I was fortunate enough to have worked as an usher during its days when it was known as “The RKO Route 4 Tenplex.” This was in the mid 1980s , and it was a real treat. It had not yet gone downhill as it had started to after it became Cineplex Odeon, although that horrid game room was always a problem. It was a real hang out on the weekends for kids, and there was ALWAYS a problem, fights, etc. However, on the upside, the theatre saw its best days at this time and was known as the east coasts premier theatre. I remember on many occasions the sneak previews or directors previews they would screen there. I was a teenager and never quite understood why they held these mega events there, I assume because it was one of the nicer theaters, and it’s proximity to New York City, being only a 15 minute drive to the George Washington Bridge. The main theatre (theatre 1.) was the biggest, and they showed al the important films in that one. What I remember most is how many famous people came and went out of that theater., some for the premiere events, some because they simply lived in the area. The regulars, as we as the staff called them were, Eddie Murphy (always with an entourage of friends, and tried to get in for free all the time), Brooke Shields, Danny Aiello, Lawrence Taylor, Charlie Callas (he was a favorite, would pull my on my nose or do a funny dance in the lobby), Patrick Ewing, “Captain Haggerty” (he came every weekend for a matinee), Dick Shawn, Alan Alda, and many others. I recall, popping in on one time events or premieres were, Ron Howard, Julie Andrews and Leonard Nimoy. One summer Saturday night, Tom Cruise AND Paul Newman both came together came for The Color of Money premiere, Joanne Woodward came too with her and Newman’s daughters. Even Michael Jackson couldn’t resist a visit to The Tenplex. He came in, once, on a weekday matinee. So as you can imagine, that place was really poppin during its heyday years. Yes, it was a great big theatre, yet it kept its intimacy and had style, a giant marble escalator, and hundreds of black and white movie star pictures in gold frames on the many walls in the giant lobby. These horrible current day multiplex’s now will never capture what real movie going used to be like. As a kid, the RKO Tenplex (I’ll selfishly never know it as anything else), will hold many, many great memories.
I was fortunate enough to have worked as an usher during its days when it was known as “The RKO Route 4 Tenplex.” This was in the mid 1980s , and it was a real treat. It had not yet gone downhill as it had started to after it became Cineplex Odeon, although that horrid game room was always a problem. It was a real hang out on the weekends for kids, and there was ALWAYS a problem, fights, etc. However, on the upside, the theatre saw its best days at this time and was known as the east coasts premier theatre. I remember on many occasions the sneak previews or directors previews they would screen there. I was a teenager and never quite understood why they held these mega events there, I assume because it was one of the nicer theaters, and it’s proximity to New York City, being only a 15 minute drive to the George Washington Bridge. The main theatre (theatre 1.) was the biggest, and they showed al the important films in that one. What I remember most is how many famous people came and went out of that theater., some for the premiere events, some because they simply lived in the area. The regulars, as we as the staff called them were, Eddie Murphy (always with an entourage of friends, and tried to get in for free all the time), Brooke Shields, Danny Aiello, Lawrence Taylor, Charlie Callas (he was a favorite, would pull my on my nose or do a funny dance in the lobby), Patrick Ewing, “Captain Haggerty” (he came every weekend for a matinee), Dick Shawn, Alan Alda, and many others. I recall, popping in on one time events or premieres were, Ron Howard, Julie Andrews and Leonard Nimoy. One summer Saturday night, Tom Cruise AND Paul Newman both came together came for The Color of Money premiere, Joanne Woodward came too with her and Newman’s daughters. Even Michael Jackson couldn’t resist a visit to The Tenplex. He came in, once, on a weekday matinee. So as you can imagine, that place was really poppin during its heyday years. Yes, it was a great big theatre, yet it kept its intimacy and had style, a giant marble escalator, and hundreds of black and white movie star pictures in gold frames on the many walls in the giant lobby. These horrible current day multiplex’s now will never capture what real movie going used to be like. As a kid, the RKO Tenplex (I’ll selfishly never know it as anything else), will hold many, many great memories.