Cameo Theatre
223 Ocean Avenue,
Jersey City,
NJ
07305
223 Ocean Avenue,
Jersey City,
NJ
07305
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Opening was delayed until January 17th, 1927. Grand opening ad posted.
The “Theaters in Construction” column of the February 3, 1926, issue of Variety had this item:
C. H. Ziegler was also the architect of the Orient Theatre in Jersey City.The theater became a bowling alley, then Murray’s steaks, there was a cup and cone on the north end of the building followed by Peckman’s pharmacy,then Kozak paints and last a pet store. Peckman’s occupies most of the building, mostly where the seats were.The lobby part of the building was where Murray’s steaks and the used furniture store were located. The others were on the stage end. At the present time the lobby section and the stage section seem to be vacant.
I saw my first movie there “Davy Crockett”
The Cameo Theatre in Jersey City was set to open the following night, according to an announcement in the January 16, 1927, issue of The Film Daily.
i sold newspapers on the corner, in the sixties, and early seventies. the theater was alreay a bowling then.
The current store in the front is selling office supplies. The drugstore appears to be gone now, -the theatre’s storefront is the only one left on this side of the block – all else is parking. But you can see the auditorium in back. people would walk straight back and turn turn right to enter the auditorium. From the air it looks big enough to seat at least 1,000. There is a small window in the side wall of the auditorium so it may be gutted inside. Then again they may have simply punched a small hole in the wall. The side that’s the back of the lobby is still complete – no windows.
This picture suggests that the theater was converted to a bowling alley at some time.
Looking at the view of 223 Ocean Avenue on Google Maps, it looks like the theater building is being used to sell office furniture. The adjoining business is Peckman’s Pharmacy, which may be using part of the old theater building for storage. I don’t think 1485 people could fit in the small furniture building.
Here is a photo, circa 1950s:
http://tinyurl.com/ytk7h9
This was a Fox theatre doing live shows in 1929:
Program cover:
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2nd page:
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Listed as part of Independent Theater Service, Inc. in the 1956 Film Daily Yearbook.