Alvin Theatre

This site places the theater as part of Associated Theaters of New Jersey as of 1945.

http://movie-theatre.org/usa/nj/unioncity.pdf

The location is correct. The Pinnacle Market now stands where the Alvin Theater did until the mid-1950’s when I used to walk past it every day on my way to elementary school. It had been boarded up for years before it caught fire and the storefront section was demolished and the theater itself was gutted. The Pinnacle was then built in it’s place, using the original shell of the theater itself as part of the store. Tragically, the Pinnacle also suffered a sever fire shortly after it opened and the entire structure was leveled and the Pinnacle Market as it stands today was rebuilt. During the 1940’s they used to show cartoons for kids and my Dad, who grew up a few blocks away, was there on December 7, 1942. When he walked out of the theater, he learned that Pearl Harbor had just been attacked.

If you zoom in and look at the tall building in the background (used to be Alonsco’s Italian Bakery) you can still see the roofline marking on the wall. The indented area had formed a shaft so that light could reach the windows that were blocked by the abutting theater.