Colonial Theatre

1746 Broadway,
Brooklyn, NY 11233

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Showing 26 - 50 of 198 comments

Bway
Bway on September 3, 2008 at 6:00 am

I believe many theaters still had cartoons even into the 70’s. I remember seeing cartoons before the main movie at the Oasis and Ridgewood Theaters as a kid.

JoeG
JoeG on September 2, 2008 at 5:28 pm

I wouldn’t bet a lot on it, but I think the Colonial probably did have cartoons. I can very vaguely remember seeing some. I remember distinctly that around Halloween they would have a costume contest where the neighborhood kids would dress up and try to win prizes, consisting probably of extra candy or something. My mother would take me to Pitkin Avenue, not far away, to buy a costume at a 5 and 10 or other department store. That’s also where Fortunoff’s got its humble start, later becoming a more upscale department store, though it has had bankruptcy problems in recent years. In 1959, I believe, a kid in my class at Lourdes and I both had the same Superman costume and they had us stand up on the seats together. We both won. The movie was “The 7th Voyage of Sinbad,” with Kerwin Matthews, who just died last year at 81. The movie scared the hell out of me, especially the woman who was put in the basket of the sorcerer, Torin Thatcher, with snakes and turned into a half-snake, half-woman. But that didn’t stop me from seeing the movie about 15 times. I still love to watch it occasionally, along with “Jason and the Argonauts,” both from Ray Harryhausen. … “From the land beyond beyond … from the world past hope and fear … I bid you, Genie, now appear!”

PeterKoch
PeterKoch on September 2, 2008 at 1:29 pm

roybarry, it would indeed be ironic if the matron was named Marion, as Marion Street is one block away from the Colonial Theatre.

I don’t know if the Colonial showed Saturday morning cartoon specials. That was before my time.

Please post your memories of the Decatur and Monroe Theatres on the pages for those theatres on this site. I would LOVE to read them, as would others. Thanks in advance.

Did the Decatur Theatre live up (or down) to its reputation as “The Itch” ?

roybarry, I would like to invite you to Bushwick Buddies, if you are interested, for some chat and some great images of our old neighborhood. There are several pages devoted to Cooper Street alone !

www.bushwickbuddies.com

Bway and I hope to see you there !

roybarry
roybarry on September 2, 2008 at 1:18 pm

I will do my best to get some other information so we all can enjoy the old days! There is one thing that keeps bugging me. I don’t remember if the Colonial showed Saturday morning cartoon specials. I remeber going to the Decatur and the Monroe for cartoons on Saturday mornings. I lived on Cooper Street between 1948 and 1956. I remember seeing “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” for the first time at the Colonial and everytime I see that film on TV it brings me right back to the Colonial.Do you remember the white-haired Matron that took care of the kids in the Children’s Section. I forgot her name…Ms. Marion or something!

PeterKoch
PeterKoch on September 2, 2008 at 10:17 am

Thanks, Joe G.

Understood, roybarry. I will comply. I think I’ve already posted everything I can post, on the Colonial Theater. The next step forward would be to post an image of the Colonial when it was still functioning as a theater. Can you assist with this ? Thanks in advance.

JoeG
JoeG on September 2, 2008 at 8:18 am

No problem, Peter. There is no link to that article unless you want to buy it from the Times. I had to go to the library and look it up. Very analog and retro.

roybarry
roybarry on September 2, 2008 at 8:17 am

Can we talk more about the Colonial Theater. I think this website is for the theater and it’s history and the experiences we all had attending the old Colonial. I apologize if I am stepping outside of my bounds, but I feel completely alienated from the recent content of this site.

PeterKoch
PeterKoch on September 2, 2008 at 6:54 am

Thanks for this information, Joe G. Perhaps you could post a link to that NY Times article about the burning down of Our Lady Of Lourdes.

In retrospect, I wish I had spoken with Bro. Cyprian about his time at Lourdes. I apologize if I have offended you with anything I have said about him.

