in the atari article from misty's post, noelie alito mentioned an old cambridge arcade called 1001 plays, located on mass ave between harvard and central, and i was instantly intrigued
i looked it up and found an interesting bit of cambridge history1 in which the cambridge city council passed an ordinance "[requiring] pinball machine operators to have at least 500 square feet of space for each 'automatic amusement machine.'" which is COMPLETELY bonkers. as the lawyer for the arcade pointed out, "1001 Plays would have to be relocated in Fenway Park to meet the footage requirement." which is a very fun mental image. about the later attempt to decrease the requirement to 250 square feet (which was turned down), he helpfully clarified, "That would have meant we needed Boston Garden instead of Fenway Park." i love this guy
who i DON'T love is former cambridge mayor thomas danehy (that danehy?? i go there!) who declared himself the ENEMY OF PINBALL: "If I had my way, I'd ban the damn things altogether--they serve no useful purpose." danehy later fought 1001 plays when they tried to open a second location in boston (for being too potentially rowdy, from what i can tell). the arcade went to the SJC about it... and lost :(
ANYWAY, in my reading, i also came across some cambridge movie theater history i didn't know about, a place located right near 1001 plays: the orson welles cinema. this was the place that started the boston science fiction film festival! the one that's now held at somerville theatre (i go there too!) every year. it was open from 1969 through 1986 when it came to a tragic end by way of popcorn machine fire. but before that, it was a whole entire complex that included a bookstore and a film school and a restaurant? man, what i wouldn't give for this place to be here today (although it sounds like it was losing some of its community-focused charm under new corporate-minded ownership by the end)
other fun facts i enjoyed:
- tommy lee jones was the first house manager
- prior to his tron days, steven lisberger premiered a student film there
- the cops raided the theater's screening of oh! calcutta! and arrested a bunch of people (but not before sitting and watching the entire screening for themselves first). the case was apparently laughed out of court
- for a while the attached restaurant would put out leftovers as a 50 cent buffet for the community. "The new dinner time in Cambridge became 10 o’clock"2
- orson welles gave permission for the theater to use his name, except he was in europe and sent permission via telegram and it was SUPER not legally binding so as the theater started to find success they actually had to go and meet with him in person to get that officially sorted out, see quote below
"I came in and said, 'Orson, I’m so grateful you’d take the time to meet with us,'" recalls Jackson. "He put this dark expression on his face and said, 'You may call me Mr. Welles.' And I thought, 'I just completely destroyed the relationship before I got to my seat.' But then he laughed and said, 'I'm just fooling with you. Sit down and call me Orson.'"2
you might be wondering, did orson welles ever visit the orson welles cinema?
buddy, he sure did
anyway it's nice learning about the cultural history of the place where you live. i should do this more often. were any of you Cohost Local Feed (Boston)ers around for either of these establishments? i'd love to hear more about them!
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harvard, for all its sins, appears to keep all digitized back issues of the crimson available without any sort of paywall, and that's nice. can't say the same about the globe, so, apologies if you can't read the article in the following footnote
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these are both quotes from larry jackson, manager of the cinema in the 70s, pulled from this very nice boston globe article about the theater
