My wife and I just saw a performance of District 9 in one of the Midway’s small second floor theaters earlier today. We recommend both the movie as well as the theater.
It is interesting how Lamb creatively adapted his designs to conform to different tastes. While far less opulent than many of his other creations, the Midway lobby, which is mostly intact, makes a wonderful impression by saying more with less.
The Green Arcade was one of three movie houses in Greenpoint that did not survive the advent of talking films. The others were the Garden, on Manhattan Ave. – just down the block from the Meserole – and the Public Palace, on upper Graham Avenue. (If anyone is aware of other such treaters, please tell us.) Both of these old theaters have interesting, if brief, pages in Cinema Treasures. They are worth a look.
The address should be changed to 153 Green St. since (1) George Apen’s name was just added to and did not replace the original street name and (2) everyone calls it Green Street.
George Apen was a community leader and a founder of the Green Oaks Citizens Organization, which still exists down the block at 179 Green Street. According to a local blog, the organization’s name derives from the intersection of Green and Oakland (now McGuinness Blvd.)Streets.
George, whom I slightly remember from my younger years, was probably one of the very few people who knew that a movie house once existed on this site. While my father clearly remembered the Midway Theatre, which was situated around the corner, the Green Street Arcane closed just before he became a movie fan.
I think a mid-1960’s date for LM’s photo makes the most sense. (I don’t know why I initially dated it in 1956!; the America clearly lasted several years beyond the 1959 demise of the Winthrop.)
I’m a bit surprised that the old building just south of the American was only demolished in 1969. I thought it was razed 4-5 years sooner. But memories are tricky.
Joe, thanks also for the early history of the old building, which served as Greenpoint’s police precinct before construction of the 94th. As noted in my previous posts, I remember it as functioning as a veteran’s hall and perhaps as a military recruiting station in its twilight years. But your note fills in a big gap.
This seems to more accurately reflect what I saw during my last visit to this site and is very reassuring. So, hopefully, work is being done that will soon produce some positive results.
While some of Warren’s critics will call me a softie, I will clearly miss him on this site, where he provided a great amount of valuable information. (Now I might not have felt this way had I been the object of his increasingly nasty comments, but I at least avoided this sad fate.)
In sum, CT will be a poorer place without Warrwn’s presence. At least no one in the future will designate Peter Koch as being the Grover Whalen of CT.
But for those of you who bore the brunt of Warren’s attacks, I cannot deny your satisfaction.
LM, we will not hear from the Landmarks Commission on this until the Fall. They really like to take their time. The fact that no opposition whatsoever has arisen here is, by far, the best sign we could reasonably hope to see at this juncture.
Peter, I really hope that your latest visit to the Ridgewood occurred during a lull in the renovation process. As I noted after my last visit, some work – including the removal of the wall between the two ground level theaters – has already occurred and someone has been hired to manage the renovations. Unless something occurred since my visit to halt the renovations, you probably just arrived at the wrong time. I hope one of you will make another visit soon to confirm what is – or what is not – happening.
On another note, have you noticed that Warren’s pen has been strangely silent during the past month or so. I don’t know what gives. Although he could be, at times – some of you might say most times – a royal pain in the butt, he has also offered a treasure trove of valuable information that I, for one, have really appreciated. I hope he’s OK. Does anyone know anything that I don’t?
I have enjoyed this theater very much this summer, where I visit it from my wife’s mother’s place in Shelter Island. It is now open every day during the tourist season, as opposed to serving the public only 4-5 days of the week in previous years. They have also expanded the cafe, which serves both movie patrons and general customers, which should help generate additional revenue.(It’s like a less upscale version of what the Cinemart has produced in Forest Hills.) Attendance seems to be pretty healthy.
In short, the Greenport is doing very well – and best of luck to it!
Wonderful comments Phil. I’m glad that I am not the only person to remember the old Winnie. I must add, however, that I totally forgot that a liquer store and a Democratic Club once also occupied a portion of this site. Given the fact that the Winnie’s entrance – with the great awning – only occupied a rather small portion of the building’s front, the presence of other stores there makes a lot of sence. (It would be great if someone could post a vintage picture on this page.)
