Capitol Theatre
326 Monroe Street,
Passaic,
NJ
07055
326 Monroe Street,
Passaic,
NJ
07055
9 people
favorited this theater
Showing 76 - 100 of 156 comments
That was the Stanley Theater in Jersey City. The run of shows by the Dead were September 26,27,28,1972. Sept. 27 was released as Dick’s Pick’s Vol. 11.
I attended a few shows @ the Central Theater that included the Allman Brothers Band about 3 weeks before Duane’s death, Savoy Brown, The Beach Boys a couple of others I can’t recall. I believe those shows were in the fall of 71 just prior to the Capitol opening. I have no idea who produced those shows.
I believe there were some concerts in Jersey City about this time. Rod Stewart and Faces comes to mind as one. I think the theater was called the Stanley. Neither John or myself had anything to do with the shows in Jersey City.
Yes, there were some great shows at the Central but, unfortunately, I didn’t have anything to do with them. But I did do at least one show (GD) at another theatre not far from the Capitol and I can’t for the life of me remember which one. It was a lovely theatre. Was there a State Theatre or something like that? Perhaps a Loews… -M
Pink Floyd appeared at the Central on 11/2 and 11/3/71. I know there were other shows during that time as well.
I don’t think so because I didn’t work any shows at all in NJ until I was hired by John Scher and Al Hayward at the Capitol in 1971. This is becoming a real mystery. -M
That would have been the Central. They did some rock shows just before the Capitol started having them.
Al, I certainly remember doing a Grateful Dead show in a spiffy theatre not far from the Capitol. What theatre would that have been? -Moyssi
I never ran any shows in the Central Theater. John may have before we were partners but I don’t think so. If I remember right (this was a long time ago) John ran a few small shows at the Embasy Theater in Orange, NJ. Don’t think he did the shows at the Central.
Mr. Hayward: Didn’t you originally do some rock shows at the Central Theater which was just around the corner?
Coolness.
Keep the faith, Joe. I hear that something is in the works…
Moyssi/Roscomouse…
Thank you for the invaluable info you’ve provided about the Capitol. (And great site, btw. I have a flyer from June 10, 1978 – Journey/Starcastle.)
I’ve been waiting years for confirmation from someone that (most of) the concerts there were professionally filmed. (I’ve always thought this, as I have a copy of the Dec. 10, 1975 Rush concert from there.) As I’m sure a lot of people are, I’m very much interested in specific shows and would love to see them see the light of day sometime soon (before time completely destroys the tapes). Here’s hoping.
Thanks again…
After the Fillmore East Closed in NY John Scher and I were looking for a theatre to run concerts in. We had produced concerts in colleges and outdoor stadiums. One problem was that all the movie theatres had contracts with the movie distributors and had to show the films on weekends. That is when we wanted to run concerts. One day an assistant of ours- Barry Katcher- called me and said he found the perfect theatre. It was in Passaic, NJ. I met Barry there and saw the Capitol for the first time. What made it perfect, other than the 3140 seats was that they were showing X rated films. The people operating the Theatre paid a flat fee for the films and did not have to even show them. I called John he met us at the Theatre. He loved the layout with all the seats on one level. We opened rented the Theatre for concerts from the people that were showing the X rated films. This was 1971 and the first show if I remember was Humble Pie and J. Geils Band. John booked the acts and I did the advertising & promotions. We did 2 shows a night on some weekends and the theatre operators ran their X Rated films at other times. It was a strange relationship. Then in 1972 John and I bought the theatre from Dr. Samuel Harris. We took over the adjacent stores also. We had to honor the lease that the X rated film people had so they still showed films when we did not have a concert. Porno films and Rock Concerts- strangely enough we were not the city of Passaic’s favorite business. John and I split up a few years later and he ran shows at the Capitol until the theatre clossed.
Someone stumbled upon www.moyssi.com and started a stampede which resulted in a lively conversation about the Capitol, the shows, and Passaic. Those who remember the Capitol fondly may enjoy this new Capitol web page:
View link
Moyssi
Hi,
I’m a member of the Three Stooges Fan Club in Pennsylvania. The Fan Club also has a museum: www.stoogeum.com
The Fan Club is presently trying to compile a list of all Three Stooges personal appearances. We’re sure there were personal appearances in the area. The era may range from 1930’s to 1980’s. Please let us know how a search like this could be done. The 1960’s to 1980’s appearances may have been in connection with Officer Joe Bolton.
