It’s official: The Opera House will not be renamed ‘Citizens Bank Theatre’. From Steve Bailey’s column in today’s Globe:
This spring, Citizens Financial signed a deal with Clear Channel Entertainment to rename Boston’s Opera House ‘'The Citizens Bank Theatre.“ But then Tom Menino, who worked hard on the renovation, let it be known he was not happy about seeing the name disappear. Citizens got the message and pulled out.
‘'To change it to Citizens Bank Theatre didn’t make a lot of sense to me,“ said Menino, who cost Clear Channel a reported $4 million in a seven-year naming rights deal.
Citizens declined to comment. Clear Channel didn’t return my call about future plans to sell the naming rights.
I recall this being advertised in newspapers as the “Parkway Plaza Twin”.
The online Boston Globe archives go back only to 1980, but from 1980 to 1987, there is a steady stream of articles regarding this establishment. Citizens repeatedly picketed it. The police repeatedly raided it. The theatre was convicted and fined for obscenity charges over and over again.
It seemed very out of place in a shopping center that contained a Stop & Shop supermarket, a Bradlees discount department store, a pharmacy, a bank, and various restaurants. To my knowledge, it was the only Boston-area porn theatre ever to operate outside Boston city limits.
Newspaper articles about the cinema ended in 1987, so I’m guessing that’s about when the place closed. Later articles about the shopping center describe it as becoming nearly abandoned, and a dumping ground. Most recently, a Home Depot was approved for the site, but I don’t know if it has been built yet.
From the online Columbus Dispatch archives at Dispatch.com:
Wednesday, February 6, 2002: Developers asking East Side to welcome Rehab Center
“A closed East Side theater that once served beer to movie-goers might be razed for a new project that, in part, would help recovering alcoholics. Maryhaven, a nonprofit treatment facility for alcoholics and drug addicts, and National Church Residences, a nonprofit provider of housing for people with low to moderate incomes, are working together on the 84-unit project.”
but a month later, Tuesday, March 5, 2002: Nonprofits outbid on Far East Side tract
“Two nonprofit groups have lost a chance to turn a Far East Side property into an affordable-housing project aimed in part at recovering alcoholics and drug addicts. But what will become of the land and a vacant movie theater is a mystery.”
When I drove by the Forum a year ago, it was still standing vacant. I did not get a chance to check it out again on my visit this summer. Can someone local confirm that it is still there?
The reason I asked my question is that I wanted to know if the Somerville Theatre could be used as a model of how to move forward.
Its original 900-seat auditorium has been restored, complete with balcony, and is frequently used for concerts and other live events. (Just a few weeks ago, it hosted a political debate.) Four new smaller cinemas were added to other parts of the building that formerly contained retail or other non-theatre uses. This was done without in any way cutting into the original auditorium. The multiple simultaneous events don’t cause any “confusion”, and in fact make the venue ideal for film festivals.
Could both sides possibly agree to a plan like this?
The Casa Linda will reopen next spring as an Alamo Drafthouse cinema pub, according to this Dallas Business Journal article. The article says that Alamo will leave the façade and marquee intact, and “maintain the look and feel of the landmark”.
I’d be interested in hearing some details of each of the two competing plans here. What is the seat-count for the proposed single theatre? If instead three houses are to remain, how many seats does each one have? Is there any possibility of building additional venues in adjacent structures while restoring the original auditorium to a single venue, thus getting the best of both plans?
Here’s one of those articles, from the Milford (MA) Daily News:
Zeotrope to close for good Sept. 11
By Andrew Lightman / Daily News Staff
Wednesday, August 3, 2005
FRANKLIN — Goodbye, popcorn and movie stars. So long, comedy, romance and the $4 matinee.
     The Franklin Zeotrope Theatre will reach the end of its reel Sept. 11 when the town’s local movie house closes its doors for good.
     John Marini, president of Franklin Center Commons, LLC, announced the theater’s closing yesterday, after theater owner Robert Aarons notified him he would break his lease and shut down.
     Marini’s Franklin Center Commons project aims to redevelop the Zeotrope Theatre and the rest of the block to revitalize the downtown area with new apartments and retail space.
