 
The Village Theatre has probably the most interesting history. It was
built as a pier near 8th Street sometime after 1910. Standing high up on pilings, above
the water's edge, the theatre presented plays, vaudeville acts and silent movies.
Doughty's
Pier, as it was known, had rows of windows on each side to let the ocean
breeze through. Benches offered simple seating for the crowds.
On April 30, 1903, Carrell Doughty purchased the land for Doughty's
Pier for $375 at 8th Street. The Doughty Building was built on the
new (1905) boardwalk
 along with a
pavilion and a walkway to the water's edge. The
Doughty Building had a unique second floor covered balcony that
overlooked the boardwalk. Sometime around 1910 the pavilion was
replaced with Doughty's Pier, a theater built with all wood
framing. Very large wooden trusses held up the roof. "The
original theatre was a barn of a place, open only summers, I
recall...[and] was indeed a pier, extending seaward over the beach, and
containing a dance hall," remembers Miriam Simms Piper, daughter of the
owner of Simms' Restaurant.
Helen Kertland, who sold tickets at Doughty's from 1923 to 1988 told
me of how the same group of ladies, including Mrs. Doughty, would sit in
rocking chairs on the
ocean side of the building, overlooking the Atlantic, each night and
talk.
 When the great
fire of 1927 destroyed much
of the boardwalk, Doughty's Pier survived. The new boardwalk was rebuilt
much closer to the ocean, on the other side of Doughty's pier. The
theatre found itself on the inland side of the boardwalk, and at least
200 feet from it. (Aerial
view).
Carrell
Doughty then purchased the land extending from Doughty's Pier outward 1,000'
toward the Atlantic for $2,475 on June 18,1928. (But I am not sure how
this works. From whom do you buy this land?)
On September 23, 1929, Doughty's Theatre closed for remodeling, only
I don't know what was done to it. I suspect the interior was
improved. The major remodeling occurred in 1932...
While other buildings that survived the fire were actually moved east to the
new boardwalk, Doughty's pier remained in place, but was no longer a pier. The
entrance was now on the wrong side of the building.
In 1932 (according to cashier Helen Kertland) carpenters were hired to turn the
inside of the theatre around. After the theatre closed on September 10, 1932, the floor was re-angled, the seats were reversed,
and the screen was placed at the opposite end of the building. A
lobby and projection room were added to the building, on
the side
where the stage had been--now the entrance. Patrons
would now enter the building from the eastern side, near the boardwalk. Lillian Wange designed a
false seaport village
front that was constructed near the entrance, with small village doors and
windows lit from behind.
The theatre was renamed Doughty's Village Theatre and reopened on July 13,
1933.
At some point it was sold to William Shriver. Helen
Kertland told me (in 1988) that widow Phebe Doughty was left only $1 in her
husband's will somehow the theatre was sold to Mr. Shriver.
Helen was around back then and knew the people involved, but she is gone
now and I have no way of confirming that story.
A sound system was installed in 1929.
In 1941 new air conditioning (deep well-cold water) was added to the
Village and the Moorlyn.
In September of 1940, Shriver asked architect Armand Carroll (who
designed the Strand) to draw up designs to make the interior of
the Village larger. The original lobby area of Doughty's Pier was
now unused and was not tall enough to become part of the auditorium.
The screen sat inside the auditorium with the old lobby behind it.
Carroll made the theatre larger by
extending the roof line further back to the rear of the building,
making the old lobby area tall enough. The screen was pushed back
and the entire floor was altered to allow 190 more seats on a gradual
slope. There were two aisles dividing the seats into three groups.
Two tall decorative arches were built on either side of the stage with
draperies behind them. Lights hidden in coves accented the
draperies. The
screen
was 24 feet wide.
(1941
Village Floor Elevation)
The backstage area became the fan room, with vents to the outside that
could be opened to let fresh air into the system; and a boiler was
installed below the building. The theatre office remained backstage in
the smaller space but at the old floor elevation. You had to climb
a few steps to reach the office, which for many years served as the main
office for the Shriver Theatre Company.
The 1940 plans called for Radio and Theater decorations painted on the walls near the
ceiling. They also showed
plywood cutout shields lining the walls on either side, but I
suspect they were never installed. The blueprints of 1956 do not
show them and I never saw any sign of them in the 1970's.
In 1956-57 the interior was changed again. The
auditorium floor was removed and replaced with new flooring at a
slightly steeper incline and 1,048 seats were installed with a single
aisle down the middle. The exterior
walls were covered with "Corrugated Galbestos". New steel lally columns were installed in the side spaces on
either side of the seats. These were basically wide aisles with
lower ceilings.
The stage area was rebuilt, making room for a new 39 foot CinemaScope
screen.
The inside of the Village was simple with occasional odd angles in the walls
where the building had been reversed. Behind the screen you could see marks in
the floor from what used to be several front doors. Above the projection room
you could find the fly space from the original stage. Until 1989 the
theatre was still lit with very old Lumiline incandescent fixtures. Each light
looked like a fluorescent tube but had an incandescent filament running its
length instead.
The theatre was the home office for the Shriver Theatre Company and
its general manager, Arthur Oehlschlager. Arthur started working as a
rewind boy in 1929, became the general manager around 1961, and managed
the entire theatre operation until his death in 1980. Employees hung a
ship's wheel in the Village
lobby in memory of Oehlschlager.
The Village and other theatres were sold in 1989 by Helen Shriver Schilling
to a company secretly owned by local competitors. On June 12, 1990 the Village
burned to the ground. The cause is still unknown. |
along with a
pavilion and a walkway to the water's edge. The
Doughty Building had a unique second floor covered balcony that
overlooked the boardwalk. Sometime around 1910 the pavilion was
replaced with Doughty's Pier, a theater built with all wood
framing. Very large wooden trusses held up the roof. "The
original theatre was a barn of a place, open only summers, I
recall...[and] was indeed a pier, extending seaward over the beach, and
containing a dance hall," remembers Miriam Simms Piper, daughter of the
owner of Simms' Restaurant.
When the great
fire of 1927 destroyed much
of the boardwalk, Doughty's Pier survived. The new boardwalk was rebuilt
much closer to the ocean, on the other side of Doughty's pier. The
theatre found itself on the inland side of the boardwalk, and at least
200 feet from it. (Aerial
view).
