Cartoon Day

My friend Tippy and I were on our way home from the Hobby Shop in downtown Rahway. Downtown, that’s what everyone called the eight-square-block shopping area of our little city in New Jersey. It was 1957 and I was ten years old.

“Look Tippy,” I said having spotted the grand marquee above the entrance of the Rahway Theater, “Cartoon Day!” Three or four times each summer Rahway Theater would give a special performance just for kids. From 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on a Saturday, they would run nothing but cartoons. It was a high point in the summer of every kid in Rahway, only overshadowed by the official family summer vacation itself that was usually a week or two at an ocean or mountain lake resort.

“Wow Chip! You think your Mom will let ya?” exclaimed Tippy having looked up from his concentration on the sidewalk to avoid the cracks to keep from ‘breaking his mother’s back’. Every ten year old knew that just one careless step on a crack in the concrete could cause a terrible injury to one’s mother.

“Sure,” I said with complete confidence. Not that it was easy getting 35¢ admission from my mother, but today was only Monday; I had a whole week to work on her. What I did not know then was my mother considered 35¢ admission and another 25¢ for a hot dog lunch a small price to pay for an entire day free of concern about her little angel. Of course she could not let me know that. Holding out until Friday night could mean a whole week of especially good behavior from me including eating every one of those dreaded peas.

I arose early that Saturday morning filled with anticipation. By 9:00 a.m. Tippy and I were on our way for the one mile walk to that heavenly place, the spectacular Rahway Theater. When we got there, the line was already all the way around the block. There must have been at least 2,000 kids waiting to buy a ticket to a day of absolute bliss. Never mind that the theater had 1,600 seats. At any one moment at least 100 kids would be on the way to or from the boy’s or girl’s room. Another 400 kids would be waiting in the line at the candy counter, so there were plenty of seats. No one wanted to sit in just one spot all day anyway.

Just for this special event, the wise Rahway Theater management hired a small army of high school kids to act as ushers for the younger kids. Now you give a sixteen-year-old a flashlight and a cap and all the qualities of a Gestapo officer emerge. And good thing too. Keeping 2,000 kids from tearing a theater to the ground on cartoon day required a stern hand.

Cartoon after cartoon flickered on the huge silver screen. The sound blared out at a volume at least twice the normal, yet it was drowned out by the excited yells and squeals of delight from the audience of cartoon lovers.

Several hundred “Loony Toons” and “Mary Melody” cartoons were shown. Even after the now familiar, “Th . . . Th . . . Th. . . That’s all folks!” there was still a collective moan of regret that it could not go on forever. Throngs of kids emerged from the exits with a great rush and roar and headed off in a dozen directions for the walk home.

The rest of the summer I kept an eye on the marquee for the next time it read, “Cartoon Day!” Cartoon Day at the Rahway Theater is something once experienced, is never to be forgotten.

Historical Footnote:

Remember how nearly every city or town of any size had a theater like the Rahway Theater?

Bratter and Pollack’s million-dollar Rahway Theater in Rahway, New Jersey was built in 1928. It had a marquee with 2,500 flickering lights circling the attractions. A giant vertical sign spelled out R-A-H-W-A-Y. Inside the theater there were 1,600 seats. The theater featured a nine-foot by thirteen-foot crystal chandelier suspended from the domed ceiling. There was a forty-five-foot stage and an orchestra pit. The building was built of brick and slate.

In 1971 the Wood Plaza Theater Corp. bought the Rahway Theater. To maintain interest in history of the theater, they renamed it the Old Rahway Theater.

By George V. Schubel

First published in “Yesterday’s Magazette” 8-26-93