Bernardsville Cinema 3
5 Mine Brook Road,
Bernardsville,
NJ
07924
5 Mine Brook Road,
Bernardsville,
NJ
07924
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effective November 3 theater showing movies again
Please update the theatre opened on August 15,1915 as the Columbia Theater. Currently, the theatre is operating on private events only. Add Columbia Theater as previous names. Source from NewJerseyhills.com/
PLEASE UPDATE, 266 SEATS BASED ON ARTICLE
The seating capacity according to newjerseyhills.com artice is 152, 62 and 52 seats.
The theater has new owners: https://www.newjerseyhills.com/bernardsville_news/news/new-management-cuts-ticket-prices-at-bernardsville-cinema/article_16720535-e673-58c7-8463-d391895c99b7.html
3 screens on April 14th, 1995. No ad found.
Renamed Bernardsville Cinema on August 28th, 1970. Grand opening ad in photo section.
Former employee here – I worked at Bernardsville Cinema 1987 to 1991. Yes, there was a balcony! At the time I worked there it had been closed up for years and the balcony space was used as a projection booth, with additional rooms used for storage. The switch from a single screen to three screens happened somewhere around 1989 or 1990. None of us who worked there wanted to see this neat old place chopped up into a multi-plex, but it was either that or go out of business entirely. Once the Morristown Headquarters Plaza theatres opened in the late 80’s, the patronage of Bernardsville Cinema went WAY down, and something had to be done to keep the place afloat. Still, great memories of a bygone era!
As noted by others, this is one of those beautiful grand old theaters that was reworked into an oddly shapped triplex. Fortunately I had the opportunity to see several films on the big screen, such as PRIVATE BENJAMIN, REDS, and RAGTIME before the theater was rebuilt in the early 1980s.
Parking for the theater was generally found in assorted parking lots in the rear of the building. There is a narrow alleyway leading from the main lot to the front of the building. The size of the theater is deceiving as there is a narrow entrance flanked by stores (Not unlike the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York City), but opens up once you get into the theater itself.
The drawback of dividing up the old place is that the individual theaters are small. I took my kids there to see THE EMPEROR’S NEW GROOVE and the size and quality of the picture was little better than watching the film at home on a large televison set. Today when I pay an arm and a leg for movie tickets I expect a BIG picture with unmatched sound quality. Alas, those days are gone.
Listed as part of Independent Theater Service, Inc. in the 1956 Film Daily Yearbook.
Listed as open in the 1944 FDY. Listed in the 1961 FDY as part of Triangle-Liggett Theatre Service, as “Liberty”.
Postcard from 1921, showing “new” theatre:
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I believe that the theater is the building with the awning near the sidewalk level.
Nice artistic photo:
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Photo that I took on 9/5/05:
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Architect for the “renovations” is Johannes Hoffman.
johanneshoffman.com
Here is the homepage:
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I have written numerous emails to Clearview (all unanswered) to petition them to put current/historical photos and history on their webpages.
Is there a balcony in this theater? All three screens are on the auidtorium level (two smaller in the rear and one larger in the front), but this place looks like it has or had a balcony at one time.
The Film Daily Yearbook’s, 1941 and 1943 give a seating capacity of 400 for the Liberty Theater. In the 1950 edition of F.D.Y. seating is given as 600
Same place, thanks for clarifying the address… it’s been many years!