Jerry Lewis Twin Cinema

Cinema Four Co. of Brockton, Massachusetts, became the latest franchisee of the Jerry Lewis Cinema Circuit and his parent company, Network Cinema Corp. The twin-screen theater was built in the Highgate Shopping Center and was automated pledging to play only family oriented films.

The Highgate Shopping Center had launched with a Giant Discount Department Store as an anchor in May of 1969. It would be joined by a W.T. Grant Co. store in 1971. The Jerry Lewis Twin Cinema launched March 17, 1973 with Steve McQueen and Ali McGraw in “The Getaway”. But that was the time that Jerry Lewis Cinema Circuit and Network Cinema were in freefall heading toward bankruptcy and dissolution.

The Jerry Lewis Twin Cinema closed up on August 17, 1973 and the equipment was moved to New Jersey. The theatre was vacant for four years as the Highgate Shopping Center tried unsuccessfully to get a new operator.

The Jerry Lewis Cinema operator shouldn’t have felt too badly about the failing after just five months at the Highgate as they had company. W.T. Grant would go out of business along with the rest of the chain there; Ames Department store opened and closed; Giant Discount left; Woolworth would come in and when the chain folded would go; Radio Shack came and went demonstrating that the Highgate was home to many high profile retail chains that had business model issues but always reinvented itself to survive.

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