De-Luxe Theatre
2001 Bath Avenue,
Brooklyn,
NY
11214
2001 Bath Avenue,
Brooklyn,
NY
11214
5 people
favorited this theater
Showing 51 - 74 of 74 comments
YankeeMike-Saw the buildiong in various stages of construction. The side wall on the 20th Av side was never torn down as was the back wall. The builders incorporated it into the new structure.They simply added to it and built up and around it. There is at least 30 percent of the theater in the new structure. The entire interior was gutted ouy in the summer of 2004. Though not a theater. the new building is very pretty and is far more attractive than the cookie cutter buildings going up throughout Bensonhurst.
If you look at the building now there is no way you would know it was once a theatre. It looks like a totally new building. The main entrance is where the side wall of the theatre was.
When I was 12, I wanted to see the James Bond movie Goldfinger. My mother who read the Catholic Legion of Decency movie ratings in the Tablet objected because she thought it was too adult or sexy,so she said no. Anyway one Saturday night her and her friend Josie went to the Deluxe to see it. The next day I asked her if it was ok for my younger brother and I to see. She said yes, but she never knew that I had already seen it 3 times before at the Alpine theater. It was about two weeks before Easter. We walked to the Deluxe and it cost 65cents to get in. At the theater.I met a friend from school who was there with his sister. We sat together and stayed for it twice. They also had a short subject(remember them ) about Greece. I enjoyed Goldfinger even more the 4th time. We all had a goiod time. Tell me honestly-how many of todays movies are worth seeing more than once?
I remember going to the Deluxe for those Saturday matinees in the early 60’s. I wish I had kept those flyers they gave out in the PS 200 schoolyard.
ij, What was the name of the lunchenette?
Growing up in Brooklyn I knew the owner-manager of the DeLuxe Theatre, a Mr. Harry Green (I think), He owned the Normandie theatre in boro park that was across the street from my father’s lunchenette, and as a young kid maybe 3 or 4 my mother would leave me in Mr. Green’s care sometimes when she had to work, and he would park me in one of the seats, and I recall watching a streetcar named desire over and over. Boy I wish I knew to collect movie posters and stills back then.
I went to PS 200 in the mid to late 1950s. People from the Deluxe would come to the schoolyard and give out cardboard flyers (5" X 10", a different color each week) that would advertise the upcoming Saturday show. There was always a main feature like the “Three Stooges” and numerous cartoons. There was a also a number (approximately 6 digits) on the top of the flyer. If your number was posted on the theatre’s glass doors on Saturday you got in free! Many times one of the film segments shown would be races with Joe E. Brown. There was some sort of contest tied in with that, but I can’t remember what it was. The show would last about 4-4 ½ hours. Admission was 26 cents. Many kids, me included, would bring a bagged lunch to eat during the show. My mother would also give me 10 cents to buy candy (5 cents a bar). During the show a big fat woman in a white uniform with a flashlight…THE MATRON!….would yell at unruly kids and shine the light in their face. If you were really unruly she would throw you out!
Lucky for me I was able to get a picture of the Deluxe before this conversion began, with the marquee still up. This theatre was empty and vacant for almost 10 years before anything was done with it.
They have covered all of the exterior with new brickwork and have put new windows in the side of the building. Very soon there will be no way to tell that this bulding was a movie theatre for over 50 years.
I agree with you YankeeMike, this building does not look like it dates back to 1914, it could have been partially torn down and rebuilt. In checking Brooklyn Eagle ads from the 1950’s I could find no reference of the Deluxe being part of a circuit, such as Interboro or Randforce.
I think this building only dates to the 1920’s, 1928? Unless they totally redid the inside. The Benson, which I believe went up in the teens had a backstage area and an orchestra pit. The Deluxe did not. The screen was close to the back wall and there was no stage or pit. The building itself looks like a late 20’s early 30’s structure. I would guess the Montauk was torn down and the Deluxe (Bay) was put up in its place. Hopefully someone out there has some information. Also this was an indepent theatre during its entire regular run.
Theatre opened in 1914 as the Montauk with a seating capacity of 600. In 1928 it became the Bay Theatre No mention or reference to this as being a new building. In the mid-1930s the theatre was renamed the Deluxe. The 1926 Film Daily Yearbook has 600 seats for the Montauk, the 1931, as mentioned by Warren, lists 492 for the Bay and the 1947 Film Daily Yearbook has 599 seats for the Deluxe.
I think this theatre was an independent theatre it’s whole regular run until the XXX era. As a kid I can remember the moms of the PTA protesting the movie posters for xxx movies on the outside of this theatre, later there were black bars placed strategically on the posters, and finally they were all moved inside. Also at one point they stopped putting xxx film titles on the marquee, because some of those were dirty as well, and P.S. 200 is only a block away.
As I remember the Marquee was different in the 50’s and 60’s. It was more squared off. I think the half circle marquee went up around 1969 or 70. The Deluxe’s orchastra section was about the same size as the Benson’s. It had a balcony section behind the orchastra section. (Similar to the one in the Astor Plaza but smaller) It did not have an orchestra pit like the one in the Benson. The lobby was also much smaller then the Benson’s.
Thanks Warren, as always you are a wealth of information. This must have been a very small nabe house in comparison with the nearby Benson and Oriental. YankeeMike do you remember the 1950’s era Deluxe Theatre Marquee and was it the same stainless steel half circle marquee that I remember in the 70’s and 80’s?
From what the old-timers say it was called the Bay Theatre in the 1930’s and 1940’s.
I went to this theatre in the 1950’s and it was The Deluxe. When was it called The Bay Theatre?
This theatre at one time was called The Bay Theatre, it later changed it’s name to the Deluxe. XXX movies were the bill for this theatre from the late 70’s until 1999 when it closed due to laws preventing such establishments operating near a public school (P.S. 200).
The building was not demolished. They gutted the interior to put in offices and added a third floor but the original building stands.
In the early 1960’s they used to run special kids shows on Saturday afternoons. I think they started XXX movies around 1979.
It was open until the early 90’s, operated by the same owner as Cinema Kings Highway.
I actually saw Godzilla vs Megalon here before it changed over to porn around 75 or 76. It was always surprising it was located a block from an elemetary school . And not until the 80’s were the owners forced to stop displaying posters for the XXX movies and the titles on the Marque. I thought it was still open until the early 90’s though .
Scaffolding now surround the closed theater, and the marquee has been dismantled, which does not bode well for this former neighborhood movie house.
The DeLuxe Theatre is loctaed at 2001 Bath Ave., and it seated 599 people.