AMC Loews Harvard Square 5

3/19/38 promotional handout & copy added courtesy of Captain Bijou Facebook Page.

BIG DEAL – Perhaps it’s hard to believe that — in the days before mass media marketing — the arrival of radio’s THE LONE RANGER on movie screen’s across the country, was such an important event. Those of us who saw serials at our local bijous remember the excitement of actually seeing Superman, Batman or Captain America on the screen, but we may have been unaware of how important these brief fifteen minutes of film were to the smaller, neighborhood theatres.

Here’s a promotional handout for Saturday, March 19, 1938 at the University Theatre in Cambridge. Massachusetts. Look at the prominence given to the announcement that chapter one of THE LONE RANGER serial will be shown on that date. The title of the feature film, SERGEANT MURPHY starring Ronald Reagan plus cartoons are listed almost as an afterthought.

Gerald Chan, the current owner of the Harvard Square Theatre, is facing pressure from members of the Cambridge City Council to soon declare his plans for the building. (Article here: http://www.cambridgeday.com/2017/02/28/seeing-cinema-empty-nearly-five-years-officials-are-losing-patience-with-owner/.)

Here is the article about the recently-opened University Theatre that appeared in the November 20, 1926, issue of Motion Picture News:

“Harvard Welcomes the New University Theatre

“Advance of Pictures Overcomes Opposition and a Playhouse Opens on Harvard Square

“WITH the opening of the University Theatre in Harvard Square, Cambridge, Mass., this week, Harvard University, oldest university in America, for the first time in its 290 years, has a theatre within its shadows. For years attempts have been made to secure permission to erect a theatre in Harvard Square, but opposition from business men and university faculty inevitably defeated the plans.

“Realizing the wonderful advance made in motion pictures and the importance of the position occupied by motion picture theatres, the conservatism which has kept theatres away from Harvard University has given way to a remarkable welcome to the new University Theatre and to its owners, Charles E. Hatfield, treasurer of Middlesex County and president of the University Theatre Co.; Lindsey Hooper, Boston financier, and Stanley Sumner, managing director of the new playhouse through whose efforts the company was organized and the theatre erected. Mr. Sumner’s success as owner of the Community Theatre in Newton, Mass., and other playhouses places him among the leading active theatre owners in New England.

“One of the features of the new University Theatre will be the showing of Harvard football game films the evening of the same day of the game. This has been made possible through arrangements made with the Pathe News.

“Co-operates With University

“The University Theatre aims to co-operate with Harvard officials, with the Harvard Dramatic organizations and other Harvard clubs, giving a type of entertainment which will appeal to Harvard students as well as to the public and providing a means in Cambridge, for the first time, for Harvard students to present dramatics. From its location the theatre Mill draw its audiences not only from Cambridge and Harvard University, but from a dozen towns bordering Harvard Square, which have direct traffic communication to this important transfer center.

“Although the theatre is now open, some of the finishing touches remain to be completed. At the invitation opening of the theatre many officials, Harvard faculty members, and those prominent in the film business were present. The opening was scheduled for eight o'clock. Not until three o'clock was work started removing the stagings inside the theatre; not until six o'clock were the first tests made with the projection equipment. The seating of the theatre was being completed as the first of the audience arrived. Yet so smoothly was the program carried out that the audience, had it not been otherwise informed, would have thought the entire program had been rehearsed until finished. The curtain, reproducing the famous painting of Washington taking command of the Continental Army on Cambridge Common, has not been completed and will be shown later. It is 33 feet long and 17 feet 4 inches high.

“Beauty of Design and Decoration

“The theatre is of the Italian Renaissance period of architecture, inspiration for it coming from the Davangatti Palace in Florence, Italy. Walls of the lobby are of imported traverline and even the ticket booth is suggestive of the windows of some dark-eyed senorita of old. The decorative scheme is a rather free adaptation of blending of the modern with the Italian and Pompeian. Carpetings were specially designed to give harmonious setting to the furnishings.

“In the seating, an advance has been made towards comfort of patrons. The seats, specially designed, are slightly higher than the customary seat and with a little more backward tilt, and heavily upholstered, adding materially to the comfort of the patron, whether short or tall.

“The house seats 1,915. It has a single balcony of cantilever type. The ladies' room is finished in Georgian style, giving a restful effect. Lighting fixtures throughout the house are a combination of wrought iron and brass and there is an emergency current supply from batteries, should the commercial circuit be closed for any purpose for a short time.

“Special attention has been given the projection room, which is patterned after that of the Metropolitan Theatre, Boston, except that it is located above the rear of the balcony.

“The policy calls for complete changes of program Sundays and Wednesdays, with Pathe News, comedy and two feature pictures, one stage presentation, and an orchestra and organ. Performances will be continuous, with three complete performances daily. Seats are reserved only for the evening performance.”

What theatre in Somerville did she attend?

Also the 1927 ad has been uploaded in the photo section.

Stopped by the location on Wednesday night. You can still see inside through the front door and they haven’t done anything with it as yet. I wish Alamo would seize the opportunity and grab this location to come to metro Boston…::sigh::

Boston.com yesterday reported that AMC has sold the Harvard Square Theatre for $6.5 million to Cambridge-based Carpenter & Company, who own the Charles Hotel several blocks away.

“Richard Friedman, the president and chief operating officer of Carpenter & Company, said the company bought the building last week and he expects a plan will be place for the future of the property within two months.” He said that re-using the building as a theater is one of many options that will be considered.

Rocky Horror Picture Show (with Full Body Cast) will move to Loews Boston Common, effective August 4. The last shows at Harvard Square will be tomorrow night, July 7, 9:30 pm and 12:30 am.

Ah, the good old Harvard Square Theater. Double features, rock films like MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR & THE SONG REMAINS THE SAME, midnight shows….

Surprised it lasted this long under the Loew’s and AMC banners. These chains only care about maximizing profits – not historical preservation or the movie-going pleasures of their neighbors.

The loss of Harvard Square AMC will leave a huge gap in film going for students when they return in the fall. Instead of having a multiplex showing current films within walking distance, they will now have to take the T or drive to the nearest multiplex theaters, which if I’m not mistaken are Fresh Pond, Somerville Theater, Kendall Square, and AMC Boston Common. It leaves the Brattle Theatre and the Harvard Film Archive as the only theaters within walking distance.

With AMC Assembly Hill on the map but not yet under construction (to my knowledge) and not scheduled to open until the late fall of 2013, that leaves the entire upcoming school year devoid of a major chain multiplex that’s only a few minutes away. And Assembly Hill will be more than a “few minutes” away anyway, and you certainly won’t be able to walk there.

And it leaves the RHPS devotees nowhere to go on Saturday nights…:–)

BOOOO AMC – shame on you for closing Harvard Square! Shame Shame SHAME! It wasn’t the best theater, but we loved it all the same…

This is a very sad day for Harvard Square, for Cambridge, and for film exhbition throughout the Boston area.

I believe Harvard Square is the last remaining theatre from the old USACinemas chain to survive through merger first with Loews and then with AMC.

That would be sad. It would leave only the very specialized Brattle Theatre as the only cinema in all of Harvard Square.

Tom, I had quit managing the theatre before you came in, and you rehired me as house manager.