Loews Route 18 Theatre
Lake Avenue,
East Brunswick,
NJ
08816
Lake Avenue,
East Brunswick,
NJ
08816
4 people
favorited this theater
Built in 1968 and opened within weeks of Loews State 1 and 2 in NYC. Theatre was at first a single screen that opened with exclusive of “Cactus Flower”. Seats, curtain, and lobby wallpaper designs like that of the State, with lobby containing pink and white wallpaper of silent film stars. Theater hard ticketed for “Paint Your Wagon” in 1969 road show.
Managed for first ten years by Melvin Messenger, old school Loews Manager from Buffalo, NY theater.
Theater twinned in the early Seventies, and reopened with “Pat Garret and Billy the Kid” on both screens. Closed in the mid-Nineties when a large megaplex opened on Route 1.
Now contains K & G Men’s Store.
Contributed by
RobertR, Gregg Thompson
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Recent comments (view all 12 comments)
I think there were 3 cinemas in this area in New Brunswick at one time or another: Loews Route 18, Cinema City (down past Brunswick Square) and the GC/Cinema City Movies @ Brunswick Square/Mega Movies.
RobertR – you are correct. drive-ins.com has the history
From the 1970 annual report of Loew’s Theatres:
“Ever since the inauguration of the Loews theatre growth program in 1965, our selection of sites for new construction has closely followed the U.S. population’s demographic growth patterns. Emphasis has been on high-traffic locations, easily accessible by automobile.
“Typical of such properties is Loews Route 18 in East Brunswick, New Jersey, which opened on March 14, 1970. The Route 18 Theatre is situated in the Miracle Mall Shopping Plaza on busy Route 18 between Route 9 and the New Jersey Turnpike. Approximately one half million people live within a radius of 12 miles. This new theatre seats 1,115 and the parking lot accommodates 900 cars.”
The 1973 annual report discusses the twinning of this and many other Loew’s theatres.
The Loews Route 18 was not the same theater as the UA Turnpike Indoor. The latter theater was actually located in North Brunswick on Route 1 on the site of what is now the Wal-Mart shopping center.
The Loews Route 18 originally was a single theater located as one of the anchors of the Miracle Mall shopping center. If memory serves me, a Crazy Eddie’s occupied the other anchor location.
One of the interesting things of the old Loews Route 18 was the “wallpaper” located in the lobby area which had these huge images of Charlie Chaplin, Rudolph Valentino, Theda Bara and other silent era stars.
The UA Turnpike Indoor/Outdoor was not the theater on Route 1 in North Brunswick. Rather, it was located a very short distance south of the Loews Route 18 – you could see the Indoor/Outdoor from the Miracle Mall parking lot, which did indeed have a Crazy Eddie’s at one time. The UA theater on Route 1 in North Brunswick was the Brunswick Drive-In.
Another of the many theatres I was a projectionist. Worked here at various times between 1988 thru 1994. Huge twin, had almost 700 seats in each house. Nice big Cinemascope screens, even after twinning. I remember the summer of 1994 when “Forrest Gump” played in twin 1 to sold out shows for weeks. Theatre was equipped with 2 Simplex X-L projectors and 2 Christie Autowind 2 platters.
Worked here from 1988 to 1989. Cool place to be. Always had decent movies. I worked concession stand on the first day of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. What a crazy day.
Recall as a higher end/slightly pricier place…Saw Human Factor in 70s and Top Secret in 80s…go go bar called Talk of the Town was nearby.
Any Photos anybody?
Relinking.