Adams Theatre - Newark, NJ

The Adams Theatre in Newark, New Jersey, originally opened on January 12, 1912, as the Shubert Theatre. It was designed in the Beaux-Arts style by architect William E. Lehman, who also designed the Proctor’s Palace Theatre in Yonkers, NY. The 2,037 seat theater was initially used for theatrical productions, Broadway tryouts, and revivals.

In August 1939, the theater was purchased by two brothers from Greece, Peter (Panayiotis) and Adam (Adamopoulos) Adams. They renamed it the Adams Theatre, after the name they had taken upon immigrating to the United States. The first stage show after the rename was “Susan and God,” starring Jessie Royce Landis, on September 4, 1939. The brothers began booking big bands to support the theater in addition to the stage shows and films. Some very famous acts played at the theater, including; Eddie Cantor, Duke Ellington, Sammy Davis, Jr, the Marx Brothers, Tommy Dorsey, Artie Shaw, Charlie Barnet, The Andrew Sisters, Ella Fitzgerald, and Cab Calloway. In late August 1949, the Adams switched to booking vaudeville acts before each film. A week later, the nearby RKO Proctor’s Theatre announced they would do the same.

Harold Minsky of Minsky’s Burlesque took over operating the theater in September 1952. Minsky applied for a permit to have burlesque shows and was denied. After an appeal, he was allowed to have burlesque performances at the theater. On December 21, 1955, the city of Newark passed an ordinance that made burlesque illegal. The decree stated that shows in which an actor disrobed or gave the “illusion of nudeness” was not allowed. It also outlawed profane, indecent, or lewd language. It was immediately challenged in court by the Adams Theatre Company and I. Hurst Enterprises. I. Hurst Enterprises operated the nearby Empire Theatre, another burlesque venue. The legal battle eventually reached the United States Supreme Court who declined to hear the case, and the ban on burlesque went into effect. However, Minsky did not wait for the verdict to come in and stopped showing burlesque at the theater on February 7, 1957. 

Eventually, the theater began showing grindhouse and b-movies. Unfortunately, it closed on March 31, 1986, due to a 400% increase in the insurance rates, which also caused the nearby Paramount Theatre to close. It was sold in 1990 to the Freeman Group, a Manhattan-based investment firm, which planned to restore and reopen the theater. However, that did not come to pass, and the building was sold once again. The current owner plans on transforming the auditorium into storage for his car collection.