Needham Theatre Ephemera

n the days when attending the movies was like attending the theater, movie houses published programs with information about the films, colorful posters, event flyers, etc. Special events, such as the Needham Theatre’s opening night, were accompanied by souvenir books. And, of course, the local papers carried the news of what was playing each week.

The theater’s offerings were a mirror of local sensibilities, and the changes in society that happen over time.  Its first showing was the moralistic drama The Christian (1914); one of its last attempts to remain open was an unsuccessful bid in 1987 to show the X-rated Italian film Devil in the Flesh (1969).