Union Theater

 

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The mid to late 1920's in America is generally remembered fondly as time of prosperity and grandeur. The rich were building garish mega mansions while companies reached towards the sky with sleek new skyscrapers. When I think of buildings from this time, I almost always think about the theaters. One such venue from this time is the Union Theater.

While the current interior may lead one to believe otherwise, the building was originally built in 1926. It originally opened as a large single screen theater with just over 1300 seats. Most theaters of this era have beautiful front entrances adorned with Terra Cotta ornamentation or decorative brickwork. For whatever reason the Union seems to have been built with a bland, undecorated front facade. 

Warner Brothers took over the theater from the original owners in 1941. They made a number of upgrades to the building, each time trying to make it more profitable. Unfortunately this resulted in much of the incredible decorative plasterwork being obscured by drop ceilings and other ugly decor. 

1978 the RKO Stanley Warner company put out an ad declaring that they had "twinned" the auditorium. This means they had split the large auditorium into two seperate rooms, which would each be playing a different movie at the same time. It was a common practice theater owners used to try and compete with the growing popularity of "multiplex" cinemas, or movie theaters with several different screens in one building. 

RKO Stanley Warner did everything they could to get the Union Theater to maintain a steady profit, each time coming up short. The now two screen theater was sold to Cineplex Odeon company, who at the time was one of the largest cinema operators in the world. They continued to show movies at the Union for two decades until a restructuring of the company resulted in the sale of many assets. 

By the spring of 1998 the building was once again sold, this time to a pair of men named Spiros and Stefan Papas; a father-son team. The two already owned and operated several nearby theaters, and saw the new project as an opportunity. Unfortunately instead of ripping down the wall and rejoining the two rooms, they went the other direction. They turned the venue into a 7 screen monster. Three new auditoriums were packed in each of the existing two rooms, with an extra screen tucked in the backstage area. The new auditoriums each had recliner seats with plenty of leg room. 

The new renovations seemed to go over pretty well. For over a decade things ran relatively smoothly, but it was eventually closed in 2014. At the time the residents of Union were largely upset at the loss. The cinema was an integral part of the township, and residents wanted a new owner to take over and resume operations. Empire Cinemas moved in the following year.

It seems that Empire came in with the intention of squeezing every penny out of the place that they could while doing little maintenence and no upgrades. Customers quickly began giving the theater horrible reviews, complaining about everything from the concessions to the seats to the screens themselves. Folks even reported rain coming into one of the auditoriums during heavy rains. For years conditions in the theater continued to degrade, until finally the township had had enough. In March of 2020 the township of Union shut down the building for various health and safety standards. They had been soliciting improvements to the building for years, which they claimed to be an eyesore right in the heart of downtown. Empire never responded to any of the inquiries. While many theaters shut down for good in 2020 the Union was among the first of them, finally ceasing operations on March 3rd. 

An article came out the following year that the township was planning to incorporate the land the theater sits on into their redevelopment plans. Unfortunately, their plans didn't include the theater. By this time most people had forgotten how beautiful the building originally was. Most of the decorative plaster still existed above the ceilings but the building was so soggy and built over many people probably had no idea. I made a few visits to the building as remediation began. I was hoping part of the process would include ripping down the false walls, bringing it back to its single screen grandeur. Unfortunately that never happened. It was so badly butchered up that I had to literally climb up into the false ceiling to be able to document the remaining details. I never ended up taking my camera out of my bag.

The story wraps up in 2023, when the building was finally demolished. It's so sad to see another North Jersey town lose its theater. While the building wasn't the most beautiful, the right person with enough money and vision could have done something great with it. Unfortunately we will never know for sure.