For the Circle, The End.

Theater from another time dark for good

As manager Jim Brink worked the final showing at Circle Cinemas last Sunday, Tim and Anna O'Sullivan of Chestnut Hill decided what movie they’d see. (Globe Staff Photo / Matthew J. Lee)

It seemed like a normal, if slow, Sunday night for an aging movie theater. In the lobby, scattered groups of sweatshirt-clad college students and couples of all ages milled by the concession stand at Circle Cinemas, straddling the Brookline-Brighton line. But the boisterous group of Boston College students prowling for abandoned movie posters - and the subdued, impromptu game of "Circle Trivia" being played by nostalgic employees on the mezzanine - revealed a more tragic plotline: This was the final night of the Circle's 68-year history, the closing credits of a longstanding community institution.

As large cinema multiplexes with modern amenities gain ground, and home theater technology continues to improve, the older theater's denouement has become all too familiar.

Parent company National Amusements closed two of its 15 locations in Massachusetts this month, the Circle and the Showcase Cinemas Lawrence 1-6. The company opened one new Massachusetts cinema this year, the 14-screen Showcase Cinema de Lux at Patriot Place in Foxborough, and plans to open two more next year.

When it opened in October 1940, the Circle itself was state of the art. "No expense has been spared to provide the best in equipment, decorations, and convenience for patrons," reported the Globe on Oct. 3 that year.

The now-shuttered cinema bears little resemblance to that single-screen moviehouse of another era. The building underwent multiple renovations and expansions over the years, acquiring its trademark 1965 facade and its final count of seven screens.

West Newton Cinema manager and movie buff Donald Worth came on Sunday night to pay his respects. Worth recalled that he needed to purchase advance tickets to see such classics as "The Singing Nun" and "The Happiest Millionaire" at the Circle during the 1960s.

"It was a roadshow theater - all the premiere movies would come here," said Worth.

Cinemaphiles weren't the only guests Sunday night who had come to see the final showings of "Mamma Mia," "The Dark Knight," "Tropic Thunder," "College" and other recent releases.

Older patrons recalled a convenient and familiar neighborhood cinema, while younger customers agreed that the Circle was a regular haunt.

The Circle was simply the "hangout spot" to Connie Schmidt and her classmates Alex Pagounis and Caroline O'Leary, all 14 years old.

The Brookline High School freshmen had come to see "House Bunny" and recover a battered penny they had stashed in one of the cinema's decorative plants about a year ago.

Other Circle fans came to relive a different kind of memory.

"We used to come with a backpack full of beers," recalled Jacob Carter, 24, of Chelsea, a former Brookline High School student who was carrying an overstuffed black backpack on his shoulder.

Although the Circle had many meanings to different patrons, most agreed it had been an integral and familiar aspect of the surrounding communities of Brookline, Brighton, and Newton.

"I just feel that a local movie theater plays a really important role in a community," lamented David Hugh Smith, 51, of Brookline. "It provides life, activity, culture. When something like this goes dark, it's a shame."

Despite the nostalgic well-wishers, the Circle suffered from a mediocre reputation compared with newer, larger multiplexes. The acute lack of parking and infamous post-show traffic jams were further aggravated by unimpressive screen sizes.

" 'My TV screen is bigger' - how many times have you guys heard that complaint?" joked Damian Quan King, a staff supervisor at the Circle throughout the 1990s, who had met up with current and former employees at the theater to say goodbye.

Another former Circle employee, however, cited years of strong business before the opening of the larger multiplexes such as the Regal Fenway 13 and AMC Loews Boston Common 19 changed everything.

Newtonite Lou Marcus, 44, had come to visit the place where he'd worked from 1980 to 1983.

Standing in the neon-lit mezzanine above the nearly empty lobby, Marcus cheerfully recalled a time when the Circle "would sell out screening after screening."

" 'E.T.' came on the tails of 'Poltergeist,' and you couldn't touch this place," said Marcus. "We were getting bribe offers - the staff - to park in fire lanes."

The future of the Chestnut Hill Avenue building remains uncertain - it has been eyed as a possible site for a condominium development.

But the location's next use did not seem to concern the final handful of customers watching the 10 p.m. showing of "The Dark Knight" in Cinema One, in which the faint scent of urine left a more definite impression than the silver screen grandeur of the past.

They rustled their popcorn bags for one last time, slipping out as quietly as Batman into the near-vacant parking lot beneath the now blank marquee.

Sol Israel can be reached at sol.israel@gmail.com.