The second paragraph reference to the Park theater is incorrect. This article is all about the Caldwell Cinema.
The Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ), Dec 1, 1998 p043
Legal fray halts new Caldwell cinemas. (ESSEX)
Byline: Rebecca Goldsmith
Plans for a perkier downtown Caldwell are stuck in limbo while competing movie developers face off over who can run a theater on the six-block strip of Bloomfield Avenue.
The former Park Theater, located in the heart of downtown, was supposed to reopen this month under new ownership with five screens and new plush seats, carpeting, and curtains after years of use as offices, a dance studio and a bowling alley.
The cinema was touted this summer by Mayor Paul Jemas as the cornerstone of downtown revitalization. The borough’s walkable stretch of Bloomfield Avenue offers daytime shopping but lacks a large magnet to draw people for food and entertainment on weekends and evenings. The legal dispute pits Jesse Sayegh of Cedar Grove against Chatham-based Clearview Cinemas and its owner, Bud Mayo. Both men built their fortunes in the movie business by focusing on small downtown theaters. Clearview now runs 45 movie theaters in New York and New Jersey, including most of the theaters in the western Essex and eastern Morris County region where Caldwell is located.
At issue are the details of a year-old, $9.5 million deal in which Clearview bought Sayegh’s theaters in Upper Montclair, Cedar Grove, Kinnelon and Middlebrook, according to court records.
Mayo’s attorney maintains that a clause in the contract prevents Sayegh from opening a movie theater within seven miles of any of the four locations. The Caldwell site at 317 Bloomfield Ave. is 2.59 miles from Cinema 23 in Cedar Grove and 3.51 miles from the Bellevue Theater in Upper Montclair.
Sayegh holds that the agreement allowed for one exception in an “undisclosed” location, which turned out to be Caldwell. He said he would not comment on the matter while it is in litigation.
The suit is heading for a spring trial. In the meantime, a state Superior Court judge ruled in October that Sayegh must halt construction plans until the dispute is settled. The injunction blocks a third party from developing the site.
If Mayo prevails, the theater could be delayed for five years unless Sayegh and Mayo reach a deal before then to allow Clearview to run the cinema. Sayegh’s offers so far have been “unreasonable,” according to Robert Lister, Clearview’s vice president.
‘'Five years? We’d be in college,“ exclaimed Jessica McDonnell, an eighth-grader from West Caldwell who learned of the legal dispute after school yesterday from a reporter.
News of the delay hit hard at Grover Cleveland Middle School, where hundreds of students from Caldwell and West Caldwell were looking forward to the freedom of walking to a local hangout. When they want to see a movie, they must ask for rides to theaters in Wayne, Parsippany, Montclair or Livingston.
‘'We’d be able to walk there, and our parents – we wouldn’t have to bug them for rides a lot,“ said Kevin MacKen, 13, of West Caldwell. "They get annoyed.”
The Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ), Oct 16, 2002 p021
Irvington senior center is getting a new look. (ESSEX)
Byline: KEVIN C. DILWORTH
Retiree Victoria Cwikla says she’s enjoyed coming to the same downtown Irvington address to socialize for years.
From the days when 1077 Springfield Ave. was the popular Liberty movie theater, later the Art Theatre, and since 1978, the Irvington Senior Citizen Center, Cwikla says the place has been a home away from home.
Now, with the help of $119,000 in federal Community Development Block Grant funds, major exterior and interior renovations – expected to last through next spring – are under way this week.
That renovation news, coupled with township officials announcing a new and no-cost prescription drug discount program for all residents and municipal employees, has put a smile on the face of the 78-year-old Cwikla, as well as others who use the center. “It’s going to be nice when it’s finished, I’m pretty sure,” Cwikla, a retired waitress, said after seeing an artist’s rendering of how the 1913 building’s exterior will look once it’s completed.
“It’s been long needed in this town,” added Jack Slansky, another of among 500 Irvington seniors who visit the center to chat with friends, play table games and shoot pool.
The exterior changes – expected to take about 60 days to include replacing the aging and leaking entrance marquee with a more stylish and sweeping canopy; installing fabric awnings on the second level of the building; creating more distinguished signs; making the entrance doors higher, wider and accessible to individuals with disabilities; and installing a new sidewalk.
The interior renovation – scheduled to begin early next year and to be completed next spring – will include creating a new vestibule; installing new floor tiles, new lighting, improved heating, air conditioning and ventilation; replacing dated books in the library, redesigning the recreation room and administrative office area; and creating space for hairdressers and barbers.
While the interior reconstruction and remodeling work is done, the seniors will be relocated to a temporary site, officials said.
“It’ll be terrific and even get more seniors to come here,” Slansky said of the planned renovations at the center.
Charlotte Galla agreed, saying, “It’s been a long time coming. It’s great to see. It’s fantastic.”
As for the new prescription drug plan, Irvington and the Garden State Pharmacy Owners Provider Services Corp. in Rochelle Park have developed a public-private partnership that’s the first of its kind in the state, according to Mayor Wayne Smith.
