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), Oct 1, 1998 p001
Choir does a rerun of ‘Silent Night’ at special screening of new movie In Maplewood, Christmas again comes early as Streep film opens. (IN THE TOWNS)
Byline: Ada Brunner
Christmas came early to Maplewood this year for the second year in a row.
Last year, it arrived in November, when 20 members of the Morrow Memorial Church Choir gathered on the pavement near the local movie theater to sing “Silent Night.”
This year, Yuletide was even earlier. Those same 20 carolers, along with the rest of the Morrow choir and other townspeople and out-of-town visitors, celebrated in September.
All of it was in connection with the film “One True Thing,” starring Meryl Streep, William Hurt and Renee Zellweger, which was shot in part in Maplewood and features members of the Morrowchoir as well as some 150 extras from the area.
Based on a novel by Anna Quindlen, the movie opened nationwide Sept. 18. But some 450 local and area residents got an advance look at it at a preview in the Maplewood Theatre the night before. The special screening, a benefit for the Maplewood Village Alliance (the corporation that manages the Maplewood Village special improvement district), was the highlight of an evening that started with a procession from the Women’s Club, led by the Youth Orchestra of Essex County playing “When the Saints Go Marchin' In.” When the walkers arrived at the theater, the choir, directed by David Hutchings of Colonia, gave a brief outdoor concert, singing “Silent Night,” “Angels We Have Heard on High” and “Every Time I Feel the Spirit.”
After the screening of the film, a reception was held at the Burgdorff Cultural Center, with the choir once again performing. It sang “Amazing Grace,” “Music Has Brought Us Together” and a new version of “Silent Night” – one with words by choir member Mary Sims of Maplewood, describing what it’s like to be in a movie.
Area residents had learned what it’s like about a year earlier, when they learned of the decision to use Maplewood as a stand-in for Langhorne, Pa., the town where Quindlen’s story is set. ……..
This one goes back to the late 40s or early 50s. Here is a nostalgic look at NJ drive ins, including the Morris Plains:
The Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ), Nov 3, 2002 p003
The king of the drive-in. (PERSPECTIVE)
Byline: FRAN WOOD
My first visit to a drive-in movie theater came shortly after World War II.
My parents bundled my sister, brother and me into our pajamas, piled us into the back seat of our blue Plymouth sedan (still equipped with the wooden bumpers used on cars during the war), and took us to the Morris Plains Drive-In to see a movie about the Titanic.
The idea, of course, was that we children would soon fall asleep and the grownups would have the rare treat of quietly enjoying a movie.
My sister and brother went along with the program. I didn’t. I stayed awake and scared myself silly.
I was remembering this the other day and wondering which Titanic movie it had been, as none of those made about the fateful maiden voyage of that famous ocean liner was released in the late 1940s. The one starring Barbara Stanwyck and Clifton Webb came out in ‘53, and the one before that was a German propaganda film released a decade earlier. My parents weren’t big moviegoers. They had a consuming interested in current events, however, so they surely would have been drawn to a showing of the German film. Is it possible that film made the rounds of U.S. theaters after the war?
Unfortunately, one of the few people who might have answered that question passed away recently – Wilfred “Bill” Paul Smith, who built most of New Jersey’s drive-in theaters.
In fact, he assisted on the very first drive-in theater in the world, which – provided you don’t count a fairly unsuccessful attempt in 1927 to project a movie onto the side of a barn in Valley Stream, Long Island – was built by Richard Hollingshead in Camden in 1933.
Smith and Hollingshead went on to build more – an achievement noted in, among other places, the Smithsonian Institution.
But Bill Smith wasn’t just a builder. He was a movie buff, dedicated enough that I’ll bet he would have known exactly which Titanic movie I saw.
“Dad could tell you the names of the sound guys, the producers, everyone connected with a film,” says his son, Wilfred P. Jr., of Denville.
So it was logical, says Bill Jr., that after building all these drive-ins for other people, Bill Sr. finally built two for himself, in Ledgewood (1950) and Newton (1957).
“Every Monday morning he’d take the Lakeland bus into New York to order his movies,” Bill Jr. recalls. That was the day studio agents gathered at Sardi’s to give theater owners a preview of coming attractions.
“Dad would make a selection and cut the deal,” says Smith. “It might be a flat rate of, say, $300. Or it would be a percent of the gross – 40-45 percent in most cases. Except for Walt Disney; he always got 60-65 percent.”
I didn’t get to the drive-in as much as some of my friends, because I couldn’t go there on dates. I had a strict father who was quite aware they were called “passion pits” and why. When I was 17 he relented; I could go to a drive-in on a double date.
Smith’s kids didn’t get to go to the drive-in on dates, either – but for an entirely different reason. They were working. Right there. Theirs was a family business, according to Bill Jr., who says he, his brother and three sisters mowed the lawns, repaired broken speakers, stocked the refreshment stand, and sold tickets and popcorn. Then they came back for morning-after cleanup, “fighting the crows and skunks for the pizza crusts.”
At first, in any case, this was just a warm-weather enterprise. Then car heaters came along, and Bill Smith was first in line, extending his open season.
“Dad was a pioneer for plug-in heaters,” says Bill Jr. “Ours were made by the Arvin Heater Company.”
But he still closed for the coldest months, and since his large family kept needing food and clothing, Bill Sr. would spend those months working at MacGregor, a sweater and woolens manufacturer in Dover. It was an odd combination, but it did the job, right up until he retired in 1975.
He’d been one of the first in the drive-in business, and as it turned out, he was one of the last, at least in New Jersey. Escalating land values, property taxes and insurance costs made drive-ins a passing if fondly remembered piece of Americana in these parts.
New Jersey’s very last drive-in, on Route 35 in Hazlet, closed a few years ago, which I know because my husband and I went there on its next-to-last night, for nostalgia’s sake. The last picture show was “Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man,” which was not anywhere near as memorable as my Titanic flick.
Until I read his obituary, Wilfred Smith’s name would have rung no bells for me. The people behind our entertainment pastimes rarely become household names.
But anyone who grew up in the ‘40s, '50s or '60s probably would join me in a tip of the hat to Smith for all those happy long-ago hours spent watching movies from the cozy confines of their cars.
Built by Wilfred “Bill” Paul Smith for himself. Smith, who built most of New Jersey’s drive-in theaters, assisted on the very first drive-in theater in the world (Camden).
The Record (Bergen County, NJ), Nov 25, 1997 pB3
CLEARVIEW CINEMA BUYS 2 MULTIPLEXES. (BUSINESS)(NEW JERSEY REPORT)
MADISON – Clearview Cinema Group Inc. announced Monday that it has acquired two multiplex theaters from the Succasunna-based Nelson Ferman Theater organization for $19.5 million. The theaters, both in Morris County, are the Parsippany 12 at the Morris Hills Shopping Center in Parsippany and the Cinema 10 Theater in the Roxbury Mall in Succasunna.
The Record (Bergen County, NJ), Nov 25, 1997 pB3
CLEARVIEW CINEMA BUYS 2 MULTIPLEXES. (BUSINESS)(NEW JERSEY REPORT)
MADISON – Clearview Cinema Group Inc. announced Monday that it has acquired two multiplex theaters from the Succasunna-based Nelson Ferman Theater organization for $19.5 million. The theaters, both in Morris County, are the Parsippany 12 at the Morris Hills Shopping Center in Parsippany and the Cinema 10 Theater in the Roxbury Mall in Succasunna.
The Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ), April 21, 1998 p049
Theater works on deal with Rockaway mall. (MORRIS)
Byline: Lawrence Ragonese
The AMC movie theaters inside the Rockaway Townsquare mall will remain open for the immediate future, as mall owners and theater company officials try to negotiate a long-term deal.
John Acker, general manager of the mall located off Routes 80 and 15 in Rockaway Township, confirmed yesterday that a short-term lease extension has been signed while the two sides talk about future plans.
Some AMC officials said in late 1996 that they planned to close the popular six-screen Inner Six Theaters, saying they were not too profitable. American Multi-Cinema Inc.’s lease at the Rockaway mall was due to expire at the end of 1997. The Inner Six opened about two decades ago and was the Morris County area’s first multi-theater complex. The Outer Six Theaters, located in a strip mall on the other side of the access road that circles the Townsquare mall, were not supposed to be affected.
Acker would not detail the length of the current lease or the possible terms of a new deal, saying it would be improper to divulge such information while talks are ongoing. He stressed, however, that movie theaters are in the mall’s long-term plans.
“One way or the other, there will always be theaters here,” said Acker, noting there is plenty of room for expansion, if needed.
Gary Haak, an AMC spokesman, also confirmed the short-term deal, but he did not return several phone calls over for the past two weeks to answer questions about AMC’s long-term plans.
The national movie theater chain’s future lies with complexes of 20 to 30 theaters, according to company officials. There are more than two dozen mega-complexes operating in the South, Midwest and West, and there are plans to eventually open some in New Jersey.
“We’re looking everywhere in the world right now,” Sonny Stuffle, marketing director for AMC’s Northeast division, said in 1996. “The idea is to hold movies over longer, to play them more than two weeks … giving us some room when there are several blockbusters running at once,” said Stuffle, who has not responded to recent phone calls.
But Stuffle stressed that existing smaller movie complexes, like the 10-screen Morristown theater complex, would remain open especially if they remain profitable.
AMC’s Rockaway Township and Morristown theaters drew the major share of Morris County moviegoers until recent years, when a Sony 12-plex theater opened in East Hanover and another 12-plex opened in Parsippany. There also is a 10-plex theater in the Succasunna section of Roxbury, an eight- theater complex in Kinnelon, six-screen theater in Chester, four-plex in Madison and a one-screen art- movie house in Chatham Township.
The Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ), May 29, 2002 p013
Those old theater organs have become piping hot; Movie houses revive sounds of the silents. (NEW JERSEY)
Byline: JIM LOCKWOOD
It’s not every keyboardist who gets to see his name in lights, but John Baratta is the marquee attraction in Newton. It is as if an old friend has come home.