I did not know that both the Winnie and the American were owned by the same person. While he did get out of the movie business, he did hold on to the American for a few additional years before giving up on that venture as well. Thanks for the info.
The only unusual movie that I remember playing at the Winnie was old Cecil B. DeMille silent version of King of Kings that ran during several Holy Weeks in the late 1950’s. If the owner tried to show first run films here, it must have been a very brief attempt. I just can’t see how such a venture could have competed with the Meserole and the Greenpoint – and, of course – it could not.
One final memory about the Russel St. wall. Do you remember the fire escape that once existed here and, in particular, the ladder that came down to roughly the height of a basketball rim. I remember that a lot of kids would play “basketball” games with the final ladder step serving as basket.
Passed by the site today. It is still an open lot. Looking through the wall, I saw a mostly weed strewn lot with no sign of any development. Yes, some concrete foundation were installed – many months ago – but absolutely no new development appears to be comimg soon – if ever. The most recent Building Permits lapsed last February. Thr only activity I saw was a place to accumulate broken bike parts – but that is it!
The total stupidy of gutting what could have been an extremely appealing endeavor in marketing the Commodore as a cutting edge movie house just becomes more and more apparent! Stupidy rules!
I visited the old Amphion today and have a lot to report.
The site of the old theater is now part of the Bedford Playground, a NYC Dept. of Parks site that has served the community since the early 1960’S. Prior to that, it was a vacant lot owned by the Schaeffer Brewery. Since the beermakers wanted to consolidate their business development on a river-front site that was designated for a park, they traded the park-property for this site. Thus, that is how the old theater became a part of an active playground.
This is something that you have to visit in order to know what had occurred. Viewing the Building Dept. on-line items, you would think that this property never became City-owned – much less converted to a municipal park. But this just underlines the limitations of trusting what you see on the internet!
I hope the Parks Department will add the baseball revelations to its description of this site.
Thanks for the comment LM. It’s good to see your notes appended to the right theater.
Regarding “Take Me Out Yo The Ballgame’s” initial reception, I guess you can say that if you CAN’T make it in Booklyn you CAN make it everywhere else!
While, as per the Building Dept. on-line files, the site is currently vacant – and appears to have been vacant since the 1940’s – I doubt that an Urban Renewal project had anything to do with this. Until the 1970’s, when the area, which is known as the Southside Triangle, deteriorated badly, there was no governmental presence in this area. This was cetainly not the case just a block or so to the south, where massive urban renewal projects radically transformed the entire neighborhood. Recently, the Southside Triangle has made something of a come back, and some new development may very well be coming to the old Amphion site. In any event, I will try to visit this site as soon as I can.
A little tidbit about this long forgotten theater appears in today’s NYT on page A15. The article says that “In 1908, baseball’s greatest hit, ‘Take Me Out To The Ballgame’ … made its debut at the Amphion, an opera house on Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn”.
Since, as Warren noted, the Amphion began its life as a high class venue and only became a cinema after experiencing “hard times”, it probably was functioning as an “opera house” – or something close to it – in 1908.
Good talking to you Peter. Thanks for the spelling correction re Pythian Temple. I think I created one typo by trying to correct anther one. Anyhow, the NYT link appears below.
What you saw at the Ridgewood confirms what I saw last Saturday. Unfortunately, no one was there to show you around. The fact that the owner is no longer trying to sell or rent the place indicates that the essentials for the new relationship – or at least one would hope that this the case.
Tomorrow’s NYT’s Real Estate section has a very interesting article, on page 5, about one of Thomas Lamb’s most significant works – the Pyhian Temple, which is situated at 135 West 70th St. and will soon complete a major exterior renovation. Since this building never housed a movie theater, it obviously has no page dedicated to it on CT. However, as a major Lamb creation that many of us “film types” might not be aware of – I know I wasn’t – the article is certainly worth a look. This is especially the case as the Ridgewood’s landmark designation proceeds. Hope you also enjoy it.
I was able to review the Department of Building’s data regarding this site. While I retrieved some very useful information, that I will share, no “smoking gun” revelation of a movie house appeared. Specifically:
The movie theater – assuming there was one – was situated at either 460 – 462 Bushwick Avenue or 860 – 866 Flushing Ave.
