Cineplex Odeon Route 17 Triplex

I am not sure when this theater opened(it must have been some time during the '60's.)It was a luxurious single screen theater when I started going to it. Shortly therafter it became a antiseptic triplex which was unfortunate because it awas quite a pleasure to go to. May that vanishing world quickly vanish along with all the cineplexes.
Boy was it depressing during the 70's to seen all those wonderful theaters cut up to show the various teen slaughter and gross out fests.

I am shocked this theatre is still open. With a little shining up and some renovations it could be a nice place.

You know, I went there for the first time this year and I was impressed by the size of the theaters. It must have been something in the old days. I saw The Alamo there last week and the theater was huge, although the projection and sound were poor. There were a couple highschoolers working there. I couldn't stop thinking about how that theater could be better used if spruced up a bit. I'd love to see pictures of the old interior. The theater still has phone booths. I was thinking about getting a part=time job there this summer.

Trivia question: When it was a twin theater...which theater was Century paramus 1 and 2. The top(converted bacony?) or bottom. It's a matter of time before they knock this down too. I've never seen the parking lot full/

I never saw this theater when it was single-screen, but I think it was split right down the middle to make it a twin. There was half a balcony and half an orchestra in both theaters on either side. I'm basing this on seeing Diamonds Are Forever there in 1971. I know in later years the full balcony was converted into a third theater.

It never drew the crowds that the Tenplex did over on Route 4, but this theater was packed when they showed Aliens in 1986. It also had anti-movie demonstrators on the sidewalk outside for The Last Temptation of Christ in 1988.

I don't know the year it opened - 1967, I think - but it was as a single-screen theatre and it was known as Century Paramus, Stanley Warner and RKO came later. It was twinned just before the release of Diamonds Are Forever (a friend of mine always mentions that his first screening there after the wall went us was DaF and was depressing). The twinning was originally a wall right down the middle, when it was converted to the Triplex format, they removed the wall from the balcony, so that area is the original width of the theatre. It's one of the better balcony theatres, but the presentation isn't very good any more.

It, along with the Route 4 complex, will be closing as soon as Loew's get final approval and builds their new gigaplex on the other side of the parking lot.

Pete Apruzzese

As a single screen I saw a double bill of In The Heat of the Night and West Side Story and in the summer of '70 The Boatniks. I remeber thinking how nice it was and then suddenly the wall went up.

So, does anyone know which theater was Century #1 and Century #2?? right or left?? Just curious. I assumed it was always a top and bottom theater...didn't figure it was split down the middle, then a restored balcony.

I'd say Theater #1 was on the left and Theater #2 was on the right. I saw Diamonds Are Forever on the right side. I remember thinking that the screen was smaller than I'd expected. This was the first time I'd been inside a twinned theater - little did I know that this was soon to be the wave of the future, sadly.

I can only imagine what this theater was like as a single screen. But I have to say that I was a little impressed by the theater size when I saw The Alamo recently. Comparing it to alot of other smaller multiplex screens. The projection quality and sound were poor but it was the 2nd time I was at the theater. I was in the balcony theater last summer and was impressed. It's hard to imagine there was a wall down the middle before the triplex. It's ashame there's no photos of the theater.

This theatre might be forced to close soon. The theatre resides in the parking lot of Garden State Plaza, one of the biggest malls in the country. The mall is planning to build a 20 screen stadium style theatre litteraly right on top of this theatre, in which case, the theatre will be history.

In my research, I've found that they showed 70MM presentations when it was a twin...in 1982 they showed Poltergiest and Rocky III and the paper says both were 70MM. Does anyone remember seeing these...

BTW....regarding the old Stanley Warner(the Paramus 10 plex)...I saw I Robot there the other day and as I was leaving I stopped by the open office by the entrance and on the walls were old pictures of when the Stanley Warner first opened. The interior with the balcony, the outside facade...awesome pictures I'd love to get a print of...I didn't ask about them as i assume the mgr. and office workers seemed to be pretty unimpressed by my viewing of the photos.

