Marcus Theatres appears to have taken over running the three Inner City Entertainment locations in Chicago (the 62nd & Western, the Lawndale 10, and the Chatham 14) although they’re listed as I.C.E.
Yes, even without benefit of being in the balcony area I could tell that the twinning job was pretty slapdash and made little or no effort to preserve the original hall’s ambience.
As Lost Memory’s photo implies (there are two first-run titles on the marquee), the Colonia is a twin and should be listed as such. I don’t know when it was subdivided, but the job had to have been done by the time I saw “Back to the Future Part II” there in Fall 1989. Since the twinned auditorium was fairly small as I recall it, I assume the Colonia was split down the middle, rather than by partitioning off any balcony seating as theatre #2.
Looks like the Senator and its owner got in under the wire. The $109k was raised in time, thanks to more than 2,500 donors from around the U.S. and Europe.
Since that article was published, the Jax 10 has also closed, as did the Pablo 9 in nearby Jacksonville Beach. As far as I know, aside from a drive-in and one single-screen walk-in, Jacksonville’s movie scene today is controlled entirely by national chains (AMC, Regal, Cinemark and Wallace). Not an unusual story, sad to say.
I’ve now PayPal-ed in a contribution of my own, and I would also encourage everybody to do the same. As of my visit to the Senator website this afternoon, donations were up to slightly more than $88,000; therefore it’s still possible to make the difference between halting the sale and foreclosure on the 21st. And since I assume some local equivalent of Paul Allen (the “savior” of the Seattle Cinerama) didn’t step forward to make a jumbo-sized donation, that $88,000-plus certainly was raised via lots of dribs and drabs.
By the way, the closest I’ve ever come to setting foot inside the place was driving past it while on a business trip in Baltimore three years ago. So I’ve got no nostalgic memories of the Senator itself to motivate me, just a sense that this is something worth saving.
Justin, the AMC website has the Garden State 16 listed for “spring 2007” opening. I assume that means they plan to have it open around the time “Spider-Man 3,” “Shrek the Third” and the third “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie are scheduled for release (early to mid-May). I had thought of going to see one last movie between now and May at the Route 4 tenplex, which I imagine will be closed soon after the new theatre opens, but judging by some of the comments above, maybe I should just stick with my memories of the place in its better days.
As a very delayed response to the very first post in this thread, I can recall seeing 70mm presentations in four of the eventual 10 auditoriums: several in the original theatre #1, of course, as well as one (“Batman”) in the subdivided theatre #1; one in the upstairs theatre #2 (where I saw the “special edition” reissue of “Close Encounters” in 1980 and somebody forgot to adjust the side masking for scope) before it was twinned; three in theatre #6, which appeared to be the original theatre #3 (“Silverado,” a 1985 reissue of “Return of the Jedi,” and “Stakeout”); and theatre #8 (which I believe was later renumbered as theatre #10), where I saw “Empire of the Sun.” Since the complex went through several different configurations, I’m not sure that means four auditoriums were equipped for 70mm at any one time. Also, my numbering may be faulty; somebody would need to show me some floor plans of the theatre over the years.
If you visit Michael and Bill’s website and scroll through the year-by-year listings of New York-area 70mm engagements, you’ll see that the Cinema 23 actually had a 70mm festival in 1970, and also ran “2001” in 70mm. So the theatre didn’t have to upgrade to 70mm projection to book “Star Wars” in late ‘77, as I had thought at the time. The website also makes it clear that Cinema 23 was one of several NYC-area theatres outside Manhattan that were equipped for wide-gauge projection in the '60s or pre-“Star Wars” '70s, even if many of them rarely used this capability.
Incidentally, at one time there was another theatre known as Cinema 23—in Montague, NJ, in the northwestern part of the state. Anybody have info on that?
Just saw my first IMAX DMR feature here: “Happy Feet,” which my wife insisted on (she fell in love with the waddling flightless birds after “March of the Penguins”). It was a suitably spectacular introduction to the world of IMAX blowups, and both the projection and sound were crystal clear (although a few shots of icy Antarctic landscapes revealed what looked like a couple of splotches on the screen). But I have a question about IMAX DMR aspect ratios: Do they normally match the conventional theatrical aspect ratios? I’ve heard that some do, and some don’t, and “Happy Feet” to me looked closer to 2:1 than 2.35:1 (its ratio in conventional 35mm). And while it may have been strictly an optical illusion, the end credits appeared to be projected in an even “taller” aspect ratio, with the credit crawl seeming to start further down the screen than the rest of the movie. Can anybody corroborate any of this?
