Wasn’t this the theater that somebody covered with aluminum or vinyl siding and renamed the “Movie Box” for a while? It went from second run to adult films, then a company called CenterStage came in, took off the siding and tried live theater for a year or two before running out of money.
Having some trouble placing this…my memory is not coming up with a Main Street in Mount Holly, and map sites want to put you in the nearby village of Rancocas, which I doubt was ever big enough to support any theater, let alone a 1000-seater. I did find a historical page says that High Street was sometimes called Main Street, so maybe that’s where this one was. The theater I think I remember in Mount Holly was called the Mount Holly Theater and was on the odd-numbered side of Washington Street; it lasted into the ‘70s or maybe the '80s with movies, then was taken over by an outfit called CenterStage that presented live theater for a while before running into financial trouble.
New owner here: Peter Slack, described as a lifelong Pitman resident, bought the theater for $303,000 at a sheriff’s sale this month. Philadelphia Inquirer story (registration may be required): View link
The end is worth posting here by itself:
Slack said he wanted to bring back matinees so that the current generation, including his two young children, can experience the fun he had as a lad.
He recalled one Broadway matinee many years ago when a boy of 10 threw a rubber football through the silver screen.
“I can still see it now,” Slack said.
The manager stopped the movie and refused to resume it until the culprit came forward. When no one did, the kids chanted: “We want our money back!” The show, absent a small chunk at the bottom of the screen, flickered back on.
The New World shows up in the movie pages of the Inquirer of May 28, 1975, playing “Le Secret” starring Jean-Louis Trintignant. “Le Secret” was also playing at the Bryn Mawr at that time so it seems that the day-and-date booking policy that had been used for the Bryn Mawr and the original World was revived, at least for a little while. The address is given only as “19th at Market Street.” I don’t see the New World listed in May 1974 papers, so it looks like we can assume a 1974 or ‘75 opening date for that house.
Story in today’s Press of Atlantic City: View link
The theater has 67 seats. Penkalskyj is a theater buff who bought a vacant storefront building in 1998, began converting it into a theater the next year and finished in 2003. Equipment problems, trouble booking films into the tiny venue and family issues have hampered his one-man operation.
Looks like this is now a church, the True Servant Worship and Praise Center. Address is 2630 South Broad Street and the correct name of the side street is Maddock Avenue. The building looks almost the same as the picture although it seems closer to the street; perhaps the road was widened at some point (it’s four lanes now), taking out some of the lawn. Or maybe I need new glasses.
A poster on the Brunswick Theater page says that this theater was a copy of the Brunswick (or vice versa), although the seating capacities shown are different. He also says that this was used as a carpet store at one time.
Not much seems to be recorded as to what this theater was used for in the ‘40s and '50s. The Ramseys founded the Theater of the Living Arts around 1959; a bit of a surprise that they didn’t lose their shirts, as the neighborhood was rough at the time (the city had plans to replace South Street with the Crosstown Expressway, and property owners became reluctant to spend money on buildings that might soon be condemned and demolished). Andre Gregory of My Dinner with Andre fame was another prominent figure involved with the TLA as a live theater venue.
After the theater company folded in the early ‘70s, the building became an art/repertory film venue as the Bandbox Living Arts, a branch of the Bandbox in Germantown. The next operator called it the TLA Cinema because of legal problems regarding the rights to the Theater of the Living Arts name.
And yet a another Philadelphia theater called the Broadway: one located in the 100 block of West York Street. Built around 1914; operating as the New Broadway with an adults-only policy in 1963, gone from the newspaper listings by the end of the ‘60s, briefly reopened with mainstream films as the Ruby in the '80s.
Ads for the Avenue in the JFK assassination newspapers say that it was scheduled to reopen the following Wednesday (November 27, 1963) after a renovation. That might explain the idea that it closed in the Sixties (it could have been missing from listings while the work was underway), although 1964 would still be the wrong year.
I think the last movies shown here came when someone leased it for a summer and scheduled a series of rock concert films. That only lasted a couple weeks before the building was shut down over code violations.
The marquee (a plain semicircle) and some poster cases are still in place, and according to a newspaper article this year much of the backstage mechanical system remains as well.
