I think part of the problem with the Menlo 12 is that it’s showing it’s age, poor theatre design and terrible parking situation. Parking is really limited on the upper parking deck area outside of the theatre with 2 main entrances to mall on that level so it’s mixed shopper and movie-goer parking.
Also, I recently went to the Menlo 12 and was surprised that the theaters and the interior area are looking a bit thread-worn and shabby compared to other theaters. Another factor that may be turning patrons away is the amount of loitering that goes on outside the theaters on the weekends and evenings. Going into the theaters is like running a gauntlet at times with young people hanging around outside the entrance area. On exiting that evening, mall security and Edison Police were breaking up what looked like a scuffle that was occurring 10 feet past the exit to parking deck.
We do have fond memories of both theaters movie534! Maybe the County will get involved just as in Union County where the old Rahway Theatre was preserved as the Union County Arts Center. So many of the old local houses have gone, it would be a genuine shame if some effort wasn’t taken to save an old theatre like the Forum.
I drove past the Forum Theatre this past weekend and the building looks abandoned. The marquee no longer lists any productions and is blank. A “For Lease” sign now is posted on the building.
This is quite a shame because I frequented the Forum during it’s recent use as a community theatre. Some of the productions were quite good. I saw a production of “Dream Girls” the Forum that was excellent. Some of the productions were quite off-beat. I recall going seeing a production years ago called something like “Heart Signs” or “Love Signs” (I can’t recall precisely) that was listed as a romantic comedy. Instead it was a depressing tale of an elderly couple going through Alzheimer’s disease. If there were 30 people in the audience, that was a lot.
I do hope an effort is made to preserve on of the last downtown theaters left in Middlesex County for some use – perhaps as a revival house or something of that sort.
The McCrory’s you’re talking about was a 5 and dime store similar to Woolworth’s and had it’s own entrance located where the parking lot entrance to the Mega Movies now stands.
The rest rooms located by theaters 9-13 at the Mega are the original ones from the Brunswick Square Theater 1, which had it’s own restrooms located just inside the doors to the theater and located within the auditiorium. That whole wing of the Mega in fact is the remnants of what used to be the Brunswick Square.
I think you are confusing the Movie City in back of Toys R Us with the old General Cinema Woodbridge on St. Georges Ave. and Rte. 1 where the old E.J. Korvettes/Caldor’s was located. The Movie City theaters occupied part of the building that originally was an S. Klein’s on the Square in the 60’s.
The old Woodbridge GC theater building (facing Rte. 35) still exists on the site and was converted to an Office Max. If you drive by, you can clearly see by the outline of the building that it was an old theater.
Rutgers Plaza was a very nice theater that started life as a General Cinema single theater. It was split in the 70’s into a twin. In the late 70’s/early 80’s a 4 theater addition was added on the right side of the building expanding the total theaters to 6.
The Rutger Plaza did tend to attract the college crowd during the 80’s due to it being really the only theater is close proximity to the University at the time. The theater went into decline really due to poor management and the deterioration of the interior. The final nail really came with the opening of the Loews 18 on Rt. 1 not too far away.
I was pretty much a regular the the Rutgers Plaza and it was sad to see it decline and finally close. The hulk of the old theater sat abandoned for many years and K-Mart in the Rutgers Plaza shopping center at one point used the marquee to do advertising.
The building has since been razed and a new Stop & Shop mega-supermarket was built over the site.
The stadium seating at the UA MarketFair is a much later addition. Originally the theater had standard floor seating. A major renovation was done in the last 5 years to add stadium seating.
The Menlo Park 12 started life as Cineplex Odeon when it opened, becoming a Loews Cineplex after the merger.
The Menlo 12 is a hugely popular theater, however not one of my favorites due to its poor theater design. Many of the theaters have “off-center” seating, meaning that the seats are not center aligned to the screen but are in some cases off-set to the left or right.
Also, during its Cineplex Odeon days, the Menlo 12 had the rightful reputation as one of the priciest theaters in Central Jersey, with its limited bargain matinees and high priced evening shows. I remember shortly after its opening that it even charged 50 cents extra for the “butter topping” on popcorn.
