Camden, New Jersey Movie Theaters

Camden, NJ in its prime had many theaters, and it wasn’t all movies! Camden had its theatres in the Vaudeville days, and venues like the Arlo and the Towers, up Westfield Avenue in Pennsauken, hosted live shows right up until the end in the 1970s.

Of course, before the age of film Camden had its share of theaters. The crown jewel of course was the Temple Theater at 415 Market Street, on ground now occupied by the United States Post Office for which the grand old palace was razed. Both the Towers and the Lyric Theaters on Broadway predated film, were able to transition, and are well remembered as movie houses. There were other theaters that did not make the switch from live entertainment to film, notable of which was the Broadway, on Broadway near Sycamore Street, where a bank building has been for many, many years.

Of course Camden was the home of the world’s first drive-in movie, invented by Richard M. Hollingshead, whose family operated the R.M. Hollingshead Corporation chemical plant in Camden. It opened up on June 6, 1933, and remained in business for three years. Camden later had a drive-in situated between Mt. Ephraim Avenue and Crescent Boulevard, the Black Horse Twin, that stayed in operation until at least 1978.

It was in 1907 that Herbert Megowan (1862–1948) opened his first movie theater in Camden on the second floor of a building at the southeast corner of Broadway and Chestnut Street, over Sam Goldstein’s men’s furnishing store. Patrons were seated on folding wooden chairs, one reel was shown, and the price of admission was five cents.

After a few months at this location, Mr. Megowan moved his movie enterprise to 929 Broadway, where he had a front door location. The price of admission remained five cents.

Other movie houses were started, and Mr. Megowan saw the necessity of adding something to the reel showing. He hired Don Travaline as pianist to play the popular songs of the day. John McGowan was the vocalist. Later, Mr. McGowan operated his third motion picture theater at the northeast corner of Broadway at Clinton Street and the fourth, The Rio, at North Twenty Seventh Street and River Road. The Rio was later acquired by the Savar Theatre Corporation, owned by Samuel and Joseph A. Varbalow.

In East Camden, Paul G. Huber operated Huber’s Family Theater at 2409 Federal Street in 1918. He sold the tickets, started the player piano and started the movie. Another theater, the Crystal Palace, was open at that time at 2508 Federal Street. Both of these theaters gave way when the new Victoria Theater was built at 2516 Federal Street. The Victoria first appears in Camden Directories in 1921.

Another Camden entrepreneur, Charles Kaufmann, built the Parkside Theater in the early 1920s. Samuel Varbalow and family owned the Savar Movie Corporation, which owned the Savar, the above-mentioned Victoria, the Rio, and the Midway theaters, among others.

Camden’s flagship movie palace, the million-dollar Stanley Theater, opened in 1926. The Stanley featured top-flight live entertainment… acts very willing to come to Camden on Sunday, as Philadelphia venues were all closed that day.

Early in 1928 the “talkies” came to Camden, as the Walt Whitman Theater on Westfield Avenue, just over the city line in Pennsauken NJ, installed sound equipment.

After World War II, with the advent of television and especially with an improved economy that put more people in automobiles, neighborhood theaters slowly began to close their doors across America. The Victoria, a modern theater in 1921, was replaced by the new Arlo by October of 1956. A new building however, could not stave off the decline in attendance. By May of 1964 there were only four movie theaters open in Camden — the Stanley, the Savar, the Midway, and the Arlo in East Camden. The Stanley was razed in 1965 to make way for a Holiday Inn that never came, and the Savar closed around the same time. The Midway and the Arlo limped along for years, but neither building survived the 1980s, the Arlo serving as a caterer’s hall and later hosted professional wrestling events before falling to the wrecker’s ball.

