The Elmora Theatre opened on February 15, 1927 in Elizabeth, New Jersey. It was called “The Theatre Beautiful” in early advertisements and was primarily a live playhouse when it opened. The Kirkham Players, a local acting company, performed in most of the plays shown at the Elmora. However, on June 11, 1928, a little over a year after they began, J. Ellis Kirkham, the managing director of the Kirkham Players, resigned because of a difference of opinion on managerial policy. Kirkham’s resignation led to a much less popular group taking over the Elmora, and by 1929 it had closed.
Looking back from the stage.
On April 1st 1929, Werba and Taylor of New York City reopened the Elmora. The first play shown at the newly christened Werba’s Elmora was “The Trial of Mary Dugan.” By 1941, the Elmora had switched to showing motion pictures, and continued to do so until it closed. Bob Jaspan, an Elizabeth City Councilman, had purchased the theater in 1986. Jaspan purchased the building to move his hardware store there, but was convinced to keep the theater open by his constituents. He ran two-for-one specials, reduced ticket prices and held monthly screenings for senior citizens, but ultimately could not compete with nearby multiplexes.
Jaspan closed the theater in 1996. After it closed, Jaspan had the long hallway style lobby split up into retail spaces, and rented out the auditorium to the Evangelistic Hispanic Church. Jaspan sold the theater a few years later. The auditorium became a secondhand furniture showroom in 2007, but that didn’t last long because of the deteriorating state of the building.
This was originally posted on After the Final Curtain’s Patreon in January 2022. For expanded early posts, as well as video walkthroughs and other exclusive content, you can become a patron at: https://www.patreon.com/afterthefinalcurtain
The auditorium shortly after it opened, and in 2016.
The Rivoli Theatre opened on April 22, 1922, in Rutherford, New Jersey. It was designed by architect Abram Presikel and featured a marble facade, an ornate interior, and a centerpiece chandelier made of crystals from Czechoslovakia. The 2,200 seat theater opened as a combination vaudeville and silent film house. During this time, acts such as Abbott and Costello and the Glenn Miller Orchestra performed at the Rivoli.
In 1936, architect John Eberson, known for designing many atmospherictheaters across the world, remodeled the interior. On January 9, 1977, a fire destroyed the lobby and front of the building. Luckily, most of the auditorium was undamaged. Repairs began right away, and in 1982 the theater reopened as a performing arts center called the George W. Newman Theatre. However, movies were still shown in the building. As part of the reconstruction, a two-screen cinema was constructed on the site of the Rivoli’s lobby. The entire building, including the former Rivoli and the two-screen cinema, was named the William Carlos Williams Center for the Performing Arts, after the poet, doctor, and Rutherford native.
The theater was gifted to Bergen County in 1987, and they made an agreement with the nonprofit group that ran the theater to continue on. Over the years, the theater hosted music shows, films, art shows, and High School Graduations. In October 2012, the Newman theater closed due to damage caused by Hurricane Sandy. A study determined that the ceiling plasterwork might not be stable if exposed to the sound of a live music performance. In August 2021, Bergen County transferred the ownership of the building to the borough of Rutherford, who then sold it to local developer Chuck Olivo for $1. Olivo intends to save the theater, as well as build a residential building on the site.
View of the auditorium from the back rows.A close up of some of the surviving plasterwork details in the auditorium.The theater’s proscenium arch. Behind the giant chandelier you can see the divide where the original auditorium ends and the newer portion begins.
