The Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ), Sept 26, 2002 p057
Crazy for Gracie; A new one-man show about George Burns and his better half.
Byline: MICHAEL SOMMERS
By the way, Burns remarked to a Star-Ledger writer in 1947, did you know that the first vaudeville date Gracie and I played together was in Newark? Almost 25 years ago, I guess, and I think it was called the Hill Theatre, over on Springfield Avenue.
Allen agreed to team for a “flirtation act” written by Burns, who got them a three-day booking in Newark at the Hill (later Essex) Theater at 100 Springfield Ave., one of those decaying theaters that had never seen better days. Together they were paid $5 to perform three shows a night.
That place was so primitive there was no heat backstage, said Burns. We opened there in mid-winter and nearly froze in the dressing rooms. Had to run down to the basement and warm up in the furnace room before we could go on.
CAPTION(S):
An archival photo of the old Essex Theatre in Newark. Burns and Allen first performed together there in 1922, when it was known as the Hill Theatre.
Must have been used for relgious gatherings shortly thereafter:
“This Message by Brother William Marrion Branham called Sirs, We Would See Jesus was delivered on Wednesday, 11th December 1957 at the Essex Theater in Newark, New Jersey, U.S.A.
The tape, number 57-1211, is 1 hour and 36 minutes, and consists of 1 cassette.” excerpt from http://www.nathan.co.za/message.asp?sermonum=447
Thanks for the tip Ken.
The 1944 FDY also lists this theatre as the Park.
“According to the Highland Park Historical Society, the borough even "marginally supported ” a moviehouse from 1927 to the late 1950s. The 1,400-seat Block’s Park Theatre featured a fountain and an aquarium, and 20-cent matinees.“ extracted from http://www.highlandparkchamber.com/about.html
The Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ), July 7, 2005 p002
In Blairstown, a theater is born; Onetime silent movie house rings with Mozart in auspicious opening. (IN THE TOWNS)
Byline: REBECCA SCHMOYER
Howard Hain remembers the day last December when he came across the old movie house in Blairstown that he and his wife would spend seven months transforming into the Nous Theatre.
It was his wife Laurie’s birthday. While waiting for his car to get an oil change, he decided to take a stroll down Main Street.
He saw an imposing, dingy, gray two-story theater, built in an odd, slightly Asian style. It had a for-sale sign in front.
“I looked at it and thought it was pretty obvious we could do something special here,” said Hain, 33.
That evening, when he picked up his wife, she wanted to know why he was “all smiles,” Hain remembered.
“I told her, ‘I think I’ve found the next 10 years of our lives,’” he said.
Today, there’s no passing Nous Theatre without doing a double-take. The playhouse looms above the shops on Blairstown’s Main Street. It’s painted an exuberant cobalt blue and surrounded by flowers.
“It’s majestic,” said Hain, as he and his wife stood on the theater’s brand new front steps. “It feels good. It feels alive.”
The theater opened for the first time on June 4 for a sold-out performance of Mozart’s “Requiem” featuring tenor Gary Pate, of the Metropolitan Opera, Sohyun Ahn, an award-winning Korean pianist, and the Baroque Orchestra of North Jersey. Tickets almost immediately sold out for the same program on June 18, Hain said. The couple hurriedly set up a third performance a week later.
“It’s one of the best stages I’ve ever played,” said Robert Butts, conductor of the Baroque Orchestra. “There’s a wonderful sense of artistry in every corner. The acoustics are marvelous. It’s really great when you are playing music in a space where you feel like you are one with the audience and that the audience is one with you.”
Back in December 2004, the building’s exterior walls were covered in drab gray floor paint. The front steps were full of unwelcoming cracks, and inside was a dark, cavernous void.
But the building, then known as Roy’s Hall, was structurally fine and the price was right. The couple decided it was the place to realize their dream of starting a theater for high-caliber music and drama, said Hain. So they bought it.
“It was like finding an old kingdom that just needed to be dusted off and polished up,” said Hain.
Hain, who studied philosophy before becoming a playwright, named the venue Nous Theatre, after the ancient Greek word for “eternal mind.”
An early photo depicting the building, which was built in 1913 and rebuilt in 1919, shows a silent movie theater with a poster outside advertising a Charlie Chaplin movie.
Nearly everyone now seems pleased with the results of the couple’s hard work and vision, even the building’s former owner – Dirk Swaneveld, principal of Belvidere High School.
Swaneveld bought the building about 11 years ago in a condition of total disrepair and overhauled its heating and plumbing. He wanted to sell it, but didn’t want to see it become another real estate office.