• Stanley — Broadway & Market Street — 605 Market Street
• Savar — 633–637 Market Street
• Grand — Broadway & Mickle Street — 207 Broadway
• Lyric (1909–1910) — 515 Broadway
• Lyric (1914–1940s) — Broadway & Newton Street — 1013–15 Broadway
• Princess — Broadway & Chestnut Street — 1104 Broadway
• Roxy — 1117 Broadway (Previously The Garden)
• Elm Theatre — 510 Elm Street
• Broadway — Broadway & Carman Street (Later The Midway)
• Towers — Broadway & Pine Street — 704 Broadway
• Parkside — 1191 Haddon Avenue (Previously The Forest Hill)
• Liberty — 1502–1506 Mount Ephraim Avenue
• Star — Broadway & Viola Street — 1842 Broadway
• Rio — 2711 River Road (Previously The Auditorium)
• Huber’s Family Theater — 2403 Federal Street
• Crystal Palace — 2508 Federal Street (Previously The Empire Theater)
• Victoria — 2516 Federal Street
• Arlo — 2600 Block of Westfield Avenue
• Standard — 203 Vine Street (Later The North Camden)
• North Camden — 203 Vine Street (Previously Cooper’s Point Moving Picture Parlor, and The Standard)
• New Temple — 415 Market Street
• Plaza — 514 Market Street
• Colonial — 516 Market Street
• The Casino — 403 Broadway
• The Royal — 935 Broadway (Later Flitcraft & Paul)
• The Unique — 941 Broadway
• Dreamland — 515 Broadway
• Dreamland — 1056 Kaighn Avenue
• Star Palace — 605 Broadway
• Kaighn Palace — 451 Broadway
• Folz’ Theatre — 1024 Broadway
• The Hippodrome — 1014 Broadway
• Majestic Theatre — 1211 Broadway
• Penn Palace — North 27th Street & Saunders Street
• Pyne Point Picture Parlor — Joseph A. Hardy — 907 North 5th & Vine Streets
• The Alaska — 510 Market Street
• The Empire — 1832 Fillmore Street
• The Forrest — 907 Market Street
• Peoples — 1731 Broadway
• Princeton Theater — 301 Kaighn Avenue
• The Rosedale — 3614 Federal Street
• The Royden — South 5th & Royden Streets
• Pastime Theater — 825 Elm Street

The Century was up until its razing around the year 2002, at White Horse Pike and Kings Highway in Audubon. The Crescent, on Mt. Ephraim Avenue, now holds a tire business. I posted this here more to denote the presence of Jed Dooley, who had some ties to Camden.

— Phil Cohen

The premiere showing of “The Racing Strain” will be the feature attraction at the Camden Drive-In Theatre, the world’s first automobile movie theatre, near Central Airport, for three days beginning tomorrow.

“The Racing Strain” features Wallace Reid, Jr., son of the famous late Paramount Picture star. It is the youngster’s initial screen effort to follow in the footsteps of his father. Supporting Reid, Jr. is J. Farrell MacDonald, Dickie Moore, Phyllis Barrington, Eddie Phillips, Kit Guard, Paul Fix, Ethel Wales and others. A comedy, cartoon and Pathé News rounds out the program.

Patrons of the Camden Drive-In Theatre sit in their cars and see and hear the movies.

Asbestos lumber made its debut in Camden with the building of the operating and screenroom of the new outdoor automobile moving picture theatre on Admiral Wilson boulevard.

Original plans called for a composition which would have required considerable painting, but the colorful effect of this new material eliminated the painting problem. This new material made in sheets 21 x 24 inches is weatherproof and fireproof. Since its erection it has been discovered that the nature of this material, because it does not vibrate, has improved the anticipated sound effects. It was supplied by the Antrim Hardware Company of Camden, who are the exclusive distributors for this new product.

“Slightly Married,” featuring Walter Byron, Evelyn Knapp, Marie Prevost, Robert Ellis, Jason Robards, Clarissa Selwynne and Phillips Smalley at the Camden Drive-In Theatre near Central Airport, the world’s first automobile movie theatre with shows nightly at 8:45 and 10:15 o’clock.