After a half-century absence, the full orchestral sounds of an antique pipe organ are reverberating again inside the Newton Theatre.
A relic of the 1920s silent-film era, the theater organ makes its rich sounds by pushing air through pipes – a far cry from today’s digital techno-beats and electronic wizardry that require speakers. But for Nelson Page, who installed the Newton Theatre organ, the old instrument is a “living, breathing” entity, with a future tied to its past.
“What’s old is new again. It’s a step back into yesteryear,” said Page, president of the American Theatre Organ Society, a group with 100 chapters worldwide.
Cathy Martin, president of the Garden State Theatre Organ Society, said the instrument’s popularity is rising, due in part to a resurgence in interest in silent films, as well as in theater organs themselves.
Martin – who with her husband, Robert, installed a theater organ at their Little Falls home a decade ago – said there may be as few as 100 to 150 fully functioning theater organs in existence, 20 of them in New Jersey. Page puts the number in theaters and homes around the country at 500.
A long-forgotten organ at Newark Symphony Hall was recently restored. That instrument had not been played for some 50 years, and few people even knew it still existed, because the keyboard console had been removed years ago. But the pipe chamber remained intact, and the Garden State society helped bring it back into action, Martin said.
In 1994, Page installed two vintage organs at the Galaxy Triplex cinema in Guttenberg, one for the lobby and the other for the theater section. Other recent efforts to restore pipe organs have taken place in Asbury Park and Jersey City.
Reflecting on the restoration efforts, Page said: “I think they are on an upswing because there’s a greater amount of interest being developed in this uniquely American art form. It’s a search for nostalgia. People are looking for a simpler, bygone era.”
Some 10,000 theater organs were made by a dozen companies during the silent-film heyday of 1919 to 1929. Most were scrapped long ago, Page said.
The Newton Theatre, built in 1924, had an orchestra pit that once boasted two organs, including the largest pipe organ in Sussex County. Page guesses they were removed around the World War II era, as theaters switched to recorded music.
Page and employees spent 10 months transplanting an Organunique pipe organ to the theater on Spring Street in Newton from a private residence in Clifton.
Compared with other pipe organs, this one is small: two keyboards, 32 foot pedals and 24 stops, the switches that operate the sets of sounds. (The phrase “pulling out all the stops” stems from organ playing.)
Moving even a small pipe organ was no easy task because of the hundreds of components that had to be taken apart, restored and reassembled, Page said.
A separate room was built backstage for the pipe organ’s unseen guts, including some 200 metal (zinc and tin) and wooden pipes, and various mechanical parts, such as a blower, windchest, and regulator, that work in concert to produce sounds.
Volume is controlled by a foot pedal that opens and closes swell shades, a sort of Venetian blind between the pipe room and theater seating.
The instrument, believed to date to the mid-1920s, made its debut in Newton seven weeks ago. It is played Saturday nights by John Baratta, organist for the First Presbyterian Church in Newton and Roxbury middle school band director, during intermission, around 6:30 to 7 p.m., in one of the theater’s twin cinemas.
Inside the dimly lit theater, Baratta is silhouetted by a small light over the sheet music. All four of his limbs move as he plays, with hands working the keyboards and feet tapping bass pedals.
Baratta glides through a set of tunes, flowing from one into another, seemingly effortlessly.
“The response has been favorable so far,” Baratta said. “At first I was afraid of the response I’d get, because it’s so different from anything else. It’s not canned music.”
No, Page notes, this is live entertainment to an audience that at times spans all ages (depending on what movie is playing).
Baratta laughed as he recalled the time a young girl requested “Over the Rainbow” and a young boy suggested Baratta pipe down, because the music was too loud for his taste.
While some teenagers on a recent Saturday night seemed oblivious to it all, others took notice. “It’s interesting. We’ve never seen it before. We’re used to music from the speakers,” one said.
Newton senior citizen Lucy Mathews said the pipe organ music is “just like the old days.”
To Page, who does not play the instrument himself, such sentiments are music to his ears. Introducing the theater organ to someone who never heard it before, or reintroducing it to someone who has, achieves his goal of promoting the instrument and, he hopes, makes the moviegoing experience more enjoyable.
“They get a little extra for their movie dollar,” Page said.
CAPTION(S):
It’s not every keyboardist who gets to see his name in lights, but John Baratta is the marquee attraction in Newton.
Bob Miloche of Maywood makes sure last Wednesay that the pipe organ in the Newton Theatre is in fine form for John Baratta’s Saturday night performance.
History of the independent ownership referenced in the title description:
The Record (Bergen County, NJ), July 3, 1996 pB1
A CINEMATIC REVIVAL; HOLLYWOOD AND CEDAR LANE; SECOND-RUN MOVIE HOUSE GETS FACE LIFT. (BUSINESS) L. Coleman-Lochner.
By L. COLEMAN-LOCHNER, Staff Writer
(Frank) Manis and his wife, Lynn, also own the second-run Cinema 35 in Paramus through their Hudson Amusements organization. ….
article about the new (in 1996) owner. This owner was probably the one prior to Galaxy.
The Record (Bergen County, NJ), July 3, 1996 pB1
A CINEMATIC REVIVAL; HOLLYWOOD AND CEDAR LANE; SECOND-RUN MOVIE HOUSE GETS FACE LIFT. (BUSINESS) L. Coleman-Lochner.
Full Text: COPYRIGHT 1996 Bergen Record Corp.
By L. COLEMAN-LOCHNER, Staff Writer
It’s a premiere, so to speak, in Teaneck’s Cedar Lane shopping district: a refurbished second-run theater that will also screen art and foreign films.
The script began three weeks ago when Frank Manis, a Florida-based businessman, bought the cinema from the Edison-based Movie City chain.
Manis and his wife, Lynn, also own the second-run Cinema 35 in Paramus through their Hudson Amusements organization.
And Manis hopes to expand his cinematic empire further.
He is also eyeing the Rialto Theater in Ridgefield Park.
“The concept there is to try to control the whole market,” he said. Varying the offerings from theater to theater is also on the agenda.
“I think it has a tremendous amount of potential,” he said of the Rialto’s single screen.
In the meantime, there is the business of revamping the Teaneck theater, now named the Teaneck 3.
Scheduled over the next several months, the changes are already under way. Walls have been painted. The second snack bar has been reopened. Neon is being installed to brighten the lobby. Floors have been scraped and repainted. The stage around the screen has been repainted from black to red.
“We’re proud of it now – we’ve come a long way in only three weeks,” said Ed Jupin, the manager.
The renovation will cost between $50,000 and $75,000 and will include new screens, carpet, a marquee, and the replacement or refurbishment of the seats.
That will come at a cost to ticket holders: On Thursday, prices at both the Teaneck Theater and the single-screen Cinema 35 will increase from $2.50 to $3.
The new prices should be in effect for two years, Manis said.
With occupancy allowed for 1,100, he is investigating adding a fourth screen with about 125 seats upstairs, he said. The downstairs theaters seat 180, 265, and 390.
But ultimately, “it all depends on the product,” Manis said.
According to plans, that product will expand to include art and foreign films, Manis said.
“Once the kids go back to school in September, then we will start to be creative,” he said. Meanwhile, he added, the theater will build up its clientele.
At the single-screen Cinema 35, there is “a very regular customer following,” said Margot Moll, general manager for both theaters. And of those interested in art and foreign films, she said: “I always had a very, very loyal following.”
Manis of Boca Raton, Fla., owns nightclubs and has owned other first- and second-run theaters, including Gutenberg’s Galaxy, which he sold three years ago.
He didn’t like the first-run business, he said, and sold those theaters. Second-run “gives you an opportunity to pick the winners in first-run.”
Suppliers like it because if a movie isn’t a blockbuster and gets bumped from first-run houses, “the supplier of the film still wants to have it out there showing,” he said.
“I think there’s a tremendous market for it.”
When Manis bought the Teaneck theater, updating was in order.
“It was in major disrepair, and we felt that we needed to clean it up,” Jupin said. “I feel that the face lift should improve business.”
The district could use the help – plagued by numerous vacancies, it has tried to rally by creating a Special Improvement District.
Although the renovation is a work in progress, there have been “a lot of compliments,” Jupin said.
“A lot of the other merchants here feel that the new ownership is the talk of the town and could help their business.”
Others seem to agree.
“I’m happy that it’s being refurbished,” said David Alan, whose Cedar Lane salon is one of three in his eponymous chain. “I think it’s good for all.”
Although Alan was unambiguous in welcoming the refurbishing, he said it could exacerbate an existing problem: “There’s no place to park.”
Still, he said, it was a “very dirty theater” that probably lost customers as a result.
“A theater is good because it brings people to the area.”
The Record (Bergen County, NJ), April 30, 1997 pB1
THE END FOR SMALL CINEMA; TOTOWA THEATER SUCCUMBS TO TREND. (BUSINESS) Kevin G. Demarrais.
Full Text: COPYRIGHT 1997 Bergen Record Corp.
By KEVIN G. DeMARRAIS, Staff Writer
At one time, it was known for its big screens and excellent sound quality, but the United Artists Cinema 46 in Totowa had been struggling of late, unable to compete with a bigger, brighter competitor down the road.
And so, with no fanfare, the three-screen movie theater passed into history this week, shutting its doors after Sunday’s final showing of “The Empire Strikes Back” to make way for a computer store.
By Tuesday, the large sign along Route 46, which last week was promoting a $1.99 admission, was blank.
About all that remained to identify the white building as a movie theater were three small decal signs on the doors and eight hexagon-shaped film canisters in the deserted lobby, awaiting their return to the distributor.
“Once Sony came in with 14 screens, they were dead,” said a clerk at the Holiday Inn next door.
The clerk was referring to the Sony theater a couple of miles west on Route 46, across from the Willowbrook Mall and Wayne Towne Center, which went through a makeover and expanded from eight to 14 screens last year.
At the same time Cinema 46 was losing business, its land was increasing in value as a Who’s Who of national and regional retailers converted a four-mile stretch on Route 46 west in West Paterson and Totowa into a major retail center.