I saw Rocky III there in May 1982. I guess it was 70mm but the screen was too small for it to make the same big impact you'd get from something like Lawrence of Arabia. Another thing I remember about it was seeing the sneak preview of E.T. that same weekend at Cinema 46, a couple of weeks before it opened. I still have the "I SAW E.T." button they gave out.

Bill:
I was working as an assistant manager at Cinema 46 the day of the E.T. sneak - we had folks lining up starting around 11:00am for the show. If you remember, you had to see "Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid" first at 5:15, then "E.T." at 7:15. We sold the whole place out in about 30 minutes and added an "unofficial" second showing of it at 9:45 that night as well. The place was a zoo and somebody stole the original one-sheet that said "In his First adventure on Earth."

Rhett:
Yes, both Rocky III (the 70mm prints were cropped from 1.85 to 2.20) and Poltergeist were in 70mm at the Route 17 Twin.

Pete, not only do you put on those great shows at the Lafayette in the present day, but you were also directly involved in one of my all-time best movie experiences from 22 years ago! My anticipation for "E.T." was so high that I didn't think "Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid" was ever going to end. And I'm sure I was being unfair to that movie. It was probably good. But "E.T." was something else. I and my brother and my friends all came out of Cinema 46 with one of those great-movie highs that are all too rare these days, and we couldn't wait to spread the word about the movie. But nobody seemed to care, or to get what we were talking about. Then, about two weeks later, the movie opened and the rest of the country caught up with us.

Pete and Bill:

I wish I was there to see ET at Cinema 46. I saw it at the Wayne Theater in Preakness Shopping Center after all the hoopla and I loved it as well , being about to be a senior in college.

It must have been something, especially in the projector booth to have side by side 70MM showings of Rocky III and Poltergeist at Route 17. Was there 6-track sound also?? I bet the walls shook.

It's amazing how we all took these showings for granted. Example: In July 1983 at the Cinema 46 they showed the double feature of Star Wars and Empire in 70MM 6-track...I kick myself now as "How the hell did I miss that?"...footnote : In April 1997 those were the last 2 films shown at the Cinema 46 before it closed. I saw them both, stayed to the end credits ( I did see Empire in 70MM there in 81) so it was nostalgic that that was the last one I saw. However it was shown in 35MM with an inferior projectionist.

Bill: You are right about Pete putting on great shows at the Lafayette. He is truly a great movie showman and worthy of tribute on this site. I wish I had a job like that...it would be a dream come true...The Lafayette is THE BEST theater around. No where else can you see the great movies on a big screen with superior presentation..I wouldn't be surprised if one day they rent 70MM equipment for a special showing.

THIS THEATER IS VERY MUCH LIKE THE CENTURY ROOSEVELT FIELD THEATER LOCATED AT THE MALL ON LONGISLAND AND THE CENTURY GREEN ACHERSIN VALLY STREAM .ALL 3 MUST HAVE BEEN BUILT AROUND THE SAME TIME

When are they actually closing down?
Want to take one last look myself.
Must have been a wonderful one screen place way back.

Thank You and Happy Holidays.

What a shame, I was only in this theatre one time when it was single screen. What a great house it was.

Was this a roadshow house? Does anyone know what big films played here hard ticket?

QUOTE:
"Was this a roadshow house? Does anyone know what big films played here hard ticket?" (RobertR)

*************************************************************

"Man Of La Mancha" (1972)

Has a date been set to close this? I would like to see it one more time.

It's probably not too far away, Robert. The triplex seems to be mostly (if not entirely) functioning as a move-over house for product from the Loews site on Route 4... and we know how short the shelf-life for major-chain move-over houses tend to be...

The information in the description is inaccurate. This theatre opened as part of the Century circuit (their first foray into NJ) and was a single screen. It opened shortly before the Route 4 Tenplex (also a single screen upon its debut).

