Buzzards Bay Park could be home to municipal movie screen

Film lovers in the near future may have the opportunity again to go to the movies in Buzzards Bay next to the Cape Cod Canal when the summer sun sets.

The Bourne Planning Board will unanimously sponsor a $75,000 Community Preservation Act funding request to underwrite a feasibility study with an eye toward building an outdoor movie screen in Buzzards Bay Park at the west end of Main Street.

The "movies in the park" funding request is not new. The idea failed to gain traction in the past, said Planning Board Chair Dan Doucette on Aug. 10. The money the board will request is not for "concrete design,” he said. “It’s ‘can we do it?’ Yes or no.”

An outdoor movie screen in the park would, according to Planning Board members, also help attract residents and summertime visitors to Main Street and the canal-side venue next to the restored Spanish-style train station.

“It will help draw people to the concerts on Thursday nights in the park and other events,” Doucette said.

Board member Chris Farrell agrees.

“Bourne’s famous photographers could display their work,” he said. “Showing that Bourne is much more than a famous canal, highways and bridges. A movie screen would make the park more alive than just on one day a week.”

Movie screen details need to be sorted out

Canal Region Chamber of Commerce President Marie Oliva says park movies are “a good idea in theory."

A decision about where to put the screen is necessary, she noted in an Aug. 11 email message.

“Personnel would have to be available each night the movie is played,” Oliva said. “There would need to be promotion and marketing of this project. A determination of what nights this would be available; perhaps once weekly. And what authority would manage the movie screen project.”

More: Unspent: $1.1 million to save Bourne history. Voters approved money as far back as 2012.

She said a feasibility study would answer some questions.

Feasibility study funding would come from the town Community Preservation Act recreation/entertainment account. The idea could be presented to town meeting voters in November.

Community Preservation Committee Chair Barry Johnson said the screen proposal faltered a few years ago when concerns were raised about floodplain and groundwater table levels in the park. He said there were questions over electrical and mechanical aspects of the plan related to their protective housing in a vault.

“It’s a good idea, but there needs to be a delineation of who would be responsible for upkeep, repairs and maintenance of support facilities for what essentially would be a giant plastic screen,” Johnson said on Aug. 12.

Buzzards Bay Theatre attracted those who would become famous

This outdoor movies planning evolves 24 years after the 1920s Buzzards Bay Theatre was demolished by owner Vincent Michienzi as part of an urban renewal effort to commercially revitalize Main Street.

The 693-seat movie house closed as a Hoyt’s Cinema in 2001 and after Jeffrey Avery of Wareham tried to revive and upgrade the building but ultimately failed in his attempt. The structure was demolished in November 2009.

The theater with its old art deco Chevrolet sign had a storied history in terms of visiting celebrities; notably famous actors involved in Cape Cod summer stock productions. Then-Sen. John F. Kennedy and his wife Jackie, according to town records, also watched films in Buzzards Bay en route to Hyannisport.

The building first served as an auto repair garage and was remodeled as a theater in 1937, according to town historical records.

A movie screen in past discussions centered on the facility being placed at the eastern side of the park built on an old weed-strewn railroad switching yard next to rusting Mobil Oil storage tanks and a former Grossman’s lumberyard. Today it is open green space with a playground, pavilion and gazebo as well as an exercise area.

The park has been used for the Canal Region Chamber of Commerce’s Canal Day each fall as well as Thursday night concerts, flea and farmer markets, art shows, holiday displays and played host to the Budweiser Clydesdales.

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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: An outdoor screen at Buzzards Bay Park could boost tourism commerce