This was located off the northbound side of 206 between Dunns Mill and Georgetown Roads, north of Interchange 7 of the New Jersey Turnpike. The Turnpike Authority currently owns the property and is using part of the lot as a staging area for construction equipment (the Turnpike is being widened in this area). Aerial photos suggest that trees have overgrown the rest, and that little or nothing remains of the drive-in facilities.
Former Motown singer Kim Weston talks a little about the Uptown in this Philadelphia Inquirer story. Clicking on “View images” under the picture leads to a 1972 photo of the Uptown and a vintage ad for a Georgie Woods-presented show at the theater.
Here is the newofficial site for the Queen. It is being run as a music venue by World Cafe Live, a licensee of WXPN radio in Philadelphia and its World Cafe program, distributed nationally by NPR.
Status can be made Open, with Live Performances as the function.
Not a Jerry Lewis—this one was a little bigger than the JLCs. I don’t remember seeing any other Century theaters in South Jersey; this may have been a first venture into the market that was not successful and not repeated. The main local players in first-run indoor theaters in the area at this time were Sameric, GCC, RKO-SW, Milgrim and Budco.
There’s a larger version of the picture here right now. Using a zoom function to examine the sign above the admission price, I’m pretty sure that it says “CARNEGIE THEATRE”. The turnstile could be a relic of the Carnegie’s brief early existence as a newsreel theater just a couple years before. What the 12-year-old is doing on Rush Street in the dark is another matter.
Here is a reproduction of a Cherry Hill Mall brochure from the late 1960s. What’s interesting about this for Cinema Treasures purposes is that space #26—on the outside of the mall, next to the bank on the Route 38 side—is identified as “Mini Cinema.” (You may have to zoom the picture to see the number. It’s near the bottom left.) Does anybody remember movies being shown in that space? I don’t. I know it was a health club in the ‘70s and after, but I can’t recall what it was when the Mall opened. I suspect that the cinema was something that was planned but never opened.
The Hamilton opened on Christmas Day 1946 with a double feature of “Canyon Passage” and “Bamboo Blonde.” At the opening it was a joint venture of the RKO and Walter Reade chains. Newspaper story reproduction here. The blogger who posted the article says that the theater only operated for a short time but doesn’t say exactly how short.
There may have been a connection between this theater and the Black Horse Pike Drive-In a few miles away. Both theaters had towers topped by very similar large horse figures. There was a sign with an attraction board for this drive-in at the Collingswood traffic circle; after it closed, the board read “VISIT BLACK HORSE DRIVE IN” for a long time. (The sign was actually much closer to the Black Horse.) It’s possible that the Black Horse was opened as a replacement for this one, although the two sites are far enough apart that they could have drawn from different population bases to some extent.
According to this page at Forgotten New York the theater is actually built on a bridge over railroad tracks, although it looks like a typical commercial street. (There are pictures about a third of the way down the page, but they don’t show the theater closely enough.)
Legally the site was always in Egg Harbor Township, but the township name wasn’t commonly used for addresses until after the drive-in closed. Cardiff would be the nearest community within the township, but businesses around there that were looking to draw customers from out of town advertised as being in Pleasantville, which was better known and was probably the post office serving the area. In the 1990s the township started trying to build up an identity and asked businesses to say that they were in EHT in their advertising; many did, especially after the township got its own ZIP code. The address at the top of the page really should say Egg Harbor Township instead of just Egg Harbor; some people, especially older ones, interpret just Egg Harbor to mean Egg Harbor City, which is a completely different place.
For sale, asking $5.5 million. The Strand is also listed at the same price. Frank Theatres still plans to operate both theaters for the 2011 summer season. Video story from NBC Philadelphia here.
For sale, asking $5.5 million. The Moorlyn is also listed at the same price. Frank Theatres still plans to operate both theaters for the 2011 summer season. Video story from NBC Philadelphia here.
On the page for the Forest Theatre someone noted that it was the only theater he’d been in where the concession stand was in the auditorium instead of the lobby. The Crescent was another one of those, and unless my memory has seriously failed me it was because this theater had no real lobby at all! All it had was a vestibule between the doors to the street and a set of windowless doors at the back of the auditorium. Walk through the second set of doors and there were no walls between you and the screen—restrooms were off in the left and right corners and the refreshment stand was dead ahead behind the last row of seats. I don’t remember where the ticket taker was stationed. I think the floor sloped up a bit from the sidewalk level to the last row of seats, which may have helped keep light from the street from getting in. There was some empty space inside the inner doors to allow for concession lines and general milling about, and that was as close to a lobby as it got.
I counted 28 theaters and at least as many features in that Paramount Week ad. At the top of the page, a city councilman wants “proper trolley car service” back on Broadway instead of buses. Radio is the newest technology, Babe Ruth is the king of baseball, Ford is still selling Model Ts by the millions…a different world.
This was located off the northbound side of 206 between Dunns Mill and Georgetown Roads, north of Interchange 7 of the New Jersey Turnpike. The Turnpike Authority currently owns the property and is using part of the lot as a staging area for construction equipment (the Turnpike is being widened in this area). Aerial photos suggest that trees have overgrown the rest, and that little or nothing remains of the drive-in facilities.
Former Motown singer Kim Weston talks a little about the Uptown in this Philadelphia Inquirer story. Clicking on “View images” under the picture leads to a 1972 photo of the Uptown and a vintage ad for a Georgie Woods-presented show at the theater.