Until now, no other New Jersey municipality has partnered with the pharmacy group to provide comprehensive benefits for its residents and municipal employees, Smith said.
“This service enhances existing coverage of the insured and provides access to those without insurance,” the mayor said. Now, every citizen will have the opportunity to meet one of life’s most basic necessities."
“Those who don’t have (union or job-related) prescription benefits automatically quality for this program,” said Thomas Viola, the pharmacy group’s executive vice president.
Participation in the program will allow consumers to save 10 percent to 50 percent off prescription drugs, Viola said.
After filling out an enrollment form and mailing it into the firm, a “Premium Rx Plus” card will be mailed within seven to 10 days. Users then can go to any one of the pharmacy group’s 55,000 independent and chain pharmacy participants around the nation, including several in Irvington, Viola said.
In Irvington, Viola said, the participating pharmacies include Abels Pharmacy on Grove Street; Briar Hill Pharmacy on Union Avenue; Camp Drugs Inc. on 18th Avenue; Springview Pharmacy on Springfield Avenue; United Pharmacy Inc. on Springfield Avenue; three Rite Aid pharmacies; and the former Schraft’s Pharmacy recently bought by Duane Reade Pharmacy on Springfield Avenue.
Applications can be picked up in the Irvington Municipal Building and at senior citizen complexes in the township. They will not be available at participating pharmacies.
CAPTION(S):
Ken Igou, left, and William Matiash play chess on Friday at the Irvington Senior Center, which is being remodeled with the help of federal funds.
“(Gary)Heckel, whose family owned the Grove Theater in Irvington when he was a child, connected with Roberts accidentally when he took a fill-in projectionist job at the Chatham theater some 20 years ago.”
The Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ), March 25, 2003 p022
No reason to change this story line; Entrepreneur to stay with alternative films. (COUNTY NEWS)
Byline: LAWRENCE RAGONESE
Sitting in semi-darkness in the cavernous Wellmont Theatre in Montclair before opening time on Tuesday, Gary Heckel talked animatedly about recent sleeper movie hits like “Rabbit Proof Fence,” “Mostly Martha,” “Y Tu Mama Tambien,” and “Frida.”
Heckel, general manager of the small Roberts Theatre movie chain, says these are the type of art house and independent flicks his mentor, the late Bob Roberts, brought to North Jersey for three decades. His Lost Picture Show in Union gave audiences intelligent, thought-provoking alternatives to Hollywood blockbusters, he said.
When Roberts died in November, at 74, he was mourned by film lovers, who feared his effort to raise the cinematic bar in the Garden State might die with him. Not so, said Heckel, who is pledging to keep Roberts' cinematic spirit alive. When his former boss' estate is settled in the next few months, Heckel said, he will be in charge of the movie chain, which he vowed will remain an oasis for North Jersey film lovers who are seeking an alternative to big-budget, big-action Hollywood fare.
“We will not change what we are doing – never, never,” said Heckel, whose tiny empire includes just three theaters – the four-screen Wellmont in Montclair, the two-screen Lost Picture Show now located in Bloomfield, and the Chatham Cinema in Chatham Township, one of a handful of single-screen theaters left in New Jersey.
“We are committed to this type of movie and to our customers. A lot of the people who come here to the Wellmont or Chatham know our names, and we know them by name. It’s like a family,” Heckel said recently at the Wellmont, a once-spectacular music hall dating to the 1920s.
Most of the state’s multiplexes concentrate on big budget Hollywood films, hoping to lure huge audiences.
Meanwhile, some critically acclaimed and even Oscar-nominated “art films” are found only at a handful of specialty theaters in Chatham, Princeton, Red Bank, Rocky Hill and Montclair – a haven for art film lovers with three art houses.
“The Quiet American,” for which Michael Caine was nominated for best actor, has played for several weeks at the Chatham Cinema. Until recently it was the lone Northwest Jersey venue for the critically acclaimed film.
“I wish there were more theaters like this,” said Marie Healy of Basking Ridge. She and her husband, Brian, are regular customers at the Chatham theater, especially when they play French films.
“We’re glad it’s here,” agreed Linda Votto of Chester, who also sought out the Michael Caine movie in Chatham last Wednesday.
Making a living with these types of films, however, is not easy, said Albert Nigrin, executive director and curator of the Rutgers Film Co-op/New Jersey Media Arts Center.
“It’s an ebb and flow type of thing. Art houses have to juggle their schedules, sometimes bring in bigger movies, to survive,” said Nigrin. “I’m glad Mr. Roberts has left this to us.”
Roberts was a colorful character with a background as a radio host and television, theater and movie producer. He started acquiring movie theaters in New Jersey in the 1980s, when he opened the original Lost Picture Show as one of the state’s first art movie houses.
Heckel, whose family owned the Grove Theater in Irvington when he was a child, connected with Roberts accidentally when he took a fill-in projectionist job at the Chatham theater some 20 years ago. He later became manager of the Wellmont and a now-defunct Oakland movie house before becoming general manager for Roberts Theatres in 1988.
