Wow! That is indeed the Salem Paramount projection room. Yes, those were the new 5000' reel magazines. The oversized reels held half of a 3-D movie, then went to intermission while the second reels were threaded for the rest of the show. This was necessary because both projectors were running simultaneously, one with the left eye image and the other showing the right, through opposing polarized filters corresponding to viewers worn by the audience. All that equipment was new around 1952 and was there through closing in 1969. ‘53 was a big year. 3-D was popular and CinemaScope had just come out. Theaters paid a fortune to equip for these processes to compete with TV. The caption needs correction. That’s Harold Hunt in the foreground but it looks like Charlie Stoddard in back. Charlie also worked the Warner and Paramount in Lynn and retired at the General Cinema on Rt. 1 in Saugus around 1970.
Hi Dave: Since I virtually lived in the Paramount as a kid, I couldn’t begin to count the matinees I attended – all the Jerry Lewis pics like “Geisha Boy” (first time I got into the balcony) and “Visit To A Small Planet” and “Nutty Professor”(when Lewis appeared in person). My recall is the ticket price being 35 cents. After all, it WAS the Paramount and not merely the Plaza or E.M.Loew’s Salem whose tickets went for a quarter. I can’t fail to mention all the Disney classics as well. I remember seeing “Darby O' Gill” like it was yesterday – that was 1959, a golden year – and yes, we kids were always exiled to “Aisle 5” where we were kept from bothering the adults who had access to the rest of the house.
On your question about the murals, I’ve just posted a better version of that wall photo. If you look closely you’ll see that, although similar, the murals are indeed distinct as I remember them being. Recall the “smoking lounge” that served as an ante room to the men’s rest room, with its glass table, plush couch and floor-standing ash trays? Right to the end, when you went to the Paramount, you were back in the ‘30s. Very little had changed and that was the magic of it.
Dave, you’re really shaking up the memory cells. I certainly recall that Pickering Oil slogan. Do you remember the display board in the lobby, to the right of the central aisle entrance door with those bumper-sticker-shaped signs of upcoming movies illuminated by two blacklight tubes? That was the first time I’d ever seen things glowing with UV light. It was fascinating.
Those are low-resoluton thumbnails of photos in the Essex Institute-Phillips Library collection. Those and one or two others used to be viewable online but I can’t find them now. There was one shot of the long corridor leading from the street to the lobby in which half-sheet posters and lobby cards of coming films were displayed. I spent a lot of my early life in the Paramount (and other local theaters) as my previous posts attest.
Sack would have almost certainly pulled out their equipment when they walked away from the house. I don’t think a movie has been shown there since. They will probably bring in a portable digital projection setup for this show.
Inside the roughly six-month gap between the end of the 36-week run of “Grand Prix” (somewhere around September 1967) and the April 1968 opening of “2001: A Space Odyssey”, the Boston played the reserved-seat engagement of MGM’s “Far From The Madding Crowd”. It was presented in 70mm on the Cinerama screen but was not made as a Cinerama film nor advertised as such. It was shot in 35mm and blown up to 70mm. The previous engagement, “Grand Prix” marked the change in the cinematography of Cinerama films from Ultra Panavision 70 to Super Panavision 70, and an attendant reduction of screen aspect ratio (and width) from 2.55:1 to 2.2:1. “Grand Prix”,“Madding Crowd”, “2001” and “Ice Station Zebra” all fit this format. All 70mm films at the Boston were projected through the custom-fitted Applied Optics and Mechanics Cinerama curved-focal field projection lenses mounted on two Century JJ 35-70mm projectors installed in the center booth.
The Fine Arts was my first job as a projectionist in the early 70s. X-rated stuff then. I went there when I was a kid when it was a regular double-feature movie house. Saw kid shows like Forbidden Planet with Popeye cartoons, even a serial chapter. The porn came later. It was never twinned. They didn’t worry about being raided. You could stand in front of the place and look up Wallis St. and see the Police Station. I believe the Magic group removed the old projection equipment. I went into a storage room under the booth one night and found dozens of film cans with decomposing nitrate film trailers that had been there for decades. I’m sure that was cleaned up with the restoration.