The old Iselin Theater was the last of the old style “downtown business district” theaters. It was never a first run house when I was a kid in the 70’s and always showed 2nd run films at bargain prices.
The old building was more or less gutted and converted to an office building in the late ‘80s/early 90’s.
A DSW Shoe Warehouse now occupies the site of the former Mercer Mall Cinema.
I was kind of surprised when it closed because it was a nice theater. One of the last films I recall seeing there was “Gladiator” around Memorial Day 2000. The theater closed sometime later that fall.
The Loews Route 18 was not the same theater as the UA Turnpike Indoor. The latter theater was actually located in North Brunswick on Route 1 on the site of what is now the Wal-Mart shopping center.
The Loews Route 18 originally was a single theater located as one of the anchors of the Miracle Mall shopping center. If memory serves me, a Crazy Eddie’s occupied the other anchor location.
One of the interesting things of the old Loews Route 18 was the “wallpaper” located in the lobby area which had these huge images of Charlie Chaplin, Rudolph Valentino, Theda Bara and other silent era stars.
To reiterate one of the comments above, when the Amboys Multiplex opened, it was state of the art. It was one of the first theaters in the area that offered the springy reclining seats. The theater interior itself was alway clean and bright, however I never did like the bare cinder block walls of the Amboys.
At the height of the Amboys popularity the Razz-ma-tazz restaurant opened in the corner of the parking lot, but it was pretty much a Chuck-e-cheese rip-off and never was much of a success, closing a couple of years after it’s opening. The abandoned restaurant sat pretty much as an abandoned eyesore in the parking lot for years.
In many ways, the opening of the Amboys was the start of the multiplex boom in Central Jersey and unfortunately the beginning of the end for many of the older single and twin cinemas in the area.
However, by 90’s the Amboys did go into of a state of decline. For whatever reason, the theater seemed to attract a somewhat rough crowd and as the link in one of the other posts showed, the theater gained somewhat of a bad reputation due to the car thefts and such that plagued the site. I know in my case, I just somehow drifted away from going to the Amboys in favor of the newer theaters that opened in the area.
Actually, the full name of the the theater was the Plainfield-Edison Drive-in. It was located on Oak Tree Rd. in Edison.
The theater had both a drive-in and an indoor theater. To be honest, I think the the theater was constructed earlier then the 60’s, but I’d have to research that.
The indoor reference I believe was to the actual indoor theater that was part of the main building. I don’t recall a specific area for watching the drive-in films from indoors unless you were referring to the concession area that had picnic benchs in front that you could sit at.
The Plainfield-Edison’s indoor theater was somewhat unique. When it was a single theater, it was one of the few theaters that had what we now call stadium seating in it. There was floor seating in the front part of the theater and then the stadium seating in the rear that was about 5-6 steps up from the floor. I remember there was a steel tubular rail located at the front of the stadium seating area. As a kid, you always wanted to sit in that front row behind the rail because you could put your feet up on on it!
I believe the indoor theater stayed a single at least through the late 70’s when it was split in half to become a twin. By the mid-80’s the theater became very dingy and rundown and subsequently closed.
Just a correction the the decription – the Jerry Lewis Cinema in Carteret was a twin cinema from the outset. It was located in the Carteret Shopping Center on Roosevelt Ave.
As kid growing up in Port Reading, I spent many a weekend at the Jerry Lewis in Carteret. It never was a first run house, but if I recall correctly, always seemed to get pictures after they went through their initial run.
For a time, in the 70’s, the Jerry Lewis also used to run double-features of re-released films. I think my first viewing of some of the old Bond films were at the Jerry Lewis. They’d have things like a double-feature of Thunderball/On Her Majesty’s Secret Service and the like. It also used to show a lot of the B-movie type horror films of the day. To this day, I can still remember seeing “The Devil’s Rain” with Ernest Borgnine and Ida Lupino at the JL or films like “Chariots of the Gods”.
The Jerry Lewis was never what you’d call a luxurious theater. In fact it was kind of spartan inside, with pleated cloth curtains that covered cinder block walls. I don’t know if a change of ownership took place at some point, but towards the early 80’s, the theater became very rundown inside and eventually closed. I believe the building was later converted to retail stores in the Shopping Center.
