View of the auditorium from the balcony.

Located on the top of Proctor’s Palace Theatre, Proctor’s Palace Roof Theatre also opened on November 22, 1915.  The Palace was originally used for smaller vaudeville productions before switching over to film at around the same time as its downstairs counterpart.

Two photographs of the auditorium taken almost exactly 5 years apart.

After the switch, the Roof Theatre was rarely used and eventually reopened in the early 1960s as the Penthouse Cinema, mainly showing foreign films like Ingmar Bergman’s “Secrets of Women.”

The stage is littered with debris from curtains and stage lights that have fallen to the ground.

Unfortunately, The Penthouse Cinema wasn’t active for long. The Cinema closed in 1968 after the infamous Newark riots damaged the reputation of the once-respected city.

View of the stage from the main floor.

Clouds were painted on pieces of sheer fabric to give the theater an atmospheric feel