JoeG
JoeG on September 1, 2008 at 7:27 pm

Peter K., I knew Bro. Cyprian pretty well, he was a friend of my family’s, and I don’t remember hearing anything from him along those lines. Anyway, I found an article in the NY Times about the burning down of Lourdes. According to the pastor, Father Edward Smith, whom I also knew well, the fire was suspicious because of recent break-ins in which burned paper plates were found, which the burglars used to see in the dark. This happened 11/16/75.

BillP
BillP on August 27, 2008 at 4:17 pm

Kay O. My e-mail is I will tell you what I know about Anton G. (I don’t want to talk too much on this site about non-Colonial matters though I think it’s ok to relate neighborhood stuff.) Bill P.

PeterKoch
PeterKoch on August 26, 2008 at 11:31 am

Thanks, alicia.

You’re also welcome to check out Bushwick Buddies.

PeterKoch
PeterKoch on August 26, 2008 at 9:32 am

KayO, I have known Brother Jude Byrne, OSF, for many years, since fall 1972. He was, and is, a good friend of mine.

I am sorry that I cannot help you with Anton Grimm or Florence Pourgal, but if you would love to hear from anyone from those great times, I cordially invite you to join Bushwick Buddies at :

www.bushwickbuddies.com

Bway and I hope to see you there soon.

kayO
kayO on August 25, 2008 at 6:27 pm

I noticed a message with Anton Grimm’s name in it. He was at my wedding in 1960. He married a girl from Furman Ave.,Florence Pourgal (not sure of spelling). Would like to know how he is doing.
My grandparents bought a two family house on Furman Ave. my mother was raised there, then she married my father around 1935 and stayed there. I left in 1960. My parents left around 1968. Would love to hear from anyone from those great times.

kayO
kayO on August 25, 2008 at 6:00 pm

To Bill P.
The candy store on Aberdeen St. was owned by the McManus Family around 1953. I graduated Lourdes in 1954. Two brothers went out to St Anthony’s H.S. in Huntington L.I. One passed away but Brother Jude who taught 8th grade is still there.

PeterKoch
PeterKoch on August 25, 2008 at 11:23 am

Joe G, I think Brother Cyprian’s Park Slope parish and parochial school was St. Francis Xavier. His long rant about blacks was enabled by my junior class, 301, academic year 1971-72, being all-white.

PeterKoch
PeterKoch on August 22, 2008 at 7:30 am

Hi, Joe G. I didn’t know you went to SFP. Yes, I think Bro. Campion coached baseball. I had him for 11th year math, pre-calculus, and calculus. Yes, I know how upperclassmen treated the frosh. But when I attended the Prep, I lived in Ridgewood, not Bushwick. I knew Bro. Cyprian very well. I never knew he was principal of Lourdes. Thanks for mentioning it. If I DID know, I had forgotten. I had him for A.P. American History in the 1971-72 academic year, got a 4 on the A.P. Test. “Your results are in proportion to your efforts !”

Principal of Lourdes : Now that you mention it, I do remember him as being prejudiced against blacks, and going on a long rant once about having his ass kicked down a flight of stairs by blacks. That could have been his experience at Lourdes, although I remember him also talking about a parochial school in Park Slope and President Street.

I have heard of the film “The Gospel According to St. Matthew”, and have heard it described as Christ always yelling at his disciples. I know the Meserole well, saw “2001” there with Bro. A. Edward Wesley and class in Nov. 1970. I’ve posted plenty on the Meserole Theatre page. I also know McCarren Park well.

Good for you meeting Bobby Kennedy before he was assassinated.

Yes, $ 250 per is too rich for me too. I didn’t even attend the Class of 1973 35-year reunion back on April 25th.

Joe Bettinger, SFP Class of 1970, from 16 Grant Avenue, Cypress Hills, was a personal friend of mine.

