Grand Theater - Indian Orchard, Massachusetts

Here is the former Grand Theater of Indian Orchard, Massachusetts. Indian Orchard is a neighborhood in Springfield, and this movie theater has stood here on Main Street since the days of vaudeville. Closed in the early 1990s, it is now used as a church.

The Grand Theater has special significance for another building across the street, Henry’s Jewelers, where the Titanic Historical Society resides and a very interesting museum on the disaster. Museum curator, Edward Kamuda, whose family once owned the Grand Theater, saw “Titanic” (1953) as a boy here, and his fascination with the historical event lasted a lifetime. For more on the Titanic Museum he created, have a look at Tuesday’s “New England Travels” blog.

Waste Not, Want Not

If the ballroom on board ship in “A Blueprint for Murder” (1953), covered here last month, looks familiar, perhaps you remember it from another movie released earlier that year, “Titanic” (1953). Here, Brian Aherne holds court at the Captain’s table on the Titanic.

Where Joseph Cotten and Jean Peters met towards the movie’s end for romantic subterfuge and a potentially fatal showdown, Clifton Webb and Barbara Stanwyck met to condemn a failed marriage. Coincidentally, both men were to have sneaked onto the ship at the last minute to surprise their ladies. It’s interesting to look at the set from different angles.

Joseph Cotten in “A Blueprint for Murder” ballroom.











Jean Peters approaches Joseph’s Cotten’s table.











A similar vantage point in “Titanic”.







Clifton Webb greets his son in “Titanic.”











Reportedly, this set was also used for shipboard scenes in “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” and “Dangerous Crossing”, both of which were released in 1953. Quite the year for going on a cruise.