Atlantic City has long been a center for entertainment, be it in the resort’s hotels, on its piers, or today, inside its casinos. But for much of the 20th century, most entertainment could be found in theaters located along the Boardwalk.

The first true theater in Atlantic City, the Academy of Music, opened in 1891. Salt water taffy king Joseph F. Fraelinger, with partners John L. Young and Stewart McShea, built the music hall, which hosted a range of acts, from an exposition of trained horses entitled “Bartholomew’s Equine Paradise” to singers and dancers. But like many early Atlantic City attractions, built before fire codes and modern emergency response, the theater was susceptible to flames; it burned to the ground no less than three times in 10 years.  

Each time, however, the Academy rose from the ashes. After the first blaze, it reopened in a scant four weeks. But after the third, the cataclysmic Boardwalk fire of April 1903, it took a full six years for the curtain to rise once more. By this time, the Academy of Music had been renamed the Apollo Theater.

Upon its reopening, the hall became a proving ground for prospective Broadway shows. This was consistent with the usual practice: more than 1,000 plays debuted in Atlantic City between 1900 and 1935. Those that prospered by the shore went on to enjoy runs in Gotham; those that didn’t quietly faded away.  

In its first year of business, the Apollo presented the Ziegfield revue The Follies of 1908, the Honeyboy minstrel show, and a series of plays. By the 1920s, the Apollo had been joined by the Woods and the Globe theaters. These three stages provided the most serious drama in the city, though there were scores of others.

Over the next decade, these theaters witnessed the glory years of legitimate drama and popular stagecraft in Atlantic City. Heel-kicking revues like the Ziegfeld Follies or George White’s Scandals alternated with series plays like Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Blossom Time. Business was so good that Atlantic City was christened a “Second Broadway,” and most of the popular stars of the period played in the resort.

But the golden age of Atlantic City theaters did not last forever. With live entertainment diminishing nationwide, many dramatic theaters did not survive the dislocations of World War II.

Luckily, there were already a string of motion picture theaters to carry on the tradition. The first movie house in the city dates from 1907, when Henry Savage opened the Royal at Missouri and Atlantic avenues. Before long, Boardwalk playhouses were supplementing their live bills with the new-fangled flicks, and eventually several movie-only theaters opened.

George Wielland opened a string of cinema houses in and around Atlantic City, starting with the Bijou in 1911. He added the Capitol in 1919, the Ventnor two years later, the Strand in 1925, and several others into the 1940s, including the old Apollo, which became a movie theater in 1934. The Ventnor was gutted by fire but rebuilt in 1936, and it still is standing, though movies haven’t been shown there for years.

The most outstanding Atlantic City movie house, the Warner Theater, opened in 1929. This movie palace cost Harry M. Warner, the president of Warner Brothers Pictures, a fortune to build at Arkansas Avenue and the Boardwalk. Though Warner originally leased the building, two years later his company bought it outright, along with the rest of the shops on the block. It was a jewel of a theater, with terrazzo floors and a ceiling painted blue to resemble the sky, and small lights glimmering like stars.

But even motion pictures could not save Atlantic City theaters. The Warner became the Boardwalk Bowl, a bowling alley, before closing for good. Caesars acquired the property when it bought Howard Johnson’s Boardwalk Regency in 1977 and eventually tore down the auditorium, which became a parking lot, though it preserved the façade.

Today, the Warner façade almost blends in with the Wild Wild West, which was built to incorporate the preserved frontage. For those who know to look for it, the face of the old Warner Theater is a fitting reminder of the glory days of Atlantic City theaters.

By David Schwartz

David G. Schwartz (www.dieiscast.com), an Atlantic City native, is the Director of the Center for Gaming Research at UNLV and the author of several books, including Roll the Bones: The History of Gambling.