The Newark Paramount Theatre

September 28, 2011May 23, 2017 / Matt / 28 Comments

The Paramount is one of the 22 theaters in my new book “After the Final Curtain: The Fall of the American Movie Theater.” Find out more here.

View of the Paramount Theatre from the balcony.

The Paramount Theatre opened on October 11, 1886 as H.C. Miner’s Newark Theatre. It was originally a vaudeville house managed by Hyde & Behman Amusement Co., a Brooklyn based theater Management Company. After H.C. Miner’s death in 1900, his surviving relatives retained ownership of the theater for several years until its sale in 1916 to Edward Spiegel, the owner of the nearby Strand Theatre. Spiegel also purchased the building next to the theater with the intent to use the space to expand the theater. To accomplish this he hired famed theater architect Thomas W. Lamb to do the alterations.

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Proctor’s Palace Roof Theatre

March 30, 2011June 15, 2026 / Matt / 1 Comment

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.”

Backstage Proctor's Palace Roof Theater — 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.

Butts on the ceiling Proctor's Palace Roof Theatre — Clouds were painted on pieces of sheer fabric to give the theater an atmospheric feel

Ropes behind the stage at Proctor's Palace Roof Theatre

Proctor’s Palace Theatre

March 23, 2011June 15, 2026 / Matt / 23 Comments

RKO Proctor’s Theatre opened in Newark, NJ on November 25, 1915 as the Proctor’s Palace Theatre. The architect was John W. Merrow, the nephew of Proctor theater circuit owner Frederick F. Proctor.

The Palace was a double decker theater, which meant that one auditorium was stacked on top of the other, a rare design choice at the time. The lower, street-level auditorium had 2,300 seats and the upper had around 900. The space was among the largest and most open in the area, leading the city to use it as the site of it’s 250th anniversary celebration in 1916.

A now antique popcorn machine was left behind when the theater closed.

Originally, the Palace was a vaudeville theater. The theater eventually switched over to exclusively movie showings, but the occasional vaudeville show — such as Bela Lugosi’s“Horror and Magic Show” — still played there.

Shortly before his death in 1929 F.F. Proctor sold his company to Radio-Keith-Orpheum Corporation (“RKO”), and the name of the theater was changed to RKO Proctor’s Theatre.

The Palace was closed in 1968 when RKO merged with Stanley Warner, who owned Newark’s larger and more profitable Branford Theater. The lobby has been renovated and is currently used as a shoe store. The rest of the building remains vacant and after years of neglect has started to collapse.