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You Too Can (or could once) Own a Jerry Lewis Cinema

12/15/2015

20 Comments

 
PictureA promotional photo of Jerry Lewis with a model of one of his franchise theaters.
The one in Canton, CT is a post office. The St. Louis franchise morphed into Cathedral of the Crossroads, and the Niagara Falls venue has been split between OTB (Off Track Betting) and a pizzeria. Jerry Lewis Cinemas as a franchise concept were a horrible failure, with perhaps 200 of these small (less than 300-seat) cinemas open nationwide at their peak in the mid-seventies. While we were going broke running a 2672-seat movie palace, the St. George Theater, in Staten Island, only twenty minutes away another would-be entrepreneur was struggling to keep the doors of the local Jerry Lewis franchise on Forest Avenue open and in operation. We had more in common with this unfortunate theater operator than we might have been willing to admit.

We were a buck-fifty, second-run house. They were a buck seventy-five. We booked The Sunshine Boys, if I remember, for what was supposed to be an exclusive second run, and they got their hands on exactly the same product. In newspaper parlance you could say they “scooped” us, but it didn’t really matter, because there was no way we could cover our overhead, even if every soul who sat in their cracker-box seats had come over to our tough super-urban St. George neighborhood. As rivals we were both failing, and for many of the same reasons. For much of the rest of the year we were in business they continued to run Airport 1975, trying to work off a huge advance.

What exactly were the Jerry Lewis Cinemas anyhow?  How did the comic star whose name is most associated with Dean Martin or with Muscular Dystrophy telethons nearly go bankrupt himself with a chain of movie theater franchises?

“If you can press a button and meet our investment requirements, you can own one or a chain of Jerry Lewis Cinemas...” began the full-page October 8, 1969 ad in Variety. 

Seven years later, as we prepared to open our own movie house, we could have taken a lesson from this already failing business model. By the mid-seventies, a number of Jerry Lewis franchisees — including, probably, the poor schmuck on Forest Avenue — had already discovered what we in turn would learn. Of all the businesses on earth to jump into feet first, movie theater operation, with (in the seventies) its dearth of available product, wars with movie distributors and hidden costs, might be second only to restaurant ownership in difficulty of management. The typical Jerry Lewis theater owner was a movie-goer, not someone who had grown up tearing ticket stubs or popping popcorn. To quote Cinelog, “...the most glaring flaw was the very concept that anyone could own a theatre and operate it with minimal effort. As with far too many ‘get rich’ schemes, all of the [operators] had been ‘blinded’ by their fantasies and failed to consider the practical realities of running a successful business, let alone a business as unique as a movie theatre.”

Near as I can tell, our local Jerry Lewis Cinema went out of business around 1980. It is rumored (verification unavailable) that they were turned off by Con Ed for non-payment, something that nearly happened to us on several occasions. 

By that time, Jerry Lewis and his partner in the venture, National Cinemas Corporation had filed for bankruptcy, though Lewis saved himself by making a movie with the ironic title, Hardly Working. He is said to have greatly regretted his decision to found this ill-starred chain, and the feeling, amongst former managers and their families, seems to have been the only thing that was mutual.

To quote cinelog once again, “...one particular individual [a former franchisee]...relayed that, even thirty plus years after the fact, Lewis’ yearly telethon appearance never fails to anger him.” It hadn’t been Lewis’ intention to fail. He made several mistakes, not the least of which was to establish a chain which booked only PG and PG-13 movies at a time when R ratings were the norm. But in the larger sense, he made the same mistake we made at our failing movie palace: he thought you didn’t have to have any direct experience to run a movie theater. Perhaps, as a performer, he assumed that the movie exhibition business was no big deal. He assumed, as we did in a completely different theater setting, that you can jump into the water and then learn how to swim.

20 Comments
Charles Winfield
3/17/2016 04:34:30 am

For a man who taught film @USC and invented the instant playback for directors, he was very naive about film distribution. My first real job was in a theater and I learned quickly that it's about entertaining your paying customers.

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brett adams
4/2/2016 07:32:56 pm

i think they were probably doomed with g and pg movies, as pg-13 didn't arrive until 1984.

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v.h.
8/22/2017 01:02:13 pm

Thank you! I stand corrected about the PG-13.

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Brian
3/7/2017 05:22:20 pm

In that picture, Jerry Lewis looks like he's ready to vomit. Perhaps in that moment he had a vision into the future and ultimate fate of Jerry Lewis Cinemas...

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vh
8/21/2017 10:02:08 am

Jerry Lewis pioneered looking like a man about to vomit!

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Brian S
4/27/2017 02:26:06 pm

My family owned a franchise in St. Louis. Maybe the one that's now the Cathedral of the Crossroads. I remember seeing Monty Python's Flying Circus there when I was in Kindergarten. So, not a total loss for me.

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vh
4/29/2017 02:19:39 pm

Remarkable that Jerry Lewis morphed into the Cathedral of the Crossroads...!

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Donald Farmer
7/14/2017 06:19:00 pm

The first movie I saw at my local Jerry Lewis Cinema in 1973 was the R-rated SAVE THE TIGER.