“Bob (Roberts) was not a follower; he was a leader, an innovator,” Heckel said as he fed film into a projector last week. “He was not afraid to try something new or different, to take a risk with a film.”
Heckel explained that audiences drawn to art films tend to be a little older and more sophisticated, and more forgiving of venues that don’t have the amenities of mall megaplexes, like new chairs that rock, cup holders, and digital sound. They are willing to travel to find a special film and tend to be loyal customers, as Roberts understood.
“He picked a winning formula. No reason to change it,” said Heckel, who said there is money to be made in the art/independent film business – to a point. “Running a theater with this type of film draws a steady stream of people. But I can assure you I will not become as rich as Donald Trump,” he laughed.
Lawrence Ragonese is a reporter in the Morris County bureau. He can be reached at lragonese@starled ger.com or at (973) 539-7910.
CAPTION(S):
Gary Heckel, shown in a theater in Montclair, says he will be true to the legacy of his mentor, the late Bob Roberts, who gave audiences thoughtful alternatives to Hollywood blockbuster movies.
“Newark’s last two movie houses, the Paramount and the Adams went dark in 1986 when their insurance rates increased 500 percent. Newarkers seeking mainstream popular movies had to go elsewhere.”
“Newark’s last two movie houses, the Paramount and the Adams went dark in 1986 when their insurance rates increased 500 percent. Newarkers seeking mainstream popular movies had to go elsewhere.”
“These included the Branford, the city’s largest and most elegant house which seated 3,100. Built in 1941 by Emil Zucker and Herman Steiner, it was named for one of the Connecticut towns that original Newarkers came from in 1666.”
The Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ), Sept 26, 1996 p004
this contradicts the main listing for this theater.
The Record (Bergen County, NJ), Sept 13, 1997 pA11
CLEARVIEW ADDS WAYNE, 4 OTHER THEATERS. (BUSINESS)(NEW JERSEY REPORT)
MADISON – Clearview Cinema Group, Inc. on Friday said it has completed the acquisition of five theaters from United Artists Theatre Circuit, Inc. for $8.65 million in cash. The theaters have a total of 14 screens and are located in Wayne and Bronxville, Larchmont, Mamaroneck, and New City, N.Y. The completion of this transaction raises Clearview’s number of theaters to 22 and its screen count to 83.
The New York Times, Jan 6, 2002 p1(L) col 01 (11 col in)
Echoes of Historic Theater. (Real Estate Desk) Rachelle Garbarine.
A six-story office building that will fill what is now a parking lot in Hoboken has been designed to evoke the image of a 19th-century theater, the Lyric, that once stood on the site.
The new building, Offices at the Lyric, will take shape in the next seven months in the city’s historic district and close to its transit hub. While the 70,000-square-foot building will have the latest high-tech wiring, it is being built with materials — precast concrete, limestone and brick — similar to the 1886 theater. Portions of the new building’s facade also will feature the Queen Anne style of the Lyric, said Rob Ranieri, who is developing the $14 million project with Louis Picardo. Both are Hoboken natives.
Until the 1940’s the Lyric presented such celebrities as Lillie Langtry, George Burns and Gracie Allen, Jack Benny and Bob Fitzsimmons, the boxer turned actor. By the middle of that decade the timeworn theater was razed, and two years ago the developers bought the site at 79 Hudson Street.
Offices at the Lyric will be occupied by small and midsize tenants and ‘'will fill a market niche in the land of corporate giants and high-rise towers’‘ along the Hudson River waterfront, said Dudley Ryan of CB Richard Ellis, the commercial brokerage that is the project’s leasing agent. Rents per square foot will be in the high $30’s.
To design the building, the developers along with the architect, M. J. S. Architects of Dover, worked with Hoboken’s Historic Preservation Commission and followed photos of the old theater, one of six that the city has lost to time and neglect. Like the Lyric, the new building will have a peaked roof, and the second story of its facade will also have a peak, to echo the actual height of the vanished theater. The first two floors will feature columns and details like dentils and rosettes that were found on the Lyric. But a four-story-high central glass panel rising above the second story will highlight the building’s newness, Mr. Ranieri said.
To work financially, he said, the project was granted variances by the city to rise above the five stories allowed by zoning and to fill the entire site without providing onsite parking. The partners also applied for a license so that the building’s entry could jut six to eight feet onto the sidewalk in a style reminiscent of the theater’s ticket booth.
The developers plan to display a piece of a column from the original theater in the new lobby along with a history of the Lyric. Leonard Luizzi, the city historian, said the project ‘'will show Hoboken is more than restaurants, bars and double-parked cars.’‘ RACHELLE GARBARINE
The Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ), Nov 7, 2000 p017
This showing is rated PG, as in permanently gone; Nutley’s Franklin Theatre closing its doors. (NEW JERSEY)
Byline: JIM KRANE
1927 was a big year for movies. With the release of “The Jazz Singer,” audiences saw the world’s first “talkie.” Later that year, a new organization called the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presented its first Academy Award for the film “Wings.”
