General Cinema Essex Green I-III

5 Rooney Circle,
West Orange, NJ 07052

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Additional Info

Previously operated by: General Cinema Theatres

Architects: Maurice D. Sornik

Firms: Cambridge Seven Associates

Previous Names: Essex Green Cinema

Nearby Theaters

General Cinema Essex Green - West Orange, NJ

Located behind the Essex Green shopping center, off Prospect Avenue in West Orange, the Essex Green Cinema opened on June 22, 1966 with Nancy Sinatra in “The Last of the Secret Agents”. It had a single 1,000 seat auditorium. It was twinned on March 31, 1972 and on June 15, 1979 another screen was added.

A standard General Cinema style design, its main auditorium featured THX and an enormous screen (in the “picture screen” style). Two other theatres were directly to the right of the large house. The roof proudly displayed the ‘CINEMA’ sign that was GC’s signature.

The location closed a day before their all new location, up the hill, actually in the center of the outdoor shopping center opened, the Essex Green 9.

Contributed by John J. Fink

Recent comments (view all 23 comments)

misterrick
misterrick on October 3, 2011 at 9:06 pm

and BTW the Essex Green I-II-III address was not Rooney Circle, at least when I worked there all our mail came to a Prospect Avenue address.

lizakovach
lizakovach on October 23, 2012 at 5:56 pm

Head projectionist Jimmy Heckel, opened up the booth at the new location. I worked with him for about the first year. I don’t know where Jimmy went to after that. I opened that theater as a manager and stayed until after AMC took over.

moviebuff82
moviebuff82 on May 17, 2015 at 10:29 am

Was this General Cinema’s flagship theater in NJ at the time?

markp
markp on May 18, 2015 at 3:08 pm

Their so-called flagship theatre, ( you must remember we are talking about the 60’s and 70’s) was the Menlo Park Cinema in Edison NJ (one screen ‘60 –'76, two screens '76 –'91)

moviebuff82
moviebuff82 on March 6, 2018 at 4:19 pm

Which showed empire.

moviebuff82
moviebuff82 on April 17, 2018 at 5:31 pm

http://www.nj.com/essex/index.ssf/2018/04/west_orange_essex_green_shopping_center.html

rivest266
rivest266 on July 8, 2018 at 1:24 pm

This opened on June 22nd, 1966. Grand opening ad in the photo section.

rivest266
rivest266 on July 10, 2018 at 10:31 am

and became a twin cinema on March 31st, 1972. Small ad in the photo section.

moviebuff82
moviebuff82 on July 27, 2018 at 2:05 pm

How Bout an ad for when it was a triplex?

ridethectrain
ridethectrain on November 11, 2021 at 5:47 pm

Please update, became a Triplex on june 15, 1979, ad in phtos

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