It fell as a result of the blizzard of Beatle Day, Sunday, February 9, 1969. I remember it well. Perhaps you are remembering an earlier blizzard of December 15, 1968 ?
Fernando, in what direction from the Casino was Bargain Town ? Northwest, towards Broadway and Myrtle ? Was it that three or four story building with the arched windows, that used to be painted in red and white vertical stripes, and is now painted a light gray ?
Please help. Thanks.
You’re most welcome, ErwinM. I’ve found it helpful and fun to work with several websites, and I’ve been on nycsubway.org and IMDB quite a bit. I found the release date for “Let No Man Write My Epitaph” on the latter site myself. The title stuck in my mind from having seen it in TV Guide four decades ago as a kid. Yes, being an old film buff helps too. I’m always pleased when these mysteries crumble under the power of many minds, and points of view.
In case you were wondering, the relevance of nycsubway.org is that it seems to be the only site with images of the exteriors of some of these old theaters, included as a “bonus” in some images of el stations, some of which are no longer there either, as is the case with that image of the Hillside and the BMT Jamaica el. I intend to post more links to nycsubway.org images that show these old NYC movie houses.
True, most of the shopping and stores were located between 160th and 168th Streets, and perhaps still are.
I wonder how the current business of the Jamaica Multiplex at 159-02 Jamaica Avenue, near the so-called Parsons-Archer Jamaica Center, compares with the maximum combined business of the former and nearby Valencia, Alden, Savoy, Merrick and Hillside Theaters.
“The area was deserted at night.” Even with the LIRR Jamaica hub, BMT el and IND subway stations at Sutphin Blvd., and Jamaica and Hillside Avenues, with all their bus and auto traffic ?
Warren, thank you. I’m glad you reached the photograph, because I didn’t get the link right at first. I just looked at the image again, and noticed that “Free Parking” had replaced Loew’s at the top of the vertical sign. If Loew’s had dropped the Hillside by then, as you say, who would have been managing it at the time of the photo ? “Let No Man Write My Epitaph” was my educated guess for the top movie, so thanks for confirming my intuition. Any ideas what the second movie might be ? “Captain Newman M.D.”, perhaps ? This gets into a whole new level of detail : projection logs for abandoned movie theaters ! As to the date of the photo, the webmaster of nycsubway.org might be able to help, with reasoning in terms of car types on the Jamaica el. Otherwise, I cannot comment on early 1961 vs. 1964, except to say that early 1961 is even better, because it’s further back in the past, and is more consistent with the large amount of snow on the ground, perhaps from the early February 1961 blizzard in NYC ?
See Loew’s Hillside in beautiful living color, above and below the Jamaica el, in the snow of an early winter, nearly forty years ago, at :
http:/www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?6327/
And to think I walked right by there with a friend on a hot summer day in July 1987, from the LIRR to the IND subway, never knowing there was once a theater there (but knowing full well there was once an el there)!
Bway, thanks for your help in posting the link to the photo I had referred to. Sometimes nycsubway.org seems like the only source of photos for so many of these theaters that are now gone. Like Loew’s Hillside. Or the RKO Madison in Ridgewood, whose original sign, painted on its western wall, grows ever fainter each year, while the graffiti obscuring it grows newer and more vivid.
Perhaps Bargain Town never was the DeKalb or Casino, but was a separate building a few blocks away.
Warren, you may be right. What you wrote is consistent with what Fernando wrote about finding the Casino Theater interior intact in 1968. As such it would not have been a store in 1955 and 1965.
Having gone through a list of Brooklyn theaters on cinematour.com in the last few days, and having seen how many Bushwick theaters were either closed or demolished, I have seen for myself how that neighborhood once teemed with theaters. It seems that television did away with many of them.
Given the demolition that followed the looting and arson in Bushwick that resulted from the July 13, 1977 blackout, some clues may be permanently gone.
I remember being in Bargain Town only once, at age ten, in November or December of 1965, but my oldest living aunt remembers my mother (her sister) and herself, being there in 1955, to buy baby carriages for myself, and for a first cousin.
I just found 1153 DeKalb Avenue Bklyn NY on MapQuest, and it is on DeKalb Avenue between Broadway and Bushwick Avenue, the block the Casino Theater once stood on, apparently once the DeKalb Avenue entrance of the theater.
MapQuest Map supplied with this page is incorrect. It is of the EKO Albee at Dekalb Avenue and Fulton St. in downtown Bklyn. Instead find 1151 or 1153 Dekalb Avenue Bklyn NY at MapQuest.
Thank you, Cinema Treasures, for adding this page on the Casino Theater in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn, of which I am a native.