Nice to see this house remembered with a listing in Cinema Treasures. Not a movie palace even by neighborhood theatre standards, but a well-run operation. I went there maybe half a dozen times in the mid-to late-1970s, and felt that the presentation (projection and sound, service, etc.) were on a par with many of the first-run venues that charged more per ticket. My last visit there was to see “Jaws” on its 1979 re-release; I had also seen it there around Christmastime in 1975, six months after the movie’s opening, and recalled that the theatre did the movie justice then. (The ‘79 “Jaws” showing also offered a rare opportunity to see a vintage Bugs Bunny cartoon on the big screen!) The theatre had closed by the time I began working in the area in 1983, and if I’m not mistaken the space that it had occupied went through several different tenants over the years.
Pretty undistinguished in terms of decor and ambience—probably similar to some of the contemporary RKO Twins on Long Island—and at the time (25-30 years ago) the screens seemed undersized to me. Of course, that was before so many of the single-screen theatres I frequented got cut up into even smaller twins, triplexes, etc., so by comparison to those, the screens at the RKO Twin would look spacious and the auditoriums would feel roomy. Projection and sound were never less than adequate, although AFAIK only theatre #1 was ever equipped for stereo surround. Not certain when this twin closed, probably in the late ‘80s or early '90s. I seem to recall it succumbed to competition from the nearby Loews Wayne sixplex (which later became an eightplex, and is now a 14-plex) earlier than the Totowa Cinema and Cinema 46, which were also nearby. I’m pretty sure that the space it once occupied was given over to expanded parking for the adjacent shopping mall.
This is a duplicate listing of the Clairidge Theatre. The description itelf is accurate, omitting only that the very small auditoriums got that way by being subdivided from a single-screen neighborhood house.
Haven’t been to either the Plaza 8 or its older brother, the Meadows 6, in quite a long time, but it wouldn’t surprise me if advances in projection, sound, and seating have passed these two complexes by. They did withstand two attempts at competition by Regal in the ‘90s—both the stadium-seated multis that Regal built in nearby North Bergen are now second-run. The Muvico Xanadu 26-plex slated to open nearby in 2007 is supposed to be the behemoth that crushes all other theatres in its path, but I read recently in the New York Times that the developer of the Xanadu shopping/entertainment complex has run into major financial difficulties, so I have to wonder when the Xanadu complex, and the Muvico theatre, will actually open. FWIW, there was another Muvico multi scheduled to open this spring in NJ, in Linden, but when I was in the neighborhood a few months ago construction hadn’t even started.
Actually, it was the old Center Theatre in Bloomfield that Roberts leased for a time and renamed the Lost Picture Show, twinning it after taking it over. The Center is still open as a live theatre venue, but the Royal was demolished some years ago.
It’s definitely got potential to be renovated into something special, as long as it’s returned to the single-screen configuration it had for its first 60 years. Ah, that (pre-1982) gold curtain, that massive screen, that cavernous space—I’m in agreement with John J. Fink in wishing I could swing a restoration job on it.
Drove past the Amboy Multi building this weekend for the first time in about six months and saw that there was a contractor’s banner hanging on the front. Anybody know what’s going on with that?
FWIW, its status should probably be changed to “closed.”
TommyR, I don’t have an answer to your question, but I’d like to expand upon it. I too remember the days of Red Carpet Theatres, which seemed mostly to play United Artists and MGM releases. During the same time frame, there were also Blue Ribbon Theatres, which showed primarily Universal product, Showcase Theatres (mainly Paramount), and Flagship Theatres (mostly Warner Bros.). As I recall, the theatres participating weren’t always set in stone. For example, the Wellmont in Montclair, NJ was listed in the co-op ads as a Blue Ribbon theatre when it showed “Midway” 30 years ago, and then was a Flagship Theatre a few weeks later for “The Outlaw Josey Wales.” With TommyR, I ask—where did this designation come from, why did it end, and did this type of promotion occur only in the New York City area?
