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.
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”.
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
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