St. James Theatre
300 Cookman Avenue,
Asbury Park,
NJ
07712
300 Cookman Avenue,
Asbury Park,
NJ
07712
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The New St. James Theatre was opened in 1917 and was designed by architect Thomas Lamb. Later this theatre had a Todd-AO projector.
It was demolished in 1974.
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Recent comments (view all 16 comments)
It was a Thomas Lamb theatre which makes reading about any demolition very hard to accept.
Walter Rosenberg paid $200,000 for the construction of this theater.
Asbury Park’s Glory Days, Helen-Chantal Pike (2005), page 89
Rosebnberg, who later changed his name to Reade, resurfaced the theater with white stucco in the 1930s. It was originally built with brown brick.
Yes the St. James did have two, Todd-AO 35 70mm projectors in the booth backed by two Ashcraft arc lamps. The house projectionist was a man by the name of George Clark. In the early 70s the projectors where removed and shipped to the Kings theatre in Seattle Washington was the story I was told. The projectors for the Brielle Drive inn where installed in the St. James booth. I was there for the tear out and install of the projectors. The projectors from the Drive inn ran in the St. James till it’s demolition in 74.
The theatre was originally named the Rosenberg Theatre.
When the 35-70 projectors were installed, a new booth was built over the balcony directly under the original (on stilts in the front of the new booth!) Word has it that the original booth, the floor or other structural matters would not allow the 35-70s to be put in the original booth.
Summertime and right about now until the 60’s the biggest roadshow movie of the previous autumn season would open here on a reserved seat basis for the tourists.
A day on the beach and then in the evening dinner and 70mm showing of South Pacific, WWS or MFL. Then after the movie a walk on the Boardwalk and maybe a belgian waffle.
The CineMiracle production “Windjammer” did have a short 3-week run here. It opened July 1, 1959 with two shows daily at what was advertised as “popular prices,” one week after the roadshow run of “The Diary of Anne Frank” had ended. According to the Asbury Park “Press,” the installation included a wall-to-wall screen measuring 60 feet across by 25 feet tall, somewhat small for a CineMiracle showing, and full-seven-track sound. Nonetheless, it concluded its run July 22, to be followed by “The Nun’s Story.” Installation of the tri-projector equipment took two days; dismantling only one day.
The first sentence of the introduction doesn’t make sense. If the theatre opened in 1917, why is it necessary to mention that it was listed in the 1951 FDYB, and in the same sentence as Todd-AO, which made its debut in 1955?
There’s a source with information that calls into question the claim that this theater was originally called the Rosenberg. Page 89 of “Asbury Park’s Glory Days: The Story of an American Resort,” by Helen-Chantal Pike, says:
Also of note is this item in The Moving Picture World of August 5, 1916:I don’t see why the St. James Theater Company would open their new house as the Rosenberg Theatre when Walter Rosenberg had already adopted the surname Reade by the time it opened. Also, in the whole wide Internet, this page of Cinema Treasures is the only place where the name “Rosenberg Theatre” appears. I’m not sure that Cinema Treasures is the most reliable source of information. ;–)DEFG: I’m a native Californian, and don’t share a surname with any of my eastern relatives. My New Jersey cousins are mostly Clarks.
We can always use more help correcting errors. Reliable sources are hard to find on the Internet, and even print sources, such as many of the Arcadia Publishing Company books, are often unreliable. I try to dig up the earliest sources I can find, though many of those are periodicals, and thus also subject to the hazards that come with deadline pressures.