The line of Pitmanites stretched down the sidewalk as the town’s brand-new Broadway Theatre opened its doors for public inspection on Tuesday, May 18, 1926. William Lacy’s creation extended all the way from 35 to 43 S. Broadway, the theatre’s new address. Overhead were four new apartments with decorative black wrought iron balconies. Locals, along with members of the press, eagerly stepped past the three as-yet-unfinished storefronts as the Broadway, the focal point of the block-long structure, made its public debut.

After nearly a year of ignoring construction of the town’s new signature theatre in its pages (perhaps in deference to the Hunt’s Park, a longtime advertiser), the Pitman Grove Review finally relented with an April 29, 1926, front-page story brimming with details: “The new Broadway Theatre is being rushed to completion by Contractor W.A. Lacy. The seating contractor has already installed all the balcony seats and the main floor chairs are being placed immediately. The beautiful crystal lighting fixtures will soon be installed; also the many changes of scenery which requires 10,000 feet of rope to operate. This scenery is now being completed in the Metropolitan Opera House, Philadelphia, by Fetters & Fisher Studios. The manager of the Broadway, Ralph D. Wilkins, 32, states that many high grade photoplays have already been contracted for. These pictures, playing Philadelphia’s best class of theatres, will have first showing in this section at the Broadway.”

Upon its completion, along with the Pitman National Bank and the town’s churches, the Broadway Theatre immediately became one of the most admired buildings in the borough. Its ornate stonework, imposing columns and large wrought iron and milk glass sconces hung above the gleaming glass movie poster cases brought a new gravitas to the town’s business district. The theatre’s large vertical BROADWAY marquee, outlined in large electric bulbs, could be seen from practically anywhere on Pitman’s main street. The new theatre, with its block of storefronts, along with the town’s busy train station, made a statement. It informed visitors that Pitman was on the move, far removed from its quiet church camp origins. Flags were hung outside businesses all along Broadway, thanks to a board of trade letter sent out to borough shopkeepers asking them to observe May 18 as a local holiday in honor of the new theatre.

Inside, Pitmanites, accustomed to the small, simple Hunt’s Park Theatre, gasped at the beautiful French Revival movie palace around them. The ornate plasterwork, crystal chandeliers, Parisian wallpaper, carpeting, red velvet stage curtains and eight luxurious boxes was unlike anything else in South Jersey. A reporter from the Gloucester County Democrat estimated that more than 2,000 people jammed the aisles, the stage, the richly carpeted mezzanine and the balcony. All of the theatre’s 1,200 seats, including the 50 box seats, were filled. While the balcony had simple wooden seats emblazoned with a B at the end of each row, patrons in the orchestra section enjoyed cushier, spring-enhanced upholstered seats. 

Congratulatory floral arrangements from local businesses filled the stage. Many of the same businesses took out ads in the Pitman Grove Review to welcome the Broadway Theatre. Manager Ralph D. Wilkins told the Democrat, “The public has responded to the invitation more than my highest expectations. It is the intention of the management to respond to this display of confidence by giving the people high-grade performances.”

Much attention was paid to the theatre’s elaborate $15,000 organ from the W.W. Kimball Company, with its 10-foot pipe chambers installed on each side of the stage. Locals attending the public inspection got to hear the magnificent instrument for the first time. The organ’s double touch system included marimbaphones, glockenspiel, chimes, orchestra bells, harp, drums and numerous other instruments. The Pitman Grove Review reported, “In size, this organ compares favorably with those found in America’s biggest cinema palaces. Organists of prominence will be heard daily in programs of high class music. The Broadway Orchestra, composed of 10 musicians, will be under the direction of O.E. Wardwell.”

“The Kimball was certainly a powerful instrument,” reflected John Wilkins, grandson of Ralph Wilkins, in 2006. “It could overwhelm the theatre with its volume. Many folks came to the theatre just to hear the organ.” Adds the Broadway’s current organist, Nathan Figlio: “Ralph Wilkins went around to all of the New York showrooms and chose the Kimball because it was the most tonally refined. It was also the most expensive but the best-built. The proof of that is we do very little to it even now and it works day in and day out.”

Many of the same locals returned the following evening, May 19, for shows at 6:30 and 9 p.m., featuring high-class vaudeville acts, the Broadway Orchestra and a feature film, the just-released Paramount Pictures silent comedy “The New Klondike.” Orchestra seats were 50 cents, while a balcony seat could be obtained for 35 cents.

Theatre manager Ralph Wilkins had hired an all-female usher team of high school students, instantly identifiable by their rose-colored linen dresses with white collars, to hand out programs, take tickets and guide patrons to their seats. The inaugural Broadway Theatre usher team included 15-year-old Pitmanite Sally Titus. “Mr. Wilkins told me, ‘If anyone asks, you’re 16,’” recalled Sally Titus-Cline to Gloucester County Times columnist Bob Shryock 62 years later with a laugh. “The jobs weren’t easy to come by. Many girls applied and as soon as somebody left there would be others waiting to replace them. It was a wonderful way to make $4 a week.”

After working the mobbed opening night, Titus expected to be off the following evening, but Wilkins called her into work because the theatre was once again at capacity. Of Ralph Wilkins, she recalled, “He was a quiet man and a nice boss who treated us lovely. We averaged 75 cents a night, which in those days came in handy. We were so busy we’d see the same movie three or four times in the two nights it played and never really had a chance to look at it.”

Up on West Jersey Avenue at the Hunt’s Park Theatre, manager and projectionist Monte Mathis saw the lines snaking down Broadway outside “Gloucester County’s Largest Playhouse” (as Ralph Wilkins was billing it in the theatre’s half-page Pitman Grove Review ad) and knew the fight for his survival was on.

“Pitman’s Broadway Theatre at 100” will be released by Ardmore Avenue Publishing on September 23, 2025. Discounted online pre-orders via AAP will begin on June 7.

Author Richard L. Eldredge is an Atlanta-based arts reporter and fourth-generation Pitmanite who saw his first film, “Walt Disney’s The Jungle Book,” at the Broadway. He has been in love with storytelling and his hometown theatre ever since.

Above photo courtesy of Ralph J. Richards, Jr.

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