“I can’t be more pleased. My wife and I ran several summer productions with kids in there,” said Swaneveld. “I have always felt it was designed and built as a theater and it needed to stay a theater.”
The walls inside the entrance are now painted a deep yellow. A hallway with red floors and blue rails leads into the theater, which has 192 vintage seats reupholstered in bright red. A red velvet curtain falls in folds across the stage, which is empty except for a new Yamaha concert grand piano.
Laurie Hain, 32, currently teaches middle school science in Union City. She has plans to start a children’s theater workshop at the playhouse.
“We’re just putting the finishing touches on it,” she said.
Howard Hain, who had two plays produced in San Francisco in 2000 and 2002, plans to stage his play “My Brother’s Keeper” at the theater in October. He hopes to bring opera, jazz and drama to the theater and would like the space to be home to a chorus and instrumental ensemble.
“Our attitude is we’ll treat each show as if it’s the only show we’ll ever do,” he said.
Butts, who lives in Rockaway, already has future projects in the works for his orchestra at the venue.
“The singers and musicians are excited. And I’m perhaps the most excited of all,” he added.
The Hains spent time living in New York, San Francisco and Rome before they bought a home in Great Meadows last summer. But they both are a little stunned by how quickly the theater has taken on a life of its own.
“Everything’s been on warp speed. Our lives have changed so much,” he said. “But we love it. I think we’ll be around for a while.”
For more information or to order tickets, call (908) 362-1399 or visit www.noustheatre.com
Beach Cinema makes movie-going friendly
Home News Tribune Online 08/12/06
By ELEANOR O'SULLIVAN
GANNETT NEW JERSEY
Look! Up in the sky, it’s a â€" yes â€" single screen movie theater, in 2006.
And could it be any more small town America-Jersey Shore-ish?
Like the movie maven-local guy that he is, John Esposito runs the Beach Cinema on Main Street in Bradley Beach, the only full-time single screen movie theater in Monmouth and Ocean counties.
Esposito, a Long Branch native who worked his way up the movie theater operation ladder for the Walter Reade theater chain, lives just a few blocks away from the theater and is on the scene most days and evenings. He has operated the old-fashioned theater, with its deep proscenium stage, red curtains, 500 seats and benches for chatting before the feature begins, for nearly 30 years.
The Beach Cinema has a small but select staff of friendly folks handpicked by Esposito, who has hung movie posters from great films of the past in the lobby. Prices are low for admission and concession items, and Beach movies can be watched without cringing at violence or cupping your ears over crashing soundtracks. Esposito leans toward features rated PG-13 or less, most often eschewing R-rated movies.
“It’s like a family; that’s why it’s lasted so long,” said Mary Mazza of Long Branch, a cashier at the Beach Cinema for more than 20 years.
Besides mostly family fare on the big screen and a family feel among staffers, prices also are family friendly. Popcorn costs $3 and $4; drinks are $2 and $2.50; candy is $1, $2 and $2.50. Regular admission prices are $5 at night, $4 for weekend matinees and $4 on Monday nights.
Esposito hews to the classic in projection equipment, too. Projectionist Gary Crawford of Neptune, an employee from the beginning of Esposito’s ownership, still operates a SuperSimplex 35MM projector from the 1930s.
It was refurbished seven years ago.
“It’s still in great shape because the craftsmanship years ago was much better than it is today,” Esposito said.
Opened in 1925 as The Palace, and taken over by Esposito about 30 years ago, the Beach Cinema is the kind of movie theater that you’ll remember fondly when you rekindle memories of your Jersey Shore vacation.
The Beach Cinema is at 110 Main St., Bradley Beach. More information is available by calling (732) 774-9089.
The Park Theatre is indeed listed in the 1944, 1951 & 1956 Film Daily Yearbooks with a seating capacity of 900, 920 & 920 respectively.
It is NOT listed in the 1970 Film Daily Yearbook under Redstone; perhaps they closed it shortly after the riots.
This theatre goes back to the 1930s. It was torn down in 1981 to make room for apartments.
1979 postcard:
View link
The Sound of Music played here on 8/21/1968:
View link
The Sound of Music played here on 8/21/1968:
View link
The Sound of Music played here on 8/17/1968:
View link
The Sound of Music played here on 8/17/1968. So it still must have been a fairly “clean” theater at that time:
View link
The Sound of Music played at the Casino on 8/17/1968:
View link
The Sound of Music played here on August 17, 1968:
View link
Another one of JB & Melvin Fox’s theaters.
Listed as the Lincoln Theatre in the 1944 FDY.
Occupied by:
Leslie Dinettes
206-208 Ferry Street, Newark, NJ 07105, 973-589-6549
Here are some excerpts from that article:
The Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ), Sept 26, 2002 p057
Crazy for Gracie; A new one-man show about George Burns and his better half.
