I grew up in North Cambridge and remember two neighborhood theatres very well. The Harvard Theatre on Mass. ave near Frank’s Steak House and the Eliot Theatre. I remember it was once the Porter Square Theatre and I believe the name was changed was priot to 1946 or so to the Eliot. I used to go into Arlington to the Capital, also on Mass ave. I visited often the Regent Theatre in Arlington Center. The University Theatre was in the heart of Harvard Square across from the entrance of the newspaper kiosk. All these theatres were just great places. I remember the Eliot changing over to a ballroom and there in lays the foundation of it’s decline. It drew trouble and people not from the immediate neighborhood of Porter Square. Where I lived was on the boundary of Cambridge,Arlington and Somerville. It was easy to walk the railroad tracks from Mass. Ave Cambridge side to Davis Square somerville and frequent that theatre as well. There was a drug store with a soda fountain on the very corner of the block that housed the Somerville theatre. I also live very close to the Teele Square theatre and it was considered dirty. One could smell the rest room naptha all during a movie. It was a turn off place for me personally.
I grew up in North Cambridge and remember two neighborhood theatres very well. The Harvard Theatre on Mass. ave near Frank’s Steak House and the Eliot Theatre. I remember it was once the Porter Square Theatre and I believe the name was changed was priot to 1946 or so to the Eliot. I used to go into Arlington to the Capital, also on Mass ave. I visited often the Regent Theatre in Arlington Center. The University Theatre was in the heart of Harvard Square across from the entrance of the newspaper kiosk. All these theatres were just great places. I remember the Eliot changing over to a ballroom and there in lays the foundation of it’s decline. It drew trouble and people not from the immediate neighborhood of Porter Square. Where I lived was on the boundary of Cambridge,Arlington and Somerville. It was easy to walk the railroad tracks from Mass. Ave Cambridge side to Davis Square somerville and frequent that theatre as well. There was a drug store with a soda fountain on the very corner of the block that housed the Somerville theatre. I also live very close to the Teele Square theatre and it was considered dirty. One could smell the rest room naptha all during a movie. It was a turn off place for me personally.