The Block Number of this site is Brooklyn Block 3138 and Lot Number 32.
The earliest on-line action was a variance that, in 1946, permitted the applicant to establish a gas station here. What was here before was not noted, but may have been the old theater. Unfortunately, no earlier action is on line. Thus, while we can imply the existence of an earlier movie presence, no firm evidence exists – unless one has the time to examine the Department of Building’s hard copy archive.
Several actions, occurring in the 1903 – 1913 era, indicate that a use not inconsistent with a movie house received permission to do business here. Unfortunately, we have no on-line access to these records.
So that is what I have been able to come up with. Hopefully, we will be able to come up with some paydirt here – or maybe not.
What a fascinating theater! I had absolutely no idea that such a major movie palace once existed here. The fact that the site now hosts a gas station is just awful.
I would hope that CT will add the 11211 zip code – which is definately the correct one – to this page. Unless this is done, too many other viewers will miss this terrific page.
Bway, I could not agree with you more on this. Along these lines, you might also wish to check out another movie house situated at the opposite end of Graham Ave. It was known as the Public Palace and, if anything, seems to be an even less probable former movie house site. Yet, this apparently was the case, at least through the silent era. Hope you – and anyone else – will enjoy a view of this site.
Well LM, after combing through ALL of the Brooklyn sites in Cinema Treasures, I have still come up empty on my search for the phantom movie house at the southwest corner of Bushwick and Flushing. So I guess I will have to look further. Any other leads will be most appreciated.
The borough search was not totally futile, since I did stumble over a few big surprises. The most notable one was the Republic Theatre in Williamsburg, a huge movie house that I never thought ever existed. The fact that its 11211 zip code was not attached to its CT page was a major oversight and a systemic problem that, I hope, the site manager will attempt to address in a more comprehensive way.
I’m not sure where to place this post, but since the Echo would have been its closest cinematic neighbor, I will enter it here.
In reading Eugene Armbruster’s history of Brooklyn’s Eastern District, I stumbled upon a reference to a movie theater that was situated at the southwest corner of Bushwick and Flushing Avenues. A gas station now graces this location. I have not, however, been able to find any reference to a movie theater on this site anywhere in Cinema Treasures. Since Armbruster is a very reputable source, I believe such a theater did exist. It’s location at the intersection of two busy streets also reinforces this view.
So my question: Does anyone have any evidence to confirm the existence of a movie theater at this location? Since Armbruster wrote this portion of the book in the 1920’s, this is probably the time frame that needs to be explored. Also, the pertinent address would lie in the 800’s for Flushing and the early 400’s for Bushwick. Both would be even numbers. But, beyond that, I can’t offer any more clues.
LM, while I could only lightly touch on the implementation schedule, the impression that I got is that the movie theaters will come on board before the catering hall and that it will take about one year for the latter to occur. So hopefully, movies could return by the end of the year – or at about the time – in December – when the Ridgewood originally opened.
Panger, while the the old chandelier is long gone, the plan apparently is to install a new one in the lobby.
Bway, since the “ceiling” of the old theaters 1 and 2 has not been altered, I could not see how the upper space was partitioned or what remains of the old arch. Hopefully, more info will emerge as the project advances.
Just passed by the old building today. The day care center is now sponsored by the estimable Grand Street Settlement House, which probably replaced a local group that couldn’t cut it. The building is in fine shape, though only some brick work on the Halsey Street facade provides a faint echo that something theatrical once held sway here.
The old theater is situated across the street from Irving Square Park. In my District Manager days in the 1970’s this place was an absolute horror that could not safely be entered during any part of the day or night. I am now extremely happy to report that the park has been brilliantly renovated and is now serving a large and active community. If the Alhambra were still in business, it would have a terrific neighbor. In any event, the park does a great job in serving the day care center’s kids.
My wife and I just saw a performance of District 9 in one of the Midway’s small second floor theaters earlier today. We recommend both the movie as well as the theater.
It is interesting how Lamb creatively adapted his designs to conform to different tastes. While far less opulent than many of his other creations, the Midway lobby, which is mostly intact, makes a wonderful impression by saying more with less.