They just lowered their ticket prices this past Friday (6/24) or the one before (6/17) not sure. It is now only 4 dollars for a matinee and 7 dollars for an adult ticket. I guess with the plans for the new 16-plex on the table, this reduced admission price is the final nail in coffin for this theatre. I rarely go here, I used too when I was younger, but the place smells like mildew everytime I'm there

I just saw "Land of the Dead" at a matinee...there were 3 people there...the $4 ticket price was nice...but yes, it's the nail in the coffin, it's amtter of time...

as I sat in theater 1, downstairs on the left, I keep trying to visualize what the theater looked like as a single, it must have been enormous....also as a twin, some have said it was cut down the middle, with a balcony for each, I still wonder if it wasn't just the balcony and bottom ??? they both were 70MM equiped, any pictures??

When it was twinned, they put a wall right down the middle - each side had orchestra and balcony seating. The auditoriums were then very narrow and the screens were on the small side if you wanted to sit in the rear. I know for certain that at least one side had 70mm capability.

I have a newspaper listing from 1982 when it played both Rocky III and Poltergeist in separate theaters....it said they were both 70MM....how could such a small screen theater play 70MM

What was it like as a single screen theater?

Sadly, I was never in there when it was a single.

Small screen size is no deterrent to running 70mm, you just don't get the same benefit of the large format image on a small screen, but you do get the 6-channel sound - which, in the pre-digital-sound days, was a *big* selling point.

did you see any of the 70MM flicks at this theater Pete??? What was it like??

Think the Lafayette will invest one day for a 70MM festival???? Charge $15 a ticket, alot of pre-advertising and you'll get many from this site??
(I should've included this comment on the Lafayette site, but since I was here...sorry)

BTW...I always find it a shame that the parking lot of Rt. 17 is always empty...just think, they could host premieres in the upstairs big screen theater...what a waste!!! It's a shame I didn't have money to buy a theater like that...what I could do....(ranting here...we're all dreamers)

I'm sure the moronic practice of putting one word for each title turns off anyone who is not familiar with the place.

I saw "Rocky III" here in 70mm in 1982. The screen image was nothing special - it wasn't even a Scope film anyway - but the opening song "Eye of the Tiger" and the whole rest of the movie did sound great in 6-channel sound.

I've never been in this place as it looks pretty sad. But I have to say the habit of the one word movie descriptions on the marquee provides my wife and I with a fun game driving up Route 17.

In a lot of ways, THIS is the ideal location for a multiplex and sure enough, THIS is where the next big one is going and it's only Bergen county's second stadium seating theater.

When and if they get the Xanadu complex up and running, I've heard rumors that a 20+ theater complex is going up down there.

Another memorable event at this theater was "The Last Temptation of Christ" in 1988. It was my second time seeing it. The first was at the Ziegfeld where at least 100 fundamentalist Christians marched on the theater in protest. At the Route 17 a week later, there were about 3 people outside the theater picketing the movie.

It only goes to show nobody gives a damn, the manager or the district people. With a huge marquee like that why is this allowed? Then they sit and wondwer why theatres close.

Here are two ads for this theater that were actually personalized by the management, commenting directly on the movie being featured. It's great showmanship, and it's a lost art. The second link features two such ads, one for the Century's Paramus and one for the Pearl River Theater ("Cleopatra" - You May Never See Its Likes Again!) Will we ever see the likes of ads like this again, not to mention the theaters and the movies?

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y231/billhuelbig/myfairlady.jpg

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y231/billhuelbig/voyage.jpg

Bill,

Great ADs!!! You are 200% correct. The art of movie advertising for a theater is a lost art. These ads actually make me sad because they bring back memeories from the better days of theaters and movies. How we took all that for granted huh?

When I was at Rt. 17 last week, there were highschool employees commiserating in the lobby (the theater was empty anyway, so what the hell else where they going to do?)but I also agree with the marquee. They put NO effort into it. The thinking is, the theater is gonna go bust any time now, so squeeze whatever you can before it dies, then another multiscreen plex with more bad movies, highschoolers who know nothing and managers without a clue.

