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(Courtesy of Sandy Hunt Goulet)

Ttc fillatia2 bigqg ffiat it \\e195'l -52 Motion Picturc Almaqrc:

HUNT, WILLIAM C.: PresidergHunds Theatcs, Inc b, Port Jcf-fersoo, Long Island, Mar. 13,l87Zm{fricd. Pio[eer sbop tndingbusiness, estrblished i&a of stamptrediog tkoughout Eastem UnitedStotes, Sewed fout ternr in N. J.ShE Asscmbh elect!d Stab Seru-tor, 1936; publisheq SildwoodI-ea&r," urcetly newspapet- Ia1905 opened Etst theate, Camdeo,N. J; dwirg 1907 four otlersopeocd ia.NewJesey aod Peonsyt-vania. Acquire<l cilcuit of 22 &ea-tes in oext 15 yer8; purchssedOcean Pier, Wildwood, 1935; fiorn1936-46 consolidated resort set-updisposiog of oe.y theitles; itr!0lldwood alone ovns 6ve arodemtheatres. Member, Masons &Sluine Chsobet of C,oomeregClubo: Kiwanir, I0tldrpood Golf &Country Club. Pres., WildvoodTnrst Co., Cape May CountyCharabet ofCornnerce.

Number 45

il Hunt'r Thestrer ond Other Hnterpr*se*E;-r-.:ijF__F..iilii__;.;:HtH;.;H:;-:;:HF-.Hts-j;lH]fl.*j:r--i.r_:H'lX.H:*-.*:

WILLIAM C. HUNTH;E

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d-t/' I rliam C. "Bill" Ffturt wns bom ltuch 13, 1873 and opened his

\ /t/ n^t ftertre in C'amdan, Nerv Jersey in 1905. In the sumrner ofV Y 1906. he arrived in \\ildwood on an escursion train. Escurston

trains ihat operated ftom Philaddphh and Canden wee verv popular andbrouglrt many individuals and frmilies to dre seashore to enioy dre oceanand dre fresh dr- Fhmt decided th.nt this s,-ould be a good place to opa, atheatre.

Wildwood By Thc See is locatedon e barder islaod drnost et thc

exteme end of &e New Je(seycoasdiae, about 80 miles soulherstof Philadelphia" It sheres the islend

with thr,ee other mmmuoitics.Wildwood rnd its sister coromu-

nities continued to g!o\r. Hunttook over the operation of other

th!attes et the seashore and ex-panded his theate chain- By tleI 930's he hed built e chria of up to

22 theatses that strerched as farnorth as Treatoo and into thePhiladdphia area.

Hunt was elccted a SAte lss!m-blyman in 1933 and a state senator

in 1936. In 1935 he acquircd theOceen pieg as eoterteiinent 4odamlsem!ot complex that extendedftom the boerdrralk over theoc!atr. Hunt continued to suke

impmvemens to Ocean Pier butsedly the pier, Hunds Nixon Ther-tre and boardwalk stores were de-sUoyed by fire on Chrisr'nrs Eve1943. T\e Stand Tteate vas de-stmyed by fite the followiag year.

Hunt begeo to dispoee of the

theates oubide of the Wildwoodaree and by 1947 he had coocen-

trred his entertainnent enterprisesin lower Cape May County. He

owned five dduxe theatres io WiId-wood, the Sadight Bdlrcom in

I I I I T

Wildwood end rwo theatres iooea$y Crpe Mey. He ouned *ndopereted all of the tlcaues ia Wild-wood and Cape May. His sons,William D. (Bud) Hunt and Guy B.Hunt were active in the day-to-drytheatre and ballroom operations.

Thc involremcnt by his sons aI-loved Bill Hunt time to d!vote tohis other business and civic inter-ests. He was publisher of tbreeweekly newspepets, headed a locdbrak end vas active ia fhe Cham-bers of Commerce in Wildwood,Crpe May and Cape May County,the Wildvood Golf ald CountryClub ead a leeder ia the plenningof the regiorul medical center.

Afur Wodd War II the Wild-woods bccame even more populerrs a scashore rcsorL The wintcrpopuletioo of the Wildwoode wasrbout 12,000, but it exploded toovet 150,000 duting the su:mmerrnonths. Wildwood is e favoritcfanrily resort fot many femiliesftom tte PhilrdeJphi. area. Somefamilies come for the entite sum-ner rnd others come for a fewdays or longer.

