Symphony Hall

Starting when I was in middle school in the early 1950s I worked at Symphony Hall as an usher, ticket-taker, and occasionally as a relief stage doorkeeper. It was a perfectly safe area then, working between 6PM and 9 PM, sometimes to 11PM. Even the side streets were safe late at night. The fans who hung out at the stage door in back were very nice people. I often walked thru the Public Garden and Boston Common late at night in those days – no problems. I had never even heard of expressions such as “mugging” and “rip off”. It all started to go to hell after 1960. The timing may have been a coincidence but, rightly or wrongly, I blamed the social decay on the JFK-LBJ years. I would never walk around late at night in this area today.

I attend Boston Symphony concerts at Symphony Hall all the time, coming up from Providence by the MBTA. Week after week I have walked for many blocks in every direction, day and night, with no problems. I have been doing this for many years. I am a compulsive walker, and often use side streets in the area. I often walk before and after performances to or from Ruggles Station, the Massachusetts Avenue T station, at night up and down the dark walkway over the rail line between Mass Avenue and Back Bay Station, up or down Columbus Avenue. Never a problem. I do not see any social decay here or anything going to hell. Quite the contrary; I find it an exciting, lively, safe area. I’d love to live there! It reminds me of the upper West Side in Manhattan near Lincoln Center.

From Boxoffice Magazine, March 26, 1955, in an article on the history of art house exhibition in Boston:

“…Yet the history of the art picture in this city is an interesting and unique one. In 1922, during the silent days, George Kraska introduced this type of film to Boston audiences when he hired Symphony Hall and opened with a special engagement of the Russian film "Potemkim,” using the head organist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra as the accompanist.“
[Note, the year 1922 must be in error, since Eisenstein’s Potemkin was made later, in 1925. Most likely it was after December 1926 when the movie opened in New York, or else in early 1927. The article also states that later, in 1927, Kraska took over the Fine Arts Theatre, up Massachusetts Avenue a bit at Norway Street, for his programs.]
Link:
http://issuu.com/boxoffice/docs/boxoffice_032655-2
Go to page 95.

Glad to hear this. I worried that this event would disappear with WCRB’s sale to WGBH.

On Fri-Sat Dec. 26-27 there will be 3 showings of the movie “Home Alone” on Symphony Hall’s “big screen”. The Boston Pops orchestra will provide music for the movie. I have no idea how they plan to integrate live music from a large orchestra into this film. On Saturday Nov. 1, 2014 there will be the annual WCRB Classical Cartoon Festival, 10 AM – 4 PM, featuring Warner Brothers cartoons starring Bugs Bunny and other film luminaries.