North Station Cinema I-II-III
276 Friend Street,
Boston,
MA
02114
276 Friend Street,
Boston,
MA
02114
2 people
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Additional Info
Previous Names: North Station Cinema I, North Station Cinema I & II
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This was a single screen gay porn cinema that was located away from the city center, north of Scollay Square. It was opened on January 19, 1971. On on February 11, 1971 a second screen was opened and on May 4, 1971 a third screen was added. I have it listed as operating in the mid-1970’s (1977 edition of the Bob Damron Address Book).
It was operated by the same management as the South Station Cinema, another gay porn cinema located to the south of the city center and shared the same advertisements in newspapers.
Contributed by
KenRoe
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Recent comments (view all 16 comments)
I confess to having seen a couple porn films in the North Station Cinema, circa 1977. At that time I believe they had an entrance on Portland street, where there was a single screen, and another on Friend street where there were two screens. (Or the other way around, I can’t recall.) At this time it showed straight films only, but I believe it changed over to a gay genre a couple years later.
On reflection,I seem to remember that they had a single screen on Friend Street and two on Portland. I’m not sure, but I think after a time the single screen closed. It’s possible that the one on Friend showed gay films; I only remember that the two on Portland were straight when I was there.
The North Station on Friend Street was showing gay porn early in the ‘70s, as I witnessed “Bijou” when it was playing there, 1973, with a very vocal accompaniment by Sylvia Sydney, one of Boston’s reigning drag queens. Boston After Dark gave it a very good review, considering.
An economical porn buff could always wait a week for whatever played there at the one screen to appear that following week at the South Station duplex.
There was a theater under the elevated, directly across from the Boston Gardens – was this the aforementioned possible duplex No. Station? I saw a lot of questionable R or very small 'x’ rated movies there, like “Birds of Peru” – an unfortunate film for a doomed Jean Seburg – and “DeSade” with Keir Dullea, post his fame with “2001”, but no too long after that, say 1968 or ‘69. It nonetheless felt like a 'raincoat’ crowd attended. And it was just the one screen at these times.
The theater under the elevated on Causeway Street was E.M. Loew’s West End Cinema. It was originally built as the Lancaster Theatre, and ended its life as the West End Pussycat. It was torn down in 1990.
In the early 1980s, I attended a straight xxx film at a little cinema on either Friend St. or Portland St. It was on the east side of the street, a few doors down from Causeway St. You went in and turned right to face the screen. I think it was a single-screen operation. It was in an existing building.
With reference to the cinema visit mentioned above, I just looked in my travel log, where I sometimes entered movie and theatre visits, and found that I attended “Cinema 3 near North Station” on Tuesday, December 2, 1980. This implies that there was a “Cinema 1 and 2” nearby.
I confess to being a bit of a porn hound when I lived in Boston. North Station Cinema ran straight double features in the early 80’s. Mostly New York-produced flicks, as I recall.
1974 photo added courtesy of the Dirty Old Boston Facebook page. Films on the marquee were released in 1969 & `70, though neither were pornography films. So it appears North Station Cinema 1 was also trying to be a revival house.
The North Station Cinema opened on January 19th, 1971 with an adult film. Grand opening ad posted.
Two screens on February 11th and three on May 4th.