Proctor's Palace Theatre opened in Newark, New Jersey on November 25, 1915. The architect was John W. Merrow, the nephew of Proctor Theatre circuit owner Frederick F. Proctor.
The Palace was a double decker theater, which meant that one auditorium was stacked on top of the other, a rare design choice at the time. The lower, street-level auditorium had 2,300 seats and the upper had around 900. The space was among the largest and most open in the area, leading the city to use it as the site of it’s 250th anniversary celebration in 1916.
Originally, the Palace was a vaudeville theater. The theater eventually switched over to exclusively movie showings, but the occasional vaudeville show, such as Bela Lugosi’s “Horror and Magic Show” still played there.
Shortly before his death in 1929 F.F. Proctor sold his company to Radio-Keith-Orpheum Corporation (“RKO”), and the name of the theater was changed to RKO Proctor’s Theatre.
The history of Proctor’s is tied up in the history of the town in which it’s located. Besides the overall decline of US economy in the 60′s, the demise of Proctor’s was a result the infamous Newark race riots of 1967.
In the 1960’s, Newark’s poverty and unemployment rates were high, and the black community of felt disenfranchised, politically underrepresented and subject to police brutality. Racial tension steadily increased, exacerbated by the government’s decision to tear down the tenements on a large chunk of land to construct a university, a move that displaced and pissed off thousands of residents.
Tension came to a head when two white policemen arrested a black cab driver for a minor traffic offense and were witnessed publicly abusing the driver. A (false) rumor that the driver died while in custody spread and incited the infamous race riot of 1967. The riot began with destruction of property and soon escalated to looting, arson and violence. The rioting lasted from July 12th-17th, leaving 26 dead, 725 injured, 1,500 arrests and the city in shambles.
The destruction caused by the riots and the decline of industry in the 60’s and 70’s shuttered most of Newark, including Proctor’s Theatre. As stores closed, businesses (along with most of the white middle class) left the city, leaving a mostly poor population to inhabit the city. In the year after the riots, following the RKO/Stanley Warner merger, Proctor’s was closed and never reopened.
The Palace was closed in 1968 when RKO merged with Stanley Warner, who owned Newark’s larger and more profitable Branford Theater. The lobby has been renovated and is currently used as a shoe store. The rest of the building remains vacant and after years of neglect has started to collapse.
