Interview with Doug Holder
I spoke to Ian Judge recently about the Somerville Theatre, where he presides as chief of operations. The Somerville Theatre is an independent movie theater and concert venue in the Davis Square neighborhood of Somerville, Massachusetts. Founded in 1914, the Somerville Theatre started off as a vaudeville house and movie theater.
You grew up in Somerville. Would you say the Somerville Theatre was a factor in you becoming a film buff?
It was, in the sense that I appreciated the somewhat magical experience of seeing a movie in that classic setting - how it elevated and enhanced the movie. And it had some great programs too. The communal fun of seeing a movie with an enthusiastic crowd is made more meaningful in community- based theaters.
I know that the Somerville Theatre was built in 1914. It was used to host vaudevillian shows at its start. Have you hosted any contemporary vaudeville-style productions at the theatre? Tell us what you present besides movies?
We did host vaudeville as part of our centennial in 2014 - movies with vaudeville is literally what the space was built for originally - so that was fun! Aside from first-run movies, we show classic films as much as possible, especially in 35mm and 70mm, and host around 30-40 live events - mostly concerts- per (non-pandemic) years. We also host the annual Slutcracker burlesque, which is in some ways a throwback to the vaudeville days, but with a feminist inclusionary twist, plus it’s a ton of fun.
The climate for movie-going has been greatly disrupted by the pandemic. What changes have come to the theatre? Do you see audience levels coming back up?
Well certainly the actual business of movie-making and distribution has been disrupted, and continues to evolve. Naturally the studios turned to streaming during the worst of the pandemic, and that is still prevalent for some releases, but not all. But they’ve also discovered that they lose out on billions collectively when they don’t play theaters exclusively for even a few weeks, so now they’re pulling back from instant streaming quite a bit. They’ve also discovered that streamed movies are instantly pirated. For us on a local level, I do think our market is more cautious (or paranoid, some might say) than most areas when it comes to Covid, so there are other parts of the country where movie attendance is stronger than here, but really what it takes is a good movie for people to come out. When we opened Dune this month we had more than 400 people in the opening Friday night show, which is definitely a return to normal for us. But we do know that there are likely to be less movies in release and that they will stay in cinemas for less time than they used to, so we’ve hedged our bets and shifted a bit more towards events and live shows by removing two of our five cinemas in the building and renovating the ballroom they were built in 25 years ago. That just opened this month too.
I do think attendance will not return to old levels till spring, till Covid becomes an endemic and not a pandemic.
What are your favorite Boston-based films? I think my fav is "The Friends of Eddie Coyle."
Eddie Coyle is a classic on any level, and certainly for a Boston picture. The original Thomas Crown Affair is another amazing one, Charly, and The Verdict of course. I love to see the Boston that no longer exists in a film - the gritty, blue-collar town it was, not the plastic tourist trap filled with rich kids it is now. Even goofy stuff like Brinks Job or the Burt Reynolds movie Fuzz have lots of little Boston gens in them.
Do you think that Somerville is a cinematic city?
There are a lot of interesting stories that could be told about here, that’s for sure. The stuff my dad has told me about growing up here in the 50’s and 60’s alone would make for an incredible film. And walking home from work as the sun sets over Clarendon hill can be downright cinematic. But right now Somerville seems more like that TV show “Portlandia” - a satire of a hip coastal city!
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