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vh
7/14/2017 07:23:21 pm

I just looked that movie up: it sounds like a gem! I miss Jack Lemmon...
Roger Ebert apparently loved the movie (http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/save-the-tiger-1973).
Anyhow, what locality was your JL Cinema in?

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Edwin Graf Diemer
10/7/2017 05:49:22 pm

The only Jerry Lewis Theater near me when I was growing up was the single-screener at the Marchwood Shopping Center in Exton, PA. As people have said, nobody seemed to check beforehand if pictures would be available for booking, or even if there would be competition in the area. In this case, Budco had a twin theater and a large drive-in across the street from it perhaps half a mile down the road. The theater didn't last long, but has survived to this day as a Goodwill store. Too bad the drive-in is gone-it actually had two entrances, one on Route 1, and the other on Route 30.

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vh
10/7/2017 06:12:19 pm

They were boxy little theaters, so it's not surprising that its second life has been as a Goodwill store. Considering all the competition this theater had, it's a wonder it lasted for any time at all!

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Joe Allen
9/2/2018 01:02:16 am

There was a Jerry Lewis Cinema in Columbia, MO that opened in about 1972 if memory serves. I was 13-14, and went on the opening night. By that time they were showing R films, as I recall seeing both the French Connection and MASH there. Occasional classic films like "The Great Dictator," and "Gone With The Wind" were also screened. After a few years it was apparently sold and renamed the Biscayne Cinema, which lasted well into the mid-1990s. The small mall, which housed the theater was sold and demolished around that time.

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vh
9/4/2018 02:25:42 pm

GWTW on a Jerry Lewis screen--imagine that!

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Jacqueline Johnston link
12/18/2018 04:16:23 am

I remember the last time I went to the St.George theatre was to see Andrea True she sang More More More or the spanish verse Mas Mas Mas como te la gusta. I remember going to the St.George as a child and being awestruck by the majesty of it. So glad that you saved the theatre i2 can't wait to come and see something in this beautiful place.

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vh
12/18/2018 12:46:01 pm

Well, in the end it wasn't me and my colleagues who saved the St. George, but Mrs. Rosemary, the local dance doyenne and her daughters. But I do think that, in some small way, by keeping it open in 1976, we gave some people memories, and that, after all, is what saves things from being torn down.BTW, any time you want to send memories of the SGT as a child, I'd love to build them into a blog post...

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Glenn Hart
2/23/2019 10:11:42 pm

I was at a Jerry Lewis Cinema only once, I believe, in Freehold, NJ. My memories of the experience are all good. The year was 1972 and the movie was Disney's "Bedknobs and Broomsticks." I was 14 and went with my family. Before the show I bought popcorn from a young lady who was probably just a couple years older than me, most likely the daughter of the owners. I remember she wore glasses, had braces, and smiled the most beautiful smile at me that I can still see to this day. During the movie I thought of nothing but that popcorn girl. Making things worse was the two teenage couples seated in the row directly in front of me: they were making out and smoking cigarettes the entire time. I wished desperately that the popcorn girl was sitting next to me and that we were doing the same thing. The popcorn girl entered the theater at the end of the show with the rest of the staff, waiting to clean the place up. I took several fond glances at her as I exited and never saw her again.

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vh
2/26/2019 04:41:25 pm

This story is the essence of what movie theaters were largely about...I love that her smile endures all these years! And the fond glances. Early unrequited love!

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Kevin B
5/8/2020 01:35:55 am

I remember when the JL Cinema was built in Security, Colorado, a suburb of Colorado Springs. The old Italian restaurant that had sat on the corner of our largest shopping center was demolished and the new theater was built in its place. Prior to this, the only theater we had was a drive-in. We moved away a few years after that, so I never knew what happened to the theatercv

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VH
11/19/2020 04:02:13 pm

Sorry! Didn't see your comment somehow back in May. Thanks! I love the town name, "Security!"

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Greg C.
1/17/2021 08:05:09 am

My Dad opened the Jerry Lewis Cinema as a Manager/Operator in Woodcrest, NJ in the early 70’s. I was in elementary school and remember pictures like True Grit, Song of the South, Cabaret and Midway being shown. Muhammad Ali, who lived in nearby Cherry Hill, showed up for the last show one Saturday eventing of A Man Called Horse. Also, my Dad had the whole Countryside Elementary School where my brother and I attended, over for a matinee showing of Oliver. So, I have great memories of that place and was sad to see it go.

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    Victoria Hallerman

    Author

    Victoria Hallerman is a poet and writer, the author of the upcoming memoir, Starts Wednesday: A Day in the Life of a Movie Palace, based on her experience as a movie palace manager of the St. George Theatre, Staten Island, 1976. As she prepares her book manuscript for publication, she shares early aspects of theater management, including the pleasures and pain of entrepreneurship. This blog is for anyone who enjoys old movie theaters, especially for those who love the palaces as they once were. And a salute to those passionate activists who continue to save and revive the old houses, including the St. George Theatre itself. This blog is updated every Wednesday, the day film always arrived to start the movie theater week.

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