BTW Bill, I saw Rocky III at the Bellevue in 70MM. It was a scope print, probably one of the only ones, 6-track and it was awesome. Naturally, I was dumbfounded when I saw it at Cinema46 #2 2 months later and it was a flat, mono print. I knew nothing then.

Also, saw "Last Temptation" at Ziegfeld also, they had a few picketers, security at the foot of the screen, and checked our bags. It was like a William Castle film. It was great.
Love the ads, keep em coming.

I went here for the first time a few years back and saw Gangs Of New York in one of the downstairs theaters. It was like stepping back in time with all the old RKO Century branding remaining inside and out. Exactly the way I remember the Roosevelt Field Theater (as a triplex and before going over to Loews/Sony) circa the early - mid 1980's.

Is this really one of the last remaining old style Century Houses left in the metro NYC area? In Brooklyn every single Century House is gone except for the Kings Plaza which opened in 1970 and is now a sixplex, it's been mordernized quite a few times since 1970 so no traces of Century theates are left in this cinema.

ROOSEVELT FIELD IN NASSAU COUNTY- BEEN RE DONE

The last true original CENTURY house to close as a single screen Aand never to have been redone was the whitman theater in Huntington ny.....closed ABOUT 2003.....AND had never been changed

Used to drop by the Walt Whitman Shopping Center next door to the Whitman on my way home from visits to my company's corporate offices (down the road in Melville) a few jobs ago. Never took in a movie at the Whitman, though. A shame, as I would like to have seen a Century house in its original state. My only experiences with (former) Century theatres have been after they were subdivided--the Fresh Meadows in Queens (where I believe the movie my wife-to-be and I saw, the Meg Ryan flick "Kate & Leopold," was playing in what is apparently the only okay-sized auditorium in the complex) and the Route 17. In the balcony theatre, "Aliens" was done justice and so was "Last Temptation of Christ" a couple years later (only a couple of picketers outside, though). Downstairs, the story was different--for whatever movie I saw there, I remember the projection was dim. From some of the comments above, I guess it's dim upstairs now too.

This theatre has apparently closed permanently as of last Thursday.

Here comes the wrecking ball...an end to another era..I'm glad I went there

This theatre is listed with no showtimes at EnjoyTheShow.com .

I figure AMC will try to put a multiplex in Garden State Plaza (Loews was trying to as well) and do away with the Ten Plex down the road - this one has been closed for two weeks now, it would have been shocking to see the AMC name on this one.

Someone IS trying to put a 16 screen multiplex at the Plaza. Paramus is divided over whether to grant the required approvals. From what I remember, the town granted it but another entity within the town has sued over it. The mall developers have said that they have to keep improving the mall by adding new things to it or it will fail especially with the Xanadu project coming along and the fact that everything is closed on Sunday in Paramus and most of Bergen county. The movie theater would be allowed to be open.

AMC , I believe, decided to go with the former Stanley Warner's Route 4 Theatre instead of Century's Paramus (Route 17) Theatre. (Both theatre from 1981 to 1987 were RKO Century Warner Theatres)

Another end of an era :(

This hung on for a long time.....

There is a sign on the front door of this theatre that says “the showing of movies at this location has been suspended until further notice”. I’ll just bet.

This was a pretty ramshackle operation in its latter years, but it had a great funky quality, plus that wonderful popcorn oil/disinfectant/mildew smell that I get so nostalgic about. The thing I will always remember is that whether from laziness or lack of letters, the marquee always featured drastic truncations of movie titles, often just one key word. The best one was While You Were Sleeping, which on the marquee was reduced to just “While (PG)”. That’s it!

You can see what this theater looked like as a single with a 52 ft. wide screen at this site:

http://www.fromscripttodvd.com/70mm_in_new_york_paramus.htm

My faulty memory got a jolt when I saw "Yours, Mine and Ours" on TCM last weekend. I had forgotten that I'd seen it here in 1968 when it was still a single-screen.

