Is it possible for a location
to be cursed? Many times truth is stranger than fiction.
Cape Cod, Massachusetts,
despite being still relatively low-key and laid back in the 2020s,
has had its share of events in history that seem like they were
ripped straight from popular television crime shows.
Fifty years ago a shocking
crime rocked the Mid-Cape area. Those who were there will never
forget. This is the story of the short life, and abrupt end of the
Cinema Lounge, also known as Sitzmark II in West Harwich.
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| An article from Cape Codder newspaper about the fire. |
The story of the Sitzmark II
starts with owner Robert Fusco.
Fusco was born in Leominster,
Massachusetts on April 20, 1942, and became a successful business
owner at a young age. This began with his purchase of the Fairmont
Cafe in Fitchburg, Massachusetts in 1967. At its peak, Fusco’s
business enterprise included fifteen properties in Central
Massachusetts as well as Cape Cod and Florida.
The Sitzmark restaurant and
club first came to be in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. Being a relatively
short drive from Mount Wachusett it seemed appropriate to name the
establishment Sitzmark as the word is defined as the impression a
skier makes when falling into the snow backward.
As his business empire grew
Fusco set his sights on Cape Cod. In late 1971 he found a perfect
location for a second Sitzmark location on Route 28 on the Dennis
Port/West Harwich line. Fusco leased 2.75 acres of land owned by
Lillian Dowd.
A mortgage of $135,000($1
million in 2024) was taken out to develop a new eating and drinking
establishment Fusco appropriately named Sitzmark II.
The story of Sitzmark II
cannot be told without diving a little deeper into the property upon
which it stood. This is where the story truly gets strange.
Located at approximately 10
Route 28 in West Harwich the property saw a string of failed
businesses before and after. Curse might be a strong word but the
multitude of failures are difficult to ignore.
Lillian Dowd had been running
a laundry service on the property beginning in 1949. Known as Cape
Self Service Laundry it was a fairly straightforward business
venture. She lived in a home next door, across from what is today the
Noble House restaurant. Her neighbor on the property was a nightclub
known as Cape Towne House. This establishment had been open since
the early 1950s and was located inside a renovated barn.
In an eerie bit of
foreshadowing a fire in April 1956 destroyed the barn. The owners
were undeterred and rebuilt thanks partially to Dowd leasing them
another chunk of her property. Throughout the 1960s the Cape Towne
House was a success.
The success was fleeting and
Cape Towne House ultimately failed after losing its liquor license in
1968. Dowd, sensing an opportunity, opened a dance hall for teenagers
in the former nightclub. She christened it The Embers.
The Embers catered to teens
at first. However, Dowd purchased her own liquor license so as to
appeal to the older crowd as well. The work proved exhausting and
Dowd gave up the liquor license in August 1969 choosing to stick with
the teenage dances.
In the end, The Embers did not
last long. Thus Dowd was willing to sell the land, and her laundry
business when Robert Fusco came calling in late 1971.
Sitzmark II began operating
in the summer of 1972. It was a club offering live music, dancing,
and cocktails. However, it also offered a breakfast and lunch menu in
an area called The Third Door.
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| An advertisement for Sitzmark II from 1972(Barnstable Patriot) |
Despite being a restaurant as
well, the nightlife got Fusco’s new establishment into
trouble. The law stated any noise from the building needed to remain
confined to the property. In its first season, Sitzmark II was
routinely cited for noise complaints from neighbors as well as
overcrowding.
Rock bands, orchestra, dinner
theater, and more entertained patrons at Sitzmark II. Eventually, the
loud music drew the ire of Harwich selectmen who shut it down in
1973.
Fusco had no choice but to
acquiesce to the town. He changed the name of the establishment to
Cinema Lounge entering 1974 while also eliminating the loud music
from the schedule. However, a new act brought in would permanently
change the direction of the business.
For the 1974 summer Fusco
hired a drag show called ‘All That Glitters Is Not Girls’ run by
Karl Huston. The show was a massive hit drawing in thousands of
customers with many more having to be turned away. That success again put Cinema Lounge in the cross-hairs of Harwich selectmen and the nearby West Harwich Baptist Church whose prejudice deemed the shows risque.
