Last month, I repeated a rumor from the Somerville News about a gym moving into the cinema building. It is not correct. The gym is moving into the office building next door.
I rode around the area this afternoon. You can still see inside the glass entrance doors, and there’s no obvious sign of any interior demolition. The word LOEWS has been removed from each of the building’s three LOEWS THEATRES signs, but the word THEATRES remains, as does the old Loews Cineplex “spotlights” logo.
The adjoining office building still has a large two-sided marquee visible to motorists on I-93. The word LOEWS has been painted over on each side, but again the word THEATRES remains. Of course, the 12 slots for movie titles are now blank, and the sign is no longer lit at night.
Is the landlord keeping these signs mostly intact in case some other chain wants to move in? I can’t imagine who would want to reopen it, but …
There’s some confusion here. The Indiana University student did not create this system (nor does the Journal Gazette article say she did). She just wants to have it installed in her city.
Based on the address, I’m guessing this was torn down in order to clear land for the (never-built) I-95 Southwest Expressway. Anyone know for sure? Roxbury Community College now occupies this site.
from yesterday’s Boston Globe City Weekly section:
[quote]The show will go on — but not for a while
Assembly Square theater closes
By Kristen Green, Globe Correspondent
When a movie theater at Assembly Square closed last month, it left a void at the development that probably won’t be filled for four or five years.
An AMC Entertainment Inc. spokesman said company officials chose not to renew the lease for AMC Loews Assembly Square 12 when it expired Jan. 15.
“Assembly Square was identified as an underperformer which no longer competed effectively in the marketplace,” said Andy DiOrio , a spokesman for the Missouri-based movie company.
He said that the company likes to “keep our theaters up-to-date” and that the Middlesex Avenue theater, built in 1981 and procured during the merger of AMC and Loews Cineplex Entertainment, retained an ‘80s look.
He declined to discuss AMC’s level of interest in locating a new theater complex at Assembly Square, where the developer, Federal Realty Investment Trust, has set aside 60,000 square feet for such a facility. “Obviously we’re evaluating it,” DiOrio said.
Federal officials said they’ve been approached by a number of major theater companies, but declined to discuss them. The theater project is planned for the second phase of the massive development along the Mystic River in Somerville. It will be located near the proposed Ikea location and probably won’t open until 2011 or 2012.
“The theater leaving really doesn’t accelerate our plans,” said Bob Walsh, Federal’s director of development.[/quote]
Park Square Cinema: Telepix With New Face
[quote]The old Telepix Theater has received a new look and a new name. Now the Park Square Cinema, it seats 300 people, has a wider screen and new murals.
The abstract murals, done by Norman Ives, are of wood blocks that protrude at different depths from the wall. The outside mural is in white and black, the inside one in red and black.
New Zeis-Ikon projectors, not using carbon arcs, have been added.[/quote]
Next to this article is a review of the movie Divorce – Italian Style, playing at the Park Square. I don’t know whether this was the first movie to play at the theatre under its new name.
The Somerville Theatre recently received a license to serve beer and wine to theatregoers (especially those attending live shows). They are now remodeling their lobby to allow for this.
The Somerville News reports that Planet Fitness gym will move into the cinema building, from its current location across the street. The paper isn’t the most reliable source of local news, so I don’t know how trustworthy this report is.
I’m glad you were able to look around, but if you were able to wander in like that, so could someone else with less benign intentions. I do not want to open my morning paper and learn that the place has burned down.
Doesn’t sound at all good that the door was open and unlocked and you were able to just walk in unnoticed. Is the owner totally abandoning this property?
Though Cineplex lost the rights to the Paramount name (owned by Viacom) following the acquisition of Famous Players,
But many theatres in the US continued to be called “Paramount” for many decades after they no longer were associated with that studio. Is Canadian law different? Why would Cineplex be forced to rename the theatre?
This has unfortunately become fairly common for live-theatre venues, but a movie theatre? Why would a cinema chain want someone else’s brand on their theatre?