And in Nutley, the brand new Franklin Theatre, a neighborhood movie palace with a soaring ceiling and gilded faux marble columns, opened its doors.
On Sunday, without a drop of the fanfare or drama associated with the films that graced its screen, the 73- year-old Franklin Theatre closed.
Few town residents or patrons of the downtown theater on Franklin Avenue had any inkling the venue would be closing. A maintenance worker arriving to work on the building yesterday was surprised to see a notice posted on the signboard in the theater’s ticket window: “The Franklin Theatre is now permanently closed.” Callers to the theater’s telephone answering service heard the same message.
“I can’t believe it’s closing,” said Christine Smizaski, 34, of Belleville after dropping her kids off at the theater for an afternoon birthday party, one of three private parties scheduled to take place before the theater is shuttered for good.
For Smizaski, whose Nutley upbringing meant spending regular Friday nights at the neighborhood theater – known to locals as simply “the Franklin” – it cradles a lot of memories. In 1980, when she was a high school freshman, her first date was at the Franklin. And it was during the film that Smizaski received her first kiss.
“I was scared,” she said, laughing as she stood below the theater’s marquee yesterday. Although the relationship fizzled out after six months – “he was younger than I was” – Smizaski said many other Nutley teens shared her experience.
“This was the dating spot back then,” she said. “On Friday nights the whole school would come here.
We’d go see a movie, then the next day we’d go see a football game."
The theater’s projectionist, Donald Lee, said theater owner Peter Vivian decided to close the Franklin at the end of his lease. The old movie house suffered a pair of recent blows that left it reeling, Lee said.
Last year, the Franklin lost many of its patrons when a 16-screen multiplex cinema opened at the new Clifton Commons mall, less than a mile away.
Then in June, a 2,000-pound section of the theater’s concrete facade fell onto the sidewalk. Although no one was injured, the building needed extensive repairs. Its facade and marquee have been obscured by scaffolding ever since.
When the building’s owner asked for an increase in rent to secure a new lease, Lee said the theater’s income could not support Vivian’s higher costs.
“He just couldn’t do it,” said Lee, 54, the projectionist since 1980. “It’s sad, after being here so long.”
Vivian, who leased the theater since 1979, could not be reached for comment yesterday.
The lone employee on duty yesterday afternoon said the theater would hold some showings for schoolchildren and a couple of birthday parties this week, then close down permanently Saturday afternoon.
For movie buffs like 16-year-old Jim Chaffee, the shuttering of the Franklin means driving to the Clifton multiplex and spending $9 to see a film that cost $5 at the Franklin – or $3 if it was a matinee.
But why bother? Besides the low prices, Chaffee said the theater manager would let him and his friends see R- rated movies without actually being accompanied by an adult. As long as an adult bought the tickets, Chaffee said, the ticket-taker would let him in.
“You don’t want to be in a theater with a bunch of friends and have your parents with you,” said Chaffee, sipping a Coke at the counter of The News Cafe across the street. “It’s really embarrassing. Especially if there’s a scene with too much blood.”
Now, Chaffee says he’s resigned to wait until his 17th birthday to see the movies he prefers.
Although the theater was recently split form a single-feature movie house into a triplex, the conversion was handled more gracefully than similar operations that have bisected other theaters. The conversion added two smaller screening rooms in the balcony and left intact the main hall, with its soaring, curved ceiling crowned by a shallow dome.
Yesterday afternoon, children attending the 6th birthday party of Gianna Mucchiello of Belleville filed into the theater, not noticing the gold- and silver-leafed flower detail on the archway, the faded yellow velvet curtain, or the giant round medallions of half-naked women perched high on the walls, between the faux marble columns with gilded Corinthian capitals.
Gianna’s mother, Monique, 38, said she remembered seeing “Jaws” at the Franklin.
“I wouldn’t go into the water after that,” Mucchiello said.
CAPTION(S):
Projectionist Donald Lee sits in the main hall of the Franklin Theatre in Nutley. The doors close for good Saturday. Crumbling structure and competition from a mall complex contributed to its demise.
Thanks for the post. I read “41” Albany street in your ad, which matches the address in my 6/12/05 post. I’ll do some research on the Trenton theater.
Homepage:
http://www.shawanocinema.com/
Homepage:
View link
Don’t forget your photo ID for R rated admission!
Homepage:
http://www.mbdrivein.com/
Homepage:
http://www.hullsdrivein.com/
What a great site!
Hoempage:
http://user.shentel.net/ccrkcr/drivein.html
Homepage:
http://www.driveinusa.com/
Home page:
http://www.montanadrivein.com/
The second paragraph reference to the Park theater is incorrect. This article is all about the Caldwell Cinema.
The Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ), Dec 1, 1998 p043
Legal fray halts new Caldwell cinemas. (ESSEX)
Byline: Rebecca Goldsmith
Plans for a perkier downtown Caldwell are stuck in limbo while competing movie developers face off over who can run a theater on the six-block strip of Bloomfield Avenue.
