Barely remember what this theater was like. My Grandparents moved to South Sterling when I was really young, so I spent a lot of summers and breaks up there. Not a ton to do in the area, so we’d make the periodic trips to Stroudsburg for the mall or other places. I think the first movie I saw there was Red Dawn (which I was probably too young to see)…
Tom! YES! Classic Boston accent. I don’t mean to insinuate anything about Tom. It was just that for the area it was an odd batch of hires. A lot of the cats that worked there were characters though. His two assistants were pretty cool too. Rueben and Tony(?) I think. Most of the staff at the end of the day were very good. And Tom was pretty laid back but ran a pretty good show. The guy that Loews/Sony replaced him with was a bit of an ass-clown though. I sort of miss those days. There were two projectionists that worked there too. Can’t recall their names, but one of them was a bit of a creeper. The whole union projectionist thing was odd to me coming from Loews theaters where that wasn’t the case (and man, I LOVED running the booth when I was in Jersey).
ahhh….good times…lots of Berklee students passed through here. I worked there during the school year in the mid-90s. Interesting place. I can’t recall the manager I originally worked for before he was pushed out. From what I recall he was a long-time employee. Looong time and maybe knew someone high up in the chain? He had this thing about hiring young Asian boys. An abundance of them worked there along with a lot of Berklee students and mostly the odd student from somewhere else. Good guys, but it always seemed like an odd hiring swing. They were the big game in town even in the mid-90s as EVERYONE hated that POS Copley. And the biggest theater at the Cheri still was great for opening blockbusters. Lots of nooks and cranies in that place, particularly as theater 4 was set off upstairs with no concession stand or ticket booth. By the time I worked there miscellaneous rolling concessions boxes were left to gather dust in the hallway up there. It was a reasonably fun place to work though, until TOM – now I remember his name – was pushed out for a newer, younger and much cockier guy. They used to do lots of sneak previews and premiers there as well as the Piper-Heisdrick award each year. I remember specifically Harvey Keitel one year (who I only saw from a distance) and Vanessa Redgrave. I was working the door (or the ticket taker spot at the bottom of the stairs really) and she came down by herself, very graceful and unassuming. She was an extraordinarily lovely woman, even to the nutball who was hounding her with questions. Two great (scary) memories were walking in one day back from Spring Break immediately after a robbery occured – complete with gunshot – before the cops came, and having to change that marquee. Which was only accessible through basically a hole in the wall in the adjacent parking garage. After which you had to stand on a rickity ladder almost near the top to change the first movie. Scary as s**t especially when it was windy.
I’m thinking Xmas 1992 as well…I started working at the Cinema 6 January ‘92 when it was still splitting all first runs with Pond Road. I always thought (or I remember a conversation with someone) that they intended to expand the Metroplex from the beginning. I don’t remember the reasons why they started with 8 screens. It could have even had something to do with however their ownership of the 6 and Pond Rd was structured. Clearly there was no reason to keep them both open as the 6 was not in great shape. Poor construction, tons of leaks. Outdated in a lot of ways. Even though I still have really fond memories of working there…
Yes – I worked at the 6 at the end of HS and when home from College. Filled in at this one now and again too. They did indeed split 1st run movies. Debbi – the only upstairs areas at the Cinema 6 were indeed projection rooms. One staircase (behind the concession stand and accessible from there and through theater 2) led to the projectors for the first 4 theaters, and then there was a staircase near the back that had the projectors for the last two theaters. Neither theater was any great shakes, particularly compared to the way they look now, but I remember the Quad having a particularly small lobby. With that tiny ticket booth right inside the door and a really small concessions stand too. They were both converted to $2 theaters (I never really know if that was the intent when they opened the Metroplex or an experiment….and it didn’t happen immediately) though I had to guess that Loews expected them to not be first run (or even keep them) when they decided to build the Metroplex. Theaters like those at the time were rapidly giving way to brand new multiplex’s. Same in Boston where I worked at another Loews during college.
Oh, man….my first real job. Senior year of H.S. I remember this place from forever, though and yes…Music Makers! I remember that opening. First movie I think I saw was ET. I worked there at the end of High School and when I was home from college. Back at the end of it’s hey day before the Metroplex opened. And then a bit after it became the $2 joint. I really was a bit of a POC. From what I recall of the history it was 2, then 4, then 6 theaters I think? Or maybe started as one theater and they initially split those first two on the right into two theaters from one. Anyway, you could see the break in sections between each duo of theaters and in horrible rain theose sections would leak. Amazing place. Was also on two different power grids so we lost power to theaters 5 & 6 while the other 4 were ok or vice versa. Anyone remember the characters that worked there? Most of my time there Whitey and Pat were the main doormen. late 60s at the time, both WW2 veterans. Pat had to sit his whole shift because he had no knees joints or something like that. It really was an overall fun place to work though. At various points I did everything from tickets to concessions to running the booths. As crappy as it was I miss the place too. FWIW there was a whole weird Loews/Sony progression. At one point Sony owned Loews and decided to change all the theater names to Sony, but if I remember, that didn’t pan out well and theaters at some point went back to Loews? Or maybe Sony sold them. I think that was after my time. I don’t live there any more, but when I go visit family it makes me a little sad to go past the place. Same with the Quad closer to Manalapan. I filled in there at times when they needed help and had gone there (though less frequently) when I was younger. It was THE place to go once upon a time, though.
