I love getting the old movie house programs in because there’s always something good playing! I recently picked up a small handful of 1933-1934 programs for the Clementon Theatre in Clementon, New Jersey.
The Clementon Theatre
Local stockholders financed the building of the Clementon Theatre and construction was completed in 1928. The Theatre, located at 16 Berlin Road, was adjacent to the Clementon Lake Amusement Park, dubbed New Jersey’s Coney Island at that time. When the Clementon Theatre went up Clementon was a growing town, recently incorporated in 1925, and a convenient stop by either trolley or train for visitors.
Far from your local hole-in-the-wall theatre, the Clementon featured a marble lobby and marble restrooms. There was a staircase and originally a crystal chandelier measuring ten feet in diameter hanging over patrons inside the theatre. It was soon removed due to safety concerns. The Clementon Theatre could seat approximately 1,200 moviegoers in 897 orchestra level seats, 323 more in the balcony, plus 24 box seats located on either side of the full-size stage. The stage was large enough to host revues and vaudeville performances.
From 1934, about the time of our programs, the Clementon was part of the Stanley-Warner chain of theatres. The Clementon had many owners throughout its history and was eventually renamed the Kate Theatre in tribute to financial backer Kate Smith in 1967. In 1965 a fire tore through nearby Frisch department store which never reopened. Following the fire several other businesses in the area began to close and the Clementon/Kate Theatre would soon be one of them. It closed in the late 1960’s and the building was razed in 1970.
Clementon Sources
- Burrows, Danielle L. Image of America: Clementon
. Arcadia Publishing, 2007.
- Hauss, Allen F. Image of America: South Jersey Movie Houses
. Arcadia Publishing, 2006.
The Programs
As I already mentioned I only received a few of these programs, but they were all from the same Clementon Theatre during a semi-brief period at the end of 1933 into the first half of 1934.
They included advertisements for many of my pre-code favorites including one for lost Holy Grail title Convention City. Actually, that’s a lie. This small lot included two of the same Convention City programs, one which I sold at auction last week for $17.08 plus shipping.
The second Convention City Clementon Theatre Program is at auction as of this writing with all of the other pictured Clementon Theatre programs to follow — you can bid on any or all HERE.
Showing the Weekend of November 17, 1933:
Showing the Weekend of November 24, 1933:
Showing the Weekend of December 8, 1933:
Showing the Weekend of December 15, 1933:
Showing the Weekend of December 29, 1933:
Showing the Weekend of February 25, 1934:
Showing the Weekend of May 13, 1934:
Wishing we were there!
The auctions for the Clementon Theatre programs end next Sunday night, May 13, and can be found on eBay HERE.
Cliff ~ a really
great collection of film programs, “Bureau Of Missing Persons” is exactly what
you would expect of a lurid pre-code film. A few of the titles are familiar,
films I’ve seen on TCM a time or two, but there are an equal number that are
entirely new: “Broadway Through A KeyHole”; “Bombay Mail”; “Come On Marines”
(with Richard Arlen and Ida Lupino!). A few are a bit sad for silent actors
brought low: Richard Barthelmess in “Massacre” and Fatty Arbuckle shorts on a
program with a Barbara Stanwyck film.
Thanks @f0934d8c4fde0ba73d071bc8610f86a2:disqus – I haven’t seen the same 3 that you mention. I actually liked Massacre quite a bit, if memory serves that was Barthelmess’ last movie under contract to Warner. The Arbuckle shorts caught me by surprise tucked away like that though!