Lenox Town Hall Theatre

The Lenox Town Hall Cinema, “A Theater Near You”, was renovated in 1980 with fixed cinema seats and both 35mm and 16mm projectors purchased from the closed Toad Hall Cinema at the Music Inn. Sound and picture were admittedly awful, but we tried very hard. Largest grossing film was the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Management (in various combinations) previously operated both Toad Hall and the Holliston Art Theater in Lenox, with support from Pleasant Street in Northampton, the Pittsfield Drive In (!), and various art cinemas in Cambridge and indeed throughout the northeast (we had quite a network then).

Roger, those are nice photos and I had looked at them before posting the theatre. The rear loft doesn’t show a projection booth. I don’t remember what the projection booth looked like when I went there. Do you know about that? What kind of programming was there in the 1940s? Art-house type films?

I went here to see a film on August 5, 1984 when the Italian film The Basileus Quartet by Fabio Carpi was the program. Rows of moveable seats were on the flat floor. Dark curtains, I believe, covered the windows that are on the hall. The projection was 35mm. They were equipped with both 35mm and 16mm. I noted that the picture was not bright enough and that the sound was not the best. I think the programs were seasonal. I do not remember programs from other years, and this was the only time I went. Perhaps some locals with good memories can give other details on the use of this place as a cinema.