Circle Cinemas

There is a fine article in the 1946 Theatre Catalogue about the erection of the original Circle Cinema then known as the Circle Theater. Sumner Redstone revamped the original Circle Theater into the Circle Cinema as part of the Showcase Cinema chain in 1965. Redstone had 40 Drive Screens at that time and only 8 Indoor Screens. I was an usher at the Circle during 1966-67while attending <Leland Powers School of Radio,Television,and Theatre Sept thru June of those two years. Remembering some of the grand regional premieres ‘The Oscar’, with live Hollywood Stars Elke Sommer,Eleanor Parker,Edie Adams, and what appeared to be a rather tipsy Stephen Boyd,(Messala how you’ve slipped !). Displayed in our Circle lobby with a full time Pinkerton guard, were Edith Head’s and Walter Brennan’s real Oscars. Ms. Head’s was heavier than Mr. Brennan’s because hers was made of metal and his was of plaster since there was a scrap metal drive in effect during WW2 when his waws awarded. I know the weight difference because one late night after we closed under the intense glare of our Pinkerton friend I held them both while the Night Cleaner dusted their display case. So once in my life I recieved two Oscars if only momentarily. We opened with a fully costumed staff of 40 employees, Ushers in blue wool gold braid Brooks Brothers ($75.00) jackets, Candy Girls and Box Office Woman Cashiers in the same blue colors. There were two Ladies Room Attendants dressed as French Maids to assist Women patrons. A very tall Doorman in greatcoat with huge golden epalets swung open the entrance doors for arriving fans. This large staff was paired back to 25 by the end of our first month. The single screen Circle Cinema seated 1'500 with orchestra and one balcony in 1966, our screen had a tan travelor curtain with gold threads imbedded as spotlights were able to color the drape many different shades,no stage was found behind the curtain , but there was an Art Gallery in the balcony area where local artists works could be purchased, and a lovely live plant Conservatory, until the Ushering staff killed the plants with windex dumped into the large and heavy watering pails which had to be transported up a long flight of stairs. Our Day Manager,Ed Harwood, was dfressed in a dark business suit and our Night Manager, Mr. Muir, was always attired in a blck tux. Nine Par king Wranglers in white duster overcoats helped to squeeze the arriving autos into the toooo small car parking lot, and they secured the overflow vehicles illegally along a side street which strangly never received tickets, so go figure! We played manylong run road shows like,“The Great Race”, during that stint the management noticed at the same point in the screening each run many of the customers would head for the lobby concession stand to buy a “Coke”. Somewhat puzzled the Manager requested to see that particular reel at the evenings end and surprise,surprise, he and the Union Projectionist found subliminal Coke single frames had been added to that reel; a replacement was soon at hand. The Ushering Staff all male wer3e trained by ,Ed White< from the Redstone Front Office. Part of the ushering costume was a spotless pair of white gloves which were changed periodically if soiled, a flashlight was utilized to seatour guests in the darkened house during the film show, even a flashlight code was discretely used againstour white gloved fingers to check for available seating in the balcony, singles or doubles as the necessity arose. I still remember we were taught to say to the patrons ,“Right this way ,Please,” not ,“Not follow me.”,when seating them. I’m still using that polite phrase while dealing with the public even today, as it denotes the idea that you are graiciously waiting to serve just that specific person. “Thank you Showcase for those mannerly fundementals!”.

Although in recent years, some independent, art, and foreign films have shown exclusively at Brookline’s Coolidge Corner Theatre or the West Newton Cinema.

National Amusements is also known as Redstone Theatres, owned by Sumner Redstone. Their home office is in Dedham, and they only had suburban theatres, like Dedham, Woburn, Revere, etc. Nothing downtown Boston that I can think of.
Back in the day, Sumner would get in a helicopter, and fly over an area, pointing out locations to buy land to build theatres. That was the difference between him and Richard Smith. Smith didn’t believe in buying land, thus nearly all the GCC theatres were leased, located in Malls. The Redstone Theatres were close, but not actually in a Mall.

FYI, Viacom and its subsidiaries like Paramount, plus CBS are both owned by… National Amusements, not the other way around.

I was in Circle recently, and the place looks pretty good. They painted to lobby, and it looks like they did some work to the box office and the concession stand. Still not great, but it looks better then it has for a long time.

