Symphony Cinema I & II
252 Huntington Avenue,
Boston,
MA
02115
252 Huntington Avenue,
Boston,
MA
02115
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1969 photo added courtesy of the Old School Boston Facebook page. Symphony Cinema marquee on the far right.
Boston University sold this along with the nearby BU Theatre (which houses the Huntington Theatre Company). The Huntington will remain, but the former Symphony Cinema building will probably be demolished and replaced with newer development.
After all these years I finally got to see I Am Curious Yellow complete a few months ago on of all places Turner Classic Movies. What a waste of time.
This opened on March 31, 1965. Ad and picture uploaded.
I remember seeing all the kung fu movies back in the 1970’s when I was kid at the symphony.
I remember going to see I Am Curious Yellow. there. I worked by Fenway Park and didn’t want to drive home at 3.30 pm so I hoped the T and went to the movies. I should have gone home because this is the afternoon the police raided the theatre and all the TV staions were out front filming for the 6pm news. The police shut the theatre down but it resumed playing the next day without problems. Never did get to see the last 15 mins or so.
I recall seeing the classic (and infamous) horror/slice-and-dice film “Last House On The left” there in late 1976…I guess the place was not long for this world by that point, and had fallen on pretty hard times.
I remember seeing The Collector, The Chase and A Funny Thing Happend on the way to the Forum. We always went to Brigham’s afterwards
I recall standing in line awaiting to get in to see “I Am Curious, Yellow” like it was the second coming or something. yawn.
Ron;
Thanks for posting those details, it is always good to piece together another slice of the history, especially when it comes from ‘the horses mouth’.
That couldn’t have lasted very long. This page says that the adjoining BU Theatre bought the Symphony Cinemas building some time between 1978 and 1981. I recall it was earlier in that range, rather than later.
I have a gay guide book for Boston (published in 1977) in which the Symphony II Theater is listed at a street address 252 Huntington Avenue screening gay male porn movies.
I saw ‘curious Yellow’ ‘Barbarella’ and ‘Flesh Gordon’ there, late 60s.
Yeah, “Midnight Cowboy,” which won the Academy Award for best picture, was actually rated X. Its initial run had been at the Saxon, I believe. The Saxon is now the Cutler-Majestic at Emerson College.
The Symphony switched to blaxploitation fare in the 70’s. I remember trying to get into see “Midnight Cowboy” (on second run) there around 1970 or 71, but they wouldn’t let me in as I was under 18.
A July 21, 1969 newspaper ad for the theatre has it as the Symphony I & II. So at some point in the late 1960s a second screen was added. The movie playing on that date was the very successful Swedish sex film I AM CURIOUS (YELLOW, directed by Vilmot Sjöman. On that date, a Saturday, the X-rated film was playing on both screens, with staggered starting times: first show at 11 A.M. and the last one at 10:45 P.M. People must have been turning up in droves.
I remember seeing The Day The Fish Came Out at this theatre.
The Huntington occupies the next-door Boston University Theatre. I believe the Symphony Cinema was converted to back-office, back-stage, or rehersal space for the Huntington.
The Huntington Theater Company, the resident theater company of Boston University, is the current occupant (and I believe they have been for at least the last 20 years or so) of the now-namesake former Symphony Cinema.
…and SCORPIO RISING with JOHNNY MINOTAUR!
To show what the programming was like, some films I saw here were CUL-DE-SAC, DAISIES, 491, THE FIFTH HORSEMAN IS FEAR, I AM CURIOUS YELLOW, THE RAILROAD MAN, LA DOLCE VITA, DINNER AT EIGHT, THE COOL WORLD.