Here is the newofficial site for the Queen. It is being run as a music venue by World Cafe Live, a licensee of WXPN radio in Philadelphia and its World Cafe program, distributed nationally by NPR.
Status can be made Open, with Live Performances as the function.
Google Books has a larger version of the Life fire picture here.
The Regal theater is this one, which is across the highway inside the Moorestown Mall.
Not a Jerry Lewis—this one was a little bigger than the JLCs. I don’t remember seeing any other Century theaters in South Jersey; this may have been a first venture into the market that was not successful and not repeated. The main local players in first-run indoor theaters in the area at this time were Sameric, GCC, RKO-SW, Milgrim and Budco.
There’s a larger version of the picture here right now. Using a zoom function to examine the sign above the admission price, I’m pretty sure that it says “CARNEGIE THEATRE”. The turnstile could be a relic of the Carnegie’s brief early existence as a newsreel theater just a couple years before. What the 12-year-old is doing on Rush Street in the dark is another matter.
Here is a reproduction of a Cherry Hill Mall brochure from the late 1960s. What’s interesting about this for Cinema Treasures purposes is that space #26—on the outside of the mall, next to the bank on the Route 38 side—is identified as “Mini Cinema.” (You may have to zoom the picture to see the number. It’s near the bottom left.) Does anybody remember movies being shown in that space? I don’t. I know it was a health club in the ‘70s and after, but I can’t recall what it was when the Mall opened. I suspect that the cinema was something that was planned but never opened.
Here’s a direct link for that YouTube clip. The Paradise shows up at about 2:18—all too brief, but impressive.
Here is a January 2011 photo of the screen. Trees are getting in the way…
August 2009 photo here.
A glimpse of the Mayfair’s marquee may be seen on the left side of this picture from about 1973.
The Hamilton opened on Christmas Day 1946 with a double feature of “Canyon Passage” and “Bamboo Blonde.” At the opening it was a joint venture of the RKO and Walter Reade chains. Newspaper story reproduction here. The blogger who posted the article says that the theater only operated for a short time but doesn’t say exactly how short.
Part of the Hunt’s chain in 1931. July 1 newspaper ads for the State and other Trenton theaters here.
Theater was gutted by a fire on May 2, 1931, during a showing of “It’s a Wise Child” starring Marion Davies. Reproduction of newspaper story here.
There may have been a connection between this theater and the Black Horse Pike Drive-In a few miles away. Both theaters had towers topped by very similar large horse figures. There was a sign with an attraction board for this drive-in at the Collingswood traffic circle; after it closed, the board read “VISIT BLACK HORSE DRIVE IN” for a long time. (The sign was actually much closer to the Black Horse.) It’s possible that the Black Horse was opened as a replacement for this one, although the two sites are far enough apart that they could have drawn from different population bases to some extent.
According to this page at Forgotten New York the theater is actually built on a bridge over railroad tracks, although it looks like a typical commercial street. (There are pictures about a third of the way down the page, but they don’t show the theater closely enough.)
Note that Chicago’s Kenwood and Lexington became the Ken and the Lex , probably when they got new marquees.
Theater has closed, on the heels of the demise of a restaurant that was the only other business still open at Tamarac Square. Denver Post story here.
Legally the site was always in Egg Harbor Township, but the township name wasn’t commonly used for addresses until after the drive-in closed. Cardiff would be the nearest community within the township, but businesses around there that were looking to draw customers from out of town advertised as being in Pleasantville, which was better known and was probably the post office serving the area. In the 1990s the township started trying to build up an identity and asked businesses to say that they were in EHT in their advertising; many did, especially after the township got its own ZIP code. The address at the top of the page really should say Egg Harbor Township instead of just Egg Harbor; some people, especially older ones, interpret just Egg Harbor to mean Egg Harbor City, which is a completely different place.
For sale, asking $5.5 million. The Strand is also listed at the same price. Frank Theatres still plans to operate both theaters for the 2011 summer season. Video story from NBC Philadelphia here.
For sale, asking $5.5 million. The Moorlyn is also listed at the same price. Frank Theatres still plans to operate both theaters for the 2011 summer season. Video story from NBC Philadelphia here.
On the page for the Forest Theatre someone noted that it was the only theater he’d been in where the concession stand was in the auditorium instead of the lobby. The Crescent was another one of those, and unless my memory has seriously failed me it was because this theater had no real lobby at all! All it had was a vestibule between the doors to the street and a set of windowless doors at the back of the auditorium. Walk through the second set of doors and there were no walls between you and the screen—restrooms were off in the left and right corners and the refreshment stand was dead ahead behind the last row of seats. I don’t remember where the ticket taker was stationed. I think the floor sloped up a bit from the sidewalk level to the last row of seats, which may have helped keep light from the street from getting in. There was some empty space inside the inner doors to allow for concession lines and general milling about, and that was as close to a lobby as it got.
I counted 28 theaters and at least as many features in that Paramount Week ad. At the top of the page, a city councilman wants “proper trolley car service” back on Broadway instead of buses. Radio is the newest technology, Babe Ruth is the king of baseball, Ford is still selling Model Ts by the millions…a different world.
Cosmic observation of the day: all of the theaters listed for TWIN Falls…are single screens.