A 1936 photo can be seen on page 117 of the Arcadia Publishing book “New Brunswick”.
Caption states that this theatre was renamed the International Theatre in 1972 but sadly DEMOLISHED in 1978. Located on Albany Street at the foot of the Albany Steet Bridge.
I think that this theatre may have also been known as the “RKO Albany”, which is listed at 41 Albany Street in the 1951 FDY. This maps fairly close to the bridge.
Will do Ken. I don’t get to Passaic too often, but I’ll keep an eye out for the theater in the local press.
If you’re interested in seeing the more suburban NJ cinemas on this trip let me know and perhaps I can provide some directions and/or a ride.
One recommendation for you is to take the Stanley Theater tour in Jersey City if you haven’t done so yet. I’ve seen the exterior but haven’t made it to the tour yet. Interior photos look fantastic. Easily accessible by public transit (PATH to Journal Square).
The Record (Hackensack, NJ), April 17, 2000 pa04
FINAL CREDITS FOR MOVIE HOUSE; CLIFTON SITE TO BE REDEVELOPED. (NEWS) Justo Bautista.
Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2000 Bergen Record Corporation
In its heyday in the 1950s, the Clifton Theatre on Main Avenue was where neighborhood youngsters went to see cartoons, Abbott and Costello and Three Stooges movies, and adventure serials.
On Sunday, the excitement was gone, and moviegoers who called were treated only to a recorded message indicating that the theater “will no longer be in operation. It will be closed indefinitely. Thank you.”
The two-story, 63-year-old theater will be making way for a redevelopment project that city officials hope will transform a stretch of Main Avenue into a prime service, office, and retail center.
“I can remember going with friends to Saturday matinees,” said Mayor James Anzaldi. “And once a year, the PTA would have movie day.
“It was good while it lasted,” he said. “But the theater business is so different today. Everything is plex, 16-plex.”
Over the years, as moviegoers flocked to theaters at the malls, the Clifton Theatre, near the Passaic border, still kept a small but loyal following: mostly residents from neighboring urban areas where there are no theaters showing mainstream movies.
The biggest crowds recently have been for films aimed at a minority audience _ “Selena” and “Waiting to Exhale.”
The Allwood Theater is the city’s only other old-time theater. Last year, a multiplex opened its doors in a new retail complex called Clifton Commons on Route 3 near the Nutley border.
The city plans to buy the building for $750,000 and sell it to a developer who promises to knock it down and bring in new businesses, possibly a pharmacy and a bank. The likely developer is Arc Properties of Clifton.
“This is the best way to do it,” said Anzaldi. He noted that strip stores and the Knights of Columbus building behind the theater are part of the redevelopment plan. The Knights' last dinner will be next month, he said.
“In order to develop that area, you need pedestrian traffic, car traffic,” he said.
The mayor said he expected construction at the theater site to get under way by the summer, providing the developer receives the proper city approvals.
The theater collapsed during demolition in early 1998:
The Record (Bergen County, NJ), Jan 25, 1998 pN1
EVERY MINUTE COUNTS, WHEN RESCUERS HIT THE STREET. (NEWS)(FROM THE FRONT LINE)
Full Text: COPYRIGHT 1998 Bergen Record Corp.
By ELAINE D'AURIZIO
Michael Drennan jumped off the rescue truck into sheer chaos.
Hysterical shoppers were running into the street screaming. Right behind them was the horrifying reason why: A huge, 75-year-old movie theater had collapsed in a deafening roar, pounding metal and bricks onto two stores next to it.
Capt. Drennan and his fellow fighters in Rescue 1 – a special tactical unit – had never seen a collapse this bad, no matter how long they had been with the Jersey City Fire Department.
“It looked like a war zone,” said Drennan, a 20-year veteran. “A good 20 feet of scaffolding and workman’s tools were hanging above us.”
They all knew the old State Theater on Journal Square was being torn down that week. But it was a holiday – Martin Luther King Day – so the workmen weren’t there when 70 feet of a free-standing brick wall crumbled, bringing down the roof and second and first floors of one-half of the theater. The wall crashed on two stores buzzing with shoppers, trapping some people in a tomb of concrete and steel.
“We didn’t know if there were 10 or 50 people trapped,” said Capt. Victor Petrocelli, who has been with the department 22 years.
The firefighters' first task is to get survivors out, but they didn’t want to lose any rescuers, either. They tried to assess the damage with their eyes. Warning signs that spell danger: an unstable floor, a wall that is cracked or leaning.
So much looked shaky at this scene. “It was an incredible entanglement above our heads, a web of twisted metal that included a jackhammer,” said Capt. Robert Cobb. “We had to keep our eye on that, too.”
“It looked bad, but it could get worse,” Drennan said. “There could be a secondary collapse.”
“We were worried about any breeze that could bring it down,” Cobb said.
