Jerry Lewis Cinema
Russell Plaza,
West Peabody,
MA
01906
Russell Plaza,
West Peabody,
MA
01906
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Opened in the early-1970’s, a small, two-screen box (one auditorium in red, the other in blue), this was the site of many a happy Sunday afternoon when I was a kid. I saw “What’s Up, Doc?”, “Murder On the Orient Express”, “Willy Wonka…”, “The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes” and, one life-altering summer evening “The Sound Of Music”. We could ride our bikes from our homes in Middleton to the West Peabody, Massachusetts location to enjoy the Sunday double-feature. How many hours I logged, I could never count.
The Jerry Lewis Cinema was closed in the mid-1980’s.
Contributed by
Frank Gayton
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Recent comments (view all 7 comments)
Jerry Lewis sold out way before the mid 80’s.Did it keep the name? I wouldn’t think so if another chain bought it.
The above intro timeline sounds very much like the Jerry Lewis Twin Cinema my dad worked at in Carteret N.J. That one opened on June 7, 1972 and closed late in 1984. Its name was never changed, even thought the parent company, Network Cinema Corporation had folded up shop in early ‘74. Ours was also in 2 colors, cinema 1 was blue, cinema 2 was red, and the lobby was split with the candy stand. No way for the public to cross over. It was where I really got involved with the industry. Lots of fun times.
If was like the one I just described, then it probably had 300 seats in each cinema. That was JLC’s trademark. 350 seats in a single screen, 300 seats each in a twin.
With that configuration there must have been two separate sets of restrooms, one for each screen?
Yes.
Interesting article…
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I remember this place. The very first movie they showed when they opened for business was “Mark of the Devil”, and they gave everyone a vomit bag on the way in. It was pretty grisly but I didn’t throw up. They made that their very first movie for publicity reasons, to get the word out that the theater was open for business. Saw lots of movies there. never would have remembered that it was a Jerry Lewis theater without seeing it here, but i remember it now.