Montauk Theatre
715 Main Avenue,
Passaic,
NJ
07055
715 Main Avenue,
Passaic,
NJ
07055
9 people
favorited this theater
Showing 101 - 125 of 180 comments
Thanks again, Ken, for yet another great series of photographs.
A photographic tour around the exterior of the Montauk Theatre…..
Sadly the theatre had closed just a few days before my visit in June 2005:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kencta/228362673/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kencta/228363598/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kencta/228364257/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kencta/228365030/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kencta/228365730/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kencta/228366262/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kencta/228367221/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kencta/228368028/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kencta/228368643/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kencta/228369473/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kencta/228370110/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kencta/228371351/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kencta/228372033/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kencta/228373191/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kencta/228373976/
The news from Passaic this week is very bad.
Politicians just hate that scene in the movie Frankenstein.
Where the villagers (voters) grab their pitchforks and ignite
their torches and give the Herr Doctor in his castle a bum's
rush. When the people get so fed up that they refuse to
take it any longer.
It is every politician’s worst nightmare to have his
constituency turn off their TVs, get off their butts, and
come after him to throw the bum out of office.
Every politician has a staff of flunkies whose job it is to
tell him when the torches are being lit back home in his
district, and to ward off the pitchforks meant for him.
Well, Andrew Schwab is the political flunky of Assemblyman
Gary Schaer, D-Passaic, and they must recognize the problem
that they have in Passaic. And I do not mean just the
blistering problem of the flagging Montauk Theater.
Since the immigration policy of the United States was
changed for the worse in the early 1960s, Passaic has been
moronically mutilated into America’s gargoyle.
The new immigrants brought their “umbrella men” with them
to Passaic. Passaic did not wear out. Passaic was knifed
in the back with a switchblade, and then Passaic was
stomped out.
This weekend I was looking for America on the New Jersey
Turnpike when I went out of my way to stop at Rutt’s Hut
in Clifton.
(The good news from Clifton this week is that Rutt’s Hut
has not replaced hot dogs with chimichangas on their
menu … yet.)
I also wanted to see for myself what is going on with the
Montauk Theater on Main Avenue in Passaic.
(I would have preferred two or three kosher hot dogs with
mustard and sauerkraut, and an ice-cold celery soda, at
Rice’s Delicatessen. Alas, Rice’s is no longer there on
Howe Avenue, right around the corner, just across the
street, from the Montauk Theater.)
We definitely need some boots on the ground in order to
have any impact at all on the fate of the Montauk. The
politicians are just pulling our chains until the
elections are over and they can forget about this again.
I wanted to talk to the homeless man, who was very
obviously sleeping something off in the filthy arcade
under the Montauk’s monumental marquee, but he looked
much too comfortable resting there
…
like an infant in a cardboard crib
without a care in the world
…
a blight, within a blight, within a blight.
I wanted to welcome him to America, but as I do not
speak Spanish I guess that classifies me as an
illiterate in my own hometown.
I did not disturb that homeless man who was
like a lot of us are
waiting for the box office of the Montauk Theater
to re-open in Passaic, New Jersey.
But I do want to wake YOU up.
The bad news from Passaic this week is that
…
nothing is being done to save the Montauk Theater,
nothing is being done to save Passaic, and
nothing is being done to save America.
So What’s the latest? Is the demolition on or has it been saved?
Also, there are so many posts above and yet not one photo of the interior or exterior! If anyone has photos please post!
It almost restores my faith in the Democratic process! Kudos to all involved in steering the plans in this new direction and I hope with all my heart that it actually comes to fruition.
…and they could put performing arts related classrooms in the hotel, of course after the place is thoroughly fumegated and scrubbed.
Finally, someone over there is actually using their brain – it can be used for something other than porn….
From yesterday’s Bergen Record:
PASSAIC — One of Passaic’s stately movie houses in the 1920s, the
Montauk — now a shuttered pornographic movie theater — could see at least one more reincarnation as a performing arts space for budding drama students and musicians.
City and state officials met Tuesday to start planning possible
educational uses for a downtown site that encompasses the Main Avenue
theater and the Hotel Passaic around the corner on Henry Street.