     Marini said Aarons was invited to reopen the theater within the Franklin Center Commons project. Aarons was also told he could keep the Zeotrope open until construction began.
     But Marini said the theater was not making enough money to afford the $1,000 per month rent Aarons had been paying since he sold the building to Marini a year ago.
     "He just tried it out for the year and he called me (Monday),“ Marini said. "It’s just an economical situation. That’s all.”
     Reached for comment yesterday, Aarons said there just aren’t enough moviegoers to stay in business.
     "Well, it’s been a difficult environment to have the theater maintain a positive cash flow,“ Aarons said. "We just don’t have enough patrons to justify staying open.”
     Even with support for the Zeotrope appearing last week in the form of an online petition, Aarons said that enthusiasm never showed itself inside his near-empty theater.
     "You know, it takes more than a few hundred people to create a profitable business,“ Aarons said.
     Marini, meanwhile, stressed that Aarons was not pressured into the decision and the other tenants on the block are welcome to remain in the building until construction begins, which may take a couple years.
     Marini said he also plans to develop the area behind and across from the theater and adjacent shops, and give current tenants the opportunity to move into the new locations without losing shop space during the construction phase.
     Plans for the Franklin Center Commons are currently before the Planning Board, and Marini said he intends to file plans to redevelop the old Franklin Furniture building in the next few weeks.
     Marini’s legal counsel, James Vallee, who is also the area’s state representative, said while the closing of the Zeotrope Theatre will be disheartening to some, the eventual prospect of revitalizing the downtown is an exciting one.
     "As a multiple generation resident of Franklin, I have seen a vibrant, bustling downtown in the past,“ Vallee said. "I am happy to be a part of the revitalization effort to bring exciting new businesses and services to our downtown.”
I wrote to ‘Lizard McGee’, whose band Earwig has a song called ‘Cinema East’, and told him about this page. He sent me this reply:
“I’m glad that you have fond memories of Cinema East. I went to High School in Whitehall and went to that cinema a bunch as well. I also ended up working there and meeting my wife there. We both worked there and would sometimes stay late and run the movies just for ourselves. When it closed down, we still had a set of keys to the place. I would go and hang out there in the balcony with friends and play hide & seek in the dark.
“I play in a band called Earwig (www.lizardfamily.com) and I wrote a song called ‘Cinema East’ that happens to be one of our more popular songs that people have heard of. If you follow the links on our website you should be able to download an MP3 version of the song.
‘You can certainly post our story on the Cinema East page. I will be checking back often to read the updates. We loved Cinema East and were heartbroken when they tore the place down.
“You should find a link to the song Cinema East on this page View link
Also from the Dispatch archives: General Cinema’s Northland 8 multiplex opened on Wednesday, December 11, 1985, and closed on Thursday, September 28, 2000.
According to the online Columbus Dispatch archives at Dispatch.com, Vaud-Villities announced plans in April 2005 to rebuild the Northland Mall 8-plex cinema. It will become a live entertainment and rehearsal complex named ‘NorthlandPark Arts Center’.
According to the Columbus Dispatch (Dispatch.com) online archives, the World became the Roxy
on Friday, September 27, 1985. The Roxy closed on Thursday, June 2, 1988.
I’m sorry I never got to visit the Roxy during those years. Among the bookings mentioned in the Dispatch archives: a Rocky and Bullwinkle festival, a Bruce Lee festival, the restored version of Frank Capra’s Lost Horizon, the 3-D classic House of Wax, Blue Velvet, Brazil, Dona Herlinda and Her Son, and a series entitled ‘'A Closer Look: Contemporary Soviet Culture as Seen Through Film, Television and Art" (presented by OSU’s University Gallery).
Drexel took over a North Side theatre in 1986 and operated it as the Drexel North until 1995, when Revco bought it and turned it into a drugstore.
Drexel will open the new 8-screen Drexel Gateway Cinema later this fall, as part of Ohio State University’s South Campus Gateway development. It will be on the east side of High Street, between 9th and 11th Avenues.
According to the Columbus Dispatch (Dispatch.com) online archives, the Grandview reopened as an independent second-run house on Wednesday, March 25, 1987, two months later than planned. It had last shown movies some time in the 1960s.
