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Editor:
Then & Now: Hackensack's Oritani Theater
Thursday November 15, 2012, 11:38 AM
BY  BILL ERVOLINO
STAFF WRITER
The Record


DON SMITH / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
File photo at top shows the Oritani and Fox theaters on Main Street in Hackensack. Today, the Oritani building houses a travel service and a clothing store.


THEN: Oritani Theater
NOW: A dress store and a travel service

"Moviegoing is back!" a feature article in The Record proclaimed in February of 1988.

After an almost decade-long codependent relationship with their videocassette recorders — technology that Jack Valenti, then the president of the Motion Picture Association of America, compared to the Boston strangler — folks were ready to leave their houses again to sample, on a BIG screen, such late 1980s hits as "Moonstruck," "Broadcast News," "Bull Durham" and "Fatal Attraction."

New theaters with numbers in their names, like Tenafly's Cinema Four, were ready to meet the demand with multiple screens, elaborate snack bars and state-of-the-art sound systems.

But they came with a price. The same decade that saw the rise of the multiplex also saw the end of the grand single-screen movie palaces that were once the pride of North Jersey.

Among the casualties was the Oritani Theater on Main Street in Hackensack, which closed in 1983 after years of dwindling attendance. (Two years earlier, the lavish Fox Theater, on the other side of Main Street, suffered a similar fate.)

Maureen Droste of River Vale recalls seeing "Jaws" at the Oritani. Tom Meyers, executive director of the Fort Lee Film Commission, says he has "great memories of going to the Oritani to see those cool Japanese monster movies in such classics as 'Destroy All Monsters!' ''

Former Bergen County Executive William "Pat" Schuber was also a Godzilla fan: "My sister and I took the Public Service bus from Main Street in Bogota to Main and Mercer in Hackensack every Saturday. The Oritani was smaller than the Fox and had no balcony but great movies. From Japanese science fiction to 'To Kill a Mockingbird,' the Oritani presented them all. It was a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon."

Erected in 1926, the Oritani — named for Oritam, chief of the Achkinheskcy Indian tribe in the 17th century — quickly became a local landmark. It showed Will Rogers movies in the 1930s, Betty Grable movies in the 1940s and, yes, from 1977 to 1979 it even offered midnight showings of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show."

Leonard Maltin, a film critic and author who grew up in Teaneck, praised the Oritani in an interview with The Record shortly after the theater closed. Calling it one of his "second homes" as a child, Maltin said, "The Oritani showed the best Warner Brothers cartoons. I was mesmerized by all of this stuff."

Robert Droge, who now lives in Stroudsburg, Pa., recalls growing up in New Milford and going to the Oritani almost every weekend. "I'm 60 now,'' he said. "I used to go with my parents, and then, in my early teens, I'd go with my friends, which was a big deal: going to the movies by yourself! We took the bus, which we called the Brown Bomber in those days. It was brown and pretty decrepit. And it smelled. But it would take us down River Road in New Milford, over the bridge and finally up onto Main Street."

Droge says the first movie he and friends saw was "The Parent Trap" in 1961. "I know we got popcorn and sodas. Our parents frowned on candy, but soda was OK. My mother also took me to see 'Gone with the Wind' when it was reissued. I don't remember the year. All I remember was that it was long and thinking, 'When is this thing gonna be over?' "

Droge has fond memories of the place, "even though, when I think about it now, it was kind of old and dingy. Even when the lights were on, it was dark inside. I did like the ushers' uniforms, though. They were red uniforms with epaulets, brass buttons and those round hats."

An article in The Record in June 1985 detailed plans to redevelop the faded movie palace. There was talk of razing the theater to make way for a retail and office complex and a parking lot. Two brothers, May and Chung Fan of Fan's Capital Co. of Queens, bought the building from RKO-Century Warner Inc. that year.

In the end, the theater's building was divided up into small shops and restaurants, and the tenants have changed many times over the years.

Today, the theater's many fans remember the Oritani warmly — in part because of the classic films they saw there and because it was so much a part of their childhoods.

As Droge notes, "Many times, we sat through both showings on Saturday afternoons, and that was just fine with our parents. I think it was like a baby-sitter service for our folks. They knew we were safe and out of the way.

"By the late 1960s, though, you could tell this theater wasn't going to be around much longer. The newer theaters were so big, the sound was incredible. It was time for a change."

Email: ervolino@northjersey.com

johnny g:
The last movie i remember seeing there was Sharky's Machine...i know I went to the Fox at some point but don't remember what I saw. I do remember passing there on the 165 on my way to school and them having a concert there in like 1982-83, anyone remember that?

johnny g:
The concert took place at the Fox, not the Oritani

Editor:
Below are cameraphone shots of photos that are hanging in V&T Salumeria on Main Street.  I'm told the elevated shot of the Oritani was taken from the marquee on the Fox. That's Jerry Lewis in the middle of crowd, promoting a film.  I'll see if I can find out more about it.

V&T is a great eatery by the way.  They have a four star Yelp rating and the owners and staff are very friendly.

Chief Oratam:
I remember seeing......... Little Shop of Horrors ....acted out Live.....at the Fox....

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