All Brooklyn’s a Stage: Heights – Part 2

posted by Michael Zoldessy on July 14, 2008 at 9:40 am

BROOKLYN, NY — The Brooklyn Eagle takes a further look into the theaters of its past included on Cinema Treasures.

Here are a few details of theaters catalogued on the web site, just so you know what those emporiums were like.

The RKO Albee — remember Albee Square? — had vaudeville as well as movies. Edward Albee, the original owner, donated paintings in the theater from his private collection. (He was a vaudevillian and either the adoptive father or grandfather of Edward Albee, the playwright.) The movie house existed off Fulton Street from 1925 until 1978. Now a new structure awaits us.

The Orpheum, another vaudeville house on Fulton Street, was owned by Percy Williams who also created the Bergen Beach Amusement Park. At 578 Fulton St., it was demolished in 1954.