The Fox Woodbridge (not to be confused with the Woodbridge Walter Reade/General Cinema which was up the road about a mile away on the northbound side of Rte. 1) was located on the southbound side of US Route 1 in Woodbridge. It was located between where the current Sheraton Woodbridge is located and the Garden State Parkway on-ramp in Woodbridge. The Levitz on Rte. 1 currently sits on the site of the old Fox.
Growing up as a kid in Woodbridge at the time, I recall when the Fox was contstructed. One of the things that I will always remember about the Fox was the huge interior it had. It also had giant floor to ceiling curtains that were closed at the end of each showing and very dramatically opened when the movie was about to begin.
Although the Fox was quite a beautiful theater, I seem to recall that it never struck me as a very successful theater, even after it was split into a twin in the mid-to-late 70’s. All of the really big, blockbuster pictures went either to the Menlo up the road or the Woodbrige Walter Reade/General Cinema.
I am so happy to have found this site! I happened to do a Google search on the Menlo Park Cinema and located this site and immediately joined!
The General Cinema Menlo Park was probably the premiere first run theater in Central NJ during it’s heydays of the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. I had an aunt that lived in Spotswood, NJ at the time the theater opened and she told me stories of what a big deal the opening of the theater was in the early 60’s. By her description, the grand opening was on-par with Hollywood style opening night, with reserved seating and such.
The theater itself was very unique architecturally, designed in a very modernist style. The box office area was located on the left of the building, if you were facing it, with the theater auditorium on the right and probably in excess of 3 stories tall. The box office itself was a very modern affair with a low, white flat roof but completely windowed. On entering the box office, 2-3 box office windows were located in the front. You then entered the “lobby” area through 2 glass doors and were in the “gallery” area. Various modern artwork adorned the walls and there were low cushioned benches throuughout for sitting. I do recall at one time that the work of various local artists were featured in the gallery area.
As a kid, some of my fondest memories of going to the movies revolved around the Menlo Park Cinema. As mentioned before, the theater had a balcony area which if memory serves me, at one point was designated the “Smoking Loge”, which for an additional charge patrons could purchase tickets. The balcony area also had a full refreshment/concession area that was always staffed.
I recall one of the first films I have any memory of seeing as a kid was Disney’s re-release of Snow White, probably around 1967 or 1968. I recall that the afternoon showing we were at was over-sold because my friends and I had to sit on the floor in the aisle and the adults had to sit in the remaining single seats available.
All of the blockbuster films of the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s always where shown during the exclusive engangement runs at the Menlo. The Godfather 1, all of the Bond films, the Indiana Jones trilogy, Star Wars, Star Trek, etc. were all films I recall seeing at the Menlo. In fact, I think my love of the movies was born at the Menlo.
I believe the theater was made into a twin sometime in the mid-70’s. A huge wall was erected that basically spit the theater in half long-ways. For a time after the split, the balcony area remained opened to the public but subsequently was roped off and never accessible again, which was a shame. For a time, a local sponsors used to host a “Kiddie Matinee” on Satuday mornings which if I remember correctly were free. I recall one of the first sponsors was Valiant Aluminum, an aluminum siding outfit who’s owner, Dick Najar (sp?) used to call him self “Capt. Vinyl” for the vinyl siding he was selling. Later, I believe it was Fords Jewelers that sponsored the Kiddie Matinee.
Towards the end of the Menlo’s day’s I became convinced that General Cinema was intentionally running the theater into the ground. The Menlo no longer got first run films, the interior of the theater was becoming thread-worn, bathrooms were always broken and the like. In fact, all the first run showings that normally would have gone to the Menlo now seemed to go to the Woodbridge General Cinema, which was about 2-3 miles north of the theater.
When the planned reconstruction of Menlo Park Mall was announced in the late 80’s, the simultaneous announcement was made that the Menlo Park Cinema was closing to be replaced by a new 12-plex at the mall. To my horror, they also announced that the old Menlo would be demolished. Currently, a Macaroni Grill sits on the site of the old Menlo.
To this day, I still miss the experience of going to the movies at the Menlo, one my all-time favorite local theaters.