Material from for this post was taken from the first three chapters of my book, Kings Theatre; The Rise, Fall and Rebirth of Brooklyn’s Wonder Theater. If you’d like to buy a copy, they are available on Amazon, and on my website. You can find the first three parts at the following links:
Rumors circulated Loews was interested in selling the Kings in November 1976. Marty Markowitz, then president of the Flatbush Tenants Council, confirmed that the building was up for sale. According to Markowitz, “I know that the building is up for sale. I don’t know if it has been sold yet, but I know that the Loews Corporation would like to sell it.” Markowitz said, “We would like to bring live entertainment to the theater – Broadway-type shows and concerts so that there could be a sort of renaissance on Flatbush Avenue. We mentioned it to the Loews people, but they aren’t interested.” Chet Arnow, the vice president in charge of advertising and publicity for Loews, denied that the Kings was up for sale, but added, “Sure the Kings is up for sale. Every one of our theaters is always up for sale if the price is right. If we don’t get the right price, we’ll continue operating the Kings as usual.” Brunner also denied the rumors and stated that people have been talking about the Kings closing for 20 years. Despite their denials, less than six months later, the marquee read, “Closed: Will Reopen Soon.”
Soon after the theater closed, two churches asked about buying the theater and converting it into a place of worship. There was precedent for this; Loew’s 175th, one of the Kings’ sister theaters, had been purchased by the United Christian Evangelistic Association in 1969 and converted into a church. Another former Loew’s Wonder Theater, the Valencia, closed around the same time as the Kings and was turned into a church two years later when Loew’s donated the building to the Tabernacle of Prayer for All People.
During the Loew’s Valencia theater’s early years, clouds were projected across the ceiling, giving the illusion of sitting under the stars at night.
Less than a month after closing, the Kings Theater was sold to the Kings Royalty Production Corporation (KRPC) for $718,385, or $2,782,520 when adjusted for inflation. The KRPC was formed for the specific purpose of purchasing and running the theater. Robert Smerling and David Fellman, the owners of KRPC, also owned the American Theatre Management Corporation (ATMC), which had several theaters in the tri-state area. “Loew’s” was removed from the marquee, and it reopened in early June 1977 as simply the Kings Theatre. The first film shown was Day of the Animals, a horror movie starring Leslie Nielsen. KRPC contracted with major movie companies, including Warner Brothers and Paramount, to turn the Kings into a first-run movie theater.
On July 13, 1977, lightning struck a substation near Buchanan, NY and began a chain of events that caused the New York metropolitan area to lose power for around 25 hours. Looting began soon after the power went out. It was especially bad in the Bronx, Harlem, Queens, and Central Brooklyn. Eighty stores in Flatbush were hit, with 49 of them on Flatbush Avenue. The already low attendance and the destruction and looting during the blackout caused many people to stay away from the hardest hit neighborhoods.
One of the first films shown at the newly reopened theater was the follow up to the 1973 hit, The Exorcist. KRPC was banking on Exorcist II: The Heretic being as big a hit as the first one. Unfortunately, this film was considered by many to be one of the worst films ever made, and it languished at the box office. The Kings showed the “Exorcist II: The Heretic” for almost a month before switching to another film. By that point, the damage was done, and the KRPC could not meet expenses to keep the theater open. On Monday, August 29, 1977, the Kings closed again, just six weeks after it had reopened. The last film shown was “Bruce Lee: The Man, The Myth.”
Laurence Lehr, a representative employed by both KRPC and ATMC, claimed that the company closed the theater because it was cheaper to let the bank have it. “When you get monthly electric bills over $7,800 …, how do you expect to do business? You can’t do business in this city. The costs of labor, security, and everything else are ridiculous.” They tried to keep the costs down by rarely using the large chandeliers in the lobby and only turning the marquee on around 9 PM each evening. According to Lehr, the company was aware of the costs of running a theater when they bought it, but was hoping they could turn it around.
This was originally posted on After the Final Curtain’s Patreon in January 2022. For expanded early posts, as well as video walkthroughs and other exclusive content, you can become a patron at: https://www.patreon.com/afterthefinalcurtain
View of the auditorium from the side of the balcony.
The Casino Theatre originally opened as the Willis Theatre in late December 1923. It’s near 138th Street in the Mott Haven neighborhood of the Bronx, NY. The 2,166 seat theater was designed by architect Eugene De Rosa, who is known for many other New York Metropolitan Theatres such as The Apollo Theatre in Harlem, Studio 54 in Midtown Manhattan, and the St. George Theatre in Staten Island.