The task of finding out how many were buried began by collaring the injured outside for information. Other firefighters visited hospitals to talk to the injured transported there. Were they missing anyone? Was somebody delivering mail that day?
“Someone might tell you, ‘I was at my desk when the UPS guy came in to deliver,’” Petrocelli said. “We have to make sure we don’t miss anybody. We try to cut those chances.”
Commanders kept watch outside on dangling debris as rescuers ventured into the building. Helping them was the New York City Specialized Collapse Unit and search dogs trained to scratch and bark when they locate a survivor in the rubble.
First, they removed what they call “surface survivors,” or those easily seen and the injured who made it outside. Because it was a holiday, students who usually attend secretarial classes in the building weren’t there. “If they had been there, they wouldn’t have had a chance,” said Drennan.
Within an hour, the men knew at least six people were in the building. They pulled out four. They knew there were two left.
“As you sift through the rubble, there’s this eerie feeling,” said Capt. Stephan Drennan. “You want to find people but you’re hoping no one is in there. And if they are, that they are not dead.”
Stephan Drennan was pulling up to the scene just as two firefighters were carrying out a 4-year-old child. The firefighters, Wayne Dombrowski and John Cariero, had raised the little girl’s head out of six inches of water caused by flooding from broken sprinklers and broken water pipes.
The girl suffered a broken leg. But her mother, who had tried to free her baby, was still in the basement.
“We realized we could not get at survivors from the top because debris would keep falling down,” said Stephan Drennan. So they descended the dark, 25 or 30 basement steps with torches and began gingerly removing the debris, brick by brick, with their hands.
“We used laundry baskets from the store to put the bricks in because our buckets weren’t enough,” Cobb said.
They were searching for “void spaces” where people could be trapped. “Every once in a while, we’d open a space and let the dogs go in. If they stopped and scratched or barked, we’d go to that area and start digging, brick by brick,” Cobb said.
One of the firefighters heard a murmur, which turned out to be not the mother but a 34-year-old woman. Using a power saw to cut through metal, they followed her cries to an open space where they found her critically injured, her lower body pinned and her pelvis fractured.
“She was wedged between the basement and the first floor, screaming for someone to get her out. The safest way was to take her from the first floor,” Stephan Drennan said.
From 2:30 p.m. until 11 p.m. they dug on their knees and pulled those trapped to safety, including the mother of the child. By the time it was over, 10 people were taken to Jersey City Medical Center, including a pregnant woman and two children. In all, 18 had been injured – but were alive.
Despite the arduous and nerve-racking work, some firefighters refused to take a break. They were working against the clock and every minute counted.
“You see something has to be done and your energy level goes up, but people need help and that’s what you’re there for – to help them,” said Petrocelli.
The 20-member heavy rescue unit is one of the more – if not the most – versatile in the state. Besides firefighting and accident extrications, they do rescues in the water, from high-rises and bridges, and save people trapped in industrial tanks, sewer pipes, and electrical tunnels.
When they returned to headquarters, the men were exhausted. Some talked with new admiration for firefighters who helped rescue people from the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City. This didn’t compare to it, but it was hard.
“When you hear people are trapped, you push it up a notch,” said Petrocelli. “You love the work because the unpredictable challenges, although dangerous, are exciting. And saving lives feels really good.”
The Record (Bergen County, NJ), Feb 4, 1997 pL1
PASCACK THEATER GETTING FACE LIFT; NEW PAINT, SOUND SYSTEM. (NEWS) Paul Rogers.
Full Text: COPYRIGHT 1997 Bergen Record Corp.
By PAUL ROGERS, Staff Writer
Ever since a spiffy crowd filed under its bright marquee to see “The Skyscraper,” starring William Boyd, on Aug. 30, 1928, the Pascack Theater has stood as a landmark in downtown Westwood.
Generations of moviegoers have lost themselves for an afternoon or an evening at the art deco cinema on Center Avenue, transfixed by giant images of the stars of the day, from Charlie Chaplin and Mary Pickford to Tom Cruise and Meryl Streep.
James Ransom, 84, remembers taking the woman who would become his wife, Ada Mead, to see shows there after graduating from Ridgewood High School in 1930: “That was a favorite spot back then for fellows to take their dates.”
Today, 12 years after it was converted from a single-screen theater to a modern “fourplex,” and nearly 70 years after it opened as a venue for vaudeville and film, the venerable Pascack is receiving a face lift.
Spiros Papas of North Arlington purchased the theater from United Artists in December and has begun to spruce it up. He has had the walls and bannisters painted pink and magenta, improved the sound system, and placed curtains at the sides of the screens to eliminate blank white borders.
Papas, who said he bought the brick movie house for $1.5 million, plans to adorn the now-undecorated lower marquee with the theater’s name, wraparound yellow lights, and a brass frame. He said he will replace a marquee above it with a new one that will list current showings.
