Regent Theatre
43 Broad Street,
Elizabeth,
NJ
07202
43 Broad Street,
Elizabeth,
NJ
07202
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The Regent theatre opened on September 7th, 1922. Grand opening ad posted. Movies stopped in 1974.
The first professional band I ever worked for was Hot Tuna at the Regent Theater on May 5th, 1976. What a memory, I was only 17.
The entrance to the Regent Theatre was at 43 Broad Street, now the location of the Zarah Furniture store.
Sorry, my comment above should have referred to the Regent theatre, NOT the liberty theatre.
The adjacent building with a marquee mentioned above was not a theatre unless it had a VERY long lobby going all the way behing the Liberty Theatre to available space back there.
I wonder iof there’s any chance any of the Liberty Auditorium survives behind retail modofications. There are no windows cut into the sidwall of the auditorium.
Nice photos again Chuck.
This site has a 1973 photo. Not sure if the adjacent business with the marquee was a former theater:
http://tinyurl.com/cn7blf
I worked at St. Elizabeth Hospital for several years in the 1970s and I passed by the Regent and Fine Arts everyday. Of course by then, the Fine Arts was a clothing store and the Regent had closed and then re-opened. In addition to the Kung-Fu films mentioned above, I also remember seeing the marquee state rather dramatically, that “Joe Don Baker Is Walking Tall!!”. Seems kind of funny now. I also recall that once in the early 60s, my mother, brother and I went to see The Tingler at the Fine Arts. I believe Psycho was playing next door at the Regent and my mother said no to that one!
This theatre, as well as the Ritz around the corner on East Jersey Street, were part of the RKO Stanley Warner corporation, playing mostly action/kung-fu movies up until they ceased operations in the early 1980’s.
Listed as a RKO-Stanley Warner theater in March 1969 when it showed 2001 (courtesy of Bill Huelbig):
View link
A Griffith-Beach organ was installed in this theater in 1923.
it was showing movies in the ‘60s and pretty sure at least some part of the '70s.
i saw 'the graduate’, ‘the arrangement’, ‘three into two won’t go’,
‘krakatoa, east of java’ ‘sweet charity’, ‘the night they raided minsky’s’ and ‘the happy ending’ here.
This building is also located on a historic site:
“The SITE OF SHEPARD KOLLOCK’S PRINTING OFFICE, 39 Broad St., is now occupied by the Regent Theater Building. It was here that Shepard Kollock, an ink-stained Revolutionist, lived and printed one of New Jersey’s first newspapers, the New Jersey journal, still being published as the Elizabeth Daily Journal.
Kollock was born in Delaware in 1751 and learned the printing business in the office of his uncle, William Goddard, editor of the Pennsylvania Chronicle. He resigned from the Continental Army for the more vital task of combating the Tory press of New York City. Kollock printed his first issues in 1779 in Chatham, N. J. In 1785 he moved to Elizabeth and built a combined home, printing office, and bookstore. When he died in 1839 he was buried across the street in the Presbyterian cemetery.”
Now is an office building.
from Basile Baumann Prost & Associates, Inc. website:
“Elizabeth, NJ— Conversion of the old Regent Theater into office and retail uses."
Must have been used for concerts in the 1970s.
Hot Tuna played there on 5/1/1976.
Listed in the 1951 FDY at 39 Broad Street w/o the RKO affiliation.
The Regent Theatre opened as a Warner Bros Theatre and seated 2481 people. Warner operated two theatre in town, the other one was the 2806 seat Ritz Theatre.