Bellevue Cinema 4

A delayed response to Barry M’s question of more than two years ago: yes, due to the Bellevue’s location near the Upper Montclair train station and a commuter line running about one hundred feet away, outside noise was an issue even in the single-screen halcyon days. I noticed it, albeit intermittently, from my first trip there (a “Sound Of Music” revival when I was about 13). Reminds me of the old Astor Plaza near Times Square (now the Nokia Theatre, a live venue), where the sounds of the subway trains below the auditorium made their presence felt.

I first went to the Bellevue Theatre on New Year’s Day 1965 to see “Mary Poppins.” It was the most elegant theatre I had ever been in. It exuded class with its Tudor décor, the ushers in bright yellow blazers, and from the fact that you had to purchase tickets to assigned seats, just as in a live theatre. I found it all so impressive and exciting, and still did so the following year when we went back to se Julie Andrews again, this time in “The Sound of Music.”

The Bellevue was the place which held roadshow engagements, and sold souvenir booklets filled with photos of the films being presented. (Does anybody do that anymore?)

The Bellevue was a place where, for many years, they played “The Star-Spangled Banner” before each showing.

The biggest hit I remember the Bellevue having was “Fiddler On the Roof”, which played for half-a-year back in 1972.

The Bellevue lost its aura once it was split up into a triplex. I still frequently went there because they had bargain matinees, but stopped once they ended that policy. I’ve only been there a couple of times since they remodeled it completely. I stopped going not so much because of the remodeling but because the same films are playing at theatres closer to my home.

Here is the current irony. In the old days, when theatres showed only a single film, you got to know a lot of theatres, because if you wanted to see Film A, you had to go to one theatre, but to see Film B, you had to go to a different theatre. Then changing economics demanded that these beautiful old theatres be cut up into several smaller cinemas in the hope that the profits from one hit film playing would make up for the deficits from the flops.

Now, however, I think these old cut-up theatres are going to do because so many big multiplexes have been built. Why sit in an old, cramped, charmless theatre when you can go to a multiplex? It too may be charmless, but at least it is big and modern. Especially when all the theatres are showing exactly the same movies. I think that’s what happened to the recently closed Cinema 23 in Cedar Grove. It couldn’t compete with the bigger, newer and equally convenient AMC at the Essex Green Plaza a couple of miles up the road.

Myself, unless I’m going to independent/at film at the Claridge in Montclair, I pretty much keep to the Clifton Commons or the Allwood, but they’re near my home. (And with all its faults, I often favor the Allwood because it is cheaper and usually less crowded. However, I get the feeling the Allwood is on its way out as well.)

Here is a photo circa 1920s:
http://tinyurl.com/pan5ls

The theater is a shell of it’s former self. Surprised it is still around.

Unfortunately I’ve only been to this theatre since it was chopped up, so I wasn’t too thrilled with it. I have a question for those who had been there in its heyday – could you ALWAYS hear the sound of the train through the walls? Considering this was such an exclusive venue for years, I was surprised that it suffered from this problem.

Here is a 1976 ad from the New York Times;
http://tinyurl.com/28svyd

The Bellevue proudly announced the exclusive Todd-AO showing of “South Pacific"
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View link (ca 1920)
View link (ca 1935)

Listed as part of Rapf & Ruden in the 1956 Film Daily Yearbook.

Here are four early images, including two architectural drawings:
www.i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/140-4025_IMG.jpg
www.i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/140-4040_IMG.jpg
www.i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/140-4045_IMG.jpg
www.i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/140-4046_IMG.jpg

An Austin organ, opus 1027, was installed in this theater in 1922.

The Bellevue has been showing the Rocky Horror Picture Show on Saturdays at midnight since August of 2003, when The Screening Zone, another Clearview theatre, closed in downtown Montclair.

Rhett, There are 2 problems with the masking issues. The first problem is that a lot, if not most of the theaters, do not have movable maskings so 1:85 flat fits fine but scope gets chopped off. The second problem is that clearview and other chains are using non union operaters (Managers) to run the booth instead of real union projectionists. They go in, start the machine and walk away and assume everything is fine.