Former names | The Warner's Embassy Theatre, The Warren Theatre |
---|---|
Address | 2015 Boardwalk, Atlantic City, NJ |
Coordinates | 39°21′19″N74°26′2″W / 39.35528°N 74.43389°W |
Type | Movie palace, live theater space |
Capacity | 4,270 (former); 422 (current) |
Construction | |
Opened | 1929 |
Renovated | 2023 |
Demolished | 1960s-1970s (auditorium, lobby; facade saved) |
Website | |
spiegelworld |
The Warner Theatre is a former movie palace and live theater venue built in 1929 on the Atlantic City boardwalk. It reopened as a performance venue in 2023. [1]
Designed by Philadelphia architectural firm Hoffman-Henon Co. and commissioned by Warner Bros., the Warner Theatre opened in June 1929 on the boardwalk near what is now ACX1 Studios (then the Million Dollar Pier). [2] It was built on the site of the former Great Northern Opera House. [3] Opening as the Warner’s Embassy Theatre, its first showing was the 1929 film On with the Show! plus a live stage show. [4] The venue was built in a Spanish Moorish-Atmospheric style in the auditorium and a Venetian-style lobby. It hosted the Miss America pageant and Bess Myerson was crowned there in 1945. [5] [6] [7] [8] [9]
In the 1950s, the venue was renamed Warren Theatre and later became a live venue for performing artists. The bulk of the theater was demolished in the early 1960s due to lack of revenue. During this period it was owned by George A. Hamid Jr. of the Hamid Circus who converted it to a bowling alley, Boardwalk Bowl, which opened in 1963. Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello appeared at the alley to plug their film Beach Party in the summer of 1963. [5]
By 1978, the lobby was being used as a pizza joint. [10]
In 2023, Caesars Atlantic City and Australian theater producer Ross Mollison's Spiegelworld restored the site as a theater venue, incorporating the original ocean-facing facade, adding stained glass and opening an outpost of Las Vegas's Superfrico restaurant, serving "Italian-American psychedelic" cuisine. [11] [12] [13] [14] The permanent resident show is the adults-only "The Hook," based around Atlantic City's entertainment history. [15] Belfast-born comedy director Cal McCrystal directs the show. [16] [17]
Atlantic City, sometimes referred to by its initials A.C., is a Jersey Shore seaside resort city in Atlantic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.
Miss America is an annual competition that is open to women from the United States between the ages of 18 and 28. Originating in 1921 as a "bathing beauty revue", the contest is judged on competition segments with scoring percentages: Private Interview (30%) – a 10-minute press conference-style interview with a panel of judges, On Stage Question (10%) – answering a judge's question onstage, Talent or HER Story (20%) – a performance talent or 90 second speech, Health and Fitness (20%) – demonstrated physical fitness onstage dressed in athletic wear, and Evening Gown (20%) – modeling evening-wear onstage.
Bess Myerson was an American politician, model, and television actress who in 1945 became the first Jewish Miss America. Her achievement, in the aftermath of the Holocaust, was seen as an affirmation of the Jewish place in American life. She was a heroine to parts of the Jewish community, where "she was the most famous pretty girl since Queen Esther".
The Jersey Shore, commonly referred to locally as simply the Shore, is the coastal region of the U.S. state of New Jersey. Geographically, the term encompasses about 141 miles (227 km) of oceanfront bordering the Atlantic Ocean, from Perth Amboy in the north to Cape May Point in the south. The region includes Middlesex, Monmouth, Ocean, Atlantic, and Cape May counties, which are in the central and southern parts of the state. Located in the center of the Northeast Megalopolis, the northern half of the shore region is part of the New York metropolitan area, while the southern half of the shore region is part of the Philadelphia metropolitan area, also known as the Delaware Valley. The Jersey Shore hosts the highest concentration of oceanside boardwalks in the United States.
The Steel Pier is a 1,000-foot-long (300 m) amusement park built on a pier of the boardwalk in Atlantic City, New Jersey, across from the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Atlantic City. Built in 1897 and opened in 1898, it was one of the most popular venues in the United States for the first seven decades of the twentieth century, featuring concerts, exhibits, and an amusement park. It billed itself as the Showplace of the Nation and at its peak measured 2,298 feet (700 m).
A movie palace is a large, elaborately decorated movie theater built from the 1910s to the 1940s. The late 1920s saw the peak of the movie palace, with hundreds opening every year between 1925 and 1930. With the advent of television, movie attendance dropped, while the rising popularity of large multiplex chains in the 1980s and 1990s signaled the obsolescence of single-screen theaters. Many movie palaces were razed or converted into multiple-screen venues or performing arts centers, though some have undergone restoration and reopened to the public as historic buildings.