The Drexel Theatre group briefly programmed the Grandview as an art house from late October, 1988 to May, 1989, but it then returned to second runs. It closed as an independent theatre during the third weekend of May, 1992, then reopened as the Drexel Grandview on Saturday, May 8, 1993.
Also, the street address was 100 Robinwood Avenue in Whitehall.
The Cinema Grill was still operating here on January 1 and 2, 1994, when the Dispatch says it showed matinees of a G-rated animated film called “We’re Back! A Dinosaur’s Story”.
I looked this theatre up in the Columbus Dispatch (Dispatch.com) online archive. Although I could only read the first few sentences of each article without paying, I did learn the following facts:
The theatre closed as a General Cinema on Thursday, September 25, 1986. Acccording to a Dispatch article published the previous day, “General Cinema Corp., which has run the East Side twin-screen theater since its opening in 1966, had no intentions of closing the theater, which was doing well, said Hubert Bourne, General Cinema’s district manager.” Perhaps someone can look up the full text of this article and find out why it actually closed.
In March of 1989, a stage company called Columbus National Theatre signed a lease to convert this cinema into a three-stage complex. They were supposed to open their first season the following July, but ran into problems with building inspectors. It’s not clear whether they ever in fact occupied this building.
In July 1991, the Whitehall City Council turned down a proposal by Columbus Cinema ‘n’ Drafthouse to reopen the venue as a second-run cinema serving beer and wine. Later that month, the Ohio Supreme Court somehow overruled the city council, so Cinema ‘n’ Drafthouse proceeded with their plans.
No, the Puritan was over a mile south of the Columbia on Washington Street. I remember seeing the Puritan in the mid-1970s before it burned down.
It’s official: The Opera House will not be renamed ‘Citizens Bank Theatre’. From Steve Bailey’s column in today’s Globe:
This spring, Citizens Financial signed a deal with Clear Channel Entertainment to rename Boston’s Opera House ‘'The Citizens Bank Theatre.“ But then Tom Menino, who worked hard on the renovation, let it be known he was not happy about seeing the name disappear. Citizens got the message and pulled out.
‘'To change it to Citizens Bank Theatre didn’t make a lot of sense to me,“ said Menino, who cost Clear Channel a reported $4 million in a seven-year naming rights deal.
Citizens declined to comment. Clear Channel didn’t return my call about future plans to sell the naming rights.
I recall this being advertised in newspapers as the “Parkway Plaza Twin”.
The online Boston Globe archives go back only to 1980, but from 1980 to 1987, there is a steady stream of articles regarding this establishment. Citizens repeatedly picketed it. The police repeatedly raided it. The theatre was convicted and fined for obscenity charges over and over again.
It seemed very out of place in a shopping center that contained a Stop & Shop supermarket, a Bradlees discount department store, a pharmacy, a bank, and various restaurants. To my knowledge, it was the only Boston-area porn theatre ever to operate outside Boston city limits.
Newspaper articles about the cinema ended in 1987, so I’m guessing that’s about when the place closed. Later articles about the shopping center describe it as becoming nearly abandoned, and a dumping ground. Most recently, a Home Depot was approved for the site, but I don’t know if it has been built yet.
From the online Columbus Dispatch archives at Dispatch.com:
Wednesday, February 6, 2002: Developers asking East Side to welcome Rehab Center
“A closed East Side theater that once served beer to movie-goers might be razed for a new project that, in part, would help recovering alcoholics. Maryhaven, a nonprofit treatment facility for alcoholics and drug addicts, and National Church Residences, a nonprofit provider of housing for people with low to moderate incomes, are working together on the 84-unit project.”
but a month later, Tuesday, March 5, 2002: Nonprofits outbid on Far East Side tract
“Two nonprofit groups have lost a chance to turn a Far East Side property into an affordable-housing project aimed in part at recovering alcoholics and drug addicts. But what will become of the land and a vacant movie theater is a mystery.”
When I drove by the Forum a year ago, it was still standing vacant. I did not get a chance to check it out again on my visit this summer. Can someone local confirm that it is still there?
Has this in fact been demolished? What was it replaced by?
The reason I asked my question is that I wanted to know if the Somerville Theatre could be used as a model of how to move forward.