I was one of the projectionists for the Wang Classic Film Series. As previously mentioned, one of the most memorable events was “Ben-Hur”, attended by Heston. The 70mm print was made from the 1969 reissue negative. When the film first opened in November 1959 at the Saxon Theater (formerly and currently the Majestic), the original 70mm prints were in “MGM Camera 65”. This process used an anamorphic lens to stretch the normal 2.2:1 image to 2.76:1. The original 6-channel Technicolor prints were said to yield a staggering image in terms of sharpness and scope. The Saxon’s presentation(running well over a year)would have been magnificent. 35mm “Cinemascope” prints were extracted from the original 65mm negative for use in neighborhood theaters with standard equipment. When reissued in 1969, few theaters were set up with the lenses to run this process so MGM optically converted the new 70mm prints to 2.2:1. This resulted in a loss of sharpness and side image information. It was still an impressive presentation.
The Classic Series was very successful when it ran great films, many in 70mm when available, such as “Oklahoma”, “Around The World In 80 Days”, “Spartacus” and “Lawrence Of Arabia”. The series ran on Mondays when the house would have been dark and usually did substantial business. “Lawrence” drew around 2500 the night I ran it.
Eventually others took over booking and the quality took a nosedive with the series eventually being scrapped. I recall running the Indiana Jones trilogy one winter weekend during a raging blizzard. I wondered who would trek in during that storm as I trudged through blinding snow. The house ended up being packed with fans. I also remember the Wang being part of First Night on New Years Eve one year. We ran around 15 or 20 Warner Bros. cartoons repeatedly all evening. The event was free and I think may have been sponsored by Monster.com.
Previously, Sack had installed a pair of Century JJ 70mm projectors for the showing of “Cleopatra”. Other 70mm shows during that era were “Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines” and, much later, “The Stewardesses” in 3D. Sack had wanted to continue using the house for rock concerts but their lease renewal was refused, so the equipment was removed.
You can pretty much forget ever seeing films at the Wang again. A couple of years ago they decided movies weren’t their thing and sold off the current projectors, a pair of Philips Norelco AA-II 35-70 machines that had been donated by Redstone (Showcase). They were earmarked for George Eastman House Museum in Rochester, NY but the sale may have stalled.
Sorry to be a couple of years late on this answer to a question about the first downtown Boston theater to show CinemaScope: “The Robe” opened on Oct. 7, 1953 at RKO Keith Memorial. The premiere was delayed about a month due to the popularity of “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” at the Keith. It took about 48 hours for about 100 men to install the lenses, screen and stereophonic sound system. Regarding the Orpheum, the 1931 photo shows the Loews Orpheum blade sign. Currently I think there’s a blade stating Orpheum. In the 50s and 60s, it had a blade that stated simply Loew’s. As a young teen, I was there for the first morning premiere of the Beatles' “Help”.
Cabot Cinema has been saved. A consortium of five Beverly businessmen including Paul Van Ness who operates CinemaSalem have purchased it. It is being rehabbed and will show feature films and a variety of live entertainment. A restaurant within is also planned. Saving this jewel of the past is a dream come true, especially for the downtown area businesses. We came close to an unthinkable (in 2014) loss but got a happy ending.
I remember riding by it a couple of times as a kid. The info above says 20 High St. and that could be right but I recalled it further past Danvers Square on Maple St. It was probably about 1957 so I may be wrong. What I do remember is the signage above the street doors saying: CinemaScope – The Miracle You See Without Glasses! At around age 7 I was reading well enough to digest that phrase and hang onto it. Never got inside. I came from Salem, next town over and spent my childhood in the Paramount, Plaza, and ‘New’ Salem theaters. Later worked in a couple of ‘em.
