Olympic Theater Concert Hall
851 Prospect Avenue,
Bronx,
NY
10459
851 Prospect Avenue,
Bronx,
NY
10459
4 people
favorited this theater
Showing 26 - 42 of 42 comments found
I went to the Bronx Zoo on Saturday and I took the #2 train. While looking out the window I noticed the “Olympic Concert Hall” aka “Prospect Theater” looking very dilapidated and with a “for sale” sign on the marquee. It was disconcerting since the rest of the neighborhood looks like it’s in the middle of a building boom and, per above postings, had been recently renovated.
I was born in the Bronx and I asked my mom if she had gone to the Prospect way back when. She said it was one of her favorite theaters, but that she usually went to The Freeman on Southern Blvd. As a matter of fact, she went into labor (with me) while she was attending some Spanish language movie on November 23, 1959!
I love the fact that I decided to come into the world while I was actually IN a theater!
Here is a photo taken during a filming of a movie called “August Rush”. The Olympic theater became the Fillmore East in the movie.
It looks like hell on the outside.
It appears that the Olympic Theater is for sale again. This website has the information and a recent photo. The Status above should be changed to closed.
851 Prospect Avenue, Bronx, New York 10459 was sold in 2005:
Sold by Papaioannou, Vasilios A
Bought by 851 Prospect Avenue, Llc.
Date sale recorded Sep 16, 2005
Sale Price $1,261,990
Current use is not given.
Is the status of this theatre still “open,” as mentioned in the introduction? I tried connecting to the official website, but got only a “this page cannot be displayed” message. The “for sale” listing mentioned by Roger Katz on 5/24/05 is also no longer displayed. Perhaps someone purchased the property but has not yet revealed their plans for it?
In September, 1933, this was known as Jennie Goldstein’s Prospect Theatre, and presented stage plays starring the great Yiddish actress. I don’t know how long her leasehold lasted:
www.i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/bxpro.jpg
Six photographs of the former Prospect Theatre that I took in June 2005:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kencta/226276891/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kencta/226277509/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kencta/226278151/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kencta/226278889/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kencta/226280422/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kencta/226281083/
Here is a photo of the Olympic Theater Concert Hall.
Robin Williams is filming feture film “August Rush” in this theater all week.
For sale at http://listing.loopnet.com/14211693 for $3,300,000.
Glad to know that the old Prospect is alive and well. In the late ‘50’s my family would travel from B'klyn to the So. Bronx to visit relatives and frequently would catch a Spanish language movie at the Prospect. The theatre also presented live stage shows with mariachi bands and stars of the Mexican movies. Too bad that the Loews Paradise, the Loews Kings or even the DeMille have not enjoyed a similar restoration.
New e-mail
A recent color photo showing the marquee of the Olympic Theater can be seen on page B1 of The New York Times of Friday, October 23, 2004. An adjoining article tells of the neighborhood’s current “revival.”
To view interesting “then” and “now” images of the Prospect Theatre, click here:
View link
Take note of how those rooftop water tanks have survived for nearly a century.
Funny, yesterday I was reminiscing about my childhood in the South Bronx in the 60s and 70s when I left a comment for the President Theater of Westchester Avenue. So of course I did a search for my beloved Prospect Theater on this site, as I’d done many times before, and once again come up empty -handed. I never dreamed it had been restored and renamed! When I searched on the Web, I was directed back to this page, and got a big surprise. I immediately recognized the interior, especially the big double columns on either side of the stage. I remember vividly keeping one eye on the screen and the other on the door situated behind the columns because I knew that at a certain point one of the uniformed ushers would emerge with a stack of ice cream cups (remember the little wooden spoons?) to sell to the kiddies from the sidelines, while the film was in progress. In retrospect it was a smart thing for the management to do; it kept us quiet as we licked away!
I lived in the McKinley Houses on Tinton Avenue a few blocks north of the theater; the Prospect was definitely my household’s social hub. There was a time in the late 60s when it seemed we were at the theater every Sunday to catch the latest Mexican mariachi western starring the great Antonio Aguilar, or Jorge Negrete, or Luis Aguilar (relation to Antonio?) who in particular had a gift for comedy as well as being a a romantic lead, and of course, being mariachis they could all sing their hearts out besides being great horsemen and two-fisted champions of good. We were Puerto Rican but I always felt my dad had a Mexican soul; he loved those movies so. My mom went for the romantic comedies and dramas starring the latest Latino pop idols: Raphael, Sandro, and later Julio Iglesias. Ialso remember seeing movie treatments of popular Latino soap operas. Unlike their American counterparts, these soaps were more like long-running miniseries, structured like novels with beginnings, middles, and endings. Of course, my brother and I loved best the masked Mexican wrestlers, who fought in the ring by day and battled master criminals, zombies, Aztec mummies and vampires by night (El Santo, the Silver-masked One, even had a secret laboratory and hot convertible sportscar, kind of like a south-of-the-border Batman). So while we went further afield (Fordham Road, Eastside Manhattan, Times Square) to catch the Hollywood blockbusters, we were nurtured by the Prospect, now the Olympic, on a week to week basis. Needless to say I’m going to have to come visit the old neighborhood after nearly 30 years to pay my respects and relive old times.
new website of the olympic theater
www.theolympictheater.com
no more .tv