Apollo Theatre
180 S. New York Avenue,
Atlantic City,
NJ
08401
180 S. New York Avenue,
Atlantic City,
NJ
08401
4 people
favorited this theater
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The Apollo closed in October 1977. Ad:
Apollo theatre last ad 09 Oct 1977, Sun Press of Atlantic City (Atlantic City, New Jersey) Newspapers.com
Opened April 13th, 1908.
Apollo theatre opening 12 Apr 1908, Sun The Sunday Gazette (Atlantic City, New Jersey) Newspapers.com
The synopsis is incorrect. The theater closed in August of 72 when the Frank’s did not want to renew the lease. They had the roadshow engagement of Last Tango In Paris which moved to the Margate. The following year Charles Tannemabum turned it into the Apollo Burlesque when he closed the Capitol.
Taken over by Frank theatres in 1970 from Apollo theatres and became an adult theatre in 1974 and closed or stopped placing ads in 1977.
vindanpar We spent summers in AC from 67-78. They played the Dirty Dozen all summer of 67. Memorial day weekend 68 they had Guess Whose Coming To Dinner and a few weeks later opened The Odd Couple which played all summer. They also installed a new screen between 67 and 68 summers. The 1.85 ratio for Guess Whose Coming To Dinner was much more of a square block than The Dirty Dozen was. Scope for The Odd Couple was great. The next few years the theater went down hill big time. They closed in mid August with Last Tango In Paris which was roadshow. Frank Theater chain choose not to renew the lease. The following year Charlie Tannenbaum purchased and renamed it the Apollo Burlesque after he closed the Capitol.LTIP moved to the Margate non roadshow
DavidZornig’s Easter photo made me think of Clifton Webb.
When I first was in Atlantic City Odd Couple was at the Apollo while it was playing at Radio City in NY. When I went again in ‘71 Shaft was playing. AC had already changed enormously in those few years. It was if at the end of the 60s the middle class suddenly stopped going there.
Howard B I wonder if we knew each other as we grew up the same tim ein Atlantic City. I saw some of the same movies you mention in a 2005 posting.
This theater was the site of Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman’s disastrous 1930 first out-of-town tryout for their eventual smash hit comedy Once in a Lifetime, their first collaboration.
Many thanks residents for the above URLs and informative posts. I’d like to share with site visitors a web page regarding one European (actually German) vaudeville act called the Six Rockets that passed through Atlantic City on a couple of occasions. The page here: View link links up many vintage photos from the Act’s two visits there, although sadly none are from inside any theatre itself and rather reveals what an act was up to when not on the stage.
However, I would like to take this opportunity to enquire whether CT readers may know whether some theatres more than others among Atlantic City’s vaudeville houses may have hosted German or European acts (if that’s a possibility at all). A number of the city’s residents claimed German ancestry, so would some houses like the Apollo perhaps have catered rather more for the German speaking community? From the German Programm that the girls can be seen reading here: View link it would appear so.
Any suggestions or thoughts are more than welcome. Thank you very much in advance and I trust this post is useful to visitors.
The Apollo can be seen at the bottom of this postcard:
http://tinyurl.com/24lqfza
Here is another vintage photo:
http://tinyurl.com/2c4r4lq
Here is a larger version of the postcard linked in January 2008:
http://tinyurl.com/273z6az
it is mentioned here that “Birth of a Nation” kicked off the summer season at the Nixon in July 1915. Obviously Memorial Day was not the start of summer as that holiday hadn’t been invented yet.
http://tinyurl.com/y9o2dva
This is from Boxoffice magazine in June 1958:
ATLANTIC CITY-“High School Confidential”, first Albert Zugsmith film for MGM release, opened here May 29 to considerable fanfare. Zugsmith is a native son of Atlantic City and he and Jan Sterling, Charles Chaplin Jr., Jackie Coogan and DIane Jergens, stars of the film, received a rousing welcome.
The opening at the Apollo Theatre was for the benefit of the United Cerebral Palsy Fund. There was a motorcade parade, testimonial lunches and dinners and an address by Zugsmith at Atlantic City High School.
Renewing link.
No. I went to the Beach Theater once on Atlantic Avenue when I was a teenager, to see an adult film, but I never had the nerve to try this place.
That’s the place. Boy does that bring back memories. Thanks for the photo.
I don’t remember the hippie place. The burlesque place that I referred to on 9/3/05 was actually on the ground floor of the Morton.
The theatre on Virginia between Pacific & the BW, may have been the Quarterdeck? I went there in 1970 & it was a teenage (hippie) dance club called “Phaze II”. In 1971 I remember some kind of a stage show on the marquee: “What Is Life?”. I can still see the nearby Morton Hotel.
Saw “The Five Pennies” there in the summer of 1959. I remember thinking the Apollo was less distinctive than most of the other Atlantic City moviehouses of that era. – Ed Blank
Among the movies that played the Apollo was “The Five Pennies” in the summer of 1959. – Ed Blank
Note that in TC’s 1966 postcard there is a billboard advertising “Fralinger’s Salt Water Taffy”. Seems likely that this was the same Fralinger who was involved in the construction of the Apollo Theatre.
1966 postcard:
View link
With Ron’s 1934 date for movies, then I will speculate that’s when architect William H. Lee worked on this theater.
From what I know, an Embass Suites now sits on the site of the former Apollo theater. It closed as a burlesque house arounf 1977 because the auditorium was condemed. I knew Charlie Tannenbaum who owned the theatre from my banking days, After they closed the theatre, the lobby was used for charectures. That burned and some friends of mine opened a clothing store there.