Stanley Theatre
983 S. Orange Avenue,
Newark,
NJ
07106
983 S. Orange Avenue,
Newark,
NJ
07106
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Additional Info
Previously operated by: Fabian Theaters, Stanley-Warner Theatres, Warner Bros. Circuit Management Corp.
Architects: Frank Grad
Styles: Atmospheric, Spanish Renaissance
Nearby Theaters
This Spanish Atmospheric style theatre was named for the Warner Brothers-owned circuit that built it. Frank Grad was the architect, with interior decoration by Landish Studios. The auditorium is a virtual replica of the Atmospheric Spanish Renaissance courtyard of the Jersey City Stanley Theatre. The lobby is also done in a similar Atmospheric Spanish Renaissance style. The Stanley Theatre first opened on May 26, 1927 with May McAvoy in “The Fire Brigade”, but due to its location in the Upper Vailsburg district in the western outskirts of Newark, it ran second-run to the circuit’s downtown Branford Theatre. It was equipped with a Wurlitzer 3 manual 11 ranks organ. Within a year after opening, a stage curtain caught fire and badly damaged the organ console. A new 3 manual Wurlitzer console was supplied from the Wurlitzer factory and installed in August 1928.
By the late-1950’s, the Stanley Theatre was no longer profitable and got sold to an Italian-American cultural organization that turned it into a social hall called Casa Italiana. All of the Atmospheric style decor was retained, but the single floor auditorium was cleared of seats so it could be used for dining and dancing.
In the early-1980’s the building changed ownership and it became known as the Newark Gospel Tabernacle. A recent photograph shows the exterior little changed, and the auditorium has been beautifully restored.
The church had vacated the building by 2023 when its condition was seen to be deteriorating. The building is ‘For Sale’.
Contributed by
Warren G. Harris
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Recent comments (view all 19 comments)
I went there as a teenager to casa italiana!! we loved it!! the music was great and we used to see ourselves on Tv with Umberto of Naples!!
Marisa Panicucci(Craco)
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!
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.
I grew up nearby in South Orange. I took in many a Saturday Matinee throughout the 1960s.
“Casa Italiana” was co-owned by Seton Hall and The Knights Of Columbus. My Italian class from Columbia H.S. ate lunch there once.
I’m happy to see the wonderful renovation The Newark Tabernacle has done to the building.
Here is a webpage with some wonderful interior shots of the Stanley theater showing the renovation done by the Newark Gospel Tabernacle. Shows both lobbies and auditorium. This theatre may have served as an inspiration for Fred Wentworth when he designed the Stanley in Jersey City – the auditoriums are remarkably similar, although the Newark Stanley has a fully atmospheric lobby. The building looks in excellent shape!
http://www.newarkhistory.com/newarktabernacle.html
Their webpage listed above appears to be down.
Tiger09 you probably finished your paper already but if you still need info on when it was Casa Italiana I can help my parents worked there so I basically grew up in that building from 1980 up until when it was sold. You can email me for info If you have any pics I would love to see them. This place brings back lots of memories.
I can remember going to the Stanley just about every Saturday afternoon in the late forties and early and mid fifties. I say just about because every once and awhile, the Mayfair Theatre which was two block further up South Orange Avenue, played something better. But that was very seldom and the Stanley was the kids theatre of choice as well the “the place to see and be seen.” Saturday afternoon (1:00 P.M. to be exact) was when I could go to the Stanley, see two full length features, usually either scary or a western, a bunch of cartoons and a serial. Not bad for twenty five cents. Right next door to the Stanley was a 5 & 10 Cent Store and that was the place we all stopped for the movie candy. Three packs of candy for a dine. Selection of the candy was always fun…two candies were for eating, the third for throwing. You see, as soon as the lights went down and the movie began, the Stanley became a war zone with candy flying in every direction. My choice of ammo, Black Crows or Dots. After about ten minutes, calm would set in and we’d settle in to watch Tom Mix or Frankenstein. After the movies, around 5:00 P.M. I grab the “Green Flyer Bus (another Nickel) down South Orange Avenue so I could be home for supper at 5:30 PM. If Saturday was for the kids, then Wednesday Night was "Ladies Night.” I can remember my mother and my oldest sister (then 18) going to the Stanley every week to see a movie but even more important, to pick up the free dish or plate of the week. After about 18 months, you could collect a full service for eight. Everyone on my block had the same dishes. The Stanley played an important role in my growing up years. It was a fun place in what seems to have been, much easier days.
Their official website is at: http://www.newarktab.org/
They have some good photos too – looks like the church is doing very well!
The church must have vacated the premises some time ago but it is not in very good condition inside and is currently up for sale.
The Stanley theatre opened on May 26th, 1927 “Neath Spanish Skies”. Grand opening ad posted.