Menlo Park Twin Cinema

I just uploaded the Exclusive Engagement poster for “The Empire Strikes Back”…I remember seeing this poster displayed on an easel in the lobby. You can see the Menlo Park info on the bottom right.

Hey everyone, just uploaded 3 pics of our fav theatre for all of us to remember … shot in late 1991. Just passed by the location a week ago, along route 1. I can’t stand the site of what sits there now!

Joe S. (Filmakr1)

Thinking about this place the other day. Something I remembered. The first 2 full time projectionists here were Abe Levine and Joe Gazi. They worked there from the time it opened till April 1989. That’s when myself, Mark Pusillo and my partner Ed Hawley came in and ran it till it closed 2 years later. In 30 years this theatre only had 2 sets of full time projectionists. Of course there were many like Jerry Kampo and my father Joe Pusillo, as well as Ed’s father Ted Hawley who did relief work. Had they lasted just 2 more years, they would have seen it from beginning to end. I know Mr. Gazi died in Oct 1989, but Mr Levine was there on closing night bidding it farewell.

A brief article about the Cinema at Menlo Park appeared in Boxoffice of November 13, 1961, not long after it had opened. There is a single photo of the exterior. The 1,600-seat house was operated by the General Drive-In Corporation, which was soon to become General Cinema Corporation.

The article says that the Cinema was “Conceived by designer Elliot Willensky, now head of the Architects Design Group, New York City….”, though the architect of record for the building was Lathrop Douglass. Willensky went on to write a number of books on architecture, most notably “The AIA Guide to New York City” first published in 1968. Lathrop Douglass is best known as an architect of shopping centers, and might have been the architect of the Menlopark Mall.

Menlo Park Cinema tribute group formed!

A tribute to Central New Jersey Movie Theaters that brought happiness to thousands of people but have sadly been demolished. The theaters may be gone but the memory lives on and here is a place were we can discuss, reminisce, and remember.

This group can also be open to other thetheaters the surrounding areas such as Somerville, Plainfield, Westfield and other areas of Somerset County. Please feel free to post your stories and in particular any ads, photos or memorabilia you may have. Many Thanks and…enjoy the show!

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MenloBlueStarCinemas

Oh the memories you folks have rekindled. All the great people who worked here, Mr.Rizzo, Thom T, Abe and Joe and Jerry K. Some of you know me, Mark Pusillo, the last projectionist to work there in Dec 1991 when the place closed. My dad Joe P. worked there as well. Sadly, he passed on over 14 years ago. But the memories, from “Star Wars” to “Close Encounters” to “Grease” to whatever. This was THE place to be in the late 70’s into the late 80’s. It was really hard for me at the end because General Cinema hired me and Ed H. the other projectionist at the time, to strip the interior of whatever was useable, from equipment to seats. I have said for years that many of the old theatres should not have been destroyed, but this one and the Woodbridge Twin (former Walter Reade) were true crimes. Neither of these should have ever come down, espescially Menlo Park, for what? That sheetrock multiplex they put in the mall? Anyway it was great to read all the old stories, Thanks.

I lived in Staten Island in the summer of ‘77. I was unemployed at the time, and went to see a matinee of “Star Wars” its first day. I walked right in; the theater was only half full on a Wednesday afternoon. I went back a few weeks later to try to see it again. By then, word had gotten out, and the theater was sold out. Even with the air conditioning out on a hot July day. Needless to say, I blew it off.
I went back there to see “Empire Strikes Back” three years later. By then, I had a job (I took the day off) and waited about three hours to get in. It was well worth it.

I worked at the Menlo Twin in the summer of 1989 – even then we knew it was going once the new multiplex opened over at the mall, but it was still a shock for me when I got back from Alaska in 1992 and it was totally gone. I worked with some good people and still have some good memories of that summer, and now I drive by that spot and think about what was.

If I knew I wouldn’t have asked, bonehead!

Beginning when?

Was screen #1 really THX certified as claimed in a post from Feb 2?

“Was Menlo Park running 70MM long before it did with ‘Star Wars’ ???”

Menlo Park did not run the original “Star Wars” in 70mm. The first 70mm engagement at Menlo Park I’m aware of was “Alien” in 1979.