The former Park Theater, located in the heart of downtown, was supposed to reopen this month under new ownership with five screens and new plush seats, carpeting, and curtains after years of use as offices, a dance studio and a bowling alley.
The cinema was touted this summer by Mayor Paul Jemas as the cornerstone of downtown revitalization. The borough’s walkable stretch of Bloomfield Avenue offers daytime shopping but lacks a large magnet to draw people for food and entertainment on weekends and evenings. The legal dispute pits Jesse Sayegh of Cedar Grove against Chatham-based Clearview Cinemas and its owner, Bud Mayo. Both men built their fortunes in the movie business by focusing on small downtown theaters. Clearview now runs 45 movie theaters in New York and New Jersey, including most of the theaters in the western Essex and eastern Morris County region where Caldwell is located.
At issue are the details of a year-old, $9.5 million deal in which Clearview bought Sayegh’s theaters in Upper Montclair, Cedar Grove, Kinnelon and Middlebrook, according to court records.
Mayo’s attorney maintains that a clause in the contract prevents Sayegh from opening a movie theater within seven miles of any of the four locations. The Caldwell site at 317 Bloomfield Ave. is 2.59 miles from Cinema 23 in Cedar Grove and 3.51 miles from the Bellevue Theater in Upper Montclair.
Sayegh holds that the agreement allowed for one exception in an “undisclosed” location, which turned out to be Caldwell. He said he would not comment on the matter while it is in litigation.
The suit is heading for a spring trial. In the meantime, a state Superior Court judge ruled in October that Sayegh must halt construction plans until the dispute is settled. The injunction blocks a third party from developing the site.
If Mayo prevails, the theater could be delayed for five years unless Sayegh and Mayo reach a deal before then to allow Clearview to run the cinema. Sayegh’s offers so far have been “unreasonable,” according to Robert Lister, Clearview’s vice president.
‘'Five years? We’d be in college,“ exclaimed Jessica McDonnell, an eighth-grader from West Caldwell who learned of the legal dispute after school yesterday from a reporter.
News of the delay hit hard at Grover Cleveland Middle School, where hundreds of students from Caldwell and West Caldwell were looking forward to the freedom of walking to a local hangout. When they want to see a movie, they must ask for rides to theaters in Wayne, Parsippany, Montclair or Livingston.
‘'We’d be able to walk there, and our parents – we wouldn’t have to bug them for rides a lot,“ said Kevin MacKen, 13, of West Caldwell. "They get annoyed.”
Article CJ81646360
Closed in 1978. Previous name: Art Theatre
The Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ), Oct 16, 2002 p021
Irvington senior center is getting a new look. (ESSEX)
Byline: KEVIN C. DILWORTH
Retiree Victoria Cwikla says she’s enjoyed coming to the same downtown Irvington address to socialize for years.
From the days when 1077 Springfield Ave. was the popular Liberty movie theater, later the Art Theatre, and since 1978, the Irvington Senior Citizen Center, Cwikla says the place has been a home away from home.
Now, with the help of $119,000 in federal Community Development Block Grant funds, major exterior and interior renovations – expected to last through next spring – are under way this week.
That renovation news, coupled with township officials announcing a new and no-cost prescription drug discount program for all residents and municipal employees, has put a smile on the face of the 78-year-old Cwikla, as well as others who use the center. “It’s going to be nice when it’s finished, I’m pretty sure,” Cwikla, a retired waitress, said after seeing an artist’s rendering of how the 1913 building’s exterior will look once it’s completed.
“It’s been long needed in this town,” added Jack Slansky, another of among 500 Irvington seniors who visit the center to chat with friends, play table games and shoot pool.
The exterior changes – expected to take about 60 days to include replacing the aging and leaking entrance marquee with a more stylish and sweeping canopy; installing fabric awnings on the second level of the building; creating more distinguished signs; making the entrance doors higher, wider and accessible to individuals with disabilities; and installing a new sidewalk.
The interior renovation – scheduled to begin early next year and to be completed next spring – will include creating a new vestibule; installing new floor tiles, new lighting, improved heating, air conditioning and ventilation; replacing dated books in the library, redesigning the recreation room and administrative office area; and creating space for hairdressers and barbers.
While the interior reconstruction and remodeling work is done, the seniors will be relocated to a temporary site, officials said.
“It’ll be terrific and even get more seniors to come here,” Slansky said of the planned renovations at the center.
Charlotte Galla agreed, saying, “It’s been a long time coming. It’s great to see. It’s fantastic.”
As for the new prescription drug plan, Irvington and the Garden State Pharmacy Owners Provider Services Corp. in Rochelle Park have developed a public-private partnership that’s the first of its kind in the state, according to Mayor Wayne Smith.
Until now, no other New Jersey municipality has partnered with the pharmacy group to provide comprehensive benefits for its residents and municipal employees, Smith said.
