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    Movie Houses of Greater Newark
    Movie Houses of Greater Newark
    Movie Houses of Greater Newark
    Ebook171 pages1 hour

    Movie Houses of Greater Newark

    By Philip M. Read

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    For decades, Newark and its environs have been lit up by the bright neon lights of grand movie palaces and theaters. In the early 20th century, stages that were originally built for vaudeville acts were turned over to silver screens and the flickering images from motion-picture projectors. This new technology ushered Hollywood movies to the East Coast and made cinema accessible for locals to enjoy. Movie houses and palaces provided moviegoers a new type of viewing experience. With ornate interiors and rich architecture, these institutions offered their patrons a beautiful setting to watch classic films. Over time, these establishments evolved and began hosting burlesque shows and rock concerts. Today, many of these downtown landmarks have been demolished, replaced, or adaptively renovated into the modern multiplexes of today. Images of the Paramount and the Mosque Theater help Movie Houses of Greater Newark tell the story of an era when going to the movies was an event.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateJul 15, 2013
    ISBN9781439643662
    Movie Houses of Greater Newark
    Author

    Philip M. Read

    Philip M. Read, a graduate of Boston University, is a longtime New Jersey journalist whose career has landed him in newsrooms in Newark, Paterson, and Elizabeth for more than three decades. This is his fifth title for Arcadia Publishing, one highlighting a rich collection of rarely seen photographs.

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      Book preview

      Movie Houses of Greater Newark - Philip M. Read

      screen.

      INTRODUCTION

      They defined the America of its day. The silver screens were magnets for a population always on the lookout for an escape or diversion from the workaday world. Nowhere was that more evident than in New Jersey’s largest city, Newark, as well as such nearby urban centers as Paterson and the suburbs dotting the northern half of the nation’s most densely populated state.

      The Branford. The Paramount. The Adams. The Tivoli. Loew’s State. They were but a few of the palaces where flickering images of Clark Gable and Vivian Leigh in Gone with the Wind pulled in crowds on the chilly morning of January 15, 1940. Long Line Shivers While Waiting for Movie Classic read the newspaper headline. In the seven-week siege that followed, 270,000 patrons passed through the theater turnstile.

      The movie houses, often architectural works of art in their own right, at times switched the entertainment to everything from racy burlesque shows to rock concerts. The Rolling Stones took the stage at the Mosque Theatre, just as singer Bing Crosby did before them. In 1964, more than 1,000 screaming teenagers arrived at the Branford to see The Dave Clark Five, whose 1964 hit Glad All Over bested the Beatles’s I Want to Hold Your Hand on the British pop charts.

      The theaters, where thousands came not just for the movie but for the experience, were the stuff of seemingly endless newspaper headlines. Dailey’s venture hits excise snag, read one. It turns out Frank Dailey, whose Cedar Grove roadhouse, the Meadowbrook, was out of reach to many during the gas rationing of World War II, met some resistance when he sought to bring big bands to the Terrace Room at Newark’s Mosque Theatre. I served four million people at the Meadowbrook in 12 years and had only one charge against me, he replied to concerns about minors attracted to the dance bands in 1943.

      Burlesque bid, read another headline. The appeal for peel to lift legal prohibitions dating to 1957 against burlesque came in 1966 when a willowy blonde who produced shows on Long Island sought to replicate them in Newark. Is it burlesque? asked Councilman Philip E. Gordon. Yes, it is burlesque, came the reply, the same burlesque that gave birth to great entertainers. Burlesque is one name, but I also think of it as live vaudeville. The councilman’s retort: It’s still burlesque.

      Theaters changing, read yet another headline atop a 1953 story about the arrival of 3-D features, namely Bwana Devil and House of Wax. It was all about keeping up with the latest technology. In fact, we’ve got a CinemaScope installation in the works right now, said Edgar Goth, with Newark’s Branford Theatre. We’re going to be equipped for all the new processes, wide screen or three-dimensional.

      It was no different in other North Jersey locales. In Paterson, a rededication of the c. 1925 Fabian Theatre was front-page news in 1962. The palace sat 2,900 patrons, fewer than the original, but with roomier legroom. The $500,000 renovation led to a proclamation in honor of Fabian Day. Simon H. Fabian, the honoree at a black-tie banquet, told of his commitment to the city: We cannot sit wistfully by and hope that a good fairy godmother from one of the governments will pull us out of our troubles.

      In their heyday, movie houses seating thousands were the place to be. Today, many are long-since gone, in ruins, or converted into small multi-screen venues or even retail space. But they live on in the memories of so many.

      The Trivoli was a place of dreams for mere mortals, said filmmaker and Newark native Ron Merk, and one in which we felt as if we were part of the adventure going on up on the screen.

      Seen here around 1922, the Newark Theatre, later renamed the Paramount, was centrally located on Market Street, with Bamberger’s, the Strand, Drake College, Bell Mead Sweets, Greenfield’s, and other merchants making for a busy shopping district. One of the shows then playing at the Newark was Cecil B. DeMille’s 1922 silent Manslaughter, starring Thomas Meighan, a matinee idol whose career went into a downward spiral after the advent of talkies. The DeMille film was said to highlight the debauchery of the Jazz Age as a warning to wayward youth, with its story of a reckless, speed-loving socialite, played by Leatrice Joy, who causes the death of a motorcycle cop. (Courtesy of the Newark Public Library.)

      One

      NEWARK

      Loew’s State Theatre, the handiwork of architect Thomas W. Lamb of New York, was estimated to cost $500,000 to erect—far more than the more typical $80,000—when building plans were approved by Newark’s building department on February 11, 1921. (Author’s collection.)

      In 1923, Loew’s State was showing The Trail of the Lonesome Pine, starring Mary Miles Minter in the last of her silent movie roles. From its December 1921 opening until 1927, Loew’s was managed by William A. Downs, who had made a name for himself as a songwriter. He was credited with writing the lyrics for I’m Going Back to Carolina, Sail on Silv’ry Moon, Down in Melody Lane, and

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