If you go to www.nycsubway.org, BMT Lines, BMT Jamaica Line, Kosciuszko St. station, image 3033, you will see the Casino Theater
above the el station, or at least a sign for the Casino Theater visibly painted on a building above the el station.
Does anyone know, and can anyone comment, on the relationship between the New Casino Theater, and the store, Bargaintown, which once stood near the intersection of Broadway and DeKalb Avenues ?
The oldest of my three living aunts, who is also from Bushwick, says that the New Casino Theater became Bargaintown.
Also, re : schools : if it’s any help, the USGS quad sheet for Brooklyn, NY, dated 1967, photorevised 1979, from aerial photos taken 1977, but not field checked, shows P.S. 274 as a black near-square centered on the northeast half of the large block bounded by Broadway, Bushwick Avenue, Dekalb Avenue, and Kosciuszko St., fronting on either Kosciuszko St. or Bushwick Avenue. It also shows the expansion of this school in purple tint, southeast, to border on Kosciuszko St. and southwest, to come much closer to Broadway and the el station.
I think Metropolitan Playhouses needed some help reading a map, because the Maspeth is 1.6 miles east of the Bklyn Queens border along Grand Avenue / Street, and because Maspeth does not sit on this border, as Ridgewood does. I would imagine this happening to the Ridgewood and RKO Madison, or even the Oasis, near the Ridgewood-Maspeth border, rather than the Maspeth.
I take it that the result of the Maspeth rarely being mentioned in the Queens newspapers, and being one of the borough’s least-known theatres, was a major factor in its closing.
M_acevedo, thanks for your comment, and for mentioning the Richmond Hill Historical Society. “Bway” introduced me to their site, and I have seen the material on the RKO Keith of Richmond Hill on the site, and I am mentioned by name on the “update” page regarding images of the Jamaica el. Like you, I think webmasters should donate relevant material to each other. Those images of the Jamaica el came from another website at my suggestion, and with that website’s webmaster’s permission.
I am very fond of that part of Richmond Hill, and was last there this past April 3rd. I had an ice cream sundae in Jahn’s. I was glad to find it still open, though with so few customers, compared even to April 1990, that I wonder how it remains open. It’s so dark inside. I’ve been in brighter and more cheerful funeral parlors.
I know what you mean about Richmond Hill’s “jaw-dropping Victorian splendor”. I’ve enjoyed it myself. You’ll see more of it on Kevin Walsh’s site at : www.forgotten-ny.com on the Richmond Hill page under street scenes.
Warren, thanks for mentioning Randforce Management once again. I seem to recall the Ridgewood Theater referred to as “Randforce’s Ridgewood” in the NY Daily News in May 1969 in an ad for a re-release of “Psycho” in that month and year. Later, it was referred to as “Florin’s Creative Ridgewood”.
While on the topic, I remember CBS TV was to have shown “Psycho” on a Friday in October 1966, in the 9 to 11 p.m. time slot. There was even a closeup segment in “TV Guide” on it with a picture of Anthony Perkins. Much to my disappointment, another film, “Kings Go Forth”, was shown instead. Stations indeed reserve the right to make such last-minute changes.
The first film I saw at the State Lake was “Superman II” in June 1981 followed by “Prince Of The City” in October 1981 and “Return Of the Jedi” in July 1983 (three times). That last film made me appreciate the sound system there because when Jabba The Hutt spoke, the floor shook ! I almost saw “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” there in May 1984 but waited until I got to California on vacation to see it. Too bad, in retrospect, as I read above that “Temple Of Doom” was its final feature. I saw “Swamp Thing” and “Richard Pryor Live on Sunset Strip” as a double feature across State St. at the Chicago Theater in April 1982.
Ruth Calner, I would love to answer your question, and cannot. My father was born two days later, on October 28, 1919, in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn, New York. Jackie Gleason was from that neighborhood and got his start there on amateur nights at the Halsey Theater. Gleason calls the neighborhood “Bensonhurst” on “The Honeymooners”, but it’s really Bushwick, and when he and the other
regulars name streets, they are naming real streets in Bushwick.
Thanks for creating your site, Monica, and for posting your pictures on it. I hope to see more pictures there. Sorry I have none of my own to contribute. I last walked by the Ridgewood Theater 22 days ago on Thursday March 25, after buying pants at Carl’s next door. Enjoy your weekend too !
It fell as a result of the blizzard of Beatle Day, Sunday, February 9, 1969. I remember it well. Perhaps you are remembering an earlier blizzard of December 15, 1968 ?
Fernando, in what direction from the Casino was Bargain Town ? Northwest, towards Broadway and Myrtle ? Was it that three or four story building with the arched windows, that used to be painted in red and white vertical stripes, and is now painted a light gray ?
