South Jersey Movie Houses

As a Pennsylvanian with a fondness for old theaters, I wondered if this book was a stretch, geographically speaking. To my surprise and pleasure, it not only broadened my interest in the Jersey theaters but also filled in holes on theaters I had often heard about and occasionally visited. It's obviously a labor of love, but one done by a writer with both passion and expertise concerning his topic. The sections are broken down geographically, and the pictures are more than evocative -- I go back quite often to this book -- the photos are windows to a past that was more than special to anyone old enough to remember or curious enough to want to know more.

What a thrill to read this remarkable tribute to old South Jersey movie theaters. Regardless of your own hometown, as you thumb through the pages and see the photographs and read the history of these grand old structures, you will be transported (as I was) to your own individual neighborhood childhood memories of going to the movies on Saturday afternoons and sitting in the dark, waiting for the big velvet drapes to open to that giant screen. Author Allen F. Hauss is to be commended for the time and effort spent sharing his love for the old movies theaters with all of us. I couldn't get over all the actual pictures of hundreds of South Jersey theaters - with descriptions, history, old movie posters, advertisements. Seeing the old Midway Theater in Camden, the Westmont Theater in Haddon Township, Steele Pier in Atlantic City (yea, Steel Pier) and countless others, resurrected my own personal memories of going to the Logan Theater in North Philadelphia back in the 50's - seeing James Dean in Rebel Without A Cause and so many others wonderful old movies. Thanks for the memories, Allen Hauss. You brought back on printed page the grand old forgotten structures that were left only to the shadows of our recollections. Elaine Leaf in Florida