The 11-acre plot on which the theater and Holiday Inn are built, between the Passaic River and Union Boulevard, is the only underdeveloped property in that four-mile stretch.
As a result, the land, which is owned by a partnership, S&T Associates of Totowa, is valued in the “tens of millions of dollars,” said Larry Liebowitz, president of Landmark Real Estate in Westwood. Liebowitz is the exclusive broker for the property.
The property has already undergone change, with part of a tennis club converted into a Pet Nosh (now Petco) superstore, and the movie site will become a 30,000-square foot CompUSA store, the Dallas-based chain’s fifth New Jersey outlet.
Most of the current building will be razed, and CompUSA is seeking to have the new store open by the fourth quarter of the year, in time for the holiday shopping season.
This is the second Totowa movie theater to have its site converted to retail use in the past four years. The Totowa Cinema, a two-screen theater about a half-mile west of Cinema 46, shut its doors in 1993 to make way for an office supply store.
Both theaters drew praise for the quality of their pictures and sound when The Record reviewed North Jersey theaters in 1988. But neither could compete with the multiscreen competitors that offered a wide choice of first-run films, even when Cinema 46 discounted its prices.
“The days of three-screen theaters are over,” Liebowitz said. “They did some business on the weekends, but they couldn’t compete with the Sony theater. It’s too expensive to operate.”
Closing small theaters is part of an industry trend. United Artists Theatre Circuit Inc., which operated Cinema 46, opened 15 new multiplex complexes with a total of 130 screens last year, and closed or sold 54 buildings with 245 screens.
Each of the new theaters had an average of 8.7 screens. The facilities that were cut averaged 4.5 screens.
Closing facilities such as Cinema 46 fits with United Artists' corporate strategy, as stated this month by Kurt C. Hall, the acting chief operating officer, to increase “efforts to dispose of older, less productive, or non-strategic theaters.”
The Denver-based company lost $46.6 million last year, which was nearly a third less than its $68.9 million loss in 1995.
The Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ), Oct 7, 1998 p041
Small-town theater lover revives Washington cinema. (COUNTY NEWS)
Full Text: COPYRIGHT 1998 The Star-Ledger. All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of The Star-Ledger by the Gale Group, Inc.
Byline: David VanHorn
Nelson Page has never given up hope that small-town movie houses can compete against multiplex cinemas.
His latest revival is the twin cinema in Washington Borough, Warren County, which was saved by a local volunteer group before Page stepped in to undertake a $150,000 restoration.
‘'I always take the distressed locations,“ the 44-year-old Bergen County resident said. "I enjoy the challenge, I enjoy the work.”
The scheduled Oct. 16 reopening gives Page a head start in the competition for local movie fans. His will be the only operating movie house in Warren County until a 12-screen facility opens later this year in Pohatcong. Meanwhile, a 15-screen theater is under construction inside the former Jamesway store in Mansfield. The previous operator of the twin cinema, Richard Nathan, was so concerned about competition from multiplexes that he closed the theaters he ran in Washington Borough, Newton and Sparta in September 1997.
Page is not so worried. He predicts success in Washington, partly because business has been strong since he took over the two Sussex County theaters. He believes the Washington theater can offer what movie-goers want – a comfortable, convenient location with competitive prices for first-run flicks.
‘'It’s a matter of making sure it is pleasing to the eye. The difference is you’ve got to spend money to make money,“ said Page, who also runs a triple-screen theater in Guttenberg, Hudson County.
Exterior work on the Washington theater includes repairs to the leaky roof, marquee renovations, new windows and poster cases – and plenty of paint. A new neon sign proclaiming the theater as “the showplace of northwest New Jersey” will hang over the front doors, he said.
In the lobby, there will be new flooring and carpeting, renovations to the bathrooms and concession stand, more neon, new paint and wallpaper and a brass chandelier, Page said.
The two theaters will have new 18-by-45-foot screens, lighting, acoustical curtains and reupholstered seats. The walls, of Italian white marble with Indiana pink marble baseboards, show the 72- year-old building “was an opulent theater for its day,” he said.
Garbage removal was also a big part of the cleanup. Three large containers were needed to haul away trash from the upstairs and backstage offices and the theaters.
‘'We’ve tried to eradicate years and years and years of neglect,“ he said. "Old theaters like this need constant maintenance. They’re like senior citizens – you have to treat them with respect and care.”
Page credits the building’s salvation to Save The Area’s Regional Theater, or START, a grassroots group that stepped forward to run the theater after Nathan bowed out. START ended its operations in mid-August – the same time Page signed a 10-year lease – so the group could concentrate on raising money to turn the building into a regional arts center.
Besides working with START on future projects, Page wants to revive a piece of the theater’s history by installing an antique pipe organ backstage for live performances on Fridays and Saturdays.
‘'In order to be competitive with all the new theaters that are opening, you have to create a niche. You gotta do something a little different to make the people want to come and see your place,“ he said.
Page has a pipe organ in his theater in Guttenberg, while another to be installed next year in Newton to commemorate that theater’s 75th anniversary is being restored in the backstage area of the Washington building. The machine, made in California in 1925, has hundreds of metal and wooden pipes ranging in length from three-quarters of an inch to 16 feet, he said.
‘'Imagine 740 playing at the same time,“ Page said after blowing into one of the pipes. "You get a mighty roar.”
CAPTION(S):
Alan Pacheco, manager of the soon to reopen twin cinema in Washington, gets the popcorn machine ready for movie patrons. <par>
The Totowa Cinema, a two-screen theater about a half-mile west of Cinema 46, shut its doors in 1993 to make way for an office supply store.
The Record (Bergen County, NJ), April 30, 1997 pB1
The Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ), Oct 1, 2000 p035
Curtain to drop on the old Royal. (COUNTY NEWS)
Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2000 The Star-Ledger. All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of The Star-Ledger by the Gale Group, Inc.
Byline: JEFFERY C. MAYS
Bloomfield’s Royal Theater stands vacant, almost sagging, on Bloomfield Avenue these days.
There hasn’t been a concert, movie or show at the venue in at least two years.
The only sign of life is the theater’s marquee, which flashes “You’re in Bloomfield … Drive Safely,” to travelers along Bloomfield Avenue.
Inside the once-ornate theater is a hard-hat area with chunks of falling plaster, pigeon feathers and a flooded basement.
The town council thinks the theater stands in the way of progress and plans to demolish the building this winter to make room for a mall and a parking garage – two projects officials hope will invigorate Bloomfield’s downtown. ‘'The best use for the land on which the theater sits is modern retail space to attract national and regional retailers and parking,“ said Don Smartt, project director for the Bloomfield Center Alliance, which represents downtown businesses in the redevelopment efforts. "If we are going to capture the market potential from Midtown Direct, fill vacant stores and meet niche shopping needs, the theater must be demolished.”
After years of debating the building’s fate, politicians are itching for a sign of change in the downtown.
Knocking down the theater, which has become a symbol of downtown morass, will make a titanic statement that the town is serious about economic redevelopment, they say.
‘'Everyone has been waiting for some concrete action. Up until now, downtown redevelopment has been all about planning and studies,“ said Councilman-at-large Tim Kane. "It’s part of Bloomfield’s past, and change is inevitable.”
The township is already looking for the lowest bidder. Town Engineer Anthony Marucci received the go- ahead last week to advertise for the demolition of the building.
‘'The building is in terrible shape. There was water in the basement and falling plaster everywhere. We received an estimate of $10 million to restore the theater,“ said Town Administrator Mauro Tucci, who remembers spending his Saturday afternoons at the theater as a kid. "It’s such a tragedy that it’s outgrown its usefulness.”
There’s no committee to save the Royal, as often happens when popular landmarks are scheduled to meet the wrecking ball.
Township officials say the building has no significant historical value and is simply not worth saving.
Councilwoman-at-large Martha Skinner considered using the building as a meeting place for the Bloomfield Youth Guidance Council until she toured it earlier this year. “Right now, it’s a safety hazard,” she said.
But every time Walter Gollender passes the theater, he can’t help but think of the day in April 1965 when kids were lined around the block to get in.
There were marble floors, red velvet and a lot of fun.
Gollender, a local promoter, was sponsoring a talent show at the theater, and the cost of admission was $1.25, the same as for a matinee. Local high school kids had a chance to display their talent for their friends.
The stage was so large that Gollender remembers having two bands set up on different parts of the stage while the master of ceremonies entertained the crowd at the other end.
Max Weinberg, drummer for Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band and “The Conan O'Brien Show,” once said in an interview that those talent shows at the Royal served as a source of inspiration.
‘'There was so much excitement,“ said Gollender, who returned to the decrepit theater for the first time this week. "It’s crushing to see. It’s like seeing your grandfather die in a nursing home.”
When the theater opened in February 1926, it was the crown jewel of local businessman Joseph Stern’s circuit of about 20 regional theaters.
Stern bragged about the Royal’s cooling and heating systems, the marble staircase and the private telephone booths with parquet floors.
The theater was built in Italian Renaissance style and was capable of accommodating 500 people. A $40,000 Wurlitzer Hope-Jones organ was inside for live performances.
John Wright, 50, a truck driver who has lived in Bloomfield for most of his life, learned about the theater inside out when he was a teen.
In the late 1960s, Wright earned his first real paycheck as an usher at the Royal Theater.
While traveling the back halls of the Royal in his duties as usher, Wright says he saw the organ loft, ornate mirrors and detailed plaster moldings and knew the theater was special.
‘'We knew that this theater was a magnificent showcase when it was built,“ Wright said. "It’s a landmark, not an eyesore. There’s a big difference.”
The town purchased the theater for $500,000 using federal community development money in 1998 after Cineplex Odeon closed the Royal because of sagging attendance.
The theater was showing mainly urban action films and comedies before it closed, but it was once a popular destination for area residents to catch cheap family-oriented films.
‘'Back in the 1950s, it was the place to be seen,“ said Skinner, who remembers seeing her first Elvis Presley film there. "It’s heartbreaking to see it go.”
