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
Showing 1 - 25 of 49 comments
Closed on August 17, 1998.
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.
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.
http://www.nj.com/somerset/index.ssf/2017/08/luxury_cinemark_theater_coming_to_this_central_jer.html
Miss this Theater i love seeing the old pics thank you! Always like seeing this Theater.
markp, you are responsible for many of my memories! Cheers.
I started there as a part time projectionist during the run of this movie.
My most vivid memory of Blue Star was waiting in line for three hours to see the first midnight show of BATMAN in ‘89.
Maurice D. Sornik was the architect along with Harold Glucksman
wow i remember this theater. Miss this theater
4 screens on October 22nd, 1982. No ad.
November 4th, 1977 grand opening ad as a 3-plex also in the photo section.
August 29th, 1973 grand opening ad as a twin cinema in the photo section.
This opened on July 15th, 1964. Grand opening ad in the photo section.
This week marks 16 years since this theatre closed. A question: If the original theatre was 1250 seats, shouldn’t the seat count be higher since they added an addition to the building in the early 70’s ? I think that was a 500 seat addition? Maybe rrettino would know.
Adamsdad-Thanks for the info. I knew it opened sometime in late 63 or early 64 because I saw It’s A Mad, Mad….World there in the winter of 64. It’s ironic that I ending up working there part time as a projectionist from 1977 until the day it closed in 1998.
Blue Star Shopping Center opened in 1959.
Groundbreaking for the 1,250-seat theater was August 22, 1963 (“Watchung”, by David B. Page)
Growing up in Newark, there were three or four theaters that were closer to me than the Blue Star Cinema. When I did travel far, I always went to the Menlo Park Cinema. The first time I went to the Blue Star was in January of ‘87…to see “Little Shop of Horrors”, I thought it was a cool theater so I started going there for a bit, saw “Lethal Weapon”, “Hunt for Red October”, “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation”, “Strange Days”…few others. The last film I saw there, I went on a date to see “Great Expectations”…I think it closed shortly after that.
Saw many movies here over the years – Superman, Firebirds, Batman, The Crow, True Lies, Eraser, The Rocketeer – too many to name. It was one of the theaters of choice when I was a kid growing up in north Jersey. I do remember going to Blue Star in 1998 to see the new Godzilla film, but was told the projector wasn’t working – little did I know the place was about to close for good.
I worked here as a projectionist from 1992 thru 94.
Another Great General Cinema.
there is a facebook page Remember The Blue Star Cinema theres photos too here is the link View link
i saw many movies at Blue Star, the most memorable being Apocalypse Now. Spent a lot of my youth at E J Korvettes, and Blue Star Bowling Lanes. Also bought cards at the knitting store near Korvettes. I couldn’t go to the SC until I got my license in 1966.
Before then, when to the Plainfield theaters that TC refers to. Many childhood Saturday matinees at the Strand and buying candy at Sav-On Drugs next store because it was cheaper. It’s all gone now.
I grew up in North Plainfield and now live in Westfield.
Any photos anyone?
I went there every weekend as a teen ager. You had to call for the movie times – the number was always busy so you had to dial it a thousand times to get thru. I can still remember it – 908-322-7007! Next door was a head shop called “forever changes” . Our parent forbid us to go in but we would get dropped off early for the movies so we could go and look at the “paraphanalia”.