Mall Theatre
Spring Valley Avenue,
Paramus,
NJ
07652
Spring Valley Avenue,
Paramus,
NJ
07652
6 people
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This theatre was located in the Bergen Mall in Paramus NJ, one of the oldest malls in the United States. The theatre showed art films and foreign films, often in exclusive Bergen County engagements.
Contributed by
Bill Huelbig
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Recent comments (view all 11 comments)
Strange to consider that in it’s heyday, this theater was pretty much an art house. Strange because the mall it’s located in is definately NOT associated with the type of crowd that would normally go to an “art” or foreign film. Was the Bergen Mall once considered upscale? I know they’re trying to turn it around but nowadays, it’s kind of a trashy place.
I think the Bergen Mall (and the Garden State Plaza) were among the first of their kind in the whole state. They’re the only malls I was ever aware of as a kid, so they were special places to me back then. Hard to believe nowadays, with thousands of malls having sprung up all over the place like weeds.
World-theatres.com lists the opening date as 1960.
Listed as a B.S. Moss Theatre in the 1985 International Motion Picture Almanac.
Listed as part of B.S. Moss Theatres in the 1970 FDY & 1976 International Motion Picture Almanac.
Yes, believe it or not, the Bergen Mall was the first mall in the area, predating the GSP by about 3 years. The cinema was located outside, with no entry from inside the mall. They did show films not easy to see, unless you lived in NYC, like Twinkle, Twinkle Killer Kane, The Last Wave,The Man Who Fell To Earth, etc. I recall the theatre was rather nice inside, with the entrance being in the middle of the theatre, along the right side of the wall. Unusual.
Today these is absolutely no trace that there was ever a theatre there. Also, there was never a marquee outside the theatre, either.
Good article in today’s Bergen Record about the BERGEN MALL.
7/28/07
Nowadays you could find an art house film playing at the Garden State 16 under the AMC Select banner. As for the bergen mall theater, it was to Paramus what the Clairidge is to Montclair today.
The Bergen Mall has recently (kind of) “reopened” and it’s actually very nice. As I posted on the site for the Garden State Plaza 16, Paramus is big enough and attracts enough of a crowd that another (perhaps smaller) theater could do well. For reasons I can only guess at, the Plaza 16 never seems to show any unusual (read: “art”) films like the Palisades Center does sometimes. I assume it is because the Palisades has 21 screens vs. the Plaza’s 16. Considering this, it would’ve been cool if they’d opened a smallish multi screen theater at this mall perhaps to handle movies that the Plaza wouldn’t or couldn’t run.
Boxoffice of April 25, 1960, has a rendering of the Mall Theatre and says that it was being designed by architect Drew Eberson.