Montauk Theatre

I would have to agree with Bob. This is unlike that theater in Massachusetts where James Taylor gave a concert. That one was amazingly ornate and beautifull inside and out, restored and saved by the townspeople from the wrecking ball at their own expense. As beautiful as our theater might be inside, and regardless of the many memories we all have, it is just another building on the outside. And the people who now reside in Passaic for the most part do not have any nostalgic memories because they are new to this country. Bob is right; at night Passaic becomes a sort of police state. There will likely never be a restoration of what once was a truly great little city because its present inhabitants have no ties to the past and are very busy making a living and feeding their families.

Wow! Absolutely incredible. It has been shown over and over again that older cities that have been reborn are the ones that make the most creative use of their older historic and architecturally significant buildings. No one will EVER build theaters of this size and quality ever again. Once they are gone, they are gone forever. It is incredibly short sided for them to lose this theater. What a shame.

What is the latest with this theater? Is it being demolished or “incorporated” into a new school?

This place is huge, looking at the interior pics posted. How sad to see another intact single screen movie house face the wrecking ball.

Tony, thanks for sharing your memories of the great days of Passaic. I must point out one error in your comments: the Central had the furnished downstairs “Television Lounge.” I don’t believe the Montauk had any kind of basement space open to the public.

I remember the Montauk well. I grew up in Garfield, a small city just across the river from Passaic. As young teens almost every Saturday in the early 60’s we would grab the bus to Passaic and spend the day at one of the several movie houses that populated Main Street, depending on what movie was playing where. All for about thirty-five cents. The Montauk was always my favorite. The theater itself was ornate (I found out later it was done up un Art-Deco, which I had no knowledge of as a kid) and we always had plenty of room in the spacious theater. No one, and I repeat this, NO ONE ever bothered us there. Not the employees and not the rest of the people in the theater. Everyone seemed quite pleased to see us having fun of a Saturday afternoon. Downstairs was an amazing lobby done up extremely ornately with amazingly exotic sofas and carpets and this massive television in the middle of an awesome piece of, very probably, hand-crafted entertainment center. We were allowed to spend the entire day there watching the movies, cartoons included, as many times as we liked. We hung out, smoked cigarettes, and strutted our silly adolescent masculinity. The people who worked there seemed to understand and, unless we got really rowdy, never bothered us at all. Even the cleaning lady knew us all by name! It is a great memory for me.

BTW, the style is really Adam rather than Deco, and I’m almost positive that it is a Eugene De Rosa house.

I have scanned all the above posts, perhaps I missed it. The photos by Mickeymike are just wonderful. The place looks to be in great shape. My question is, is it still there or is it demolished??

I suppose those interior photos are displaying an original GWTW poster?

The interior photos are quite impressive. Orchestra pit. Lots of ornamental detail. Wonderful, historic movie house that looks like it is worthwhile of being reused rather than destroyed.

Howard, thanks for posting your pictures too. As sad and rundown as it is today, when I see these pictures I can also see the way it used to be.

Mike: those pictures are fantastic. Thanks very much for posting them. They brought me right back into the 1960’s.

Just realized… the link above opens up the album on page 2. There are 3 pages all together. Here’s a better link….

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