One of the more popular subjects referred to on this blog is recalling those great theaters we had in Trenton all during the first half of the 20th century. The Mayfair, Orpheum, Stacy, Trent, Lincoln, Garden, Gaiety, Greenwood, Rialto, Victory, Princess, Centre, Strand, and the late, great, RKO Palace Theater which was located on South Broad Street in the Mill Hill section of Trenton. This post contains three separate graphics, illustrating the transition of the "BROAD STREET THEATER" from the first decade of the 20th century up to the "RKO PALACE" theater which will be familiar to most of my generation as being a viable and well-attended theater. It was a custom back in the 30's and 40's for two theaters to feature the same movies. The Gaiety and Centre always had the same movies on the same date. Likewise, the RKO Lincoln and RKO Palace shared the same movies at the same time. The golden age of the Trenton movie theaters is long past. Unlike many towns across America, not one of those old movie houses survive today; most having been demolished.RAY: I TYPED THAT LAST NAME HOPING I GOT THE SPELLING CORRECT. DID I?
Hi Tom, I want to add a couple of theaters to your list. The State, just east of the Stacy on the opposite side of State St. They played mostly double feature Western movies.
The Park Theater on Anderson and Washington. Correct me on the name, if I am wrong, but the location is correct, across from the Casino Restaurant.
The Orpheum became the Mayfair, and the Gaiety became the Olden in my day.
As young kids me and my friends spent Saturday afternoons at the Bijou. Two features, news, cartoons, a serial (two I remember distinctly; Batman and Robin and The Vigilante). I almost forgot, hang on to your ticket stub, because at intermission, they gave away a set of Depression Glass dinnerware, all for a quarter. While in Junior School (Junior 2) Friday nights were spent at the Olden with our girlfriends. Then it was Tomato Pies at Marucas, just up the street. The Victory and Princess were before my time. I believe the Princess was on Princeton Ave. just up from the Battle Monument. The Victory was on Hudson and Broad. The last movie I saw in downtown Trenton, was the "Hindenburg". at the RKO Lincoln. Can't remember the year.
Hi Tom, I want to add a couple of theaters to your list. The State, just east of the Stacy on the opposite side of State St. They played mostly double feature Western movies.
ReplyDeleteThe Park Theater on Anderson and Washington. Correct me on the name, if I am wrong, but the location is correct, across from the Casino Restaurant.
The Orpheum became the Mayfair, and the Gaiety became the Olden in my day.
As young kids me and my friends spent Saturday afternoons at the Bijou. Two features, news, cartoons, a serial (two I remember distinctly; Batman and Robin and The Vigilante). I almost forgot, hang on to your ticket stub, because at intermission, they gave away a set of Depression Glass dinnerware, all for a quarter. While in Junior School (Junior 2) Friday nights were spent at the Olden with our girlfriends. Then it was Tomato Pies at Marucas, just up the street.
The Victory and Princess were before my time. I believe the Princess was on Princeton Ave. just up from the Battle Monument. The Victory was on Hudson and Broad.
The last movie I saw in downtown Trenton, was the "Hindenburg". at the RKO Lincoln. Can't remember the year.
Ah yes, the Park, lovingly called "Cootie Heaven" when I lived around the corner from there over my family's restaurant on Hamilton. For Sat matinee my dad let my friends going to the movie with me select a candy bar from the rack. I sure had a lot of friends on Sat. As we got older we went to "Tony Goes" (The Casino) for Italian hot dogs. A couple of years ago when I visited Trenton stopped there and the hot dogs were still the same, GREAT!! The daughter is about my age and remembered me. Wow, it was more than 60 years since I went in there. Remember when we went to see Frankenstein at the Park. We saw most of it from the slot in between the seats cause when the monster came on we all dove down behind the seat in front of us and covered our eyes. Only the brave peeked out and most screamed when they looked.
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