Cinematour Forum: Cinemas in Montclair

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Topic: Cinemas in Montclair

Bradley Knewstubb
New Member

Posts: 10
From: Christchurch, New Zealand
Registered: Mar 2006

posted January 23, 2007 03:39 AM

I tried to send this to the newsroom with out success so posting it here.

In the book "Freedom's Child" by Carrie Allen McCray it mentioned the Clairidge Theatre (file number 3661), Montclair, NJ. According to the book it opened on February 17, 1923. Owned by a Mr Hinck.

The same book also mentioned the Bellevue Theatre (file number 5896), Upper Montclair, as being opened before 1924.

Bradley Knewstubb

[ November 12, 2007, 07:47 PM: Message edited by: Bradley Knewstubb ]

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Paul Bubny
New Member

Posts: 15
From: Maplewood, NJ
Registered: Jan 2006

posted January 28, 2007 07:30 AM

Thanks, Bradley, for the info. It's interesting, because having known both the Clairidge and Bellevue in their single-screen glory days (both were triplexed around 1983, and further subdivided since then--to the point of unrecognizability), I would not have thought they were near-contemporaries. The Clairidge's architecture (particularly the auditorium) suggested the 1920s, but the Bellevue seemed much newer, although perhaps it had been modernized in the years before I first visited it (1973). I would assume the Clairidge got its massive Cinerama screen sometime in the late '50s or early '60s; does anybody have a history of the Bellevue?

By the way, according to Joe Masher over at Cinema Treasures, the Clairidge's original auditorium is still pretty much intact behind the metal "box" structure that houses its current six-screen configuration, and could be restored. The same probably couldn't be said about the Bellevue, unfortunately.

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