The West Newton Theatre was built in 1937 by a successful businessman and real estate developer, Ben Rockman, who lived in Newton Centre. According to one of his daughters, "My father also built theatres, same type of theatre, the Juliet theatre in Poukipsi near Vasser College, he built up Green Street near Smith College. And the squares in Fitchberg and the squares in Northampton and the squares in Powkipsi. He took up the areas of the Ivy leagues and he built theatres and stores. And of all of them he felt the architecture of the West Newton was the best...[My father's] major focus was Dawson's Brewery... And my father put up a big sign where you see the Citgo sign now (in Kenmore Square). That was the original Dawson's sign, it was the largest sign in New England. He had the glass filling up, it was a little bit like Times Square. We had never seen anything like that in Boston; At the time, there was nothing... That is all I can say about my father. He was an immigrant, and he invented the first windshield wiper and then he didn't have any money when he went to Washington to patent it, and Ford took it. And a lot of very interesting things as I look back, I mean, I think he was of an era."
The architectural firm of Krokyn & Brown were the principal architects of the theatre, which was built on the site of a Unitarian Church. (The Unitarians relocated to a nearby corner where they can still be found today.) The new West Newton Theatre featured an eleven-hundred seat auditorium including a balcony, a ladies' lounge, and a men's smoking room. Two wings of retail shops extended from each side of the entrance, which was made of cut stone and featured an illuminated marquee extending above the sidewalk. The design combined elements of art deco and streamlined moderne.
The West Newton Theatre opened December 23rd, 1937. The evening before, a community preview was held to benefit the Mother's Rest, a charity for needy mothers and their children. Shown that evening were two films, one of which was the romantic comedy "It's Love I'm After" starring Olivia DeHavilland. The next day, December 23rd 1937, was the official opening of the new West Newton Theatre, and Shirley Temple's "Heidi" was the main attraction.
West Newton was the newest addition to a New England based theatre circuit, M& P Theatres, headquartered in Scollay Square with venues including the Metropolitan in Boston (now the Wang Center), the Egyptian in Brighton, the Embassy Theatre in Waltham and many other neighborhood theatres. The presidents of M&P were Martin J. Mullin and Samuel Pinanski, both of whom lived in the area and were active in many charities.
Original assistant manager Leo Guimond (pictured, in tuxedo,
on right) recalls, "They were very wealthy men, and Marty
Mullin lived right up here in Waban, and was a pigeon fancier.
And he
used to take some of our help here to go up and heh, help clean
his pens up there and run his bird houses."
Original Chief of Service Al Kendall (pictured, in black uniform on right) remembers "at that time, they ran two feature pictures, and they changed it twice a week. And on Saturday, in the afternoon they would throw in a cartoon like Betty Boop for the children. In those days, it was before television, so consequently...a lot of people like maybe your mother or dad, or your grandmother and grandfather, they would go twice a week to the theatre. So in the theatre you would see the same people almost all the time coming twice a week to the show."
"We had one elderly couple that their chauffeur drove them down here twice a week to see the movies. They had an old Franklin car, I remember," says Leo Guimond, "Then you'd get let's say the average family, and then we had the poor section of the city here, their entertainment was the movies the same way."..."And then after World War Two," says Al Kendall, "television came into being and that kind of slowed down the theatre goers."
After being an active part of West Newton Square for many decades, the West Newton began deteriorating by the late sixties, both in terms of its physical condition and the type of films being shown. The theatre passed through several owners in quick succession, and during this time the original cut stone facade and marquee that had once been so impressive were sadly demolished, and the eleven hundred seat theatre was primitively divided into three screens. More improvements were needed if the West Newton was to regain an audience. The possibility loomed that the theatre might close forever, as had been the fate of nearly all neighborhood theatres from the era.
Next: West Newton Cinema Past & Present: Part Two: The Present