Oritani Theatre

One warm summer night in 1978, I was hanging out in the office of The Oritani with a friend who was the relief manager. For years the only part of the marquee that lit up was the back lit side panels announcing the current movies. I mentioned this to him, and he told me that it all worked, they were just under orders not to turn it on to save money on electricity. He opened the breaker box and though some switches, we walked out onto the street, an it was a spectacular site. All the flashing neon and sequencing bulbs in the letters were flashing. It lit up main street for blocks in either direction. I wish I had a camera that night, it was probably the last time the marquee was ever turned totally on.

A belated Happy Birthday to the Oritani. If it had survived, it would have been 85 years old back on May 6, 2011.

I remember well in the mid sixties taking the #1 bus from Teaneck to Hackensack for 15 cents to spend an all day adventure walking up and down Main St. I would visit the army navy store and look through all the army surplus gear, Woolworths, check out the latest 45’s at the record shop next to the movie theater. I would either eat lunch at Woolworths, followed by their 9 cent ice cream waffle sandwich, get a couple of slices at the pizza place on the other side of the theater, or get a ½ sub for 35 cents at the Blimpie Base. I think the movie cost. 75 cents for a kid back then. Both the Oritani and Fox showed two feature films plus the Warner Bros cartoon. Check out Cowan to look at new baseball gloves. Main St also had toy stores, model shops that you could spend a lot of time looking around. At that time I guess Hackensack felt like New York City to a young kid from Teaneck. Back then the movies had a crew of ushers, with flashlights, to keep things quiet. I wish theaters today would have ushers roaming around, I always seem to sit behind Chatty Cathy whenever I go.

> an AMC Lux Dine-In theater, the first of its kind in the country

Eh? Have you been to the iPix Luxury Theatre in Fort Lee or Brooklyn? The iPix chain has been around for years with powered recliners, waiters, and good food.

It may be the first of it’s kind for AMC, but it is far from the first of it’s kind. I remember going to the Cinema Cafe in Virginia Beach 30 years ago with waiters and hot food brought to your seat. And least us forget the Alamo Draft House nationwide chain of dinner theatres.

Opened May 6, 1926 with “Lady Windermere’s Fan.” Architects David and William E. Lehman called it an 18th Century Chatham styled building. The million dollar theater had a $60,000 Moeller Four-Manual Console Organ designed by Robert Hope-Jones.