Andrew Schwab, a spokesman for Assemblyman Gary Schaer, D-Passaic, said officials developed a tentative plan to renovate the theater for Passaic art students, instead of demolishing it for a new school. However, state and local officials did not determine a plan for the Hotel Passaic, a flophouse that school officials associate with prostitution and drug use.
State School Construction Corp. officials said their agency would work with the schools and the city to develop a plan for new or renovated facilities in that area, but they would not commit additional funding above the $166 million already approved to build four schools in the district.
“It’s rethinking a lot of things that exist and talking about creating new [space],” schools Superintendent Robert H. Holster said. “It’s not just about the issue of the drama and theater program. It’s a lot bigger than that.”
Outside of the possible student drama space in the Montauk, there were very few details on what was envisioned for that area. The theater is owned by Gloria Terminello, who won a 2005 appeals case to reopen the theater.
The meeting participants will meet again in two weeks to review
feasibility and traffic studies on the Montauk site.
They will also discuss the Hotel Passaic, which sits across the street from the proposed Henry Street Elementary School, one of the four school projects already approved.
Last week, school and city officials were shocked to learn that the SCC would not knock down the hotel and theater for a parking lot as part of the Henry Street school project. The SCC backed off after the local outrage reached Trenton officials.
The redevelopment of the Montauk Theater district for new school
facilities depends on approval from the state Department of Education, and the SCC reaching an agreement with the owners of the buildings.
If no agreement is reached, the state could take the property by
eminent domain.
Schwab added that when students were not using the theater space,
community and senior groups could hold events in the renovated Montauk.
I do not think the Montauk movie theater is the biggest problem the city of Passaic has. The city of Passaic as well as her sister city of Paterson have been on a steady decline for decades. I grew up in Paterson and spent time in Passaic before moving west years ago. The Fabain theater in Paterson is a prime example of the decline over the decades. Lou Costello premiered many of his motion pictures at the Fabian. Now it is slated for the recking ball. An exploited shell of her once grandness. I remember the Capital theater on Monore street. My godmothers mother worked the ticket booth at the Capital in the 60’s. The Montauk went porn I believe in the 70’s. These place’s represent the past of the former inhabitants of the area. The new generation of inhabitants I guess want their own. So it is a good thing there are forums such as this so old dinasaurs like I can relieve and share some of our past. Thank you.
The politicians CAN straighten out Passaic if they wanted to, and New York City is an example. For decades in NYC we put up with do-nothing mayors (several of whom I voted for) and other pols who moaned and cried “There’s nothing we can do about all the murder, drugs and crime!”, and the city continued to degenerate. Then we got Guiliani and he plowed through all the B.S. got the job done and worried about what some hack judge or the New York Times would say later. The hypocritical New York Times would constantly lament that the muggers and dope dealers rights were being violated by Guiliani, while at the same time their employees were being mugged daily on 43rd St. in front of the Times' building. Guiliani proved that all these previous mayors and city council people were just a bunch of windbags, only there to get their face in the papers and feed at the public trough. I didn’t agree with everything that Guiliani did here, but overall he was good for the city and brought it back from the brink of the abyss. Passaic New Jersey is at the brink right now, and the good citizens of Passaic need to find their own Rudy Guiliani and put him in the mayors office before it’s too late.
Politicians are clever, not dimwitted.
Follow the money. Who owns Passaic now?
Banks or absentee landlords. Passaic is
only a dozen miles from Manhattan. Passaic
is potentially very valuable land. Passaic
is purposely distressed so that slumlords
can charge high slum rents to illegal immigrants
but pay low slum taxes with a little extra on
the side for the politicians. The tragedy of
Passaic is that it is economically convenient.
I would agree that it is sad for the good long-time or former residents of Passaic to have to watch their town disintegrate before their eyes. My contempt is for the polititions of Passaic – they are responsible for not enforcing zoning codes, not forcing people to maintain their property, not enforcing laws against prostitution, dope dealing and vagrancy for so long that the place has deteriorated to such a state that now appears to be unrecoverable. With all the problems that the City of Passaic has, all they seem to focus on is this theatre. I would not want to see school children wandering through this neighborhood, but not because of the theatre. They can knock down the theatre and after it’s gone the various vagrants, whores, riff-raff and other trash will still be hanging around there. And they are the ones that the dimwit polititions should be trying to protect the school children from.