Thanks,
Frank Reighter
Frank Reighter
501 West Court Apt A1
(Andalusia) Bensalem, PA. 19020-7773
267 523-5166
Tom, Thanks for the instant feedback! Please note the slight discrepancy between your ticket count and the one at the top of the page, and the larger discrepancy between the number that I provide somewhere else above here. That was one of the unintended consequences of the flood that you mention. What I and everyone else above forgot is which theatre the (smaller) replacement seats came from. Everyone will enjoy those stories here and on http://www.moyssi.com
Btw, I was unable to contact you through your website reply contact form because your email host blocked me with a #550 code: It thinks that I’m spam. That’s true irony if you know my herculean struggle against spamming, spoofing and the stealing of domains. Anyway, I asked my email host to sort that out for me but I have no idea how long that will take and that’s why you didn’t hear from me directly. -Moyssi
Hi Moyssi:
I worked at the theater prior to John and AL coming in to produce concerts. Helped to old guys who worked there with maintenance etc. Since I was the only “young” guy there who knew anything about the physical plant at the theater, John and Al kind of gravitated to me. It had a fire easting dragon of a boiler, and a marquee that I had climbed to the top of to paint. John hired me before the first show and gradually gave me more and more responsibilities, including handling all of his “pre ticketron” hard ticket sales at the 10 “headshop” ticket outlets we had. I would have 3,214 tickets printed for each show from a ticket printer in Newark, then divide them up by outlet and what stayed at the theater box office, then do my rounds of the outlets a day before each show and collect unsold tickets , distribute new tickets and collect cash….lots of cash..lol, which I walked around with in a beat up old briefcase through the streets of Passaic. I was listed in the programs for many years as “Concert Manager”, but after one experience when a total stranger came up to me at a concert and tried to get in using my name…gleened from the program…I decided that having my name in the program might not be a really good idea….lol So I asked John to remove my name, and that is why when you look at the programs, all of a sudden my name comes off the staff list.
Oh there are tons of stories.
The Capitol was not just a building to any of us. It was an experience, it was our family, it was quite simply one of the most memorable experiences in all of our lives. Al Dezon and many others met their wives there (which I photographed along with John’s wedding). We were the tightest, most professional and close knit group of diverse individuals ever to come together. The Capitol functioned at the highest level of the game from your lighting expertise to Mo and Al’s stage command, to Rick, Barry John Hart, Arthur, Harry, Hood, Chris, Kenny, Dick Carrol’s security dedication the the security crew. I can go on and on with names of people who made it all possible there and also physically worked on the building to keep it up and running. This included all of us pulling out, locating and replacing 1,000 seats in 4 days prior to the Bette Midler Concert after the boiler room had been vandalized and the theater flooded from the stage lip back to about row M.
Members of our stafff were regularly plucked from our staff to go off and head security and road crews for major artists. Rick, John and others amond them going off with KISS, PRINCE and others.
Dick Carroll and I built the 2 new fireproof spot light booths up stairs when the existing to spots were found to be inefffective.
I’ll somehow organize all the information and generate it for your site.
Tom
Hello Tom Contrino! Those are great pix of Southside Johnny and John Scher—and the fashion photography on your website is terrific.
On an historic note for this page, I just learned from Al Hayward that he and John Scher bought the Capitol in 1972 from Dr Samuel Harris, the original builder of the Capitol according to Passaic’s message above.
With my apology to Al Hayward, I posted his Reminiscence of the early days of the Capitol Theatre on http://www.moyssi.com/history.htm and revised the site Dedication Message to include Al as co-founder. -Moyssi
A shot I took of Southside Johnny one night at the Capitol after hours when I was working on his album cover for “Reach Up and Touch the Sky"
View link
quicker:
View link
Here’s a photo I took of John in 1980 in front of the theater for Performance Magazine.
http://www.contrinophotography.com/capitol/
Warren: You’re absolutely right! When Marty Ventura first contacted me I wondered challengingly what he meant. It’s huge, but it is a custom-made translucent panel that fits into the existing marquee. No doubt about it. But it is a very special tribute to Bruce Springsteen’s 3-day series of shows, and that was very special indeed. We’ve already received a bundle of thank yous for posting the new photo, so there must be a few folks who are digging the photo if not the misnomer.
By the way, cinematreasures.org is wonderful! I just wish they would correct all the misinformation at the top of this page. -Moyssi
For those of you who remember the 3 Bruce Springsteen shows on September 19-21, 1978 at the Capitol, you may remember that John Scher commissioned a special marquee, designed by Arlen Shummer. That marquee is now owned by a fellow named Mary Ventura and he has allowed me to post a photo on my website. It appears twice: on a new page http://www.moyssi.com/new.htm and on an old, now misnamed page http://www.moyssi.com/threemarquees.htm. Also new is Mick’s set list for a Stones show at the Meadowlands…
For those of you who love the Capitol for the music and its continuance of the Fillmore tradition, you may enjoy a half-hour live radio interview with me regarding my earlier experience as lighting director at Stony Brook University (1967-1971) when it was “the gateway to the East Coast for all the top bands” as reported in the New York Times in an article about the release of the Allman Brothers Show recorded there on 9/19/71. The interview was braodcast on 5/31/07 and this link may work until about 6/14/07: View link -Moyssi
Myossi,A follow up to March 11 comments. The Passaic cop who I mentioned was named Red Raff. The seats in front of the mixing board were just that. we did no recording . THose were the seats Red waable to get for us on a regular basis. The more I look back the more memories come back. It was a great replacement for the Filmore. Good times ,good music. The list goes on.