Olden Theatre

The last movie I ever saw at the old Greenwood Theatre was Moonraker. Does anyone know what the last movie was ever played there was?

Thanks

I showed the first porn film at the Olden. It was called, “I am Curious Yellow”. They charged (I think) over $5 per ticket and during the first week we sold out all 834 seats three times. The line went around the block twice. The film was awful. It was sooo bad that the fellow that spelled me had placed reel 2 and 3 in reverse order in the rack. I played it that way the following night and didn’t realize it until I went to rewind the third played reel. No-one noticed, and of course I didn’t volunteer. At the time I was working for a defense contractor that had a strict policy, if you were arrested, for any reason other than a traffic violation, you were fired on the spot. At that time in Trenton, both the Theatre Manager and Projectionist could be arrested. I actually had a one inch thick rope tied to the rewind table. The rope had large knots every foot or so. The Candy Girls had a “trouble” button behind the counter. They were going to ring it three times to signal me that we were being raided. My plan was to climb down the rope into the audience. I really needed my day job.

When I was a boy in the 1950s, I lived at 107 Garfield Ave, one street over from Olden Ave. From my bedroom window, I would look out directly at the marquee of the Olden Theater. Each week (Fridays, I believe) I would watch the worker change the letters announcing the new movies. My friends and I would attend Saturday serials and cartoons at the Olden and the Greenwood. My first tomato pie was at Maruca’s, and I used to go to the bowling alley upstairs. I remember the boys doing the pin setting. The photo is just like I remember it, with Maruca’s down the street. Great memories. Thanks for this.

In the early 1970s, they tried running old films such as 1930s Warner Brothers musicals. We were in the lobby of the theater one evening when a fight broke out and one unhappy person threw the large floor ashtray against the wall mirrors and shattered it. You knew things were going downhill at that point. As I was a young boy at the time. I think that was the last time we saw a movie there although we continued to eat pizza at Maruca’s Pizza next door. The neighborhood was changing.

This is probably the house that was the subject of this item in the August 11, 1923 issue of Exhibitors Trade Review: “TRENTON, N. J.- Walter Hankin, 39 State Street, Trenton, has completed plans for the theatre to be placed on Olden & Walnut Aves., by Owner, George E. Ten Eyck, care architect.”

A 1941 photo on this web page shows the spelling Gaiety on the theater’s small sign. I’ve also come across a blog post mentioning in passing “Ten Eyck’s Gaiety Theatre.”