The theater was mentioned in the New Haven Advocate’s Annual Manual and it said, “Downtown Seymour is straight out of the 1950s, with a retro diner, a movie theater with ticket prices under $5 and antique stores galore. The Strand Theater still bears its original neon marquee and is one of the las single-screen movie houses in Connecticut.
There is no website for this place, but in the New Haven Advocate’s Annual Manual, they list lots of cinemas and say about this place: It’s actually the banquet room of the restaurant and former cinema, but local rockers have been known to gig here for legendarily unhinged themed parties."
And also, any vacation that I take by bicycle for 2 days to 2 weeks, I always look up theaters on my route to check out, ones that sometimes aren’t on here, but I find info and report. Chasing history is always fun and it benefits everyone.
I was by there on my bicycle trip on Monday. The above introduction/history is exactly what’s posted inside the lobby on two large parchments (one on the theater, the other on the organ) on the wall under glass.
The theater’s architecture is also known as Beaux Arts. There’s a dress shop on the ground floor on the left and a salon on the right. The marquee is rounded, all lit up with neon and lots of light bulbs.
Facing front, around to the left side of the lobby and the auditorium, are Mediterranean-style arches with a multicolored tile trim which is very beautiful.
There was a movie playing so I couldn’t see the single screen but the lobby is full of things to look at and they get theater buffs from time to time to take pictures like me.
Out front to the left of the main doors is a large poster in glass that says “Lafeyette Theater, Home of the Mighty Wurlitzer” and when it’s played before shows. On the right of the doors is a large poster under glass that has a bunch of 50s folks in black and white with x-ray glasses on with wide open scared mouths and looks. In the approach to the ticket booth are walls adorned with old movie posters such as “Million Dollar Kid”. The doors at the end before the ticket counter have 2 small halved mini-chandeliers on either side on top with a red neon sign saying “Lafayette Theatre”. There’s a Roman bust/column of a plaster statue on the side of the door showing a woman with her arms above her head. Other posters under glass include an article from the Los Angeles Times with the headline “Marcus Loew is Dead”.
To the left of the ticket counter is the original wooden ticket booth with an explanation inside it telling of its origin and its appearance in 2 films, one recently for the film on Neal Cassady. There’s an old newspaper from that town under glass about the theatre’s playbill from 1928 and small pics showing the auditorium.
The three staff were very nice and nicely dressed.
I was by there the other day and I asked how many seats the theatre had and one owner asked abrasively why and I told him I contribute on this website. His daughter was nice and said it had 385 and 265 totalling 650.
I was on a bicycle trip and passed by it yesterday. You can’t miss it as it’s on the main drag and the back of the screen is right there by the road, with 30 ft of clearance. (It’s technically in Nanuet with the Spring Valley town line sign bordering the property). Behind it to the right, some tractor trailers park there. It’s dirt and gravel on both sides into it and in the back you can see all the car speaker devices still there in rows. It seemed a bit small for a drive-in.
There are 592 seats, not 610. I was there for a special screening last week of “Sidewalk Astronomer.” Wow. Spacious inside. Ticket booth is on the left and concessions in the lobby on the right. The stairwell in the middle has a bannister and a stairwell on both sides. A great carpeted foyer and very nice tiled bathrooms are present. There’s a large sitting area with 4 nice leather chairs and many bookshelves where one can read and there’s a fireplace as well.
The large theater on the right side has 350 seats and the balcony has 242 totalling 592. I counted each one after the event. The main theater is gorgeous and very spacious. The seats are comfortable but very squeaky. There’s a stage with the screen and steps leading up from each side for Q and A. The seats on both sides' cupholders angle slightly toward the center but the seats are forward. There’s little lights under each aisle chair (armrest) on both sides of the aisle of the left and right aisle of the theater.
Watercolor paintings on cancas (3 on each side) adorn both walls. They look like murals but aren’t upon closer inspection. There are 2 undrawn red curtains on each side of the paintings with a horizontal light above each painting (that stay on with the aisle lights during the movie). On each side of the proscenium are 3D pedestals that come out with a painting in each one and it’s shaped like a half oval.
You can see the projection booth with curtains drawn on both sides and can tell it was the balcony at one point.
Standing in the lobby to the left is the mini-theater that was the entire balcony but it’s just half of it. The curtain in front has pink insulation behind it. There are 6, (3 on each side) original circular metal cutouts depicting ancient scenes of Peter Pan. The black iron is quite thin upon touching it and the current owners added multicolor gels that go around all of each one. 1 is a horse and buggy, 2 is a couple in Victorian wear with a house in the background, 3 is a pirate ship with the sun in back, 4 is Peter and Wendy, 5 is two folks and 6 is a bunch of Lost Boys by the water’s edge.
