Framingham Cinema Shoppers' World
1 Worcester Road,
Framingham,
MA
01701
1 Worcester Road,
Framingham,
MA
01701
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Showing 51 - 74 of 74 comments
Working for RCA Service Co., under contract to Universal Studios, I was the person responsible for installing and aligning the Sensurround equipment for the Shoppers World Premier opening of Earthquake. There was such a hullabaloo over the unknown effects of the quaking equipment that up until the day of the opening, it wasn’t known whether the town was going to allow it to happen or not. They were indeed worried about the building falling apart. Part of my responsibility in testing the equipment was to survey the building, noting the cracks that existed and after shaking down with a test run, noting whether the cracks had been extended. It was a fun time!
The former GC sixplex at Shoppers World closed, I think, sometime around ‘94 or '95.
I too remember Earthquake and the brief SenSurround phenomenon. I believe it was used in another movie here, one that involved a guy blowing up rollercoasters.
The tearing down of Shoppers World (especially considering what relaced it) was truly one of the sad days for the Golden Mile.
“dwodeyla” could be quite right. All that is known for sure is that the maker of Sculpta-Grille, Harvey Design Workshop of Lynbrook, L.I., N.Y., went out of business with the astounding increase in the price of petroleum (from which plastics are made) with the Arab oil embargo in 1973. What had been $7 the square foot in basic white in quantity, rose to an estimated $25 the square foot within a year, a hefty price even today!
Maybe the grill work shown in the photo was in an earlier catalog, and discontinued by 1970? I think GCC stopped using that stuff in the mid 1960s.
The exact pattern in the grille wall shown behind the concession stand of the DORT MALL CINEMA in Flint MI, as shown in the photo referred to in the link in the post above, is not in the 1970 Sculpta-Grille catalog as it exists in the Archive of the Theatre Historical Society in Illinois. No doubt there were several firms making grillework for buildings at that time.
We had the grill-walls in the Cinema Southgate in Cleveland (built in 1963)of the same pattern as in this theatre. We also had them in the Mellett Mall Cinema (1967) Canton, Ohio and the Dort Mall Cinema (1968) Flint, Michigan. The latter two, however, were a larger, less-intricate pattern. Those at the Dort Mall Cinema can be seen in a photo here: View link
It would appear that at least 4 of Genreal Drive-In’s cinemas were designed in the early 60s by Maurice D. Sornick of Massapequa Park, NY as a template design that was then executed by local architects under contract, in order to operate in states where Mr. Sornick was not licensed. Those that are known are: The CINEMA WESTLANE in Milwaukee, the CINEMA NORTHLAND in Jennings, MO; the CINEMA BIG TOWN in Mesquite, TX; and the CINEMA SOUTH COUNTY in St. Louis, all razed. The word CINEMA always preceed because the template design was a partial pre-fabricated and featured a roof sign of ten-foot-tall box letters in the word CINEMA which was followed in the nature of the local name sign that the owner wanted. Each of these also had the pre-fab grille wall of Sculpta-Grille as mentioned in posts above.
Before GCC had drive-in theatres and Cinemas all over the place, weren’t they, as Smith Management, running concession stands in other peoples drive-in theatres (hence the term ‘concession’)? They also had Amy Joy Donut Shops, Peter Pan Snack Shops, Richard’s Drive-In Restaurants and bowling alleys (we had several in Cleveland) – and they were all designed by Riseman, who also designed the Cinemas built into the 1970s.
There was a relationship, but I know of only one other situation. The Natick Drive In was a partnership. Redstone owned the land, and Smith Management (General Cinema) built the theatre. The boxoffice revenue was deposited under a separate unit number from concession, unlike nearly all other General Cinemas. I believe concession revenue went to Redstone. Advance newspaper accounts on the building of the Natick Drive In indicate a riff between the town and Redstone, and Redstone theoretically pulled out. At least publically.
The other location where there were two separate unit numbers, was Framingham with Boxoffice deposited under unit #530, and concession #850. I understood the concession revenue went into a private account.
I always wondered why a General Cinema was located in the Redstone Shopping Center in Stoneham.
The “new screen” that was mentioned in the article, was the larger one installed for Cinemascope. I think it was 1954.