I think part of the problem with the Menlo 12 is that it’s showing it’s age, poor theatre design and terrible parking situation. Parking is really limited on the upper parking deck area outside of the theatre with 2 main entrances to mall on that level so it’s mixed shopper and movie-goer parking.
Also, I recently went to the Menlo 12 and was surprised that the theaters and the interior area are looking a bit thread-worn and shabby compared to other theaters. Another factor that may be turning patrons away is the amount of loitering that goes on outside the theaters on the weekends and evenings. Going into the theaters is like running a gauntlet at times with young people hanging around outside the entrance area. On exiting that evening, mall security and Edison Police were breaking up what looked like a scuffle that was occurring 10 feet past the exit to parking deck.
We do have fond memories of both theaters movie534! Maybe the County will get involved just as in Union County where the old Rahway Theatre was preserved as the Union County Arts Center. So many of the old local houses have gone, it would be a genuine shame if some effort wasn’t taken to save an old theatre like the Forum.
I drove past the Forum Theatre this past weekend and the building looks abandoned. The marquee no longer lists any productions and is blank. A “For Lease” sign now is posted on the building.
This is quite a shame because I frequented the Forum during it’s recent use as a community theatre. Some of the productions were quite good. I saw a production of “Dream Girls” the Forum that was excellent. Some of the productions were quite off-beat. I recall going seeing a production years ago called something like “Heart Signs” or “Love Signs” (I can’t recall precisely) that was listed as a romantic comedy. Instead it was a depressing tale of an elderly couple going through Alzheimer’s disease. If there were 30 people in the audience, that was a lot.
I do hope an effort is made to preserve on of the last downtown theaters left in Middlesex County for some use – perhaps as a revival house or something of that sort.
The McCrory’s you’re talking about was a 5 and dime store similar to Woolworth’s and had it’s own entrance located where the parking lot entrance to the Mega Movies now stands.
The rest rooms located by theaters 9-13 at the Mega are the original ones from the Brunswick Square Theater 1, which had it’s own restrooms located just inside the doors to the theater and located within the auditiorium. That whole wing of the Mega in fact is the remnants of what used to be the Brunswick Square.
I think you are confusing the Movie City in back of Toys R Us with the old General Cinema Woodbridge on St. Georges Ave. and Rte. 1 where the old E.J. Korvettes/Caldor’s was located. The Movie City theaters occupied part of the building that originally was an S. Klein’s on the Square in the 60’s.
The old Woodbridge GC theater building (facing Rte. 35) still exists on the site and was converted to an Office Max. If you drive by, you can clearly see by the outline of the building that it was an old theater.
Rutgers Plaza was a very nice theater that started life as a General Cinema single theater. It was split in the 70’s into a twin. In the late 70’s/early 80’s a 4 theater addition was added on the right side of the building expanding the total theaters to 6.
The Rutger Plaza did tend to attract the college crowd during the 80’s due to it being really the only theater is close proximity to the University at the time. The theater went into decline really due to poor management and the deterioration of the interior. The final nail really came with the opening of the Loews 18 on Rt. 1 not too far away.
I was pretty much a regular the the Rutgers Plaza and it was sad to see it decline and finally close. The hulk of the old theater sat abandoned for many years and K-Mart in the Rutgers Plaza shopping center at one point used the marquee to do advertising.
The building has since been razed and a new Stop & Shop mega-supermarket was built over the site.
The stadium seating at the UA MarketFair is a much later addition. Originally the theater had standard floor seating. A major renovation was done in the last 5 years to add stadium seating.
The Menlo Park 12 started life as Cineplex Odeon when it opened, becoming a Loews Cineplex after the merger.
The Menlo 12 is a hugely popular theater, however not one of my favorites due to its poor theater design. Many of the theaters have “off-center” seating, meaning that the seats are not center aligned to the screen but are in some cases off-set to the left or right.
Also, during its Cineplex Odeon days, the Menlo 12 had the rightful reputation as one of the priciest theaters in Central Jersey, with its limited bargain matinees and high priced evening shows. I remember shortly after its opening that it even charged 50 cents extra for the “butter topping” on popcorn.
The old Iselin Theater was the last of the old style “downtown business district” theaters. It was never a first run house when I was a kid in the 70’s and always showed 2nd run films at bargain prices.