JoeG
JoeG on August 21, 2008 at 7:16 pm

I remember Bro. Campion, though I didn’t really know him, from when I was a student at the Prep between ‘66 and '70. I think he was a baseball coach. Peter K., you would have been a freshman when I was a senior, so I wouldn’t have known you, or wanted to. (Just kidding – you know how upperclassmen treated the frosh.) But I might have seen you around the neighborhood. Did you know Bro. Cyprian? He was the principal of Lourdes till 66 or 67, then came to the prep. Bro. Peter was my 7th and 8th grade teacher. Some of the Franciscan brothers were real sadists and would beat the hell out of us, which many of us deserved, but he was a great guy who I really admired. We once had an after-school outing from the Prep to see “The Gospel According to St. Matthew” at the Meserole Theater in Greenpoint. It was a stark, black and white film by the Italian director Pasolini, hardly who you’d think would make a Biblical story, but it was pretty good, portraying Christ not as merciful, but as pissed-off and vengeful. The Meserole, now closed, was near McCarren Park Pool, which has been used for concerts in recent years and is going to be renovated and reopened as a pool. The Prep’s football team used to practice in the park. In probably early 68, I was there playing ball and there was a bandwagon and a big commotion. I went over to see what was going on and it was Bobby Kennedy, running for president. I got to shake his hand. BTW, SFP is having a 150th anny celebration in downtown Bklyn in Oct., black tie optional, $250/per, too rich for my blood.

PeterKoch
PeterKoch on August 21, 2008 at 8:37 am

Thanks, Bill P. Do you mean the RKO Bushwick or the Loew’s Gates ?

BillP
BillP on August 21, 2008 at 8:31 am

I think I’ve met Bro. Campion at SFC functions but I didn’t remember Robert Lally from SFP. A few years ago Bill Quigley, who lived on Hopkinson Ave. across the st. from the Saratoga branch of the library ran a reunion at a K. of C. in Bethpage at which there were a lot of folks from the neighborhood surrounding the Colonial T. Quigley graduated from Lourdes in 1949. He was more partial to the Bushwick Theater further down Broadway than to the Colonial. Bill P.

alicia
alicia on August 20, 2008 at 7:13 pm

Everyone if you go to google maps and click street view you can see all the streets in bushwick as it looks like today…I seen OLOL school, and my old niegborhood.

PeterKoch
PeterKoch on August 20, 2008 at 2:40 pm

Thank you, Bill Proefriedt. Welcome to CT ! You would also be welcome at Bushwick Buddies :

www.bushwickbuddies.com

I attended SFP 1969-1973. One of my teachers, Brother Campion Lally, was involved with the move from Baltic to N. 6th St. in 1952 as a student back then : Robert Lally. He was a classmate of yours. Do you remember him ? He was one of the January 1953 graduates, I think.

BillP
BillP on August 20, 2008 at 2:34 pm

Someone mentioned the candy store on Aberdeen and Broadway. It had a series of owners, but in 1949, the year I graduated from OLOL it was owned by the parents of a classmate of mind. There name was DeNicolo. Mrs. deNicola was not in the store on Friday nights as she was collecting her dishes at the Colonial. A couple of people have said that Loudes church was burned down by an arsonist. Fr. John McCormack a Father of Mercy and the pastor of Lourdes and a longtime proest there told me at Jim Cassidy’s wake that the fire was an accident caused by a homeless man. McCormack was no longer the pastor when this happened. Jim Cassidy was known to have opened a side door from the balcony of the Colonial to let his friends in free. THey had climbed up a concrete set of stairs from Chauncey St. Finally I note that several folks said that after Lourdes, not having had enough of the good brothers went on to St. Francis Prep, I did that , too, but earlier—1949-53. At the time SFP was down on Baltic St. between Smith and Court. In my senior year SFP moved to Greenpoint/ Williamsburg. St. Frncis himself would have enjoyed the movies I saw at the Colonial—especially Horatio Hornblower. Bill Proefriedt

hairmagic
hairmagic on March 22, 2008 at 11:30 am

ok Joe G. I will…

JoeG
JoeG on March 21, 2008 at 7:40 pm

OK, Lisa, meant to say this earlier, but Isabel had a brother named Manny. If you ask her, mention him.