If memory serves Art Carduner was involved with the Hill during part of the time that he operated the Bandbox. The Hill was a more mainstream house but I think it did play some foreign and independent films.
In 1940 Joseph Mitchell wrote a profile of the Venice’s co-owner/box office clerk, Mazie Gordon, for the New Yorker. It was reprinted in two collections of Mitchell’s work, McSorley’s Wonderful Saloon (1943) and Up in the Old Hotel (1992). According to Mitchell the theater was opened in an existing building in 1914 and named for a favorite restaurant of the original owner, a gambler and entrepreneur named Louis Gordon. In 1918 Gordon turned the theater over to his wife Rosie, who eventually shared ownership with her sisters. (Mazie was one of the sisters; she assumed Gordon’s last name for reasons she declined to reveal for publication.) In 1940 it was a ten-cent double-feature house, open from 8 a.m. to midnight, with a clientele of Bowery bums and tenement dwellers.
Spelling should be “Clementon” for both the town and the theater.
On the satellite map this looks like part of a parking lot. I think that most of Clementon’s downtown, including this theater, was demolished in the 1960s in the name of redevelopment.
Yes, it was a Plitt theater in the late ‘70s (a friend ushered there very briefly, I remember seeing his Plitt paycheck). Plitt bought the ABC theaters in and around Chicago (maybe elsewhere too). If they bought Essaness it would have been in 1980 or after; I think Essaness was still operating the Woods at least up till then.
There were news stories on Friday that the woman involved with the Harwan has been approved by the Bankruptcy Court to buy the Broadway. On courierpostonline.com and nj.com; will post links later if I get time.
Additional recent photos, with commentary:
View link
The Strand is a seasonal theater. The Moorlyn may sometimes stay open for the winter, but I don’t know if the Strand ever has.
Wasn’t this the theater that somebody covered with aluminum or vinyl siding and renamed the “Movie Box” for a while? It went from second run to adult films, then a company called CenterStage came in, took off the siding and tried live theater for a year or two before running out of money.
Having some trouble placing this…my memory is not coming up with a Main Street in Mount Holly, and map sites want to put you in the nearby village of Rancocas, which I doubt was ever big enough to support any theater, let alone a 1000-seater. I did find a historical page says that High Street was sometimes called Main Street, so maybe that’s where this one was. The theater I think I remember in Mount Holly was called the Mount Holly Theater and was on the odd-numbered side of Washington Street; it lasted into the ‘70s or maybe the '80s with movies, then was taken over by an outfit called CenterStage that presented live theater for a while before running into financial trouble.
New owner here: Peter Slack, described as a lifelong Pitman resident, bought the theater for $303,000 at a sheriff’s sale this month. Philadelphia Inquirer story (registration may be required):
View link
The end is worth posting here by itself:
Slack said he wanted to bring back matinees so that the current generation, including his two young children, can experience the fun he had as a lad.
He recalled one Broadway matinee many years ago when a boy of 10 threw a rubber football through the silver screen.
“I can still see it now,” Slack said.
The manager stopped the movie and refused to resume it until the culprit came forward. When no one did, the kids chanted: “We want our money back!” The show, absent a small chunk at the bottom of the screen, flickered back on.
The New World shows up in the movie pages of the Inquirer of May 28, 1975, playing “Le Secret” starring Jean-Louis Trintignant. “Le Secret” was also playing at the Bryn Mawr at that time so it seems that the day-and-date booking policy that had been used for the Bryn Mawr and the original World was revived, at least for a little while. The address is given only as “19th at Market Street.” I don’t see the New World listed in May 1974 papers, so it looks like we can assume a 1974 or ‘75 opening date for that house.
In 1963 this theater was operating with an adults-only policy and advertising as the “Howard Follies.”
Still in use as a church; they say the building has been stabilized, though not restored. Website here:
http://www.holyghostheadquarters.org/aboutHGH.htm
Story in today’s Press of Atlantic City:
View link
The theater has 67 seats. Penkalskyj is a theater buff who bought a vacant storefront building in 1998, began converting it into a theater the next year and finished in 2003. Equipment problems, trouble booking films into the tiny venue and family issues have hampered his one-man operation.
