I doubt it , given that GCC filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and was then acquired by AMC. But to be sure, you shouldn’t ask us, you should ask a stockbroker.
Tonight and then for the next five Mondays, the Studio Cinema will present the Belmont World Film festival, featuring a different foreign film each night. The films are from Italy, Bhutan, Cuba, Romania, France, Scotland, and Korea.
The Studio will also present three days of foreign documentaries from April 30 to May 2.
Here’s the Kingsley Montessori School web site. It doesn’t say much, but it does announce the school’s “expansion for Fall 2005” into the “former Exeter Street Theatre building”.
I hope they’ll have an open house, as I’d love to see how they reuse the space. Many Bostonians have fond memories of this building, not just as a theatre but also later as Waterstone’s bookstore.
A Kingsley Montessori banner now hangs in the street-level lobby, but the glass front doors still have For Lease signs on them. I don’t know why they haven’t been taken down.
Expanding on my earlier comment, after looking at some articles in the Scituate Mariner newspaper:
The former Scituate Playhouse, a four-screen cinema, closed in 2000 due to flooding problems, as much of the building was below street level. It was also not handicapped-accessible. Developer Steve Warner wanted to tear it down to make way for a new development.
But a groundswell of local public opinion, including a 2500-signature petition,
persuaded Warner to temporarily reopen the Playhouse for the summer of 2001, and to include a new two-screen cinema in the Mill Wharf Plaza project that replaced the Playhouse. The new theatre opened in the summer of 2004, with 12 condomiunium units above it and an ice-cream parlor next door.
In a 1998 Boston Globe movie ad, the Scituate Playhouse was a Hoyts cinema, but the new one belongs to the small local Patriot Cinemas chain.
When it closed as a movie theatre in 1983, the Saxon was the last of the downtown movie houses that had once been the backbone of the Sack Theatres chain. The others, and what happened to them:
Beacon Hill: demolished in 1969 to make way for an office tower, which opened in 1971 with a new Beacon Hill Theatre in the basement. The second Beacon Hill closed in 1992.
Gary (originally Plymouth): closed in 1978, demolished to make way for the State Transportation Building
Savoy (originally RKO Keith Memorial): sold to Opera Company of Boston in 1978 and renamed the Opera House, closed in 1991, restored and reopened in 2004
Music Hall (originally Metropolitan): lost its lease in 1980, when it was turned over to the new non-profit Metropolitan Center. It was later renamed the Wang Center for the Performing Arts
Capri (first location, in Copley Square): demolished for the Massachusetts Turnpike extension
Capri (second location, on Huntington Avenue): demolished for the Christian Science Center
175 Huntington Avenue is now the official address of the First Church of Christ, Scientist.
I did not find the “Strand” in earlier 1960s Boston Globe movie listings and ads, when the Sack Capri was still in Copley Square. When did the Strand last operate under that name?
Call it the House of Mouse, or more appropriately, mice, because it’s a nickname that fits, according to patrons of the Cleveland Circle Cinema.
Attracted by more than just cheesy movies, the pocket-sized rodents have overrun the theater on at least two occasions in a three-month span.
The theater was “infested with mice … they were everywhere,” according to a complaint fielded by the Brookline Health Department last summer.
A trio of customers brought the issue to the attention of cinema employees in August and “were told the company knew about the problem, but there was nothing they could do about it,” according to Health Department reports.
Three months later, a similar complaint was filed charging that “mice [were] running throughout the theater.” Most customers who had gathered for a screening left, but those who stayed “had to put their feet up on the back[s] of chairs,” according to the complaint.
Pat Maloney, Brookline’s chief of environmental health, said movie theaters face some special set of circumstances when it comes to keeping mice at bay.
“Cinemas in general have a more challenging environment because … it’s common that persons will discard food items on the floor in a movie theater,” said Maloney. Food on any floor, especially if it isn’t cleaned promptly and completely, will attract mice.
“That creates a greater challenge than you might find in a restaurant, for example, because in restaurants, people don’t discard their food on the floor,” Maloney added.
Maloney is involved in the cinema’s health inspections, because the facility falls inside the Brookline border. Its parking lot, however, is in Brighton.
…
 Maloney noted that his department had not fielded any complaints about mice in the theater since the new year, and a follow-up inspection on Jan. 10 had “satisfied” Maloney and his department that the theater has continued to take appropriate preventative action.
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?
Sorry, I didn’t take notes on that. Maybe later this month, I’ll try to make copies of the Globe movie ad page for January of each year, so I can see when various theatres opened and closed.
The Circle’s ad was a small listing, just like those of many other local neighborhood theatres at the time. It was listed under the heading “Cleveland Circle” (not “Brighton” or “Brookline”).