The old building was more or less gutted and converted to an office building in the late ‘80s/early 90’s.
A DSW Shoe Warehouse now occupies the site of the former Mercer Mall Cinema.
I was kind of surprised when it closed because it was a nice theater. One of the last films I recall seeing there was “Gladiator” around Memorial Day 2000. The theater closed sometime later that fall.
The Loews Route 18 was not the same theater as the UA Turnpike Indoor. The latter theater was actually located in North Brunswick on Route 1 on the site of what is now the Wal-Mart shopping center.
The Loews Route 18 originally was a single theater located as one of the anchors of the Miracle Mall shopping center. If memory serves me, a Crazy Eddie’s occupied the other anchor location.
One of the interesting things of the old Loews Route 18 was the “wallpaper” located in the lobby area which had these huge images of Charlie Chaplin, Rudolph Valentino, Theda Bara and other silent era stars.
To reiterate one of the comments above, when the Amboys Multiplex opened, it was state of the art. It was one of the first theaters in the area that offered the springy reclining seats. The theater interior itself was alway clean and bright, however I never did like the bare cinder block walls of the Amboys.
At the height of the Amboys popularity the Razz-ma-tazz restaurant opened in the corner of the parking lot, but it was pretty much a Chuck-e-cheese rip-off and never was much of a success, closing a couple of years after it’s opening. The abandoned restaurant sat pretty much as an abandoned eyesore in the parking lot for years.
In many ways, the opening of the Amboys was the start of the multiplex boom in Central Jersey and unfortunately the beginning of the end for many of the older single and twin cinemas in the area.
However, by 90’s the Amboys did go into of a state of decline. For whatever reason, the theater seemed to attract a somewhat rough crowd and as the link in one of the other posts showed, the theater gained somewhat of a bad reputation due to the car thefts and such that plagued the site. I know in my case, I just somehow drifted away from going to the Amboys in favor of the newer theaters that opened in the area.
The Prince 3 ended its days in the early 90’s (probably ‘92-'93) as a discount movie house showing 2nd run films for $2 for all seats at all times.
Actually, the full name of the the theater was the Plainfield-Edison Drive-in. It was located on Oak Tree Rd. in Edison.
The theater had both a drive-in and an indoor theater. To be honest, I think the the theater was constructed earlier then the 60’s, but I’d have to research that.
The indoor reference I believe was to the actual indoor theater that was part of the main building. I don’t recall a specific area for watching the drive-in films from indoors unless you were referring to the concession area that had picnic benchs in front that you could sit at.
The Plainfield-Edison’s indoor theater was somewhat unique. When it was a single theater, it was one of the few theaters that had what we now call stadium seating in it. There was floor seating in the front part of the theater and then the stadium seating in the rear that was about 5-6 steps up from the floor. I remember there was a steel tubular rail located at the front of the stadium seating area. As a kid, you always wanted to sit in that front row behind the rail because you could put your feet up on on it!
I believe the indoor theater stayed a single at least through the late 70’s when it was split in half to become a twin. By the mid-80’s the theater became very dingy and rundown and subsequently closed.
Just a correction the the decription – the Jerry Lewis Cinema in Carteret was a twin cinema from the outset. It was located in the Carteret Shopping Center on Roosevelt Ave.
As kid growing up in Port Reading, I spent many a weekend at the Jerry Lewis in Carteret. It never was a first run house, but if I recall correctly, always seemed to get pictures after they went through their initial run.
For a time, in the 70’s, the Jerry Lewis also used to run double-features of re-released films. I think my first viewing of some of the old Bond films were at the Jerry Lewis. They’d have things like a double-feature of Thunderball/On Her Majesty’s Secret Service and the like. It also used to show a lot of the B-movie type horror films of the day. To this day, I can still remember seeing “The Devil’s Rain” with Ernest Borgnine and Ida Lupino at the JL or films like “Chariots of the Gods”.
The Jerry Lewis was never what you’d call a luxurious theater. In fact it was kind of spartan inside, with pleated cloth curtains that covered cinder block walls. I don’t know if a change of ownership took place at some point, but towards the early 80’s, the theater became very rundown inside and eventually closed. I believe the building was later converted to retail stores in the Shopping Center.
