State Theatre, New Brunswick
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The State Theatre is a performing arts center in New Brunswick, New Jersey built in 1921 as a vaudeville and silent film theatre.
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[edit] Reade's State Theatre
Theater manager Walter Reade in a quarter-page announcement in the Daily Home News on December 20, 1921 wrote: "On Monday afternoon at two-thirty, I will have both the honor and pleasure of presenting to the citizens of the City of New Brunswick and surrounding territory what I consider the finest theatre in the State." The building was designed by Thomas W. Lamb for both movies and live entertainment. The opening matinee audience, paid the twenty-cent, thirty-cent, and fifty-cent admission, heard a live orchestra concert and a tenor rendition of The Star Spangled Banner. The first feature presentation was the silent film White Oak, a western starring William S. Hart. There were five vaudeville acts, a newsreel and a nature film.
A few years into its operation, the theater's management was transferred to the B.F. Keith theater chain. Benjamin Franklin Keith and his partner, Edward Franklin Albee II, operated the largest string of vaudeville theaters and the largest booking agency for vaudeville acts in the east coast of the United States.
The business merged with the largest western booking agency, Orpheum Circuit, Inc., to form Keith-Albee-Orpheum (KAO). The Radio Corporation of America (RCA), which entered the motion picture business after the advent of sound, acquired KAO in 1928. RCA renamed its new subsidiary Radio-Keith-Orpheum, RKO.
[edit] Decline and Revitalization
The State Theatre continued to operate into the 1960s until audiences switched to multiplex cinemas. RKO sold the building to a business that showed adult movies. In 1979 it was purchased by the New Brunswick Development Corporation (DevCo) as part of the New Brunswick's revitalization project.
In 1986, the New Brunswick Cultural Center acquired the State Theatre from DevCo, and in the fall 1987 performed the first renovation. The State Theatre reopened on April 24, 1988.
In December of 2003, the theater began a $3 million renovation to return the theater as closely as possible to its original appearance and updated the sound and lighting systems. The architectural firm of Ford, Farewell, Mills and Gatch oversaw the cleaning and repair of the terra cotta exterior. On the inside, artists from Conrad Schmitt of Milwaukee, a century-old firm specializing in historic restorations, researched several areas of the theater’s interior to determine the original paint colors, decorative trim style and other details of Thomas W. Lamb's interior decoration. Up to 20 layers of paint were stripped away to determine the original color scheme. The theater underwent ornamental plaster repair, decorative painting and replacement of house and lobby lighting, installation of high tech sound and lighting systems. The outer lobby’s dome ceiling boasted glittering new decorative work and historically accurate lighting fixtures were installed in the lobbies and theater.
The refurbished State Theatre was unveiled in October of 2004 at the season’s opening performance by comedian Jay Leno.
[edit] Timeline
- 1921 Opens on December 20th
- 1979 DevCo acquires property
- 1986 New Brunswick Cultural Center acquires property from DevCo
- 1987 renovation begins
- 1988 reopening on April 24th
- 2003 renovation begins in December
- 2004 reopening in October with Jay Leno
[edit] External link
[edit] Map
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- Street map from MapQuest or Google Maps
- Topographic map from TopoZone
- Aerial image from TerraServer-USA