Barely remember what this theater was like. My Grandparents moved to South Sterling when I was really young, so I spent a lot of summers and breaks up there. Not a ton to do in the area, so we’d make the periodic trips to Stroudsburg for the mall or other places. I think the first movie I saw there was Red Dawn (which I was probably too young to see)…
Tom! YES! Classic Boston accent. I don’t mean to insinuate anything about Tom. It was just that for the area it was an odd batch of hires. A lot of the cats that worked there were characters though. His two assistants were pretty cool too. Rueben and Tony(?) I think. Most of the staff at the end of the day were very good. And Tom was pretty laid back but ran a pretty good show. The guy that Loews/Sony replaced him with was a bit of an ass-clown though. I sort of miss those days. There were two projectionists that worked there too. Can’t recall their names, but one of them was a bit of a creeper. The whole union projectionist thing was odd to me coming from Loews theaters where that wasn’t the case (and man, I LOVED running the booth when I was in Jersey).
ahhh….good times…lots of Berklee students passed through here. I worked there during the school year in the mid-90s. Interesting place. I can’t recall the manager I originally worked for before he was pushed out. From what I recall he was a long-time employee. Looong time and maybe knew someone high up in the chain? He had this thing about hiring young Asian boys. An abundance of them worked there along with a lot of Berklee students and mostly the odd student from somewhere else. Good guys, but it always seemed like an odd hiring swing. They were the big game in town even in the mid-90s as EVERYONE hated that POS Copley. And the biggest theater at the Cheri still was great for opening blockbusters. Lots of nooks and cranies in that place, particularly as theater 4 was set off upstairs with no concession stand or ticket booth. By the time I worked there miscellaneous rolling concessions boxes were left to gather dust in the hallway up there. It was a reasonably fun place to work though, until TOM – now I remember his name – was pushed out for a newer, younger and much cockier guy. They used to do lots of sneak previews and premiers there as well as the Piper-Heisdrick award each year. I remember specifically Harvey Keitel one year (who I only saw from a distance) and Vanessa Redgrave. I was working the door (or the ticket taker spot at the bottom of the stairs really) and she came down by herself, very graceful and unassuming. She was an extraordinarily lovely woman, even to the nutball who was hounding her with questions. Two great (scary) memories were walking in one day back from Spring Break immediately after a robbery occured – complete with gunshot – before the cops came, and having to change that marquee. Which was only accessible through basically a hole in the wall in the adjacent parking garage. After which you had to stand on a rickity ladder almost near the top to change the first movie. Scary as s**t especially when it was windy.
I’m thinking Xmas 1992 as well…I started working at the Cinema 6 January ‘92 when it was still splitting all first runs with Pond Road. I always thought (or I remember a conversation with someone) that they intended to expand the Metroplex from the beginning. I don’t remember the reasons why they started with 8 screens. It could have even had something to do with however their ownership of the 6 and Pond Rd was structured. Clearly there was no reason to keep them both open as the 6 was not in great shape. Poor construction, tons of leaks. Outdated in a lot of ways. Even though I still have really fond memories of working there…
Yes – I worked at the 6 at the end of HS and when home from College. Filled in at this one now and again too. They did indeed split 1st run movies. Debbi – the only upstairs areas at the Cinema 6 were indeed projection rooms. One staircase (behind the concession stand and accessible from there and through theater 2) led to the projectors for the first 4 theaters, and then there was a staircase near the back that had the projectors for the last two theaters. Neither theater was any great shakes, particularly compared to the way they look now, but I remember the Quad having a particularly small lobby. With that tiny ticket booth right inside the door and a really small concessions stand too. They were both converted to $2 theaters (I never really know if that was the intent when they opened the Metroplex or an experiment….and it didn’t happen immediately) though I had to guess that Loews expected them to not be first run (or even keep them) when they decided to build the Metroplex. Theaters like those at the time were rapidly giving way to brand new multiplex’s. Same in Boston where I worked at another Loews during college.
Oh, man….my first real job. Senior year of H.S. I remember this place from forever, though and yes…Music Makers! I remember that opening. First movie I think I saw was ET. I worked there at the end of High School and when I was home from college. Back at the end of it’s hey day before the Metroplex opened. And then a bit after it became the $2 joint. I really was a bit of a POC. From what I recall of the history it was 2, then 4, then 6 theaters I think? Or maybe started as one theater and they initially split those first two on the right into two theaters from one. Anyway, you could see the break in sections between each duo of theaters and in horrible rain theose sections would leak. Amazing place. Was also on two different power grids so we lost power to theaters 5 & 6 while the other 4 were ok or vice versa. Anyone remember the characters that worked there? Most of my time there Whitey and Pat were the main doormen. late 60s at the time, both WW2 veterans. Pat had to sit his whole shift because he had no knees joints or something like that. It really was an overall fun place to work though. At various points I did everything from tickets to concessions to running the booths. As crappy as it was I miss the place too. FWIW there was a whole weird Loews/Sony progression. At one point Sony owned Loews and decided to change all the theater names to Sony, but if I remember, that didn’t pan out well and theaters at some point went back to Loews? Or maybe Sony sold them. I think that was after my time. I don’t live there any more, but when I go visit family it makes me a little sad to go past the place. Same with the Quad closer to Manalapan. I filled in there at times when they needed help and had gone there (though less frequently) when I was younger. It was THE place to go once upon a time, though.