I love movies! There are times when I put a disc in my DVD player and watch a movie on my small TV screen, perhaps with a friend or by myself. Sometimes, I go to the home of someone with a large-screen TV, and where broadband internet access allows us to view a movie that is streaming from a distant place on the World Wide Web.
But none of these experiences can compare to sitting in a darkened theater, with a bunch of strangers, to watch the artistry and technical wonder of a movie on the big screen. Today’s column, which includes some historical tidbits, is primarily a celebration of the fact that an eight-screen cineplex will soon be showing movies day and night, right here in Athol.
The Athol Cinemas complex is located in the North Quabbin Commons, with the first weekend in May as the targeted opening. Don’t be shocked if the actual opening is a week or two late, because that seems par for the course with construction projects. But it will happen, and I’m as pleased about that as some people were about the opening of Market Basket. This movie theater will feature stadium seating with comfortable reclining seats, and two of the eight screens can show 3-D films.
Jim Meehan of the Athol Economic Development Industrial Corp. introduced me (via email) to Mark Benvenuto, president of operations of Cambridge-based Belmont Capital, owner of Athol Cinemas, who said: “We are very excited to be part of the Athol community.” Terri Beam, who formerly worked in the movie business in Connecticut, is the person he has brought on board as general manager.
The overall history of motion pictures and the local history are both interesting.
Motion pictures were invented in the late 1800s, and while Thomas Edison is most often associated with the invention of the electric light bulb, the Edison studios were significantly involved in early movie development.
There are people living in the North Quabbin region today, all senior citizens, who have vivid memories of enjoying movies at the York and Capitol. Many more people can remember another movie theater that’s gone, the Pioneer Valley Drive-In, closed in 1986.
Just like there are people interested in the history of railroads and wars, there are those interested in the history of movies and movie theaters. It was easy to find web sites with facts (hopefully accurate) about the theaters that used to show movies in Athol. For example:
The York Theater (location of the now-closed Lucky Lanes on Main Street) was opened Sept. 12, 1930, with 1,200 seats — and it remained open through the 1950s. The Capitol Theater, located nearby on Main Street, but later demolished, opened a few months earlier in 1930 with 1,225 seats, and also closed in the 1950s. There also were the Lyric Theater (originally the Academy of Music), with 750 seats, open from 1907 to 1933, and the Athol Opera House, later named the Athol Theatre, with 676 seats, open from 1897 to 1919.
One website offers this: “The Capitol Theater was built by the Goldstein Brothers and was a Colonial Atmospheric theater similar to the Greenfield Garden Theater (also built by the Goldstein Brothers). The theater opened in 1930 (a year after the Garden) and according to the Athol newspapers was much more elaborate then the Greenfield Garden. (They also stated the residents of Greenfield would be jealous of the Capitol.)”
A site dedicated to haunted houses says the York “is rumored to be haunted. Legend says that a bomb blew up here, and the victims who died from it are still lingering the building to this day. Children’s laughter has been heard, along with footsteps and objects that move on their own. Another story says a woman committed suicide by hanging herself in the building, and her spirit has been seen in the balcony.”
A history buff named Jonathan Boschen came to the Athol Public Library in the fall of 2012 and gave a well-attended presentation on the history of Athol’s “two movie palaces,” the York and the Capitol.
My friend Arthur Platt, shortly after moving to Royalston in 1973 and trying to figure out how to earn a living here, learned about the empty York Theater and looked into restoring it and reopening it as a movie theater. He quickly concluded that this was not practical, due to various building restrictions and the complexity of movie distribution, and he launched Countryside Realty instead.
While I understand the popularity of action, crime, fantasy, horror, and science fiction films, my favorite movies involve realistic plot, dialog and character development, as well as documentaries and films depicting historical events. Many of those films are booked in so-called “art house” venues. Amherst Cinemas, where I recently saw “Call Me By Your Name” and “The Death of Stalin,” attracts people from the North Quabbin.
After doing some research, I confess to being baffled by the process of movie distribution. I’m hoping that the management of Athol Cinemas finds a way to put aside one screen for these non-Hollywood movies, and welcomes patrons’ suggestions. Soon, we will find out what’s “now showing” in our town.