Beach 4 Theatre

Also, if anyone has ANY pictures of the Beach Theatre (inside/outside), could you email them to me? Black & white or color. Any and all decades. Thanks. I would like to post them on the www.beachtheatre.org website. Email to:

All of South Jersey right now is in a funny way, so it’s hard to say what the best angle is for saving Cape May’s Beach Theatre, or if it even can be saved at all, given that. And the funny way that South Jersey is currently in has been going on for a long time now.

The basic wisdom that God so much as gave geese tells us that Cape May’s Beach Theatre should be saved, given how it was designed by William Harold Lee no less. But good luck trying to find that basic wisdom in South Jersey these days. Ocean City to Cape May’s north is now even heavily fining people for feeding the seagulls, though I don’t know if that insanity has reached as far south as Cape May yet.

As for finding William Harold Lee architectural plans regarding any theater he designed, that is no easy undertaking, let alone finding those specific to the Beach Theater. They might not and probably don’t exist at this point. I know the folks who restored his Majestic Theatre in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania have his architectural plans pertaining to that. But that’s a real exception given how it’s a theater President Eisenhower attended regularly, plus it’s in a town where all historic records are carefully kept. Cape May is known for its history, too, but, any architectural records kept would’ve been for its older structures, whereby only now can Cape May’s Beach Theatre be looked upon as historic. But maybe with enough intense searching the architectural plans for it will turn up somewhere. So I wish you the best of luck with that.

Oh now Howard you don’t know that! By the way, for those of you reading this who don’t know who Mr. Haas is, he is the Chairman of the Friends of the Boyd — the Boyd Theatre being Philadelphia, Pennsylvania’s last standing movie palace. Had it not been for Mr. Haas' gallant actions roughly five years ago (Mr. Haas being a leading Philadelphia attorney), the Boyd Theatre would’ve been torn down when it, too, faced the wrecking ball. So if he could save the Beach Theatre from demolition the same way he did the Boyd, that certainly would be wonderful!

Meantime, regarding what I stated, only time will tell on that. All of us know that soon after Atlantic City went the way of casinoization it cast a shadow over all of South Jersey, it being the only place around where people could go gambling on the east coast. But with casino gambling now to be coming to Pennsylvania, I do expect that to alleviate the gambling traffic in South Jersey somewhat, allowing it to heal a bit. Or at least I sure hope so. For it did appear — especially with the proposal to tear down the Beach Theatre, Cape May’s only movie theater, to replace it with a parking lot for an all new condominium there — was the ill-effects of Atlantic City’s casino industry monopoly reaching as far south as Cape May. For casino industry type traffic is such that it has little interest in or sympathy for things historic, the quality of the natural shore environment and so on. I know this firsthand, because I lived and worked in Ocean City (10 miles to Atlantic City’s south) between 1986 and 1987 when it became one of Atlantic City’s first casualties casino-traffic-wise. Prior to that, Ocean City, too, had been a South Jersey seaside resort rich in historic architecture. But given its too-closeness to Atlantic City, unlike Cape May, which was at a safer distance, it didn’t stand a chance. But with Atlantic City’s ongoing casino monopoly, it seems clear — to me, at least — that its destructiveness most recently was starting to overtake Cape May, much much farther to its south, as well. So it’s to say that Pennsylvania’s new casinos to come have arrived just in the nick of time. It’s likely not to be good for Pennsylvania, but I do think it might help South Jersey to heal somewhat. Howard Haas says no to this. But he doesn’t know that for sure. No one does. For only time will tell on this. That and that alone. And I just hope my theory is right, that’s all. For like Mr. Haas, I want to see the Beach Theatre survive the wrecking ball as well. Both of us are in unity with this.

On Wednesday, December 20, 2006, the official announcements will be made which casino applicants in Pennsylvania will be granted licenses, after which I expect Pennsylvania’s new casinos to come to be rushed up in a hurry. While clearly sad for Pennsylvania, I continue to hope it will bode well for South Jersey in that it will get to be down to earth and shorelike again as opposed to being so gambler traffic oriented. With Atlantic City having been the only place in the entire tri-state region where people could gamble at casinos up until now, all of South Jersey was forced to align with this traffic, so much so that the trend reached as far south as Cape May, no relief in sight. And it seems rather obvious that the plan to tear down the Beach Theatre plus its accompanying stores to provide a parking lot for new condominiums being proposed for there — fully out of sync with Cape May’s longstanding historical tradition — is but yet another continuation of that trend, albeit just at a time when I think South Jersey market conditions are about to change dramatically. For how much are these proposed Cape May condominiums geared towards a shore loving crowd as opposed to one that’s only casino-related? And will that market for such a new development still exist when Pennsylvania absorbs away much of the casino-going traffic? Right now little thought seems to be being given to that, while nonetheless neighboring Pennsylvania is about to be building casinos of its own soon. And I do believe much of South Jersey’s casino related traffic will be alleviated as a result of that, enabling Cape May to return to catering to those it did previously. And certainly the Beach Theatre, if it gets saved and restored properly, will be in perfect alignment with that. The proposed condominiums, on the other hand, I could foresee becoming none other than a big boondoggle. My theory at least. So in looking ahead based on that, I think the Beach Theatre should be spared the wrecking ball and the condominium proposal scrapped.

So what’s the latest verdict on this theater? How did things go on Monday, December 11, 2006 when rulings on its future fate were made? Hopefully it’s a case of no news is good news…

As an update to this theater’s page, I would like to add the following history I just recently obtained.
This theater was designed by noted architecht William H. Lee of Philadelphia. Lee specialized in designing theaters.
The theater was built by William C. Hunt and family. Mr. Hunt opened one of the first “Nickelodeons” in the United States in Camden, NJ. He went on to build an empire in the movie theater business. Sadly,the Cape May theater is one of the last of the Hunt theaters still remaining.
Also noteworthy is the fact that this theater was one of the first, if not THE first theater in the country to be designed and built with retail stores attached. This style is still duplicated today on a much larger scale, in many shopping malls.
When it opened in 1950, it featured stereophonic sound with cinema-scope. It had a large lobby, a seating capacity of 860, and contained three hand painted murals incorporated at Mr. Hunt’s direction.
The first movie shown in this theater was “Father of the Bride” starring Spencer Tracy and Elizabeth Taylor.

Another recent photo showing the retail stores in the building:
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Recent marquee photo

Upcoming film festival at this theater:
http://www.njstatefilmfestival.com/2005.htm

Another great former Hunts theater ruined by the Frank family.