Alas, a recent article indicated that this site has now been sold to a developer who will presumably evict the Brooklyn Night Bazaar, demolish the site and build an expensive condo. Given Greenpoint’s booming housing market the only thing surprising about this is that it has taken so long.
I just was able to peruse the movie listings appearing in the photo section that were posted by Texas2step last year. They are very interesting. These three weekly listings appeared during the mid to late 50’s, when the theater was referred to as the “New Winthrop”. (Whether this reflected a change of ownership, presentation policy or just a new way of branding I do not know.)
One interesting aspect of the listings was the fact that the Winnie at least occasionally featured showings of older movies, such as “Yankee Doodle Dandy”, “White Heat” and “They Died With Their Boots On”. I do not believe that it was the practice of “nabe” movie houses to do this, at least during the 1950’s; but this appeared to be the case here. (I have absolutely no memory of this policy, but then I was only six or seven years old!) Perhaps the management was attempting to provide some alternate programming to what was then appearing on TV – heavily cut and commercial broken versions of old movies. For example, Million Dollar Movies was only programmed to last 90 minutes, which required very heavy cutting to such classics as Gunga Din. (When I first viewed a complete version of that film, I was shocked that so much had been cut out.) By providing complete and uninterrupted versions of these oldies, perhaps the Winnie management was attempting to draw in a new crowd.
I was also surprised to learn that the Winnie was still holding “dish nights” at that time. The only local house that I remember doing this was the American (Chopin). But I guess the practice lasted longer here as well.
This was probably another of those many small nickleodium places that existed during the very early 1900’s. The building where it existed is probably still there.
Wow! Thanks so much Gigantor for these priceless photos. Besides providing a view of the actual theater, this captures a community that essentially ceased to exist long ago. This is now all a part of Bushwick/Hylan Houses. This is a great addition to the archive!
This theater’s site is now situated within the massive Lindsay Park housing development, probably in 67 Manhattan Ave’s parking lot. This entire neighborhood has been transformed.
Actually, most of the theater other than the entrance is not located on Broadway. In fact, the Gates once featured a separate entrance situated around the corner – I believe on Gates Ave. A large portion of the old Bushwick RKO, on the other hand, did front on Broadway. This might have been a reason why it closed first, though property values on Broadway were plummeting during the 1960’s and 70’s.
While the photo currently at the top of the page does document the fact that the Gates did, at times, show XXX adult fare, I believe this was only done occasionally and that the Gates showed mostly regular fare until the 1977 blackout closed it down for good.
Thanks Willburg145 for this terrific period photo. hopefully, it will replace the current photo at the top of the page. This picture really gave a picture on how life was on Graham Ave. in 1940.
Thanks HomecrestGuy for the photo. The movie advertised was something like “Gloria d'Italia” I just wonder if it was a Mussollini oriented film – or not. At that time, a number of movie houses in German speaking areas like Bushwick and Ridgewood featured pro-Nazi movies. Just wonder if the same was true here.
Bway, this is very interesting and would provide further evidence that the old theater was situated in the building that still exists and was not located in one that was demolished prior to the construction of the current structure. Unfortunately, the link you provided did not go through. Can you try again? Thanks as always.
Thanks for the photo, HomecrestGuy. I just noticed, as the picture shows, that this theater featured an Amateur Night. I just wonder what that was like and how widespread – or not – these events were in other theaters at that time. This was a bit more ambitious than Dish Night.
Very interesting. Just wondering if this was one of the Public Markets that Mayor LaGuardia created during the 1930’s, to reduce the number of sidewalk vendors, or was the name just a generic one used by a private owner. Great shot.
Thanks for the new photos. It is interesting that one of the marques references an extremely early 8:30 AM opening time. This probably highlighted the early hour nature of this theater which, even then, was hardly situated in a residential area. Also, the all male and very business-type nature of the opening day audience also underlines the business and governmental nature of the theater’s clientele.
Thank you SO much Chris. This really makes my day since this is the very first time that a picture of the old and very fondly remembered Winnie – as we used to call it – has made it to the pages of CT. Thanks again!