It’s great to see a photo of the Plaza frontage. If that was 1950, it must have run for about six years or so and then closed again. I think it reopened around ‘57. I saw “Forbidden Planet” there but it was second run. Then, the marquee said “Always Two Big Hits”. Since very little money was spent to update it, it was like walking into the past. I’m now not sure if it ever was run by E.M.Loew. I might have confused that round Loew insignia with the centerpoint of the Salem Theatre marquee, similarly shaped but larger. The Plaza was old and dusty with its own distinct odor but I loved it. We got our quarters’ worth on many a Saturday afternoon.
Correct. I think Cheri 1 had a Century JJ 35/70mm projector and Cheri 2 had a Norelco AAll 35/70, both with platters. Originally, they had pairs of each before automation. They ran many 70mm films. “Chitty Bang Bang”, “Sleeping Beauty”, dozens of others. Small screens and very sharp image.
I was apprenticing as a projectionist the last year of the Paramount’s operation. I was trained by Harold Hunt, the last surviving charter member of IATSE Local 245. Harold opened the Paramount and was there for its entire run. He was a real gentleman. Ironically, he didn’t run the last show; he was away for a family funeral. That show of Midnight Cowboy was run by Frank Halloran, over from the GCC Northshore in Peabody. The Paramount had two Simplex XL projectors and Strong arc lamphouses plus a stereopticon machine they’d used for song lyrics during organ performances. I heard the organ as a kid, played by Frank Simpson.
Dave, I reply belatedly, what a great photo. Everyone wishes the city had the foresight to preserve the Paramount and create a county arts center, as would have happened today. Facing the sidewalk were two insert poster frames. Facing inward toward the box office were two 40X60 frames. Field’s office was to the left of the candy stand. A new white marquee was installed around 1957. Another irony is that the current CinemaSalem 3-plex stands near where the Paramount’s men’s/smoking room was. The screen was very large and curved with a red traveler curtain.
The Empire Theatre was where the Salem Theatre’s parking lot was, corner of Crombie and Essex. It had an overhand but no marquee showing titles. The legend was that E.M. Loew tried vainly to buy the Empire, finally building his new Salem Theatre virtually beside it in spite. The Empire sat idle for a few years after the Salem opened before falling to the lot, which was city-owned. Back to the Plaza, I recall almost all the films I saw there, including a double bill of “King Kong” and “Mighty Joe Young”. The best was a matinee of “Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein”. Filled with kid, it was absolute bedlam. Oh, to see 35mm prints of these today.
The Plaza did have the E.M. Loew’s name on the center point of the marquee. It stood idle during the early fifties until purchased by James Solovicos who operated the Martha’s Sweets soda fountain and lunch counter at the corner of Summer and Essex streets, diagonally across from the Plaza. They ran largely second-run double features and found a good trade in spooling all the Allied Artists cheapie horror/sci-fi films. They then became a showcase for some, not all, AIP horror films. They had the first-run of “House Of Usher” and in 1958 ran the first run of William Castle’s “Macabre”. I was in a Saturday matinee of this.
The Gary (named after Ben Sack’s son) had a full painted billboard for “The Sound Of Music” covering the entire right side of its marquee. Similar billboards were made for the Gary’s roadshow runs of “West Side Story” and “Lawrence Of Arabia”. Both films were presented at the Gary in 70mm. “Mary Poppins” was not a roadshow release. It ran at the Gary in 35mm 4-track magnetic stereophonic sound. When it ran “Cabaret”, the roadshow era was over and the Gary and Saxon were downgraded. Both theaters had been equipped with Norelco DP70 Todd AO projectors which were removed and reinstalled at the newly built Sack Cinema 57. Old Simplex 35mm projectors and mono sound were put into the Gary and Saxon booths.
Twin X or Cinema X Twin – Washington at LaGrange. I think the State was split into two houses and became State 1&2.
