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    South Jersey Movie Houses
    South Jersey Movie Houses
    South Jersey Movie Houses
    Ebook176 pages1 hour

    South Jersey Movie Houses

    By Allen F. Hauss

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    About this ebook

    Since the early 1900s, when the first moving images flickered on the screens of storefront nickelodeons, going to the movies has been an integral part of life across America. By the 1950s, there were over 230 theaters in southern New Jersey, ranging from lavish palaces like the 2,000-seat Stanley in Camden to modest venues like the 350-seat Little in Haddonfield. Today, sadly, less than a dozen remain standing, and most of those are now used for other commercial purposes. Only the Broadway in Pitman continues to operate as the last of the original motion-picture palaces. South Jersey Movie Houses is a pictorial tour of the theaters that once raised their curtains to audiences across the southern part of the state. It offers a nostalgic look at their neon marquees and silver screens, bringing back memories of Saturday matinees, 3-D glasses, and movie date nights.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateSep 18, 2012
    ISBN9781439633762
    South Jersey Movie Houses
    Author

    Allen F. Hauss

    Allen F. Hauss, a retired educator, grew up in and around the movie houses of South Jersey. His father, a projectionist, often took him along to watch the show and learn the trade. Working first as an usher and then as a projectionist while in college, collecting classic films, and operating his own art theater all nurtured a lifelong love of the movie industry, which led to the compilation of South Jersey Movie Houses.

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      Book preview

      South Jersey Movie Houses - Allen F. Hauss

      completion!

      INTRODUCTION

      It is Sunday afternoon on April 27, 2003. I am standing on the corner of the White Horse Pike and Kings Highway in Audubon, New Jersey, looking through a chain-link fence as the Century Theatre undergoes demolition. Tearing it down is not easy since it is a complex building with a large auditorium, balcony, and a huge stage and fly loft that towered over the Audubon landscape. I can see pieces of the gold curtain that once majestically framed the screen fluttering in the breeze on the now exposed proscenium. Thoughts of my past and the part the Century played in it race through my mind. Cheering yo-yo contestants on the stage as they tried to win that bicycle, watching Saturday morning cartoon festivals with all the other neighborhood kids, and, later, Friday nights sitting in the area known as the pit with the rest of the Audubon High School students, who always sat in the same section of the auditorium: right front after the last break aisle. I think about my first salaried job as an usher, and my first boss, Harry Sullivan, manager, and my break times, often spent in the projection room with Charlie Roop and Johnny Armstrong, the projectionists. They would talk about the old days of the business and teach me the secrets of the trade. I remember being promoted to doorman, a position that Eugie Orowitz (Michael Landon) held at the neighboring Westmont Theatre, and my returning to the Century Theatre to work as a relief projectionist while attending Rutgers University in Camden. Later I would rent the theater for Rutgers to host a live concert featuring the Association, benefiting the university’s student union. The Century, now just a pile of rubble, was an important icon in my life, as were many other theaters that once opened their curtains to audiences in South Jersey.

      —Allen F. Hauss

      THEATRE PROGRAM, 1950. Pictured here is the program for the Mt. Holly Theatre gala opening on April 27, 1950.

      One

      CAMDEN COUNTY

      Camden County’s movie house history began in the early 1900s when Herbert Megowan and Harvey Flitcraft opened the first storefront nickelodeons in the city of Camden. They were soon followed by larger and more elaborate venues, not only in Camden, but in most of the small towns thriving along the rail lines and highways leading out of the city. Real estate developers like Handle and Rovner recognized the value a theater would add to developing towns and, in the 1920s, built large theaters like the Collingswood, the Westmont, the Century, and the Clementon, all featuring vaudeville and film entertainment.

      Camden County’s most notable motion picture exhibitor was Samuel Varbalow, who started his theater chain in 1925 with the Victoria Theatre in East Camden. He opened his flagship theater, the Savar (named for his mother Sadie Varbalow) in 1938, and he would build Camden’s last indoor theater, the Arlo, in 1949. As the industry started to explode, the studios quickly realized that they could make more money by controlling exhibition as well as production. Thus, the major studios began building their own theaters as well as leasing independently owned houses. A landmark Supreme Court decision in 1949 separated exhibition from production, forcing the studios to sell off their theaters and allowing the growth and development of independent chains. The Varbalows would soon own or control over 20 theaters and changed the company name to the Savar Corporation in the 1960s.

      The county saw many firsts. The Walt Whitman in Pennsauken had the initial Vitaphone installation outside of Philadelphia, bringing the first talkies to South Jersey in 1928. Vitaphone discs were pressed at the Victor Talking Machine Company in Camden. RCA recorded airplane sounds at the Camden Airport for use on the sound track of Wings, which won the first Academy Award for Best Picture, and used the Crescent Theatre in West Collingswood as a test site for its Sound on Film system. Cinemiracle camera mounts for the production of Windjammer were made at Atlas Instrument in Haddonfield. The world’s first Drive-In theater was on Admiral Wilson Boulevard in Pennsauken.

      BIJOU DREAM, CAMDEN, 1907. Located at Broadway and Dickenson Streets, the Bijou Dream was typical of the storefront nickelodeons run by Herbert Megowan and Harvey Flitcraft throughout the city. Note the advertising of Illustrated Songs, the beginning of the bouncing ball sing-alongs, and perhaps also the start of the karaoke craze. (Courtesy Paul W. Schopp collection.)

      ELM THEATRE, CAMDEN, 1941. Originally opened as a silent movie house, the Elm closed in 1928 without converting to sound. Architect William H. Lee of Philadelphia redesigned the 385-seat house for owner Fred Wieland in 1938. It continued to operate through the late 1950s, when it closed. It was later razed to permit construction of the Northgate Apartments.

      NORTH CAMDEN THEATRE, CAMDEN, 1941. Built in 1921 at Second and Main Streets, this 452-seat theater had a long run as a typical neighborhood house. In the late 1950s, it had a stint as a live burlesque house before closing for good. The building is still standing and is in use as a church.

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