Charles Theatre

I think I may still have a 35mm trailer for ‘The Money’ in storage… small world.

This article from the Uniontown (PA) Evening Standard is dated 11/21/63, the day before the Kennedy assassination:

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) â€"A general alarm fire broke out early today in a movie theater about 13 blocks south of Monday’s disastrous hotel fire in this resort city. The movie house, the Surf
Theater, was closed for the night and empty when an alarm sounded at 1:23 a.m. Ten residents of apartments above the two-story, stucco theater escaped from the building without injury, firemen said.

The flames, believed to have started in the projection room, were brought under control within a few hours. Fire Chief Warren Conover estimated damage at $50,000. The theater, on Atlantic Avenue, is a block from Convention Hall. Today’s general alarmer came less than 72 hours after the Surfside Hotel disaster that so far has claimed 12 known dead, with 13 more missing and 10 buildings destroyed.

My first movie, shot in Atlantic City and called The Money, premiered at The Charles. Charles Tannenbaum was a family friend and actually did us a favor, as the film was a tiny independent movie and hardly played anywhere theatrically. On the night of the “gala” opening, a few people showed up, including my parents who lived nearby. Since my stepfather was a local celebrity, the Atlantic City Press wrote about the premiere and said that the family would all be there. This information proved useful to some and my parents' house was robbed when they were at the movie.
I went often to the Charles, and also to other theaters owned by Charles, and I think a lot of how I feel about movies came from the offbeat films I saw there, and at the Astor and some of the other smaller AC theaters. Charles loved exhibition and told me he often would stop in to one of his theaters, like the Tilton, when he was a successful casino executive, and just hang out, take tickets, and smell the popcorn.
Years later I thought about buying the Margate (the Ventnor was too expensive) but never got very far with that. I watched so many movies in AC as I grew up, mostly at the Ventnor and Margate, but in uptown Atlantic City too as I got older, and so many of the films I used to use in movie montages I probably first saw on some rainy summer day at an Atlantic City theater.
The Money is out on dvd, probably available on Amazon, now called by the distributor Atlantic City Jackpot. The biggest star in it was Danny DeVito, who had three lines, but of course they put his picture on the box.

From the Hartford Cuurant, 11/22/63:

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (UPI) — The second major fire here this week destroyed the Surf Theater Thursday and routed 12 persons from apartments on upper floors. The movie house is about a mile and a half from the Surfside Hotel.

Mr. Tannenbaum was a friend of my dad’s when I was growing up and he kindly let me see every movie at the Charles for free! What a nice guy! My most memorable “Charles” moment was seeing “Halloween” when it first came out. I’d go to the Charles to see any movie playing there and had no idea I’d get the heebie-jeebies scared out of me when I saw that movie! Sorry to hear it is no longer there. I moved from Atlantic City in 1984.

Listed as part of Milgrim Theatres, Inc. in the 1970 FDY & 1976 International Motion Picture Almanac.

Howard
I just saw your posting from Dec 15. Charles Tannenbaum was a nice guy. I worked at Atlantic Bank in 77 and he was one of my customers. He also owned the Capital burlesque and later the Apollo Burlesque. I grew up in Phila (great what you have done for the Boyd. I love that theater) and spent summers in AC.

Howard
The Charles did have masking and offered scope presentaions, Lady Sings The Blues, Once Is Not Enough and a roadshow engagement of The Lion In Winter in 68.

This theater was on Atlantic Avenue near Columbus Park, if I recall, on the east side of the street.