Wow! That is indeed the Salem Paramount projection room. Yes, those were the new 5000' reel magazines. The oversized reels held half of a 3-D movie, then went to intermission while the second reels were threaded for the rest of the show. This was necessary because both projectors were running simultaneously, one with the left eye image and the other showing the right, through opposing polarized filters corresponding to viewers worn by the audience. All that equipment was new around 1952 and was there through closing in 1969. ‘53 was a big year. 3-D was popular and CinemaScope had just come out. Theaters paid a fortune to equip for these processes to compete with TV. The caption needs correction. That’s Harold Hunt in the foreground but it looks like Charlie Stoddard in back. Charlie also worked the Warner and Paramount in Lynn and retired at the General Cinema on Rt. 1 in Saugus around 1970.
Hi Dave: Since I virtually lived in the Paramount as a kid, I couldn’t begin to count the matinees I attended – all the Jerry Lewis pics like “Geisha Boy” (first time I got into the balcony) and “Visit To A Small Planet” and “Nutty Professor”(when Lewis appeared in person). My recall is the ticket price being 35 cents. After all, it WAS the Paramount and not merely the Plaza or E.M.Loew’s Salem whose tickets went for a quarter. I can’t fail to mention all the Disney classics as well. I remember seeing “Darby O' Gill” like it was yesterday – that was 1959, a golden year – and yes, we kids were always exiled to “Aisle 5” where we were kept from bothering the adults who had access to the rest of the house. On your question about the murals, I’ve just posted a better version of that wall photo. If you look closely you’ll see that, although similar, the murals are indeed distinct as I remember them being. Recall the “smoking lounge” that served as an ante room to the men’s rest room, with its glass table, plush couch and floor-standing ash trays? Right to the end, when you went to the Paramount, you were back in the ‘30s. Very little had changed and that was the magic of it.
Bill
Dave, you’re really shaking up the memory cells. I certainly recall that Pickering Oil slogan. Do you remember the display board in the lobby, to the right of the central aisle entrance door with those bumper-sticker-shaped signs of upcoming movies illuminated by two blacklight tubes? That was the first time I’d ever seen things glowing with UV light. It was fascinating.
Bill
Those are low-resoluton thumbnails of photos in the Essex Institute-Phillips Library collection. Those and one or two others used to be viewable online but I can’t find them now. There was one shot of the long corridor leading from the street to the lobby in which half-sheet posters and lobby cards of coming films were displayed. I spent a lot of my early life in the Paramount (and other local theaters) as my previous posts attest.
Bill L.
Sack would have almost certainly pulled out their equipment when they walked away from the house. I don’t think a movie has been shown there since. They will probably bring in a portable digital projection setup for this show.
Inside the roughly six-month gap between the end of the 36-week run of “Grand Prix” (somewhere around September 1967) and the April 1968 opening of “2001: A Space Odyssey”, the Boston played the reserved-seat engagement of MGM’s “Far From The Madding Crowd”. It was presented in 70mm on the Cinerama screen but was not made as a Cinerama film nor advertised as such. It was shot in 35mm and blown up to 70mm. The previous engagement, “Grand Prix” marked the change in the cinematography of Cinerama films from Ultra Panavision 70 to Super Panavision 70, and an attendant reduction of screen aspect ratio (and width) from 2.55:1 to 2.2:1. “Grand Prix”,“Madding Crowd”, “2001” and “Ice Station Zebra” all fit this format. All 70mm films at the Boston were projected through the custom-fitted Applied Optics and Mechanics Cinerama curved-focal field projection lenses mounted on two Century JJ 35-70mm projectors installed in the center booth.