Borough officials say they are pleased that the Pascack is being renovated. As a “gesture of goodwill,” the Parking Authority has reduced the amount it charges the theater for permitting customers to park in a metered, municipal lot a few doors away, said Administrator Charles Bellon. Papas will pay $200 for a six-month trial period, compared with the $500-a-month fee paid by United Artists.
Some Westwood residents, however, worry that the changes being made to the theater could destroy what few reminders remain of its earliest days.
“Nobody is denying that it’s got to be upgraded,” a longtime resident said. “But we are afraid that he doesn’t understand a lot of the interior – the art deco – and the history.”
But Papas, who owns a theater in North Arlington and one in Wayne, said the renovations will be made with the original architecture in mind. “We’d like to upgrade the theater but also keep it the way it’s supposed to be,” he said.
The theater was built at the end of the silent-film era, when ornate movie houses were being constructed across the country to meet the growing popularity of motion pictures. The Depression had yet to arrive.
“Theater owners made a lot of money during World War I, so they started investing it quite widely in those palaces in the early and mid-Twenties, and we see them being refurbished all over the country, if they haven’t been destroyed,” said George Stoney, a professor of film at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.
In North Jersey, many old cinemas that became unprofitable have been demolished or converted to other uses. Among them are the Oritani in Hackensack, the Queen Anne in Teaneck, and the Sharon in Fort Lee.
Others remain, like the Pascack, the Highway in Fair Lawn, and the Bellevue in Upper Montclair.
More common these days are multiplex theaters, many of them in shopping malls, which account for about 90 percent of the state’s 800 movie screens, said Jesse Sayegh, president of the New Jersey chapter of the National Association of Theater Owners.
The challenges of operating a small theater – with five screens or fewer – can be steep, Sayegh said. If there is a massive theater within a mile or two, he said, film distributors may be more likely to have hit movies shown there than at the smaller cinema, which must find other, less popular films to run.
In the Pascack’s case, though, the nearest theaters, the Emerson Quad and the Washington Triple Cinema, are no larger than it is, and there are plenty of different films to be shown at each, Sayegh said.
In the eyes of many moviegoers, old, downtown theaters offer an ambiance absent in newer movie houses in the malls. Joe Vanore of Ridgewood, whose wife, Jinny, plays a Wurlitzer organ before Saturday evening shows at the Pascack, describes such nondescript modern theaters as “shoe boxes.”
“The older theaters had more architectural individuality to them, and the shoe boxes are nothing but concrete and cinder block walls covered with Sheetrock,” Vanore said. “It’s like sitting in a large, more or less overgrown living room.”
For all of its history, some old-timers say, the Pascack has retained only a limited amount of its early charm.
After dividing the theater into four screening rooms, United Arts covered over two murals on the original side walls with plaster and curtains. One showed a chariot scene reminiscent of “Ben-Hur”; the other depicted an Egyptian woman who could be Cleopatra being led down to the Nile.
Years ago, said Ransom, a past president of the Bergen County Historical Society, “you could sit down and see both side walls, the great lighting, and everything else. It’s far from being the same.”
The Record (Bergen County, NJ), August 5, 1998 pL1
THE LAST PICTURE SHOW? CLOSURE LIKELY FOR CLIFTON’S ONLY THEATER SERVING URBAN RESIDENTS. (NEWS) John Chadwick.
Full Text: COPYRIGHT 1998 Bergen Record Corp.
By JOHN CHADWICK, Staff Writer
The 61-year-old Clifton Theatre can’t compete with the latest multiplex. The sound system is antiquated, the seats don’t recline, and the interior hasn’t been refurbished in about 10 years.
It’s an old-style cinema that few in this mainly white, middle-class community patronize.
But for many inner-city residents in neighboring communities, where there are no theaters showing mainstream movies, the Clifton Theatre is all they have – and they may not have it much longer. With the owner wanting to sell to a church, and city officials pursuing their own plans to redevelop the neighborhood, the moviegoers who walk from Passaic or ride the bus from Paterson may lose another venue.
“When that theater closes, what will happen is what has happened far too often in old, urban areas – a large working-class segment that is a captive audience becomes further disenfranchised,” said Mark Auerbach, the Passaic city historian and a former assistant manager at the Clifton Theatre.
At Main and Clifton avenues in what was once the commercial heart of the city, the Clifton Theatre opened on New Year’s Eve in 1937.
“I can remember seeing ‘Ben Hur’ there, the Audrey Hepburn movies – it was wonderful,” Sandy Moore said.
But the theater has fallen prey to the same economic forces that have hurt other businesses on Main Avenue. The theater’s manager, Albert Tirado, traces the slow decline back more than a decade, when City Hall moved to Van Houten and Clifton avenues. Moviegoers have increasingly flocked to the malls and modern theaters built in the suburbs.
