FROM THE STAR-LEDGER
Friday, March 03, 2006
BY KEVIN C. DILWORTH
Star-Ledger Staff
It was hailed as the Fifth Avenue of New Jersey, an upscale boulevard lined with elegant restaurants, jewelers, furriers, top retail stores and pricey specialty shops.
Anchoring the strip was the Hollywood Theatre, a plush, 1,629-seat movie palace where Spencer Tracy once walked the red carpet and where people from across Essex County flocked to watch the latest films in style.
For Central Avenue in East Orange, those glory days died long ago. The restaurants became fast-food joints. The fancy shops traded deluxe for discount. And the Hollywood, after a long decline, went dark, its last showing in 1986.
Yesterday, East Orange officials, business leaders and city residents, some old enough to remember Central Avenue's heyday, celebrated with Academy Awards-style fanfare as the Hollywood officially reopened, bringing a touch of luster back to the faded strip.
Renovated at a cost topping $2.5 million, the new five-screen Hollywood Cinemas represents more than a place to watch movies. To Mayor Robert Bowser, it represents a tangible step in the struggling city's revitalization.
"It's a total rebirth for Central Avenue and the rest of the city," Bowser said.
Raymond L. Scott, president of the East Orange Chamber of Commerce, called the Hollywood's revival "the most wonderful thing that's happened in East Orange."
"It signals our growth in commerce and prosperity for the city," Scott said. "I just hope our residents, businesses and visitors take time to stop by and watch a good movie here."
The theater opened for business in December, but yesterday's ceremony gave those in the community a chance to celebrate the achievement together. About 175 people toured the building and gathered in the movie house's lobby, its floor covered in Wedgwood blue carpeting, as a three-piece combo played soft jazz.
The theater will soon be complemented by an East Orange Walk of Fame, patterned after the Hollywood Walk of Fame, in which the names of famous entertainers with some connection to East Orange will be engraved on 2-foot squares embedded in the sidewalk.
As if at their own Academy Awards ceremony, three city council members unsealed envelopes before the crowd and announced the Walk of Fame's first eight inductees, whose engravings will be unveiled at a May 16 ceremony.
They include singer-actress Queen Latifah, singer Dionne Warwick, jazz musician Slide Hampton and actor Derek Luke, who played Antwone Fisher in the film of the same name.
The other inductees, all deceased, are pop-country singer Eddie Rabbitt and jazz greats Cozy Cole, Walter Davis Jr. and Rahsaan Roland Kirk.
The Hollywood owes its rebirth to a group of businessmen led by New York investor Edmondo Schwartz, who said studies showed the potential for a theater in East Orange, a city of 69,000. Before the reopening, the closest theaters were in Newark and West Orange.
"We're real excited, real excited. It's been a great reopening," said Schwartz, whose father owned a chain of RKO theaters in New York and New Jersey. "Everyone who has come to see a movie has reacted so positive."
One of Schwartz's partners, Robert Grimes, echoed city officials in saying the theater could spur redevelopment.
"We hope our opening will encourage other business to come into the community," Grimes said.
Once, that wasn't a problem. East Orange -- and the Hollywood -- was a destination. The theater opened in 1925 and thrived for decades, its ornate copper facade and red tile roof marking it as a showplace. Decorative moldings covered the interior walls, and moviegoers sat in cushy maroon seats.
The theater's biggest moment may have come on May 16, 1940, during the premier of "Edison, the Man," a motion picture based on the life of inventor Thomas Edison, a one-time resident of West Orange. Spencer Tracy, the movie's star and Hollywood's top box office draw at the time, attended the premier with his co-star, Rita Johnson.
By the 1960s, as theater attendance declined across the nation, the Hollywood started its downward spiral. As receipts dropped, maintenance suffered. Twenty years ago, it closed its doors after a showing of "Commando" starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The renovated building has 944 seats across its five theaters. It also has digital projectors, plush stadium seating, oversize screens, a new marquee and free on-site parking. Off-duty East Orange police officers provide security.