Framingham Views

A Framingham legend passed away today, and here’s a reprint of the short article I wrote about him last winter.

Pictured here as an usher in 1951, standing proudly at the ticket chopper inside the St. George Theatre downtown, John Berry probably didn’t expect that a few years later, he would become the Manager. John would take over the theatre from Jim Collins, eventually seeing the St. George close in 1967. From there he became the Manager of the Natick Drive In, and eventually the Cinema in Shoppers World in 1983, until he retired in 1994.

Those were the years when movie theatres were a gathering spot for hundreds of people every weekend. Ushers wore military style uniforms, and were proud to be working what lots of kids thought were the best jobs in town. Where else could you get free movies, popcorn, and girlfriends too?

Back then, people went to the movies every single week. And there were ushers showing you to your seat, patrolling the aisles, and generally making sure the audience behaved. They even guarded the exit doors, from kids sneaking in.

Downtown Framingham was an exciting destination, with three theatres, and lots of department stores. Most of what it once was, is just a memory, and as the years go by, fewer remember how glamorous it all was back then.

Eddie Byrnes was called the Gateman, as he guarded the front gate where most of the workers entered on the corner of Howard Street. Here’s a photo of Eddie, from the 1943 salute.

Here’s the Howard Street entrance with lots of people waiting to get their picture taken. 

In 1943, the Dennison published a couple of glossy pictorials, meant to be sent to the boys at war. It was intended to give them some hope for what was waiting back home. A good job, and friends. Here’s the cover of one of these magazines. 

Of course what else would the GI’s like to see while in their foxholes overseas? How about petite Helane Dugan, new girl in the transcribing department?  She must have been wondering what kind of a company she hired onto.  Of course what better than a girl from Saxonville, and here’s Jane Suprena of the Sales Service Department with a photo on a wagon wheel, maybe taken at the Twin Maple Farms?

Sharon Gartenberg has a new website for things to do in Framingham. Here’s a link to click on.   http://www.framinghamevents.com/

Browsing through some things I’ve saved through the years, I came across this photo from an article in the Middlesex News.

As you can see, there was a Sears store where the Store 24 is now.  It was called the Smith Building, and burnt down in 1966. From the age of the cars in the photo, I’d date this view to the early 1950s.   Thanks to the Framingham Historical Society, which let the newspaper reprint the view.