Pix Theater
789 Bergen Avenue,
Jersey City,
NJ
07306
789 Bergen Avenue,
Jersey City,
NJ
07306
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Additional Info
Previously operated by: Brandt Theaters
Styles: Art Deco
Previous Names: Bergen Theater
Nearby Theaters
On McGinley Square. The Bergen Theater was opened on February 26, 1938 with Charles Boyer in “Mayerling”. It was closed on October 23, 1952 with “Mad Lover” & “Naughty Widow”. It was taken over by the Steinberg Theatres chain and reopened as the re-named Pix Theater on February 13, 1953 with Charles Chaplin in “Limelight” It tried fighting off television by having more sophisticated movies and by having a coffee house atmosphere. It then went through times as an X-Rated movie theatre, then Blaxploitation movies, and then Kung Fu took over. The Pix Theater was closed on July 25, 1978 with Jim Kelly in “Black Samurai” & Shin'ichi' Chiba in “The Executioner”.
It became a disco roller rink followed by use as short-lived dance studio. It is now home to a church and retail in the lobby space.
Contributed by
R Klapouchy
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Recent comments (view all 28 comments)
And as “X-rated” fare, “Curious” and “Fritz” were pretty clean stuff.
In the mid 70’s the Pix alternated between X-rated and standard fare. I remember being about 8 or 9 and seeing a matinee of Disney’s animated “Robin Hood”. A week later I walked past the theater (it was in my neighborhood) and it was showing “The Devil in Miss Jones”!!
By Summer 1975 the theater had returned to 2nd run standard fare at a cost of 99 cents. I have fond memories of the first show they had, “The Towering Inferno”. I remember about 14 kids from the block going up on a hot summer night to see the film.
I spent many days of my youth watching endless double bills in the dark at the Pix. Usually the 2 films had absolutely nothing in common. “Earthquake” & “The Great Waldo Pepper”, “Once Is Not Enough” & “Harold and Maude”, “Shampoo” & “The Stepford Wives”, “Futureworld” & “The Reincarnation of Peter Proud” were just a few. I remember the upstairs lounge and I remember that there was no time between shows. When the film ended, it (or the second feature) began immediately.
I probably saw more movies in any given year at this time then in all the years I have ahead.
I still remember the last films I saw at the Pix on a rainy autumn afternoon in 1976. Just before the theater closed, they may have been the last show. “The Omen” & “Race With The Devil”
After that it became a roller rink before its current incarnation.
The fond memories will never fade.
I graduated from Hudson Catholic in ‘75, but, I don’t recall having gone to the Pix past '72 or so. Do you remember the Journal Square palaces? I have fond memories of the Hudson Plaza Cinema in the late 60s up till around '75. I moved out of Jersey City (to Clifton in '77) and then to NYC in 1980.
Bob
Pix, please.
Old program
cover:
View link
inside:
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And I almost forgot about the color television in the upstairs lounge. It was placed there by Goodman’s furniture store, just a bit north of the Pix on the other side of Bergen Avenue. Nice way for Goodman’s to get folks to come to their store for their first color TV. And, ironically, a harbinger of a not-too-distant future.
i remember my mother draging me there as a little kid and being bored by the movies there. i would go upstars to the tv, and hoped there would not be anyone watching so i could watch whatever i wanted
Some time in the seventies the Pix screened a cut version of Deep Throat. One of Jersey City’s finest and a friend of mine now deceased badged his way in. He soon realized it was cut because he had seen it previously in NYC. FurIous he asked the manager for his money back. Only in JC.
the Bergen theatre opened on February 26th, 1938 and reopened as the Pix theatre on February 13th, 1953 and closed on July 23rd, 1978.
The Bergen was built in 1937 in McGinley Square and opening February 26, 1938 with “Mayerling.” It closed under than name at the expiry of a 15-year leasing agreement on October 23, 1952 with a double-feature of “Mad Lover” and “Naughty Widow.”
Steinberg Circuit took on the venue noting that interest in television was “leveling off” yet placing a large screen TV in the venue’s second floor lounge. It relaunched as the Pix Theatre on February 27, 1953 with “Limelight” on a new 25-year lease.
In 1973, the venue - on a sublease to Pix Theatres, Inc. during the porno chic era - changed to X-rated films. That brought retaliation for local law enforcement led by John McLaughlin forcing the theater to change policies to double-feature chopsocky films. It made a shift to showing second-run double-features of Blaxploitation films in the mid-1970s. Its final showings at end of lease were July 25, 1978 with “Black Samurai” and “The Executioner.” Those titles remained on the marquee long after the theatre was boarded up.
A new lessee came in to refresh the space for a movie theater before giving up after a water pipe incident flooded the venue. The double feature of “The Executioner” and “Black Samurai” ended in 1981 when the venue was converted to a disco-influenced roller rink called Outer Skates.
Disco died and the skating craze ended in early 1983 with a lock-out for non-lease payment. It became a short-lived dance studio. It became a front for the manufacturing of counterfeit merchandising in 1992. It then became a church in 1993 to substantially reduce its tax liability. It was later chopped up into retail stores.