Today we are taking another look at the legendary Orson Welles Cinema (1969-1986), located at 1001 Mass Ave. The theater opened with a festive candle parade on April 8, 1969, taking over the space previously occupied by the Esquire Cinema since 1964.
Esquire Cinema, 1965. CHC.
The cinema’s first films were Luis Bunuel’s Simon of the Desert, Orson Welles’ The Immortal Story, and a midnight movie, Don Siegel’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers. The original owner was folk musician Dean Gitter, programs were created by then-Harvard Law student Peter Jaszi, and according to MassLive, its first house manager was actor Tommy Lee Jones, then a Harvard student.
Orson Welles Cinema, 1969, CHC.
The theater featured a 400-seat main auditorium and eventually added two small additional screening rooms. Throughout the years, they specialized in first run films of all types – art, foreign, and independent; some revival series (including their screening of the 1972 Jamaican reggae classic “The Harder They Come”); popular series like a science film festival; children’s films; and a film school.
As the focal point of the local film community (and hands-down the place to be in Cambridge), the theater was not without controversy. In 1970, the theater was raided by the Mass State Police for showing the avant-garde theatrical revue “Oh! Calcutta!” on video. The owners and staff were arrested and spent the night in the Cambridge jail.
In April 1970 the cinema announced their Pornographic Film Festival, dubbed the “Sexploitation Film Festival” by protesters. According to a Harvard Crimson article, the theater’s owners encouraged feminist groups Bread and Roses and Women’s Lib to attend the films and help “create a discussion” with the audience. This never happened, according to Liane Brandon, a member of Bread and Roses and a burgeoning filmmaker at the time. Instead, the owners “got a protest and an earful.” As a result of these protests, Brandon and other women had their own films shown at the cinema around a year later (see poster below – Brandon’s film is “Anything You Want To Be”). Brandon would go on to found New Day Films and produce award-winning independent films. You can watch “Anything You Want To be” here.
Poster for women’s films at the Orson Welles, June 19, 1971. Courtesy of Liane Brandon.
In 1985 the cinema showed Jean-Luc Godard’s controversial film, “Hail, Mary,” which was met with protests from religious groups and a request from the Cambridge city government to not show the film, apparently due to concerns over crowd-size.
Cambridge Chronicle, November 21, 1985
Less controversial – but still popular – programming included the Intercat ‘76 cat film festival, shown the week of April 22, 1976. This festival was founded by actress and experimental filmmaker Pola Chapelle in 1969 with INTERCAT ‘69: The First International Cat Film Festival, “a five-hour program of films about cats” that began screening in New York before coming to Cambridge and then internationally, in 1973, 1974, and 1976. Festival showings included experimental films by Roberto Rossellini, Maya Deren, Alexander Hamid, Francois Truffaut, and an instructional film titled Fluffy the Kitten. Bard College continued to host this festival, as of 2016.
Film festival poster, CHC.
Another popular festival at the theater included the 24-Hour Science Fiction Film Marathon, which began in February 1976 and continues to be held today at the Somerville Theatre.
On January 7, 1977, the theater succeeded in getting the actual Orson Welles to visit the theater for the premier of his docudrama “F for Fake” (1973). Welles and his cameraman used this occasion to shoot footage inside the auditorium for their documentary “Filming Othello” (1978).
Orson Welles Cinema at the far right, 1984. Image by Chris Hail, CHC.
In addition to films, other operations at the cinema included the aforementioned Orson Welles Film School; a photo shop; record store; bookstore; and the Restaurant at the Orson Welles. The theater also published their own newsletters, of which we have a few copies in our Cambridge Ephemera Collection. All of the newsletter images below are from 1973.
On May 25, 1986, a fire broke out at the theater, purportedly started by a popcorn maker, and the theater permanently closed. It is now a mixed retail space. A documentary film by Garen Daly on the Orson Welles Complex was in the works as of 2015.
Orson Welles Cinema at far right, 1985. Image by Chris Hail.
About the building: Built in 1921 for Philip Silberstein as a one-story retail structure; changed to two stories in 1988.
The building in 2014.The building a few years ago. Hubba Hubba and Crimson Bikes are now at the corner of Ellery and Mass Ave, and Bo Concept was most recently in the former Orson Welles Cinema space (barely recognizable today).
Formed on December 6, 1893, the Rindge Club, named for real estate developer and major City benefactor Frederick H. Rindge, first met in the Odd Fellows Hall building in North Cambridge on December 27, 1893. To accommodate the club’s athletic classes and activities, leaders leased a gymnasium building at 9 Beech Street (now the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses) from Samuel F. Woodbridge. At the behest of Mr. Rindge, the group changed its name to the Newtowne Club in June 1895.