Tropicana Atlantic City, often referred to as The Trop, is a resort, casino hotel located on the beach and Boardwalk in Atlantic City, New Jersey. It is owned by Gaming and Leisure Properties and operated by Caesars Entertainment, and is the third largest hotel in New Jersey, with just under 2,400 guest rooms and the 200,000-square-foot shopping and entertainment complex, The Quarter. It has over 30 restaurants, 30 shops, 20 bars and lounges, 4 pools, the Tropicana Showroom, multiple spas, and an IMAX Theatre. In 2016, Tropicana completed over $200 million in renovations and additions, including a Multimedia Light and Sound Show, the addition of AtlantiCare LifeCenter Fitness, Garces restaurants, renovations to over 900 hotel rooms, and casino floor but Tropicana will continue investing. The Tropicana is the largest resort and casino on the boardwalk, with 2,364 rooms, 3,000 slot machines, 30 restaurants, and 30 shops, along with two 2,500-space parking garages, totaling over 5,000 parking spaces. In 2021-2023 Tropicana is said to complete renovations through these years, the renovations will include renovations to all 604 West Tower rooms, modernized elevators and escalators, pool enhancements, gaming space enhancements, and more undisclosed renovation projects.
Jim Whelan Boardwalk Hall, formerly known as the Historic Atlantic City Convention Hall, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in Atlantic City, New Jersey. It was Atlantic City's primary convention center until the opening of the Atlantic City Convention Center in 1997. Boardwalk Hall was declared a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 1987 as one of the few surviving buildings from the city's early heyday as a seaside resort. The venue seats 10,500 people for ice hockey, and at maximum capacity can accommodate 14,770 for concerts. Boardwalk Hall is the home of the Miss America Pageant.
Caesars Atlantic City is a luxury hotel, casino, and spa resort in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Like Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, it has an ancient Roman and ancient Greek theme. Atlantic City's second casino, it opened in 1979 as the Boardwalk Regency. The 124,720 sq ft (11,587 m2). casino has over 3,400 slot machines, and is one of the largest in Atlantic City.
The Miss New York scholarship competition selects the representative for the state of New York in the Miss America scholarship competition.
ACX1 Studios is a four-story 550,000-square-foot multi-use facility on a beach pier on the boardwalk in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The pier has hosted a variety of attractions and shopping experiences since it was first built in the early twentieth century. The pier is expected to reopen as a film production studio, music incubator, and entertainment venue in 2024 to host film shoots attracted to the robust South Jersey-specific film tax credits.
The Paramount Theatre in Asbury Park, New Jersey, Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States, is co-located with the Asbury Park Convention Hall on the boardwalk along the Atlantic Ocean. The two are connected by an arcade that spans the boardwalk, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean on the east, and Bradley Park on the west. A statue of Asbury Park founder James A. Bradley faces the buildings west facade.
Spiegelworld is an American comedic theater company and contemporary circus known for its current shows: Absinthe, DiscoShow, and Atomic Saloon Show, all in Las Vegas, and Atlantic City's The Hook. The theater company takes its name from the traveling Belgian performance tents known as spiegeltents in which it has staged a number of productions.
Miss America 1976, the 49th Miss America pageant, was held at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey on September 6, 1975, and broadcast on NBC.
Miss America 1945, the 19th Miss America pageant, was held at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey on September 8, 1945. Two days prior to the actual selection and coronation, the night of the talent competition, the Army Air Force Veterans voted the eventual winner, Miss New York City as their favorite beauty queen.
Miss America 2014, the 87th Miss America pageant was held at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey Sunday, September 15, 2013. Miss America 2013, Mallory Hagan crowned the winner, Miss New York, Nina Davuluri, who served as Miss America until September 14, 2014.
The North to Shore Festival is an annual three-week-long music, comedy, film and technology festival in New Jersey. The event is hosted in June by three New Jersey cities: Atlantic City, Asbury Park, and Newark.
Vicki Gold Levi is an American author, curator, historical consultant and collector. She is best known as an Atlantic City, New Jersey historian and a consultant on the HBO television series Boardwalk Empire, and the 1997 musical Steel Pier.
The Orange Loop is a neighborhood near the beach in downtown Atlantic City with a focus on live music establishments such as indie rock venue Anchor Rock Club and Tennessee Avenue Beer Hall.