The thinly veiled homophobia
was hardly disguised by the politicians. The show was classified by
them as burlesque/strip which they said was not a part of the
entertainment license for Fusco’s club. A local politician was
quoted in the Cape Cod Standard-Times referring to the members of the
drag show with a homophobic slur.
Even a seemingly positive
article about the show in a local newspaper in June 1974 was rife
with ignorant verbiage. It stated that ‘The idea of eight men
parading around dressed, and often undressed, as women is
stomach-turning to most normal heterosexuals.’
The majority of the clientele
at the All That Glitters shows were elderly people. Karl Huston
stated that these people seemed to enjoy the show with nobody
complaining.
The summer of 1974 was a
battle between Fusco and Harwich. In August the Cinema Lounge had its
liquor license suspended. It then had its entertainment license
revoked due to the All That Glitters show being purportedly wrongly
classified as a ‘dance band.’ Fusco estimated the club lost in
the range of $20,000($126,700 in 2024) in two days when the club was
shut down on August 9th.
Bad press and closings took
their toll on the business. Courts had already begun foreclosure
proceedings against Cinema Lounge. Fusco was shocked by the level of
fervor against his establishment. He stated at the time that Harwich
was the only town in which he owned a business that he was subject to
such harassment.
Huston and Fusco hired
attorneys to sue the Town of Harwich for closing the show down. On
August 21st
Harwich selectmen reinstated the liquor license and issued a revised
entertainment license to Cinema Lounge. A tentative reopening was
slated for August 23rd.
However, Fusco stated that even with the licenses reinstated the
club’s time was drawing to a close. He had no idea how prophetic
those words were.
Twenty-four hours later the
Cinema Lounge was history.
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| The Cinema Lounge was destroyed.(Bing AI) |
At roughly 11pm on August 22,
1974, a pair of nearly simultaneous explosions rocked the Cinema
Lounge building. The explosions created a hole in the ground upon
which the building crumbled and burned. It was virtually destroyed
with the ensuing fire finishing the job. As the club was closed there
was luckily nobody inside and nobody nearby was injured.
Calls flooded in from
neighbors upon hearing the loud explosions. This was not a common
occurrence on Cape Cod in the 1970s. The fire was so intense that
there was not much the Harwich Fire Department could do upon arrival.
Even as neighboring fire departments arrived it was difficult to get
the blaze under control.
Immediately the circumstances
surrounding the fire made it appear suspicious. Investigators noted
there were no combustible materials stored in the building. The
explosions and overall ferocity of the fire made arson the main
theory.
Shortly after the fire Fusco
and everyone associated with the Cinema Lounge were cleared of any
involvement. Arson investigators suspected the fire was set by a
professional. Someone entered the premises unbeknownst to the owners
and placed the explosives that destroyed the building. It was
referred to as ‘revenge arson.’ But who wanted revenge?
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| Who was behind the 'revenge arson' of the Cinema Lounge?(Bing AI) |
Although a suspect was never
officially named authorities stated that they knew exactly who it
was. He was purported to be an underworld journeyman criminal. This
suspect was connected to other horrific crimes like more arson and
even murder. However, he would never be brought to justice. Only a
short while after being suspected in the Cinema Lounge fire the man
was himself murdered.
The question does still
remain though. If it was ‘revenge arson’ who wanted revenge on
Cinema Lounge and Robert Fusco?
In the aftermath of the
destruction of the Cinema Lounge Fusco sold the land and moved on.
This included a stint managing the Compass Lounge in South Yarmouth,
Massachusetts.
The property remained vacant
for years. At one point in 1984 chatter got loud about Burger King
buying the property but it was shouted down by locals.
In a final surreal irony in
March 1987 Lillian Dowd’s home on the eastern edge of the property
was gutted by fire. Dowd had a cooking accident but still, it was yet another fire on that property. Cursed is a strong word but
it is at least a series of interesting circumstances.
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| Where Sitzmark II/Cinema Lounge once stood in West Harwich. |
Today the property on the
Dennis/Harwich line is nondescript. It is home to the Harwich
Antiques Center as well as a strip mall with a Domino’s Pizza.
Virtually nothing remains of that short time when Robert Fusco ran
the Sitzmark II and then Cinema Lounge.
The story when read sounds
like something out of a movie. Multiple fires, battles with the town,
and a final explosive fire set by an underworld criminal. No, it was
not Hollywood, it was Cape Cod in the 1970s.
