Mayfair Theater

I grew up Hillside and went to the Mayfair many times. First pic I remember seeing was “The Blob” with Steve McQueen. I was about 4 or 5. Went to many Satuday matinees. That was a trip—a theater full of screaming, belching, candy-throwing kids!! Seems funny now.
I remember the lady that either owned or ran the place. I know my mother used to talk with her. I remember the Mayfair was overhauled in the mid-60s—new paint, upholstery, and carpets. For many years,
there was a restaurant next-door called “The Flamingo Diner”. Funny thing is, this place was always closed. It was leveled in the early
70s. The slot car place was called Tom Thumb Raceway and there was another one in Union. It was in a vacant Woolworth.

I thank you for your info “Movie Guy”. It did jar my memory a bit. I spoke with my Father last night. He grew up in that area of Newark. As I am sure you must know back in those days it was a mostly Jewish area and my Zada (Grandfather) was the local bookmaker. He also owned a few nightclubs. The following is almost verbatim what my Father toll me.

“The There was Two Mayfairs. One somewhere off of South Orange ave the one you mean was in Hillside across from Moon Motors. Longie die some time in the mid 50’s. I don’t remember when but before I meet your Mother (1958). His business was taken over by a guy name Myron Surgerman. His big this was pinball. I knew they guy who own the Mayfair in fact I knew he since we were kids. His father bought it right after the war”

My Father gave me the name and I remember this man. I will try and track him down and report back.

My mother grew up in Hillside in the 1920s and ‘30s. In those days the Mayfair was the big,beautiful, first run theatre in town. There was another, run down theatre that locals called “The Flea Circus.” (Anyone out there have any idea what the real name of this other theatre might have been?)

My mother especially recalled one time her grandfather took her to the Mayfair and tried to buy tickets with coins left over from the Civil War! He couldn’t convince the box office clerk that it was still valid currency.

The Mayfair theatre began as both a vaudeville house and a theatre showing silent films..In the sub-basement there were small dressing rooms for the performers complete with those stereotypical light bulb encircled mirrors ..In later years,long after live acts were no longer part of the Mayfair’s schedule these cubicles remained,the light bulbs still in place but no longer working the paint peeling from the walls..The theatre was owned and operated by the Unger family..For most of it’s existence the theatre was a second-run house showing normal Hollywood fare..Only after the original Unger couple had both died off did the theatre fall onto hard times under the oldest son,who turned it into a porno house.The refurbishing,done in the 1960s was allowed to decay,with broken seats going unrepaired,the cloth-covered walls torn and smoke-stained,the whole interior of the theatre looking as run-down as possible.. In the basement of the theatre,where performers had once stored thier props the oldest Unger son had constructed a firing range,complete with sandbags and police issued paper targets..Mornings would find this fellow in the basement-turned-firing-range happily shooting away ..There was also a small room where he made up his cartridges for his rifles.. It has been mentioned here that an organ had been part of the attraction of the early Mayfair theatre..This may indeed have been the case,however in the old orchestra pit ,in the 1960s and beyond,all that remained was an old piano,one which,unaccountably,a water pipe extension had been placed over,making movement of the piano impossible..Despite its age the piano did still play,if off-key.. Before it’s decline into a pornohouse the building itself housed a real estate and insurance office,a package store,and on the upper floor several offices devoted to professional people..The package store in particular had a tragic history at the end in that the man who operated the business was killed during a hold-up,his son,who took over after the father’s death was killed in a traffic accident on Route 22,and the wife,who took over after her son’s death could not contend with these events and let the business slide into failure…With the tranformation into a pornohouse all of the other businesses left,never being replaced..In the 1980s these vacant spaces were either used for storage of left empty..Coming back to this theatre,in which as a youth I had worked as an usher(and parking lot attendant,in that the Unger family owned a vacant dirt-covered nearby in which,for a quarter,one could park one’s car)I was truly appalled by its decline and ruin..Having started my own pest control business I became the theatre’s last exterminator .. The theatre need not have fallen on such hard times,at least not as early as the 1980s….Oddly enough the son who operated the theatre at the time blamed ,among other things,a changing neighborhood and the advent of the video cassette for his decision to switch from Hollywood films to porn..Ultimately the fact that the same porno films that he was then showing on the big screen found thier way onto video cassette and could be rented(or bought)for viewing in one’s own house spelled the ultimate doom for the Mayfair theatre…

I went by this theatre today — pretty much done for, even as a commercial building. The alleys are all fenced off, and there are no active tenants in the building, exits are sealed other than the front. The block is completely industrial now. There are two roof sheds on top with their doors hanging open (visible from the car dealer next door’s driveway). The building next door on the left side is still there, and a car dealership is now on the right. Both alleys are blocked/gone.