It was not a successful theater and closed and reopened many times throughout the 1920s, often with a change of format. It went from vaudeville to burlesque to motion pictures and even had a brief stint as a Broadway-style theater when a manager’s tryout for “A Woman of Destiny” was held at the theater in 1936.
The orchestra level was converted into a grocery store, and the stage area is used for storage.
The Willis was renovated and renamed the Casino in 1939 to coincide with the World’s Fair, which was being held at Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens, NY. It closed as a movie house for the last time in the 1960s. After a few years, a supermarket replaced the theater. However, it wasn’t demolished, at least not completely. Instead, the lobby and orchestra level of the auditorium were gutted and converted into the supermarket. The balcony is all that remains of the Casino today.
Storage lockers for films. Early film was made of nitrate, and it is very combustible, so it needed to be stored in lockers like the one pictured here.
This was originally posted on After the Final Curtain’s Patreon in February 2022. For expanded early posts, as well as video walkthroughs and other exclusive content, you can become a patron at: https://www.patreon.com/afterthefinalcurtain
View from the side of the balcony.
The 1,100 seat Somerville Theatre originally opened on May 11, 1914 in Somerville, Massachusetts. It was designed by the architecture firm of Funk and Wilcox, who also designed the Strand and Franklin Park Theatres. It was part of the Hobbs Building, which also had a bowling alley, a billiards hall, a basement cafe, and a 700-person dance hall, the Hobbs Crystal Ballroom.
Originally designed for vaudeville, stage shows and films, the fallout from the Great Depression forced the theater into primarily showing motion pictures, beginning in 1932. Like many theaters of this era, The Somerville held gimmicks, such as dish night or appliance giveaways, to get people to come to a show. During the 30s, 40s, 50s, and 60s, films would open in the downtown Boston theaters, and then open in neighborhood cinemas like the Somerville a week later.
Unlike many historic movie palaces, the Somerville Theatre was never closed for long periods of time. It became a revival house in 1982, often showing double features and independent films. In the mid-1980s, The Fraiman family purchased The Hobbs Building, and came up with a plan to keep the theater competitive with modern multiplexes. They turned the unused portions of the building, such as the bowling alley, billiards hall, and the ballroom into new screens to show films.
The Somerville Theatre closed in March 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. During this time, screens 4 & 5 were removed, and they restored the Crystal Ballroom. The theater reopened on September 17, 2021 and the Ballroom reopened on October 8, 2021.
I originally posted this post on After the Final Curtain’s Patreon in October 2021. For expanded early posts, as well as video walkthroughs and other exclusive content, you can become a patron at: https://www.patreon.com/afterthefinalcurtain
View of the auditorium from the balcony.
The Strand Theatre in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, originally opened on November 11, 1918, the same day that the news of the Armistice, ending World War I, reached Boston. The Boston-based architectural firm of Funk & Wilcox, the same firm that designed the nearby Franklin Park Theatre and the Cabot Theatre in Beverly, MA, designed it. It was one of the first theaters in Massachusetts designed with motion pictures in mind. The Strand also had a $75,000 Hope-Jones Theatre Organ, one of the first of its kind in Massachusetts.
A portion of the lobby was restored to show what the theater could look like after a full restoration.
Early advertisements for the Strand called it “New England’s Most Beautiful Theatre” and “Dorchester’s New Million Dollar Photoplay Palace.” The 2,200 seat Strand opened with a silent film double feature of “Queen of the Sea” starring Annette Kellerman and“Out of a Clear Sky” starring Marguerite Clark. There was also a performance by “Songstress DeLuxe” Emile Earle. Hundreds of people showed up to the Strand’s opening celebration in part to celebrate the theater but also the signing of the armistice. Many celebrities performed at the Strand over the years, including Fred Allen, Fanny Brice, Milton Berle, Jack Benny, Jerry Lewis, Duke Ellington, and Alfred Hitchcock.