Moore, who lives six blocks from the cinema, hasn’t seen a movie there in decades. “It hasn’t been kept up,” she said. “It’s almost like [the owner] gave up on it.”
The reversal of fortune underscores how this city-suburb of 72,000 residents has changed, and how its neighborhoods are shaped by the influences of the cities they border.
The Clifton Theatre is a half-mile from the Passaic line in a shopping district that has slipped into a hodgepodge of offices, salons, and specialty stores. There is a growing ethnic presence, and the theater draws a mainly black and Hispanic audience. The biggest crowds recently have been for films aimed at a minority audience – “Selena” and “Waiting to Exhale.”
On the south side of Clifton, meanwhile, is the Allwood Cinema – the city’s other neighborhood movie house. The two theaters show many of the same movies (“The Negotiator,” “Baseketball,” and “The Mask of Zorro” recently played at both) and charge the same $6 price. But the Allwood attracts a predominantly white audience, such as the one that showed up last weekend for “Saving Private Ryan.”
Tirado attributed the difference in audience in part to location.
“A lot of our patrons don’t have transportation; we’re walking distance from Passaic and on the bus line from Paterson,” Tirado said. “The Allwood is close to Route 3 and gets the Nutley, Clifton, and Belleville crowd.”
Tirado acknowledges that the theater needs a face lift, but says the level of business doesn’t justify further investment. Nonetheless, some of the moviegoers interviewed outside the Clifton Theatre praised the theater as safe and clean – despite its age and condition.
“This is the only place where you can get the real theater experience,” said Manuel Malive of Passaic.
Paula Bullard of West Paterson said she feels safer than at the malls. Tirado, a Passaic firefighter, is known as a kind but firm presence who has been known to collect boom-box radios before admitting patrons into the theater.
“At ‘Waiting to Exhale,’ there was a huge crowd, but they kept everything under control,” Bullard said. “There is much more chance of disruption at the malls than there is here.”
Owner Stewart Epstein of New York City declined to be interviewed for this article. Auerbach said Epstein deserves praise for keeping the theater open this long and offering first-run movies at an affordable price to a mostly minority audience.
“Stewart has never taken advantage of a captive audience,” he said. “But it is difficult competing in a society with people who want newness, attractiveness, and surround-around sound.”
Epstein wants to sell the building to a multiracial church, but the Clifton zoning board denied a variance. The board’s decision was appealed to state Superior Court, and the case is still pending.
At the same time, Clifton officials are seeking to declare all of Main Avenue a redevelopment zone – a move that would allow them to condemn property and resell it to developers they think could bring in new anchor stores.
Both plans have their critics. Some say a church would not boost the area’s economic fortunes. Others say they fear a city-sponsored redevelopment would hurt the viable businesses that are there now.
Ernesto Tyczynski, who opened a Latin music store next to the theater, believes it is only a matter of time before Main Avenue will come into its own as a business center with a Spanish flavor.
Either way, residents such as Donna Holmes, who lives in Passaic and frequents the Clifton Theatre, will likely have to find a new place to see movies. Passaic’s Capitol and Central theaters were razed years ago, and The Montauk shows only adult movies.
In Paterson, the last movie theater – the Fabian – closed in 1993.
“I don’t know what I would do if this theater closed,” Holmes said. “I’d be devastated.”
No set details known. ONE show, 5PM, with Springsteen (solo) the only artist on the bill – a benefit for 1972 Presidential candidate George McGovern. It is not known how long Bruce’s performance lasted but the $3 donation also included a ticket to see the evening movie. BRUCEBASE reader Larry comments: “I was going through a friend’s Bruce collection, trying to date his early memorabilia and I found this hand made Poster, which came from the Theater’s Box Office
May have been converted to a concert venue at one time.
Bruce Springsteen played at the “New Plaza Theater” in Linden on 11/23/71.
Architect for the “renovations” is Johannes Hoffman.
johanneshoffman.com
Architect for the “renovations” is Johannes Hoffman.
johanneshoffman.com
Architect for the “renovations” is Johannes Hoffman.
johanneshoffman.com
Architect for the “renovations” is Johannes Hoffman.
johanneshoffman.com
Architect for the “renovations” is Johannes Hoffman.
johanneshoffman.com
A 1936 photo can be seen on page 117 of the Arcadia Publishing book “New Brunswick”.
Caption states that this theatre was renamed the International Theatre in 1972 but sadly DEMOLISHED in 1978. Located on Albany Street at the foot of the Albany Steet Bridge.
I think that this theatre may have also been known as the “RKO Albany”, which is listed at 41 Albany Street in the 1951 FDY. This maps fairly close to the bridge.
An old photo can be seen on page 116 of the Arcadia Publishing book “New Brunswick”. Theater style is listed as BEAUX ARTS.