Hunt's Theatres hrd the advan-tage of showing first run Iilrns be-fore fiey were shown io the Phil.-delffi atce. Tte evening shows intlre summer did very well. There is

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nothmg worse at a seashote tesottthan when it rains during the days.rne fam drryes everyone off tbebeach aod maoy head for the mov_ies- The raiay day matinees alwaysdid verv u'ell-

Ia tire 1950's the Wildwoodclubs were feanrri.g the biggesrflames rl enterteiment The tadepapet VaticE tefe'lIeA to Wildwootlas Ias Vegas Easq as many of theacts that played Las Vegas iso ap-peared in Wildwood. Manv of thefeatuted perforrners aod the per_soonel from the hotels and ciubswere seen at the matinees at Hunt,sTheatres.

Hunt built the Hunt's Amuse_ment Pier on the ocean side of theboardwalk. It u'as built on the siteof the Ocean Pier that was de-stroyed in 1943. The 6rst ohase ofthe Huat's Piet opened oo M.mo-rial Day 1957. Some of the prcrwas built over the ocean and H]rnracquired the rights ftom the Stateof New Jersey to extend the oierfurtler over the ocean ia 1960 Ldagain in 1966.

The Oceaa Pier fire also de_stroyed Huqt's Nixon Thea&e di-recdy opposite the pier on the landside of the boatdwalk. HunCsopened the Oceau Theatre on May27, 1965 oo the site of Lhe NixonTheatrc. For the fust vcars- itprayeo a slngte g picture for theentire summer, In 1965 Hunt tookover thc Harbor and park Theatresin Stone llarbor and the AvalonTheatre in Avalon.

W. C. Hung the founder ofHunt's Theatres, died at the age of98 on July 12, 1970. His .oo". W..(Bud) C. Hunt and Guy B. Hunqcontinued to operate the theatr!cbain atrd amusement pier. Thectovie studios were now releasingtheir fiLns sirnulaneously acrossLhe country, and although the sum-mer movie busiaess was still good,the Hunt's no longer had thl ad-vartage of showiog first tun filrnsbefore they were shown in the

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Philadelphia area.On Juae 12, 1973, Hunt's signed

a lease to operate the neq' RioTwio TheaUe on the mrintaod inRio Grande. Much of the yearround retail business had movedfrom thc Wildwood busincss cen-ter to the mainland, The yearround populatioa of the aearbymainland communities had dra-matically increased.

Guy Hunt died at age 66 on July2, 1975. At the time of his death,Guy Huot was past presideot aod amember of the board of the Icer-national Associatioq of Amusc-nent Parks and Attnctions. Hehad the responsibility for the man-agement aod operation of Hunt'sAmuseinent Pier.

The weekly ne\rspape$ w!rcsold in 1975. Bud Hunt sold theStdight Bdhoom in 1978. TheRqlslt Theatre was sold and con-verted to a boatdwalk merchantmall The Casino Thea&e was con-verted to a large video pador. TheShote Tteatre was twinned.

Afur the 1985 season, HundsPier was sold to a group of inves-tors. The theatres were sold to theFrank Company, another familyowned theaue business operating

in the Atlantic City area.Under the Fraat Comoanv- the

Ocean Theate was twinne;- theStrand was divided into foursceening rooms aad the board-\ralk entreoce closed. The Blakcrwas twinned and ioioed to theShore Theatre to become theShote Fout

William D. (Bud) Hunt died atage 85 on March 31, 1991.

In Decenber 1996, the Frao-kCompany aanounced plans to de-molish the Shore anJ Bhker aldbuild a 10- to 12-screen compleron the site. The Casino was demol-ished in 1999.

As of the summer of 2001. theShore aad Blaket remain closed.The Oceao Th!etie oq the boatd-walk is closed. The Beach in CaocMay has beeo divided into fourscreening tooms and the HarborIheatte in Stoae Harbor has beendivided into five screecing rooms.Both the Bcach and Harbor ooer-ate yeai rould. The Rio Twin Lsdosed several years ago- TheStrand operates only d'r;ng thesufllmer.

Hoyt's Cinemas acquired therreaK Lompmy several years ago.

Here are the men who supervise the operations of Hunt Enterprises, f.gmleft; wllllam D, Hunt, fouflder-presldent Wllllam C. Hunt, wltiiam I. Drl,counsel Arthur Lewis, and Guy Hunt, a wide-wake, progressive combina-

- Exhibitor Magazine, September 20, 1950

November 2OOi