Wright said he would have loved to see the town keep the theater and use it to attract downtown visitors like Montclair’s arthouse theaters.
‘'A drug store is not going to bring people in to support the theater,“ Wright said. "The town doesn’t need to make money, just attract people.”
That plan probably wouldn’t work, according to the various studies commissioned on how to revive the downtown. The most recent study, issued in May and conducted by the Cranbury-based Atlantic Group, concluded that the theater’s land was needed for development to progress.
‘'We have to reinvent downtown Bloomfield and this is the first step,“ Kane said.
CAPTION(S):
Bloomfield Administrator Mauro Tucci, left, and talent promoter Walter Gollender at the Royal Theater.
The Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ), July 3, 1998 p029
Owner to build on cinema experience. (MORRIS)
Full Text: COPYRIGHT 1998 The Star-Ledger. All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of The Star-Ledger by the Gale Group, Inc.
Byline: Lawrence Rangonese
Art-house movie lovers in the Morris County area finally may get their share of hard-to-find independent and foreign-film offerings from a theater company that already owns a majority of the screens in the county.
The Chatham-based Clearview Cinema Group has bought the Headquarters 10 Theatres in Morristown and plans to turn the popular complex into two “movie experiences” – one geared towards adults and the other aimed at a younger audience. It also wants to expand and improve theater complexes in Roxbury and Kinnelon.
‘ We see Morristown as one of the nicest cities in this area and foresee a renaissance there in the next several years,“ said Bud Mayo, president and chief executive officer of Clearview, which has taken aim at audiences in upscale, suburban areas. "We intend to make Morristown our flagship theater in North Jersey.”
With the purchase of the Headquarters Plaza theaters from American Multi-Cinema Inc., or AMC Theaters, Clearview now controls 50 of the 75 movie screens in Morris County. Its roster includes the Chester Cinema 6 in Chester Township, Kin-Mall 8 in Kinnelon, Madison Cinema 4, Parsippany Cinema 12 and Succasunna Cinema 10 in Roxbury.
The following projects are on the drawing board for Clearview, a publicly traded company:
[currency]Remodeling and expansion of the Succasunna 10, adding 5 to 8 screens. It would become the largest of Clearview’s 34 theaters in North Jersey and Westchester County, Long Island and Rockland County in New York.
[currency]Reopening the currently dark and dilapidated Meadtown Theater in Kinnelon, turning it into an 11-screen complex that would complement the nearby Kin-Mall 8.
[currency]Constructing a 15-screen movie house in Mansfield Township in neighboring Warren County.
Mayo said his company has been negotiating with AMC for the past year to buy the Morristown theaters, which he said are profitable but could do a lot better. AMC still owns 12 theaters at the Rockaway Townsquare mall but has considered closing down some of them in the past year. AMC officials could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Clearview’s plans for Morristown include:
Turning the lower level into a haven for art, foreign, independent and sophisticated commercial films, such as “The Horse Whisperer,” “The Truman Show,” “Cousin Bette,” “The Last Days of Disco” and the “Opposite of Sex.” It would include fine art prints on the walls and upscale concession stands that would serve biscotti and imported chocolates.
Tailoring the upper level to the tastes of children and younger moviegoers, focusing on animated movies, action/adventure flicks and youthful comedies. A brightly colored lobby would have video games, and concessions would include nachos and pizza.
Adding improved signs in the parking and elevator areas, brighter lights in the mall and ticket area to make customers feel safer, and placing floral arrangements and other amenities in the lobby to make it look and feel more like a hotel entrance.
‘ There are two distinct audiences for movies,“ said Mayo. "You have baby boomers, empty nesters and senior citizens, who want to have one experience. And there are kids and college-age crowds. Never the twain shall meet. They are both looking for a different experience, and we see Morristown as a kind of hybrid for us.”
The single-screen Chatham Cinema, currently showing “Buffalo 66,” is the only art-house movie theater in Morris County. Area residents interested in movies other than big Hollywood blockbusters usually are forced to go elsewhere in the state or to New York City.
Bob Roberts, owner of the Chatham Cinema, Lost Picture Show in Union and Wellmont Theatre in Montclair, said he has been successful in drawing adults by offering a more cultured atmosphere and treating customers with courtesy, in addition to presenting harder-to-find movies.
Another article on the closing:
The Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ), August 18, 1998 p027
Closing of neighborhood theater leaves movie patrons feeling blue. (UNION)
Full Text: COPYRIGHT 1998 The Star-Ledger. All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of The Star-Ledger by the Gale Group, Inc.
Byline: Cathy Bugman
Some moviegoers saw “Jaws” there. Some took a date who eventually became their spouse. Still others went as children and years later took their own children.
Many have memories linked to the Blue Star cinema in Watchung, which closed Sunday after a 36-year run.
``This is really, really sad,“ Edna Wilks of Plainfield said just hours before the theater screened its final film, the thriller "Snake Eyes,” at 10:10 p.m.
``I’ve been coming here since the ‘70s. This is right in the neighborhood."
The white brick-and-tinted glass movie house in the Blue Star Shopping Center on Route 22 was a neighborhood theater for many years after the closings of the Strand, Liberty, Paramount and Oxford theaters in nearby Plainfield over the decades. ``This was the one that was left that was fairly convenient to get to,“ said Hope Thompson of Plainfield.
And, finding a parking space in the shopping center lot was no problem, other patrons pointed out.
General Cinema pulled the plugs on the projectors in the four-screen theater because of sagging ticket sales.
``It was not as competitive as we needed it to be,“ said Brian Callaghan, spokesman for General Cinema, with headquarters in Chestnut Hill, Mass.
Area multiplexes – like the 10-screen Loews in Mountainside and six-screen Rialto in Westfield – brought pressure on Blue Star.
Among its many patrons were senior citizens, who enjoyed the quiet, unhurried atmosphere.
``I don’t like to see it closed,“ said Marie Murphy, president of the Watchung Seniors, who last was in the theater a few weeks ago.
``I don’t see why it should be. It was nice that it was open during the afternoons, so you didn’t have to run to the Bridgewater Commons, which is some distance, or Mountainside, which is not exactly around the corner."
Some patrons appeared surprised to learn of the theater’s closing Sunday. About a half-dozen signs, printed on 9-by-11-inch paper, hung on the box office window and doors announcing the closure.
``Attention, Attention!!!!! To our loyal customers and guests, Blue Star General Cinema’s last day of operation will be Aug. 16,“ it read. "The managers and staff would like to take this time to thank you for your patronage over the years. Thanks, and hope to see you at the movies.”
Watchung Mayor Anthony Addario called the theater’s closing unfortunate.
``I’m sorry to see it go, but it’s a sign of the times,“ he said. "It’s being replaced by more multiplexes.”
Plans have been approved for another theater less than a mile away with 16 screens, part of the proposed Watchung Square Mall.
While Crystal Jenkins of Union Township is sentimental about small theaters like Blue Star, calling them “quaint,” the developer of Watchung Square does not share that emotion.
``There are a lot of things in the world to be sad about, but the closing of the Blue Star cinema does not move me in the least,“ developer Sal Davino said.
Some businesses in Blue Star are preparing for a loss of customers as a result of the closing.
``I’m sure it will hurt us; it will hurt all of us,“ said Nalda Ciani, who along with her husband, Richard, owns the Baskin-Robbins ice cream parlor in the shopping center.
She and Robert Castro, manager of Frank’s Pizzeria a few doors down, expressed frustration that planned improvements to the entire complex’s facade and landscaping were promised by mall management two years ago, but nothing has been done.
``Who wants to come to an unattractive place?“ Castro asked.
Jeanne Connor, vice president of marketing for Federal Realty and Investment Trust of Rockville, Md., which has a lease on the property, said tenants can look forward to an upgrade soon.
CAPTION(S):
Aubrey Dancy, manager of the Blue Star cinema in Watchung, packs up unsold candy for shipment to other theaters.
The Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ), Nov 9, 2003 p001
In toon; Director and N.J. native Joe Dante is animated about his latest big-screen opus – and that’s not all, folks. (SPOTLIGHT)
Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2003 The Star-Ledger. All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of The Star-Ledger by the Gale Group, Inc.
Byline: LISA ROSE
If you pay close attention to the films of Joe Dante, you’ll notice the name “Colony” comes up often.
In “Gremlins,” it’s the movie house where the mischievous creatures are torched. In “The Howling,” it refers to a New Age retreat with a sinister secret. In “Explorers,” it’s the drive-in theater where three pre-teen rocketeers crash-land.
The name doesn’t recur by accident. It’s a nod to the Colony Theatre, the old-time Livingston picture palace where the Jersey native first got bitten by the film bug.
Today, the Colony is a woeful husk of a building, closed for two years and slated for redevelopment into a shopping center. But when Dante was a grade-schooler during the 1950s, it was the magical Saturday matinee destination where he experienced such B-classics as “This Island Earth” and “The Incredible Shrinking Man.”
“It would be a quarter to get in,” said Dante, 56. “The first boy and girl got in free, so you’d line up at 11 a.m. even though the show didn’t start till 1 p.m. They would run 10 cartoons and two pictures. For years, I used to leave after the cartoons because (the feature attractions) had grownups in them and girls and it wasn’t interesting. Then one day I saw ‘It Came from Outer Space’ in 3-D and I was hooked. From then on, I haunted the place. It was like going to church.” ……..
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.
Opened in October 1998.
The Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ), Dec 9, 1998 p039
The Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ), Oct 1, 1998 p001
Choir does a rerun of ‘Silent Night’ at special screening of new movie In Maplewood, Christmas again comes early as Streep film opens. (IN THE TOWNS)
Byline: Ada Brunner
Christmas came early to Maplewood this year for the second year in a row.
Last year, it arrived in November, when 20 members of the Morrow Memorial Church Choir gathered on the pavement near the local movie theater to sing “Silent Night.”
This year, Yuletide was even earlier. Those same 20 carolers, along with the rest of the Morrow choir and other townspeople and out-of-town visitors, celebrated in September.