Beginning Sunday night at 8:15 and 10:15, Helen Twelvetrees’ success, “Her Man,” will be the feature attraction. The story of “Frankie and Johnnie” not only earned stardom for Miss Twelvetrees but brought fame to Phillips Holmes, practically unknown until his work in “Her Man.” Ricardo Cortez, Marjorie Rambeau, star of “Warrior’s Husband,” James Gleason, Franklin Pangborn, Harry Sweet, Stanley Fields, Matthew Betz, Sally Ferguson, Blythe Daly, Ruth Hiatt, Edith Rosita, Leila Karnelly, Peggy Howard and others are in the supporting cast.

OK… it was in Pennsauken… but it sure was close!

Additional Comments by James Rickenbach

I used to live directly across the street from the old wooden building. It was at 27th Street and Harrison Avenue. I grew up knowing it as the “Curtain Factory.” They made the material for window shades for a company in Philadelphia. It was run by the Ott family. My father grew up in the same house and he said the entire river front lot across the street was a family type park when he was young. The wooden building was originally a dance hall. It later became a nickelodeon.

The Stanley would be closed and gone the following year. In the days before cable television, major sporting events would be broadcast by closed circuit television to theaters. I saw Muhammad Ali fight on closed circuit at the old Cherry Hill Arena back in the 1960s.

— Phil Cohen, September 13, 2005

“If people want to watch their favorite stars at the movies, why not relax under a star-lit canopy?” Perhaps this thought was going through Richard M. Hollingshead Jr.’s mind in the early 1930s as he perched a projector on top of the family automobile and projected movies onto a makeshift screen in the driveway of his New Jersey home. Recognizing that a car interior presented a comfortable private box from which to watch movies, Hollingshead applied for a patent for a unique type of motion picture theatre — the drive-in theatre. On May 16, 1933, patent number 1909537 was granted. Three weeks later, Hollingshead’s new company, Park-In Theatres Inc., completed construction of the world’s first drive-in theatre in Camden, N.J.

On June 6, 1933, the Camden Drive-In Theatre admitted its first patrons. The ticket price was 25 cents per car, plus 25 cents per person. And the opening attraction was “Wife Beware,” a second-run feature from 1932. Even then, drive-in theatres were regarded as “second-run” operations, a reputation that would plague them for years.

Hollingshead targeted his invention not just at regular moviegoers but at individuals who couldn’t readily drop what they were doing to go and see a film. That group included families with small children (up to 40 percent of the population at the time); people who did not have proper attire for a social event; people turned off by parking problems and fees; and those with disabilities — moviegoers that many indoor theatres have had a difficult time providing for today.

The Camden drive-in boasted a 335 car capacity on a site that measured 500 feet by 600 feet. It had three 10-foot directional baffle speakers powered by RCA High Fidelity sound equipment. The speakers were placed at appropriate angles so that the sound would overlap. Unfortunately, those sitting at the back experienced a slight sound delay. It wasn’t until later in the ’30s, when the in-car speaker was introduced, that the listening experience improved.

After the Camden Drive-In Theatre’s premier, a patent battle developed between Park-In Theatres Inc. and a number of individuals and companies who had embraced this new form of movie entertainment and decided to construct their own drive-in theatres without a licensing agreement. Court rulings differed from one jurisdiction to the next. But drive-in theatres slowly began appearing all over the United States. And when a court settlement in 1949 required the major film companies to allow drive-in theatres to present first-run films, the industry exploded.

Looking at the fate of the Camden Drive-In Theatre, which sadly closed down in 1936 after only three years in business, some people would consider it a failure. Although the drive-in theatre did sustain some casualties back then, the number of drive-in theatres in the U.S. peaked at more than 4,000 in 1958. And with its resurgence today, the drive-in theatre is more than just a passing fad, it’s an American icon that has withstood the test of time and still touches the hearts of countless moviegoers.

— Mark J. Bialek is president of The Drive-In Theatre Fan Club in Baltimore, Md.