Good to see a writeup like this in a well-read newspaper. Especially as New Jersey, the Star-Ledger’s coverage area, has got a little bit of everything: classic theatres that have been restored, classic theatres that now are just memories, downtown movie houses that have been partitioned (often very awkwardly if not ruinously) into triplexes or fiveplex or sixplexes, modern-day multis with stadium seating, etc. Hope the writeup results in some new members.
My first RCMH experience comes in at the other end of the area charted by AlAlvarez’s list: the aforementioned cheesy, “all-star” version of “The Prince and the Pauper” that was lamely retitled “Crossed Swords.” It opened in 1978 as the Hall’s Easter attraction, and as EdSolero’s comment from three years ago (!) suggests, the news at the time was that this would be the last movie shown in a premiere engagement there, so the idea in going was to catch a final glimpse of New York history. Of course the presentation was spectacular, even if the movie itself was terrible. As EdSolero and RobertR pointed out, “Crossed Swords” wasn’t actually the final engagement, but it was my first and only time experiencing RCMH as a movie house. Any time I’ve been back there since then, I’ve gone as a concertgoer.
Would like to have seen the Union prior to its subdivision, but I have to agree with RichardR about the “lousy twin job.” More recently, I went there in its 7-plex configuration, and it wasn’t bad. Wondering along with Jerseygirl4159 about where they could have crammed in seven screens. The Union as originally built couldn’t have been too much different in size from the old Maplewood and Clairidge theatres, and those are both 6-plexes with broom closets for auditoriums. Could the new owners have annexed space from adjoining properties?
I only made it to this theatre once while attending college in the area; as I recall, the movie was Paul Mazursky’s “Tempest.” I remember a pretty decent-sized and comfortable auditorium, if nothing remarkable. Like most of the theatres in the Trenton/Princeton area of 25 years ago, it’s long gone.
Marcus Theatres appears to have taken over running the three Inner City Entertainment locations in Chicago (the 62nd & Western, the Lawndale 10, and the Chatham 14) although they’re listed as I.C.E.
Yes, even without benefit of being in the balcony area I could tell that the twinning job was pretty slapdash and made little or no effort to preserve the original hall’s ambience.
As Lost Memory’s photo implies (there are two first-run titles on the marquee), the Colonia is a twin and should be listed as such. I don’t know when it was subdivided, but the job had to have been done by the time I saw “Back to the Future Part II” there in Fall 1989. Since the twinned auditorium was fairly small as I recall it, I assume the Colonia was split down the middle, rather than by partitioning off any balcony seating as theatre #2.
Looks like the Senator and its owner got in under the wire. The $109k was raised in time, thanks to more than 2,500 donors from around the U.S. and Europe.
Since that article was published, the Jax 10 has also closed, as did the Pablo 9 in nearby Jacksonville Beach. As far as I know, aside from a drive-in and one single-screen walk-in, Jacksonville’s movie scene today is controlled entirely by national chains (AMC, Regal, Cinemark and Wallace). Not an unusual story, sad to say.
I’ve now PayPal-ed in a contribution of my own, and I would also encourage everybody to do the same. As of my visit to the Senator website this afternoon, donations were up to slightly more than $88,000; therefore it’s still possible to make the difference between halting the sale and foreclosure on the 21st. And since I assume some local equivalent of Paul Allen (the “savior” of the Seattle Cinerama) didn’t step forward to make a jumbo-sized donation, that $88,000-plus certainly was raised via lots of dribs and drabs.
By the way, the closest I’ve ever come to setting foot inside the place was driving past it while on a business trip in Baltimore three years ago. So I’ve got no nostalgic memories of the Senator itself to motivate me, just a sense that this is something worth saving.
Justin, the AMC website has the Garden State 16 listed for “spring 2007” opening. I assume that means they plan to have it open around the time “Spider-Man 3,” “Shrek the Third” and the third “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie are scheduled for release (early to mid-May). I had thought of going to see one last movie between now and May at the Route 4 tenplex, which I imagine will be closed soon after the new theatre opens, but judging by some of the comments above, maybe I should just stick with my memories of the place in its better days.