1943 photo can be seen on page 68 of the Arcadia Publishing book “Linden”.
Partially visible in a photo on page 46 of the Arcadia Publishing book “Perth Amboy”.
Listed in the 1951 FDY with 1350 seats.
Arcadia Publishing, “Paterson”, p. 95 has a nice photo of the theater from 1954.
Arcadia Publishing, “Paterson”, p. 94 has a nice photo of the theater. Marquee shows “Innocents of Paris” (1929)
Arcadia Publishing, “Paterson”, p. 93 has a nice photo of the theatre. Caption states that the building was DEMOLISHED in 1956.
Originally known as the Lyceum. Built in 1910. Arcadia Press “East Orange Postcards”, p. 76 has a nice old postcard of the theater.
Arcadia Press book “Belleville”, p 120 shows a nice ad for the theater. Feature film is “Captain Sinbad” (1963)
Will do Ken. I don’t get to Passaic too often, but I’ll keep an eye out for the theater in the local press.
If you’re interested in seeing the more suburban NJ cinemas on this trip let me know and perhaps I can provide some directions and/or a ride.
One recommendation for you is to take the Stanley Theater tour in Jersey City if you haven’t done so yet. I’ve seen the exterior but haven’t made it to the tour yet. Interior photos look fantastic. Easily accessible by public transit (PATH to Journal Square).
Recent & old photos:
View link
To St. Louis, MO:
You can buy a print at this link
you’ll need to scroll back to the home page for ordering information.
View link
Great history at these links:
View link
View link
Closed on 4/16/2000.
The Record (Hackensack, NJ), April 17, 2000 pa04
FINAL CREDITS FOR MOVIE HOUSE; CLIFTON SITE TO BE REDEVELOPED. (NEWS) Justo Bautista.
Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2000 Bergen Record Corporation
In its heyday in the 1950s, the Clifton Theatre on Main Avenue was where neighborhood youngsters went to see cartoons, Abbott and Costello and Three Stooges movies, and adventure serials.
On Sunday, the excitement was gone, and moviegoers who called were treated only to a recorded message indicating that the theater “will no longer be in operation. It will be closed indefinitely. Thank you.”
The two-story, 63-year-old theater will be making way for a redevelopment project that city officials hope will transform a stretch of Main Avenue into a prime service, office, and retail center.
“I can remember going with friends to Saturday matinees,” said Mayor James Anzaldi. “And once a year, the PTA would have movie day.
“It was good while it lasted,” he said. “But the theater business is so different today. Everything is plex, 16-plex.”
Over the years, as moviegoers flocked to theaters at the malls, the Clifton Theatre, near the Passaic border, still kept a small but loyal following: mostly residents from neighboring urban areas where there are no theaters showing mainstream movies.
The biggest crowds recently have been for films aimed at a minority audience _ “Selena” and “Waiting to Exhale.”
The Allwood Theater is the city’s only other old-time theater. Last year, a multiplex opened its doors in a new retail complex called Clifton Commons on Route 3 near the Nutley border.
The city plans to buy the building for $750,000 and sell it to a developer who promises to knock it down and bring in new businesses, possibly a pharmacy and a bank. The likely developer is Arc Properties of Clifton.
“This is the best way to do it,” said Anzaldi. He noted that strip stores and the Knights of Columbus building behind the theater are part of the redevelopment plan. The Knights' last dinner will be next month, he said.
“In order to develop that area, you need pedestrian traffic, car traffic,” he said.
The mayor said he expected construction at the theater site to get under way by the summer, providing the developer receives the proper city approvals.
Article CJ62042498
The theater collapsed during demolition in early 1998:
The Record (Bergen County, NJ), Jan 25, 1998 pN1
EVERY MINUTE COUNTS, WHEN RESCUERS HIT THE STREET. (NEWS)(FROM THE FRONT LINE)
Full Text: COPYRIGHT 1998 Bergen Record Corp.
By ELAINE D'AURIZIO
Michael Drennan jumped off the rescue truck into sheer chaos.
Hysterical shoppers were running into the street screaming. Right behind them was the horrifying reason why: A huge, 75-year-old movie theater had collapsed in a deafening roar, pounding metal and bricks onto two stores next to it.
Capt. Drennan and his fellow fighters in Rescue 1 – a special tactical unit – had never seen a collapse this bad, no matter how long they had been with the Jersey City Fire Department.
“It looked like a war zone,” said Drennan, a 20-year veteran. “A good 20 feet of scaffolding and workman’s tools were hanging above us.”
They all knew the old State Theater on Journal Square was being torn down that week. But it was a holiday – Martin Luther King Day – so the workmen weren’t there when 70 feet of a free-standing brick wall crumbled, bringing down the roof and second and first floors of one-half of the theater. The wall crashed on two stores buzzing with shoppers, trapping some people in a tomb of concrete and steel.
