Showboat Theater - Ocean City, NJ
N 39° 16.400 W 074° 34.624
18S E 536481 N 4347194
Today it is a mall for kids and music lovers but back in the '30s, it was the place for entertainment along the boardwalk.
Waymark Code: WM9HAZ
Location: New Jersey, United States
Date Posted: 08/22/2010
Views: 12
I think this place used to be called Surf Theater and/or Showboat Theater. I remember watching movies here as a young man. It opened in the late 1920s after the great boardwalk fire and of course to quell fears, it was advertised as a fire proof building. The theater was originally vaudville but then changed to movies. The Shriver chain operated the theatre in the 1970s. It closed in the early 1980s and is now an enclosed shopping mall. Also, from what I heard, the Showboat Theatre was later renamed The Surf Theatre because the "Showboat" sign blew down and it cost too much to replace such a long word.
This converted movie theater is not really a mall even though the name outside says so. It is a neat place though of you are a music lover and a teenager. If you want an awesome tee shirt, or poster or anything any teenager could want, then this is the place to visit after you come up off the sand and beach. Its got stuff for everyone, and its huge! Be sure to check out the blacklight room!
I also found this on a nostalgia page for Ocean City: The Showboat Theatre, later the SURF Theatre, opened on Saturday June 29, 1929. The boxoffice record does not show the first film's title, but on Monday they were playing "The Flying Fool" along with five live acts. This view [of a picture I uploaded into the gallery] is of July 29, one month later. The Showboat was built after the devastating fire of 1927 and is advertised on the marquee as Ocean City's New Fireproof Theater. It was built of continuous concrete and still stands. SOURCE
Address
1154 Boardwalk
Ocean City, NJ 08226