Bijou Cinema
Foster Street,
Worcester,
MA
01608
Foster Street,
Worcester,
MA
01608
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This first opened as a General Cinema, called the GCC Worcester Center Cinema as early as September 1973 as a triplex. The theater also went under a secondary name of “GCC Galleria Mall Cinemas”.
It became the Bijou Cinema sometime around 2001 and closed in late 2004.
As of 10/21/2014, this cinema is a pile of rubble, as the CityScape project is finally moving forward and the section of the old Fashion Outlets it was housed in has been razed. Please update the listing accordingly – thanks!
The theatre was located on Foster Street (not Front Street) on the lower level of the former Worcester Center Galleria shopping complex. It was initially operated by General Cinemas and offered first-run films. (I can remember seeing more than my share of Disney films here when I was growing-up) For a time in the mid-to-late 1980s they started adding foreign and what we’d now call “independent” films on one of the screens before General Cinemas called it quits.
The Bijou appears to be a shopping mall theater, opened in 1973 according to the post on 11/30/74. It doesn’t fit.
Was there another Family Theater in Worcester? This was in Boxoffice magazine in January 1960:
WORCESTER, MASS.-The E.M. Loew circuit, operator of the Family Theater here for many years, has placed a “For Rent or For Sale” sign on the marquee. The house has been shuttered since last spring. The circuit continues to run the Plymouth, a first run, here.
I had just moved to the Worcester area in 1978, when it was the Worcester Center Cinema. I remember walking the mall, then going to see a movie afterwards. We used to joke about the size of the screens :–)
If I remember correctly, didn’t they used to show plays there too?
Although it sounds like this isn’t the same theater, there was another theater called the Bijou in Worcester. It played silent films in 1912. Later the building was turned into a five-and-dime store. It sounds like the old Bijou was located at Eighth and Millbury Street.
for more information, there’s a 1978 audio interview (with transcript) with one of the owners at
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/102
In July of 1984, when this was the Galleria, I saw Electric Dreams. The last films I saw here were Zelary, a very long Czech film, and the director’s cut of Donnie Darko on November 6, 2004, shortly before the place closed.
Here’s a photo of the Bijou marquee and entrance area taken a while back.
View link
This Cinema was originally the Worcester Center Cinema, opened by General Cinema around 1973. the three auditoriums had a total of only about 700 seats. Actually, the lobby was larger than the three screens combined. It was my first theatre as Manager, from June 1975 until November 1975. It was a busy summer, with Benji and Pete’s Dragon amoung the films shown that summer. October of that year was a distraction from the movies, as the Red Sox were in the World Series.
The Bijou Cinema has closed as of Saturday, November 20, 2004. For the reasons see their website http://bijoucinema.org/ Among the last films shown, appropriately, was a revival of “The Last Picture Show.” No admission was charged.
As I response to an email I sent the Bijou regarding the above concern of mine, I received this response:
Mr. DeLuca,
Since becoming a nonprofit and with the resultant management change we have made many changes. I understand the importance of having the correct equipment and we purchased a 1:33 aspect ratio lens several months ago. Recent films shown at the Bijou including Modern Times and The Animation Show have all used the lens, as did The Boy with the Green Hair. This film was the children’s matinee title for the past two Saturdays and has finished its run. The new matinee film for the next two Saturdays is The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm.
I hope this puts your concerns to rest, that we have dealt with the matter accordingly.
Sincerely,
Cynthia Newton
General Manager
Bijou Community Cinema
Phone/fax 508-757-5311
www.bijoucinema.org
Last year at the Bijou I had a very bad experience with the post-war German film series. The projectionist had to choose between cutting off heads or cutting off subtitles. So he cut off heads. I went into the projection booth to speak to him. He understood the problem but said he could do nothing about it because the theatre did not own the correct lenses or aperture plates for a proper screening. I asked for a refund and left. This is an extremely important issue…showing the image as it was meant to be seen, not arbitrarily cropped. The theatre would have trouble showing the current “My Architect” properly as well, because that is also a 1:1.33 Academy ratio film.
The Bijou’s website is http://www.bijoucinema.org/