Unfortunately, I think the Publix/Gaiety has had several strikes against it:
The façade is quite ordinary, and not at all memorable — unlike the Paramount, Modern, and Opera House down the street
There has been no sign or marquee outside it for many years, so people don’t walk by it and notice an empty theatre
It has not had live entertainment in the memories of most people now living
As a movie house, it was unadvertised in the local newspapers, and did not show premieres or first runs. The movies shown, at least in its final decades, were often third-run and third-rate. So people don’t have fond memories of attending it.
Add all of these factors together, and it’s hard to generate a groundswell of opinion for saving it, much as it deserves to be saved.
These comments last a lot longer than the front page, so if you have a significant event to report (like a Last Day), it’s best to provide as much detail as possible here.
There’s an appeal pending regarding whether the developer can build the apartment tower that he wants, but not about whether he can demolish the building now on the site.
An ad on the Boston Globe movie page in January 1965 gives the Capri’s address as 175 Huntington Avenue, not 115-81. Perhaps the address changed at the same time the name and ownership did.
I looked through some Boston Globe microfilm from the early 1960s, and saw this theatre listed in the directory as just the “Newton”, not “West Newton”. The early photos shown here have just “Newton” on the marquee.
I looked through some old microfilms of the Boston Globe, from 1966, 1970, and 1975. The Publix and the Stuart were neither listed nor advertised in any of the issues I looked at. Just about every other downtown theatre that I can think of had either a listing or an ad, usually both.
I’m curious what would motivate someone to patronize an unadvertised downtown movie theatre. Was walking by it and looking at the marquee the only way to know what was playing there?
In a September 1970 Boston Globe theatre listing, the Orson Welles is a single-screen cinema. Does anyone know (a) when it was renamed from Esquire to Orson Welles, and (b) when cinemas 2 and 3 were added?
I looked through some Boston Globe microfilm from September 1966, and saw that this theatre (then a General Cinema) had a single screen back then. I don’t know when it was twinned.
I looked at some Boston Globe microfilm from September 1966, and saw that the Cheri was then a single screen but the Symphony Cinemas were a twin. So the Herald obituary that I quoted above was incorrect.
I doubt it , given that GCC filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and was then acquired by AMC. But to be sure, you shouldn’t ask us, you should ask a stockbroker.
Tonight and then for the next five Mondays, the Studio Cinema will present the Belmont World Film festival, featuring a different foreign film each night. The films are from Italy, Bhutan, Cuba, Romania, France, Scotland, and Korea.
The Studio will also present three days of foreign documentaries from April 30 to May 2.
Here’s the Kingsley Montessori School web site. It doesn’t say much, but it does announce the school’s “expansion for Fall 2005” into the “former Exeter Street Theatre building”.
I hope they’ll have an open house, as I’d love to see how they reuse the space. Many Bostonians have fond memories of this building, not just as a theatre but also later as Waterstone’s bookstore.
A Kingsley Montessori banner now hangs in the street-level lobby, but the glass front doors still have For Lease signs on them. I don’t know why they haven’t been taken down.
Expanding on my earlier comment, after looking at some articles in the Scituate Mariner newspaper:
The former Scituate Playhouse, a four-screen cinema, closed in 2000 due to flooding problems, as much of the building was below street level. It was also not handicapped-accessible. Developer Steve Warner wanted to tear it down to make way for a new development.
But a groundswell of local public opinion, including a 2500-signature petition,
persuaded Warner to temporarily reopen the Playhouse for the summer of 2001, and to include a new two-screen cinema in the Mill Wharf Plaza project that replaced the Playhouse. The new theatre opened in the summer of 2004, with 12 condomiunium units above it and an ice-cream parlor next door.
In a 1998 Boston Globe movie ad, the Scituate Playhouse was a Hoyts cinema, but the new one belongs to the small local Patriot Cinemas chain.
When it closed as a movie theatre in 1983, the Saxon was the last of the downtown movie houses that had once been the backbone of the Sack Theatres chain. The others, and what happened to them:
Beacon Hill: demolished in 1969 to make way for an office tower, which opened in 1971 with a new Beacon Hill Theatre in the basement. The second Beacon Hill closed in 1992.
Gary (originally Plymouth): closed in 1978, demolished to make way for the State Transportation Building
Savoy (originally RKO Keith Memorial): sold to Opera Company of Boston in 1978 and renamed the Opera House, closed in 1991, restored and reopened in 2004
Music Hall (originally Metropolitan): lost its lease in 1980, when it was turned over to the new non-profit Metropolitan Center. It was later renamed the Wang Center for the Performing Arts
Capri (first location, in Copley Square): demolished for the Massachusetts Turnpike extension
Capri (second location, on Huntington Avenue): demolished for the Christian Science Center
175 Huntington Avenue is now the official address of the First Church of Christ, Scientist.
I did not find the “Strand” in earlier 1960s Boston Globe movie listings and ads, when the Sack Capri was still in Copley Square. When did the Strand last operate under that name?