Please help. Thanks.
Will do, Bway ! Kevin Walsh of forgotten-ny e-mailed me, asking me for a list, so that will motivate me all the more to compile one !
You’re most welcome, ErwinM. I’ve found it helpful and fun to work with several websites, and I’ve been on nycsubway.org and IMDB quite a bit. I found the release date for “Let No Man Write My Epitaph” on the latter site myself. The title stuck in my mind from having seen it in TV Guide four decades ago as a kid. Yes, being an old film buff helps too. I’m always pleased when these mysteries crumble under the power of many minds, and points of view.
In case you were wondering, the relevance of nycsubway.org is that it seems to be the only site with images of the exteriors of some of these old theaters, included as a “bonus” in some images of el stations, some of which are no longer there either, as is the case with that image of the Hillside and the BMT Jamaica el. I intend to post more links to nycsubway.org images that show these old NYC movie houses.
Thank you, ErwinM. That tends to confirm my theory of the photo being taken shortly after the February 1961 NYC blizzard.
You’ve got better eyes than me if you can read those blurry old marquee letters from so long ago that well !
A few of the others besides the Valencia were the Hillside, the Savoy, the Fox Jamaica, the Alden, and the Merrick, q.v. (which see) on this site.
True, most of the shopping and stores were located between 160th and 168th Streets, and perhaps still are.
I wonder how the current business of the Jamaica Multiplex at 159-02 Jamaica Avenue, near the so-called Parsons-Archer Jamaica Center, compares with the maximum combined business of the former and nearby Valencia, Alden, Savoy, Merrick and Hillside Theaters.
“The area was deserted at night.” Even with the LIRR Jamaica hub, BMT el and IND subway stations at Sutphin Blvd., and Jamaica and Hillside Avenues, with all their bus and auto traffic ?
William, thanks for correcting the error in my link to the image I intended to make available.
Warren, thank you. I’m glad you reached the photograph, because I didn’t get the link right at first. I just looked at the image again, and noticed that “Free Parking” had replaced Loew’s at the top of the vertical sign. If Loew’s had dropped the Hillside by then, as you say, who would have been managing it at the time of the photo ? “Let No Man Write My Epitaph” was my educated guess for the top movie, so thanks for confirming my intuition. Any ideas what the second movie might be ? “Captain Newman M.D.”, perhaps ? This gets into a whole new level of detail : projection logs for abandoned movie theaters ! As to the date of the photo, the webmaster of nycsubway.org might be able to help, with reasoning in terms of car types on the Jamaica el. Otherwise, I cannot comment on early 1961 vs. 1964, except to say that early 1961 is even better, because it’s further back in the past, and is more consistent with the large amount of snow on the ground, perhaps from the early February 1961 blizzard in NYC ?
http://www.mycsubway.org/perl/show?6327
http:/www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?6327
See Loew’s Hillside in beautiful living color, above and below the Jamaica el, in the snow of an early winter, nearly forty years ago, at :
http:/www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?6327/
And to think I walked right by there with a friend on a hot summer day in July 1987, from the LIRR to the IND subway, never knowing there was once a theater there (but knowing full well there was once an el there)!
Bway, thanks for your help in posting the link to the photo I had referred to. Sometimes nycsubway.org seems like the only source of photos for so many of these theaters that are now gone. Like Loew’s Hillside. Or the RKO Madison in Ridgewood, whose original sign, painted on its western wall, grows ever fainter each year, while the graffiti obscuring it grows newer and more vivid.
Perhaps Bargain Town never was the DeKalb or Casino, but was a separate building a few blocks away.
Warren, you may be right. What you wrote is consistent with what Fernando wrote about finding the Casino Theater interior intact in 1968. As such it would not have been a store in 1955 and 1965.
Having gone through a list of Brooklyn theaters on cinematour.com in the last few days, and having seen how many Bushwick theaters were either closed or demolished, I have seen for myself how that neighborhood once teemed with theaters. It seems that television did away with many of them.
Given the demolition that followed the looting and arson in Bushwick that resulted from the July 13, 1977 blackout, some clues may be permanently gone.
I remember being in Bargain Town only once, at age ten, in November or December of 1965, but my oldest living aunt remembers my mother (her sister) and herself, being there in 1955, to buy baby carriages for myself, and for a first cousin.
I just found 1153 DeKalb Avenue Bklyn NY on MapQuest, and it is on DeKalb Avenue between Broadway and Bushwick Avenue, the block the Casino Theater once stood on, apparently once the DeKalb Avenue entrance of the theater.