“This service enhances existing coverage of the insured and provides access to those without insurance,” the mayor said. Now, every citizen will have the opportunity to meet one of life’s most basic necessities."
“Those who don’t have (union or job-related) prescription benefits automatically quality for this program,” said Thomas Viola, the pharmacy group’s executive vice president.
Participation in the program will allow consumers to save 10 percent to 50 percent off prescription drugs, Viola said.
After filling out an enrollment form and mailing it into the firm, a “Premium Rx Plus” card will be mailed within seven to 10 days. Users then can go to any one of the pharmacy group’s 55,000 independent and chain pharmacy participants around the nation, including several in Irvington, Viola said.
In Irvington, Viola said, the participating pharmacies include Abels Pharmacy on Grove Street; Briar Hill Pharmacy on Union Avenue; Camp Drugs Inc. on 18th Avenue; Springview Pharmacy on Springfield Avenue; United Pharmacy Inc. on Springfield Avenue; three Rite Aid pharmacies; and the former Schraft’s Pharmacy recently bought by Duane Reade Pharmacy on Springfield Avenue.
Applications can be picked up in the Irvington Municipal Building and at senior citizen complexes in the township. They will not be available at participating pharmacies.
CAPTION(S):
Ken Igou, left, and William Matiash play chess on Friday at the Irvington Senior Center, which is being remodeled with the help of federal funds.
LARA SOLT/FOR THE STAR-LEDGER
Article CJ92967779
“(Gary)Heckel, whose family owned the Grove Theater in Irvington when he was a child, connected with Roberts accidentally when he took a fill-in projectionist job at the Chatham theater some 20 years ago.”
The Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ), March 25, 2003 p022
The Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ), March 25, 2003 p022
No reason to change this story line; Entrepreneur to stay with alternative films. (COUNTY NEWS)
Byline: LAWRENCE RAGONESE
Sitting in semi-darkness in the cavernous Wellmont Theatre in Montclair before opening time on Tuesday, Gary Heckel talked animatedly about recent sleeper movie hits like “Rabbit Proof Fence,” “Mostly Martha,” “Y Tu Mama Tambien,” and “Frida.”
Heckel, general manager of the small Roberts Theatre movie chain, says these are the type of art house and independent flicks his mentor, the late Bob Roberts, brought to North Jersey for three decades. His Lost Picture Show in Union gave audiences intelligent, thought-provoking alternatives to Hollywood blockbusters, he said.
When Roberts died in November, at 74, he was mourned by film lovers, who feared his effort to raise the cinematic bar in the Garden State might die with him. Not so, said Heckel, who is pledging to keep Roberts' cinematic spirit alive. When his former boss' estate is settled in the next few months, Heckel said, he will be in charge of the movie chain, which he vowed will remain an oasis for North Jersey film lovers who are seeking an alternative to big-budget, big-action Hollywood fare.
“We will not change what we are doing – never, never,” said Heckel, whose tiny empire includes just three theaters – the four-screen Wellmont in Montclair, the two-screen Lost Picture Show now located in Bloomfield, and the Chatham Cinema in Chatham Township, one of a handful of single-screen theaters left in New Jersey.
“We are committed to this type of movie and to our customers. A lot of the people who come here to the Wellmont or Chatham know our names, and we know them by name. It’s like a family,” Heckel said recently at the Wellmont, a once-spectacular music hall dating to the 1920s.
Most of the state’s multiplexes concentrate on big budget Hollywood films, hoping to lure huge audiences.
Meanwhile, some critically acclaimed and even Oscar-nominated “art films” are found only at a handful of specialty theaters in Chatham, Princeton, Red Bank, Rocky Hill and Montclair – a haven for art film lovers with three art houses.
“The Quiet American,” for which Michael Caine was nominated for best actor, has played for several weeks at the Chatham Cinema. Until recently it was the lone Northwest Jersey venue for the critically acclaimed film.
“I wish there were more theaters like this,” said Marie Healy of Basking Ridge. She and her husband, Brian, are regular customers at the Chatham theater, especially when they play French films.
“We’re glad it’s here,” agreed Linda Votto of Chester, who also sought out the Michael Caine movie in Chatham last Wednesday.
Making a living with these types of films, however, is not easy, said Albert Nigrin, executive director and curator of the Rutgers Film Co-op/New Jersey Media Arts Center.
“It’s an ebb and flow type of thing. Art houses have to juggle their schedules, sometimes bring in bigger movies, to survive,” said Nigrin. “I’m glad Mr. Roberts has left this to us.”
Roberts was a colorful character with a background as a radio host and television, theater and movie producer. He started acquiring movie theaters in New Jersey in the 1980s, when he opened the original Lost Picture Show as one of the state’s first art movie houses.
Heckel, whose family owned the Grove Theater in Irvington when he was a child, connected with Roberts accidentally when he took a fill-in projectionist job at the Chatham theater some 20 years ago. He later became manager of the Wellmont and a now-defunct Oakland movie house before becoming general manager for Roberts Theatres in 1988.