The Fox Woodbridge (not to be confused with the Woodbridge Walter Reade/General Cinema which was up the road about a mile away on the northbound side of Rte. 1) was located on the southbound side of US Route 1 in Woodbridge. It was located between where the current Sheraton Woodbridge is located and the Garden State Parkway on-ramp in Woodbridge. The Levitz on Rte. 1 currently sits on the site of the old Fox.
Growing up as a kid in Woodbridge at the time, I recall when the Fox was contstructed. One of the things that I will always remember about the Fox was the huge interior it had. It also had giant floor to ceiling curtains that were closed at the end of each showing and very dramatically opened when the movie was about to begin.
Although the Fox was quite a beautiful theater, I seem to recall that it never struck me as a very successful theater, even after it was split into a twin in the mid-to-late 70’s. All of the really big, blockbuster pictures went either to the Menlo up the road or the Woodbrige Walter Reade/General Cinema.
I am so happy to have found this site! I happened to do a Google search on the Menlo Park Cinema and located this site and immediately joined!
The General Cinema Menlo Park was probably the premiere first run theater in Central NJ during it’s heydays of the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. I had an aunt that lived in Spotswood, NJ at the time the theater opened and she told me stories of what a big deal the opening of the theater was in the early 60’s. By her description, the grand opening was on-par with Hollywood style opening night, with reserved seating and such.
The theater itself was very unique architecturally, designed in a very modernist style. The box office area was located on the left of the building, if you were facing it, with the theater auditorium on the right and probably in excess of 3 stories tall. The box office itself was a very modern affair with a low, white flat roof but completely windowed. On entering the box office, 2-3 box office windows were located in the front. You then entered the “lobby” area through 2 glass doors and were in the “gallery” area. Various modern artwork adorned the walls and there were low cushioned benches throuughout for sitting. I do recall at one time that the work of various local artists were featured in the gallery area.
As a kid, some of my fondest memories of going to the movies revolved around the Menlo Park Cinema. As mentioned before, the theater had a balcony area which if memory serves me, at one point was designated the “Smoking Loge”, which for an additional charge patrons could purchase tickets. The balcony area also had a full refreshment/concession area that was always staffed.
I recall one of the first films I have any memory of seeing as a kid was Disney’s re-release of Snow White, probably around 1967 or 1968. I recall that the afternoon showing we were at was over-sold because my friends and I had to sit on the floor in the aisle and the adults had to sit in the remaining single seats available.
All of the blockbuster films of the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s always where shown during the exclusive engangement runs at the Menlo. The Godfather 1, all of the Bond films, the Indiana Jones trilogy, Star Wars, Star Trek, etc. were all films I recall seeing at the Menlo. In fact, I think my love of the movies was born at the Menlo.
I believe the theater was made into a twin sometime in the mid-70’s. A huge wall was erected that basically spit the theater in half long-ways. For a time after the split, the balcony area remained opened to the public but subsequently was roped off and never accessible again, which was a shame. For a time, a local sponsors used to host a “Kiddie Matinee” on Satuday mornings which if I remember correctly were free. I recall one of the first sponsors was Valiant Aluminum, an aluminum siding outfit who’s owner, Dick Najar (sp?) used to call him self “Capt. Vinyl” for the vinyl siding he was selling. Later, I believe it was Fords Jewelers that sponsored the Kiddie Matinee.
Towards the end of the Menlo’s day’s I became convinced that General Cinema was intentionally running the theater into the ground. The Menlo no longer got first run films, the interior of the theater was becoming thread-worn, bathrooms were always broken and the like. In fact, all the first run showings that normally would have gone to the Menlo now seemed to go to the Woodbridge General Cinema, which was about 2-3 miles north of the theater.
When the planned reconstruction of Menlo Park Mall was announced in the late 80’s, the simultaneous announcement was made that the Menlo Park Cinema was closing to be replaced by a new 12-plex at the mall. To my horror, they also announced that the old Menlo would be demolished. Currently, a Macaroni Grill sits on the site of the old Menlo.
To this day, I still miss the experience of going to the movies at the Menlo, one my all-time favorite local theaters.