Fords Cinema
537 New Brunswick Avenue,
Fords,
NJ
537 New Brunswick Avenue,
Fords,
NJ
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Small town theater, which in later years was known as the Fords Cinema.
Contributed by
Erwin Markisch
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Recent comments (view all 17 comments)
Hey Jerry-
I have some serious roots in Fords. I lived there as a kid in a house that was built for my great grandmother in the early 1900s on Woodland Ave. Up until 4th grade I went to Ford Avenue-School 14 where my great aunt taught from the time it opened in 1924 until she retired in the late 60s (before I started going there). My great grandfather owned a butcher shop, I think on New Brunswick Ave., the same street as the Fords Cinema. I have great memories of living there as a kid. An All-American storybook working class town if I ever saw one.
Irv,
I share your memories of the “old Fords”! During the 1950’s and early 60’s it was a great town to grow up in! It truly was a classic American small town. I began working in Fords Radio and TV in 1965 and eventually bought the business, finally giving it up in 1988 and going back into TV broadcasting, where I still make my living. I also worked, part time, as a movie projectionist in the many area theaters during the 70’s and 80’s, mainly due to my love of movies! The Fords Theater was THE place to meet all your friends on Saturday afternoons when I was a kid. Spent many happy hours there watching many of the classic 50’s sci-fi flicks. A neighborhood theater, within walking distance, AND only 25 cents to get in! A kid’s dream come true back then! I remember a couple of butcher shops in town….Dambach’s was one and Sisolacs (spelling?) was the other. Of course, my memory gets worse with each passing year! Also, if your grandmother lived on Woodland Ave, I may have fixed her TV back in the 60’s! E-mail me at
Regretfully, I only made it down to the Fords Cinema once. In the late 70s I started going to midnight shows to see classic movies and off-the-beaten-track films on the wide screen. George Harrison’s CONCERT FOR BANGLADESH was showing at the Fords Cinema. A friend and I drove down Interstate 287, exited by Fords, made a couple turns and by sheer luck pulled up in front of the theater. It was an old classic cinema. Sorry to hear that it closed.
I saw “Animal House” there in 1978, only time I was ever there. Nice, local theater.
To Jerry, Irv and everyone else, who just like me was saddened to see this place go. My dad Joe Pusillo and his partner Nick Szabo ran the projectors here for years, (as well as other theatres in the area). I remember the hallway that was upstairs on the way to the projection room. My wife is a patient of the foot doctor who until recently was in one of the small stores in front. He informed me Jerry that in mid 2006, all the projectors, old lamphouses, the platter that was there in the final years, everything, had been trashed in a dumpster. I would have loved to have gotten my hands on those old Simplex projectors. What a sin that no one has any respect for the past anymore.
Recently, the buzz around town is that possibly this place could reopen as a community playhouse, or even a performing arts center. It will need a lot of work.
See attached link for article concerning the restoration “vision”. Article dates the building to 1919 with the theater added in 1936.
View link
Another article with photo:
View link
I was at this quaint little theater a couple times when I was in high school and dating a girl from Fords. This would have been around 1982 or 1983. I remember we were concerned that the little one screen theater seemed to be on its last legs at that time. Attendance was almost non-existant.
It amused us that the same man who sold us a ticket in the front booth, then walked back to the snack bar to sell us popcorn, after which he walked upstairs — presumably to turn on the projector! It seemed to be a one man show this night.
My girl and I joked (now this will really date us) that the man running the theater was like Sam Drucker on the sitcom Green Acres, who held many different jobs in the small town and would literally switch his hat while conversing with someone — in order to change the role he was in at that moment.
Sorry to hear the theater is closed, but really not unexpected. A loss nonetheless.
I saw several films here in the late 70s—early 80s, including Stripes, Gandhi, The Shining and Love at First Bite.