Theater By the Sea
Condos or Movies in Cape May?
By Jen A. Miller | Online Only | June 27, 2008
On a May morning, the Beach Theatre in Cape May, N.J., was open, and men and women in shorts and running shoes wandered in and out of the lobby. No, they weren't here for a screening of Chariots of Fire but to register for the Cape May Foot Race. This might seem like an odd role for a classic movie house, but being part of community events is a key component of the Save the Beach Theatre campaign. Members of the not-for-profit want to prove that the theater is integral to the Jersey Shore and therefore too valuable to be turned into condos or knocked down, a very real scenario that almost played out two years ago.
It's tough being beachfront real estate in a pricey shore town. An 860-seat movie house built in 1950, the Beach Theatre was one of the last works of William Harold Lee, an architect who designed movie houses in New Jersey and Pennsylvania as well as buildings for Temple University and Franklin & Marshall College. When it opened, the Beach Theatre, designed to compete with television, was considered revolutionary. "It had this unique combination of retail and movie theater combined into one complex," says Steve Jackson, president of the Save the Beach Theatre Foundation. "It had those new features that theatres were starting to use to keep people away from TV in the 1950s, like stereophonic sound and a wide screen."
It also benefited from being part of the William C. Hunt theatre chain. By the 1930s, Hunt ran 22 theaters. In 1947, he started to winnow his empire, focusing exclusively on the southern New Jersey shore area. He had such clout in the movie industry that he managed to get first-run movies in Wildwood, N.J. and Cape May before Philadelphia did. The Beach Theatre also combined elements of surrounding buildings into its design. Lee implemented faux gas lanterns, for example, before it was popular to go retro.
"Even though it was built in the modern era, it was a revival," says Michael Calafati, principal of Historic Building Architects, LLC and member of the New Jersey chapter of the American Institute of Architects.
Although Cape May's preservation ordinance protects its Victorians, those rules don't apply to the Beach Theatre, which was built after 1950. So in 2006, when Palm Beach, Fla.-based Frank Investments announced plans to tear down the theater to make room for a retail/condo development, the town approved the project.
The Beach Theatre debuted in 1950 with "Father of the Bride."
Credit: Save the Beach Theatre
As soon as the redevelopment plans were announced, residents formed the Save the Beach Theatre Foundation to try and save the building.
"I grew up going there every summer of my life. I went to the theater with my parents, my sister, my friends, my dates, my wife," says Jackson.
Although the city's historic preservation commission approved a demolition permit in spring 2007, the group has managed to buy time – literally. The city of Cape May loaned the group $100,000 for a one-year lease on the building, which will be up in October. If a buyer has not been found, Jackson says the lease will be extended by six months. The precarious situation prompted Preservation New Jersey to name the Beach Theatre to its Ten Most Endangered Historic Sites list in May. "The Beach Theater may become the latest victim in the epidemic of "teardowns" at the Jersey Shore."
The theater had not been well maintained. Its one screen was divided into four 150-seat rooms, and the seating and displays couldn't compete with new, state-of-the-art theatres.
However, Jackson's group has made minor refurbishments to the interior, repainting the lobby, hallways, and box office, updating the curtains and lighting in the bathrooms, adding new seating and café tables in the lobby, cleaning carpets and curtains and adding free wi-fi access. They are working with Frank Investments to find a developer interested in restoring the building or an investor willing to pay the $12 million price tag for the building.
The recent economic downturn and foreclosure crisis also might be working in their favor, since the demand for condos isn't nearly as great as it was in 2006.
Since last November the Save the Beach Theatre Foundation has been working to redefine the building's place in town – and not just by opening the lobby to runners. It has become an art house, focusing on bringing in documentaries, independent and foreign films, which are the only movies they show in the off-season. During the summer, they show blockbusters like Indiana Jones and Sex and the City.
Cape May's Beach Theatre is one of New Jersey's Most Endangered Historic Sites in 2008, according to Preservation New Jersey.
Credit: Save the Beach Theatre
Even in the summer season, one of the theater's screening rooms is dedicated to smaller films. The group also works with local and state film festivals to screen films. "It seems wholly appropriate for a city that is so dedicated to culture as Cape May is," says Jackson. The town has equity theatres, jazz festivals and film festivals as well.
If the foundation saves the theater, Jackson wants to turn it into a two-screen movie house with one larger room for 500 to 600 seats and a smaller, 75- to 100-seat screening room. The lobby, bathrooms, and front box office would also be completely rehabbed with original photographs from its heyday.
The group has also spoken to representatives of Dolby and Sony and Panasonic about using the Beach Theatre as a "laboratory of state of the art type equipment," says Jackson, a place to test the equipment on smaller audiences and to showcase new products to potential buyers.
Even though the theater is packed this summer, the future of the Beach Theatre is still unclear. "We're rushing to find a developer or angel who cares as much as we do about saving the theater," says Jackson. If they can't find someone and the theatre does fall, Jackson says that their purpose of bringing quality cinema to Cape May won't disappear with it. "Our first goal is to save the theatre. Our second goal is to act as a cinema arts foundation to help prosper a community of everything to do with cinema."
Jen A. Miller is a New Jersey writer.
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Comments
Submitted by margaret at: May 31, 2010
I think this is wonderful. I have been going to the beach theatre for my entire life, and it has been memorable every time. I will be devastated if it is torn down, and am going to make sure to go see a movie this weekend there. @westcapemayfloosie : I think it is people like these who keep america a good country. without them, I don't know what we would come to. people who dont care about their community and other people. and I certainly wouldn't want to live in a place like that. loosing the theatre would mean more ugly condos on the beach. I like to see the look of it, and love that it is still decorated as it was. I hope you succeed in your efforts, and good luck. I will be sure to tell everyone I know to donate to this cause.
Submitted by westcapemayfloosie at: March 25, 2010
Anyone ever see an episode of Sienfeld where Kramer tried to save an old movie house ? You people look just a silly as Kramer did on the show. Get a life.