MapQuest Map supplied with this page is incorrect. It is of the EKO Albee at Dekalb Avenue and Fulton St. in downtown Bklyn. Instead find 1151 or 1153 Dekalb Avenue Bklyn NY at MapQuest.
Thank you, Cinema Treasures, for adding this page on the Casino Theater in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn, of which I am a native.
If you go to www.nycsubway.org, BMT Lines, BMT Jamaica Line, Kosciuszko St. station, image 3033, you will see the Casino Theater
above the el station, or at least a sign for the Casino Theater visibly painted on a building above the el station.
Does anyone know, and can anyone comment, on the relationship between the New Casino Theater, and the store, Bargaintown, which once stood near the intersection of Broadway and DeKalb Avenues ?
The oldest of my three living aunts, who is also from Bushwick, says that the New Casino Theater became Bargaintown.
Also, re : schools : if it’s any help, the USGS quad sheet for Brooklyn, NY, dated 1967, photorevised 1979, from aerial photos taken 1977, but not field checked, shows P.S. 274 as a black near-square centered on the northeast half of the large block bounded by Broadway, Bushwick Avenue, Dekalb Avenue, and Kosciuszko St., fronting on either Kosciuszko St. or Bushwick Avenue. It also shows the expansion of this school in purple tint, southeast, to border on Kosciuszko St. and southwest, to come much closer to Broadway and the el station.
I think Metropolitan Playhouses needed some help reading a map, because the Maspeth is 1.6 miles east of the Bklyn Queens border along Grand Avenue / Street, and because Maspeth does not sit on this border, as Ridgewood does. I would imagine this happening to the Ridgewood and RKO Madison, or even the Oasis, near the Ridgewood-Maspeth border, rather than the Maspeth.
I take it that the result of the Maspeth rarely being mentioned in the Queens newspapers, and being one of the borough’s least-known theatres, was a major factor in its closing.
M_acevedo, thanks for your comment, and for mentioning the Richmond Hill Historical Society. “Bway” introduced me to their site, and I have seen the material on the RKO Keith of Richmond Hill on the site, and I am mentioned by name on the “update” page regarding images of the Jamaica el. Like you, I think webmasters should donate relevant material to each other. Those images of the Jamaica el came from another website at my suggestion, and with that website’s webmaster’s permission.
I am very fond of that part of Richmond Hill, and was last there this past April 3rd. I had an ice cream sundae in Jahn’s. I was glad to find it still open, though with so few customers, compared even to April 1990, that I wonder how it remains open. It’s so dark inside. I’ve been in brighter and more cheerful funeral parlors.
I know what you mean about Richmond Hill’s “jaw-dropping Victorian splendor”. I’ve enjoyed it myself. You’ll see more of it on Kevin Walsh’s site at :
www.forgotten-ny.com on the Richmond Hill page under street scenes.
Thanks, RobertR and Warren, for this information.
Warren, thanks for mentioning Randforce Management once again. I seem to recall the Ridgewood Theater referred to as “Randforce’s Ridgewood” in the NY Daily News in May 1969 in an ad for a re-release of “Psycho” in that month and year. Later, it was referred to as “Florin’s Creative Ridgewood”.
While on the topic, I remember CBS TV was to have shown “Psycho” on a Friday in October 1966, in the 9 to 11 p.m. time slot. There was even a closeup segment in “TV Guide” on it with a picture of Anthony Perkins. Much to my disappointment, another film, “Kings Go Forth”, was shown instead. Stations indeed reserve the right to make such last-minute changes.
The first film I saw at the State Lake was “Superman II” in June 1981 followed by “Prince Of The City” in October 1981 and “Return Of the Jedi” in July 1983 (three times). That last film made me appreciate the sound system there because when Jabba The Hutt spoke, the floor shook ! I almost saw “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” there in May 1984 but waited until I got to California on vacation to see it. Too bad, in retrospect, as I read above that “Temple Of Doom” was its final feature. I saw “Swamp Thing” and “Richard Pryor Live on Sunset Strip” as a double feature across State St. at the Chicago Theater in April 1982.
Ruth Calner, I would love to answer your question, and cannot. My father was born two days later, on October 28, 1919, in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn, New York. Jackie Gleason was from that neighborhood and got his start there on amateur nights at the Halsey Theater. Gleason calls the neighborhood “Bensonhurst” on “The Honeymooners”, but it’s really Bushwick, and when he and the other
regulars name streets, they are naming real streets in Bushwick.
Thanks for creating your site, Monica, and for posting your pictures on it. I hope to see more pictures there. Sorry I have none of my own to contribute. I last walked by the Ridgewood Theater 22 days ago on Thursday March 25, after buying pants at Carl’s next door. Enjoy your weekend too !