Its original 900-seat auditorium has been restored, complete with balcony, and is frequently used for concerts and other live events. (Just a few weeks ago, it hosted a political debate.) Four new smaller cinemas were added to other parts of the building that formerly contained retail or other non-theatre uses. This was done without in any way cutting into the original auditorium. The multiple simultaneous events don’t cause any “confusion”, and in fact make the venue ideal for film festivals.
Could both sides possibly agree to a plan like this?
The Casa Linda will reopen next spring as an Alamo Drafthouse cinema pub, according to this Dallas Business Journal article. The article says that Alamo will leave the façade and marquee intact, and “maintain the look and feel of the landmark”.
I’d be interested in hearing some details of each of the two competing plans here. What is the seat-count for the proposed single theatre? If instead three houses are to remain, how many seats does each one have? Is there any possibility of building additional venues in adjacent structures while restoring the original auditorium to a single venue, thus getting the best of both plans?
For many years ending in the 1970s, WMNI radio broadcast the “Country Cavalcade” show live from the Southern Theatre.
Here’s one of those articles, from the Milford (MA) Daily News:
Zeotrope to close for good Sept. 11
By Andrew Lightman / Daily News Staff
Wednesday, August 3, 2005
FRANKLIN — Goodbye, popcorn and movie stars. So long, comedy, romance and the $4 matinee.
     The Franklin Zeotrope Theatre will reach the end of its reel Sept. 11 when the town’s local movie house closes its doors for good.
     John Marini, president of Franklin Center Commons, LLC, announced the theater’s closing yesterday, after theater owner Robert Aarons notified him he would break his lease and shut down.
     Marini’s Franklin Center Commons project aims to redevelop the Zeotrope Theatre and the rest of the block to revitalize the downtown area with new apartments and retail space.
     Marini said Aarons was invited to reopen the theater within the Franklin Center Commons project. Aarons was also told he could keep the Zeotrope open until construction began.
     But Marini said the theater was not making enough money to afford the $1,000 per month rent Aarons had been paying since he sold the building to Marini a year ago.
     "He just tried it out for the year and he called me (Monday),“ Marini said. "It’s just an economical situation. That’s all.”
     Reached for comment yesterday, Aarons said there just aren’t enough moviegoers to stay in business.
     "Well, it’s been a difficult environment to have the theater maintain a positive cash flow,“ Aarons said. "We just don’t have enough patrons to justify staying open.”
     Even with support for the Zeotrope appearing last week in the form of an online petition, Aarons said that enthusiasm never showed itself inside his near-empty theater.
     "You know, it takes more than a few hundred people to create a profitable business,“ Aarons said.
     Marini, meanwhile, stressed that Aarons was not pressured into the decision and the other tenants on the block are welcome to remain in the building until construction begins, which may take a couple years.
     Marini said he also plans to develop the area behind and across from the theater and adjacent shops, and give current tenants the opportunity to move into the new locations without losing shop space during the construction phase.
     Plans for the Franklin Center Commons are currently before the Planning Board, and Marini said he intends to file plans to redevelop the old Franklin Furniture building in the next few weeks.
     Marini’s legal counsel, James Vallee, who is also the area’s state representative, said while the closing of the Zeotrope Theatre will be disheartening to some, the eventual prospect of revitalizing the downtown is an exciting one.
     "As a multiple generation resident of Franklin, I have seen a vibrant, bustling downtown in the past,“ Vallee said. "I am happy to be a part of the revitalization effort to bring exciting new businesses and services to our downtown.”
According to various newspaper articles that I find on Google News, the last day for the Zeotrope will be Sunday, September 11.
In those photos, the right poster case has a sign with Clearview Cinemas at the top. What does it say?
I wrote to ‘Lizard McGee’, whose band Earwig has a song called ‘Cinema East’, and told him about this page. He sent me this reply:
“I’m glad that you have fond memories of Cinema East. I went to High School in Whitehall and went to that cinema a bunch as well. I also ended up working there and meeting my wife there. We both worked there and would sometimes stay late and run the movies just for ourselves. When it closed down, we still had a set of keys to the place. I would go and hang out there in the balcony with friends and play hide & seek in the dark.
