Blue Star 1-4 Cinemas
1701-65 US Highway 22,
Watchung,
NJ
07060
1701-65 US Highway 22,
Watchung,
NJ
07060
11 people
favorited this theater
Additional Info
Previously operated by: General Cinema Corp.
Architects: Maurice D. Sornik
Functions: Retail
Previous Names: Cinema, Blue Star Cinema 1 & 2, Blue Star Cinema 1,2,3
Nearby Theaters
News About This Theater
- Jan 4, 2008 — Website dedicated to Menlo Park and Blue Star Cinemas!
The Cinema opened July 15, 1964 in the Blue Star Shopping Center. The opening movie was Peter Sellers in “A Shot in the Dark”. It was twinned on August 29, 1973. On November 4, 1977 it became a triple screen theatre. On October 22, 1982 it was expanded to 4-screens and closed as the Blue Star 1-4 Cinemas on August 17, 1998.
Contributed by
dave-bronx
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Recent comments (view all 49 comments)
wow i remember this theater. Miss this theater
Maurice D. Sornik was the architect along with Harold Glucksman
My most vivid memory of Blue Star was waiting in line for three hours to see the first midnight show of BATMAN in ‘89.
I started there as a part time projectionist during the run of this movie.
markp, you are responsible for many of my memories! Cheers.
Miss this Theater i love seeing the old pics thank you! Always like seeing this Theater.
http://www.nj.com/somerset/index.ssf/2017/08/luxury_cinemark_theater_coming_to_this_central_jer.html
This theater was within walking distance of my home when I was young. During the mid to late 60’s, we saw many movies there, Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines, The Dirty Dozen, You Only Live Twice, 2001 A Space Odyssey to name a few. Then in the seventies I worked there as an usher/porter. Some of the big pictures featured were Towering Inferno, One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, The Way We Were, The Man with the Golden Gun, The Spy Who Loved Me, Superman and Grease. When I started, it was a single theater with a balcony, the second theater under construction. The new theater seated about 600. It was a perfect set up for a twin because the theaters were far enough apart to keep patrons (or sneaky kids) from wandering from one to the other. I seem to recall the manager once saying that the big theater had 1000 seats, so the 1250 seats noted may be incorrect. I know they took out some seats when they split the two theaters but I don’t think they removed 250. (who knows, maybe they did) Once the theaters were split in the late seventies and early eighties, the ‘large screen’ experience was gone.
Guodone, I worked as a projectionist here from 1989 to 1994. I cant tell you how the theatre looked prior to splitting, but I can tell you when we split the GCC Woodbridge Cinema in 1977, we went from 1500 seats down to 2 theatres of 600 seats each, a loss of 300. So it can happen.
Closed on August 17, 1998.