Wagner Theater
110 Wyckoff Avenue,
Brooklyn,
NY
11237
110 Wyckoff Avenue,
Brooklyn,
NY
11237
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Showing 51 - 75 of 77 comments found
I believe Deep Throat is the movie that I think tipped the tides into the “modern” porn industry. It’s also sort of “tame” considering what is out there nowadays.
I don’t think that “I Am Curious-Yellow” was really considered an “X” rated movie. The first real porn movie that I remember was “Deep Throat” with Linda Lovelace. I don’t remember which theater it played at.
My parents saw “I Am Curious-Yellow” in spring 1970, I think at the Arion in Middle Village.
That movie was a Swedish movie which by today’s standards I guess would be considered pretty tame.
As far as I know the Wagner was the only Ridgewood theatre to show porn. Although, in the early days alot of X features played regular theatres, so you never know.
Did the Wagner ever show “I Am Curious-Yellow” around 1967 or 68? I know that I saw that movie somewhere in Ridgewood and can’t remember where it was.
Nope just “Let’s Spend the Night Together”, which I first saw at Centurys Floral.
More X titles
Beaverly Hills Cop
Star Whores
RobertR, did you ever play the Robert Frank movie about the Rolling Stones' 1972 US Tour, “Cckscker Blues”, at any NYC cinema ?
No, let’s not. I saw “Groove Tube” on a double bill with “Flesh Gordon”, first at the Crossbay I in June 1975, then again at St. Mark’s Cinema (unfortunately cut) in January 1976. Fun stuff.
“Brown 25 : New things come out of Uranus every day !”
Hahaha. My coworkers must think I am crazy because I am laughing at my computer.
Let’s not forget, “Ball in the Family”, “The Hunchback of Dirty Dames”, and “The Long Ranger”.
I played that X rated Pinocchio at the Cinema Village on a double bill with Flesh Gordon.
Like “Ball Street” and “My Bare Lady” and “Under Five Fags”(instead of flags).I have also been told of an X-rated Pinocchio. It’s not his nose that gets longer !
Sounds like the first porno I rented when I was a teenager at the video store, which was a great “cinema masterpiece” called, “Bright Lights, Big [fill in a word that rhymes with Cities]”.
Funny how many of these “masterpieces” are plays on real movie names.
I remember the Wagner having porno, “Devil’s Bed” and “Let’s Play Doctor”, in 1968.
Does anyone know what the years German films were played, then Spanish and finally porno? The above post mentions porno in 1969 but I’m not sure about that. I do remember after the Wagner closed the Oasis and Ridgewood sometimes booked a German film one weekday or a few times ran a German print of their current feature.
Here’s a current view of the former Wagner Theater site taken today.
Click Here for Link
The theater is now demolished and replaced with this modern building, Women’s Health Clinic.
In 69 I saw porno flicks at this movie house the place was run down and filthy
Has anyone researched the history of the Wagner Theatre? Due to its small size, I suspect that it probably dated back to the early silent era and may have even started as a nickelodeon. It’s listed in the 1926 Film Daily Year Book as the Reo Theatre, which might have been its original name. It may have been converted to a German showcase with the arrival of sound movies. Prior to that, I don’t think there were many theatres specializing in German movies. The important ones were often generally released here with English inter-titles…P.S. There seems to be an error in the introduction to this theatre. It stood on Wyckoff Avenue, not on non-existent Wagner Street.
My father was a Sunday afternoon regular at the Wagner during the 50’s. Sometimes I would go with him, especially since I had German as a foreign language in high school and needed exposure to the language. As I recall, the interior of the theater was rather plain and nondescript and typical of most neighborhood theaters of the time. The lobby was very small and the restrooms were upstairs right next to the projection booth. They were reached by a staircase in the right rear of the auditorium. Sometimes the booth door would be open and I would be in my glory watching the projectionist do his thing. Do recall that the theater, being relatively small, had an intimate feeling to it.
The Wagner played double features with a short subject and the German version of the Fox newsreel, which was called “Fox Tonnende Wochenschau”, which translates as “Fox Movietone News”. Never had any German cartoons though.
Can anyone tell me what The Wagner was like inside? My grandmother went every week when they had German films there.
For those present and former Bushwick and Ridgewood residents who wish to express their condolences and get-well wishes to Monsignor James Kelly of St. Brigid parish, the address is :
St. Brigid Rectory
409 Linden Street
Brooklyn, New York 11237
Thanks PGZ for the correction. The last sentence of my entry should therefore read (with an additional correction) “The theater was either demolished or completely refaced with orange colored brick in the front and the side on Stockholm Street.” DeKalb Avenue is the street on the opposite end of the block.
The theatre was actually located on the corner of Wyckoff Ave and Stockholm Street, not Dekalb Ave. My family ran Italian films there on Sundays for 15 years during the 70’s and early 1980’s. Seating was 440, probably reduced from the original 556.
Drove past 110 Wyckoff Avenue the other day and very little if anything is left of the Wagner Theater. The space is now occupied by the Women’s Health Center, which is probably associated with the nearby Wyckoff Heights Medical Center. The existing building bears very little resemblance to the theater. The theater was either demolished or completely refaced with white brick in the front and the side on Dekalb Avenue.
The Wagner Theater stood at Wyckoff and Dekalb Avenues in the Wyckoff Heights section of Brooklyn, adjacent to Ridgewood and Bushwick. The Wyckoff Heights Bklyn NY post office (zone 11237) is nearby. In the late 1960’s it had become pornographic, showing such cinematic “gems” as “Devil’s Bed” and “Let’s Play Doctor”. I am pleased to read that it is now a community performing arts theater.