Regarding my previous post, it appears I made a mistake. By the Great Depression, the Majestic was already showing double features. It must have been purchased by Walter Reade during the 1920s. (source: View link )
According to a history book about Perth Amboy (google book preview available here View link ), this theater was actually owned by Counihan and Shannon as a playhouse before it became Proctor’s and was turned into a vaudeville stage. I’m guessing that at some point in the late 1930s or early 1940s it was purchased by the Walter Reade Organization, renamed the Majestic, and started showing movies, since it was already quite popular by the mid 1940s. The link above also has two pretty good pictures, on page 63.
To PGZ- all of the seats actually were removed at some point. Though there are seats there now, these are certainly not the original ones, which would have looked much more like the rows at the Stanley Theater in Jersey City.
Could anyone who went there when it was still Casa Italiana talk more about what it looked like and what it did? I’m a university student who is writing a large research paper about the architecture of the Stanley theaters in New Jersey, and any personal accounts (or photos if they exist!) would be much appreciated.
I have in fact been inside recently, and have taken a number of pictures, and will post the link here after I am done uploading them. They are in the early stages of undergoing a major renovation project to make several repairs and restore the building to be not only a church but a community performing art center. Exciting stuff!
Does anyone happen to know what the mythological paintings that were originally in the vault over the staircase looked like? Or what stories they were of? I’m writing a paper for a class about the transformation of this building, so any information that anyone remembers would be much appreciated!
Also, someone mentioned that there used to be statues around. I hadn’t seen any of them in the old photographs (though I haven’t seen that many old photographs) so if anyone remembered more details about these too, that would be fantastic.
Regarding my previous post, it appears I made a mistake. By the Great Depression, the Majestic was already showing double features. It must have been purchased by Walter Reade during the 1920s. (source: View link )
According to a history book about Perth Amboy (google book preview available here View link ), this theater was actually owned by Counihan and Shannon as a playhouse before it became Proctor’s and was turned into a vaudeville stage. I’m guessing that at some point in the late 1930s or early 1940s it was purchased by the Walter Reade Organization, renamed the Majestic, and started showing movies, since it was already quite popular by the mid 1940s. The link above also has two pretty good pictures, on page 63.
To PGZ- all of the seats actually were removed at some point. Though there are seats there now, these are certainly not the original ones, which would have looked much more like the rows at the Stanley Theater in Jersey City.
Could anyone who went there when it was still Casa Italiana talk more about what it looked like and what it did? I’m a university student who is writing a large research paper about the architecture of the Stanley theaters in New Jersey, and any personal accounts (or photos if they exist!) would be much appreciated.
I have in fact been inside recently, and have taken a number of pictures, and will post the link here after I am done uploading them. They are in the early stages of undergoing a major renovation project to make several repairs and restore the building to be not only a church but a community performing art center. Exciting stuff!
Does anyone happen to know what the mythological paintings that were originally in the vault over the staircase looked like? Or what stories they were of? I’m writing a paper for a class about the transformation of this building, so any information that anyone remembers would be much appreciated!
Also, someone mentioned that there used to be statues around. I hadn’t seen any of them in the old photographs (though I haven’t seen that many old photographs) so if anyone remembered more details about these too, that would be fantastic.