(MCH) The Riverview Cinema (St. Clair) Traditional Cache

The Riverview Cinema was a theatre located in downtown St. Clair’s Riverview Plaza and was a very small-venue with a "big name" originally attached to it. It originally opened as part of the Jerry Lewis Cinema Theatres chain in 1972, and the facility was designed to have multi-use for both entertainment and also office space, even though it did not quite follow what the chain had for architecture.

In the mid-1960's, the management for the City of St. Clair had ideas and plans in-place for an urban redevelopment of the "downtown St. Clair" area that the shopping center now occupies.  These plans would include demolition of many of the older buildings along the riverfront including the long-beloved and original "St Clair Theatre".  These plans began to come to fruition in 1967 and the redevelopment began.  The end came for the original St Clair theatre in late 1967 when the entire contents of that theatre were auctioned-off prior to the demolition of the actual building in February of 1968.  

The Original St Clair Theatre, Street view

The clearing of the land and buildings in the "downtown area" of the small town of St. Clair led to the building of the shopping plaza called the "St. Clair Riverview Plaza", which opened without a Theatre in August of 1969.  The new theatre was planned to be part of the new development, but plans were not ready when the rest of the complex was completed.  The new plaza would open without any theatre-entertainment venue because of the many details that were still being worked-out for the theatre.

In 1971, architectural plans were finally announced for a new Theatre that would be part of the Jerry Lewis Cinema franchise.  The design of the new theatre building would closely match the existing Plaza’s style instead of the traditional Lewis template that most of the chain had used.

A promotional photo of Jerry Lewis with a model of one of his franchise theaters.

Exterior sketch showing the design of the building was to match the 
architecture of the rest of the Riverview Shopping Plaza. (1971)

The Jerry Lewis franchise circuit was a fast-growing chain of franchised and mostly-automated "mini-theaters" all over the nation.  At the peak of the franchise (the early 1970's), there were approximately 200 of these small (less than 300-to-400-seat) cinemas open nationwide with the Jerry Lewis name attached to them.  

The promotion and appeal for investors was “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.

the "Variety magazine" ad

The idea was to make theater ownership possible for anyone who could meet the initial investment requirement of $15,000 - $50,000.

The target for the The typical Jerry Lewis theatre owner was more a movie-goer than a business-owner, and the franchise-concept appealed to many as it was promoted as "mostly automated" and believed to not require much staffing because of the automation.

According to sources, Jerry and company would provide the know-how, name recognition, and marketing.  Franchisees would put up the money and man hours. One of the promises was “if you can press a button, you can own a Jerry Lewis Cinema”, The company appeared to be the “turn key” answer to owning your own movie theatre.

The key sales point to the venture was automation of projection, box office and concessions which the company promised made the theater easy to operate with only a few people (sometimes only two).  During its heyday, the company pushed sales heavily, trying to get new franchisees onboard with the idea.

The 350-seat theatre here in St. Clair featured this modern, automated equipment, and assured residents that it would follow the chain’s "family friendly films only" policy.  This location was to be the first in Michigan, which was one reason for the delay between the Plaza opening and the Theatre being completed. 

Unfortunately it took much more than the as-advertised "minimal effort" and a couple employees to run such a franchise, and so the franchisees and theatres began to have some issues soon after it got moving.  Many owners soon discovered, much to their dismay, that the “push button automation” fell far short of what was advertised,

Because of these issues, by the time the St. Clair theatre location opened, the Lewis Circuit and its parent Network Cinema Corp. were already heading toward bankruptcy. The Jerry Lewis Cinema moniker was dropped at this location on May 30, 1973, less than a year after opening.  New new signage was installed as the Riverview Cinema beginning on June 3, 1973.

It was only a few short years before the concept would vanish and the entire chain of franchised theatres would fold into other names or theatre chains. 

The very next year after losing the Jerry Lewis designation, the location had a new owner and some controversy came along with this new ownership. This controversy occurred in January of 1975 when “Deep Throat, Part II” (a very adult-level film) was booked. Picketers effectively closed the theatre until that film was removed.

At the end of its ten-year lease, the Riverview cinema was given new management but this was the early 1980's and competition issues from video stores and better theatres in nearby Port Huron cropped-up and took a toll on the Riverview sales and income.

The final owner of the Riverview Cinema, William Beier added video rentals to the cinema’s business plan, but the theatre finally went dark for the last time on December 31, 1990 with the Disney animation film, “The Rescuers Down Under”.

The building continued to be used as office space as well as other minor functions, but the town has asked the owner to remove the Riverview Cinema signage since the Cinema is no longer in business.  As of July 2020, some of the signage still remains from the once grand use as a local entertainment venue.