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.
I found this old postcard. Note the marquee states “New” Montauk. Interestingly it is part of the Lincoln building. Or could this be the Lincoln theater?(not listed on Cinema Treasures, but in the 1951 FDY at 37 Lexington Avenue) View link
It is interesting to note is the 2nd item. It claims that this theater moved from Camden to Union 3 years after opening. While the Camden drive in didn’t last long, I wasn’t aware of the “move”.
Conservative liquor laws prevented this theater from reopening in 1998:
The Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ), August 16, 1998 p035
Theater dims for want of a permit; Dover turns down liquor license bid. (SCANNER)
Byline: Patricia Smith
Richard Rossi envisioned an exotic future for the historic Baker Theatre in Dover: Long white limousines would pull up in front of the marquee on West Blackwell Street to let out tuxedo-clad grooms and brides in white satin. And, twice a month, a local restaurateur would book internationally known salsa bands for dinner and a show.
Reborn as a banquet facility, the 92-year-old theater was going to be called Hot Tropics.
To make this vision turn a profit would require a catering permit that allowed alcohol to be served, according to Rossi.
On Tuesday night, the Dover Board of Aldermen rejected his application for a liquor permit that would have allowed him to serve cocktails at a variety of affairs, including Spanish dinner-theater concerts twice a month. Now, Rossi says, he’s done.
Two days after the board meeting, Rossi declared that after 16 years of fighting to reopen the theater, he’s had it. Standing in the theater’s orchestra, Rossi pointed first to freshly painted decorative moldings around the stage and then to a stack of foreclosure papers he had just received from PNC Bank.
``That’s it. I’m done. I’m finished,“ he said in disgust. He does not know what he will do with his white elephant now.
The vote on the catering permit was 4-4, which translates to a denial under the town’s governing rules. Mayor Stephen Shukailo and aldermen Richard Newman, Aldo Cicchetti and James Visioli opposed the permit.
Shukailo said he was concerned about noise, parking and problems that might be created by customers drinking alcohol.
``I would like to see the theater opened under some circumstance, but I don’t think this is the right one,“ Shukailo said. "If you totally took alcohol out of the picture, I believe he would have received approval.”
The officers of the First Presbyterian Church, which is across the street from the Baker Theatre, also opposed the permit.
``There’s something going on in our church almost every night,“ Charles Yearwood, one of the officers, told the aldermen. "It’s not fair to people going in or out of a house of worship to have to be exposed to the kind of behavior that sometimes accompanies alcoholic beverages.”
For the last four months, Rossi said, he has put every dollar of rent money he collects from apartments in the building toward the repairs required to resolve 40 code violations and the restorations necessary to reopen the 92-year-old theater.
``I gambled it all on being able to open and start making money,“ he said. "I gambled and I lost.”
Just three months ago, there were pigeons living in the rafters above the stage, and a leaking roof had caused some of the plaster walls to bubble.
As he paced the empty room and railed against the town’s decision, tears came to his eyes and his voice cracked. “I feel like I’ve been through five wars,” he said.
Rossi said on Thursday that he did not plan to go ahead with the Spanish concerts without permission to serve alcohol, even though he had told the aldermen he would present them on a bring-your- own-wine basis.
And though Rossi had also told the aldermen he planned appeal their decision on the permit to the state Alcoholic Beverage Commission, that plan also seemed doomed.“I can’t afford an attorney to file anything,” he said.
I believe that they are sponsoring another Vaudeville night in Sept. 2005:
LAKE HOPATCONG HISTORICAL MUSEUM; Vaudeville once again takes center stage at Netcong theater. (COUNTY NEWS)
Byline: TANYA DROBNESS
In the days before radio and television, there was vaudeville.
Live theater performers – such as George Burns and Gracie Allen, Milton Berle and Bud Abbott – toured the country with their vaudeville acts, many stopping in at the Palace Theatre in Netcong, which opened in 1919.
Although the historic building is now owned by the Growing Stage Theatre, a professional theater company that is maintaining the center for young people and their families, it will return to its roots tomorrow as vaudeville will once again be seen on its stage for the first time in more than 70 years.
“We’re going to be celebrating the old-time vaudeville with an all-star bill,” said Frank Cullen, co- founder of the American Vaudeville Museum in Boston and content editor of the Vaudeville Times. Cullen will recreate a vaudeville show using historic video of some of the greatest acts. The clips are among 1,200 vaudeville films that were converted from 16-millimeter reels to videocassette and DVD and are kept at the museum library.
While Cullen will discuss the entertainment that dominated America in the late 1800s and early 1900s, he also will give background information during the 90-minute video clips about the quick-change artistry, ballet, juggling, magic and other vaudeville acts that were performed by many of the popular comedians and other performers, including several who became early movie celebrities.
The Lake Hopatcong Historical Museum is sponsoring the show because the history of the theater has early ties to the surrounding lake community.
Television celebrities who began their careers touring the vaudeville circuit, such as Berle, Abbott, Burns and Allen and Joe Cook, lived or vacationed along the shores of Lake Hopatcong.
