The Maplewood Theater: Its Forgotten Saga

Most Maplewoodians catching the latest movie at their village six-plex have no idea that the theater in fact has a long theatrical history dating back to 1927. Beginning life as one of the largest combined vaudeville/movie houses in New Jersey, the Maplewood Theater struggled along for a decade before becoming the setting for a series of highly popular summer stock shows featuring a myriad of major Broadway and Hollywood stars including Helen Hayes, Ingrid Bergman, Tallulah Bankhead, Paul Robeson and Maplewood’s own Teresa Wright. Legendary Tony Award winning producer Cheryl Crawford made Maplewood her theatrical home for almost three years in the 1940’s and launched her successful version of Porgy and Bess in this very theater on Maplewood Avenue. After another brief stint with legitimate theater in the early 1950’s, the Maplewood Theater settled into being a popular neighborhood movie house, which evolved into multiple theaters in 1990. Extensive research has located original theater drawings and photographs of remnants of the Pompeian themed interior, production photos and playbills from the live show era, early movie memorabilia including a Wurlitzer theater organ console, staff photos from the 1970’s and much more. The exhibit, which will be on view from 1:00 – 4:00 p.m. on February 23rd will continue through the fall. Out in the carriage house the Country Store will open up its coffers for a “super discounted sale” of historic- themed treasures: early American children’s games, books and toys, facsimile documents, quill pens and ink, historic cook books, cookie molds, tin lanterns, hand blown blue birds, reproductive decorative items and ceramics, and more. The hard- to-find original Doors of Maplewood poster and Smile, the history of Olympic Park, will also be available. The Durand-Hedden House is dedicated to telling the history of the development of Maplewood and the surrounding area in new and engaging ways. It is located in Grasmere Park at 523 Ridgewood Road in Maplewood. For more information or to arrange group tours call 973-763-7712.