As a very delayed response to the very first post in this thread, I can recall seeing 70mm presentations in four of the eventual 10 auditoriums: several in the original theatre #1, of course, as well as one (“Batman”) in the subdivided theatre #1; one in the upstairs theatre #2 (where I saw the “special edition” reissue of “Close Encounters” in 1980 and somebody forgot to adjust the side masking for scope) before it was twinned; three in theatre #6, which appeared to be the original theatre #3 (“Silverado,” a 1985 reissue of “Return of the Jedi,” and “Stakeout”); and theatre #8 (which I believe was later renumbered as theatre #10), where I saw “Empire of the Sun.” Since the complex went through several different configurations, I’m not sure that means four auditoriums were equipped for 70mm at any one time. Also, my numbering may be faulty; somebody would need to show me some floor plans of the theatre over the years.
If you visit Michael and Bill’s website and scroll through the year-by-year listings of New York-area 70mm engagements, you’ll see that the Cinema 23 actually had a 70mm festival in 1970, and also ran “2001” in 70mm. So the theatre didn’t have to upgrade to 70mm projection to book “Star Wars” in late ‘77, as I had thought at the time. The website also makes it clear that Cinema 23 was one of several NYC-area theatres outside Manhattan that were equipped for wide-gauge projection in the '60s or pre-“Star Wars” '70s, even if many of them rarely used this capability.
Incidentally, at one time there was another theatre known as Cinema 23—in Montague, NJ, in the northwestern part of the state. Anybody have info on that?
Just saw my first IMAX DMR feature here: “Happy Feet,” which my wife insisted on (she fell in love with the waddling flightless birds after “March of the Penguins”). It was a suitably spectacular introduction to the world of IMAX blowups, and both the projection and sound were crystal clear (although a few shots of icy Antarctic landscapes revealed what looked like a couple of splotches on the screen). But I have a question about IMAX DMR aspect ratios: Do they normally match the conventional theatrical aspect ratios? I’ve heard that some do, and some don’t, and “Happy Feet” to me looked closer to 2:1 than 2.35:1 (its ratio in conventional 35mm). And while it may have been strictly an optical illusion, the end credits appeared to be projected in an even “taller” aspect ratio, with the credit crawl seeming to start further down the screen than the rest of the movie. Can anybody corroborate any of this?
Nice to see this house remembered with a listing in Cinema Treasures. Not a movie palace even by neighborhood theatre standards, but a well-run operation. I went there maybe half a dozen times in the mid-to late-1970s, and felt that the presentation (projection and sound, service, etc.) were on a par with many of the first-run venues that charged more per ticket. My last visit there was to see “Jaws” on its 1979 re-release; I had also seen it there around Christmastime in 1975, six months after the movie’s opening, and recalled that the theatre did the movie justice then. (The ‘79 “Jaws” showing also offered a rare opportunity to see a vintage Bugs Bunny cartoon on the big screen!) The theatre had closed by the time I began working in the area in 1983, and if I’m not mistaken the space that it had occupied went through several different tenants over the years.
According to the Bald Mountain Cinema website, the theatre is closed and the building is up for sale. Anybody have further details?
Pretty undistinguished in terms of decor and ambience—probably similar to some of the contemporary RKO Twins on Long Island—and at the time (25-30 years ago) the screens seemed undersized to me. Of course, that was before so many of the single-screen theatres I frequented got cut up into even smaller twins, triplexes, etc., so by comparison to those, the screens at the RKO Twin would look spacious and the auditoriums would feel roomy. Projection and sound were never less than adequate, although AFAIK only theatre #1 was ever equipped for stereo surround. Not certain when this twin closed, probably in the late ‘80s or early '90s. I seem to recall it succumbed to competition from the nearby Loews Wayne sixplex (which later became an eightplex, and is now a 14-plex) earlier than the Totowa Cinema and Cinema 46, which were also nearby. I’m pretty sure that the space it once occupied was given over to expanded parking for the adjacent shopping mall.
Actually, the Capital 8 is a newer theatre, built in the mid-90s and located near the Capital 4.
This is a duplicate listing of the Clairidge Theatre. The description itelf is accurate, omitting only that the very small auditoriums got that way by being subdivided from a single-screen neighborhood house.
