Beach Theatre
1318 Atlantic Avenue,
Atlantic City,
NJ
08401
1318 Atlantic Avenue,
Atlantic City,
NJ
08401
3 people
favorited this theater
Showing 26 - 47 of 47 comments
As I recall it was between South Carolina and New York avenues, about mid block on the east side of the street.
Can anyone tell me quickly an approximate street address? I’m heading for Atlantic City tomorrow to examine and report on the sites of the old moviehouses.
At least, can you tell me what streets it was between on Atlantic Avenue? Thank you.
The Beach Theatre was the subject of an item in the August, 1984, issue of Boxoffice Magazine. The house had been closed since the previous November when a fire had done extensive damage to it and to adjacent buildings. There had been some hope that the Beach could be reopened, but real estate agents handling the building said that the only interest shown in it was from a potential purchaser who wanted to convert it to non-theatrical commercial use.
The item said that the house had opened in 1911 as the Embassy Theatre, had become the Shore Theatre in 1947, and was renamed the Beach Theatre in 1952.
An item in the February 15, 1947, issue of Boxoffice said that the old Embassy Theatre, which had become the City Square Theatre during the silent movie era, was being renovated for the Waxmann chain and would soon reopen as the Shore Theatre.
An April 9, 1952, Boxoffice item said that Henry Waxmann’s Hollywood Circuit had recently moved the Shore Theatre name to the former Cinema, and that the old Shore had then been reopened by an independent operator as the Beach Theatre.
The aka’s Embassy Theatre, City Square Theatre, and Shore Theatre need to be added to this page, and the aka’s currently on the Embassy Theatre page need to be removed. The Embassy, opened about 1942, was the third Atlantic City house of that name, and apparently never operated under any other name.
I was pretty close. This is a 1982 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/cfbxdm
Since we have no photos, these are my recollections from 30 years ago:
Large metal marquee with square letters spelling out Beach
Cashier booth on the south side of the entrance
Ticket taker sitting on a stool just inside the entrance
Old candy counter with nothing being sold
Good-sized interior, maybe 400-500 seats
Seats were old and not that comfortable
No curtain
Right, but we’re talking about north/south numbers that get bigger as you go downtown, or south. Since the theater was in the middle of the block, more or less, you wouldn’t be concerned with any east or west numbers starting in the beach block and going westward.
If you were facing the front of the Beach, the ocean was two blocks beyond the rear of the theater.
My school was a couple of blocks south on Pacific and North Carolina and had a 1216 address. I think the Beach would have been between 1200 and 1300, on the east or even side of the street. The Googlemobile skipped AC, it looks like.
Renewing link.
Is this just a parking lot now? Did they replace the theater with another building? Atlantic Avenue today is pretty dismal.
Interesting that, despite its reduced circumstances, this was the last surviving moviehouse from the good old days.
Regarding the popcorn, there wasn’t any. There was a ratty looking display with some candy bars, but I don’t know who were supposed to pay if you actually wanted one.
Whenever I visited A.C. in the summers from 1954-61, the Beach always had the biggest Columbia picture available at that time including “Anatomy of a Murder” (summer of 1959) and “The Guns of Navarone” (summer of 1961). — Ed Blank
Verona Lanes was on the Black Horse Pike shortly after you got out of Pleasantville going towards AC. I used to go there and also to Absecon Lanes, which is now some kind of chain restaurant in Absecon.
My 1967 FDY shows the Beach as a Milgram theater, along with the Charles.
Wow, I used to hang out at the Melody Lounge. Also Rum Point Pub, Tony Mart’s, Bayshores, The Dunes, Verona Lanes…. All after running a show. Those were the days!
The Beach burned late in 1982. The film was called “The Filthy Rich”. I believed that Samantha Fox was in it. I was interviewed by the Atlantic City Press a few days after the fire. The collum was called “Duffy’s People”.
The Beach burned in 1982, unless there was another fire later:
http://tinyurl.com/34qutk
I used to go to a coffee shop across the street from Lit’s called the Stanley. They had great pies. That place burned down in the mid 70s. There was also a bar further down South Carolina between Atlantic and Pacific called the Melody Lounge. Harold and the Blue Notes and some other great Philly R&B groups used to play there.
Your’re right, Ken. The triple X films kept the Beach in business. When I worked there, ushers were non existent. Just the cashier. I don’t even think that they sold popcorn.
If weren’t for VCR’s the Beach Theatre might have stayed open longer…until the internet.
I remember old projectionist Fred Rest & Fred Dodd. telling me that the Beach had different names at one time. I believe that it was called City Square, and Shore (not the same Shore at Ohio & Atlantic). My memory is foggy.
The fire in 1982 started in the shoe store by a kerosene heater. There were stores at the lobby level, and empty apartments above the stores & lobby.
The Beach was in the middle of the block, on the east side of the street between South Carolina and New York Avenues. I went to my first adult film there in the late 70s. I was fifteen or so and tried to look older to get past the usher, who couldn’t have cared less. The admission was $5, which was a lot for those days.
George Perry was the owner of the Beach when it was XXX. He also owned the Ventnor Twin Plaza (new build in 1973). The Beach had Brenket BX-60 projectors & Brenkert Enarc Carbon lamps. I think that we were running a motor generator too. One evening in 1982, I was running a film “The Filty Rich”, I was sitting there reading a hot rod magazine (seriously), when I smelled smoke. The Autotorium was filled with smoke. It looked like a drive-in on a foggy night. I called down to the cashier and told her to call the fire dept. I shut off the show, turned on the house lights, and pulled the chain to close the metal port hole covers. As I left the booth, I closed
the steel corrugated, fire door. I couldn’t see and was choking on smoke as I found the hallway by the abbandoned apartments and the
door tha lead dowm the steps to the back of the balcony. A fireman
opened the balcony door and yelled hurry up! Get the hell out of here!
As I ran down the steps, they were on fire! I got out safely and
didn’t get burnt. Because I closed all of the fire doors The Beach was able to reopen in a few months. I think that it closed forever in 1983, and George Perry became a District Manager for “The Franks”. The beach was next to “Lit Bros.” dept. store. and the marquee said “Beach” in vertical neon letters.
Howard
My first visit to the beach was in 1968 to see Yours Mine and Ours. At that time they had the old fashioned screen that the masking just came down for scope. Years later when I went back they had a new screen that the masking went down and opened horizontal for scope pictures.Tannembaum changed to porno after bookng family and Disney films for many years and having the theater torn up by kids. The theater also has boxes all along the right and left side of the balcony.
The Beach was operated by Charles Tannenbaum who also had the Charles
and the Tilton Theater (in Northfield). The Beach was a great theater
with a good sized balcony. I probably saw more movies at the Beach than any other theater. During the 60’s and 70’s the Beach mainly booked films from United Artists and Columbia. I recall the screen being pretty large and flat but do not recall details such as movable masking, curtains, 70mm capacity, etc.