Exterior of the Rindge Club House when located at the Samuel Woodbridge gym, 9 Beech Street. Cambridge Chronicle, 20 January 1894
Earlier that year, plans for a new and larger clubhouse were prepared by Boston-based architect J. Chandler Fowler. In June, Mr. Adams, a member of the club’s governing board, purchased land for the purpose of erecting the new building at the corner of Davenport Street and Massachusetts Avenue, about one block southeast of the Woodbridge gym. With a bid of around $30,000, a contract to construct the building was awarded to Wellington Fillmore & Co. and ground was broken towards the end of June.
Drawing of Newtowne Club by architect J. Chandler Fowler, published in the Cambridge Chronicle, 19 January 1895
The club officially opened on January 29, 1896 and nearly 2,000 invitations to the open house were distributed to the community. The new club house was described as “one of the handsomest and most substantial buildings in ward 5.”
Exterior of the Newtowne Club, ca. 1895. Historic New England
Designed in the colonial style, the building was “square and grand, with a wide porch, generous windows and dormers on the roof.” The exterior was painted bright red and finished with white trimmings and green blinds. (Semi-Centennial)
A corner of the library and glimpses of front hall and ladies parlor, drawn by L.F. Grant for the Cambridge Chronicle, 1 February 1896
“The house contains a fine gymnasium, with stage, six of the best bowling alleys in the state, shower baths, billiard and pool room, ladies parlor, lounging room, ample lockers for a 500 [person] membership, and, all the appurtenance to a first class clubhouse.” (Semi-Centennial)
Detail of the corner of Davenport St and Mass Ave from Cambridge Bromley Atlases, 1903 and 1930
Over the years, the parlors, gymnasium, and other facilities were rented by area groups, clubs, and committees for events ranging from charity parties to film screenings. In 1916, the Newtowne Theatre opened as a tenant of the club on the north end of the building, offering matinee picture shows and small concerts.
Clipping from the Cambridge Chronicle, 9 December 1916
Although the Newtowne Club had been prosperous for many years, it soon found difficulty maintaining memberships and meeting the expenses of the building. In 1917, the building was purchased by the Ozanam Council, Knights of Columbus through a foreclosure sale. The K of C also purchased the club’s furnishings and acquired the moving picture accoutrements for the club’s private use. The club was then renamed Newtowne Hall. In 1924, the Mass Ave frontage was sold and a block of stores were built on the clubhouse lawn. The building was subsequently divided and rented to local organizations.
5 Davenport St, ca. 1975. CHC staff photo
In 1960, Stephen and James Zaglakas remodeled Newtowne Hall and opened Stephen James House, an 800-seat function hall and restaurant that was a popular site for social and political functions until it closed in 1991. Several rounds of interior and exterior repairs, alterations, and additions throughout the mid-twentieth century left the building nearly unrecognizable. By the 1970s, the only features from the original 1896 building were the the hip roof and right side dormer. The building was sold and demolished in 1994 to make way for a condominium development.
Sources Cambridge Chronicle, 19 January 1895 The Cambridge Chronicle Semi-Centennial Souvenir, 1 February 1896 CHC survey files “Newtowne Club” by the Cambridge Historical Commission and North Cambridge Neighborhood Stabilization Committee, 2000
Did you know that Paul Revere, in addition to being a silversmith, also made false teeth for several years?! In fact, by recognizing his own handiwork he was able to identify the remains of Dr. Joseph Warren who died at the battle of Bunker Hill.
Today we are celebrating National Dentist’s Day, March 6., and in particular three mid-19th century dentists in Cambridge: Drs. Andrews, Loomis, and Bullock were all innovators and public servants.
In the 1848 Cambridge City Directory, there were 14 doctors listed in the business directory under “Physicians,” but dentists were not yet listed in a separate category. They were listed individually, but it was not until 1860 they warranted their own category in the business directory:
Cambridge City Directory 1860
George P. Backus appears in the newspapers in 1847; Dr. Dillingham in 1857, and James L. Simonds’ arrival on the scene is unknown.
If you cringe at the idea of going to the dentist now, imagine what it would have been like in 1857 to make a visit to Dr. A. W. Dillingham, “Surgical and Mechanical Dentist.” Eeek!
