Montauk Theatre

715 Main Avenue,
Passaic, NJ 07055

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Showing 51 - 75 of 180 comments

BobFurmanek
BobFurmanek on May 7, 2010 at 12:42 pm

I agree Tony, plus most residents with any memory of the Montauk will only know it from the 30+ years it spent as a porno palace.

adr1701
adr1701 on May 7, 2010 at 12:35 pm

I would have to agree with Bob. This is unlike that theater in Massachusetts where James Taylor gave a concert. That one was amazingly ornate and beautifull inside and out, restored and saved by the townspeople from the wrecking ball at their own expense. As beautiful as our theater might be inside, and regardless of the many memories we all have, it is just another building on the outside. And the people who now reside in Passaic for the most part do not have any nostalgic memories because they are new to this country. Bob is right; at night Passaic becomes a sort of police state. There will likely never be a restoration of what once was a truly great little city because its present inhabitants have no ties to the past and are very busy making a living and feeding their families.

BobFurmanek
BobFurmanek on May 7, 2010 at 12:26 pm

It’s nearly 100 years old and in excellent condition too.

But, downtown Passaic is NOT the kind of place you want to spend time in. After dark, the gates all come down (every store has one) and the place becomes a ghost town. Hardly anyone speaks English and many of the signs are in Spanish. It’s like being in another country.

Luis Vazquez
Luis Vazquez on May 7, 2010 at 12:19 pm

Wow! Absolutely incredible. It has been shown over and over again that older cities that have been reborn are the ones that make the most creative use of their older historic and architecturally significant buildings. No one will EVER build theaters of this size and quality ever again. Once they are gone, they are gone forever. It is incredibly short sided for them to lose this theater. What a shame.

BobFurmanek
BobFurmanek on May 7, 2010 at 11:45 am

The theater, hotel, stores and houses behind it are all marked for demolition. They are going to level the entire block and put a school into the middle of a busy downtown business section.

Yeah, that makes sense!

Luis Vazquez
Luis Vazquez on May 7, 2010 at 7:24 am

What is the latest with this theater? Is it being demolished or “incorporated” into a new school?

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on March 13, 2010 at 11:28 pm

I haven’t read through all the comments above to see if this information is already here, but a March 4, 2007, comment by CT user Passaic on the Capitol Theatre page attributes the design of the Mantauk Theatre to architect Abram Preiskel.

socal09
socal09 on January 24, 2010 at 12:04 pm

This place is huge, looking at the interior pics posted. How sad to see another intact single screen movie house face the wrecking ball.

adr1701
adr1701 on December 22, 2009 at 9:24 pm

So it was the Central Theater after all? Ain’t that a kick in the head! Well the years do take their toll on one and so I will take your word for it. So now that wonderful art-deco lounge only exists in the memory of those lucky enough to have been there. I wonder if any pictures exist? Now THAT would be a thing I’d love to see. Anyway, thanks for setting me straight Bob!

BobFurmanek
BobFurmanek on August 13, 2009 at 10:46 am

Tony, thanks for sharing your memories of the great days of Passaic. I must point out one error in your comments: the Central had the furnished downstairs “Television Lounge.” I don’t believe the Montauk had any kind of basement space open to the public.

larry
larry on August 13, 2009 at 9:59 am

What are the plans for this theater?

adr1701
adr1701 on August 13, 2009 at 7:14 am

I remember the Montauk well. I grew up in Garfield, a small city just across the river from Passaic. As young teens almost every Saturday in the early 60’s we would grab the bus to Passaic and spend the day at one of the several movie houses that populated Main Street, depending on what movie was playing where. All for about thirty-five cents. The Montauk was always my favorite. The theater itself was ornate (I found out later it was done up un Art-Deco, which I had no knowledge of as a kid) and we always had plenty of room in the spacious theater. No one, and I repeat this, NO ONE ever bothered us there. Not the employees and not the rest of the people in the theater. Everyone seemed quite pleased to see us having fun of a Saturday afternoon. Downstairs was an amazing lobby done up extremely ornately with amazingly exotic sofas and carpets and this massive television in the middle of an awesome piece of, very probably, hand-crafted entertainment center. We were allowed to spend the entire day there watching the movies, cartoons included, as many times as we liked. We hung out, smoked cigarettes, and strutted our silly adolescent masculinity. The people who worked there seemed to understand and, unless we got really rowdy, never bothered us at all. Even the cleaning lady knew us all by name! It is a great memory for me.

mwierzbicki79
mwierzbicki79 on June 22, 2009 at 3:54 pm

Sorry to anyone that has inquired about gaining access… I’m a “nobody” at my job. I have no power to get anyone in, let alone myself again. I’ve heard they are going to repurpose some of the interior details and use them in the new school. That is not confirmed, but at the very least it’s some part of the theater living on…

ThePhotoplayer
ThePhotoplayer on June 21, 2009 at 8:58 pm

BTW, the style is really Adam rather than Deco, and I’m almost positive that it is a Eugene De Rosa house.

ThePhotoplayer
ThePhotoplayer on June 21, 2009 at 8:57 pm

The theater is still there, but slated for demolition.

Does anyone know when the public auction is?

markp
markp on June 18, 2009 at 3:15 pm

I have scanned all the above posts, perhaps I missed it. The photos by Mickeymike are just wonderful. The place looks to be in great shape. My question is, is it still there or is it demolished??

Bill Huelbig
Bill Huelbig on June 18, 2009 at 1:24 pm

Howard: That’s probably a reissue poster because they’re talking about seeing it on their wide screen. I’d say it was a ‘50s reissue of GWTW, with the top and bottom of the image cropped off to make it appear “wide”.

HowardBHaas
HowardBHaas on June 18, 2009 at 11:49 am

I suppose those interior photos are displaying an original GWTW poster?

The interior photos are quite impressive. Orchestra pit. Lots of ornamental detail. Wonderful, historic movie house that looks like it is worthwhile of being reused rather than destroyed.

Yves Marchand
Yves Marchand on June 18, 2009 at 11:09 am

Thank you for these great pictures Mickeymike ! Glad to see how it looks inside finally !
It looks in better shape than I would have expected, they could definitely save it.
May I ask you to contact me about the way you got inside ?
It would be a nice piece for my photography project. Moreover if it’s in danger.

Bill Huelbig
Bill Huelbig on June 18, 2009 at 10:47 am

Howard, thanks for posting your pictures too. As sad and rundown as it is today, when I see these pictures I can also see the way it used to be.

Bill Huelbig
Bill Huelbig on June 18, 2009 at 10:43 am

Seeing the Montauk again got me to recalling the movies I saw there: “Mary Poppins”, “Hawaii”, “Paper Lion”, “The Way West”, “2001: A Space Odyssey”.

Bill Huelbig
Bill Huelbig on June 18, 2009 at 10:32 am

Mike: those pictures are fantastic. Thanks very much for posting them. They brought me right back into the 1960’s.

HowardBHaas
HowardBHaas on June 18, 2009 at 9:23 am

set of 2008 exterior photos:
View link

mwierzbicki79
mwierzbicki79 on June 17, 2009 at 7:08 pm

Just realized… the link above opens up the album on page 2. There are 3 pages all together. Here’s a better link….

View link

mwierzbicki79
mwierzbicki79 on June 17, 2009 at 7:06 pm

I hope this link works… I finally got around to uploading these photos. I know it’s been a while, but better late than never. There are numerous photos throughout the theater, including backstage. Enjoy!

View link