“We didn’t know if there were 10 or 50 people trapped,” said Capt. Victor Petrocelli, who has been with the department 22 years.
The firefighters' first task is to get survivors out, but they didn’t want to lose any rescuers, either. They tried to assess the damage with their eyes. Warning signs that spell danger: an unstable floor, a wall that is cracked or leaning.
So much looked shaky at this scene. “It was an incredible entanglement above our heads, a web of twisted metal that included a jackhammer,” said Capt. Robert Cobb. “We had to keep our eye on that, too.”
“It looked bad, but it could get worse,” Drennan said. “There could be a secondary collapse.”
“We were worried about any breeze that could bring it down,” Cobb said.
The task of finding out how many were buried began by collaring the injured outside for information. Other firefighters visited hospitals to talk to the injured transported there. Were they missing anyone? Was somebody delivering mail that day?
“Someone might tell you, ‘I was at my desk when the UPS guy came in to deliver,’” Petrocelli said. “We have to make sure we don’t miss anybody. We try to cut those chances.”
Commanders kept watch outside on dangling debris as rescuers ventured into the building. Helping them was the New York City Specialized Collapse Unit and search dogs trained to scratch and bark when they locate a survivor in the rubble.
First, they removed what they call “surface survivors,” or those easily seen and the injured who made it outside. Because it was a holiday, students who usually attend secretarial classes in the building weren’t there. “If they had been there, they wouldn’t have had a chance,” said Drennan.
Within an hour, the men knew at least six people were in the building. They pulled out four. They knew there were two left.
“As you sift through the rubble, there’s this eerie feeling,” said Capt. Stephan Drennan. “You want to find people but you’re hoping no one is in there. And if they are, that they are not dead.”
Stephan Drennan was pulling up to the scene just as two firefighters were carrying out a 4-year-old child. The firefighters, Wayne Dombrowski and John Cariero, had raised the little girl’s head out of six inches of water caused by flooding from broken sprinklers and broken water pipes.
The girl suffered a broken leg. But her mother, who had tried to free her baby, was still in the basement.
“We realized we could not get at survivors from the top because debris would keep falling down,” said Stephan Drennan. So they descended the dark, 25 or 30 basement steps with torches and began gingerly removing the debris, brick by brick, with their hands.
“We used laundry baskets from the store to put the bricks in because our buckets weren’t enough,” Cobb said.
They were searching for “void spaces” where people could be trapped. “Every once in a while, we’d open a space and let the dogs go in. If they stopped and scratched or barked, we’d go to that area and start digging, brick by brick,” Cobb said.
One of the firefighters heard a murmur, which turned out to be not the mother but a 34-year-old woman. Using a power saw to cut through metal, they followed her cries to an open space where they found her critically injured, her lower body pinned and her pelvis fractured.
“She was wedged between the basement and the first floor, screaming for someone to get her out. The safest way was to take her from the first floor,” Stephan Drennan said.
From 2:30 p.m. until 11 p.m. they dug on their knees and pulled those trapped to safety, including the mother of the child. By the time it was over, 10 people were taken to Jersey City Medical Center, including a pregnant woman and two children. In all, 18 had been injured – but were alive.
Despite the arduous and nerve-racking work, some firefighters refused to take a break. They were working against the clock and every minute counted.
“You see something has to be done and your energy level goes up, but people need help and that’s what you’re there for – to help them,” said Petrocelli.
The 20-member heavy rescue unit is one of the more – if not the most – versatile in the state. Besides firefighting and accident extrications, they do rescues in the water, from high-rises and bridges, and save people trapped in industrial tanks, sewer pipes, and electrical tunnels.
When they returned to headquarters, the men were exhausted. Some talked with new admiration for firefighters who helped rescue people from the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City. This didn’t compare to it, but it was hard.
“When you hear people are trapped, you push it up a notch,” said Petrocelli. “You love the work because the unpredictable challenges, although dangerous, are exciting. And saving lives feels really good.”
Article CJ70626527
The Record (Bergen County, NJ), Feb 4, 1997 pL1
PASCACK THEATER GETTING FACE LIFT; NEW PAINT, SOUND SYSTEM. (NEWS) Paul Rogers.
Full Text: COPYRIGHT 1997 Bergen Record Corp.
By PAUL ROGERS, Staff Writer
Ever since a spiffy crowd filed under its bright marquee to see “The Skyscraper,” starring William Boyd, on Aug. 30, 1928, the Pascack Theater has stood as a landmark in downtown Westwood.
Generations of moviegoers have lost themselves for an afternoon or an evening at the art deco cinema on Center Avenue, transfixed by giant images of the stars of the day, from Charlie Chaplin and Mary Pickford to Tom Cruise and Meryl Streep.