All of it was in connection with the film “One True Thing,” starring Meryl Streep, William Hurt and Renee Zellweger, which was shot in part in Maplewood and features members of the Morrowchoir as well as some 150 extras from the area.
Based on a novel by Anna Quindlen, the movie opened nationwide Sept. 18. But some 450 local and area residents got an advance look at it at a preview in the Maplewood Theatre the night before. The special screening, a benefit for the Maplewood Village Alliance (the corporation that manages the Maplewood Village special improvement district), was the highlight of an evening that started with a procession from the Women’s Club, led by the Youth Orchestra of Essex County playing “When the Saints Go Marchin' In.” When the walkers arrived at the theater, the choir, directed by David Hutchings of Colonia, gave a brief outdoor concert, singing “Silent Night,” “Angels We Have Heard on High” and “Every Time I Feel the Spirit.”
After the screening of the film, a reception was held at the Burgdorff Cultural Center, with the choir once again performing. It sang “Amazing Grace,” “Music Has Brought Us Together” and a new version of “Silent Night” – one with words by choir member Mary Sims of Maplewood, describing what it’s like to be in a movie.
Area residents had learned what it’s like about a year earlier, when they learned of the decision to use Maplewood as a stand-in for Langhorne, Pa., the town where Quindlen’s story is set. ……..
This one goes back to the late 40s or early 50s. Here is a nostalgic look at NJ drive ins, including the Morris Plains:
The Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ), Nov 3, 2002 p003
The king of the drive-in. (PERSPECTIVE)
Byline: FRAN WOOD
My first visit to a drive-in movie theater came shortly after World War II.
My parents bundled my sister, brother and me into our pajamas, piled us into the back seat of our blue Plymouth sedan (still equipped with the wooden bumpers used on cars during the war), and took us to the Morris Plains Drive-In to see a movie about the Titanic.
The idea, of course, was that we children would soon fall asleep and the grownups would have the rare treat of quietly enjoying a movie.
My sister and brother went along with the program. I didn’t. I stayed awake and scared myself silly.
I was remembering this the other day and wondering which Titanic movie it had been, as none of those made about the fateful maiden voyage of that famous ocean liner was released in the late 1940s. The one starring Barbara Stanwyck and Clifton Webb came out in ‘53, and the one before that was a German propaganda film released a decade earlier. My parents weren’t big moviegoers. They had a consuming interested in current events, however, so they surely would have been drawn to a showing of the German film. Is it possible that film made the rounds of U.S. theaters after the war?
Unfortunately, one of the few people who might have answered that question passed away recently – Wilfred “Bill” Paul Smith, who built most of New Jersey’s drive-in theaters.
In fact, he assisted on the very first drive-in theater in the world, which – provided you don’t count a fairly unsuccessful attempt in 1927 to project a movie onto the side of a barn in Valley Stream, Long Island – was built by Richard Hollingshead in Camden in 1933.
Smith and Hollingshead went on to build more – an achievement noted in, among other places, the Smithsonian Institution.
But Bill Smith wasn’t just a builder. He was a movie buff, dedicated enough that I’ll bet he would have known exactly which Titanic movie I saw.
“Dad could tell you the names of the sound guys, the producers, everyone connected with a film,” says his son, Wilfred P. Jr., of Denville.
So it was logical, says Bill Jr., that after building all these drive-ins for other people, Bill Sr. finally built two for himself, in Ledgewood (1950) and Newton (1957).
“Every Monday morning he’d take the Lakeland bus into New York to order his movies,” Bill Jr. recalls. That was the day studio agents gathered at Sardi’s to give theater owners a preview of coming attractions.
“Dad would make a selection and cut the deal,” says Smith. “It might be a flat rate of, say, $300. Or it would be a percent of the gross – 40-45 percent in most cases. Except for Walt Disney; he always got 60-65 percent.”
I didn’t get to the drive-in as much as some of my friends, because I couldn’t go there on dates. I had a strict father who was quite aware they were called “passion pits” and why. When I was 17 he relented; I could go to a drive-in on a double date.
Smith’s kids didn’t get to go to the drive-in on dates, either – but for an entirely different reason. They were working. Right there. Theirs was a family business, according to Bill Jr., who says he, his brother and three sisters mowed the lawns, repaired broken speakers, stocked the refreshment stand, and sold tickets and popcorn. Then they came back for morning-after cleanup, “fighting the crows and skunks for the pizza crusts.”
At first, in any case, this was just a warm-weather enterprise. Then car heaters came along, and Bill Smith was first in line, extending his open season.
“Dad was a pioneer for plug-in heaters,” says Bill Jr. “Ours were made by the Arvin Heater Company.”
But he still closed for the coldest months, and since his large family kept needing food and clothing, Bill Sr. would spend those months working at MacGregor, a sweater and woolens manufacturer in Dover. It was an odd combination, but it did the job, right up until he retired in 1975.
He’d been one of the first in the drive-in business, and as it turned out, he was one of the last, at least in New Jersey. Escalating land values, property taxes and insurance costs made drive-ins a passing if fondly remembered piece of Americana in these parts.
New Jersey’s very last drive-in, on Route 35 in Hazlet, closed a few years ago, which I know because my husband and I went there on its next-to-last night, for nostalgia’s sake. The last picture show was “Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man,” which was not anywhere near as memorable as my Titanic flick.
Until I read his obituary, Wilfred Smith’s name would have rung no bells for me. The people behind our entertainment pastimes rarely become household names.
But anyone who grew up in the ‘40s, '50s or '60s probably would join me in a tip of the hat to Smith for all those happy long-ago hours spent watching movies from the cozy confines of their cars.
Even when they were supposed to be asleep.
Fran Wood is a Star-Ledger columnist.
Article CJ93896015
Built by Wilfred “Bill” Paul Smith for himself. Smith, who built most of New Jersey’s drive-in theaters, assisted on the very first drive-in theater in the world (Camden).
The Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ), Nov 3, 2002 p003
The Record (Bergen County, NJ), Nov 25, 1997 pB3
CLEARVIEW CINEMA BUYS 2 MULTIPLEXES. (BUSINESS)(NEW JERSEY REPORT)
MADISON – Clearview Cinema Group Inc. announced Monday that it has acquired two multiplex theaters from the Succasunna-based Nelson Ferman Theater organization for $19.5 million. The theaters, both in Morris County, are the Parsippany 12 at the Morris Hills Shopping Center in Parsippany and the Cinema 10 Theater in the Roxbury Mall in Succasunna.
Article CJ70658718
The Record (Bergen County, NJ), Nov 25, 1997 pB3
CLEARVIEW CINEMA BUYS 2 MULTIPLEXES. (BUSINESS)(NEW JERSEY REPORT)
MADISON – Clearview Cinema Group Inc. announced Monday that it has acquired two multiplex theaters from the Succasunna-based Nelson Ferman Theater organization for $19.5 million. The theaters, both in Morris County, are the Parsippany 12 at the Morris Hills Shopping Center in Parsippany and the Cinema 10 Theater in the Roxbury Mall in Succasunna.
Article CJ70658718
The Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ), April 21, 1998 p049
Theater works on deal with Rockaway mall. (MORRIS)
Byline: Lawrence Ragonese
The AMC movie theaters inside the Rockaway Townsquare mall will remain open for the immediate future, as mall owners and theater company officials try to negotiate a long-term deal.
John Acker, general manager of the mall located off Routes 80 and 15 in Rockaway Township, confirmed yesterday that a short-term lease extension has been signed while the two sides talk about future plans.
Some AMC officials said in late 1996 that they planned to close the popular six-screen Inner Six Theaters, saying they were not too profitable. American Multi-Cinema Inc.’s lease at the Rockaway mall was due to expire at the end of 1997. The Inner Six opened about two decades ago and was the Morris County area’s first multi-theater complex. The Outer Six Theaters, located in a strip mall on the other side of the access road that circles the Townsquare mall, were not supposed to be affected.
Acker would not detail the length of the current lease or the possible terms of a new deal, saying it would be improper to divulge such information while talks are ongoing. He stressed, however, that movie theaters are in the mall’s long-term plans.
“One way or the other, there will always be theaters here,” said Acker, noting there is plenty of room for expansion, if needed.
Gary Haak, an AMC spokesman, also confirmed the short-term deal, but he did not return several phone calls over for the past two weeks to answer questions about AMC’s long-term plans.
The national movie theater chain’s future lies with complexes of 20 to 30 theaters, according to company officials. There are more than two dozen mega-complexes operating in the South, Midwest and West, and there are plans to eventually open some in New Jersey.
“We’re looking everywhere in the world right now,” Sonny Stuffle, marketing director for AMC’s Northeast division, said in 1996. “The idea is to hold movies over longer, to play them more than two weeks … giving us some room when there are several blockbusters running at once,” said Stuffle, who has not responded to recent phone calls.
But Stuffle stressed that existing smaller movie complexes, like the 10-screen Morristown theater complex, would remain open especially if they remain profitable.
AMC’s Rockaway Township and Morristown theaters drew the major share of Morris County moviegoers until recent years, when a Sony 12-plex theater opened in East Hanover and another 12-plex opened in Parsippany. There also is a 10-plex theater in the Succasunna section of Roxbury, an eight- theater complex in Kinnelon, six-screen theater in Chester, four-plex in Madison and a one-screen art- movie house in Chatham Township.
Article CJ81722534
The Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ), May 29, 2002 p013
Those old theater organs have become piping hot; Movie houses revive sounds of the silents. (NEW JERSEY)
Byline: JIM LOCKWOOD
It’s not every keyboardist who gets to see his name in lights, but John Baratta is the marquee attraction in Newton. It is as if an old friend has come home.
After a half-century absence, the full orchestral sounds of an antique pipe organ are reverberating again inside the Newton Theatre.
A relic of the 1920s silent-film era, the theater organ makes its rich sounds by pushing air through pipes – a far cry from today’s digital techno-beats and electronic wizardry that require speakers. But for Nelson Page, who installed the Newton Theatre organ, the old instrument is a “living, breathing” entity, with a future tied to its past.