Looks like this is now a church, the True Servant Worship and Praise Center. Address is 2630 South Broad Street and the correct name of the side street is Maddock Avenue. The building looks almost the same as the picture although it seems closer to the street; perhaps the road was widened at some point (it’s four lanes now), taking out some of the lawn. Or maybe I need new glasses.
A poster on the Brunswick Theater page says that this theater was a copy of the Brunswick (or vice versa), although the seating capacities shown are different. He also says that this was used as a carpet store at one time.
Not much seems to be recorded as to what this theater was used for in the ‘40s and '50s. The Ramseys founded the Theater of the Living Arts around 1959; a bit of a surprise that they didn’t lose their shirts, as the neighborhood was rough at the time (the city had plans to replace South Street with the Crosstown Expressway, and property owners became reluctant to spend money on buildings that might soon be condemned and demolished). Andre Gregory of My Dinner with Andre fame was another prominent figure involved with the TLA as a live theater venue.
After the theater company folded in the early ‘70s, the building became an art/repertory film venue as the Bandbox Living Arts, a branch of the Bandbox in Germantown. The next operator called it the TLA Cinema because of legal problems regarding the rights to the Theater of the Living Arts name.
And yet a another Philadelphia theater called the Broadway: one located in the 100 block of West York Street. Built around 1914; operating as the New Broadway with an adults-only policy in 1963, gone from the newspaper listings by the end of the ‘60s, briefly reopened with mainstream films as the Ruby in the '80s.
Ads for the Avenue in the JFK assassination newspapers say that it was scheduled to reopen the following Wednesday (November 27, 1963) after a renovation. That might explain the idea that it closed in the Sixties (it could have been missing from listings while the work was underway), although 1964 would still be the wrong year.
A drawing or painting of the Uptown (mostly the marquee is visible) appears on the cover of Bill Cosby’s album When I Was A Kid.
I think the last movies shown here came when someone leased it for a summer and scheduled a series of rock concert films. That only lasted a couple weeks before the building was shut down over code violations.
The marquee (a plain semicircle) and some poster cases are still in place, and according to a newspaper article this year much of the backstage mechanical system remains as well.
If memory serves Art Carduner was involved with the Hill during part of the time that he operated the Bandbox. The Hill was a more mainstream house but I think it did play some foreign and independent films.
In 1940 Joseph Mitchell wrote a profile of the Venice’s co-owner/box office clerk, Mazie Gordon, for the New Yorker. It was reprinted in two collections of Mitchell’s work, McSorley’s Wonderful Saloon (1943) and Up in the Old Hotel (1992). According to Mitchell the theater was opened in an existing building in 1914 and named for a favorite restaurant of the original owner, a gambler and entrepreneur named Louis Gordon. In 1918 Gordon turned the theater over to his wife Rosie, who eventually shared ownership with her sisters. (Mazie was one of the sisters; she assumed Gordon’s last name for reasons she declined to reveal for publication.) In 1940 it was a ten-cent double-feature house, open from 8 a.m. to midnight, with a clientele of Bowery bums and tenement dwellers.
Is this the building that partially collapsed during demolition, a few weeks ago?
The minimum age for a building on the National Register is 50 (and even that can be waived in extraordinary cases). Criteria here.
Demolished, replaced by a small apartment building. Correct spelling of the street name is “Farnsworth.”
Spelling should be “Clementon” for both the town and the theater.
On the satellite map this looks like part of a parking lot. I think that most of Clementon’s downtown, including this theater, was demolished in the 1960s in the name of redevelopment.
Yes, it was a Plitt theater in the late ‘70s (a friend ushered there very briefly, I remember seeing his Plitt paycheck). Plitt bought the ABC theaters in and around Chicago (maybe elsewhere too). If they bought Essaness it would have been in 1980 or after; I think Essaness was still operating the Woods at least up till then.
What kind of business doesn’t even have a sign on the building?! Do you have to know the secret password to buy a ticket?
There were news stories on Friday that the woman involved with the Harwan has been approved by the Bankruptcy Court to buy the Broadway. On courierpostonline.com and nj.com; will post links later if I get time.
Opened around 1975 as the Ritz Three; two more screens were added later. The theater’s owner, Ramon Posel, died on June 23.