Cambridge Chronicle January 5, 1861
Cambridge Chronicle March 26, 1859
It turns out that “mechanical” dentistry was not quite as medieval as it sounds. In the nineteenth century dentistry was divided into two branches: “operative” and “mechanical.”
Mechanical dentists made prostheses (read false teeth). Operative dentistry, involving removing decay, drilling teeth and making fillings, was considered requiring more medical knowledge, and therefore superior. Mechanical dentists on the other hand were often considered “undignified,” and “unclean,” as reported in the Report of the Committee on Mechanical Dentistry, Trans. Am. Den. Assoc., 1873-4:
“Mechanical dentistry is fast becoming a highway for all the quacks, charlatans and butchers that desire to enter the profession. The maker of artificial teeth will one day occupy the same relation to the dentist that the manufacturer of wooden legs now does to the surgeon.” —Eames, W. H
To counter these “charlatans,” in 1840 professionally trained dentists had formed the American Society of Dental Surgeons. A further step toward professionalism was the development of academic dental schools. The first university-associated dental school was that of Harvard University in 1867.
Dr. Dillingham qualified as a “surgical” (operative) dentist and a mechanical dentist.
* * *
DR. ROBERT ROLLINS ANDREWS
Dillingham’s successor was Dr. Robert Rollins Andrews, a graduate of the Boston Dental College, renowned dental researcher, and inventor, artist, poet, and author.
Image via History of Dental Surgery: Contributions by Various Authors, Vol. 3 (1909)
Cambridge Chronicle October 17, 1868
Cambridge Chronicle February 13,1869
Andrews began his dental training in 1858, when, he apprenticed in the office of his uncle in Boston, Dr. Robert L. Roberts. When the Civil War interrupted his apprenticeship, he enlisted as a private in Company H, 47th Massachusetts Volunteers, and re-enlisted with the 60th Massachusetts Volunteers. He was commissioned as a Lieutenant and served as a staff officer with Generals Butler & Banks between 1862-1864.
After the war he attended the Boston Dental College (later a part of Tufts University) and graduated as a Doctor of Dental Surgery in 1865. His research in dental embryology led to his being appointed Professor of Dental Histology at the same school. After setting up practices in Boston and Hyde Park, in 1868 he took over A. W. Dillingham’s practice in Cambridge. Andrews remained in Cambridge for the rest of his career, with frequent time out to present his research papers in the U. S. and Europe. In 1880 he presented a paper at the International Medical congress in Berlin, which he attended as the Secretary from America. One of his inventions included a “mallet for condensing gold in filling teeth.”
In 1893 the Governor asked him to be a member of the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Dentistry, and in 1899 he was made a Trustee of the Tufts Dental College. He received several honorary degrees and was elected to dental societies in Great Britain and Belgium. In addition to his dental practice, he was known locally as an exceptional artist, poet, and playwright. In 1870 he married Mary Emily Leseur, and they had five children.
In 1908 Andrews was honored by his colleagues with a banquet at the Somerset Club in Boston:
Cambridge Tribune March 7, 1908
After his death in 1921 Tufts University established the Robert R. Andrews Research Society of Tufts College, recognizing “that the work he accomplished in the profession of dentistry is epoch-making
Cambridge Tribune March 26, 1921
Andrews wrote a testament to the service of Charles Bullock and what he did to promote children’s dental health in Cambridge. (see below) in 1914.
* * *
DR. MAHLON LOOMIS
Photo: Lynchburg Museum, Lynchburg VA
Cambridge Chronicle June 11, 1853
Mahlon Loomis was born in 1826 Fulton Co., N.Y, to Professor Nathan Loomis and Waite Jenks Barber. When he was a teenager his family moved to Virginia, where, in 1848 he studied dentistry and built up a practice. In 1851 he moved to Massachusetts and landed in Cambridge. He practiced here for just a few years, between 1851 and 1856, after which he moved to Washington, D. C.
Cambridge Chronicle August 16, 1851
Cambridge Chronicle April 3, 1852
But while in Cambridge, in 1854, he invented a method for making “mineral plate” dentures out of Kaolin porcelain:
Cambridge Chronicle 9 September 1854
He applied for a patent on his process, which he finally received in 1857( U.S. Patent 10,847)
It was also patented in France and England:
Image: U. S. Patent Office
Cambridge Chronicle September 22, 1855. (Excerpt from the Cleveland Herald in Ohio)
As it turns out, his dental invention was overtaken in fame by his experiments with electricity performed after he moved to Washington. Keenly interested in wireless telegraphy, he wrote in 1864 “I have been for years trying to study out a process by which telegraphic communications may be made across the ocean without any wires, and also from point to point on the earth, dispensing with wires.” In 1866, (years before Marconi was even born), Loomis performed a successful experiment in the Blue Ridge Mountains. His “two kites, between 14 and 18 miles apart, a vertical antenna, a high frequency detector, and a spark gap transmitter” is considered by the Library of Congress as the first known instance of wireless aerial communication (Lynchburg Museum, Lynchburg West Virginia). https://www.lynchburgmuseum.org/blog/2018/12/28/dr-mahlon-loomis-pioneer-of-radio.
