmed his adaptation of Carson McCullers’s psychological novel and shot the film in an experimental sepia tone in which the only color which bled through the golden shade was pale rose. Quite spellbinding. Warner Bros only made a few prints of it and released them to select theaters in several major cities for the opening to see how the public would receive it. The studio executives didn’t like the results, pulled the film, and tragically re-issued the film in general release in regular Technicolor.
Other memorable films first seen at the Astor: “Ship Of Foolsâ€; “The Spy Who Came In From the Coldâ€; “The Molly Maguiresâ€; “Hombreâ€; “Alfieâ€.
Special thanks to Ron Newman for sharing the priceless pictures of the Astor.
“2001: A Space Odyssey” had a brief 70mm run at the Astor after it became a cult film and I remember seeing it there with my father in 1971 or 1972. I remember it vividly because we had a delicious dinner at Locke-Ober that evening, the male enclave that apparently still only permitted women to dine in the upper section and not in the wood-panelled lower floor. It was the only time I ever went to the Astor Theater. The screen was truly magnificent and the sound system was superb, but the theater’s seats and floor seemed to be pretty beat up by then. It was the second time I had seen “2001” and the first for my father, who liked it immensely. As I understand it, “2001” first opened in 1968 at the Boston Theater (also known as the Boston Cinerama) on Lower Washington Street (now closed).
Yes, in theatres circa-1900 the seats were smaller (because patron’s butts were smaller) and closer together. Also, in the top balcony they often installed benches instead of individual seats. And they thought nothing of admitting standees in large numbers. So when these old theatres were re-seated in, say, the 1940s, the total capacity went down. At the Astor, however, they removed the second balcony but enlarged the first balcony; they removed the stage and shoved the main floor seating into the stage space, so when they got through, the seating capacity was not changed that much.
Interesting addition, Ron. One more – In the 30s the Tremont was home to Eva LeGallienne’s repertory company; and it was programs from then the I found on the day I wandered up to the former second balcony. My guess of about 1150 seats was probably a tad high, but not by much. Of course the balcony lost many seats for the projection booth; and the push-back seats at the Astor took up more room than when the house was legit, I’m sure. I still miss the old place, after all these years (45!).
As the Tremont Theatre, the Astor is included in the 1897-98 Julius Cahn’s Official Theatrical Guide, a reference for roadshow producers and stage managers. The seating capacity: Orchestra and Orch. Circle: 631; Balcony: 417; Gallery: 357; total: 1,405 seats, plus boxes. There was space for 400 standees (The Guide refers to them as “admissions”). The proscenium opening was 33 feet wide x 33 feet high. The stage was 45 feet deep. The theatre was on the ground floor and there were 12 in the orchestra. Ticket prices ranged from 25 cents for “admissions” up to $1.50.
I was in the Astor only once, around 1965 or ‘66. I attended a Sunday afternoon run of a film that I don’t recall. My wife at the time wanted to see it. Seated prior to the showing when the house lights were on, I recall being amazed at how plain the auditorium was with a decor of blue brick. It appeared that the screen and curtain were hung against the back wall. The place was very clean and the movie well projected. Sorry, don’t recall the popcorn.
Many great comments, Bill Liberman, and made by someone “who was there”. I agree that there was no entrance on Avery Street, even way back in the old days. There was an exit there, amid a lot of fancy decorative work. And I agree that there was no way that the house had 2400 seats. The “serious fire” occured within the entrance structure in the early 1980s. This was after the arcade/club “Union Station” had closed. The entrance structure on Tremont St. had to be demolished, followed by the theatre itself in July 1983.
Memories of the Astor Theatre
I was assistant manager of the Astor for 2 ½ years from August 1962.
Tremont entrance: I doubt that the entrance could ever have been on Avery Street because only the back of the auditorium went to Avery, all the way back to the sidewalk, where there were emergency exits (which we used to exit audiences between showings of sold-out performances). The box office was located on the Tremont St. sidewalk, and the arcade leading into the inner lobby was at least 50 feet to the ticket taker. It was certainly unique, seeming to be something added on, but I can’t imagine where an ‘original’ entrance could have been otherwise.
The auditorium: I am confident that even with the second balcony there could never have been 2450 seats in that space (which Cinema Treasures lists) â€" especially as there about 1150+ when I worked there. Likely there had been a second balcony when the house was originally built but curiously all that remained was enough space for the ‘appearance’ of one. And there was no public stairway to get up there â€" just a ladder from behind the projection booth. I remember crawling up there one day and finding a treasure trove of old theatre programs scattered all over, going back to the 20’s and 30’s. (Oh, that only I had the presence of mind to have retrieved them!) We had about 900 seats on the main floor, with three seating sections, and five aisles. Each row and seat had letter/number tags on them â€"for the several reserved seat attractions that played there over the years (the first, “The Ten Commandments†in 1953; and the last, “The Longest Day†in 1962).
The Screen: Very likely there was never a larger movie screen in Boston, except for Cinerama (and possibly only one or two even in New York (The Rivoli, The Capitol). It was 51 feet and the only curved widescreen in the city, and it was built at floor level (The entire stage had been removed once the theatre was converted to a film house) with masking that went only about two feet above the floor). I recall that when we had completely sold-out performances of “The Longest Day†that the poor unfortunates sitting in the front rows looked like people at a tennis match, with heads swerving from left to right every time a subtitle appeared (which was frequently in that film â€" all the German and French actors spoke in their own languages). I don’t know what material it was made of, but there were countless thousands of pinholes in it, and one could clearly see the entire audience when standing behind it, looking out. (A fond memory: we played the Mel Brooks winning animated short “The Critic†in which Brooks was the voice of an audience member commenting on the abstract designs in the film. I often went behind the screen to observe the audience looking around to see who had shouted out “What the hell is this?â€, the first line of dialogue in that short, in Brooks’ own voice, after maybe fifteen seconds of harpsichord music accompaniment to moving abstract drawings.)