“Bob (Roberts) was not a follower; he was a leader, an innovator,” Heckel said as he fed film into a projector last week. “He was not afraid to try something new or different, to take a risk with a film.”
Heckel explained that audiences drawn to art films tend to be a little older and more sophisticated, and more forgiving of venues that don’t have the amenities of mall megaplexes, like new chairs that rock, cup holders, and digital sound. They are willing to travel to find a special film and tend to be loyal customers, as Roberts understood.
“He picked a winning formula. No reason to change it,” said Heckel, who said there is money to be made in the art/independent film business – to a point. “Running a theater with this type of film draws a steady stream of people. But I can assure you I will not become as rich as Donald Trump,” he laughed.
Lawrence Ragonese is a reporter in the Morris County bureau. He can be reached at lragonese@starled ger.com or at (973) 539-7910.
CAPTION(S):
Gary Heckel, shown in a theater in Montclair, says he will be true to the legacy of his mentor, the late Bob Roberts, who gave audiences thoughtful alternatives to Hollywood blockbuster movies.
TYSON TRISH/FOR THE STAR-LEDGER
Article CJ99162787
Homepage:
http://www.comevisit.com/66drivein/
Homepage:
http://www.capridrive-in.com/
Homepage:
http://www.27drivein.com/
Homepage:
http://www.stardrive-in.com/
http://www.drive-ins.com/theater/njtunkn
This was the 5th largest drive-in in the US.
“Newark’s last two movie houses, the Paramount and the Adams went dark in 1986 when their insurance rates increased 500 percent. Newarkers seeking mainstream popular movies had to go elsewhere.”
The Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ), Sept 26, 1996 p004
“Newark’s last two movie houses, the Paramount and the Adams went dark in 1986 when their insurance rates increased 500 percent. Newarkers seeking mainstream popular movies had to go elsewhere.”
The Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ), Sept 26, 1996 p004
“These included the Branford, the city’s largest and most elegant house which seated 3,100. Built in 1941 by Emil Zucker and Herman Steiner, it was named for one of the Connecticut towns that original Newarkers came from in 1666.”
The Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ), Sept 26, 1996 p004
this contradicts the main listing for this theater.
Address for A.C. Moore:
Shrewsbury Plaza Shopping Center
1030-1060 Broad St, Rt 35, Suite 100
Shrewsbury, NJ 07702
732-389-2940
Yes, this is the one. In 1953 Route 29 was renumbered to Route 22.
The Record (Bergen County, NJ), Sept 13, 1997 pA11
CLEARVIEW ADDS WAYNE, 4 OTHER THEATERS. (BUSINESS)(NEW JERSEY REPORT)
MADISON – Clearview Cinema Group, Inc. on Friday said it has completed the acquisition of five theaters from United Artists Theatre Circuit, Inc. for $8.65 million in cash. The theaters have a total of 14 screens and are located in Wayne and Bronxville, Larchmont, Mamaroneck, and New City, N.Y. The completion of this transaction raises Clearview’s number of theaters to 22 and its screen count to 83.
Article CJ70666726
The New York Times, Jan 6, 2002 p1(L) col 01 (11 col in)
Echoes of Historic Theater. (Real Estate Desk) Rachelle Garbarine.
A six-story office building that will fill what is now a parking lot in Hoboken has been designed to evoke the image of a 19th-century theater, the Lyric, that once stood on the site.
The new building, Offices at the Lyric, will take shape in the next seven months in the city’s historic district and close to its transit hub. While the 70,000-square-foot building will have the latest high-tech wiring, it is being built with materials — precast concrete, limestone and brick — similar to the 1886 theater. Portions of the new building’s facade also will feature the Queen Anne style of the Lyric, said Rob Ranieri, who is developing the $14 million project with Louis Picardo. Both are Hoboken natives.
Until the 1940’s the Lyric presented such celebrities as Lillie Langtry, George Burns and Gracie Allen, Jack Benny and Bob Fitzsimmons, the boxer turned actor. By the middle of that decade the timeworn theater was razed, and two years ago the developers bought the site at 79 Hudson Street.
Offices at the Lyric will be occupied by small and midsize tenants and ‘'will fill a market niche in the land of corporate giants and high-rise towers’‘ along the Hudson River waterfront, said Dudley Ryan of CB Richard Ellis, the commercial brokerage that is the project’s leasing agent. Rents per square foot will be in the high $30’s.
To design the building, the developers along with the architect, M. J. S. Architects of Dover, worked with Hoboken’s Historic Preservation Commission and followed photos of the old theater, one of six that the city has lost to time and neglect. Like the Lyric, the new building will have a peaked roof, and the second story of its facade will also have a peak, to echo the actual height of the vanished theater. The first two floors will feature columns and details like dentils and rosettes that were found on the Lyric. But a four-story-high central glass panel rising above the second story will highlight the building’s newness, Mr. Ranieri said.
