Majestic Theater
273 Madison Avenue,
Perth Amboy,
NJ
08861
273 Madison Avenue,
Perth Amboy,
NJ
08861
3 people
favorited this theater
Former vaudeville theater dating back to at least the 1910’s. It was remodeled by architect William Hohauser in 1949. Currently serving as a church.
Contributed by
Erwin Markisch
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Recent comments (view all 39 comments)
In December, 1930, Warner Bros. announced that it would build a new theatre with around 2,000 seats in Perth Amboy, NJ, employing John Eberson as architect. The theatre had not yet been named, but I guess it was never built, since the details don’t fit any of the listings for Perth Amboy at Cinema Treasures or in Film Daily Year Books.
According to a history book about Perth Amboy (google book preview available here View link ), this theater was actually owned by Counihan and Shannon as a playhouse before it became Proctor’s and was turned into a vaudeville stage. I’m guessing that at some point in the late 1930s or early 1940s it was purchased by the Walter Reade Organization, renamed the Majestic, and started showing movies, since it was already quite popular by the mid 1940s. The link above also has two pretty good pictures, on page 63.
Regarding my previous post, it appears I made a mistake. By the Great Depression, the Majestic was already showing double features. It must have been purchased by Walter Reade during the 1920s. (source: View link )
The 1927 Film Daily Year Book lists the Majestic as a Walter Reade theatre. At that time in Perth Amboy, Reade also ran the Crescent, Ditmas, and Strand Theatres. The Reade circuit’s headquarters were in Trenton.
I remember my father who was a projectionist at the Royal Theatre around the corner telling me that this theatre started to show porno around 1971. His childhood buddy Nick was the projectionist at this place during that time, and they would carpool together to work, since they set their schedule to work the same days and hours. They bothb left the 2 theatres to open up the brand new Jerry Lewis Twin Cinema in Carteret N.J. in June 1972.
“Purchased” can be a tricky word in historical research on theatres. In many cases, circuits purchased only the operating leases of theatres, and not the actual theatres. Leases were for a fixed period of time and usually had an option for renewal. Theatres were often built and owned by people who saw them solely as an investment oppoertunity, and never intended to operate them on their own.
Here are two 1983 photos:
Photo1
Photo2
If anyone is interested, I posted a current photo of the Cathedral International (Majestic Theater):
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/23156841
The church started as the Second Baptist Church in 1892, founded by 35 African-Americans. The church had several buildings around town until moving into this structure in 1992.
I haven’t been able to discover the original architect of the New Majestic, but Boxoffice of March 5, 1949, said that the architect for a recent $150,000 remodeling was William Hohauser. A major feature of the remodeling was the installation of a 200-seat television lounge on the mezzanine level of the theater. The New Majestic was then operated by Walter Reade Theatres.
Here’s an article on the TV lounge. There is another picture on the cover of this issue: http://www.boxoffice.com/the_vault/issue_page?issue_id=1949-3-5&page_no=20#page_start