“What’s old is new again. It’s a step back into yesteryear,” said Page, president of the American Theatre Organ Society, a group with 100 chapters worldwide.
Cathy Martin, president of the Garden State Theatre Organ Society, said the instrument’s popularity is rising, due in part to a resurgence in interest in silent films, as well as in theater organs themselves.
Martin – who with her husband, Robert, installed a theater organ at their Little Falls home a decade ago – said there may be as few as 100 to 150 fully functioning theater organs in existence, 20 of them in New Jersey. Page puts the number in theaters and homes around the country at 500.
A long-forgotten organ at Newark Symphony Hall was recently restored. That instrument had not been played for some 50 years, and few people even knew it still existed, because the keyboard console had been removed years ago. But the pipe chamber remained intact, and the Garden State society helped bring it back into action, Martin said.
In 1994, Page installed two vintage organs at the Galaxy Triplex cinema in Guttenberg, one for the lobby and the other for the theater section. Other recent efforts to restore pipe organs have taken place in Asbury Park and Jersey City.
Reflecting on the restoration efforts, Page said: “I think they are on an upswing because there’s a greater amount of interest being developed in this uniquely American art form. It’s a search for nostalgia. People are looking for a simpler, bygone era.”
Some 10,000 theater organs were made by a dozen companies during the silent-film heyday of 1919 to 1929. Most were scrapped long ago, Page said.
The Newton Theatre, built in 1924, had an orchestra pit that once boasted two organs, including the largest pipe organ in Sussex County. Page guesses they were removed around the World War II era, as theaters switched to recorded music.
Page and employees spent 10 months transplanting an Organunique pipe organ to the theater on Spring Street in Newton from a private residence in Clifton.
Compared with other pipe organs, this one is small: two keyboards, 32 foot pedals and 24 stops, the switches that operate the sets of sounds. (The phrase “pulling out all the stops” stems from organ playing.)
Moving even a small pipe organ was no easy task because of the hundreds of components that had to be taken apart, restored and reassembled, Page said.
A separate room was built backstage for the pipe organ’s unseen guts, including some 200 metal (zinc and tin) and wooden pipes, and various mechanical parts, such as a blower, windchest, and regulator, that work in concert to produce sounds.
Volume is controlled by a foot pedal that opens and closes swell shades, a sort of Venetian blind between the pipe room and theater seating.
The instrument, believed to date to the mid-1920s, made its debut in Newton seven weeks ago. It is played Saturday nights by John Baratta, organist for the First Presbyterian Church in Newton and Roxbury middle school band director, during intermission, around 6:30 to 7 p.m., in one of the theater’s twin cinemas.
Inside the dimly lit theater, Baratta is silhouetted by a small light over the sheet music. All four of his limbs move as he plays, with hands working the keyboards and feet tapping bass pedals.
Baratta glides through a set of tunes, flowing from one into another, seemingly effortlessly.
“The response has been favorable so far,” Baratta said. “At first I was afraid of the response I’d get, because it’s so different from anything else. It’s not canned music.”
No, Page notes, this is live entertainment to an audience that at times spans all ages (depending on what movie is playing).
Baratta laughed as he recalled the time a young girl requested “Over the Rainbow” and a young boy suggested Baratta pipe down, because the music was too loud for his taste.
While some teenagers on a recent Saturday night seemed oblivious to it all, others took notice. “It’s interesting. We’ve never seen it before. We’re used to music from the speakers,” one said.
Newton senior citizen Lucy Mathews said the pipe organ music is “just like the old days.”
To Page, who does not play the instrument himself, such sentiments are music to his ears. Introducing the theater organ to someone who never heard it before, or reintroducing it to someone who has, achieves his goal of promoting the instrument and, he hopes, makes the moviegoing experience more enjoyable.
“They get a little extra for their movie dollar,” Page said.
CAPTION(S):
It’s not every keyboardist who gets to see his name in lights, but John Baratta is the marquee attraction in Newton.
Bob Miloche of Maywood makes sure last Wednesay that the pipe organ in the Newton Theatre is in fine form for John Baratta’s Saturday night performance.
RICH SCHULTZ/FOR THE STAR-LEDGER
STEVE KLAVER/THE STAR-LEDGER
Article CJ86433844
Operator Richard Nathan closed this theater in September 1997. Nelson Page of Ridgefield then took over.
The Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ), August 16, 1998 p035
Washington theater will get face lift. (COUNTY NEWS)
Operator Richard Nathan closed this theater in September 1997. Nelson Page of Ridgefield then took over.
The Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ), August 16, 1998 p035
Washington theater will get face lift. (COUNTY NEWS)
History of the independent ownership referenced in the title description:
The Record (Bergen County, NJ), July 3, 1996 pB1
A CINEMATIC REVIVAL; HOLLYWOOD AND CEDAR LANE; SECOND-RUN MOVIE HOUSE GETS FACE LIFT. (BUSINESS) L. Coleman-Lochner.
By L. COLEMAN-LOCHNER, Staff Writer
(Frank) Manis and his wife, Lynn, also own the second-run Cinema 35 in Paramus through their Hudson Amusements organization. ….
article about the new (in 1996) owner. This owner was probably the one prior to Galaxy.
The Record (Bergen County, NJ), July 3, 1996 pB1
A CINEMATIC REVIVAL; HOLLYWOOD AND CEDAR LANE; SECOND-RUN MOVIE HOUSE GETS FACE LIFT. (BUSINESS) L. Coleman-Lochner.
Full Text: COPYRIGHT 1996 Bergen Record Corp.
By L. COLEMAN-LOCHNER, Staff Writer
It’s a premiere, so to speak, in Teaneck’s Cedar Lane shopping district: a refurbished second-run theater that will also screen art and foreign films.
The script began three weeks ago when Frank Manis, a Florida-based businessman, bought the cinema from the Edison-based Movie City chain.
Manis and his wife, Lynn, also own the second-run Cinema 35 in Paramus through their Hudson Amusements organization.
And Manis hopes to expand his cinematic empire further.
He is also eyeing the Rialto Theater in Ridgefield Park.
“The concept there is to try to control the whole market,” he said. Varying the offerings from theater to theater is also on the agenda.
“I think it has a tremendous amount of potential,” he said of the Rialto’s single screen.
In the meantime, there is the business of revamping the Teaneck theater, now named the Teaneck 3.
Scheduled over the next several months, the changes are already under way. Walls have been painted. The second snack bar has been reopened. Neon is being installed to brighten the lobby. Floors have been scraped and repainted. The stage around the screen has been repainted from black to red.
“We’re proud of it now – we’ve come a long way in only three weeks,” said Ed Jupin, the manager.
The renovation will cost between $50,000 and $75,000 and will include new screens, carpet, a marquee, and the replacement or refurbishment of the seats.
That will come at a cost to ticket holders: On Thursday, prices at both the Teaneck Theater and the single-screen Cinema 35 will increase from $2.50 to $3.
The new prices should be in effect for two years, Manis said.
With occupancy allowed for 1,100, he is investigating adding a fourth screen with about 125 seats upstairs, he said. The downstairs theaters seat 180, 265, and 390.
But ultimately, “it all depends on the product,” Manis said.
According to plans, that product will expand to include art and foreign films, Manis said.
“Once the kids go back to school in September, then we will start to be creative,” he said. Meanwhile, he added, the theater will build up its clientele.
At the single-screen Cinema 35, there is “a very regular customer following,” said Margot Moll, general manager for both theaters. And of those interested in art and foreign films, she said: “I always had a very, very loyal following.”
Manis of Boca Raton, Fla., owns nightclubs and has owned other first- and second-run theaters, including Gutenberg’s Galaxy, which he sold three years ago.
He didn’t like the first-run business, he said, and sold those theaters. Second-run “gives you an opportunity to pick the winners in first-run.”
Suppliers like it because if a movie isn’t a blockbuster and gets bumped from first-run houses, “the supplier of the film still wants to have it out there showing,” he said.
“I think there’s a tremendous market for it.”
When Manis bought the Teaneck theater, updating was in order.
“It was in major disrepair, and we felt that we needed to clean it up,” Jupin said. “I feel that the face lift should improve business.”
The district could use the help – plagued by numerous vacancies, it has tried to rally by creating a Special Improvement District.
Although the renovation is a work in progress, there have been “a lot of compliments,” Jupin said.
“A lot of the other merchants here feel that the new ownership is the talk of the town and could help their business.”
Others seem to agree.
“I’m happy that it’s being refurbished,” said David Alan, whose Cedar Lane salon is one of three in his eponymous chain. “I think it’s good for all.”
Although Alan was unambiguous in welcoming the refurbishing, he said it could exacerbate an existing problem: “There’s no place to park.”
Still, he said, it was a “very dirty theater” that probably lost customers as a result.
“A theater is good because it brings people to the area.”
Article CJ70809167
Looks like it was planned to be a CompUSA.
The Record (Bergen County, NJ), April 30, 1997 pB1
THE END FOR SMALL CINEMA; TOTOWA THEATER SUCCUMBS TO TREND. (BUSINESS) Kevin G. Demarrais.
Full Text: COPYRIGHT 1997 Bergen Record Corp.
By KEVIN G. DeMARRAIS, Staff Writer
At one time, it was known for its big screens and excellent sound quality, but the United Artists Cinema 46 in Totowa had been struggling of late, unable to compete with a bigger, brighter competitor down the road.
And so, with no fanfare, the three-screen movie theater passed into history this week, shutting its doors after Sunday’s final showing of “The Empire Strikes Back” to make way for a computer store.
By Tuesday, the large sign along Route 46, which last week was promoting a $1.99 admission, was blank.
About all that remained to identify the white building as a movie theater were three small decal signs on the doors and eight hexagon-shaped film canisters in the deserted lobby, awaiting their return to the distributor.
“Once Sony came in with 14 screens, they were dead,” said a clerk at the Holiday Inn next door.
The clerk was referring to the Sony theater a couple of miles west on Route 46, across from the Willowbrook Mall and Wayne Towne Center, which went through a makeover and expanded from eight to 14 screens last year.
