There was a great feature of the Egyptian on the Travel Channel last night, showing much of the theater. Supposedly, the place is haunted, and that was the feature.
Interesting map. Also interesting on that map is the site of the old Union Cemetery, which was dug up and bodies moved to a Flushing Cemetery to built Bushwick High School, the Irving Library, and row houses. The Union Cemetery used to take up the blocks bounded by Irving and Knickerbocker from Putnam to Palmetto St.
There is no listing for the Parkway or Rolland Theater on the site here, did it show film? It should be added if anyone knows any more information about it, and if it showed film.
Further Research determines that is now the Holy House of Prayer for All People, and that it once was the Parkway Theater. Is this on the site? I can’t seem to find it, did it show film?
Kyle, I can only imagine how wonderful the sound is.
By the way, the Geico Commercial of a guy playing a fiddle in a large ornate room (which appears to be a fancy restaurant in the commercial) is actually the Loews Jersey, in I believe the lobby. It’s beautiful. You can find the video on youtube.
That is pretty neat about that guy that took all those images, I never knew it was one guy.
Anyway, as for the Varsity, this is very similar to what happened with the RKO Madison Theater in Ridgewood, NY, in which the theater survives above a fake ceiling and the orchestra level used for retail. The Gaumont Theater in Manchester England also had a smilar fate, with a nightclub opening on the main level, and a fake ceiling put in. That one however was completely demolished in the end.
Here’s a photo of the Gaumont Theater above the fake ceiling when the orchestra level was converted into a nightclub. Very similar fate to what happened to the RKO Madison Theater in Ridgewood, NY, and the Varsity Theater in Chicago, Illinois, both in the US.
Kevin, for other buildings, How do you determine the film number? Is it arranged by section and lot? Did youview both the 1930’s verion, and the 1980’s version?
Unfortunately, I think it’s too late for the Canarsie theater, at least the interior, it has been gutted inside (see April, 2009 Message with photo link above). Hopefully they can at least preserve the exterior.
She was wrong about the Murkens location though. That wasn’t were the Big Daddy’s appliance store is, instead, it was the Chinese Restaurant to it’s left.
There is no saving the Loews Pitkin…..I don’t know how old this bing maps image is, but if you look closely, you will see that the entire roof is now open to the elements, it’s probably full sunlight inside of the theater at this point. It was reported above that the plaster ceiling has already collapsed, and the walls are probably just as bad. Water freely flows through the building, as seen in this aerial image of the theater, which is probably a couple years old already. Sad.
Does anyone have any vintage images of the interior? None of the links above seem to work. A more current one would be welcome too, but I am sure no one has been in there recently. Any interior photos would be appreciated.
Thanks for posting the photos! It looks a lot better on the inside than I was expecting based on what the exterior looks like. Hopefully someone will step in to save it before time begins to take it’s toll, such as what happened with the nearby Joy.
Whoever it is is older than Monica I think. She remembers things like Egg creams in drug stores, based on some of her other great video tours. Peter, I added one to the Madison Theater too, I don’t know if you still get updates from a lot of the theaters you used to comment in, as you would have had to make a comment in any of them within the last year to still get the update emails.
There was a great feature of the Egyptian on the Travel Channel last night, showing much of the theater. Supposedly, the place is haunted, and that was the feature.
According to ticketmaster, there’s a couple of concert events scheduled at The United Palace Theater, including Elvis Costello:
View link
Interesting map. Also interesting on that map is the site of the old Union Cemetery, which was dug up and bodies moved to a Flushing Cemetery to built Bushwick High School, the Irving Library, and row houses. The Union Cemetery used to take up the blocks bounded by Irving and Knickerbocker from Putnam to Palmetto St.
There is no listing for the Parkway or Rolland Theater on the site here, did it show film? It should be added if anyone knows any more information about it, and if it showed film.
If you pan the aerial image slightly over to St John’s Place, I noticed there is another theater in this image:
View link
Further Research determines that is now the Holy House of Prayer for All People, and that it once was the Parkway Theater. Is this on the site? I can’t seem to find it, did it show film?
Here’s a street view of the theater.
View link
Any information on it would be appreciated.
You can VERY clearly see the old rooftop theater on the roof of the building when you look at a bird’s eye view of the building:
View link
That’s pretty cool, it’s a super telephoto lens, and it scrunched everything together.
Kyle, I can only imagine how wonderful the sound is.
By the way, the Geico Commercial of a guy playing a fiddle in a large ornate room (which appears to be a fancy restaurant in the commercial) is actually the Loews Jersey, in I believe the lobby. It’s beautiful. You can find the video on youtube.
That is pretty neat about that guy that took all those images, I never knew it was one guy.
Anyway, as for the Varsity, this is very similar to what happened with the RKO Madison Theater in Ridgewood, NY, in which the theater survives above a fake ceiling and the orchestra level used for retail. The Gaumont Theater in Manchester England also had a smilar fate, with a nightclub opening on the main level, and a fake ceiling put in. That one however was completely demolished in the end.
Here’s a photo of the Gaumont Theater above the fake ceiling when the orchestra level was converted into a nightclub. Very similar fate to what happened to the RKO Madison Theater in Ridgewood, NY, and the Varsity Theater in Chicago, Illinois, both in the US.
View link
Kevin, for other buildings, How do you determine the film number? Is it arranged by section and lot? Did youview both the 1930’s verion, and the 1980’s version?
Thanks Ray for that great story!
Unfortunately, I think it’s too late for the Canarsie theater, at least the interior, it has been gutted inside (see April, 2009 Message with photo link above). Hopefully they can at least preserve the exterior.
Anyone know of any current photos of the interior?
Anyway, here’s a corrected link for the photo above, the link changed:
View link
Was that Havemeyer thing a theater? Or is the marquee just a coincidence?
Ooops, here is the proper link, the one above is one from a year ago. This was taken today:
Click here for photo
Almost a year later….and still no change…here’s a photo I took yesterday of the Eagle/Luxor Theater
Click Here for Photo
She was wrong about the Murkens location though. That wasn’t were the Big Daddy’s appliance store is, instead, it was the Chinese Restaurant to it’s left.
I remember that Arthur Treatures too. But she remembered a lot of stuff before my time too.
What a shame the new owners of the building decided to take the historic RKO Keiths name off the marquee that was restored about 10 years ago.
Yes, they are reconstructing the cross streets there.
This image appeared in the Long Island Advance a couple weeks ago:
Click here for photo
Much more fitting….
There is no saving the Loews Pitkin…..I don’t know how old this bing maps image is, but if you look closely, you will see that the entire roof is now open to the elements, it’s probably full sunlight inside of the theater at this point. It was reported above that the plaster ceiling has already collapsed, and the walls are probably just as bad. Water freely flows through the building, as seen in this aerial image of the theater, which is probably a couple years old already. Sad.
Does anyone have any vintage images of the interior? None of the links above seem to work. A more current one would be welcome too, but I am sure no one has been in there recently. Any interior photos would be appreciated.
Click here for aerial image….it’s a sight…
I don’t know if this has been posted here before, but I couldn’t tell…but it’s a great old photo of the Pitkin from the 50’s:
View link
Thanks for posting the photos! It looks a lot better on the inside than I was expecting based on what the exterior looks like. Hopefully someone will step in to save it before time begins to take it’s toll, such as what happened with the nearby Joy.
Whoever it is is older than Monica I think. She remembers things like Egg creams in drug stores, based on some of her other great video tours. Peter, I added one to the Madison Theater too, I don’t know if you still get updates from a lot of the theaters you used to comment in, as you would have had to make a comment in any of them within the last year to still get the update emails.