TENAFLY, N.J.—These days people are going to Tenafly’s movie theater to see “Avengers: Endgame,” but this week back in 1923 local residents packed the house to see a silent film to benefit the local fire department.
Built circa 1915, the Tenafly Theater on West Railroad Avenue is shown above as it looked in the early 1920s. This photo shows the theater’s original brick front; its present facade was added in 1926.
The building with the columns should also be familiar. Nearly a century later it’s still standing, housing retail space and offices, but in the ’20s it was the K.B.C. Smith Building, a real estate office. Years later it was Schmid’s Pharmacy.
For the Tenafly Fire Department fundraiser, the theater showed the silent film “The Third Alarm” from May 14–16, 1923.
The film tells the story of a firefighter who is forced to retire when his department switches from horse-drawn wagons to motorized trucks, and he is unable to learn the new way. It was a familiar concept in Tenafly—the borough had just gotten its first motorized fire truck in 1921.
Tenafly firefighters sold the movie tickets themselves. The theater was packed, with standing room only.