To work financially, he said, the project was granted variances by the city to rise above the five stories allowed by zoning and to fill the entire site without providing onsite parking. The partners also applied for a license so that the building’s entry could jut six to eight feet onto the sidewalk in a style reminiscent of the theater’s ticket booth.
The developers plan to display a piece of a column from the original theater in the new lobby along with a history of the Lyric. Leonard Luizzi, the city historian, said the project ‘'will show Hoboken is more than restaurants, bars and double-parked cars.’‘ RACHELLE GARBARINE
Article CJ81361380
The Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ), Nov 7, 2000 p017
This showing is rated PG, as in permanently gone; Nutley’s Franklin Theatre closing its doors. (NEW JERSEY)
Byline: JIM KRANE
1927 was a big year for movies. With the release of “The Jazz Singer,” audiences saw the world’s first “talkie.” Later that year, a new organization called the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presented its first Academy Award for the film “Wings.”
And in Nutley, the brand new Franklin Theatre, a neighborhood movie palace with a soaring ceiling and gilded faux marble columns, opened its doors.
On Sunday, without a drop of the fanfare or drama associated with the films that graced its screen, the 73- year-old Franklin Theatre closed.
Few town residents or patrons of the downtown theater on Franklin Avenue had any inkling the venue would be closing. A maintenance worker arriving to work on the building yesterday was surprised to see a notice posted on the signboard in the theater’s ticket window: “The Franklin Theatre is now permanently closed.” Callers to the theater’s telephone answering service heard the same message.
“I can’t believe it’s closing,” said Christine Smizaski, 34, of Belleville after dropping her kids off at the theater for an afternoon birthday party, one of three private parties scheduled to take place before the theater is shuttered for good.
For Smizaski, whose Nutley upbringing meant spending regular Friday nights at the neighborhood theater – known to locals as simply “the Franklin” – it cradles a lot of memories. In 1980, when she was a high school freshman, her first date was at the Franklin. And it was during the film that Smizaski received her first kiss.
“I was scared,” she said, laughing as she stood below the theater’s marquee yesterday. Although the relationship fizzled out after six months – “he was younger than I was” – Smizaski said many other Nutley teens shared her experience.
“This was the dating spot back then,” she said. “On Friday nights the whole school would come here.
We’d go see a movie, then the next day we’d go see a football game."
The theater’s projectionist, Donald Lee, said theater owner Peter Vivian decided to close the Franklin at the end of his lease. The old movie house suffered a pair of recent blows that left it reeling, Lee said.
Last year, the Franklin lost many of its patrons when a 16-screen multiplex cinema opened at the new Clifton Commons mall, less than a mile away.
Then in June, a 2,000-pound section of the theater’s concrete facade fell onto the sidewalk. Although no one was injured, the building needed extensive repairs. Its facade and marquee have been obscured by scaffolding ever since.
When the building’s owner asked for an increase in rent to secure a new lease, Lee said the theater’s income could not support Vivian’s higher costs.
“He just couldn’t do it,” said Lee, 54, the projectionist since 1980. “It’s sad, after being here so long.”
Vivian, who leased the theater since 1979, could not be reached for comment yesterday.
The lone employee on duty yesterday afternoon said the theater would hold some showings for schoolchildren and a couple of birthday parties this week, then close down permanently Saturday afternoon.
For movie buffs like 16-year-old Jim Chaffee, the shuttering of the Franklin means driving to the Clifton multiplex and spending $9 to see a film that cost $5 at the Franklin – or $3 if it was a matinee.
But why bother? Besides the low prices, Chaffee said the theater manager would let him and his friends see R- rated movies without actually being accompanied by an adult. As long as an adult bought the tickets, Chaffee said, the ticket-taker would let him in.
“You don’t want to be in a theater with a bunch of friends and have your parents with you,” said Chaffee, sipping a Coke at the counter of The News Cafe across the street. “It’s really embarrassing. Especially if there’s a scene with too much blood.”
Now, Chaffee says he’s resigned to wait until his 17th birthday to see the movies he prefers.
Although the theater was recently split form a single-feature movie house into a triplex, the conversion was handled more gracefully than similar operations that have bisected other theaters. The conversion added two smaller screening rooms in the balcony and left intact the main hall, with its soaring, curved ceiling crowned by a shallow dome.
Yesterday afternoon, children attending the 6th birthday party of Gianna Mucchiello of Belleville filed into the theater, not noticing the gold- and silver-leafed flower detail on the archway, the faded yellow velvet curtain, or the giant round medallions of half-naked women perched high on the walls, between the faux marble columns with gilded Corinthian capitals.
Gianna’s mother, Monique, 38, said she remembered seeing “Jaws” at the Franklin.
“I wouldn’t go into the water after that,” Mucchiello said.
CAPTION(S):
Projectionist Donald Lee sits in the main hall of the Franklin Theatre in Nutley. The doors close for good Saturday. Crumbling structure and competition from a mall complex contributed to its demise.
JOHN MUNSON/THE STAR-LEDGER
Article CJ81270768