The projection equipment: the most up-to-date available in its day; and likely none better in any theatre in Boston â€" three 35/70mm Phillips projectors with carbon arc lamps, each equipped with magnetic sound capability, for the 4-track audio used in many films of that era â€" musicals such as “The Music Man†and “Bye Bye Birdieâ€, both of which played the Astor; and for “The Longest Dayâ€. These films, by the way, were 35mm prints with 70mm soundtracks I believe the projectors were installed in 1957, for the showing of the first Super Panavision 65mm film “Raintree Countyâ€. I think the last true 70mm film that played the Astor was shortly before I worked there, “El Cid†in 1962 â€" a reserved seat attraction, by the way.
The sound equipment: again, the best available in its day â€" all Altec speakers â€" three giant ones behind the screen (for magnetic stereo soundtracks) and a few placed at the very rear of the theatre â€" there were only 4 tracks back then, but the three screen tracks often had distinct separation of voices â€" even when actors walked across the picture, their voices would follow) When watching magtrack movies at the Astor, I always sat in a side section so I could hear the stereo separation more distinctly.
The ownership: I’m not certain of the range of dates, but sometime before and after I worked there the Astor was owned by a patrician elder named Dan Finn. He owned but two theatres â€" the first-run Astor and the second-run Coolidge Corner, in suburban Brookline. Readers of this website can be certain he was no longer the owner during the days of its decline. We were the main competitor for the then 5-theatre Sack chain, another one-man operation in Boston at that time. Sack had all the other reserved seat theatres in town, two other former legit houses (The Saxon – “Ben Hurâ€; The Gary – “Lawrence of Arabiaâ€; and The 4000-seat Music Hall – “Cleopatraâ€).[Did “Gigi†play reserved seats at the Beacon Hill?] In all modesty, none of his houses were as fine as the Astor â€" both “Ben Hur†and “Lawrence†would have been shown to far greater advantage at the Astor, for instance) but he had the clout of having several screens; and the deep pockets to put up the high guarantees such pictures commanded.
Performance schedule: All downtown Boston movie houses played continuous showings, beginning around 9 or 10 am, noon on Sunday), with the last screening rarely later than 9:30. We played as many performances as we could squeeze in, usually every two hours for shorter films â€" with usually only 15 minutes for “spill and fillâ€.
Concessions: As other posters mentioned, the Astor had a fine concession stand (just one); and our pride and joy was that we served pure butter only on our buttered popcorn â€" even back then most theatres used some ersatz product. I remember that every night I would put the butter into the fridge, and we constantly fed the dispenser with quarter-pound sticks of fresh LandOLakes butter during the day. I think we charged a quarter (one size only) â€" with three squirts of butter: one in the middle and two on top. Plain popcorn was 15 cents.
Admission prices: the day I began working (“The Music Manâ€) was the first day that the Astor had the highest price in town – $1.80, weekday evenings and two dollars (!) on Friday and Saturday. (I don’t recall any complaints.) The previous high in Boston had been $1.50.
Film bookings: In that era, before multiplexes, all movies opened on one screen in downtown Boston and played as long as business warranted, before moving on to second run houses in the suburbs. Except for a few dry weeks during my two years at the Astor, when we played re-issue double bills (Hitchcock’s “Vertigo†and “The Man Who Knew Too Muchâ€, for instance â€" and both in wonderful VistaVision â€" was there ever a better film technique? â€" we probably played fewer than a dozen movies. Some of our most memorable, in addition to those mentioned above: “Seven Days in Mayâ€, “The Night of the Iguanaâ€, “Under the Yum Yum Tree†(only because the run began the first day we re-opened after the Kennedy assassination â€" all theatres went dark for three days â€" and which sold out every performance the entire weekend.); and especially “Dr. Strangeloveâ€, which Columbia Pictures postponed from its original release date because of the assassination. It was an absolute sensation when it played the Astor, especially because of its appeal to the younger college-age crowd (of which I was one then).
The big white billboard sign above the marquee: It was the property of the theatre and we always used it to promote important pictures that played there, sometimes many weeks in advance of their run.
The demise: When I left the Astor, I left Boston so I don’t have any accurate information about when it went into decline, for how long, and why. I recall that after its closing there had been a serious fire there; and of course now the Loews Commons colossus stands on the very site today.
Fond memories of my first real job.
Note on the 1895 map that Avery Street does not go straight through to Tremont Street as it does on the 1928 map. The scene-loading door for the theatre was in the alley at stage-right (east side). The stage door and several floors of dressing rooms were on the west side (stage-left). The dressing rooms were not affected by the mid-1940s renovations and were there until the end in 1983.
This 1928 map shows at least 11 downtown Boston theatres. West is at the top of this map.
The TREMONT THEATRE is shown on the south side of Avery Street. A narrow finger connects it to an entrance on Tremont Street.
This 1895 map shows a part of downtown Boston. The Tremont Theatre is visible near the top left corner, in the block bounded by Tremont, Boylston, Washington, and Avery streets. Most of its street frontage is on Avery Street, with a small leg reaching out to an entrance on Tremont Street.
Writing in his 1932 essay, “The Stage in Boston in the Last Fifty Years”, Charles Grandgent pointed out that there were “extensive alterations” performed inside the Tremont Theatre following the 1916 fire. From another source I learned that the fire was on January 23, 1916.