Like many single-screen theaters of its day, the Strand’s audience declined, and the theater closed in 1969. In 1979, the City of Boston took ownership of the theater, and the Strand reopened. It was managed by the M. Harriet McCormack Center for the Arts (MHMCA), who signed a 25-year lease for $1 a year. During this time, some big names performed at the theater – Joe Perry, B.B. King, Tracy Chapman, Public Enemy, Phish, and LL Cool J, just to name a few. MHMCA operated the theater until 2003, when the City declined to renew their lease because of allegations of mismanagement.
The right organ chamber and box seats were given a sample restoration as well.
The City of Boston is currently searching for a new operator of the Strand.
The 1,149 seat Palace Theatre originally opened on December 21, 1914, in Norwalk, CT. It was known as “the theater you play before you play the Palace in New York.” Many famous vaudeville acts performed at the Palace over the years, such as Harry Houdini, W.C Fields, Mae West, and Enrico Caruso. It’s rumored to have been one of the final places Houdini played before his death in 1926.
A close up of the theater’s proscenium arch.
The Palace closed as a movie theater for the last time on August 28, 1966. It stayed closed until Russell Fratto purchased it in 1975. Fratto intended on turning the theater into a performing arts center and home for the ballet company he founded. Fratto could reopen it for the 1980-81 season but because of a recession, it closed again after that season.
The lobby is currently used as receptionist area for the building.
It was leased to the Palace Production Center (PPC) in 1983. PPC updated the electrical and HVAC systems and turned the auditorium into a sound stage. PPC purchased the building in 1985 and has operated the building ever since. It’s used for photoshoots, video shoots, and feature film productions.
I knew I wanted to do something a little different for the 200th theater I photographed. I was speaking with a friend who went to school in upstate (real upstate, not just slightly north of NYC) and he asked “have you been to the one above the library in Marathon?” I hadn’t heard of it and was immediately intrigued. I found a few recent photos online and knew this would be perfect. Plus, it’s now the oldest theater I’ve photographed in the United States. As with most of my posts – it was originally posted on Patreon in August 2021. For expanded early posts, as well as video walkthroughs and other exclusive content you can become a patron at: https://www.patreon.com/afterthefinalcurtain
View of the auditorium from the balcony.
In January 1891, Mersena Peck, a native of Marathon, New York died. She left $20,000 ($584,217 when adjusted for inflation) in trust for the creation of a public library in Marathon and named three town residents as trustees. They began working to carry out her wishes and were well underway by 1893. However, before construction could start, a group of 125 citizens petitioned that the building include a space for public entertainment. Architect Miles F. Howe adjusted the blueprints to add a 600 seat opera house on the second floor of the building.
The Marathon Library and Opera House opened on January 1, 1896. It began as a live performance space, hosting traveling performers before transitioning over to films in the early 1930s. The Library Opera House was renamed the Park Theatre and lasted as a movie theater until 1953. The auditorium is currently only used a few times a year to host a used book fair.
The exterior of the Marathon Library/Opera House.
In early 2020, the Marathon Public Library announced that the building needs close to $1 million in renovations. They’ve received $50,000 through their capital campaign but far from enough to be able to make the renovations needed to reopen the opera house.
The orchestra level of the auditorium is used as a book fair.
I’m going to be in a movie! I was interviewed in the lobby of the Loew’s Jersey Theatre in Jersey City, NJ in 2016 for a documentary on the history of the American Movie Palace. I spoke with the director, April Wright, for at least an hour, and some of my ramblings made it into the finished film (and the trailer below.)
I was able to view a rough cut of the film at the Million Dollar Theatre in Los Angeles during the Theatre Historical Society Conclave in 2017, and really enjoyed it (I’m probably a bit biased.) If you’d like to see the film here’s some upcoming screening dates and locations:
I’ll be appearing at the Somerville, Lake Placid Film Festival, and the Centre Film Festival to promote the film. Some of my work will be exhibited, and depending on the location there will be a short talk/ Q&A.