Known as a major Northeast resort, the northwood section of Hopatcong was dubbed the “Actors' Colony” in the early 1900s because many of these actors purchased summer homes throughout the community, said Marty Kane, President of the Lake Hopatcong Historical Museum.
“The actors were a prominent part of the lake back then, but most people living there now don’t know about that part of its history,” Kane said.
The Palace Theater, which was built primarily for school plays, graduations and other community events, opened up to vaudeville performers as a way to bring more income to the community and offset the costs of the facility, according to Steve Fredericks, executive director of the theater.
The building eventually became known as “the center” of entertainment in the region, he said.
“The theater is a part of the history of the lake, and it’s important to recognize that and share it with the community both young and old,” Fredericks said.
The Netcong theater was one of about 4,000 vaudeville theaters in the country by 1920, according to Cullen. The theater is listed on both the national and state registers of historic places.
“We have to keep the theater alive. You can’t replace its history,” he said.
Local residents flocked to the center to see live shows because it was more entertaining than staying home and reading, which was a main source of entertainment in the early 1900s.
In those days, without the luxury of air-conditioned or heated homes, vaudeville shows took people “away from the drab life” and into theaters that were built to look like palaces. The shows were big attractions that reached out to the “family audience,” Cullen said.
“It’ll never be big again,” he said, “but it won’t go away.”
The show will begin at 7:30 p.m. Tickets cost $10 and must be purchased in advance. For reservations and ticket information, call (973) 398-2616.
Tanya Drobness works in the Sus sex County bureau. She can be reached at or at (973) 383- 0516.
Yes. If you are not familiar with the area, Warren County is very rural. Pohatcong, however, has a booming population. It is close to Rt. 78 and had plenty of open farmland to develop.
Closed by owner Richard Nathan in September 1997 (he also owned and closed the Newton, Sparta & Washington theaters at this time). Reopened on 12/18/98 by Nelson Page with two 250 seat auditoriums.
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
http://66.221.1.53/images/jersey2_.jpg
http://www.drive-ins.com/theater/njtunio
I am not sure how accurate the print is, but there is certainly something there that is not in the photo I posted on the same day.
Architect for recent alterations:
http://www.kgdarch.com/his-cbt.html
I found this old postcard. Note the marquee states “New” Montauk. Interestingly it is part of the Lincoln building. Or could this be the Lincoln theater?(not listed on Cinema Treasures, but in the 1951 FDY at 37 Lexington Avenue)
View link
old ticket:
View link
http://re2.mm-c.yimg.com/image/416814669
photo
Peter: The previous Galaxy web page had nice histories & photos of all of the theaters. If possible, please bring them back.
lots of photos at this link:
View link
see press release at the bottom of this link:
http://66.221.1.53/states/hi.htm
late 1940s photo:
http://66.221.1.53/images/md2_s.jpg
400 car capacity; opened in 1951:
http://www.drive-ins.com/theater/intaubu
Here is an old photo. Note the vertical marquee with the name “Jayhawker”.
http://www.uss-rangerguy.com/Kansas/jayhwkr.htm
Old photo from 1952.
http://www.uss-rangerguy.com/Kansas/Granada.htm
Photos, recent photos taken before the July 2004 reopening:
View link
by the way Robert / William, have you done any research on Route 20? I don’t believe that it exists anymore. Most likely it has been renumbered.
http://66.221.1.53/states/nj.htm
It is interesting to note is the 2nd item. It claims that this theater moved from Camden to Union 3 years after opening. While the Camden drive in didn’t last long, I wasn’t aware of the “move”.
nice photo of the marquee:
http://66.221.1.53/images/njsign.jpg
recent photo:
View link
Nice history in photos. See photos 45-48:
View link
Conservative liquor laws prevented this theater from reopening in 1998:
The Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ), August 16, 1998 p035
Theater dims for want of a permit; Dover turns down liquor license bid. (SCANNER)
Byline: Patricia Smith
Richard Rossi envisioned an exotic future for the historic Baker Theatre in Dover: Long white limousines would pull up in front of the marquee on West Blackwell Street to let out tuxedo-clad grooms and brides in white satin. And, twice a month, a local restaurateur would book internationally known salsa bands for dinner and a show.
Reborn as a banquet facility, the 92-year-old theater was going to be called Hot Tropics.
To make this vision turn a profit would require a catering permit that allowed alcohol to be served, according to Rossi.
On Tuesday night, the Dover Board of Aldermen rejected his application for a liquor permit that would have allowed him to serve cocktails at a variety of affairs, including Spanish dinner-theater concerts twice a month. Now, Rossi says, he’s done.
Two days after the board meeting, Rossi declared that after 16 years of fighting to reopen the theater, he’s had it. Standing in the theater’s orchestra, Rossi pointed first to freshly painted decorative moldings around the stage and then to a stack of foreclosure papers he had just received from PNC Bank.
``That’s it. I’m done. I’m finished,“ he said in disgust. He does not know what he will do with his white elephant now.
The vote on the catering permit was 4-4, which translates to a denial under the town’s governing rules. Mayor Stephen Shukailo and aldermen Richard Newman, Aldo Cicchetti and James Visioli opposed the permit.
