Chopin Theatre

910 Manhattan Avenue,
Brooklyn, NY 11222

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Showing 51 - 75 of 108 comments

Bway
Bway on February 19, 2007 at 6:49 am

Here’s a link to an article and current photo of the Chopin being converted to Starbucks I just found on google. Thanks Luis for drawing this to our attention!

View link

Luis Vazquez
Luis Vazquez on February 19, 2007 at 6:22 am

It’s official!!!!! This theater is being gutted for Greenpoint’s first….Starbucks! I don’t know if gutted is the right word since the articles that I’ve read don’t make any mention of any original theater details remaining after its days as a Popeye’s and Burger King. I suppose a Starbucks is better that a fast food place. I guess the big surprise for me is that Greenpoint is getting a Starbucks before hipster nabe Williamsburg next door! Hopefully, the eagle atop the building will remain and be well taken care of by the new proprietors.

PKoch
PKoch on October 24, 2006 at 1:05 pm

Wouldn’t it make sense for streets, that is, the lanes of pavement that wheeled vehicles run on, to be widened, from, say, 1900 to the present, to accomodate those wheeled vehicles becoming longer, wider, and faster ? Even at the expense of sidewalks and even building lots themselves becoming narrower and smaller ?

Bway
Bway on October 24, 2006 at 9:13 am

Actually, my suspiscion is that the corner building was torn down because they may have widened Greenpoint Ave. The building in the old photo looks like it had a lot more frontage on Manhattan Ave than the one story Mc Donalds does. It may just be an illusion, but it really appears like the lot has been made smaller, probably due to the widening of Greenpoint Ave there. The other 18th Century buildings on that block that they didn’t tear down for redevelopment, although, it appears the old corner building did not house retail, a necessity on a corner such as that.

Bway
Bway on October 23, 2006 at 3:12 pm

Wow, great photo! It’s so bizarre that they tore that nice brick building on the corner down. I wonder if it burned or something, as I can’t see why they would otherwise tear down down and have replaced it with the non-descript one story building the Mc Donalds is in now. The other buildings on the block still stand. Here’s a photo I took of the American, AKA CHopin Theater back about two years ago:

Click here for photo

I believe the Burger King has since closed. ANyone know the current use of the building’s lobby area where the Burger King was?

Greenpoint
Greenpoint on August 2, 2006 at 11:36 am

Attention:
okay I must correct some of your misconceptions about the relationship of Club Exit to the Chopin.The Chopin was on the bottom floor..Club Exit is on the top floor, Club Exit encompasses what used to be a bingo parlor.Club Exit:It has never been on the first floor.Trust me on this one, I am a lifelong Greenpoint resident who used to frequent the Chopin as a little kid and hangs out at Club Exit as an adult.I know my stuff.

PKoch
PKoch on July 5, 2006 at 2:13 pm

I remember the Earle, near 74th Street, Broadway, and Roosevelt Avenue, in Jackson Heights, near the intersection of the Flushing IRT elevated line (#7) and the Independent Subway (E, F, G, V, R).
Pornographic, wasn’t it, as I recall ?

KenJacowitz
KenJacowitz on July 5, 2006 at 12:40 pm

When I moved to Greenpoint, Brooklyn, the Eagle was still standing, and even still had some letters on the marquee. The words seemed to be in Polish (Greenpoint was then and still is a heavily Polish neighborhood even though a lot of wannabe hipsters have been moving in and transforming the neighborhood), but I can’t tell you if it said the title of the last movie or simply “Goodbye”. But that fact that the small marquee still had letters seemed to jib with what long term residents told me, that the Eagle was a working theatre into the 1980’s. Perhaps it had closed at one point, and reopened as a Polish language movie theatre.

It was not replaced by condo’s as speculated above. It was replaced by two different fast food restaurants. The Eagle was on the corner of Manhattan Avenue and Greenpoint Street. The corner became a McDonalds, but surrounding the McDonalds on both sides in a wide “V” shape, and with entrances on either side of it, was a succession of other fast food restaurants. First a Roy Rogers, and then a Burger King that shared space with a Popeye’s Fried Chicken, until the Popeye’s left to be replaced by…a wall in the Burger King.

I always thought that the McDonald’s occupied the body of the former Eagle Theatre, and that the surrounding fast food restaurants occupied the entrance and area behind and to the side of the movie screen.

Here’s an image View link borrowed from poster Warren , whose original posts are listed. Warren , thanks for taking the time to post a photo!Please pardon my borrowing it.

Now I’ve moved to Jackson Heights, Queens, where there is yet another old Eagle Theatre, this one now playing Bollywood films in an Indian neighborhood.

Bway
Bway on June 8, 2006 at 6:38 am

Looking at the interior photos, the place is FAR from abandoned. The club owners put a lot of money into the place.

Bway
Bway on June 8, 2006 at 6:35 am

Wow, that is strange. At first glance it looks abandoned! Your photo looks just like I remember it, but to me it looked abandoned!….