While not as internationally known as Drs. Andrews and Loomis, Charles Bullock is included here for what he did to promote dental heath for children in Cambridge. He was born in Providence,
R. I. in 1836, the youngest of twelve children. He studied first with his brother (a dentist in Hartford, Ct.) for two years. He spent another several years practicing in Collinsville, Ct. before moving to Cambridge in 1859.
He bought the building at #569 Main Street and began his practice. Bullock was an innovator, – – “the second person in the state to use gas” for anesthesia. Around 1880 he invented (and patented) an inhaler for a that purpose. He also used cocaine, which was popular in those days.
Cambridge Chronicle October 1, 1870
At some point in the 1870’s he teamed up with Dr. A. J. Sawyer:
Cambridge Chronicle February 15, 1879
In the late 1880s he sold out his portion of the practice to Dr. Sawyer, and continued his practice once again on his own. In the 1890’s he became acquainted with Clarence Hews, a recent graduate of the Baltimore Dental College. Hews worked in Bullocks office for about a year before forming his own practice in Malden. In 1907 he rejoined Bullock to form the Bullock & Hews Dental Co. They brought on an associate, Dr. Jones, and after figuring out a better light fixture to enable them to work in the evenings, they opened their practice until 8:00 P.M.
Cambridge Tribune May 11, 1907
Cambridge Chronicle May 26, 1906
Cambridge Chronicle, 13 October 1906
Charles Bullock served as an Overseer of the Poor for fourteen years. But perhaps his most significant contribution to the health of the citizens of Cambridge was his advocacy for children’s dental health:
Excerpt from interview: Cambridge Tribune May 11, 1907
In his will Bullock left a substantial amount of money, the income of which ($3,000 per year by 1937) was to fund the position of a dentist responsible particularly for educating school children on dental care. This remembrance of his contributions in this regard was written by Dr. Robert R.
Andrews, profiled above:
Cambridge Tribune April 11, 1914
Charles Bullock died on March 14, 1914. He is buried Mt. Auburn on Snowflake Path, Lot #5932
Cambridge Tribune March 21, 1914
FUN FACTS
Dentist’s Chairs. Dentist chair was invented by Josiah Flagg in 1790. Just a Windsor chair with an adjustable headrest attached:
Image: pg. 197 Weinberger’s Introduction to the History of Dentistry in America
The first reclining dental chair was designed in 1832 by James Snell of London:
mage via Oshawa Centre Dental Office
Toothbrushes. First invented in China, and first mass produced in 1780 by English inventor William Addis, the first American to patent a toothbrush was H. N. Wadsworth, in 1857.
Anesthetics. In 1844 Horace Wells discovered the anesthetic qualities of nitrous oxide, and used it for pulling teeth. In 1846, William T. G. Morton (buried at Mt. Auburn Cemetery) “discovered” ether. The two discoveries got confused with one another, and a long controversy ensued over whether Morton discovered ether or discovered the use of it as an anesthetic. In 1864 and 1870 two “major health organizations in the United States—the American Dental Association and the American Medical Association—voted in favour of Horace Wells” (Encyclopedia Britannica)
Toothpaste. Before there was tooth paste there was tooth powder or dentifrice, including “Saponaceous” (soapy) Dentifrice sold at local pharmacies:
Cambridge Chronicle April 28, 1860
In 1873 the Colgate Co. produced toothpaste in small glass jars. In 1881 Dr. Washington Wentworth Sheffield of created “Dr. Sheffield’s Crème Angelique Dentifrice,” the first toothpaste sold in collapsible tubes. (https://stetsonhillsdentist.com/the-history-of-toothpaste/)
Drills. In 1871 James Beall Morrison (1829-1917) invented a high- speed foot-operated treadle drill. This drill could make 2,000 revolutions per minute, vastly speeding up the efficacy of removing decay.