Two months after you fixed this, my comment history has once again disappeared. Can you restore it?
From the Brookline TAB newspaper, February 17, 2005:
Mice run circles around cinema
Call it the House of Mouse, or more appropriately, mice, because it’s a nickname that fits, according to patrons of the Cleveland Circle Cinema.
Attracted by more than just cheesy movies, the pocket-sized rodents have overrun the theater on at least two occasions in a three-month span.
The theater was “infested with mice … they were everywhere,” according to a complaint fielded by the Brookline Health Department last summer.
A trio of customers brought the issue to the attention of cinema employees in August and “were told the company knew about the problem, but there was nothing they could do about it,” according to Health Department reports.
Three months later, a similar complaint was filed charging that “mice [were] running throughout the theater.” Most customers who had gathered for a screening left, but those who stayed “had to put their feet up on the back[s] of chairs,” according to the complaint.
Pat Maloney, Brookline’s chief of environmental health, said movie theaters face some special set of circumstances when it comes to keeping mice at bay.
“Cinemas in general have a more challenging environment because … it’s common that persons will discard food items on the floor in a movie theater,” said Maloney. Food on any floor, especially if it isn’t cleaned promptly and completely, will attract mice.
“That creates a greater challenge than you might find in a restaurant, for example, because in restaurants, people don’t discard their food on the floor,” Maloney added.
Maloney is involved in the cinema’s health inspections, because the facility falls inside the Brookline border. Its parking lot, however, is in Brighton.
…
 Maloney noted that his department had not fielded any complaints about mice in the theater since the new year, and a follow-up inspection on Jan. 10 had “satisfied” Maloney and his department that the theater has continued to take appropriate preventative action.
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?
Sorry, I didn’t take notes on that. Maybe later this month, I’ll try to make copies of the Globe movie ad page for January of each year, so I can see when various theatres opened and closed.
The Circle’s ad was a small listing, just like those of many other local neighborhood theatres at the time. It was listed under the heading “Cleveland Circle” (not “Brighton” or “Brookline”).
So, is it open or closed now? If closed, what is its future?
Unfortunately, I think the Publix/Gaiety has had several strikes against it:
Add all of these factors together, and it’s hard to generate a groundswell of opinion for saving it, much as it deserves to be saved.
These comments last a lot longer than the front page, so if you have a significant event to report (like a Last Day), it’s best to provide as much detail as possible here.
There’s an appeal pending regarding whether the developer can build the apartment tower that he wants, but not about whether he can demolish the building now on the site.
I looked in the former storefront window of 663 Washington Street, and saw a large pile of rubble inside, which wasn’t there a few weeks ago ;–(
I don’t know why they’re bothering to demolish the interior before they take the whole building down.
The Circle apparently predates the National Amusements (Showcase) chain. I saw it advertised on a Boston Globe movie page from January 1960.
An ad on the Boston Globe movie page in January 1965 gives the Capri’s address as 175 Huntington Avenue, not 115-81. Perhaps the address changed at the same time the name and ownership did.
I looked through some Boston Globe microfilm from the early 1960s, and saw this theatre listed in the directory as just the “Newton”, not “West Newton”. The early photos shown here have just “Newton” on the marquee.
I looked through some old microfilms of the Boston Globe, from 1966, 1970, and 1975. The Publix and the Stuart were neither listed nor advertised in any of the issues I looked at. Just about every other downtown theatre that I can think of had either a listing or an ad, usually both.
I’m curious what would motivate someone to patronize an unadvertised downtown movie theatre. Was walking by it and looking at the marquee the only way to know what was playing there?
In a September 1970 Boston Globe theatre listing, the Orson Welles is a single-screen cinema. Does anyone know (a) when it was renamed from Esquire to Orson Welles, and (b) when cinemas 2 and 3 were added?
I looked through some Boston Globe microfilm from September 1966, and saw that this theatre (then a General Cinema) had a single screen back then. I don’t know when it was twinned.
Do you know when it was twinned?
I looked at some Boston Globe microfilm from September 1966, and saw that the Cheri was then a single screen but the Symphony Cinemas were a twin. So the Herald obituary that I quoted above was incorrect.
In no way were the Cinema-Guild and Studio “the country’s first twin cinema”.
The Bexley Theatre in Ohio might be a better candidate for that honor.
The article that you linked to says Royale, not Royal. Which is correct?
I don’t know anything about the drive-in, but “Riverside Park” is the former name for the amusement park that is now called “Six Flags New England”.