Loew's Gates Theatre

Warren, I guess that means that the rumor that “Loew’s walked away from the Gates Theater after the 1977 riots” is untrue, as apparently it wasn’t operating the Gates by 1977, if it’s final years as a cinema were spent as porn. But then again, it may be a half truth, as if the operator that ran the porn there was a tenant, Loew’s could have still owned the place at the time of the 1977 blackout.
The Pilgrim Church that took over the Loews Gates (and is still there today) originally used the RKO Bushwick as their sanctuary but when the Loews Gates became available, they moved out of the Bushwick and into the Gates. The reason being that they may have been able to take ownership to the Gates if Loews walked away from it, wheras at the Bushwick they may have been a tenant.

Wow, I wasn’t aware that Loew’s (as a corporation) allowed their theaters to show porn. This is actually shocking to me and very sad.

In comments above, someone asked if Loews walked away from the Gates after the blackout of 1977. While I can’t comment on the Gates, I do recall comments made on the Madison’s page about RKO nver reopening after the blackout. They just walked away. Perhaps this was the theater he was thinking about.

Hello just found this sight. Great to go back in time.I lived on Stockton Street about two miles away.I did not go to the Lowe’s till about 1958 most of the times I went to my local movie The Rodgers as a kid being 14 cents back in the late 50s the gate was a buck that’s when I would take my dates there we would walk up Broadway both ways and some times late at night never had a problem.Times where simple then.Thank you Joe zizzo

Here’s a google street view of the Gates:

Click Here for Link

I don’t know. Loews may have walked away from it. All I do know is that the Pilgrim Church that now occupies the Loews Gates originally was housed in the RKO Bushwick Theater after the Bushwick Theater closed. I don’t know when the Bushwick Theater closed though, but it was in the 70’s. For whatever reason, in a twist of fate, the Pilgrim Church moved out of the RKO Bushwick and into the Loews Gates when it became available. Perhaps the reason for this is the missing piece to the puzzle of why they did that, which you may have unearthed. Perhaps they were paying rent in the RKO Bushwick, but if Loews jsut waled away from the Gates, perhaps the Pilgrim Church had an easy way to obtain actual ownership of the Gates, instead of paying rent at the RKO Bushwick.
In any event, that move left the RKO Bushwick at the beginning of it’s almost 30 year fall into total shambles, as nothing ever occupied it again after the church, and was finally gutted and made into a school in 2004. At the same time, the Gates theater is now completely preserved and intact inside.

I know it was a long time ago, and I scanned thru all the above posts, perhaps I missed it, but isn’t this theatre one the few that Loew’s walked away from after the great blackout of 1977? As I remember reading, they just never showed up again after the power returned.

Local photographs and map

http://www.topix.net/city/brooklyn-ny

The last sentence of the first paragraph of the introduction needs to be changed. No supposition is needed. Loew’s Gates was purpose-built for movies and stage presentations.

In January, 1924, Loew’s Gates’s vaudeville headliners included Rose’s Royal Midgets, 25 entertainers ranging in height from eighteen to thirty-three inches. I believe that some of them later portrayed Munchkins in MGM’s “The Wizard of Oz,” which had several engagements over the years at Loew’s Gates:
www.i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/lobk24.jpg

Three photographs I took of the Loew’s Gates Theatre in June 2006:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kencta/199766285/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kencta/199766678/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kencta/199767025/

Does anyone have any current interior photos of the Gates, or know of any online?

Here is a vintage photo showing the Loew’s Gates theater.