Newsreel Theatre
800 Broad Street,
Newark,
NJ
07102
800 Broad Street,
Newark,
NJ
07102
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The Newsreel theatre opened on February 15th, 1936. Grand opening ad posted.
I was just in Newark yesterday to photographs cinemas. The building at 800 Broad St. looks much newer, not like a repurposed theatre. I think this one may have been demolished with a new structure built in its place.
I just read Philip Roth’s “The Plot Against America”. A whole chapter takes place in this theatre, and its (fictional) manager is a fairly important secondary character.
Here is a photo from 12/24/1944:
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In the late sixties a new facade was put on the building, and the theater’s name was changed to the Guild. The Guild operated for several years with old battle films, westerns, horror movies and the like, often repeating bookings of given pictures as little as a few weeks apart. By the mid seventies the prints of most of these pix were wearing out and not being reserviced, and the Guild began running out of product to play. A middling renovation of the theater and policy switch to first run films failed to find local support, and the Guild closed in 1976. The space now serves as a clothing store.
I believe this one is mentioned in the latest Philip Roth novel “The Plot Against America.”
Was this still showing only newsreels when it closed?