I saw “Brokeback Mountain” here last weekend. The staff now all wear AMC uniforms, but they still had a fair amount of Loews Cineplex stuff in the pre-show slides and trailers.
Whatever kids today find cutting edge, it’s something we don’t know about because we’re too old to hear about it. It’s always that way.
(sorry for the off-topic post, but I couldn’t resist)
I don’t know Berklee’s motivation for modernizing it, but it’s possible that the old theatre was not acoustically appropriate for its new function as a concert hall.
Based on a few online movie-times sites I’ve seen, this is reopening today as a Mann theatre. Can someone confirm this from, say, today’s LA Times ad? (It is not yet on Mann’s website.)
Because everything I’ve ever read about them here at CinemaTreasures, or at CinemaTour, is awful. Sounds like they bombard the audience with 20 minutes of unwanted loud commercials before each show. We don’t need that here in Boston.
I find several pages such as this, this, and this which say that the Loew’s became the (non-profit) Civic in 1965.
The last is a Google cache of a Beacon Journal article from Oct. 27, 2002, about the many acts that have graced the Civic’s stage over the years — starting with Milton Berle in 1929.
The Palace is visible, and properly identified by name, on this 1895 map. It is on the east side where Sudbury and Court streets diverge. (Thanks to Ron Salters for noticing it.)
The ‘Dorchester Atheneum’ has a list of former theatres in Dorchester, including this one. A few of them are listed here at CinemaTreasures, but I know nothing about most of them.
David Kruh’s book on Scollay Square history also does not mention the Olympic, even in passing. He was unfamiliar with it when I asked him about it in e-mail.
The Olympic Theatre is not on this 1895 map of the same area. It looks like the same building is there, but it is labelled “COOLIDGE HO.” rather than “MAJESTIC HOTEL”.
The Bowdoin Square Theatreis on the 1895 map, on Court Street three buildings away from Chardon Street.
The Olympic is visible on this 1928 map. It is part of the Majestic Hotel building which is on Bowdoin Square just east of Chardon Street, and just west of the Bowdoin Square Theatre. The map says that the building is owned by “New England T. & T. Company”, so the phone company may have already been preparing to demolish it at the time this map was made.
This area suffered massive demolition and “urban renewal” starting in the late 1950s. But the telephone company building still stands, a lonely survivor.
The big sign next to Route 16 still has the old Loews Cineplex “spotlights” logo, but the word LOEWS has been painted over, so it now just says THEATRES on top.
The sign looks pretty ratty, as does the exterior of the building itself, which also now just says THEATRES on it.
Bill Hanney’s promised improvements can’t come too soon.
The manuscript entitled
Memoirs of a movie theatre manager, or, “Crapcans and palaces”
is available on the General Reference shelves in the Washington Room of the Boston Public Library.
I saw “Brokeback Mountain” here last weekend. The staff now all wear AMC uniforms, but they still had a fair amount of Loews Cineplex stuff in the pre-show slides and trailers.
I have added the theatre here.
Some relevant comments and links are posted here. I thought the original poster planned to add this theatre, but he didn’t, so I did.
Whatever kids today find cutting edge, it’s something we don’t know about because we’re too old to hear about it. It’s always that way.
(sorry for the off-topic post, but I couldn’t resist)
Two photos of the Thompson Square Theatre, along with two photos of the library that replaced it.
A discussion thread about the theatre, at Charlestown Online.
I don’t know Berklee’s motivation for modernizing it, but it’s possible that the old theatre was not acoustically appropriate for its new function as a concert hall.
Thanks. That book is in the reference section of many BPL branches, and I will try to look at it today. Where did you read King’s unpublished essay?
Thanks. Where can I find King’s article and Grandgent’s essay? What was the essay called?
Must have been a lot of work to convert it from a movie theatre on Saturday night back to a church on Sunday morning.
Here is the Tremont Temple’s website.
A live production of Langston Hughes' Black Nativity is staged here every December. I highly recommend seeing it if you’re in Boston during that time.
I don’t think the church is leased out for any other productions anymore.
Ron, do you know more about the movies that were shown here, and why they ended?
It’s now listed on Mann’s website. I’m going to ask the CinemaTreasures folks to update the status and chain.
Based on a few online movie-times sites I’ve seen, this is reopening today as a Mann theatre. Can someone confirm this from, say, today’s LA Times ad? (It is not yet on Mann’s website.)
Because everything I’ve ever read about them here at CinemaTreasures, or at CinemaTour, is awful. Sounds like they bombard the audience with 20 minutes of unwanted loud commercials before each show. We don’t need that here in Boston.
Regal has theatres in the far exurbs of Boston, places called Bellingham and Berlin and Kingston and Westboro. I’d hate to see them invade the city.
Regal has theatres in the far exurbs of Boston, places called Bellingham and Berlin and Kingston and Westboro. I’d hate to see them invade the city.
I find several pages such as this, this, and this which say that the Loew’s became the (non-profit) Civic in 1965.
The last is a Google cache of a Beacon Journal article from Oct. 27, 2002, about the many acts that have graced the Civic’s stage over the years — starting with Milton Berle in 1929.
The Palace is visible, and properly identified by name, on this 1895 map. It is on the east side where Sudbury and Court streets diverge. (Thanks to Ron Salters for noticing it.)
The ‘Dorchester Atheneum’ has a list of former theatres in Dorchester, including this one. A few of them are listed here at CinemaTreasures, but I know nothing about most of them.
David Kruh’s book on Scollay Square history also does not mention the Olympic, even in passing. He was unfamiliar with it when I asked him about it in e-mail.
The Bowdoin Square Theatre is also shown on this 1895 map. It is on Court Street, three buildings away from Chardon Street.
The Olympic Theatre is not on this 1895 map of the same area. It looks like the same building is there, but it is labelled “COOLIDGE HO.” rather than “MAJESTIC HOTEL”.
The Bowdoin Square Theatre is on the 1895 map, on Court Street three buildings away from Chardon Street.
So what is happening to this theatre? On another page, someone linked to an article claiming that Mann would take it over.
One other note: the Olympic should not be confused with the much larger and better-known Scollay Square Olympia, two blocks away.
The Olympic is visible on this 1928 map. It is part of the Majestic Hotel building which is on Bowdoin Square just east of Chardon Street, and just west of the Bowdoin Square Theatre. The map says that the building is owned by “New England T. & T. Company”, so the phone company may have already been preparing to demolish it at the time this map was made.
This area suffered massive demolition and “urban renewal” starting in the late 1950s. But the telephone company building still stands, a lonely survivor.
The big sign next to Route 16 still has the old Loews Cineplex “spotlights” logo, but the word LOEWS has been painted over, so it now just says THEATRES on top.
The sign looks pretty ratty, as does the exterior of the building itself, which also now just says THEATRES on it.
Bill Hanney’s promised improvements can’t come too soon.