Cameo Theatre
223 Ocean Avenue,
Jersey City,
NJ
07305
223 Ocean Avenue,
Jersey City,
NJ
07305
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Additional Info
Previously operated by: Fox Circuit, Independent Theater Service Inc.
Architects: C.H. Ziegler
Functions: Retail
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On November 9, 1926 a Wurlitzer organ (opus 1502) was installed in the Cameo Theatre, but the opening of the theatre was delayed until January 17, 1927 with the movie “Stranded in Paris” starring Bebe Daniels plus 5-acts of vaudeville on the stage. The Cameo Theatre was closed on September 10, 1956 with Barbara Stanwyck in “The Maverick Queen” & Alan Ladd in “Santiago”.
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tc
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Recent comments (view all 13 comments)
Looking at the view of 223 Ocean Avenue on Google Maps, it looks like the theater building is being used to sell office furniture. The adjoining business is Peckman’s Pharmacy, which may be using part of the old theater building for storage. I don’t think 1485 people could fit in the small furniture building.
This picture suggests that the theater was converted to a bowling alley at some time.
The current store in the front is selling office supplies. The drugstore appears to be gone now, -the theatre’s storefront is the only one left on this side of the block – all else is parking. But you can see the auditorium in back. people would walk straight back and turn turn right to enter the auditorium. From the air it looks big enough to seat at least 1,000. There is a small window in the side wall of the auditorium so it may be gutted inside. Then again they may have simply punched a small hole in the wall. The side that’s the back of the lobby is still complete – no windows.
i sold newspapers on the corner, in the sixties, and early seventies. the theater was alreay a bowling then.
The Cameo Theatre in Jersey City was set to open the following night, according to an announcement in the January 16, 1927, issue of The Film Daily.
The theater became a bowling alley, then Murray’s steaks, there was a cup and cone on the north end of the building followed by Peckman’s pharmacy,then Kozak paints and last a pet store. Peckman’s occupies most of the building, mostly where the seats were.The lobby part of the building was where Murray’s steaks and the used furniture store were located. The others were on the stage end. At the present time the lobby section and the stage section seem to be vacant.
I saw my first movie there “Davy Crockett”
The “Theaters in Construction” column of the February 3, 1926, issue of Variety had this item:
C. H. Ziegler was also the architect of the Orient Theatre in Jersey City.Opening was delayed until January 17th, 1927. Grand opening ad posted.
Closed at the end of a 30-year leasing agreement on September 10, 1956 with “Maverick Queen” and “Santiago.”
I lived at the south end of Ocean Avenue at the Bayonne City Line when I was a kid (‘50s-60s). Probably went to the Cameo to see a flick a handful of times. My pals and I got into it with an usher one Saturday afternoon and he was trying to chase us out. But we had perfected our usher-evading skills in the huge Journal Square movie palaces: the Loew’s,the State, and the Stanley. This particular afternoon, we hit the men’s room and tried crawling out the barred windows,(still visible in recent photos) so we couldn’t jump out as planned. We just ran back into the auditorium, grabbed a seat, slunked down, and shut our mouths. (At the time the Cameo was cater-corner to New York Bay Ceremony and a Jersey City Police precinct house, now long demolished with the property added to the cemetery. I remember the building best as the Cameo Bowl-o, after its bowling alley conversion. There used to be a row of low-slung retail in what’s now the parking lot. The lobby is now a fruit store and the auditorium is Peckman’s Pharmacy which, before the conversion, was located a couple of blocks further north on Ocean Avenue.
I remember the Murry’s Steaks years – an affordable, frozen, packaged meat and grocery store. Occupied the auditorium. Smallish chain, had another few stores in the area.
https://trademarks.justia.com/736/28/murry-s-your-quality-value-food-stores-73628882.html