“I play in a band called Earwig (www.lizardfamily.com) and I wrote a song called ‘Cinema East’ that happens to be one of our more popular songs that people have heard of. If you follow the links on our website you should be able to download an MP3 version of the song.
‘You can certainly post our story on the Cinema East page. I will be checking back often to read the updates. We loved Cinema East and were heartbroken when they tore the place down.
“You should find a link to the song Cinema East on this page
View link
“seeyou,
Lizard McGee
Earwig & LFM Records
www.lizardfamily.com”
Here are some architects' drawings of the future NorthlandPark Arts Center. The page also has links to recent newspaper articles about the project.
(The 8-plex doesn’t have its own listing at CinemaTreasures, so I may as well post news about it here.)
Also from the Dispatch archives: General Cinema’s Northland 8 multiplex opened on Wednesday, December 11, 1985, and closed on Thursday, September 28, 2000.
According to the online Columbus Dispatch archives at Dispatch.com, Vaud-Villities announced plans in April 2005 to rebuild the Northland Mall 8-plex cinema. It will become a live entertainment and rehearsal complex named ‘NorthlandPark Arts Center’.
Here’s Vaud-Villities' press release about the project. They are having an open house this Saturday, August 20.
According to the Columbus Dispatch (Dispatch.com) online archives, the World became the Roxy
on Friday, September 27, 1985. The Roxy closed on Thursday, June 2, 1988.
I’m sorry I never got to visit the Roxy during those years. Among the bookings mentioned in the Dispatch archives: a Rocky and Bullwinkle festival, a Bruce Lee festival, the restored version of Frank Capra’s Lost Horizon, the 3-D classic House of Wax, Blue Velvet, Brazil, Dona Herlinda and Her Son, and a series entitled ‘'A Closer Look: Contemporary Soviet Culture as Seen Through Film, Television and Art" (presented by OSU’s University Gallery).
Drexel took over a North Side theatre in 1986 and operated it as the Drexel North until 1995, when Revco bought it and turned it into a drugstore.
Drexel will open the new 8-screen Drexel Gateway Cinema later this fall, as part of Ohio State University’s South Campus Gateway development. It will be on the east side of High Street, between 9th and 11th Avenues.
According to the Columbus Dispatch (Dispatch.com) online archives, the Grandview reopened as an independent second-run house on Wednesday, March 25, 1987, two months later than planned. It had last shown movies some time in the 1960s.
The Drexel Theatre group briefly programmed the Grandview as an art house from late October, 1988 to May, 1989, but it then returned to second runs. It closed as an independent theatre during the third weekend of May, 1992, then reopened as the Drexel Grandview on Saturday, May 8, 1993.
According to the Columbus Dispatch (Dispatch.com) archives, the conversion from one screen to three occurred during 1991.
Also, the street address was 100 Robinwood Avenue in Whitehall.
The Cinema Grill was still operating here on January 1 and 2, 1994, when the Dispatch says it showed matinees of a G-rated animated film called “We’re Back! A Dinosaur’s Story”.
I looked this theatre up in the Columbus Dispatch (Dispatch.com) online archive. Although I could only read the first few sentences of each article without paying, I did learn the following facts:
The theatre closed as a General Cinema on Thursday, September 25, 1986. Acccording to a Dispatch article published the previous day, “General Cinema Corp., which has run the East Side twin-screen theater since its opening in 1966, had no intentions of closing the theater, which was doing well, said Hubert Bourne, General Cinema’s district manager.” Perhaps someone can look up the full text of this article and find out why it actually closed.
In March of 1989, a stage company called Columbus National Theatre signed a lease to convert this cinema into a three-stage complex. They were supposed to open their first season the following July, but ran into problems with building inspectors. It’s not clear whether they ever in fact occupied this building.
In July 1991, the Whitehall City Council turned down a proposal by Columbus Cinema ‘n’ Drafthouse to reopen the venue as a second-run cinema serving beer and wine. Later that month, the Ohio Supreme Court somehow overruled the city council, so Cinema ‘n’ Drafthouse proceeded with their plans.
Is what remains of this building used for anything, or is it sitting vacant?
Do you know the street address? I’d like to look at this the next time I’m in Lowell.
Do you know the address? What store now occupies this space?