James Ransom, 84, remembers taking the woman who would become his wife, Ada Mead, to see shows there after graduating from Ridgewood High School in 1930: “That was a favorite spot back then for fellows to take their dates.”
Today, 12 years after it was converted from a single-screen theater to a modern “fourplex,” and nearly 70 years after it opened as a venue for vaudeville and film, the venerable Pascack is receiving a face lift.
Spiros Papas of North Arlington purchased the theater from United Artists in December and has begun to spruce it up. He has had the walls and bannisters painted pink and magenta, improved the sound system, and placed curtains at the sides of the screens to eliminate blank white borders.
Papas, who said he bought the brick movie house for $1.5 million, plans to adorn the now-undecorated lower marquee with the theater’s name, wraparound yellow lights, and a brass frame. He said he will replace a marquee above it with a new one that will list current showings.
Borough officials say they are pleased that the Pascack is being renovated. As a “gesture of goodwill,” the Parking Authority has reduced the amount it charges the theater for permitting customers to park in a metered, municipal lot a few doors away, said Administrator Charles Bellon. Papas will pay $200 for a six-month trial period, compared with the $500-a-month fee paid by United Artists.
Some Westwood residents, however, worry that the changes being made to the theater could destroy what few reminders remain of its earliest days.
“Nobody is denying that it’s got to be upgraded,” a longtime resident said. “But we are afraid that he doesn’t understand a lot of the interior – the art deco – and the history.”
But Papas, who owns a theater in North Arlington and one in Wayne, said the renovations will be made with the original architecture in mind. “We’d like to upgrade the theater but also keep it the way it’s supposed to be,” he said.
The theater was built at the end of the silent-film era, when ornate movie houses were being constructed across the country to meet the growing popularity of motion pictures. The Depression had yet to arrive.
“Theater owners made a lot of money during World War I, so they started investing it quite widely in those palaces in the early and mid-Twenties, and we see them being refurbished all over the country, if they haven’t been destroyed,” said George Stoney, a professor of film at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.
In North Jersey, many old cinemas that became unprofitable have been demolished or converted to other uses. Among them are the Oritani in Hackensack, the Queen Anne in Teaneck, and the Sharon in Fort Lee.
Others remain, like the Pascack, the Highway in Fair Lawn, and the Bellevue in Upper Montclair.
More common these days are multiplex theaters, many of them in shopping malls, which account for about 90 percent of the state’s 800 movie screens, said Jesse Sayegh, president of the New Jersey chapter of the National Association of Theater Owners.
The challenges of operating a small theater – with five screens or fewer – can be steep, Sayegh said. If there is a massive theater within a mile or two, he said, film distributors may be more likely to have hit movies shown there than at the smaller cinema, which must find other, less popular films to run.
In the Pascack’s case, though, the nearest theaters, the Emerson Quad and the Washington Triple Cinema, are no larger than it is, and there are plenty of different films to be shown at each, Sayegh said.
In the eyes of many moviegoers, old, downtown theaters offer an ambiance absent in newer movie houses in the malls. Joe Vanore of Ridgewood, whose wife, Jinny, plays a Wurlitzer organ before Saturday evening shows at the Pascack, describes such nondescript modern theaters as “shoe boxes.”
“The older theaters had more architectural individuality to them, and the shoe boxes are nothing but concrete and cinder block walls covered with Sheetrock,” Vanore said. “It’s like sitting in a large, more or less overgrown living room.”
For all of its history, some old-timers say, the Pascack has retained only a limited amount of its early charm.
After dividing the theater into four screening rooms, United Arts covered over two murals on the original side walls with plaster and curtains. One showed a chariot scene reminiscent of “Ben-Hur”; the other depicted an Egyptian woman who could be Cleopatra being led down to the Nile.
Years ago, said Ransom, a past president of the Bergen County Historical Society, “you could sit down and see both side walls, the great lighting, and everything else. It’s far from being the same.”
Article CJ70747153
Opened on 12/31/37:
The Record (Bergen County, NJ), August 5, 1998 pL1
THE LAST PICTURE SHOW? CLOSURE LIKELY FOR CLIFTON’S ONLY THEATER SERVING URBAN RESIDENTS. (NEWS) John Chadwick.
Full Text: COPYRIGHT 1998 Bergen Record Corp.
By JOHN CHADWICK, Staff Writer
The 61-year-old Clifton Theatre can’t compete with the latest multiplex. The sound system is antiquated, the seats don’t recline, and the interior hasn’t been refurbished in about 10 years.
It’s an old-style cinema that few in this mainly white, middle-class community patronize.
But for many inner-city residents in neighboring communities, where there are no theaters showing mainstream movies, the Clifton Theatre is all they have – and they may not have it much longer. With the owner wanting to sell to a church, and city officials pursuing their own plans to redevelop the neighborhood, the moviegoers who walk from Passaic or ride the bus from Paterson may lose another venue.