Byline: MICHAEL SOMMERS
By the way, Burns remarked to a Star-Ledger writer in 1947, did you know that the first vaudeville date Gracie and I played together was in Newark? Almost 25 years ago, I guess, and I think it was called the Hill Theatre, over on Springfield Avenue.
Allen agreed to team for a “flirtation act” written by Burns, who got them a three-day booking in Newark at the Hill (later Essex) Theater at 100 Springfield Ave., one of those decaying theaters that had never seen better days. Together they were paid $5 to perform three shows a night.
That place was so primitive there was no heat backstage, said Burns. We opened there in mid-winter and nearly froze in the dressing rooms. Had to run down to the basement and warm up in the furnace room before we could go on.
CAPTION(S):
Still listed as open in the 1956 FDY.
Must have been used for relgious gatherings shortly thereafter:
“This Message by Brother William Marrion Branham called Sirs, We Would See Jesus was delivered on Wednesday, 11th December 1957 at the Essex Theater in Newark, New Jersey, U.S.A.
The tape, number 57-1211, is 1 hour and 36 minutes, and consists of 1 cassette.” excerpt from http://www.nathan.co.za/message.asp?sermonum=447
Appears in the 1961 FDY under the RKO Theatres listing as the Park Theatre.
Still listed as the New Theater in the 1956 FDY. Can’t find it in the 1961 edition.
Listed as a Hunt Theater in the 1944 Film Daily Yearbook under the circuit listings but doesn’t appear in the main theatre listing.
The 1944 FDY lists this theatre as part of the Snaper Circuit.
Thanks for the tip Ken.
The 1944 FDY also lists this theatre as the Park.
“According to the Highland Park Historical Society, the borough even "marginally supported ” a moviehouse from 1927 to the late 1950s. The 1,400-seat Block’s Park Theatre featured a fountain and an aquarium, and 20-cent matinees.“ extracted from
http://www.highlandparkchamber.com/about.html
The Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ), July 7, 2005 p002
In Blairstown, a theater is born; Onetime silent movie house rings with Mozart in auspicious opening. (IN THE TOWNS)
Byline: REBECCA SCHMOYER
Howard Hain remembers the day last December when he came across the old movie house in Blairstown that he and his wife would spend seven months transforming into the Nous Theatre.
It was his wife Laurie’s birthday. While waiting for his car to get an oil change, he decided to take a stroll down Main Street.
He saw an imposing, dingy, gray two-story theater, built in an odd, slightly Asian style. It had a for-sale sign in front.
“I looked at it and thought it was pretty obvious we could do something special here,” said Hain, 33.
That evening, when he picked up his wife, she wanted to know why he was “all smiles,” Hain remembered.
“I told her, ‘I think I’ve found the next 10 years of our lives,’” he said.
Today, there’s no passing Nous Theatre without doing a double-take. The playhouse looms above the shops on Blairstown’s Main Street. It’s painted an exuberant cobalt blue and surrounded by flowers.
“It’s majestic,” said Hain, as he and his wife stood on the theater’s brand new front steps. “It feels good. It feels alive.”
The theater opened for the first time on June 4 for a sold-out performance of Mozart’s “Requiem” featuring tenor Gary Pate, of the Metropolitan Opera, Sohyun Ahn, an award-winning Korean pianist, and the Baroque Orchestra of North Jersey. Tickets almost immediately sold out for the same program on June 18, Hain said. The couple hurriedly set up a third performance a week later.
“It’s one of the best stages I’ve ever played,” said Robert Butts, conductor of the Baroque Orchestra. “There’s a wonderful sense of artistry in every corner. The acoustics are marvelous. It’s really great when you are playing music in a space where you feel like you are one with the audience and that the audience is one with you.”
Back in December 2004, the building’s exterior walls were covered in drab gray floor paint. The front steps were full of unwelcoming cracks, and inside was a dark, cavernous void.
But the building, then known as Roy’s Hall, was structurally fine and the price was right. The couple decided it was the place to realize their dream of starting a theater for high-caliber music and drama, said Hain. So they bought it.
“It was like finding an old kingdom that just needed to be dusted off and polished up,” said Hain.
Hain, who studied philosophy before becoming a playwright, named the venue Nous Theatre, after the ancient Greek word for “eternal mind.”
An early photo depicting the building, which was built in 1913 and rebuilt in 1919, shows a silent movie theater with a poster outside advertising a Charlie Chaplin movie.
Nearly everyone now seems pleased with the results of the couple’s hard work and vision, even the building’s former owner – Dirk Swaneveld, principal of Belvidere High School.