Shukailo said he was concerned about noise, parking and problems that might be created by customers drinking alcohol.
``I would like to see the theater opened under some circumstance, but I don’t think this is the right one,“ Shukailo said. "If you totally took alcohol out of the picture, I believe he would have received approval.”
The officers of the First Presbyterian Church, which is across the street from the Baker Theatre, also opposed the permit.
``There’s something going on in our church almost every night,“ Charles Yearwood, one of the officers, told the aldermen. "It’s not fair to people going in or out of a house of worship to have to be exposed to the kind of behavior that sometimes accompanies alcoholic beverages.”
For the last four months, Rossi said, he has put every dollar of rent money he collects from apartments in the building toward the repairs required to resolve 40 code violations and the restorations necessary to reopen the 92-year-old theater.
``I gambled it all on being able to open and start making money,“ he said. "I gambled and I lost.”
Just three months ago, there were pigeons living in the rafters above the stage, and a leaking roof had caused some of the plaster walls to bubble.
As he paced the empty room and railed against the town’s decision, tears came to his eyes and his voice cracked. “I feel like I’ve been through five wars,” he said.
Rossi said on Thursday that he did not plan to go ahead with the Spanish concerts without permission to serve alcohol, even though he had told the aldermen he would present them on a bring-your- own-wine basis.
And though Rossi had also told the aldermen he planned appeal their decision on the permit to the state Alcoholic Beverage Commission, that plan also seemed doomed.“I can’t afford an attorney to file anything,” he said.
Article CJ81682418
I believe that they are sponsoring another Vaudeville night in Sept. 2005:
LAKE HOPATCONG HISTORICAL MUSEUM; Vaudeville once again takes center stage at Netcong theater. (COUNTY NEWS)
Byline: TANYA DROBNESS
In the days before radio and television, there was vaudeville.
Live theater performers – such as George Burns and Gracie Allen, Milton Berle and Bud Abbott – toured the country with their vaudeville acts, many stopping in at the Palace Theatre in Netcong, which opened in 1919.
Although the historic building is now owned by the Growing Stage Theatre, a professional theater company that is maintaining the center for young people and their families, it will return to its roots tomorrow as vaudeville will once again be seen on its stage for the first time in more than 70 years.
“We’re going to be celebrating the old-time vaudeville with an all-star bill,” said Frank Cullen, co- founder of the American Vaudeville Museum in Boston and content editor of the Vaudeville Times. Cullen will recreate a vaudeville show using historic video of some of the greatest acts. The clips are among 1,200 vaudeville films that were converted from 16-millimeter reels to videocassette and DVD and are kept at the museum library.
While Cullen will discuss the entertainment that dominated America in the late 1800s and early 1900s, he also will give background information during the 90-minute video clips about the quick-change artistry, ballet, juggling, magic and other vaudeville acts that were performed by many of the popular comedians and other performers, including several who became early movie celebrities.
The Lake Hopatcong Historical Museum is sponsoring the show because the history of the theater has early ties to the surrounding lake community.
Television celebrities who began their careers touring the vaudeville circuit, such as Berle, Abbott, Burns and Allen and Joe Cook, lived or vacationed along the shores of Lake Hopatcong.
Known as a major Northeast resort, the northwood section of Hopatcong was dubbed the “Actors' Colony” in the early 1900s because many of these actors purchased summer homes throughout the community, said Marty Kane, President of the Lake Hopatcong Historical Museum.
“The actors were a prominent part of the lake back then, but most people living there now don’t know about that part of its history,” Kane said.
The Palace Theater, which was built primarily for school plays, graduations and other community events, opened up to vaudeville performers as a way to bring more income to the community and offset the costs of the facility, according to Steve Fredericks, executive director of the theater.
The building eventually became known as “the center” of entertainment in the region, he said.
“The theater is a part of the history of the lake, and it’s important to recognize that and share it with the community both young and old,” Fredericks said.
The Netcong theater was one of about 4,000 vaudeville theaters in the country by 1920, according to Cullen. The theater is listed on both the national and state registers of historic places.
“We have to keep the theater alive. You can’t replace its history,” he said.
Local residents flocked to the center to see live shows because it was more entertaining than staying home and reading, which was a main source of entertainment in the early 1900s.
In those days, without the luxury of air-conditioned or heated homes, vaudeville shows took people “away from the drab life” and into theaters that were built to look like palaces. The shows were big attractions that reached out to the “family audience,” Cullen said.
“It’ll never be big again,” he said, “but it won’t go away.”
The show will begin at 7:30 p.m. Tickets cost $10 and must be purchased in advance. For reservations and ticket information, call (973) 398-2616.
Tanya Drobness works in the Sus sex County bureau. She can be reached at or at (973) 383- 0516.
Article CJ107689532
Yes. If you are not familiar with the area, Warren County is very rural. Pohatcong, however, has a booming population. It is close to Rt. 78 and had plenty of open farmland to develop.
Closed by owner Richard Nathan in September 1997 (he also owned and closed the Newton, Sparta & Washington theaters at this time). Reopened on 12/18/98 by Nelson Page with two 250 seat auditoriums.