At the same time Cinema 46 was losing business, its land was increasing in value as a Who’s Who of national and regional retailers converted a four-mile stretch on Route 46 west in West Paterson and Totowa into a major retail center.
The 11-acre plot on which the theater and Holiday Inn are built, between the Passaic River and Union Boulevard, is the only underdeveloped property in that four-mile stretch.
As a result, the land, which is owned by a partnership, S&T Associates of Totowa, is valued in the “tens of millions of dollars,” said Larry Liebowitz, president of Landmark Real Estate in Westwood. Liebowitz is the exclusive broker for the property.
The property has already undergone change, with part of a tennis club converted into a Pet Nosh (now Petco) superstore, and the movie site will become a 30,000-square foot CompUSA store, the Dallas-based chain’s fifth New Jersey outlet.
Most of the current building will be razed, and CompUSA is seeking to have the new store open by the fourth quarter of the year, in time for the holiday shopping season.
This is the second Totowa movie theater to have its site converted to retail use in the past four years. The Totowa Cinema, a two-screen theater about a half-mile west of Cinema 46, shut its doors in 1993 to make way for an office supply store.
Both theaters drew praise for the quality of their pictures and sound when The Record reviewed North Jersey theaters in 1988. But neither could compete with the multiscreen competitors that offered a wide choice of first-run films, even when Cinema 46 discounted its prices.
“The days of three-screen theaters are over,” Liebowitz said. “They did some business on the weekends, but they couldn’t compete with the Sony theater. It’s too expensive to operate.”
Closing small theaters is part of an industry trend. United Artists Theatre Circuit Inc., which operated Cinema 46, opened 15 new multiplex complexes with a total of 130 screens last year, and closed or sold 54 buildings with 245 screens.
Each of the new theaters had an average of 8.7 screens. The facilities that were cut averaged 4.5 screens.
Closing facilities such as Cinema 46 fits with United Artists' corporate strategy, as stated this month by Kurt C. Hall, the acting chief operating officer, to increase “efforts to dispose of older, less productive, or non-strategic theaters.”
The Denver-based company lost $46.6 million last year, which was nearly a third less than its $68.9 million loss in 1995.
Article CJ70689395
The Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ), Oct 7, 1998 p041
Small-town theater lover revives Washington cinema. (COUNTY NEWS)
Full Text: COPYRIGHT 1998 The Star-Ledger. All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of The Star-Ledger by the Gale Group, Inc.
Byline: David VanHorn
Nelson Page has never given up hope that small-town movie houses can compete against multiplex cinemas.
His latest revival is the twin cinema in Washington Borough, Warren County, which was saved by a local volunteer group before Page stepped in to undertake a $150,000 restoration.
‘'I always take the distressed locations,“ the 44-year-old Bergen County resident said. "I enjoy the challenge, I enjoy the work.”
The scheduled Oct. 16 reopening gives Page a head start in the competition for local movie fans. His will be the only operating movie house in Warren County until a 12-screen facility opens later this year in Pohatcong. Meanwhile, a 15-screen theater is under construction inside the former Jamesway store in Mansfield. The previous operator of the twin cinema, Richard Nathan, was so concerned about competition from multiplexes that he closed the theaters he ran in Washington Borough, Newton and Sparta in September 1997.
Page is not so worried. He predicts success in Washington, partly because business has been strong since he took over the two Sussex County theaters. He believes the Washington theater can offer what movie-goers want – a comfortable, convenient location with competitive prices for first-run flicks.
‘'It’s a matter of making sure it is pleasing to the eye. The difference is you’ve got to spend money to make money,“ said Page, who also runs a triple-screen theater in Guttenberg, Hudson County.
Exterior work on the Washington theater includes repairs to the leaky roof, marquee renovations, new windows and poster cases – and plenty of paint. A new neon sign proclaiming the theater as “the showplace of northwest New Jersey” will hang over the front doors, he said.
In the lobby, there will be new flooring and carpeting, renovations to the bathrooms and concession stand, more neon, new paint and wallpaper and a brass chandelier, Page said.
The two theaters will have new 18-by-45-foot screens, lighting, acoustical curtains and reupholstered seats. The walls, of Italian white marble with Indiana pink marble baseboards, show the 72- year-old building “was an opulent theater for its day,” he said.
Garbage removal was also a big part of the cleanup. Three large containers were needed to haul away trash from the upstairs and backstage offices and the theaters.
‘'We’ve tried to eradicate years and years and years of neglect,“ he said. "Old theaters like this need constant maintenance. They’re like senior citizens – you have to treat them with respect and care.”
Page credits the building’s salvation to Save The Area’s Regional Theater, or START, a grassroots group that stepped forward to run the theater after Nathan bowed out. START ended its operations in mid-August – the same time Page signed a 10-year lease – so the group could concentrate on raising money to turn the building into a regional arts center.
Besides working with START on future projects, Page wants to revive a piece of the theater’s history by installing an antique pipe organ backstage for live performances on Fridays and Saturdays.
‘'In order to be competitive with all the new theaters that are opening, you have to create a niche. You gotta do something a little different to make the people want to come and see your place,“ he said.
Page has a pipe organ in his theater in Guttenberg, while another to be installed next year in Newton to commemorate that theater’s 75th anniversary is being restored in the backstage area of the Washington building. The machine, made in California in 1925, has hundreds of metal and wooden pipes ranging in length from three-quarters of an inch to 16 feet, he said.
‘'Imagine 740 playing at the same time,“ Page said after blowing into one of the pipes. "You get a mighty roar.”
CAPTION(S):
Alan Pacheco, manager of the soon to reopen twin cinema in Washington, gets the popcorn machine ready for movie patrons. <par>
PHOTO BY ROBERT EBERLE
Article CJ81663124
The Totowa Cinema, a two-screen theater about a half-mile west of Cinema 46, shut its doors in 1993 to make way for an office supply store.
The Record (Bergen County, NJ), April 30, 1997 pB1
The Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ), Oct 1, 2000 p035
Curtain to drop on the old Royal. (COUNTY NEWS)
Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2000 The Star-Ledger. All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of The Star-Ledger by the Gale Group, Inc.
Byline: JEFFERY C. MAYS
Bloomfield’s Royal Theater stands vacant, almost sagging, on Bloomfield Avenue these days.
There hasn’t been a concert, movie or show at the venue in at least two years.
The only sign of life is the theater’s marquee, which flashes “You’re in Bloomfield … Drive Safely,” to travelers along Bloomfield Avenue.
Inside the once-ornate theater is a hard-hat area with chunks of falling plaster, pigeon feathers and a flooded basement.
The town council thinks the theater stands in the way of progress and plans to demolish the building this winter to make room for a mall and a parking garage – two projects officials hope will invigorate Bloomfield’s downtown. ‘'The best use for the land on which the theater sits is modern retail space to attract national and regional retailers and parking,“ said Don Smartt, project director for the Bloomfield Center Alliance, which represents downtown businesses in the redevelopment efforts. "If we are going to capture the market potential from Midtown Direct, fill vacant stores and meet niche shopping needs, the theater must be demolished.”
After years of debating the building’s fate, politicians are itching for a sign of change in the downtown.
Knocking down the theater, which has become a symbol of downtown morass, will make a titanic statement that the town is serious about economic redevelopment, they say.
‘'Everyone has been waiting for some concrete action. Up until now, downtown redevelopment has been all about planning and studies,“ said Councilman-at-large Tim Kane. "It’s part of Bloomfield’s past, and change is inevitable.”
The township is already looking for the lowest bidder. Town Engineer Anthony Marucci received the go- ahead last week to advertise for the demolition of the building.
‘'The building is in terrible shape. There was water in the basement and falling plaster everywhere. We received an estimate of $10 million to restore the theater,“ said Town Administrator Mauro Tucci, who remembers spending his Saturday afternoons at the theater as a kid. "It’s such a tragedy that it’s outgrown its usefulness.”
There’s no committee to save the Royal, as often happens when popular landmarks are scheduled to meet the wrecking ball.
Township officials say the building has no significant historical value and is simply not worth saving.
Councilwoman-at-large Martha Skinner considered using the building as a meeting place for the Bloomfield Youth Guidance Council until she toured it earlier this year. “Right now, it’s a safety hazard,” she said.
But every time Walter Gollender passes the theater, he can’t help but think of the day in April 1965 when kids were lined around the block to get in.
There were marble floors, red velvet and a lot of fun.
Gollender, a local promoter, was sponsoring a talent show at the theater, and the cost of admission was $1.25, the same as for a matinee. Local high school kids had a chance to display their talent for their friends.
The stage was so large that Gollender remembers having two bands set up on different parts of the stage while the master of ceremonies entertained the crowd at the other end.
Max Weinberg, drummer for Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band and “The Conan O'Brien Show,” once said in an interview that those talent shows at the Royal served as a source of inspiration.
‘'There was so much excitement,“ said Gollender, who returned to the decrepit theater for the first time this week. "It’s crushing to see. It’s like seeing your grandfather die in a nursing home.”
When the theater opened in February 1926, it was the crown jewel of local businessman Joseph Stern’s circuit of about 20 regional theaters.
Stern bragged about the Royal’s cooling and heating systems, the marble staircase and the private telephone booths with parquet floors.
The theater was built in Italian Renaissance style and was capable of accommodating 500 people. A $40,000 Wurlitzer Hope-Jones organ was inside for live performances.
John Wright, 50, a truck driver who has lived in Bloomfield for most of his life, learned about the theater inside out when he was a teen.
In the late 1960s, Wright earned his first real paycheck as an usher at the Royal Theater.
While traveling the back halls of the Royal in his duties as usher, Wright says he saw the organ loft, ornate mirrors and detailed plaster moldings and knew the theater was special.
‘'We knew that this theater was a magnificent showcase when it was built,“ Wright said. "It’s a landmark, not an eyesore. There’s a big difference.”
The town purchased the theater for $500,000 using federal community development money in 1998 after Cineplex Odeon closed the Royal because of sagging attendance.