Swaneveld bought the building about 11 years ago in a condition of total disrepair and overhauled its heating and plumbing. He wanted to sell it, but didn’t want to see it become another real estate office.
“I can’t be more pleased. My wife and I ran several summer productions with kids in there,” said Swaneveld. “I have always felt it was designed and built as a theater and it needed to stay a theater.”
The walls inside the entrance are now painted a deep yellow. A hallway with red floors and blue rails leads into the theater, which has 192 vintage seats reupholstered in bright red. A red velvet curtain falls in folds across the stage, which is empty except for a new Yamaha concert grand piano.
Laurie Hain, 32, currently teaches middle school science in Union City. She has plans to start a children’s theater workshop at the playhouse.
“We’re just putting the finishing touches on it,” she said.
Howard Hain, who had two plays produced in San Francisco in 2000 and 2002, plans to stage his play “My Brother’s Keeper” at the theater in October. He hopes to bring opera, jazz and drama to the theater and would like the space to be home to a chorus and instrumental ensemble.
“Our attitude is we’ll treat each show as if it’s the only show we’ll ever do,” he said.
Butts, who lives in Rockaway, already has future projects in the works for his orchestra at the venue.
“The singers and musicians are excited. And I’m perhaps the most excited of all,” he added.
The Hains spent time living in New York, San Francisco and Rome before they bought a home in Great Meadows last summer. But they both are a little stunned by how quickly the theater has taken on a life of its own.
“Everything’s been on warp speed. Our lives have changed so much,” he said. “But we love it. I think we’ll be around for a while.”
For more information or to order tickets, call (908) 362-1399 or visit www.noustheatre.com
Recent article:
Beach Cinema makes movie-going friendly
Home News Tribune Online 08/12/06
By ELEANOR O'SULLIVAN
GANNETT NEW JERSEY
Look! Up in the sky, it’s a â€" yes â€" single screen movie theater, in 2006.
And could it be any more small town America-Jersey Shore-ish?
Like the movie maven-local guy that he is, John Esposito runs the Beach Cinema on Main Street in Bradley Beach, the only full-time single screen movie theater in Monmouth and Ocean counties.
Esposito, a Long Branch native who worked his way up the movie theater operation ladder for the Walter Reade theater chain, lives just a few blocks away from the theater and is on the scene most days and evenings. He has operated the old-fashioned theater, with its deep proscenium stage, red curtains, 500 seats and benches for chatting before the feature begins, for nearly 30 years.
The Beach Cinema has a small but select staff of friendly folks handpicked by Esposito, who has hung movie posters from great films of the past in the lobby. Prices are low for admission and concession items, and Beach movies can be watched without cringing at violence or cupping your ears over crashing soundtracks. Esposito leans toward features rated PG-13 or less, most often eschewing R-rated movies.
“It’s like a family; that’s why it’s lasted so long,” said Mary Mazza of Long Branch, a cashier at the Beach Cinema for more than 20 years.
Besides mostly family fare on the big screen and a family feel among staffers, prices also are family friendly. Popcorn costs $3 and $4; drinks are $2 and $2.50; candy is $1, $2 and $2.50. Regular admission prices are $5 at night, $4 for weekend matinees and $4 on Monday nights.
Esposito hews to the classic in projection equipment, too. Projectionist Gary Crawford of Neptune, an employee from the beginning of Esposito’s ownership, still operates a SuperSimplex 35MM projector from the 1930s.
It was refurbished seven years ago.
“It’s still in great shape because the craftsmanship years ago was much better than it is today,” Esposito said.
Opened in 1925 as The Palace, and taken over by Esposito about 30 years ago, the Beach Cinema is the kind of movie theater that you’ll remember fondly when you rekindle memories of your Jersey Shore vacation.
The Beach Cinema is at 110 Main St., Bradley Beach. More information is available by calling (732) 774-9089.
Listed as the Casino Theatre in the 1944, 1951 & 1956 Film Daily Yearbooks.
Listed as the Park Theatre in the 1951 Film Daily Yearbook at 17 S. Plainfield Avenue.
jimmyt
thanks for the tip.
The Park Theatre is indeed listed in the 1944, 1951 & 1956 Film Daily Yearbooks with a seating capacity of 900, 920 & 920 respectively.
It is NOT listed in the 1970 Film Daily Yearbook under Redstone; perhaps they closed it shortly after the riots.
Photo & history at this link:
View link
Old postcard, postmarked 1924:
View link
Developer of Barclay Farms was Robert Scarborough. Originally envisioned as an art & foreign film theatre.