The theaters in the back cant have screens bigger then maybe 15 feet, but its still a nice little theater. Its a throwback in many ways, but I still like going to the Circle as it still has some charecter. The theaters arent all back to back in a long row, its not a cookie cutter multiplex, it has a rather quirky deisgn that I think makes it worth visiting.

The best part of the business was running the floor when the lobby would be packed waiting for the previous show to exit, the lines waiting until the crowd moved in to continue selling, filling most of the auditorium, then packing them into the balcony before continuing to fill the downstairs, then the making of “doubles”, and finally at the end of the day, cashing out and being “even”. Doing it four times a day on one screen and the same on a second was even better.

Attending a movie at nearly any Boston area theatre, even in the shopping centers, was a grand experience through the 1950’s and even into the ‘60s. In those days, the family “got dressed up” to go, whether it Sound of Music, Doctor Zhivago, or any number of blockbuster features, which people flocked to see in the large auditoriums with big screens. When was the last time you saw a line around the block buying tickets to anything? And the lines moved faster too, with 1000 seat auditoriums filling up in a matter of 20 minutes or so.

My first memories of the Cleveland Circle, as it was called when I lived nearby (it was officially in Brighton, by the way) were as a 7-year old. That would be 1948.

It was a ten minute walk from where I lived, so I saw plenty of movies there. I think a ticket cost 11 cents for children, 15 or 20 for adults. Imagine â€" pricing in pennies!

I don’t know when it was built, but I would guess shortly after WWII, but certainly not as late as the 50’s as some have suggested here.

It had a spacious outer lobby where the ticket seller was. And a great big candy stand in a big, carpeted inner lobby. There was also a not-so-large balcony which was always available (I think).

They did indeed show a couple of cartoons, a newsreel and sometimes another short, often a travelogue. But previews? Only two, for whatever was coming next! Yes, in addition to the above, it was always a double feature.

The Circle was a first-run second-run theatre back then. In other words, very soon after a picture closed its run downtown it would play the Circle, one of less than a handful throughout the city. The others â€" like the Egyptian, on the other side of Brighton (near Allston) would be third run houses.

The auditorium had modern comfortable push-back seats and there was a curtain in front of the screen, which was dramatically opened and closed between portions of the program.

I can’t fathom how it is that one of the first pictures I remember seeing there was “Joan of Arc”, starring Ingrid Bergman, in 1948. When I was 7? And without my mother? I cried my eyes out when she was burned at the stake. (Maybe I saw it later in re-issue.) You can see it on DVD now â€" quite a spectacle. By 1953 there were no more double features and one of my great all-time memories is going with my pals to see “Stalag 17” every day twice a day for the entire week of our Easter vacation that year. We saw it fourteen times! And we knew every line by heart.

It really is a shame that there are so few single screen theatres any more. Going to the movies at a single screen theatre always seemed to be more of an occasion.

My hunch is that the Globe writer was referring to developments such as stadium seating and digital projection as “modern amenities” and not to the architecture.

The original single screen auditorium was twinned in 1976 (the first attraction at one of the twinned screens was “Marathon Man”) and the screens in the back followed a few years later. The first time I saw a film in one of those auditoriums in the back was the reissue of “Fiddler on the Roof” which I think was in 1978 or 1979.

Regarding the date of the opening of the Circle.

From today’s Boston Globe (excerpt from an article on the Loews/AMC merger):

The seven-screen Circle Theater at Cleveland Circle, owned by National Amusements' Showcase Cinemas of Dedham, was built in 1965 and has relatively few modern amenities.

This was the “newest” of the ATC Theatres. ATC President was Sam Pinanski, who came from M&P and previously NETOCO (Jacob Lourie’s). He was determined to have his own chain of theatres patched together from the old M&P, New England Theatres, NETOCO, Paramount Publix, etc. My understanding is he sold the theatre to Redstone. To the ATC staff the inside joke was ATC meant “Another Theatre Closed”.

At the end of July, 1961, the Cleveland Circle was advertised in the Boston Traveler as being an ATC or American Theatres Corp. Theatre which also owned the Waltham Embassy, and in downtown Boston, the Pilgrim and Mayflower Theatres, as well as several other suburban theatres.

This is someone’s memory of going to elementary and junior high school in Newton in the 1950s. She mentions “Saturdays at the Circle Theatre watching previews of coming attractions, The World in Review, 3 cartoons and 2 feature films”.

Is it possible that the current theatre replaced an earlier one with the same name?