“It’s easy to posture when you hide behind the security of the Internet.” Under the circumstances, doesn’t that comment kind of cut both ways?
Haven’t been to either the Plaza 8 or its older brother, the Meadows 6, in quite a long time, but it wouldn’t surprise me if advances in projection, sound, and seating have passed these two complexes by. They did withstand two attempts at competition by Regal in the ‘90s—both the stadium-seated multis that Regal built in nearby North Bergen are now second-run. The Muvico Xanadu 26-plex slated to open nearby in 2007 is supposed to be the behemoth that crushes all other theatres in its path, but I read recently in the New York Times that the developer of the Xanadu shopping/entertainment complex has run into major financial difficulties, so I have to wonder when the Xanadu complex, and the Muvico theatre, will actually open. FWIW, there was another Muvico multi scheduled to open this spring in NJ, in Linden, but when I was in the neighborhood a few months ago construction hadn’t even started.
Actually, it was the old Center Theatre in Bloomfield that Roberts leased for a time and renamed the Lost Picture Show, twinning it after taking it over. The Center is still open as a live theatre venue, but the Royal was demolished some years ago.
It’s definitely got potential to be renovated into something special, as long as it’s returned to the single-screen configuration it had for its first 60 years. Ah, that (pre-1982) gold curtain, that massive screen, that cavernous space—I’m in agreement with John J. Fink in wishing I could swing a restoration job on it.
Drove past the Amboy Multi building this weekend for the first time in about six months and saw that there was a contractor’s banner hanging on the front. Anybody know what’s going on with that?
FWIW, its status should probably be changed to “closed.”
Didn’t management (whether at the theatre or regional level) have anything else to worry about besides an 80-year-old former Marine’s tattoos?
TommyR, I don’t have an answer to your question, but I’d like to expand upon it. I too remember the days of Red Carpet Theatres, which seemed mostly to play United Artists and MGM releases. During the same time frame, there were also Blue Ribbon Theatres, which showed primarily Universal product, Showcase Theatres (mainly Paramount), and Flagship Theatres (mostly Warner Bros.). As I recall, the theatres participating weren’t always set in stone. For example, the Wellmont in Montclair, NJ was listed in the co-op ads as a Blue Ribbon theatre when it showed “Midway” 30 years ago, and then was a Flagship Theatre a few weeks later for “The Outlaw Josey Wales.” With TommyR, I ask—where did this designation come from, why did it end, and did this type of promotion occur only in the New York City area?
Good to see a writeup like this in a well-read newspaper. Especially as New Jersey, the Star-Ledger’s coverage area, has got a little bit of everything: classic theatres that have been restored, classic theatres that now are just memories, downtown movie houses that have been partitioned (often very awkwardly if not ruinously) into triplexes or fiveplex or sixplexes, modern-day multis with stadium seating, etc. Hope the writeup results in some new members.
My first RCMH experience comes in at the other end of the area charted by AlAlvarez’s list: the aforementioned cheesy, “all-star” version of “The Prince and the Pauper” that was lamely retitled “Crossed Swords.” It opened in 1978 as the Hall’s Easter attraction, and as EdSolero’s comment from three years ago (!) suggests, the news at the time was that this would be the last movie shown in a premiere engagement there, so the idea in going was to catch a final glimpse of New York history. Of course the presentation was spectacular, even if the movie itself was terrible. As EdSolero and RobertR pointed out, “Crossed Swords” wasn’t actually the final engagement, but it was my first and only time experiencing RCMH as a movie house. Any time I’ve been back there since then, I’ve gone as a concertgoer.
Would like to have seen the Union prior to its subdivision, but I have to agree with RichardR about the “lousy twin job.” More recently, I went there in its 7-plex configuration, and it wasn’t bad. Wondering along with Jerseygirl4159 about where they could have crammed in seven screens. The Union as originally built couldn’t have been too much different in size from the old Maplewood and Clairidge theatres, and those are both 6-plexes with broom closets for auditoriums. Could the new owners have annexed space from adjoining properties?
I only made it to this theatre once while attending college in the area; as I recall, the movie was Paul Mazursky’s “Tempest.” I remember a pretty decent-sized and comfortable auditorium, if nothing remarkable. Like most of the theatres in the Trenton/Princeton area of 25 years ago, it’s long gone.