I looked at Boston Globe newspaper ads for January 1950, 1960, and 1966, and did not find any ad for this theatre. There were plenty of ads for other Cambridge and Somerville theatres. Either it had already closed by 1950, or it just didn’t advertise.
If the Google Map is accurate, this address would now be under the Tobin Bridge, which was built in 1948-49 and opened in 1950. Was the theatre demolished in order to build the bridge?
A Bird’s Eye view of 2000 Mass. Ave., from Microsoft Local Live. It is the building with the gray facade at the upper left, not the red brick one. Does it look like the same building as your photo?
A March 16, 1982 article in the Boston Globe refers to a Kincade Theatre in Winthrop. Is it the same as this one?
[quote]Although a few old movie houses continue to slide into disrepair, more have found new life through owners who care for the theaters as they do their own living rooms. “Not surprising,” notes William Kincade at his 56-year-old Kincade Theater in Winthrop, “since this is where we basically live.”
Kincade and his wife Dorothy were the “famous unknown” entertainment team of Kincade and Russell, a song and soft-shoe team who even went on tour a few times back in the ‘40s.
They call themselves happily fallen stars, content to run films by night and a dancing school held on the theater stage by day. Kincade sings a ditty into his automatic telephone machine to announce each week’s film. And he still dreams of vaudeville.
“Yup, crazy to have such ambition at this age,” says the 66-year-old Kinkaid [sic]. “But with a lady as pretty as Dorothy (at 60, the dance intructor looks 15 years younger), why not put some vaudeville back on the stage here?
“Who could have imagined owning a theater could be this much fun?”[/quote]
Last month, I repeated a rumor from the Somerville News about a gym moving into the cinema building. It is not correct. The gym is moving into the office building next door.
I rode around the area this afternoon. You can still see inside the glass entrance doors, and there’s no obvious sign of any interior demolition. The word LOEWS has been removed from each of the building’s three LOEWS THEATRES signs, but the word THEATRES remains, as does the old Loews Cineplex “spotlights” logo.
The adjoining office building still has a large two-sided marquee visible to motorists on I-93. The word LOEWS has been painted over on each side, but again the word THEATRES remains. Of course, the 12 slots for movie titles are now blank, and the sign is no longer lit at night.
Is the landlord keeping these signs mostly intact in case some other chain wants to move in? I can’t imagine who would want to reopen it, but …
There’s some confusion here. The Indiana University student did not create this system (nor does the Journal Gazette article say she did). She just wants to have it installed in her city.
Their web site says that a community theatre group, Little Theatre of Stoughton, still presents live shows here.
So why were studios eventually allowed to e-acquire theatre chains? (for instance, the Sony/Loews combination)
Based on the address, I’m guessing this was torn down in order to clear land for the (never-built) I-95 Southwest Expressway. Anyone know for sure? Roxbury Community College now occupies this site.
I thought this was still standing vacant, but I haven’t been around that area in a while.
from yesterday’s Boston Globe City Weekly section:
[quote]The show will go on — but not for a while
Assembly Square theater closes
By Kristen Green, Globe Correspondent
When a movie theater at Assembly Square closed last month, it left a void at the development that probably won’t be filled for four or five years.
An AMC Entertainment Inc. spokesman said company officials chose not to renew the lease for AMC Loews Assembly Square 12 when it expired Jan. 15.
“Assembly Square was identified as an underperformer which no longer competed effectively in the marketplace,” said Andy DiOrio , a spokesman for the Missouri-based movie company.
He said that the company likes to “keep our theaters up-to-date” and that the Middlesex Avenue theater, built in 1981 and procured during the merger of AMC and Loews Cineplex Entertainment, retained an ‘80s look.
He declined to discuss AMC’s level of interest in locating a new theater complex at Assembly Square, where the developer, Federal Realty Investment Trust, has set aside 60,000 square feet for such a facility. “Obviously we’re evaluating it,” DiOrio said.
Federal officials said they’ve been approached by a number of major theater companies, but declined to discuss them. The theater project is planned for the second phase of the massive development along the Mystic River in Somerville. It will be located near the proposed Ikea location and probably won’t open until 2011 or 2012.