Oh yeah, that * I put in. I thought the $8,000 was too little but then after talking to the head of the CT State Parks/DEP, he told me it was more than generous. I thought it was too little because of the 5 full days of closure, 24/7 and camping. If they gave money to the Parks System, it would get spread out statewide, so they gave directly to the park itself. I wanted to see if Hollywood did their homework. I also asked how much Putnam Park received in a year and then to divide that by 52 weeks and see if the $8K was adequate but he was unable to provide numbers since money is split in this region between Putnam Park in Redding, Paugusett Forest in Newtown and Kettletown in Southbury. He told me not to worry, it was very generous.
Yep. I forgot to mention that. The Redding Pilot online version differed from the fuller print version.
Also, I wrote that 3 productions were happening, I meant it to say 36. Before the law was in effect last year, Connecticut received $1 million in taxes but now has received $450 million in revenue!
I didn’t know the upstairs was ever open. I went upstairs and there’s a small food court sitting area by the projection booth which is the office. At the other end of the theater is another register (upstairs) and there’s some nice decoration – 2 Ionic columns, one on either end, the color scheme is pink, blue and white with a small arc leading from one column to the other, like a rainbow.
One more thing. This theater is very structurally sound. The side on the left is freshly painted a stunning lavendar/violet all the way to the back of the former auditorium. The windows look new. It’s pretty long, maybe 100 feet or more. And it’s very near the continuance of Route 1 into Stratford where the neighborhood/light industry end.
The building is still there. East Bridgeport once had 3 theatres, but I was there last week and its last use was “The Stratford Club”. (It might as well be in Stratford, it’s very close to the line). The sign there said “Unsafe for Human Occupancy.”
It’s a large building. I went around it to the back where there are houses. It’s covered in ivy. To the left side is a stairwell that’s rickety and an open window. How tempting, but some neighborhood kids were wondering what I was up to. A lot of my driving by on bicycle, jotting down notes and snapping pics. There’s a rickety, rusted stairway on the right, but that alleyway is about 3 feet wide.
If you go down from it and make a left at the corner, you can see the length of it and the height, it’s red brick covered in ivy and is about 30 feet tall. There’s a garage door there, and above where the stagehouse would be is a “Vee” roof about 15 feet tall, like a mini house, the length of the back.
The News-Times featured the changing of the Empress Ballroom over to the Heirloom Arts Theatre in today’s paper. Studio e will still be downstairs as well as their art gallery.
It will be run by Jay LaPierre, 27, from Bethel who is raising funds to renovate the space. He plans to make the approximately 2,000 square feet of space into a multimedia venue with live music performances, movies and stage theatrical productions. He’s qualified because his day job is at the Ridgefield Playhouse as director of operations. He wants to install a central heating and air-conditioning system and upgrade the bathrooms, as well as refinishing the floors, a new paint job, installation of sound-absorption material, a new snack bar area, expansion of the stage, and installation of a 35-millimeter projection system.
There’s a fundraiser this Sunday with a tag sale, outdoor barbecue and musical performances in the early evening.
There was a front page article (of the Entertainment section) on this theatre and its longtime proprietor in the Warren (NJ) Reporter from Thursday, August 9 (dated August 10). Unfortunately, they have no real good online source, so I’ll do the highlights.
It was titled “Former Owner’s legacy continues to project at Washington Theatre” and it has two pictures of former owner Alvin Sloan, 96, putting his hands into cement and signing his name.
“He was the building’s owner from the 1930s until the early 1970s and he was a trailblazer in promoting the motion picture business during the Golden Age of Hollywood. For years the theatre served as the HQ of a local movie empire owner by Sloan consisting of 14 theatres throughout the area, including ones in Belvidere, Hackettstown and Blairstown.”
The theatre opened in 1927 and the 1930s projectors and antique padded reclining chairs still remain.
Now the owner is Marco Matteo, who reopened it in 2006 after it was closed for 5 years.
Alvin grew up in Montclair and was obsessed with silent-film and after high school, opted not to attend college and became assistant manager of a theater in Washington and then did other theater jobs until he and his friend, Clifton Smith, operated 4 theaters, which eventually led him to own or lease 14 more.
They did giveaways like partnering with local businesses to give away a piece of silverware to women who attended each week and they would have a complete set by the end of the year.
“Sloan ended his 45 years in the motion picture business in 1972 when he sold all his theatre real estate.”
The theater was mentioned in the New Haven Advocate’s Annual Manual and it said, “Downtown Seymour is straight out of the 1950s, with a retro diner, a movie theater with ticket prices under $5 and antique stores galore. The Strand Theater still bears its original neon marquee and is one of the las single-screen movie houses in Connecticut.
There is no website for this place, but in the New Haven Advocate’s Annual Manual, they list lots of cinemas and say about this place: It’s actually the banquet room of the restaurant and former cinema, but local rockers have been known to gig here for legendarily unhinged themed parties."
