Clairidge Cinemas
486 Bloomfield Avenue,
Montclair,
NJ
07042
486 Bloomfield Avenue,
Montclair,
NJ
07042
10 people
favorited this theater
The Clairidge Theatre opened as a deluxe movie palace in 1922. All seats were on one level—no balcony, and the house featured a Wurltizer organ (now at the Paramount in Middletown, NY). In the 1960’s the Clairidge Theatre became a Cinerama house (there are historic photos in the lobby). Divided into a triplex, then eventually a six-plex, the current Clairidge Cinemas is housed in a metal ‘box’ in the original theatre.
In the HVAC room off of the projection booth, I discovered a hatch in the ceiling. After climbing the ladder through the hatch about three years ago, I was in shock when I saw that the orignal theatre is still almost 100% intact!! There is some damage to the proscenium and organ screens from the metal ‘box’ described above, and someone stole some of the stained glass light fixtures ringing the ceiling dome, but otherwise the theatre is all still there and can be restored in the future!
Contributed by
Joe Masher
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Recent comments (view all 87 comments)
Besides the Clairidge and the Kinnelon “Arts” cinema, are there any other theaters in North Jersey that show “indie” films on a regular basis?
Chatham cinema is one in Morris County that shows an indie movie on one screen. It’s in a tiny shopping center.
Kinnelon is an art cinema when they have nothing else to show, for example, they once showed such indie fair as Puss in Boots and New Years Eve. The Clairidge is the most reliable art theatre, Clearview had previously shown these films in Washington Township and Tenafly (and sometimes still do), Edgewater Multiplex gets a few commercial indie films (they are often showing date and date with the Clairidge on more commercial indies as they platform out to larger venues in the following weeks). With that said, this theater still has a problem: distorted projection from poorly placed port windows (things boothless digital might be able to fix – but I wouldn’t be shocked if Clearview doesn’t bother to correct these issues). Every time I see I’m in Theater #4 I think “oh man, I wish this film was playing somewhere else so I can see it projected correctly”. The kicker (as with other Clearviews with problems like this) is that they’ve renovated the theatre – this one closed for a few weeks while they redid the concession stand, restrooms and put in very comfortable new seats) but never bothered to correct the poor presentation. Kinnelon, thankfully used the better of the two theaters for art product – the 8-plex up the hill has the worst projection of any venue I’ve seen (along with poor customer service and clueless management) and last year I saw 280 films in theaters – so I kind of do know what I’m talking about there. (They of coarse treat you like an idiot and tell you “the film was sent to us that way” NO – you, sir/ma’m are a moron and long with whomever designed the layout of the booth).
This (as Carl Denham would say) is turning into a “theme song”, but, my son and I went to see “The Artist” last Wed. at the Clairidge and it took two patrons to “complain” about the house lights left on during the opening of the film before an “annoyed” house employee angrily “switched off” the lights. A real shame, because I still love this place.
Bad management…thankfully the artist is playing at rockaway, in which the lights fade during the amc “Coke/Magic Chairs” intro.
Sad to read the recent comments about poor projection at the Clairidge. Even sadder when you consider this theater, 50 years ago, was the North Jersey home of Cinerama, the ultimate film projection experience.
Over the years my family & I saw “Windjammer,” “It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World” and “How the West Was Won” at the Clairidge. It was always a special treat. For some reason I also went there on school trips to see “My Fair Lady” and a reissue of “Gone With the Wind.”
I’m glad they’re able to show new-ish films but as 35MM prints become less and less available for smaller titles, I should note, 2 of the last 4 films we saw here were projected on a pre-show projector in what I assume was BluRay. The image quality wasn’t great – the blacks weren’t black enough and the whites looked a little too pixilated. I know this is a work around but Clearview it appears is behind the curve on digital installs, so I imagine its either BluRay or nothing for some of these titles, but I don’t want to see this trend continue. (I believe most of these titles alternative would be available as DCPs as other art house theaters have gone digital).
Soon to be pick up by a new theater chain. I hope they keep their “art house” type films.
I agree. Maybe landmark?