General Cinema Essex Green I-III
5 Rooney Circle,
West Orange,
NJ
07052
5 Rooney Circle,
West Orange,
NJ
07052
5 people
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Additional Info
Previously operated by: General Cinema Corp.
Architects: Maurice D. Sornik
Firms: Cambridge Seven Associates
Previous Names: Essex Green Cinema
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Located behind the Essex Green shopping center, off Prospect Avenue in West Orange, the Essex Green Cinema opened on June 22, 1966 with Nancy Sinatra in “The Last of the Secret Agents”. It had a single 1,000 seat auditorium. It was twinned on March 31, 1972 and on June 15, 1979 another screen was added.
A standard General Cinema style design, its main auditorium featured THX and an enormous screen (in the “picture screen” style). Two other theatres were directly to the right of the large house. The roof proudly displayed the ‘CINEMA’ sign that was GC’s signature.
The location closed a day before their all new location, up the hill, actually in the center of the outdoor shopping center opened, the Essex Green 9.
Contributed by
John J. Fink
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Recent comments (view all 23 comments)
and BTW the Essex Green I-II-III address was not Rooney Circle, at least when I worked there all our mail came to a Prospect Avenue address.
Head projectionist Jimmy Heckel, opened up the booth at the new location. I worked with him for about the first year. I don’t know where Jimmy went to after that. I opened that theater as a manager and stayed until after AMC took over.
Was this General Cinema’s flagship theater in NJ at the time?
Their so-called flagship theatre, ( you must remember we are talking about the 60’s and 70’s) was the Menlo Park Cinema in Edison NJ (one screen ‘60 –'76, two screens '76 –'91)
Which showed empire.
http://www.nj.com/essex/index.ssf/2018/04/west_orange_essex_green_shopping_center.html
This opened on June 22nd, 1966. Grand opening ad in the photo section.
and became a twin cinema on March 31st, 1972. Small ad in the photo section.
How Bout an ad for when it was a triplex?
Please update, became a Triplex on june 15, 1979, ad in phtos