“The theater leaving really doesn’t accelerate our plans,” said Bob Walsh, Federal’s director of development.[/quote]
I think this was aimed less at cable than at proposed over-the-air scrambled TV systems. Los Angeles eventually got two of these, ON TV and SelecTV.
From the MIT newspaper The Tech, September 26, 1962:
Park Square Cinema: Telepix With New Face
[quote]The old Telepix Theater has received a new look and a new name. Now the Park Square Cinema, it seats 300 people, has a wider screen and new murals.
The abstract murals, done by Norman Ives, are of wood blocks that protrude at different depths from the wall. The outside mural is in white and black, the inside one in red and black.
New Zeis-Ikon projectors, not using carbon arcs, have been added.[/quote]
Next to this article is a review of the movie Divorce – Italian Style, playing at the Park Square. I don’t know whether this was the first movie to play at the theatre under its new name.
The Somerville Theatre recently received a license to serve beer and wine to theatregoers (especially those attending live shows). They are now remodeling their lobby to allow for this.
The Somerville News reports that Planet Fitness gym will move into the cinema building, from its current location across the street. The paper isn’t the most reliable source of local news, so I don’t know how trustworthy this report is.
I’m glad you were able to look around, but if you were able to wander in like that, so could someone else with less benign intentions. I do not want to open my morning paper and learn that the place has burned down.
Doesn’t sound at all good that the door was open and unlocked and you were able to just walk in unnoticed. Is the owner totally abandoning this property?
The article says
But many theatres in the US continued to be called “Paramount” for many decades after they no longer were associated with that studio. Is Canadian law different? Why would Cineplex be forced to rename the theatre?
This has unfortunately become fairly common for live-theatre venues, but a movie theatre? Why would a cinema chain want someone else’s brand on their theatre?
A Jehovah’s Witness church is now at this location, according to online directories. Is it the same building or a new one?
I looked at Boston Globe newspaper ads for January 1950, 1960, and 1966, and did not find any ad for this theatre. There were plenty of ads for other Cambridge and Somerville theatres. Either it had already closed by 1950, or it just didn’t advertise.
If the Google Map is accurate, this address would now be under the Tobin Bridge, which was built in 1948-49 and opened in 1950. Was the theatre demolished in order to build the bridge?
Hi, Don! You may remember me from your days in the planning office in Somerville…
Some people in the neighborhood seem to think this was called the Eliot. Any further information would be greatly appreciated.
Do you know if it will be possible to show movies here again once the renovations are complete? How do the renovators plan to use the auditorium?
A Bird’s Eye view of 2000 Mass. Ave., from Microsoft Local Live. It is the building with the gray facade at the upper left, not the red brick one. Does it look like the same building as your photo?
A March 16, 1982 article in the Boston Globe refers to a Kincade Theatre in Winthrop. Is it the same as this one?
[quote]Although a few old movie houses continue to slide into disrepair, more have found new life through owners who care for the theaters as they do their own living rooms. “Not surprising,” notes William Kincade at his 56-year-old Kincade Theater in Winthrop, “since this is where we basically live.”
Kincade and his wife Dorothy were the “famous unknown” entertainment team of Kincade and Russell, a song and soft-shoe team who even went on tour a few times back in the ‘40s.
They call themselves happily fallen stars, content to run films by night and a dancing school held on the theater stage by day. Kincade sings a ditty into his automatic telephone machine to announce each week’s film. And he still dreams of vaudeville.
“Yup, crazy to have such ambition at this age,” says the 66-year-old Kinkaid [sic]. “But with a lady as pretty as Dorothy (at 60, the dance intructor looks 15 years younger), why not put some vaudeville back on the stage here?
“Who could have imagined owning a theater could be this much fun?”[/quote]
The martial-arts center is New England Aikikai. I have never been inside, so I don’t know if any vestige of the theatre’s interior remains.
The “Function” should be changed from Unknown to Martial Arts Studio.
Thanks. Please add it to this site, with whatever information you have.