Dental Floss. The first recorded patent for dental floss was issued in 1874 to Asahel M. Shurtleff, a partner in the Boston medical devices company called Codman & Shurtleff. They began selling unwaxed silk dental floss in 1882. (https://oralb.com/en-us/oral-health/dental-floss-history/)
A section of the Codman & Shurtleff exhibit at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition
The first Black dentist. The first black man to receive a D.D.S. degree was Robert Tanner Freeman. Freeman, born to enslaved parents, graduated from Harvard University’s School of Dental Medicine in 1869 with its first class of six students.
This portrait of Dr. Freeman, painted by artist Stephen Coit, hangs in the lobby of the Harvard School of Dental Medicine (HSDM)
Today’s post was written by CHC volunteer Kathleen Fox.
Ada Louise Comstock, c.1897. Harvard University Archives.
Ada Louise Comstock (1876-1973) was born in the prairie city of Moorhead, Minnesota, and from a young age, excelled in education. She graduated from her local high school at 15 and the next year began undergraduate studies at the University of Minnesota. After two years, she transferred to Smith College, a women’s college in Northampton, Massachusetts, graduating in 1897. After, she went to Columbia University for graduate work in English, History, and Education, and earned a master’s degree in 1899. She returned to the University of Minnesota to work as an instructor and was appointed the school’s first dean of women in 1907. In that role, she was instrumental in improving the quality of life for the women of the college, arguing persistently that a college was responsible for one’s physical and intellectual well-being, something she believed had not been offered equally to the men and women at the university. From 1921 to 1923, she served as president of the Association of Collegiate Alumnae, now known as the American Association of University Women, and became known nationally as a pioneer in women’s education.
Ada Louise Comstock at her 25th reunion at Smith College in 1922. Faculty Biographical Files, Ada Comstock Papers
On October 20, 1923, Comstock was inaugurated as president of Radcliffe College. She led the school for 20 years, strengthening its academic programs and in 1943 persuading Harvard to accept classroom co-education. Prior to this, Radcliffe had been paying Harvard professors to repeat their lectures for women. President Comstock launched a nationwide admissions program for Radcliffe, improved student housing, constructed new classroom and dormitory buildings, and expanded the graduate program. She retired as president of the college in 1943 but continued to promote the Graduate Program and advocate for improvements in and expansion of women’s educational opportunities. After her retirement, Radcliffe named a new dormitory in her honor and called her “the chief architect of the greatness of this college.”
Ada Comstock during her time as President at Radcliffe College. Harvard University Archives.
Radcliffe’s Comstock Hall was built in 1957 as the final wing of Moors Hall, at the northern edge of Radcliffe Quad. The school hired Maginnis, Walsh and Kennedy, the successor of Maginnis and Walsh who specialized in Neo-Gothic architecture and had designed many churches in Cambridge and the eastern United States. For Comstock Hall, the architect Eugene F. Kennedy Jr. employed Georgian Revival and Classical detailing to complement the Quad’s existing character. Radcliffe would soon after embrace Modernism with the Hilles Library, Currier House dormitories, and Faculty Housing on Linnaean Street, which complete Radcliffe Yard.
Comstock Hall, 1970. CHC Archives.
In addition to her roles in women’s education, Comstock served in many capacities with governmental and institutional groups. In 1929 she was the only woman named by President Herbert Hoover to the eleven-member Wickersham Commission, which was tasked with surveying the U.S. criminal justice system under Prohibition and making public policy recommendations. She also served as president of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and on the National Committee for Planned Parenthood.
The Wickersham Commission in 1929. Ada Comstock, the only woman on the commission, is seated in the front row. To her left is Roscoe Pound, then Dean of Harvard Law School. President Hoover is in the first row, center right.
A week after her retirement from Radcliffe in 1943, Comstock married Yale professor emeritus Wallace Notestein. The two had met in Minnesota decades before, but Comstock had focused on her academic career, as her father wished; neither had married in the intervening years. They never had children. Wallace Notestein died in 1969. Ada Comstock died four years later at her home in New Haven, Connecticut, at the age of 97.
Undated image of Ada L. Comstock, Harris & Ewing, photographer, Library of Congress Catalog.
Ada Comstock continues to be honored for her dedication to expanding and improving women’s education. She is also remembered in numerous buildings on college and university campuses, including Comstock Hall at the University of Minnesota; Comstock House, aresidence hall at Smith College; and the featured Comstock Hall in Radcliffe Quad, which is now a part of Pforzheimer House, one of Harvard’s twelve undergraduate residential houses. Her childhood home in Moorhead, Minnesota, is maintained by the Minnesota Historical Society.