Bway
Bway on June 5, 2006 at 10:21 am

Thanks so much Warren for the update. When I was by there about two years ago, the Burger King was of course still there (I linked the photos above – See August 4, 2004 message above).
Anyway, the back part of the building was already vacant at that time. It appeared that the main auditorium was vacant even then already. The Burger King only occupied the lobby areas.

AnthonyS1957
AnthonyS1957 on June 3, 2006 at 5:43 am

Thanks EdSolero. I will check out that Website.

Ed Solero
Ed Solero on May 30, 2006 at 1:03 pm

AnthonyS1957… Try the dvddrive-in.com website. They don’t exactly have a searchable database, but the site specializes in remembering and reviewing DVD’s of the kind of schlocky horror and exploitation flicks that made the rounds on the drive-in theater and grind house circuit in the 1960’s, ‘70’s and '80’s. You have to join to be able to read all of the reviews, but there is plenty of free stuff on the site and perhaps you can email your question to the staff (clicking their “Contact” link will launch your email program with an addressed new message). The site also offers a great stroll down memory lane for anyone who – like me – has fond memories of shows like “Creature Features” “The 4:30 Movie” and “Chiller Theater” that used to broadcast horror flicks on local television here in NYC.

Anyway… good luck in your quest!

Meanwhile… did you see this tough chick when she blew through the Chopin back in December 1980?:
Gloria Daily News 12/12/80

Or how about the snake-filled horror fest in March of ‘82?:
Venon NY Post 3/8/82

A quick glance at the movie clock for that edition of the Post reveals that the Chopin (and other nabes) doubled your “V"iewing pleasure by featuring the Sylvester Stallone soccer film "Victory” in support of “Venom”. Not sure if there was a supporting feature for “Gloria”.

PKoch
PKoch on May 30, 2006 at 12:42 pm

Any ideas, even speculation, as to what might next occupy said premises ?

PKoch
PKoch on May 30, 2006 at 11:33 am

Thanks, RobertR. I’ll check it out on the IMDb.

AnthonyS1957
AnthonyS1957 on May 29, 2006 at 9:22 am

Hi Warren, I know I did not find the movie yet because I would have stopped looking for it. I am hoping that someday I will rent or buy an obscure horror movie and watch and see the ending (sort of finding it by accident). Alot of people that I have been in contact with already, said they remember seeing this film too, but cannot remember the title.

RobertR
RobertR on May 29, 2006 at 6:44 am

This must be the only movie in history that opened exclusive at the Chopin
View link

AnthonyS1957
AnthonyS1957 on May 17, 2006 at 10:01 am

Thanks Warren. I will have to check out this ProQuest at the library where I live next time I am there. I hope they have it since it is a small library since whenever I look for a regular book there, they always have to order it from a larger branch.

I know that the Chopin never did individual ads from what I found back when I was looking for Newspaper Ads at the library back up north in New York.

I just hope that the New York Times had ads for lower budget Horror movies in their paper like the one I am looking for. Back in New York, I used to look up the New York Post or the Daily News.

AnthonyS1957
AnthonyS1957 on May 17, 2006 at 8:09 am

Also, the newspaper think at the library is a little harder now that I live in Floirda and not New York anymore. Most Florida libraries don’t have New York Newspapers on Microfilm, only local newspapers.

AnthonyS1957
AnthonyS1957 on May 17, 2006 at 8:07 am

PKoch, not yet. I hate to have to resort to having to go back to the library and looking up old newspaper ads for a 3 or 4 year time span. I did that for almost a year and barely made a dent in it. I wish there was a way of looking that information up on the Internet.

PKoch
PKoch on May 17, 2006 at 7:42 am

AnthonyS1957, are you any closer to learning the name of the film you remember seeing at the Chopin ?

AnthonyS1957
AnthonyS1957 on May 16, 2006 at 11:55 am

Actually, I was only using Hammer Films as an example becuase they were one of the companies that did that. It could have been Hammer, it could have been A.I.P., etc… .

AnthonyS1957
AnthonyS1957 on May 16, 2006 at 8:15 am

Here is some more food for thought on this movie I am trying to find out about that I saw at the Chopin back in the early 1970’s. It may be possible that this movie in question was a Re-Release of an earler film (possibly from the 1960’s) and when it was Re-Released when I saw it in the 1970’s, the Title was Changed or a Different Title used. (such was the case with some of the Hammer Films).

AnthonyS1957
AnthonyS1957 on May 15, 2006 at 5:53 am

Does anyone remember that new movies used to come out on Wednesday’s instead of Friday’s (occasionally on a Friday). At least in the 1960’s / 1970’s when I used to go to the Chopin.

rdittus
rdittus on May 14, 2006 at 8:15 pm

Bway – Yes it does, but it has been altered so much that it is not recognizable, unlike the nearby Meserole.