I don’t know the business arrangement, but I’d guess that Al Capp and Lee Falk rented the theatre for the summers, from Shoppers World, since General Cinema also leased the building. (one of the differences between Redstone and GCC was that Redstone bought land and built, and GCC let the shopping center build, and they leased the building.) Of course, we now know who had the smarter idea, but back then, the land wasn’t as valuable. I was told that Phil Smith was a genius because he didn’t believe in investing in land the way his neigbor did. Since the lease agreements of the late ‘80s and '90 contributed to the bankruptcy of the chain, I guess he wasn’t as smart as everyone once thought.
Such nicer times
Here’s a cool page I just found, all about Shoppers World, with photos of the cinema and the rest of the shopping center:
http://natickmass.info/GCC.html
Answering my own question above, this page says the cinema was called the ‘County Playhouse’ during the two summer stock seasons.
“Sensurround” never did pose any real threat to any theatre anywbere, and that fact is brought out by my comments about it, of Dec. 29, 2004 at: /theaters/1/ It was just a gimmick, though some innocent souls were apparently freightened by it. There is even a web site devoted to it today where false claims are made about its supposed ability to damage theatres (URL given in comments following mine).
What was the theatre called when it opened as a live stage? It sounds odd to have actors performing in a place that has “Cinema” in its name.
Was this the only live venue that General Cinema ever operated?
This theatre was also notable for displaying some of the then new cast plastic grillework innovation called “Sculpta-Grille†of the now defunct Harvey Design Workshop of Lynbrook, L.I. New York. Their pattern shown backing one of their concession stands here was called “Persian-Latticed†but the designs of sculptor Richard Harvey disappeared with coming of huge increases in the price of the raw material for plastics, oil, in the 1970s. A photo of the grillework is at David Wodeyla’s site: View link and he also has a number of other photos of this and other nearby theatres.
Grillework was often the only real ornament left to theatres after the advent of modernism after the Second World War, and this unusually attractive heavy plastic was made in any color, even metallic or wood grained, but here was in basic matte white. I wrote an award-winning article on the subject of just how grillework adds to the décor of theatres in the Second Qtr. 2004 issue of MARQUEE magazine of the Theatre Historical Society of America: www.HistoricTheatres.org The Society has samples of this and other grilles of that maker.
There were 1432 seats in Cinema I. Cinema II across the lobby had 709.
I saw “Earthquake” in Sensurround in the original (and largest) GC Shoppers World auditorium, then known as Cinema I. A cheesy flick but a great deal of fun in Sensurround. As noted above, the “Earthquake” engagement was extremely unusual for a major Hollywood studio release. The GC Shoppers World had a Boston area exclusive with “Earthquake” for an extended period; if my memory is accurate, the film opened in Framingham in October 1974 but didn’t play the Gary (or anywhere else in the area) until December. I remember seeing a film in Cinema II while “Earthquake” was still playing in Cinema I (I think the film was “Murder on the Orient Express”) and you could hear and feel the Sensurround rumblings—-and Cinema II was located on the other side of the lobby from Cinema I.
Does anyone remember the approx. seating capacity of Cinema I before it was twinned in 1976? I went there many times as a child and my recollection is that it was enormous (ditto the screen).
When sensurround was installed, we were a little nervous about the possibility that there would be damage to the building. (maybe the vibration would cause cracks, or even a danger that the balcony would collapse!) After the first couple of shows, along with a few phone calls to our other Theatres, we realized it was just a great sound effect. The studios put in a lot of money to build the plywood boxes in the four corners of the auditorium, which made the audience feel like the building was shaking.
I believe this was the theater where I saw Joseph Losey’s “The Go-Between” in 1971 when it was a twin.
I will never forget being in back of the Theatre parking lot one day in the 70’s and feeling the ground shaking. They were the first Theatre in the Boston area to install SENSURROUND for
“EARTHQUAKE”. I think SACK THEATRES balked at the expense of putting
in SENSURROUND until they realized it was a big hit. I think they
initially put it into the GARY THEATRE downtown.
The “big white box” was made from panels of a straw and clay mixture, and bolted to the steel girder frame. General Cinema (known as General Drive In at the time) wasn’t sure the Shopping Center Cinema concept would be a success, constructed the building to be easily taken apart, and booked film only during the winter of 1951, 1952, and 1953. During the summer months, the theatre ran summer stock with actors like Marlon Brando appearing live on stage.
It was a General Cinema, and always got all of the newer movies. Of course, when Shoppers World was demolished, it moved over to the new building on Flutie Pass with 14 screens, later expanded to 16. Style was basically a big white box with letters reading “Cinema”.