The Green Arcade was one of three movie houses in Greenpoint that did not survive the advent of talking films. The others were the Garden, on Manhattan Ave. – just down the block from the Meserole – and the Public Palace, on upper Graham Avenue. (If anyone is aware of other such treaters, please tell us.) Both of these old theaters have interesting, if brief, pages in Cinema Treasures. They are worth a look.
The address should be changed to 153 Green St. since (1) George Apen’s name was just added to and did not replace the original street name and (2) everyone calls it Green Street.
George Apen was a community leader and a founder of the Green Oaks Citizens Organization, which still exists down the block at 179 Green Street. According to a local blog, the organization’s name derives from the intersection of Green and Oakland (now McGuinness Blvd.)Streets.
George, whom I slightly remember from my younger years, was probably one of the very few people who knew that a movie house once existed on this site. While my father clearly remembered the Midway Theatre, which was situated around the corner, the Green Street Arcane closed just before he became a movie fan.
Joe, thanks for your comments.
I think a mid-1960’s date for LM’s photo makes the most sense. (I don’t know why I initially dated it in 1956!; the America clearly lasted several years beyond the 1959 demise of the Winthrop.)
I’m a bit surprised that the old building just south of the American was only demolished in 1969. I thought it was razed 4-5 years sooner. But memories are tricky.
Joe, thanks also for the early history of the old building, which served as Greenpoint’s police precinct before construction of the 94th. As noted in my previous posts, I remember it as functioning as a veteran’s hall and perhaps as a military recruiting station in its twilight years. But your note fills in a big gap.
This seems to more accurately reflect what I saw during my last visit to this site and is very reassuring. So, hopefully, work is being done that will soon produce some positive results.
Does anyone else have anything to report?
While some of Warren’s critics will call me a softie, I will clearly miss him on this site, where he provided a great amount of valuable information. (Now I might not have felt this way had I been the object of his increasingly nasty comments, but I at least avoided this sad fate.)
In sum, CT will be a poorer place without Warrwn’s presence. At least no one in the future will designate Peter Koch as being the Grover Whalen of CT.
But for those of you who bore the brunt of Warren’s attacks, I cannot deny your satisfaction.
LM, we will not hear from the Landmarks Commission on this until the Fall. They really like to take their time. The fact that no opposition whatsoever has arisen here is, by far, the best sign we could reasonably hope to see at this juncture.
Peter, I really hope that your latest visit to the Ridgewood occurred during a lull in the renovation process. As I noted after my last visit, some work – including the removal of the wall between the two ground level theaters – has already occurred and someone has been hired to manage the renovations. Unless something occurred since my visit to halt the renovations, you probably just arrived at the wrong time. I hope one of you will make another visit soon to confirm what is – or what is not – happening.
On another note, have you noticed that Warren’s pen has been strangely silent during the past month or so. I don’t know what gives. Although he could be, at times – some of you might say most times – a royal pain in the butt, he has also offered a treasure trove of valuable information that I, for one, have really appreciated. I hope he’s OK. Does anyone know anything that I don’t?
Wow, I wonder what kind of performance the outlaw Cole Younger provided on this occasion. Did he rob the playgoers?!
I have enjoyed this theater very much this summer, where I visit it from my wife’s mother’s place in Shelter Island. It is now open every day during the tourist season, as opposed to serving the public only 4-5 days of the week in previous years. They have also expanded the cafe, which serves both movie patrons and general customers, which should help generate additional revenue.(It’s like a less upscale version of what the Cinemart has produced in Forest Hills.) Attendance seems to be pretty healthy.
In short, the Greenport is doing very well – and best of luck to it!
Wonderful comments Phil. I’m glad that I am not the only person to remember the old Winnie. I must add, however, that I totally forgot that a liquer store and a Democratic Club once also occupied a portion of this site. Given the fact that the Winnie’s entrance – with the great awning – only occupied a rather small portion of the building’s front, the presence of other stores there makes a lot of sence. (It would be great if someone could post a vintage picture on this page.)