And also, any vacation that I take by bicycle for 2 days to 2 weeks, I always look up theaters on my route to check out, ones that sometimes aren’t on here, but I find info and report. Chasing history is always fun and it benefits everyone.
I was by there on my bicycle trip on Monday. The above introduction/history is exactly what’s posted inside the lobby on two large parchments (one on the theater, the other on the organ) on the wall under glass.
The theater’s architecture is also known as Beaux Arts. There’s a dress shop on the ground floor on the left and a salon on the right. The marquee is rounded, all lit up with neon and lots of light bulbs.
Facing front, around to the left side of the lobby and the auditorium, are Mediterranean-style arches with a multicolored tile trim which is very beautiful.
There was a movie playing so I couldn’t see the single screen but the lobby is full of things to look at and they get theater buffs from time to time to take pictures like me.
Out front to the left of the main doors is a large poster in glass that says “Lafeyette Theater, Home of the Mighty Wurlitzer” and when it’s played before shows. On the right of the doors is a large poster under glass that has a bunch of 50s folks in black and white with x-ray glasses on with wide open scared mouths and looks. In the approach to the ticket booth are walls adorned with old movie posters such as “Million Dollar Kid”. The doors at the end before the ticket counter have 2 small halved mini-chandeliers on either side on top with a red neon sign saying “Lafayette Theatre”. There’s a Roman bust/column of a plaster statue on the side of the door showing a woman with her arms above her head. Other posters under glass include an article from the Los Angeles Times with the headline “Marcus Loew is Dead”.
To the left of the ticket counter is the original wooden ticket booth with an explanation inside it telling of its origin and its appearance in 2 films, one recently for the film on Neal Cassady. There’s an old newspaper from that town under glass about the theatre’s playbill from 1928 and small pics showing the auditorium.
The three staff were very nice and nicely dressed.
I was by there the other day and I asked how many seats the theatre had and one owner asked abrasively why and I told him I contribute on this website. His daughter was nice and said it had 385 and 265 totalling 650.
I know that one was on West Maple, but I was on Route 59.
Right. I saw it last night and saw “..rand” and the next scene indicated it was San Diego.
I was on a bicycle trip and passed by it yesterday. You can’t miss it as it’s on the main drag and the back of the screen is right there by the road, with 30 ft of clearance. (It’s technically in Nanuet with the Spring Valley town line sign bordering the property). Behind it to the right, some tractor trailers park there. It’s dirt and gravel on both sides into it and in the back you can see all the car speaker devices still there in rows. It seemed a bit small for a drive-in.
There are 592 seats, not 610. I was there for a special screening last week of “Sidewalk Astronomer.” Wow. Spacious inside. Ticket booth is on the left and concessions in the lobby on the right. The stairwell in the middle has a bannister and a stairwell on both sides. A great carpeted foyer and very nice tiled bathrooms are present. There’s a large sitting area with 4 nice leather chairs and many bookshelves where one can read and there’s a fireplace as well.
The large theater on the right side has 350 seats and the balcony has 242 totalling 592. I counted each one after the event. The main theater is gorgeous and very spacious. The seats are comfortable but very squeaky. There’s a stage with the screen and steps leading up from each side for Q and A. The seats on both sides' cupholders angle slightly toward the center but the seats are forward. There’s little lights under each aisle chair (armrest) on both sides of the aisle of the left and right aisle of the theater.
Watercolor paintings on cancas (3 on each side) adorn both walls. They look like murals but aren’t upon closer inspection. There are 2 undrawn red curtains on each side of the paintings with a horizontal light above each painting (that stay on with the aisle lights during the movie). On each side of the proscenium are 3D pedestals that come out with a painting in each one and it’s shaped like a half oval.
You can see the projection booth with curtains drawn on both sides and can tell it was the balcony at one point.
Standing in the lobby to the left is the mini-theater that was the entire balcony but it’s just half of it. The curtain in front has pink insulation behind it. There are 6, (3 on each side) original circular metal cutouts depicting ancient scenes of Peter Pan. The black iron is quite thin upon touching it and the current owners added multicolor gels that go around all of each one. 1 is a horse and buggy, 2 is a couple in Victorian wear with a house in the background, 3 is a pirate ship with the sun in back, 4 is Peter and Wendy, 5 is two folks and 6 is a bunch of Lost Boys by the water’s edge.
Oh yeah, that * I put in. I thought the $8,000 was too little but then after talking to the head of the CT State Parks/DEP, he told me it was more than generous. I thought it was too little because of the 5 full days of closure, 24/7 and camping. If they gave money to the Parks System, it would get spread out statewide, so they gave directly to the park itself. I wanted to see if Hollywood did their homework. I also asked how much Putnam Park received in a year and then to divide that by 52 weeks and see if the $8K was adequate but he was unable to provide numbers since money is split in this region between Putnam Park in Redding, Paugusett Forest in Newtown and Kettletown in Southbury. He told me not to worry, it was very generous.
