Wollaston Theatre
14 Beale Street,
Quincy,
MA
02170
14 Beale Street,
Quincy,
MA
02170
13 people
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Showing 151 - 165 of 165 comments
Knowledgable Quincyites ought to list some of the town’s old and now evidently demolished local theaters on this site. In the late ‘40s and early '50s when my aunt lived on Presidents Lane in Quincy, I remember visiting a few wonderful theaters: the Art on Hancock Street, the Strand on Coddington, the Capitol on Quincy, the Publix on Washington (or so I believe their names and approximate locations to have been). About ten years ago on a visit to Boston, I took the Red Line from Cambridge and walked the streets, finding that none of these theaters remained. On the town line between Quincy and Braintree, there was a drive-in theater aptly named the “Braintree.”
Dwodeyla is right – the cost is prohibitive. It costs many many thousands of dollars to be listed in the Globe, imagine if you only had one screen, business was already minimal, and your admission (which you only keep a portion of) is low to begin with: If you had no start-up money or excess cash to burn, it would be very difficult to swallow 4 or 5 grand a month for one little listing. And very often, people don’t pay too much attention to it anyhow, they just go to the movies where they usually go. For Wollaston, I’d say lack of regular operations hurts more than lack of advertising. People aren’t going to keep trying to go to a place if it keeps being closed when they want to go.
If the Wollaston could get some renovations and reopen with some good free press about it’s history and make a “grand reopening” and let people know the place is open and here to stay, they might start going again. But there are no guarantees, especially with second-run features. I know that if the theater I run (Somerville) didn’t have real estate attached to it, it would surely be closed. It is a tough business!
It’s a block from the Red Line stop.
Just about every other suburban second-run theatre advertises in the Globe — the Somerville Theatre, the Capitol in Arlington, the Belmont Studio, the Lexington Flick, the Dedham Community, even the Mill Wharf in far-off Scituate.
It wouldn’t make sense for them to advertise in the Boston Globe due to the cost. Usually only large chains put in directories for all their houses, or if there’s co-op money for a particular film. The Patriot Ledger is a large circulation paper on the south shore, which should be good enough for their advertising needs. Both theatres need to attract locals in order to survive. I think film cost and the Showcase/GCC/AMC competition/influence with distributors has probably hurt their business.
How close is the red line stop to Wollaston anyway?
Quincy is kind of a world unto itself. They also have their own paper, the Patriot Ledger. I think the little Milton theater in that neighboring town only advertised locally, as well. It’s a section of Milton that looks like it should be Quincy. Downtown Quincy once had the Strand theater and also the Art, which was sort of art deco in style. I think I saw a beach blanket film there and possibly Hercules around 1962.
This theatre never advertised in the Boston Globe, even though it is easily reached from Boston on the MBTA Red Line. I have to wonder whether that unnecessarily limited his audience.
The Flagship Cinemas (formerly Showcase, formerly Entertainment Cinemas) at Quincy Center never advertise in the Globe either. I almost wonder if there’s a law in Quincy prohibiting theatres from advertising in newspapers…
The owner of the Wollaston Theatre is Arthur Chandler. The theatre closed in the spring of 2003 for repairs, according to the Boston Globe archives. Unfortunately, it has yet to reopen. When it was last open, admission was just $1 on Mondays and Tuesdays.
Even though the theatre has been closed for years, they are still running an answering machine at 617-773-4600 .
I saw a number of films here when I was in high school in the sixties, including the surf documentary “Endless Summer.” My last visit was five years ago when I saw a second run of “Titanic.” Some seats were roped off because the ceiling seemed to be coming apart, possibly from water damage. For a number years, this theater attempted to run “family fare,” pictures with G and PG ratings.
I would suggest the Quincy tax department, which must have an owner’s name and contact information.
I drove by the place about a week ago, and it looks like it would be a neighborhood treasure. The only question would be parking.
I am very interested in contacting the owner to discuss securing funding to renovate and reopen this theatre. Does anyone know how to contact this gentleman?
Although it may look like the theater is being renovated, this is exactly how the theater has looked for years. I’m sure the gentleman with whom you spoke is the owner. I have not been inside the Wollaston Theater in more then 15 years, yet 15 years ago it also looked as if renovations were being done. As I stated before I believe if taken care of and actual repairs were done this theater would be a gold mine. At one time the marquee of the theater was a disgrace, the business association wanted it repaired as it was unattractive and took away from the other business' in the area, but the owner said he could not afford it because he was repairing the inside, he was given a low interest loan to repair the marquee, which was completed, the theater then stayed opened for a couple of years and has been closed ever since.
I happened by today (7/3/04) and saw an older gentleman locking the theater doors, so I struck up a conversation. Apparently the theater is being repaired, after sustaining water damage from a leaking roof last year. The owner was gracious enough to give us a brief tour, and hopes to reopen by the end of the summer.
Wollaston Theater has been closed for some time now, supposedly for renovations, for 4 or 5 months there was a hand written note on the door stating that renovations where taking place, although I have never seen any workmen coming or going from there. If someone were to purchase this historic treasure and actually renovate it, it would be a huge asset to Wollaston Center. The gentleman who currently owns the theater also owns several of the surrounding buildings, and if rumors are correct claims to not be able to afford the upkeep.
I drove by yesterday. The theatre is closed. In one of the poster windows is a leftover poster from CATCH ME IF YOU CAN. Does anyone have any information on whether there are any current plans for this theatre?