I did not know that both the Winnie and the American were owned by the same person. While he did get out of the movie business, he did hold on to the American for a few additional years before giving up on that venture as well. Thanks for the info.
The only unusual movie that I remember playing at the Winnie was old Cecil B. DeMille silent version of King of Kings that ran during several Holy Weeks in the late 1950’s. If the owner tried to show first run films here, it must have been a very brief attempt. I just can’t see how such a venture could have competed with the Meserole and the Greenpoint – and, of course – it could not.
One final memory about the Russel St. wall. Do you remember the fire escape that once existed here and, in particular, the ladder that came down to roughly the height of a basketball rim. I remember that a lot of kids would play “basketball” games with the final ladder step serving as basket.
Great to make your acquaintance, Phil.
Passed by the site today. It is still an open lot. Looking through the wall, I saw a mostly weed strewn lot with no sign of any development. Yes, some concrete foundation were installed – many months ago – but absolutely no new development appears to be comimg soon – if ever. The most recent Building Permits lapsed last February. Thr only activity I saw was a place to accumulate broken bike parts – but that is it!
The total stupidy of gutting what could have been an extremely appealing endeavor in marketing the Commodore as a cutting edge movie house just becomes more and more apparent! Stupidy rules!
I visited the old Amphion today and have a lot to report.
The site of the old theater is now part of the Bedford Playground, a NYC Dept. of Parks site that has served the community since the early 1960’S. Prior to that, it was a vacant lot owned by the Schaeffer Brewery. Since the beermakers wanted to consolidate their business development on a river-front site that was designated for a park, they traded the park-property for this site. Thus, that is how the old theater became a part of an active playground.
This is something that you have to visit in order to know what had occurred. Viewing the Building Dept. on-line items, you would think that this property never became City-owned – much less converted to a municipal park. But this just underlines the limitations of trusting what you see on the internet!
I hope the Parks Department will add the baseball revelations to its description of this site.
Thanks for the comment LM. It’s good to see your notes appended to the right theater.
Regarding “Take Me Out Yo The Ballgame’s” initial reception, I guess you can say that if you CAN’T make it in Booklyn you CAN make it everywhere else!
While, as per the Building Dept. on-line files, the site is currently vacant – and appears to have been vacant since the 1940’s – I doubt that an Urban Renewal project had anything to do with this. Until the 1970’s, when the area, which is known as the Southside Triangle, deteriorated badly, there was no governmental presence in this area. This was cetainly not the case just a block or so to the south, where massive urban renewal projects radically transformed the entire neighborhood. Recently, the Southside Triangle has made something of a come back, and some new development may very well be coming to the old Amphion site. In any event, I will try to visit this site as soon as I can.
A little tidbit about this long forgotten theater appears in today’s NYT on page A15. The article says that “In 1908, baseball’s greatest hit, ‘Take Me Out To The Ballgame’ … made its debut at the Amphion, an opera house on Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn”.
Since, as Warren noted, the Amphion began its life as a high class venue and only became a cinema after experiencing “hard times”, it probably was functioning as an “opera house” – or something close to it – in 1908.
Good talking to you Peter. Thanks for the spelling correction re Pythian Temple. I think I created one typo by trying to correct anther one. Anyhow, the NYT link appears below.
What you saw at the Ridgewood confirms what I saw last Saturday. Unfortunately, no one was there to show you around. The fact that the owner is no longer trying to sell or rent the place indicates that the essentials for the new relationship – or at least one would hope that this the case.
View link
Tomorrow’s NYT’s Real Estate section has a very interesting article, on page 5, about one of Thomas Lamb’s most significant works – the Pyhian Temple, which is situated at 135 West 70th St. and will soon complete a major exterior renovation. Since this building never housed a movie theater, it obviously has no page dedicated to it on CT. However, as a major Lamb creation that many of us “film types” might not be aware of – I know I wasn’t – the article is certainly worth a look. This is especially the case as the Ridgewood’s landmark designation proceeds. Hope you also enjoy it.
I was able to review the Department of Building’s data regarding this site. While I retrieved some very useful information, that I will share, no “smoking gun” revelation of a movie house appeared. Specifically:
The movie theater – assuming there was one – was situated at either 460 – 462 Bushwick Avenue or 860 – 866 Flushing Ave.
