Franklin Theatre

LUISMEL on December 26, 2005 at 5:09 pm

Drove by the other day and didn’t even notice it. I think it was turn into some store.

teecee on June 30, 2005 at 4:50 am

The Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ), Nov 7, 2000 p017
This showing is rated PG, as in permanently gone; Nutley’s Franklin Theatre closing its doors. (NEW JERSEY)

Byline: JIM KRANE

1927 was a big year for movies. With the release of “The Jazz Singer,” audiences saw the world’s first “talkie.” Later that year, a new organization called the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presented its first Academy Award for the film “Wings.”

And in Nutley, the brand new Franklin Theatre, a neighborhood movie palace with a soaring ceiling and gilded faux marble columns, opened its doors.

On Sunday, without a drop of the fanfare or drama associated with the films that graced its screen, the 73- year-old Franklin Theatre closed.

Few town residents or patrons of the downtown theater on Franklin Avenue had any inkling the venue would be closing. A maintenance worker arriving to work on the building yesterday was surprised to see a notice posted on the signboard in the theater’s ticket window: “The Franklin Theatre is now permanently closed.” Callers to the theater’s telephone answering service heard the same message.

“I can’t believe it’s closing,” said Christine Smizaski, 34, of Belleville after dropping her kids off at the theater for an afternoon birthday party, one of three private parties scheduled to take place before the theater is shuttered for good.

For Smizaski, whose Nutley upbringing meant spending regular Friday nights at the neighborhood theater – known to locals as simply “the Franklin” – it cradles a lot of memories. In 1980, when she was a high school freshman, her first date was at the Franklin. And it was during the film that Smizaski received her first kiss.

“I was scared,” she said, laughing as she stood below the theater’s marquee yesterday. Although the relationship fizzled out after six months – “he was younger than I was” – Smizaski said many other Nutley teens shared her experience.

“This was the dating spot back then,” she said. “On Friday nights the whole school would come here.

We’d go see a movie, then the next day we’d go see a football game."

The theater’s projectionist, Donald Lee, said theater owner Peter Vivian decided to close the Franklin at the end of his lease. The old movie house suffered a pair of recent blows that left it reeling, Lee said.

Last year, the Franklin lost many of its patrons when a 16-screen multiplex cinema opened at the new Clifton Commons mall, less than a mile away.

Then in June, a 2,000-pound section of the theater’s concrete facade fell onto the sidewalk. Although no one was injured, the building needed extensive repairs. Its facade and marquee have been obscured by scaffolding ever since.

When the building’s owner asked for an increase in rent to secure a new lease, Lee said the theater’s income could not support Vivian’s higher costs.

“He just couldn’t do it,” said Lee, 54, the projectionist since 1980. “It’s sad, after being here so long.”

Vivian, who leased the theater since 1979, could not be reached for comment yesterday.

The lone employee on duty yesterday afternoon said the theater would hold some showings for schoolchildren and a couple of birthday parties this week, then close down permanently Saturday afternoon.

For movie buffs like 16-year-old Jim Chaffee, the shuttering of the Franklin means driving to the Clifton multiplex and spending $9 to see a film that cost $5 at the Franklin – or $3 if it was a matinee.

But why bother? Besides the low prices, Chaffee said the theater manager would let him and his friends see R- rated movies without actually being accompanied by an adult. As long as an adult bought the tickets, Chaffee said, the ticket-taker would let him in.

“You don’t want to be in a theater with a bunch of friends and have your parents with you,” said Chaffee, sipping a Coke at the counter of The News Cafe across the street. “It’s really embarrassing. Especially if there’s a scene with too much blood.”

Now, Chaffee says he’s resigned to wait until his 17th birthday to see the movies he prefers.

Although the theater was recently split form a single-feature movie house into a triplex, the conversion was handled more gracefully than similar operations that have bisected other theaters. The conversion added two smaller screening rooms in the balcony and left intact the main hall, with its soaring, curved ceiling crowned by a shallow dome.

Yesterday afternoon, children attending the 6th birthday party of Gianna Mucchiello of Belleville filed into the theater, not noticing the gold- and silver-leafed flower detail on the archway, the faded yellow velvet curtain, or the giant round medallions of half-naked women perched high on the walls, between the faux marble columns with gilded Corinthian capitals.

Gianna’s mother, Monique, 38, said she remembered seeing “Jaws” at the Franklin.

“I wouldn’t go into the water after that,” Mucchiello said.

CAPTION(S):

1. Projectionist Donald Lee sits in the main hall of the Franklin Theatre in Nutley. The doors close for good Saturday. Crumbling structure and competition from a mall complex contributed to its demise.

2. JOHN MUNSON/THE STAR-LEDGER

Article CJ81270768

cinemaguy on June 29, 2005 at 7:10 pm

Bad news, I was by this theatre in the middle of last month, and it is completley gutted. If you walk around the back there is a huge opening to let a small truck in, and there is a wooden door attached. In the front, which I assume was the old tickett booth,it is gutted and opened up, and on the left there is an entrance to a jewelers and on the right an entrance to a cafe, and I assume where the entrance was to the actual theatre itself is a glass door, that looks as if it will be the door to new retail. It looks as if the Franklin won’t be coming back.

teecee on March 11, 2005 at 9:34 pm

1/17/91 Star Ledger lists the theater as part of the “Vivian” chain.

teecee on February 17, 2005 at 10:07 am

There was some talk of making it a Rascals Comedy Club.