Franklin Theatre
510 Franklin Avenue,
Nutley,
NJ
07110
510 Franklin Avenue,
Nutley,
NJ
07110
4 people
favorited this theater
The 1,400-seat Franklin Theatre was opened on September 8, 1926 with Coleen Moore in “Ella Cinders”. It was equipped with a Style B, 2 manual Wurlitzer organ. For decades, this was the movie house of my parents and grandparents in Nutley, New Jersey. Sometime in the 1970’s, it was split into three separate screens. Whenever I visited my grandmother, I always loved going here. There was always zero advertising, very reasonable prices, and excellent service.
It closed around 2000 due to an issue with the building lease and sat empty and unused, though there were talks about reopening this absoutely wonderful theatre which came to nothing. It has been converted into apartments and retail use.
Contributed by
Thom
Want to be emailed when a new comment is posted about this theater?
Just login to your account and subscribe to this theater.
Recent comments (view all 34 comments)
According to what I read on some online forum, the wall collapse happened during a movie showing, of which none attended.
Later this year marks the 10th anniversary of when this theater was closed and then transformed into a shopping center. Did this theater have 70mm projection in the center auditorium?
I think this theater didn’t have that kind of projection as the closest theater in that area were Cinema 23 (now closed as of last week), the Bellevue, Clairidge (now cut down to a six-plex showing indie films), and the original Essex Green triplex.
A small Wurlitzer pipe organ opus 1383, a Style B, was installed here in the summer of 1926.
The organ i believe was in the central auditorium. The employees of the theater were very nice.
I grew up in Nutley many years ago and back then the Franklin theatre had only one screen in a single auditorium. The Style B Wurlitzer still exists in a private home in Northern New Jersey.
Wonderful pic of this beautiful marquee. A tear like blur of an image. Any interior images of this lovely old theatre?
The left and right auditoriums were small and had mono sound. The middle screen was the largest and had dolby stereo and 5.1 DTS although the sound was echoey.
Some of them were big movies. Last time i went was way back in 1999 when i saw She’s All That. The audio was ok. Projection was good.
Wasn’t it closed in 2000? Charlie’s angels was one of the last major movies to play here before it’s transformation into retail space…