The Block Number of this site is Brooklyn Block 3138 and Lot Number 32.
The earliest on-line action was a variance that, in 1946, permitted the applicant to establish a gas station here. What was here before was not noted, but may have been the old theater. Unfortunately, no earlier action is on line. Thus, while we can imply the existence of an earlier movie presence, no firm evidence exists – unless one has the time to examine the Department of Building’s hard copy archive.
Several actions, occurring in the 1903 – 1913 era, indicate that a use not inconsistent with a movie house received permission to do business here. Unfortunately, we have no on-line access to these records.
So that is what I have been able to come up with. Hopefully, we will be able to come up with some paydirt here – or maybe not.
Blondie10, has anyone expressed any interest in this site? Hope you have some good news to share.
What a fascinating theater! I had absolutely no idea that such a major movie palace once existed here. The fact that the site now hosts a gas station is just awful.
I would hope that CT will add the 11211 zip code – which is definately the correct one – to this page. Unless this is done, too many other viewers will miss this terrific page.
Bway, I could not agree with you more on this. Along these lines, you might also wish to check out another movie house situated at the opposite end of Graham Ave. It was known as the Public Palace and, if anything, seems to be an even less probable former movie house site. Yet, this apparently was the case, at least through the silent era. Hope you – and anyone else – will enjoy a view of this site.
/theaters/17101/
Well LM, after combing through ALL of the Brooklyn sites in Cinema Treasures, I have still come up empty on my search for the phantom movie house at the southwest corner of Bushwick and Flushing. So I guess I will have to look further. Any other leads will be most appreciated.
The borough search was not totally futile, since I did stumble over a few big surprises. The most notable one was the Republic Theatre in Williamsburg, a huge movie house that I never thought ever existed. The fact that its 11211 zip code was not attached to its CT page was a major oversight and a systemic problem that, I hope, the site manager will attempt to address in a more comprehensive way.
I did the zip code search for 11206 and 11237 for this theater and came up blank. So I guess I will have to do a borough search.
Thanks for thr capacity data for the Echo.
I’m not sure where to place this post, but since the Echo would have been its closest cinematic neighbor, I will enter it here.
In reading Eugene Armbruster’s history of Brooklyn’s Eastern District, I stumbled upon a reference to a movie theater that was situated at the southwest corner of Bushwick and Flushing Avenues. A gas station now graces this location. I have not, however, been able to find any reference to a movie theater on this site anywhere in Cinema Treasures. Since Armbruster is a very reputable source, I believe such a theater did exist. It’s location at the intersection of two busy streets also reinforces this view.
So my question: Does anyone have any evidence to confirm the existence of a movie theater at this location? Since Armbruster wrote this portion of the book in the 1920’s, this is probably the time frame that needs to be explored. Also, the pertinent address would lie in the 800’s for Flushing and the early 400’s for Bushwick. Both would be even numbers. But, beyond that, I can’t offer any more clues.
Please help resolve this issue.
LM, while I could only lightly touch on the implementation schedule, the impression that I got is that the movie theaters will come on board before the catering hall and that it will take about one year for the latter to occur. So hopefully, movies could return by the end of the year – or at about the time – in December – when the Ridgewood originally opened.
Panger, while the the old chandelier is long gone, the plan apparently is to install a new one in the lobby.
Bway, since the “ceiling” of the old theaters 1 and 2 has not been altered, I could not see how the upper space was partitioned or what remains of the old arch. Hopefully, more info will emerge as the project advances.
Just passed by the old building today. The day care center is now sponsored by the estimable Grand Street Settlement House, which probably replaced a local group that couldn’t cut it. The building is in fine shape, though only some brick work on the Halsey Street facade provides a faint echo that something theatrical once held sway here.
The old theater is situated across the street from Irving Square Park. In my District Manager days in the 1970’s this place was an absolute horror that could not safely be entered during any part of the day or night. I am now extremely happy to report that the park has been brilliantly renovated and is now serving a large and active community. If the Alhambra were still in business, it would have a terrific neighbor. In any event, the park does a great job in serving the day care center’s kids.