Word: sacking
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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When questioned about his possible stranglehold over the surrounding competition, Sack quickly shrugs it off. "Getting movies is like being in Las Vegas--you shoot craps. Often I have to decide whether or not to buy a film I haven't even seen. A recent one cost me a $300,000 advance. Now anyone who wanted to put up $300,000 could have had that picture." He ignores the fact that his theatres are practically the only Boston houses with the past record and potential capacity to justify such an outlay...
...seating capacity of the individual Sack Theatres ranges from 600 to 4,000. Diversity is the key to the operation. Sack explains, "It's like clothes. Some people like dark suits, some like sporty jackets, some, tight jeans. Having eight theatres, we have a different type of picture in each so that we can accommodate the picture to the person. We can play to any taste...
...despite Sack's frequent protestations against being stereotyped, his individual theatres have taken on their own personalities. A grand tour of the Sack line would have to begin with the Beacon Hill. Hidden away by itself on the north end of Tremont Street, across from the burial ground of King's Chapel, lies the most risque' of the Sack Theatres. Perhaps because its marquee is removed from sight of the proper old ladies who chase pigeons off the Common, the Beacon Hill was the first to specialize in the now ubiquitous "recommended for mature audiences" film. Ever since Tom Jones...
Further down Tremont, you come across the two big volume houses. First you reach the Sack Savoy, with its capacity of 2,800. A false front enables the Savoy to straddle the entire block in order to maintain an entrance on both Tremont and Washington Streets. It attracts a varied audience. With a film like its Christmas attraction, Valley of the Dolls, the Tremont side draws from the slightly vulgar matrons. Not Boston's grandes dames, mind you, but the displaced suburbanites who just love to come into The City. After they poke around in the nylons at Stern...
...like back door of the Playboy Club, past the darkening Italian facade of the Public Library, bitterly sulking amid the surrounding renewal. Then, at last, the pristine but sterile phallus of the New Boston--the towering Prudential Building. And, nestled at its base, not one, not two, but three Sack Theatres happily clustered together under a grand parking garage, the whole complex multiplying with amoebic ferocity. The Cheri 1 and 2 have already given birth to Cheri 3. Cheri 4 and 5 are soon to arrive. These theatres offer the key to Sack's flexibility. They are all relatively small...