The Lincoln Theater Closed

I recently read that the Lincoln Theater in Kearny had been closed for years. The signs are still there, but there are no buyers for the building.

The Lincoln Cinema was on Kearny Avenue right in the center of town. The main business area was anchored by clothes stores, small office businesses and this theater. The Lincoln had a big yellow board that advertised the movies showing. Glass doors lead to a snack stand and the opening inviting doors of the auditoriums. 

According to cinematreasures.org It opened in 1934 with a single screen. As multiplexes opened in malls in the 1970s, the theater cut the auditorium and screen into three smaller theaters. They didn’t buy more space or expand, they cut what was there. It got to the point where they cut the theater in to six screens. 

I knew a lot of these type theaters over the years. There was the Royal in Bloomfield, a second run theater in Manalapan, Middletown, and Freehold.

There were a lot of theaters that opened in the 1930s when movie companies owned them. Laws changed and the movie producing companies had to divest from the theaters. Some of those theaters closed, some found new owners and they could show differing movies from all studios. Because they had one screen, theaters ran double features where they showed two movies, a cartoon and trailers all for one price. That changed by the 1970s as well. 

The rise of the mall and new bigger theaters meant these smaller ones had to keep up. They cut their screens, they had different movies each night, different times or they hoped for a big selling movie.

I read about the Lincoln being another fatality of new innovations. I’m sure streaming cut into movie theaters over the years. Now to make up for that, we get the Blockbuster movie. There was no way an older theater could handle the new digital and sound needed to a big Summer Blockbuster movie. As a result, these places were seen as dirty, old, and sad.

The big loss in this matter is that the Lincoln was a small neighborhood place. You didn’t have to get a ride from your parents to go miles away. (In some cases, not every town had a movie theaters) These were in town centers worked by locals. 

I expect in future years someone may write a blog about the closing of a multiplex because everyone streams movies.