Oh, man. This theatre has a warm place in my heart, since I saw many films there as a youth. The Bond double features, especially. Before they closed, the lobby was pretty much the same as it always was, with damn little change. It really hurts to see it slide the way it has. Inside the theatre always smelled of damp mildew, which is never good. This was the first theatre in the area to be twinned, balcony included. Very strange, since all the seats are set to face toward the center of the screen. After the wall went up, you had to sit at a slight angle in your seat, causing your butt to go numb. When the balcony was made into the 3rd theatre, it was a big improvement, since it was a wide theatre and you got a sense of what it was like before the wall went up.
My favorite memory of the Century Theatre; 1968, on a Saturday night, they played a double feature of "The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming" and "In The Heat Of The Night", plus a sneak preview of a upcoming major motion picture. My parents and I were at the show, and I was feeling sick; I probably had the flu or some childhood ailment. "Russians" comes on first, and I feeling ill, but I think I can make it through the whole show. Now me, being a dumb kid, heard "sneak preview" and thought - long trailer. Wrong! The sneak was for "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly", all two and a half hours of it! And I HATED it! Absolutely detested it! I honestly thought it would never end! Everything that happened on screen seemed to take 5 times longer than it should. I remember getting very queasy when Van Cleefs henchman beats up and bloodys Eli Wallach, especially when he digs his thumbs into poor Eli's eyes. By the time Clint leaves Eli in the cemetary with his share of the gold and rides off, I remember thinking " well, when is The End going to come up? Don't tell me there's more!!" I could'nt wait to get out of there! Of course if I could get into a time machine and go back to that day, I would appreciate the experience for what it was. In the back of my mind, I really hope that this theatre can be salvaged, but it would take a lot of money and effort. If not, I may just shed a tear when the wrecking ball does drop on it.

Century's Paramus was my favorite theatre up until it was multi-plexed. As a single, it has an awsome sized screen that looked big, even from the top of the balcony. They ran almost all the United Artists and some Universal films. I saw most of Connery James Bond films here. When RKO Stanely Warner took over, they did one of the worst multiplexing jobs I had ever seen. The last film I saw there was Apocolypse Now back in 1979. I saw it there 2 weeks after I saw it at the Zeigfeld in NYC, and seeing it on a tiny postage stamp size screen with poor sound was so disapointing that I never have been back.

Century's Paramus Theatre was already a twin by the time Century Theatres bought RKO Stanley Warner from Pacific Theatres in 1981.

This was probally the only Cineplex Odeon theatre that never had the Cineplex Odeon name on the outside of the building, instead keeping the "RKO Century's Paramus Theatre" name on the building until it closed a week before Loews Cineplex became part of AMC Theatres.

is this just empty ............or is it other use

Empty.

Heard from the management of Garden State Plaza that this theater will be demolished soon. So get out your cameras...in it's day, this sounds like it was nice big theater. How many seats ???

The new multiplex will be located near Border's Books and Ruby Tuesday.
Don't know if they started to build it yet...

When the Route 4 became 10 screens, was the Route 17's auditoriums the largest in Paramus? And what will be auctioned off the closed triplex? I would love a piece of memorabilia,

TommyR - any idea when exactly the wrecking ball plans to drop on it?

Justin - I know before Route 4 became 10 screens, it was the largest screen in Paramus. It played Star Wars, Empire, & Jedi in 70mm and the screen was huge! After it was carved up, I don't know. I would say it's a draw between one of the screens on Route 4 and the triplex's upstairs screen. As for any mementos from Route 17, most likely anything of any use like projection equipment, poster frames, etc. has been removed. Maybe try to get one of the white bricks it's constructed from?

Not sure when they will demolish it, so don't wait, take pictures now and ask now about stuff being possibly auctioned off. Hope you get some good momentos. A shame to see these great old places go down...any idea how many seats it had ???