The Fine Arts was my first job as a projectionist in the early 70s. X-rated stuff then. I went there when I was a kid when it was a regular double-feature movie house. Saw kid shows like Forbidden Planet with Popeye cartoons, even a serial chapter. The porn came later. It was never twinned. They didn’t worry about being raided. You could stand in front of the place and look up Wallis St. and see the Police Station. I believe the Magic group removed the old projection equipment. I went into a storage room under the booth one night and found dozens of film cans with decomposing nitrate film trailers that had been there for decades. I’m sure that was cleaned up with the restoration.
I was one of the projectionists for the Wang Classic Film Series. As previously mentioned, one of the most memorable events was “Ben-Hur”, attended by Heston. The 70mm print was made from the 1969 reissue negative. When the film first opened in November 1959 at the Saxon Theater (formerly and currently the Majestic), the original 70mm prints were in “MGM Camera 65”. This process used an anamorphic lens to stretch the normal 2.2:1 image to 2.76:1. The original 6-channel Technicolor prints were said to yield a staggering image in terms of sharpness and scope. The Saxon’s presentation(running well over a year)would have been magnificent. 35mm “Cinemascope” prints were extracted from the original 65mm negative for use in neighborhood theaters with standard equipment. When reissued in 1969, few theaters were set up with the lenses to run this process so MGM optically converted the new 70mm prints to 2.2:1. This resulted in a loss of sharpness and side image information. It was still an impressive presentation.
The Classic Series was very successful when it ran great films, many in 70mm when available, such as “Oklahoma”, “Around The World In 80 Days”, “Spartacus” and “Lawrence Of Arabia”. The series ran on Mondays when the house would have been dark and usually did substantial business. “Lawrence” drew around 2500 the night I ran it.
Eventually others took over booking and the quality took a nosedive with the series eventually being scrapped. I recall running the Indiana Jones trilogy one winter weekend during a raging blizzard. I wondered who would trek in during that storm as I trudged through blinding snow. The house ended up being packed with fans. I also remember the Wang being part of First Night on New Years Eve one year. We ran around 15 or 20 Warner Bros. cartoons repeatedly all evening. The event was free and I think may have been sponsored by Monster.com.
Previously, Sack had installed a pair of Century JJ 70mm projectors for the showing of “Cleopatra”. Other 70mm shows during that era were “Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines” and, much later, “The Stewardesses” in 3D. Sack had wanted to continue using the house for rock concerts but their lease renewal was refused, so the equipment was removed.
You can pretty much forget ever seeing films at the Wang again. A couple of years ago they decided movies weren’t their thing and sold off the current projectors, a pair of Philips Norelco AA-II 35-70 machines that had been donated by Redstone (Showcase). They were earmarked for George Eastman House Museum in Rochester, NY but the sale may have stalled.
Sorry to be a couple of years late on this answer to a question about the first downtown Boston theater to show CinemaScope: “The Robe” opened on Oct. 7, 1953 at RKO Keith Memorial. The premiere was delayed about a month due to the popularity of “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” at the Keith. It took about 48 hours for about 100 men to install the lenses, screen and stereophonic sound system. Regarding the Orpheum, the 1931 photo shows the Loews Orpheum blade sign. Currently I think there’s a blade stating Orpheum. In the 50s and 60s, it had a blade that stated simply Loew’s. As a young teen, I was there for the first morning premiere of the Beatles' “Help”.
Cabot Cinema has been saved. A consortium of five Beverly businessmen including Paul Van Ness who operates CinemaSalem have purchased it. It is being rehabbed and will show feature films and a variety of live entertainment. A restaurant within is also planned. Saving this jewel of the past is a dream come true, especially for the downtown area businesses. We came close to an unthinkable (in 2014) loss but got a happy ending.
Bill L.
I remember riding by it a couple of times as a kid. The info above says 20 High St. and that could be right but I recalled it further past Danvers Square on Maple St. It was probably about 1957 so I may be wrong. What I do remember is the signage above the street doors saying: CinemaScope – The Miracle You See Without Glasses! At around age 7 I was reading well enough to digest that phrase and hang onto it. Never got inside. I came from Salem, next town over and spent my childhood in the Paramount, Plaza, and ‘New’ Salem theaters. Later worked in a couple of ‘em.
