Ventnor Twin Theatre
5211 Ventnor Avenue,
Ventnor City,
NJ
08406
5211 Ventnor Avenue,
Ventnor City,
NJ
08406
4 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 54 comments found
Needed a much larger marquee to do the movie titles justice.In 1981 picture.
Ken – the theatre at Ventnor Plaza was called “The Ventnor Plaza Twin.” I lived a few blocks away, and saw a lot of movies there. Last time I was there, it was a video rental store about to close.
Here is a 1987 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/yadrceq
1981 Photo
Boxoffice Magazine reveals the date the Ventnor reopened with Armand Carroll’s handsome deco-moderne interior (seen in the 1936 photos linked in Warren G. Harris’s comment of May 15, 2008, comment above.)
The September 26, 1936, issue of Boxoffice ran an article about theater grosses in the Atlantic City area. One line reads “…and Ventnor in Ventor city also reported grosses topped previous season despite the fact that the Ventnor house was only rebuilt and opened on July 4, missing a month of good business.”
The Boxoffice item corroborates Warren’s 1936 trade journal photos as to the year the Ventnor reopened, but this Cinema Treasures news post says the house was reopened in 1938, after the original 1921 theater was destroyed by a fire. Unless the place was rebuilt twice in two years, the claim of a 1938 reopening must be an error. Unfortunately, the news post doesn’t cite a source for the date or for the information about a fire.
The wording of the Boxoffice article doesn’t make clear if the Ventnor was closed for only a month for rebuilding (an awfully brief time for a major project) or had merely lost a month’s business from the busy summer season, but it does use the word “rebuilt,” suggesting that, at the least, the house had been gutted, so a fire is a possibility. A planned rebuilding probably would not have been scheduled at a time that might keep the house closed during its busiest season.
This message board page includes some discussion of the Ventnor Theatre, and some pictures of the facade.
Hi Newt, Thank you for the update! When you drove by, did you notice if the windows are boarded up, and if a wooden fence is surrouding the theater? Is the building being prepped for demolition? If so, and it won’t be landmarked, then I will notify the party who may “transport” the theater elsewhere. Please let me know as many specifics as you possibly can. Thank you!
the franks allow the theater to sit, it closed down after the summer of 04, i remember seeing bewitched after a hockey tournament in atlantic city
i drove past a week or 2 ago and its boarded up. not a bad area to have a summer run movie house that works outside the box from the regular summer shows
Please let me know what the current status of the theater is. If it’s facing demolition, I have an idea that’s truly “outside of the box.”
I think that would have been the Ventnor Plaza shopping center on Wellington Avenue—don’t remember what the theaters were called.
There’s only one theater listed in Ventnor, but I saw a few movies in the late seventies at a shopping mall twin cinema there. If you took the Black Horse Pike and turned right before crossing the bridge, just after the Two Guys store, there was a shopping center about two miles down the road. I think there was a Jamesway there. I saw Airplane, Oh God, and maybe three other films there. No idea if the movie theaters are still there.
whats the story with this theater now, is there any hope at all in lighting up the projector any time soon
Any news from the article posted here on CT Aug 15, about this place being saved or demolished? It would be a shame to see this or the Beach 4 in Cape May destroyed. I remember in my youth when theatres dotted the shore from Long Branch to Cape May. Now you could probably count on 2 hands the remaining buildings, and this one in Ventnor is a nice place. I was there many years ago.
This is a larger version of the photo at the top of the page.
In the hallway, behind the projectoion booth, must have been some kind of ushers changing room. The wall is signed with names & dates from the eary ‘50s. I was supposed to paint that wall, but didn’t have the heart to cover up history. I even found vintage candy wrappers that the ushers stuck in the nooks & crannies. That was in the '70s.
The last thing I did at the end of each shift, was to make sure that the men’s room was empty on the way down from the booth. The manager was I.“Scotty” Carton, a local barber. The managers office was down by the stage on the left.
I found a Mickey Mouse “Buy War Bonds” poster back stage. I gave it to Mrs. Barbera Frank about a year before she died at the young age of 44.
We were discussing sensuround on another board, & I posted this, as it pretains to the Ventnor. Some of it is redundent.
“Yes, the Ventnor also had the large speaker
bins just below the foot lights, in front of the stage.
In ‘75, we had “Earthquake”, in '76, it was “Midway”, & in '77 We
ran, “Rollercoaster”. We had a theatre in Atlantic City called the
Charles, that ran “Battle Star Galattica” in SensurounD back in 1978.
Another thing about the Ventnor Theatre. It became my booth in the
spring of 1973. The theatre was as it was circa 1935, only run down.
The projectors were older Super Simplex (with crank holes), the sound
heads were Western Electric 208 B’s. They had a gate, instead of a
sound drum. There was a large flywheel & motor on the back. We had
all Western Electric/erpi tube sound. Both machines were equipted
with Sentry Safty Shutters. It was like an extra douser that would
drop down if the film broke. The arc lamps were Peerless Magnarc
model E’s. Two Hertner Generators occupied the ajacent room.
The next year we got remodeled with the equipment from the Rialto in
Pleasentville, NJ. We got a newer pair of Super’s, RCA Phot Phone
sound head. The old 5 point pedestals were replaced with Motioghraph
bases. They covered the tapastry walls with sound fold drapes, & put
in a drop ceiling about 10' lower than the ornate gold & rust stained
one.
The problem was that the old ceiling was falling down piece by piece.
The metal mesh that reinfored the concrete was rusting from years of
roof leaks. The sensuround would shake a piece loose now & then. I
mean a big enoungh piece that could kill someone! You didn’t know
where the next chunk was coming from becuse of the beautiful new drop
ceiling. More than once I saw a piece come flying through like a
meteor!
In 1979 the Ventnor got twinned. The generator room wall was removed,
& the projector was moved over. A 5 teir Christe platter was placed
in between. I put on a suit & became a manager/operator. I could now
start the shows by pushing a button down in the box office!"
NOW—1,779.000
has anything new gone on with this theater being picked up, while i was running the stone harbor theater last summer i took a drive to see this joint, and i wish i had the cash to turn this into a revival house down the shore, a hot spot for cinema classics and blockbusters and family films
Here are new links to images described above on 11/2/07:
View link
View link
It’s close to the beach, and Ventnor is a nice town (or used to be, when I was living in that area), but I think 2 mil is a stretch.
The Ventnor Theater is for sale on Loopnet. Asking price is $2,000,000. “Needs work but structurally sound”.
Do you lack access to a telephone? I’ve given all the information I have.
NOT LISTED ON THERE SITE
Hello! You can find their website by google. Their number is 609-822-1836. Feel free to email me (you can find it by clicking on my name) and I can directly copy you in the future if you like, with others.
is there A LINK
I’ve heard that it is up for sale by realtor Farley and Ferry.