Yep. I forgot to mention that. The Redding Pilot online version differed from the fuller print version.
Also, I wrote that 3 productions were happening, I meant it to say 36. Before the law was in effect last year, Connecticut received $1 million in taxes but now has received $450 million in revenue!
I didn’t know the upstairs was ever open. I went upstairs and there’s a small food court sitting area by the projection booth which is the office. At the other end of the theater is another register (upstairs) and there’s some nice decoration – 2 Ionic columns, one on either end, the color scheme is pink, blue and white with a small arc leading from one column to the other, like a rainbow.
One more thing. This theater is very structurally sound. The side on the left is freshly painted a stunning lavendar/violet all the way to the back of the former auditorium. The windows look new. It’s pretty long, maybe 100 feet or more. And it’s very near the continuance of Route 1 into Stratford where the neighborhood/light industry end.
The building is still there. East Bridgeport once had 3 theatres, but I was there last week and its last use was “The Stratford Club”. (It might as well be in Stratford, it’s very close to the line). The sign there said “Unsafe for Human Occupancy.”
It’s a large building. I went around it to the back where there are houses. It’s covered in ivy. To the left side is a stairwell that’s rickety and an open window. How tempting, but some neighborhood kids were wondering what I was up to. A lot of my driving by on bicycle, jotting down notes and snapping pics. There’s a rickety, rusted stairway on the right, but that alleyway is about 3 feet wide.
If you go down from it and make a left at the corner, you can see the length of it and the height, it’s red brick covered in ivy and is about 30 feet tall. There’s a garage door there, and above where the stagehouse would be is a “Vee” roof about 15 feet tall, like a mini house, the length of the back.
This building is for sale. The garage no longer exists.
The Barnum is for sale! Any takers? The sign said it was 2 floors, 1900 sq ft each floor.
Was owned by Alvin Sloan from the 30s to the 70s. See my last post from the Washington Theatre at /theaters/6644/
Was owned by Alvin Sloan from the 30s to the 70s. See my last post from the Washington Theatre. /theaters/6644/
Was formerly owned by Alvin Sloan from the 1930s to the 1970s. Check out my last post from the Washington Theatre at /theaters/6644/
Read an old article, it has 3,000 seats.
Rode by there last week. Still under construction.
The News-Times featured the changing of the Empress Ballroom over to the Heirloom Arts Theatre in today’s paper. Studio e will still be downstairs as well as their art gallery.
It will be run by Jay LaPierre, 27, from Bethel who is raising funds to renovate the space. He plans to make the approximately 2,000 square feet of space into a multimedia venue with live music performances, movies and stage theatrical productions. He’s qualified because his day job is at the Ridgefield Playhouse as director of operations. He wants to install a central heating and air-conditioning system and upgrade the bathrooms, as well as refinishing the floors, a new paint job, installation of sound-absorption material, a new snack bar area, expansion of the stage, and installation of a 35-millimeter projection system.
There’s a fundraiser this Sunday with a tag sale, outdoor barbecue and musical performances in the early evening.
There was a front page article (of the Entertainment section) on this theatre and its longtime proprietor in the Warren (NJ) Reporter from Thursday, August 9 (dated August 10). Unfortunately, they have no real good online source, so I’ll do the highlights.
It was titled “Former Owner’s legacy continues to project at Washington Theatre” and it has two pictures of former owner Alvin Sloan, 96, putting his hands into cement and signing his name.
“He was the building’s owner from the 1930s until the early 1970s and he was a trailblazer in promoting the motion picture business during the Golden Age of Hollywood. For years the theatre served as the HQ of a local movie empire owner by Sloan consisting of 14 theatres throughout the area, including ones in Belvidere, Hackettstown and Blairstown.”
The theatre opened in 1927 and the 1930s projectors and antique padded reclining chairs still remain.
Now the owner is Marco Matteo, who reopened it in 2006 after it was closed for 5 years.
Alvin grew up in Montclair and was obsessed with silent-film and after high school, opted not to attend college and became assistant manager of a theater in Washington and then did other theater jobs until he and his friend, Clifton Smith, operated 4 theaters, which eventually led him to own or lease 14 more.
They did giveaways like partnering with local businesses to give away a piece of silverware to women who attended each week and they would have a complete set by the end of the year.
“Sloan ended his 45 years in the motion picture business in 1972 when he sold all his theatre real estate.”
There was a great piece on this theatre as well as Pleasant Valley Drive-in in last week’s Play magazine (weekly) in the New Haven, CT area. View link
Katharine Hepburn mentioned this theatre as one of many she performed in, in the early days of her career, on the Dick Cavett show DVD from 1973.