Southeast Museums
Pages From Our Past
Brewster’s Cameo Theater
By Mary Ann Taormina
The resident of Brewster were excited about a new motion picture house coming to their town. The Cameo Theatre opened its door on June 30, 1939, with great fan-fare. William I. Hohauser, Inc., a leading architectural firm in the building of theatres, was commissioned to build the Brewster Cameo. The New York firm had already built the Avon theatre at Stamford, CT. the Clinton Theater in Brooklyn, as well as theatres in Beacon and Hudson. Engineer, William V. April, supervised the work on the Brewster theatre.
The Cameo Theater is an excellent example of an Art Deco movie theater and typical of community theaters built across the country during the 1930s. Art Deco is known by it simple geometric patterns and structures using metals and plaster. Art Deco architecture lasted for nearly twenty years from 1925 through the 1940s.
The design of the Brewster Cameo was considered exceptional for the time because of the top of the line accommodations. The two-story structure was built with fire resistant material, concrete and brick with steel beams. The walls were covered with rose and gold colored tapestry and a multi-colored designed carpet cover the floors of the lobby, aisles and powder room. The beautiful blue leather cushioned seats with backs of rose velour were said to have given each member of the audience a generous amount to space.
An article in the Brewster Standard dated June 29, 1939, boast about the theater high-tech environmental system, “The ventilating system provides for air cooling and an automatic heating plant that operated when the weather indicates it is needed.†It is unlikely that the writer was describing modern-day air conditioning. The article also talks about the new and innovated automatic water fountain located in the lobby.
In the projection booth, there was a fireproof cabinet for the storage of film reels. A state of the art Motiograph projection machine and RCA sound system were the latest in audio/visual equipment.
The Art Deco exterior crowned with an eight by six-foot neon sign supports the name CAMEO in letter two feet high. The Claude Neon Sign Company of Bridgeport, CT created the design. The Cameo was the first, in this part of the country, to install a marquee with beautiful opal glass lighted by florescent bulbs flanking either side of the entrance. Since there was a down pore on opening day, there was great concern that there would be problems with the neon marquee, but fortunately, there was not.
Theaters like the Cameo, built specifically to show movies, opened in nearly every city and town in the United States. Huge movie palaces were built in the cities, but far more common were smaller community theaters such as the Cameo.
The Cameo continued to operate as an independent theatre by the Quinn family from the mid 1950’s until July of 1997. For many years, it was a safe haven to take children for family entertainment at reasonable cost. Unfortunately, the Cameo and many other independent movie theaters throughout the country were becoming extinct as giant multiplex cinemas cropped up.
Today, the resources to begin a restoration project for this historical theater have been realized. The New York Main Street Program, an innovative program designed to stimulate downtown revitalization, recently awarded $200,000 to the Putnam Economic Development Corporation. Half of this money is earmarked for the restoration of the Cameo Theatre. The hope is for the life to be brought back into this historical build and that it once again will be a premier entertainment center for the entire community.
The theater never was used as a church. Prestently it is closed.
Southeast Museums
Pages From Our Past
Brewster’s Cameo Theater
By Mary Ann Taormina
The resident of Brewster were excited about a new motion picture house coming to their town. The Cameo Theatre opened its door on June 30, 1939, with great fan-fare. William I. Hohauser, Inc., a leading architectural firm in the building of theatres, was commissioned to build the Brewster Cameo. The New York firm had already built the Avon theatre at Stamford, CT. the Clinton Theater in Brooklyn, as well as theatres in Beacon and Hudson. Engineer, William V. April, supervised the work on the Brewster theatre.
The Cameo Theater is an excellent example of an Art Deco movie theater and typical of community theaters built across the country during the 1930s. Art Deco is known by it simple geometric patterns and structures using metals and plaster. Art Deco architecture lasted for nearly twenty years from 1925 through the 1940s.
The design of the Brewster Cameo was considered exceptional for the time because of the top of the line accommodations. The two-story structure was built with fire resistant material, concrete and brick with steel beams. The walls were covered with rose and gold colored tapestry and a multi-colored designed carpet cover the floors of the lobby, aisles and powder room. The beautiful blue leather cushioned seats with backs of rose velour were said to have given each member of the audience a generous amount to space.
An article in the Brewster Standard dated June 29, 1939, boast about the theater high-tech environmental system, “The ventilating system provides for air cooling and an automatic heating plant that operated when the weather indicates it is needed.†It is unlikely that the writer was describing modern-day air conditioning. The article also talks about the new and innovated automatic water fountain located in the lobby.
In the projection booth, there was a fireproof cabinet for the storage of film reels. A state of the art Motiograph projection machine and RCA sound system were the latest in audio/visual equipment.
The Art Deco exterior crowned with an eight by six-foot neon sign supports the name CAMEO in letter two feet high. The Claude Neon Sign Company of Bridgeport, CT created the design. The Cameo was the first, in this part of the country, to install a marquee with beautiful opal glass lighted by florescent bulbs flanking either side of the entrance. Since there was a down pore on opening day, there was great concern that there would be problems with the neon marquee, but fortunately, there was not.
Theaters like the Cameo, built specifically to show movies, opened in nearly every city and town in the United States. Huge movie palaces were built in the cities, but far more common were smaller community theaters such as the Cameo.
The Cameo’s modern Art Deco architectural style helped transport the Brewster audience into the fantasy world of the film. The motion picture theaters of this era were the result of technological advances, and were well suited for Art Deco’s modern materials, linear edges, and zigzags. The use of geometric designed elements drew its inspiration from the mechanization and mass-production of that era.
Some movie historians insist that the Art Deco design of local movie theaters was a reaction to the glitzy décor and over-spending of the pre-Depression boom that had culminated in the 1929 bust, and mirrored the hard times in which they were built. Others say that 1930s architecture was a celebration of coming technology in modern living and American’s growing dependence machines.
More than 600 people attended the gala opening with showing of “The Young Mr. Lincoln.†Among the dignitaries attending the opening were Mayor Henry H. Wells, Mr. Sussman, the proprietor of the theatre, and Father Thomas G. Phelbin of St. Lawrence Church. According to the Brewster Standard’s account of the event in its July 6, 1939 edition, “After the school band stopped playing the audience applauded Mr. Sussman’s welcome, Father Philbin’s prayer and Mayor Wells address, before rising to sing Star Spangled Banner and settling down to the news reel, Donald Duck and Henry Fondâ€. The Mayor Wells said, “On this happy occasion, as Mayor of the Village, I express our thanks to Mr. Sussman and Mr. Flechsenhaar the owner and manager of the business of producing movies at The Cameo, for our invitation to the opening of this safe and most attractive theatre, …and I hope for them a most successful business ventureâ€.
The Cameo continued to operate as an independent theatre by the Quinn family from the mid 1950’s until July of 1997. For many years, it was a safe haven to take children for family entertainment at reasonable cost. Unfortunately, the Cameo and many other independent movie theaters throughout the country were becoming extinct as giant multiplex cinemas cropped up.
Today, the resources to begin a restoration project for this historical theater have been realized. The New York Main Street Program, an innovative program designed to stimulate downtown revitalization, recently awarded $200,000 to the Putnam Economic Development Corporation. Half of this money is earmarked for the restoration of the Cameo Theatre. The hope is for the life to be brought back into this historical build and that it once again will be a premier entertainment center for the entire community.