Route 3 Drive-In
Route 3 and Route 17,
Rutherford,
NJ
07070
Route 3 and Route 17,
Rutherford,
NJ
07070
4 people
favorited this theater
Showing 26 - 41 of 41 comments
This played at the Route 3 for three weeks – most movies didn’t play there for more than one week:
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TC – I really appreciate that you enjoy looking at the ads. And I should thank either you, BoxOfficeBill or RobertR for steering me to Photobucket. I noticed one of you using it to post pictures. I had earlier tried another way to do it and it was a big failure, but so far Photobucket is working great.
Thank YOU Bill. Your posts are great. I read your comments on the Totowa listing. In a “perfect” web site, we would be able to upload the photos and old ads and allow them to scroll in a slide show format, but for now, we’ll have to make do by posting links.
The best way to keep up with the recent comments to a particular theater is to post a comment on that theater and then click the “notify me” box.
PS I have a decent collection of recent digital photos that I need to upload to photobucket. I’ll keep you posted.
Thanks TC. When I was a very little kid everybody called the drive-in, and the highway itself, S3. This was back in the late ‘50s-early '60s. I think S stood for State, as in State Highway 3.
Bill: here is your 1953 ad which shows a lot of the area drive ins:
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Note the S3 designation for this theater.
Jerry: I got them from newspapers on microfilm at the Jersey City Public Library. I love looking for the old movie ads – hours and hours go by without even noticing them. And it’s only 10 cents a page.
RobertR: Isn’t it strange that, in 1960, a small town like Montclair, NJ had two 3-strip giant screen theaters at the same time, and now you have to go as far as L.A. or Seattle because they’re the only ones left in the whole country. The good old days …
I see in the second ad Windjammer was playing at the Bellvue.
Great stuff, Bill. West Side Story & Psycho are two of my favorites. Did you find these images on-line or did you scan from newspapers? Jerry
This ad is from August 1960, when they were showing another all-time movie classic:
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Here’s an original ad for the Rt. 3 Drive-In from April 1963, when they played one of the best movies ever made:
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Jerry: I also loved it when we passed the drive-in when I was a kid and I got to see movie scenes from the highway. I remember seeing Charlton Heston getting sprayed with a firehose in “Planet of the Apes” in 1968.
As I mentioned earlier, I recall two marquees, one on the north side where there was a road that looped back to the entrance on the south side of RT 3. As a kid, I swore that there were 2 Drive-Ins since we drove by one night and the marquees were in the process of changing and there were two different double features shown.
One night, I remember getting stuck in traffic on our way home to Manhattan from a NJ trip and being thrilled that I got to see a lot of the movie; no sound but who cared.
The 1956 Movie Year Book lists it as the S-3 in Rutherford where an in-door theater, the Rivoli is also listed. East Rutherford has a listing for the Rex.
Actually, this drive-in was located in Rutherford, not East Rutherford. A small area of the Meadowlands fell within the Rutherford city limits (actually borough limits), and that’s where the Route 3 Drive-In once stood. East Rutherford can claim everything else in the area (Giants Stadium, the arena, the race track) but not the Route 3 Drive-In.
Drive-ins.com listing with a nice photo:
http://www.drive-ins.com/theater/njtrou2
My folks would take me from Manhattan to NJ to see a drive-in movie back in the late 50s- early 60s. I recall that the Rt. 3 was the first one we would encounter (entrances on both sides of Rt. 3), then we would head out to the Totawa DI & Parsippany DI before deciding which one to see. Poor dad.
Later, it was the spot to take a date. I remember The Love Bug (early 1969)in a snowstorm.
Jerry
I saw my first movie here, a reissue of “Bambi” in 1957 when I was 2 or 3 years old. Many more great movie experiences followed (“West Side Story”, “Birdman of Alcatraz”, “Marnie”, “Help!”, “You Only Live Twice”, “Woodstock”) which is why I feel so sad whenever I pass by the location where it once stood.