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After 68 years, it's curtains for the Circle Cinemas
By Ron Newman on Tue, 08/26/2008 - 8:41am
Last shows will be Sunday, September 7, according to today's Globe.
CinemaTreasures has some history of the theatre, which is several decades older than the Globe reporter realizes.
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Comments
Bad News
One of my voice-over gigs is as the recorded telephone voice for National Amusements theaters. Circle going down gives me a slight hit in the wallet.
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
Another one bites the dust,
going down for the final count. It's disheartening to read/hear about a movie theatre's closing. Although it's agreed that the "twinning" of the Circle Cinema back in the mid-1970's, I still have fond memories of that theatre and saw cool films there, such as:
Day at the Races
The Great Race
Superman I and Superman II
Harry Potter & the Phoenix
Munich
Chinatown
Zodiac
btw: Sorry to hear about your getting hit in the wallet with this, suldog.
Everyone! Call National Amusements!
I just called Circle Cinema at 617-566-4040. Is that you, Suldog?
http://1smootshort.blogspot.com
Doesn't sound like it
The voice announcing the movies is definitely female.
Interesting
I do (or, maybe, did... see below) announcements for individual theaters, in some 12 or 13 states. I had no idea there was a number to call that feeds customers into different locales. That's what that number appears to be, Eeka.
It appears I may be taking more of a hit than I thought. I just called Circle myself, at a direct number, to see if I was still on the recorded messages. It was answered by a live person(!), and he had little idea what I was talking about when I inquired. I decided to do a little investigating.
I called some of the theaters where I knew for sure that my voice was on the phone message - Randolph, Revere, West Springfield, etc. Well, my voice isn't there now! They appear to have gone to a completely different system for handling callers.
(insert sad Suldog face here)
(Just to clear up a possible question: I supply the voice, but I don't do the billing. I am salaried by the company that does (did?) the messaging, so I don't get the news as quickly as the folks who take the orders - obviously.)
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
I've never met Suldog
I don't know whether he sounds male or female or indistinguishable!
http://1smootshort.blogspot.com
Yup. I Be Poorer Now.
Told this story to someone in marketing and they checked up on it. Vendors are the last to know when they've been kicked to the side. We've basically been replaced by a fully-automated system, although the possibility exists that we'll recoup some of the business at a later date. The good news is that they don't like the current voice as much as mine.
In the meantime, I'll have to cut back on the caviar and jellied monkey tongues.
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
insert (not so) sad suldog face
here
Thanks!
:-)
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
What's going in?
Does anyone know what is planned to replace it? That's a pretty large space.
Condos?
Back in 2005, there was a flurry of newspaper articles about a developer who wanted to tear down the Circle to build condominiums. Here's one of them, from the Boston College student newspaper. I don't know if that developer or his plan are still around.
Cell phones killed the moviegoing experience for me
Not to mention cell phones.
I can't remember the last time I went to a movie at a theatre where a cell phone wasn't pulled out a few times over the course of the movie.
While I see your point, Arborway,
and there's a great deal of truth to that, I've also found, on attending movies at the Coolidge, Somerville, and Brattle Theatres, that rude cell-phone users, etc., are less of a problem than they are in the modern multiplex cinemas. Having said that, I believe that a big part of the problem with rude patrons who use their cellphones during the movies also has a great deal to do with the schlocky quality of many, if not most of the movies that're played in these newer, more antiseptic-looking multiplex cinemas. Plus, even when the signs come on the screen requesting people to turn off their cellphones, that rule is very seldom, if ever, enforced.
Deep into the link to the
Deep into the link to the thread about the history of the Circle Cinema, someone tells the story of Debbie Reynolds appearing at the opening of The Singing Nun, together with a marching band. That was St Thomas band from Jamaica Plain, and I was there with my clarinet, all of about 10-11 years old. Talk about dredging up memories.