Tommy, before it was twinned in 1971, it had 2000 seats in it, balcony included. Now it just sits there, waiting to be razed. It's all very depressing.

Hopefully when the new movie theater opens next to the mall, the old standalone building, now infected with quarantine and bugs, should be razed to make room for additional parking or maybe, in my idea, turn it into an Imax theater like the Palisades Center did but this time it's a separate theater rather than an indoor one.

FYI: Just noticed the newspaper ad for this theater's 1965 opening day posted in www.fromscripttodvd.com

Go to the section "70MM theaters in NY" which also includes New Jersey and Connecticut theaters as well. Some great trade magazine photo pictures and /or newspaper opening day ads. Don't miss, it's real good, juicey stuff.

Saw the first of run of "Superman" here in 1978. I was in junior high. I believe the theatre was a twin at that time, and the movie might have been in 70MM? Anyone know for sure? At that time this was still a nice theatre, only 10 years old and first run top line features played there.

VERY SAD DAY this is - saw the wrecking busily working away on the old triplex. The back was completely crushed, the front facade was still up (but the wrecking crew was not finished for today). Very sad day indeed :-(

same could be said for the tenplex when the new theatre opens in three weeks.

<sigh> As of Sunday, May 6, the triplex is now just a heap of bricks and rubble. The parking lot has also been completely torn up and will be either repaved or built on. The area is completely fenced off, so no chance to get a memento from the place.
Century Paramus Theatre 1965-2006 R.I.P.

Someone should edit this theater to demolished.

All gone! As has already been mentioned the building came down a few days ago and is now just a pile of rubble. I noticed it yesterday morning on my way to work. I had been meaning to stop one morning and take some photos of the place, but never got around to it. Too late. RIP Century.

Update: No longer a pile of rubble. It is now a parking lot, paved, with curbs and all. You would *NEVER* know a building was ever at this location had you not seen it yourself.

good for the shoppers at Garden State Plaza who want to see a movie at the new movie theater in Paramus on days when the mall is closed; plenty of parking, indeed.

I think people are more likely to use this parking area for the twin restaurants that are next door. This pot is fairly distant from the mall.

The status of this theater needs to be changed to "Demolished", but like the Rt 4 Tenplex, I've sent messages to whoever administers this site, and they just go ignored. Very annoying.

Just heard this was getting demolished. Now if I could just get the phone number out of my head after 30 years, 201 843-3830.

Did some of the employees at the old triplex move into what was once the Tenplex before they moved into the new AMC, which is mostly staffed by youngsters? I would like to learn about that.
On the other hand, the new AMC is like this:
Route 4 Tenplex + Route 17 Triplex + Stadium Seating + 3 screens (2 with DLP and one with RWC/DVS)= AMC Garden State 16.

btw, how is parking where the old triplex used to be? Seems that more cars can go in there and get to the movies!!!

If you're nostalgic for the Century ... here's an ad from July 1965 announcing the theatre's opening.

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y231/billhuelbig/centurys.jpg

Notice what it says on the map at the bottom. That's exactly what the Century's site has now become: Ample Free Parking, Always!

Hmmm, it took 55 years to build it, one week to tear it down, and four weeks to cart it away. That must have been one lazy construction crew for sure! :)

yup. It didn't take 55 years to build it, that's just slang for the company's founding in 1910. BTW, what was Century Theaters and how did it get its name? When that theater opened, was it the same size as what used to be a one-screener on Route 4? The garden state theater is much bigger than both combined!!!

In December, 1972, as Century's Paramus, this was part of a three theatre world premiere engagement of UA's "Man of La Mancha," along with the Rivoli Theatre in New York City and the UA 150 Theatre in Syosset, Long Island. All seats were reserved and bookable in advance: http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/man1072.jpg

There's an article in today's Record that incorrectly states this theater as an example of abandoned real estate, since it wasn't abandoned but demolished.