“When that theater closes, what will happen is what has happened far too often in old, urban areas – a large working-class segment that is a captive audience becomes further disenfranchised,” said Mark Auerbach, the Passaic city historian and a former assistant manager at the Clifton Theatre.
At Main and Clifton avenues in what was once the commercial heart of the city, the Clifton Theatre opened on New Year’s Eve in 1937.
“I can remember seeing ‘Ben Hur’ there, the Audrey Hepburn movies – it was wonderful,” Sandy Moore said.
But the theater has fallen prey to the same economic forces that have hurt other businesses on Main Avenue. The theater’s manager, Albert Tirado, traces the slow decline back more than a decade, when City Hall moved to Van Houten and Clifton avenues. Moviegoers have increasingly flocked to the malls and modern theaters built in the suburbs.
Moore, who lives six blocks from the cinema, hasn’t seen a movie there in decades. “It hasn’t been kept up,” she said. “It’s almost like [the owner] gave up on it.”
The reversal of fortune underscores how this city-suburb of 72,000 residents has changed, and how its neighborhoods are shaped by the influences of the cities they border.
The Clifton Theatre is a half-mile from the Passaic line in a shopping district that has slipped into a hodgepodge of offices, salons, and specialty stores. There is a growing ethnic presence, and the theater draws a mainly black and Hispanic audience. The biggest crowds recently have been for films aimed at a minority audience – “Selena” and “Waiting to Exhale.”
On the south side of Clifton, meanwhile, is the Allwood Cinema – the city’s other neighborhood movie house. The two theaters show many of the same movies (“The Negotiator,” “Baseketball,” and “The Mask of Zorro” recently played at both) and charge the same $6 price. But the Allwood attracts a predominantly white audience, such as the one that showed up last weekend for “Saving Private Ryan.”
Tirado attributed the difference in audience in part to location.
“A lot of our patrons don’t have transportation; we’re walking distance from Passaic and on the bus line from Paterson,” Tirado said. “The Allwood is close to Route 3 and gets the Nutley, Clifton, and Belleville crowd.”
Tirado acknowledges that the theater needs a face lift, but says the level of business doesn’t justify further investment. Nonetheless, some of the moviegoers interviewed outside the Clifton Theatre praised the theater as safe and clean – despite its age and condition.
“This is the only place where you can get the real theater experience,” said Manuel Malive of Passaic.
Paula Bullard of West Paterson said she feels safer than at the malls. Tirado, a Passaic firefighter, is known as a kind but firm presence who has been known to collect boom-box radios before admitting patrons into the theater.
“At ‘Waiting to Exhale,’ there was a huge crowd, but they kept everything under control,” Bullard said. “There is much more chance of disruption at the malls than there is here.”
Owner Stewart Epstein of New York City declined to be interviewed for this article. Auerbach said Epstein deserves praise for keeping the theater open this long and offering first-run movies at an affordable price to a mostly minority audience.
“Stewart has never taken advantage of a captive audience,” he said. “But it is difficult competing in a society with people who want newness, attractiveness, and surround-around sound.”
Epstein wants to sell the building to a multiracial church, but the Clifton zoning board denied a variance. The board’s decision was appealed to state Superior Court, and the case is still pending.
At the same time, Clifton officials are seeking to declare all of Main Avenue a redevelopment zone – a move that would allow them to condemn property and resell it to developers they think could bring in new anchor stores.
Both plans have their critics. Some say a church would not boost the area’s economic fortunes. Others say they fear a city-sponsored redevelopment would hurt the viable businesses that are there now.
Ernesto Tyczynski, who opened a Latin music store next to the theater, believes it is only a matter of time before Main Avenue will come into its own as a business center with a Spanish flavor.
Either way, residents such as Donna Holmes, who lives in Passaic and frequents the Clifton Theatre, will likely have to find a new place to see movies. Passaic’s Capitol and Central theaters were razed years ago, and The Montauk shows only adult movies.
In Paterson, the last movie theater – the Fabian – closed in 1993.
“I don’t know what I would do if this theater closed,” Holmes said. “I’d be devastated.”
Article CJ70603011
05/07/72 CINEMA lll, REDBANK, NJ
No set details known. ONE show, 5PM, with Springsteen (solo) the only artist on the bill – a benefit for 1972 Presidential candidate George McGovern. It is not known how long Bruce’s performance lasted but the $3 donation also included a ticket to see the evening movie. BRUCEBASE reader Larry comments: “I was going through a friend’s Bruce collection, trying to date his early memorabilia and I found this hand made Poster, which came from the Theater’s Box Office
See handwritten poster (is this authentic ?!) at this link:
http://www.brucebase.shetland.co.uk/gig1972.htm#18