ROBY AND DORCHESTER IN THE 1950'S

A little over a year ago, when Roby first saw the Sandler Family Archives blog, he emailed me saying:

Robert and Bernice Sandler (XXX XXX.com)

show details 8/18/10

Hi Carol, 

I' m still here, I still love you. I was looking at the computer the other day about the Dorchester years and later the Brookline years etc etc. I thought how could anyone born and bred in Dorchester leave out the Beth El synagogue and Beth El Hebrew school? How could any ONE LEAVE OUT  Franklin Park and Blue Hill Avenue?  

Love,

Roby

I emailed him back saying he was absolutely right ! I planned to do that but I hadn't gotten to it yet ! 

Today, Bernice, Ellen and Robert will be going to the cemetery to visit Roby. Since I can't be there with them, I am following up with his request regarding the Dorchester years. 

Here is the Fowler Street schul also known as the Beth El synagogue. (It is gone now + a plaque was put up where it once stood)

Here is the Beth El Hebrew school where Roby, Ruth, Shirley and I went !!

"Located at 1601 Blue Hill Avenue in Mattapan Square, the Oriental Theatre building has become Capitol Electric Supply Co.  The Oriental was one of the few and best "atmospheric movie theaters in the area. During the "golden" age of great movie houses, "atmospherics" were the ones with a strong romantic theme, incorporating the features of lighting and architecture to create an illusion that the patrons were seated outdoors in an exotic locale.  The theatre was designed by Boston architects Krokyn, Brown and Rosenstein and the stadium-type auditorium designed in the "Chinese" atmosphere was capable of seating 3000 patrons in an atmosphere faithfully re-creating  such notable Chinese structures as the Street Gate of Tsinanfu and the facade of the Wan Shou Tsu Temple. The theatre opened in 1929 and closed in 1971 playing "Diamonds Are Forever." Originally part of Jacob Lourie's and Sam Pinanski's NETOCO, then Paramount-Publix and M & P, closing as one of the last of the old American Theatres  Corp. (ATC). It was intended to be built in Waltham, but ended up in Boston's Mattapan neighborhood. Photo and background courtesy of Earl Taylor Collection, Dorchester Historical Society. For more information on the society and its activities to preserve neighborhood landmarks and history, see the website: dorchesterhistoricalsociety.org.  Watch this space for a weekly photo from Mattapan's yesteryears."

I remember going to the Oriental theater in the '50's when I was a kid. The ceiling was painted blue with hundreds of little stars that twinkled ! In niches in the walls on the right and left were statues of the Buddha with green glowing eyes. 

Blue Hill Avenue was the shopping district in a Jewish neighborhood where Shirley and I went every Saturday.... the market that delivered, then lunch in the G + G, then the bakery for danish and half-moons. Hundreds of people were on those streets and we would always see our relatives, aunts and cousins of the Sandler family.

I will add more to this post, especially the G + G delicatessen, but for now, I have gotten a lot onto this post that Roby wanted to see.