Roky Theatre
200 Smith Street,
Perth Amboy,
NJ
08861
200 Smith Street,
Perth Amboy,
NJ
08861
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Additional Info
Architects: G.W. Brooks, J.K. Jensen
Functions: Retail
Previous Names: Grand Theatre, Roxy Theatre
Nearby Theaters
The Grand Theatre was opened on November 22, 1913 with Nat C. Goodwin in “Oliver Twist”. One of the owners was John Switzer. It was remodeled in September 1928 and reopened as the Roxy Theatre, but due to pressure from the Roxy Theatre in New York, within 5-months it was renamed Roky Theatre in mid-February 1929. Listed in the 1944, 1945, 1951, and 1957 Film Daily Yearbooks. It was closed in 1957
In 2017 American Thrift Store and Latino Style Department Store now occupy the building.
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Recent comments (view all 4 comments)
Best of all, the ROKY, located next to the old Crystal restaurant on Smith Street. It showed Republic pictures, Chapter pictures, original John Wayne movies; it had lotto night, dish night, kids for a dime and double features. It was originally named the ROXY. The New York Roxy sued and got an injunction against the use of its famous name, so the owners twisted the metal “X” into a “K” and the name ROKY appeared, a name forever unique in Perth Amboy history, leaving a warm place in our hearts.
from View link
Was refereed to as the Garlic House. Operated from 1910-1954'ish from my info first called the Grand Theater then renamed Roky in 1928 Started out as a Nickelodeon. The building was owned by Edward Switzer who also operated the Central Hotel in Perth Amboy; he leased the theater to a succession of tenants.
The February 11th 1928 issue of the Motion Picture News mentioned that Aron Schusterman had taken a 21year lease on the Grand Theatre in Perth Amboy and was going to do an extensive remodel which was estimated would cost between thirty and forty thousand dollars. Other trade papers mentioned it would also reopen with a new name. Schusterman also operated theatres in New Brunswick and Red Bank.
As mentioned in a comment above, the Grand reopened as the “Roxy Theatre”. A short promo article in the neighboring “Carteret Press” (September 14th issue) said it opened a few weeks earlier, which would have been late August. That issue also carried an ad that I am uploading. The Film Daily Yearbook also listed the theatre as the Roxy from 1929-1932 (as the “Roxie” first year, “Roxy” the next three), although the name change happened much sooner than that.
I can’t find any specific records of what happened and when it happened as the Roxy stopped advertising in surrounding papers shortly after opening, but the clothing store that opened next to it was advertising as being located “next to the Roky Theatre” in late summer 1929.
One other note, despite the caption on the newspaper clipping that Craig posted a few years back, it does not appear that the building was torn down. Comparing the current street view which dates to this past July with the clipped picture, it appears to be the same building. Note the façade and windows. Accessing the address through Google Earth, the view from above shows what appears to be the old auditorium still in place. No doubt gutted for retail space, but still standing.
An update for the Roky…
Plans for a “new picture theatre building” in Perth Amboy were announced in the November 15th 1912 edition of the Perth Amboy Evening News. The property owners, Edward J. and John Switzer, had engaged local architects J. K. Jensen and G. W. Brooks to design the new building, which would be multi use, with retail and office space in addition to the theatre.
This wasn’t the first time the property at 200-202 Smith Street was used to exhibit moving pictures; for the two previous summer seasons, the site had been leased to a Mr. Arthur Kurzman of New York, who operated an open-air moving picture show called “The Kooloff”. Kurzman had told the Evening News he was looking for a new location, which he didn’t find. The paper reported in its March 5, 1913 issue that the previous day work had begun demolishing the frame wall that had surrounded the Kooloff prior to ground being broken and construction started.
The new venue was leased to W. J. McKenna of Newark and opened as the Grand Theatre on November 22, with Nat Goodwin in the 5 reel feature “Oliver Twist”, along with a selection of one reel shorts.
The Switzer Building sat on property was 60 feet wide and 133 feet and six inches long. The theatre proper was 44 feet wide and 106 feet long. There was a three foot slope to the floor, the ceiling ranged from 16 to 19 feet. The house was lighted by a combination of gas and electric fixtures. In addition to the lobby entrance, there were 10 exits in the auditorium, 5 on each side. It was also equipped with a stage suitable for vaudeville.
Patrons entered through a lobby that was 14 x 26 feet and flanked on either side by a retail space. A second story above the lobby and retail contained 4 office spaces and the projection booth. The Grand had an electric sign measuring 12 feet long by 3.5 feet wide above the main entrance.
As I’ve mentioned, when Aron Shusterman remodeled the theatre in the summer of 1928, he changed its name from Grand to Roxy. This was one of two theatres in New Jersey that took on the Roxy name and were contacted by Sam (Roxy) Rothafel and the Roxy Theatres Corporation of New York, asking that the name be changed, citing trademark issues. They took the other theatre in Irvington to federal court, the result was its name being changed to the Rex. Shusterman chose not to fight and changed the name to Roky in mid-February of 1929. It had operated as the Roxy for about 5 months, since reopening on September 1.
Shusterman also ran a theatre in nearby New Brunswick, where he had been active on the theatre scene for over a decade, having managed four of the six theatres there and building one of them. The New Brunswick Sunday Tines ran a column “Breezing Along Local Rialto”, which carried items about the local theatres and their operators. The column carried a number of items about Shusterman renaming his Perth Amboy theater, including the announcement of the new name in July of 1928, its opening in September, and its name change in February to “The New Roky”, which was “made necessary because the New York theatre owners objected to the use of the name Roxy”.
I’ve added an opening ad from 1913 to the photo page.