Jerry Lewis Cinema
2166 Forest Avenue,
Staten Island,
NY
10303
2166 Forest Avenue,
Staten Island,
NY
10303
3 people
favorited this theater
Located in the Mariners Harbor/Arlington district in the northwest of Staten Island. This small family-run theatre was one of the few remaining Jerry Lewis Cinema’s from the failed franchise model. Even though the Jerry Lewis chain of franchises were insolvent in 1973, this cinema was opened as the Jerry Lewis Cinema on January 17, 1974 with Barbra Streisand in “The Way We Were”.
It was still operating as the Jerry Lewis Cinema when it closed on February 14, 1984 with Gene Hackman in “Uncommon Valor”. It was operating as a Forest Furniture store in recent years but had closed by August 2018 and the building was ‘For Lease’ in October 2019.
Contributed by
PeterMHargrove, Cinema Treasures
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Recent comments (view all 36 comments)
See JERRY LEWIS CINEMA, Canton,Ct on Lewis'own words about his failed cinemas.
Uploaded a Variety ad for Jerry Lewis Cinemas.
I recall seeing ‘The Drowning Pool’ here.
A bit confusing to someone who is not from the area. Seems there were two (more?) Staten Island Lewis locations. I have a NY Times theatre directory page that lists two Lewis theatres – this is from 6-22-1981: “Mariner’s Harbor – Jerry Lewis Cinema (yes, still using the Lewis name) phone 720-9300. No street address given. "tentative” booking was “Bustin' Loose”. The Surfside in Rockaway Park (formerly a Lewis theatre) street address given as “103-22 Rockaway Beach Blvd. phone 945-4632” Playing “Hardly Working”(!) and “Tribute.”
CJ1949 Rockaway Park is in the Boro of Queens on Long Island. This theater is on Staten Island which is the Boro of Richmond.
robboehm, I can recall several Jerry Lewis cinemas in NY and NJ including the one both my father and I worked at, the twin in Carteret NJ. There was also one in Wayne and Hillsboro NJ, as well as the one in Staten Island, the one in Queens and a twin in Massapequa NY. They just over expanded way to fast. Plus they had people in the industry running theatres who knew nothing about theatres.
Closed as the Jerry Lewis Cinema on February 14, 1984 with “Uncommon Valor”
markp -The twin in Massapequa became the Rae Cinema. Now it’s retail. The twin in East Meadow became Flick 1 and 2. The single screen in Lake Ronkonkoma became the Lakeside Cinema. It is now an OTB location. The single screen in Center Moriches was created in retail space and later called the Center Cinema. It is now a bank. All these are on Cinema Treasures. I don’t recall one in Queens. Please refresh my memory.
The Queens location is the Surfside Twin. I tried to link the CT page here for it but I got a SPAM alert.
This opened on January 17th, 1974. Grand opening ad posted.