Great Auditorium for a 2011 Doo Op concert on a summer Saturday night. Paul Goldfinger photo.
By Grover Mark Neumann. Special to Blogfinger.
Paul Goldfinger, MD. Editor Blogfinger.net
The CMA acquired an enormous amount of good will from those secular events. Yet they cancelled them on the grounds that they lost money, and I verified that reason from someone who knows. But if regional theaters around here, like the Basie in Red Bank, could do it, so could they.
However their cancellations correlated with their striking expansion of religious activities and ambitions in the Grove. And we now are seeing clashes between the CMA and increasingly secular demographics.
The CMA used to offer a nice balance between themselves and others in town. But the scales are tilting in a worrisome way. We recently posted the failed “forum” between the CMA and the HOA and we are now seeing an acceleration in tension with the clamor over pier shape, beach badges, religious symbols in public, and even more serious, the emerging public claims having to do with “Christian Nationalism.” It’s been flaring in the Coaster letters for several issues now including the most recent one two days ago.
It’s unlikely that the CMA can swing the pendulum back to when it was actually a “Christian Seaside Resort.” There is no stopping the growing secular influence in town, so a wise move would be for the CMA to change its mission and seek harmony in the Grove.
They hold the key. Ocean Grove is democratic small town America, and if you believe Neptune United, the US Constitution may be making some appearances in this peculiar town and its governance. The American Civil Liberties Union has already been alerted.
These matters should be studied by not only the AWOL HOA but also by Neptune Township and the State of New Jersey. All of them are flawed institutions.
THE CLOVERS. “Devil or Angel”
The reason why the Saturday night shows were ended was revealed at the OGHOA-OGMCA forum.
It was asked if it was for tax exemption reasons and the Association representative said “yes.”
The ending of the shows happened shortly after Neptune came after the Association for taxes on Grove Hall and their Pitman Ave. offices in 2018. The Association won both cases. I was told by a trustee that the shows had ceased to break even, but this was apparently not the main reason.
Films had been shown in the Auditorium for an admission fee in its earliest decades, then Neptune decided that the Auditorium should not be tax exempt in 1924. The case was argued at higher levels with a finding that the building could taxed. The showing of films was then discontinued and an appeal made in 1926. At some point, the Auditorium was declared tax exempt and has apparently remained so.
Hi Tom: Great idea, but as a journalist I cannot become an active activist.
Remember Charles Layton, the professional newsman who worked with BF for awhile? I was next to him during a parade in town when he refused even to sign a petition for something fairly innocuous.
But there is nothing to prevent you, a Grovarian, from running with that swell idea. You could even do boxer shorts.
–Paul, signing off from my ivory tower.
Paul, you could start your own campaign – MAGA (Make the Auditorium Great Again.)
It’s got a nice ring to it right? You could make up tshirts and hats. 😉