The theater was showing mainly urban action films and comedies before it closed, but it was once a popular destination for area residents to catch cheap family-oriented films.
‘'Back in the 1950s, it was the place to be seen,“ said Skinner, who remembers seeing her first Elvis Presley film there. "It’s heartbreaking to see it go.”
Wright said he would have loved to see the town keep the theater and use it to attract downtown visitors like Montclair’s arthouse theaters.
‘'A drug store is not going to bring people in to support the theater,“ Wright said. "The town doesn’t need to make money, just attract people.”
That plan probably wouldn’t work, according to the various studies commissioned on how to revive the downtown. The most recent study, issued in May and conducted by the Cranbury-based Atlantic Group, concluded that the theater’s land was needed for development to progress.
‘'We have to reinvent downtown Bloomfield and this is the first step,“ Kane said.
CAPTION(S):
Bloomfield Administrator Mauro Tucci, left, and talent promoter Walter Gollender at the Royal Theater.
TOM KITTS/THE STAR-LEDGER
Article CJ81277310
The Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ), July 3, 1998 p029
Owner to build on cinema experience. (MORRIS)
Full Text: COPYRIGHT 1998 The Star-Ledger. All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of The Star-Ledger by the Gale Group, Inc.
Byline: Lawrence Rangonese
Art-house movie lovers in the Morris County area finally may get their share of hard-to-find independent and foreign-film offerings from a theater company that already owns a majority of the screens in the county.
The Chatham-based Clearview Cinema Group has bought the Headquarters 10 Theatres in Morristown and plans to turn the popular complex into two “movie experiences” – one geared towards adults and the other aimed at a younger audience. It also wants to expand and improve theater complexes in Roxbury and Kinnelon.
‘ We see Morristown as one of the nicest cities in this area and foresee a renaissance there in the next several years,“ said Bud Mayo, president and chief executive officer of Clearview, which has taken aim at audiences in upscale, suburban areas. "We intend to make Morristown our flagship theater in North Jersey.”
With the purchase of the Headquarters Plaza theaters from American Multi-Cinema Inc., or AMC Theaters, Clearview now controls 50 of the 75 movie screens in Morris County. Its roster includes the Chester Cinema 6 in Chester Township, Kin-Mall 8 in Kinnelon, Madison Cinema 4, Parsippany Cinema 12 and Succasunna Cinema 10 in Roxbury.
The following projects are on the drawing board for Clearview, a publicly traded company:
[currency]Remodeling and expansion of the Succasunna 10, adding 5 to 8 screens. It would become the largest of Clearview’s 34 theaters in North Jersey and Westchester County, Long Island and Rockland County in New York.
[currency]Reopening the currently dark and dilapidated Meadtown Theater in Kinnelon, turning it into an 11-screen complex that would complement the nearby Kin-Mall 8.
[currency]Constructing a 15-screen movie house in Mansfield Township in neighboring Warren County.
Mayo said his company has been negotiating with AMC for the past year to buy the Morristown theaters, which he said are profitable but could do a lot better. AMC still owns 12 theaters at the Rockaway Townsquare mall but has considered closing down some of them in the past year. AMC officials could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Clearview’s plans for Morristown include:
Turning the lower level into a haven for art, foreign, independent and sophisticated commercial films, such as “The Horse Whisperer,” “The Truman Show,” “Cousin Bette,” “The Last Days of Disco” and the “Opposite of Sex.” It would include fine art prints on the walls and upscale concession stands that would serve biscotti and imported chocolates.
Tailoring the upper level to the tastes of children and younger moviegoers, focusing on animated movies, action/adventure flicks and youthful comedies. A brightly colored lobby would have video games, and concessions would include nachos and pizza.
Adding improved signs in the parking and elevator areas, brighter lights in the mall and ticket area to make customers feel safer, and placing floral arrangements and other amenities in the lobby to make it look and feel more like a hotel entrance.
‘ There are two distinct audiences for movies,“ said Mayo. "You have baby boomers, empty nesters and senior citizens, who want to have one experience. And there are kids and college-age crowds. Never the twain shall meet. They are both looking for a different experience, and we see Morristown as a kind of hybrid for us.”
The single-screen Chatham Cinema, currently showing “Buffalo 66,” is the only art-house movie theater in Morris County. Area residents interested in movies other than big Hollywood blockbusters usually are forced to go elsewhere in the state or to New York City.
Bob Roberts, owner of the Chatham Cinema, Lost Picture Show in Union and Wellmont Theatre in Montclair, said he has been successful in drawing adults by offering a more cultured atmosphere and treating customers with courtesy, in addition to presenting harder-to-find movies.
Article CJ81687380
Another article on the closing:
The Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ), August 18, 1998 p027
Closing of neighborhood theater leaves movie patrons feeling blue. (UNION)
Full Text: COPYRIGHT 1998 The Star-Ledger. All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of The Star-Ledger by the Gale Group, Inc.
Byline: Cathy Bugman
Some moviegoers saw “Jaws” there. Some took a date who eventually became their spouse. Still others went as children and years later took their own children.
Many have memories linked to the Blue Star cinema in Watchung, which closed Sunday after a 36-year run.
``This is really, really sad,“ Edna Wilks of Plainfield said just hours before the theater screened its final film, the thriller "Snake Eyes,” at 10:10 p.m.
``I’ve been coming here since the ‘70s. This is right in the neighborhood."
The white brick-and-tinted glass movie house in the Blue Star Shopping Center on Route 22 was a neighborhood theater for many years after the closings of the Strand, Liberty, Paramount and Oxford theaters in nearby Plainfield over the decades. ``This was the one that was left that was fairly convenient to get to,“ said Hope Thompson of Plainfield.
And, finding a parking space in the shopping center lot was no problem, other patrons pointed out.
General Cinema pulled the plugs on the projectors in the four-screen theater because of sagging ticket sales.
``It was not as competitive as we needed it to be,“ said Brian Callaghan, spokesman for General Cinema, with headquarters in Chestnut Hill, Mass.
Area multiplexes – like the 10-screen Loews in Mountainside and six-screen Rialto in Westfield – brought pressure on Blue Star.
Among its many patrons were senior citizens, who enjoyed the quiet, unhurried atmosphere.
``I don’t like to see it closed,“ said Marie Murphy, president of the Watchung Seniors, who last was in the theater a few weeks ago.
``I don’t see why it should be. It was nice that it was open during the afternoons, so you didn’t have to run to the Bridgewater Commons, which is some distance, or Mountainside, which is not exactly around the corner."
Some patrons appeared surprised to learn of the theater’s closing Sunday. About a half-dozen signs, printed on 9-by-11-inch paper, hung on the box office window and doors announcing the closure.
``Attention, Attention!!!!! To our loyal customers and guests, Blue Star General Cinema’s last day of operation will be Aug. 16,“ it read. "The managers and staff would like to take this time to thank you for your patronage over the years. Thanks, and hope to see you at the movies.”
Watchung Mayor Anthony Addario called the theater’s closing unfortunate.
``I’m sorry to see it go, but it’s a sign of the times,“ he said. "It’s being replaced by more multiplexes.”
Plans have been approved for another theater less than a mile away with 16 screens, part of the proposed Watchung Square Mall.
While Crystal Jenkins of Union Township is sentimental about small theaters like Blue Star, calling them “quaint,” the developer of Watchung Square does not share that emotion.
``There are a lot of things in the world to be sad about, but the closing of the Blue Star cinema does not move me in the least,“ developer Sal Davino said.
Some businesses in Blue Star are preparing for a loss of customers as a result of the closing.
``I’m sure it will hurt us; it will hurt all of us,“ said Nalda Ciani, who along with her husband, Richard, owns the Baskin-Robbins ice cream parlor in the shopping center.
She and Robert Castro, manager of Frank’s Pizzeria a few doors down, expressed frustration that planned improvements to the entire complex’s facade and landscaping were promised by mall management two years ago, but nothing has been done.
``Who wants to come to an unattractive place?“ Castro asked.
Jeanne Connor, vice president of marketing for Federal Realty and Investment Trust of Rockville, Md., which has a lease on the property, said tenants can look forward to an upgrade soon.
CAPTION(S):
Aubrey Dancy, manager of the Blue Star cinema in Watchung, packs up unsold candy for shipment to other theaters.
Article CJ81683138
The Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ), Nov 9, 2003 p001
In toon; Director and N.J. native Joe Dante is animated about his latest big-screen opus – and that’s not all, folks. (SPOTLIGHT)
Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2003 The Star-Ledger. All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of The Star-Ledger by the Gale Group, Inc.
Byline: LISA ROSE
If you pay close attention to the films of Joe Dante, you’ll notice the name “Colony” comes up often.
In “Gremlins,” it’s the movie house where the mischievous creatures are torched. In “The Howling,” it refers to a New Age retreat with a sinister secret. In “Explorers,” it’s the drive-in theater where three pre-teen rocketeers crash-land.
The name doesn’t recur by accident. It’s a nod to the Colony Theatre, the old-time Livingston picture palace where the Jersey native first got bitten by the film bug.
Today, the Colony is a woeful husk of a building, closed for two years and slated for redevelopment into a shopping center. But when Dante was a grade-schooler during the 1950s, it was the magical Saturday matinee destination where he experienced such B-classics as “This Island Earth” and “The Incredible Shrinking Man.”
“It would be a quarter to get in,” said Dante, 56. “The first boy and girl got in free, so you’d line up at 11 a.m. even though the show didn’t start till 1 p.m. They would run 10 cartoons and two pictures. For years, I used to leave after the cartoons because (the feature attractions) had grownups in them and girls and it wasn’t interesting. Then one day I saw ‘It Came from Outer Space’ in 3-D and I was hooked. From then on, I haunted the place. It was like going to church.” ……..
Currently I-64 passes over the former site
Entrance was from Route 60, exit onto adjacent Douthat Rd. (VA 629). Owner Gerald Mundy had been a partner in Roanoke’s Trail Drive-In.
History & photos:
http://www.driveins.4t.com/va-austinville.htm