Here’s the synopsis for the film:
“Other countries built palaces for royalty, in the United States we built them to watch movies.
The 100 year history of how the American movie experience evolved so quickly from nickelodeons to the studio system and huge movie palaces of the teens and twenties and their eventual decline through present day including current preservation efforts.
What started as individual entertainment in penny arcades moved to a shared experience in nickelodeons. Next, when movies evolved from a lower class entertainment to mainstream, large movie palaces were built and the studio system grew in the teens and twenties. All of the grand movie palaces were built in a very compressed period of time between approximately 1915 with many converting from Vaudeville, through the early 30s. The addition of sound spawned the golden age of cinema in the 30’s in these architecturally gorgeous theaters in metropolitan areas which thrived as an escape from the great depression.
After World War II, television became popular and single screen theaters followed on main streets everywhere as a result of suburban sprawl and the baby boom. This led to a sharp decline in the downtowns of American cities. The classic theatres were too large and expensive to maintain. By the 70’s they tried to survive with exploitation films and alternative programming. Often these palaces were split or multiplexed. But more often, they closed, and were allowed to decay. In a country that is synonymous with the film industry, we have allowed our history to be lost as we’ve demolished many of our country’s palaces.
But many individuals have worked tirelessly to preserve, restore and maintain this piece of history so it can be enjoyed by future generations. However, many still stand in the balance, waiting for the funds to bring these landmarks back to life. “
The Sorg Opera House in Middletown, OH originally opened on September 12, 1891. Paul J. Sorg, Middletown’s first multi-millionaire, had the opera house built as a gift to the city of Middletown. Sorg hired Samuel Hannaford, who designed the Cincinnati Music Hall, to design the 1,200-seat opera house. Opening day included a performance of the opera “The Little Tycoon,” composed by Willard Spenser and a speech by then Ohio Governor James E. Campbell.
View of the auditorium from the stage.
In 1901, the Sorg began showing early forms of motion pictures, such as photo plays, and vaudeville performances before the operas. Many now famous vaudeville performers played at the opera house, including Marie Dressler, Will Rogers, Al Jolson, Bob Hope and Sophie Tucker. The live shows were discontinued in the late 1920s, and in the summer of 1929 a sound system was installed, turning the Sorg into a full time movie theater.
The orchestra and mezzanine levels have been restored, but the upper balcony and ceiling remain in a state of disrepair.
On January 17, 1935, a fire caused $10,000 (or $185,298 when adjusted for inflation) of damage to the backstage area of the theater, which caused it to close for several months. In April 1935, the Gordon Theatre Company took a long term lease on the theater and began repairs. It reopened in September 22, 1935 with films and stage shows. The Sorg closed again for a remodel in the late 1940s and a false ceiling was added, separating the upper balcony from the the rest of the theater to improve the sound.
The original walls of the lobby were covered up during the remodel in the 1940s.
The Sorg remained a movie theater until it closed in the late 1970s. Soon after, the Friends of the Sorg was formed to reopen it as a live performance venue. They were successful, and ran the theater until 2010, when a water main break forced the opera house to close again. In 2012, the Sorg Opera Revitalization Group (SORG) formed to buy and reopen the building. SORG was able to purchase the theater in August 2012 for $32,000. Since then they’ve made a number of improvements to the building, including removing the partition between the upper balcony and the rest of the auditorium, replacing the seats with ones donated from the Cincinnati Music Hall, repairing the public restrooms and re-hanging the house curtains. A full restoration of the building is estimated to cost between $9M and $11M. The Sorg reopened in late 2017 with a performance called “Celebrate the Sorg” and featured the Butler Philharmonic Orchestra.
Like many theaters at the time, the Sorg was segregated. It had a separate entrance, ticket booth and balcony for its non-white patrons.The much of the proscenium arch was covered up during the remodel in the late 1940s.View of the auditorium from the main level.
After the Final Curtain 