Westborough Square Cinema

I know of two other theaters in the San Francisco Bay Area that operated under the Jerry Lewis Cinemas banner. One was the Princeton in South San Jose off Blossom Hill Road and the other was in Antioch(using the Jerry Lewis name). From what I understand, they mostly used rear-projection and were highly automated. Unfortunately, the chain lasted less than 3 years. (And it was during the early 1970’s, when family films and G-rated product did poor box-office business.)

It was to the right of Walgreens. Originally, what is now the big filipino/japanese restaurant was St. Augustine’s church, while they were raising money for the church. The movie theater was one or two doors down. I drove by there and was trying to figure it out, its one of the storefronts with the half-brick facade. The interior has been completely gutted. There have been several tenants over the years. Probably the shoe guy at the end would know, he’s been there since the center was built. All I remember about that place was that they had black and white wallpaper of your old time movie people, laurel and hardy, charlie chaplin. Anyone remember the Kool Cigarette midnight movie series?

The Jerry Lewis Cinema launched on January 21, 1972 with “Kotch.” The address listed is 2232 Westborough Boulevard. The theatre struggled to find an audience and lowered pricing to 99 cents for adults (75 cents on weekdays) and 49 cents for kids as it became a sub-run discount operation. Technically, all advertised shows are listed as the Westborough Square Jerry Lewis Cinema – which should be its listing here.

That failed and the Jerry Lewis Cinema closed on December 8, 1972 with “Joe Kidd” and “Groundstar Conspiracy” splitting the single screen. The former theater was used by the Democratic Party in early 1973 and was converted to a Stretch and Sew fabric store.