Picture Enfield - Then and Now

ENFIELD, CT — The latest installment of this Enfield history series, courtesy of the Facebook group Picture Enfield, features Cine Enfield 1 & 2, which was a freestanding building on the western edge of the Enfield Mall on Hazard Avenue.

Whenever one was done shopping at Woolco, Eddie's Sporting Goods or the First National Supermarket, or the kids were done playing inside Jonathan's Arcade, a brief walk to the theater capped off the adventure with the hit movies of the day. I remember thinking how cool it was to actually have a twin theater in town, where one could choose between Jaws or One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, American Graffiti or The Exorcist, or Star Wars or Saturday Night Fever.

This photo must be from early 1972, as both featured films, The Hospital and Dirty Harry, were released in mid-December 1971.

The cinema eventually expanded to four screens (four!) before being torn down during renovation of the plaza in the early 1990s. The site was approximately at the current location of Petco.

Last week's trivia answer:
Speaking of movies, last week's Enfield trivia question was, "What 1966 graduate of Enfield High School starred alongside Eddie Murphy and Judge Reinhold in the first two installments of the Beverly Hills Cop trilogy?" The answer is John Ashton, who portrayed Det. Sgt. John Taggart. His earliest film appearance was in An Eye For an Eye in 1973; he has appeared in hits such as Oh, God!, King Kong Lives, Some Kind of Wonderful, Curly Sue and Little Big League. He has appeared numerous times on television on shows such as M*A*S*H, The A-Team and The Day Lincoln Was Shot. Ashton is now 70 and lives in Colorado.

This week's trivia question:
What Enfield Athletic Hall of Fame honoree is the only high school athlete in Connecticut history to win a state tournament Most Valuable Player award without attending the school for which he/she played? Post the answer in the comments section below, or on the Enfield Patch Facebook page.

Do you have an old photo of Enfield you would like featured in this column? Email it, with a description, to tim.jensen@patch.com.

Cine Enfield 1 & 2 photo courtesy of Picture Enfield
Petco photo credit: Google Maps
John Ashton photo courtesy of Enfield Historical Society via archive.org

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