Bill
It’s great to see a photo of the Plaza frontage. If that was 1950, it must have run for about six years or so and then closed again. I think it reopened around ‘57. I saw “Forbidden Planet” there but it was second run. Then, the marquee said “Always Two Big Hits”. Since very little money was spent to update it, it was like walking into the past. I’m now not sure if it ever was run by E.M.Loew. I might have confused that round Loew insignia with the centerpoint of the Salem Theatre marquee, similarly shaped but larger. The Plaza was old and dusty with its own distinct odor but I loved it. We got our quarters’ worth on many a Saturday afternoon.
Correct. I think Cheri 1 had a Century JJ 35/70mm projector and Cheri 2 had a Norelco AAll 35/70, both with platters. Originally, they had pairs of each before automation. They ran many 70mm films. “Chitty Bang Bang”, “Sleeping Beauty”, dozens of others. Small screens and very sharp image.
I was apprenticing as a projectionist the last year of the Paramount’s operation. I was trained by Harold Hunt, the last surviving charter member of IATSE Local 245. Harold opened the Paramount and was there for its entire run. He was a real gentleman. Ironically, he didn’t run the last show; he was away for a family funeral. That show of Midnight Cowboy was run by Frank Halloran, over from the GCC Northshore in Peabody. The Paramount had two Simplex XL projectors and Strong arc lamphouses plus a stereopticon machine they’d used for song lyrics during organ performances. I heard the organ as a kid, played by Frank Simpson.
Dave, I reply belatedly, what a great photo. Everyone wishes the city had the foresight to preserve the Paramount and create a county arts center, as would have happened today. Facing the sidewalk were two insert poster frames. Facing inward toward the box office were two 40X60 frames. Field’s office was to the left of the candy stand. A new white marquee was installed around 1957. Another irony is that the current CinemaSalem 3-plex stands near where the Paramount’s men’s/smoking room was. The screen was very large and curved with a red traveler curtain.
The Empire Theatre was where the Salem Theatre’s parking lot was, corner of Crombie and Essex. It had an overhand but no marquee showing titles. The legend was that E.M. Loew tried vainly to buy the Empire, finally building his new Salem Theatre virtually beside it in spite. The Empire sat idle for a few years after the Salem opened before falling to the lot, which was city-owned. Back to the Plaza, I recall almost all the films I saw there, including a double bill of “King Kong” and “Mighty Joe Young”. The best was a matinee of “Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein”. Filled with kid, it was absolute bedlam. Oh, to see 35mm prints of these today.
The Plaza did have the E.M. Loew’s name on the center point of the marquee. It stood idle during the early fifties until purchased by James Solovicos who operated the Martha’s Sweets soda fountain and lunch counter at the corner of Summer and Essex streets, diagonally across from the Plaza. They ran largely second-run double features and found a good trade in spooling all the Allied Artists cheapie horror/sci-fi films. They then became a showcase for some, not all, AIP horror films. They had the first-run of “House Of Usher” and in 1958 ran the first run of William Castle’s “Macabre”. I was in a Saturday matinee of this.
The Gary (named after Ben Sack’s son) had a full painted billboard for “The Sound Of Music” covering the entire right side of its marquee. Similar billboards were made for the Gary’s roadshow runs of “West Side Story” and “Lawrence Of Arabia”. Both films were presented at the Gary in 70mm. “Mary Poppins” was not a roadshow release. It ran at the Gary in 35mm 4-track magnetic stereophonic sound. When it ran “Cabaret”, the roadshow era was over and the Gary and Saxon were downgraded. Both theaters had been equipped with Norelco DP70 Todd AO projectors which were removed and reinstalled at the newly built Sack Cinema 57. Old Simplex 35mm projectors and mono sound were put into the Gary and Saxon booths.