Centralia Cinema

Located in the Fairview Plaza Shopping Center. Centralia’s first new theatre in about forty years was built by Midwest Cinema Enterprises' Jack Kootman and Richard Wolf in 1972. They were franchisees of the Jerry Lewis Cinema Circuit and would have the latest in the chain’s 350-seat automated theaters that controlled the projection, lights, and curtains. Like all other locations, the Jerry Lewis Cinema would only play family-centric films. The theater’s interior was designed by Broadway’s scenic designer Robin Wagner bathed in red and white.

This location opened September 13, 1972 with the disaster film, “Skyjacked” starring Charlton Heston. But it was the Jerry Lewis Cinema that was a disaster in freefall with its parent company, Network Cinema Corporation. They would go bankrupt and on June 8, 1973 the theatre changed names to the Fairview Park Plaza Cinema. It also proudly announced it would screen R- and X-rated films.

The theatre closed in February 4, 1975. But Rage Cinemas of Chicago brought the venue back to life as the Centralia Cinema on April 11, 1975 with Art Carney in “Harry and Tonto”.

The theatre would be replaced by a modern five-screen multiplex, the Plaza V which would become the AMC Classic Centralia V.

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