Product Details

• Format: Color, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Wgbh Boston
• VHS Release Date: March 28, 2000
• Run Time: 60 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• ASIN: 6304468105
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #320,852 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Bruins Hockey Hall of Famer Milt Schmidt, Welterweight Champion Tony DeMarco, Gene Autry, and a floor sweeper nicknamed "Spider" all recall the Boston Garden in its heyday in this look back at some of Boston's hot spots in the 1940s and '50s. Using a combination of old footage, photos, and contemporary interviews, narrator and Boston College history professor Thomas O'Connor also takes a look at the South End, the Cocoanut Grove, the city's social clubs, and movie houses such as the Metropolitan (later the Wang Center) in this hour-long retrospective. Whether it's the smoking, card-playing Sons of Italy recalling the ethnic clubs, stiff-backed patricians doting upon the appointments of the Union Club, or regular folks recounting their narrow escapes from the fire that killed 492 people at the Cocoanut Grove, nostalgia reigns in this second volume of reminiscences made for Boston public television. Volume 1 recalls Scollay Square, the Braves, and the Totem Pole. --Kimberly Heinrichs

Product Description

Look back fifty years through rare footage at the original Boston Garden, the Boston night club scene and the Cocoanut Grove.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Boston The Way It Was Volume II, August 25, 2000

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Boston - The Way It Was: Vol. 2 [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Noone who was alive, and in Boston that night, will ever forget the tragic Cocoanut Grove fire. Here is a chance to revisit the Cocoanut Grove and other clubs of the era.

Finally, an explanation for the famous Boston Garden parquet floor, and a look back at the South End, the way it really was. Pictures celebrating the grandeur of the old Metropolitan Theatre (now the Wang Center). As a young girl, I saw many stage shows there, always followed by a wonderful movie.

Those were the days. Relive them with this video. Good job. Let's have more. The West End, the various hospitals, the old farmer's market where Faneuil Hall now stands, old Back Bay, the North End, all of these need to be revisited as well. Bravo.