Beacon Theater
131 Main Street,
East Orange,
NJ
07018
131 Main Street,
East Orange,
NJ
07018
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The Beacon was owned/managed by the Kridel family who also operated the Palace, Orange and the Pix Newsreel, Orange as well as the Troy Hills Drive-In. It had an enormous wrap-around marquee and as I remember was one of the most spotlessly clean theaters I have ever seen.
The Beacon was a subsequent run theater with conventional orchestra seating, and a “smoking loge” which was really a fairly large stadium arrangement rather than a balcony. It was sister theater to the Palace in Orange, and sadly demolished to make way for the interstate freeway project (which, in my opinion, also demolished many beautiful neighborhoods). It served its final six months as a soft-core porn house.
Contributed by
Jim Thatcher
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Listed as open in the 1951 FDY.
East Orange had an early cinema called the Oxford, but I have no information about it except this. In 1930, most of the Oxford’s interior was converted into a miniature golf course, and the stage area into an archery range. Presumably, there was some sort of barrier to protect golfers from stray arrows. I don’t know how long the conversion lasted, but perhaps the Oxford eventually became a cinema again under a different name?
I found one brief mention of an Oxford Theater: The International Film Arts Guild took over the Oxford Theatre in East Orange, New Jersey in the summer of 1927 and boasted of Thomas Edison being a regular patron.