Walt Disney created Disneyland to pay homage to his
own hometown. Disneyland is a 5/8ths reproduction
of wherever he grew up. Passaic has a small enough
footprint that you would think that an interested party
could simply buy it outright and restore it to vintage
1950 or thereabouts. I always thought that when I had
children I could always bring them back to Passaic for
a visit to play in the parks (and all of the other
play places such as the grounds of the Passaic General
Hospital or my own “100-acre woods” on Lafayette Avenue
between Wickham and Oak Streets), go to the movies, see
a football game at Passaic High School stadium, eat at
the great restaurants, spend an afternoon at the Forstmann
Library, etc. But that fantasy of mine is so completely
out of the question as to be ridiculous. Still, the idea
of Passaic as a gated condominium-community where your
family had to have deep roots there in order to buy in is
attractive. Then, it would make sense to restore the
Montauk Theater and whatever is left. Passaic-Land might
even be economically viable as a tourist destination.
There really was something really special about Passaic,
and it deserves a better fate than insult or extinction.
We have to Save the Montauk!
The street-corners and back-alleys are where they “work” – they reside in the decaying houses, apartments and projects nearby.
Yes, I don’t think the street-corners and back-alleys count as residential areas…
There’s a difference?
Downtown Passaic today is a far cry from what I remember in the late 60’s/early 70’s, and THAT was a far cry from what my parents remembered in the 40’s and 50’s. At one time, there were 3 huge theaters, and several smaller ones, all providing entertainment. Many of the biggest stars played the stage of the Central throughout the 1940’s.
Now I feel like I need to get a Passport when entering the city. If you speak English, you are certainly in the minority.
One does need to distinguish between residents and occupiers.
They’ve got it backwards – they need to get rid of the residents, then you will see the town improve – and they won’t need the new school.
The restoration, or even just the preservation, of the Montauk
Theater does not even register on the radar screen of the priorities
of the current residents of Passaic, who are struggling just to
survive economically. Besides, many of the immigrants of the last
40 years or so would actually take a great deal of satisfaction
from seeing the destruction of yet another relic of Passaic's
wonderful past which to them is just another embarrassing
benchmark of their own shortcomings. If the Montauk Theater is
to be saved it must be done by former residents of Passaic who
have fled for their lives. Curiously, there is at least one
superlative specimen of preservation/restoration in Passaic: the
Holy Rosary Roman Catholic (Polish) Church on Wall Street. I
happened to attend a recent mass at Holy Rosary on Ash Wednesday
and was overwhelmed by the fabulous interior of Holy Rosary.
At least some remnants of wonderful Passaic value church treasures
if not cinema treasures.
The Montauk Theater in its day was a wonderful single screen theater. I had been associated with the Central Theater because I operated the Rivoli Theater, Rutherford, same owners of both theaters. We, during this time, were all friendly with the operators of the Montauk as well as the Capitol.
A New York Times article today discusses the imminent razing of the Montauk.
The city of Passaic has one of the last of the large single screen theaters in the state of New Jersey, and one of the oldest. It’s in remarkably good condition, and still has most of its original fixtures. The theater has been very well maintained for the past 30 years since they’ve been showing porno. It could serve as a wonderful performance venue for residents of this area.
The fact that they are so anxious to destroy it because of the association with X-rated material is astonishing. What about the theaters first 50 years as a prime movie house?
I suppose a 2600 seat theater would make for too large of an auditorium for a new school that is expected to have an enrollment of only 700, huh? It amazes me that the first thought would be to demolish the theater rather than seek some sort of alternative use that would be more appealing to the parents of any prospective students.
Twenty-six hundred seats! That’s one large porn house, isn’t it? Then again, the Passaic Capitol showed porn as well and that sat over 3000, didn’t it? These have to be among the largest old palaces to have ever become full time XXX houses. When I think of porn houses, the mid-sized grind houses on 42nd Street and Times Square and the smaller nabes that went XXX typically come to mind. But I know there were some bigger houses that went exclusively adult as well – these two and the Queens Theater (about 2500 seats or so) in particular. I wonder how many large and truly deluxe houses went porn in the ‘70’s and '80’s?