A current picture of the Ridgewood posted in Facebook indicates that the 1st floor commercial space will be occupied by a health club; this is the same use that currently operates in the old Parthenon Theatre.
Since I have not been able to get around due to poor health, I have not been able to re-visit the old Imperial and see if any more businesses have moved in. I know that the wine bar only occupies a small portion of this site and that attempts are being made to rent the rest of the building – including the area containing the theater itself. Has anything come to this and, if so, who are the new tenants? Thanks in advance.
If this address is correct, it appears that the old theater site is situated on the Queens side of the borough line, which, at this juncture, runs right through Menahan Street. Even during its brief history when the border was somewhat different, it would still have been in Queens. Thus, its zip code should be changed to 11385.
Alas, a recent article indicated that this site has now been sold to a developer who will presumably evict the Brooklyn Night Bazaar, demolish the site and build an expensive condo. Given Greenpoint’s booming housing market the only thing surprising about this is that it has taken so long.
I just was able to peruse the movie listings appearing in the photo section that were posted by Texas2step last year. They are very interesting. These three weekly listings appeared during the mid to late 50’s, when the theater was referred to as the “New Winthrop”. (Whether this reflected a change of ownership, presentation policy or just a new way of branding I do not know.)
One interesting aspect of the listings was the fact that the Winnie at least occasionally featured showings of older movies, such as “Yankee Doodle Dandy”, “White Heat” and “They Died With Their Boots On”. I do not believe that it was the practice of “nabe” movie houses to do this, at least during the 1950’s; but this appeared to be the case here. (I have absolutely no memory of this policy, but then I was only six or seven years old!) Perhaps the management was attempting to provide some alternate programming to what was then appearing on TV – heavily cut and commercial broken versions of old movies. For example, Million Dollar Movies was only programmed to last 90 minutes, which required very heavy cutting to such classics as Gunga Din. (When I first viewed a complete version of that film, I was shocked that so much had been cut out.) By providing complete and uninterrupted versions of these oldies, perhaps the Winnie management was attempting to draw in a new crowd.
I was also surprised to learn that the Winnie was still holding “dish nights” at that time. The only local house that I remember doing this was the American (Chopin). But I guess the practice lasted longer here as well.
Thanks again for this valuable information.
This was probably another of those many small nickleodium places that existed during the very early 1900’s. The building where it existed is probably still there.
Wow! Thanks so much Gigantor for these priceless photos. Besides providing a view of the actual theater, this captures a community that essentially ceased to exist long ago. This is now all a part of Bushwick/Hylan Houses. This is a great addition to the archive!
This theater’s site is now situated within the massive Lindsay Park housing development, probably in 67 Manhattan Ave’s parking lot. This entire neighborhood has been transformed.
Thanks so much for this picture, which gives a good indication of how things were in pre-Lindsay Park Williamsburg.
Actually, most of the theater other than the entrance is not located on Broadway. In fact, the Gates once featured a separate entrance situated around the corner – I believe on Gates Ave. A large portion of the old Bushwick RKO, on the other hand, did front on Broadway. This might have been a reason why it closed first, though property values on Broadway were plummeting during the 1960’s and 70’s.
While the photo currently at the top of the page does document the fact that the Gates did, at times, show XXX adult fare, I believe this was only done occasionally and that the Gates showed mostly regular fare until the 1977 blackout closed it down for good.
Thanks Willburg145 for this terrific period photo. hopefully, it will replace the current photo at the top of the page. This picture really gave a picture on how life was on Graham Ave. in 1940.
Thanks for the photo, which featured what must have been one of Olivia de Havalland’s least memorable movies – “My Love Came Back”.
Thanks HomecrestGuy for the photo. The movie advertised was something like “Gloria d'Italia” I just wonder if it was a Mussollini oriented film – or not. At that time, a number of movie houses in German speaking areas like Bushwick and Ridgewood featured pro-Nazi movies. Just wonder if the same was true here.
Bway, this is very interesting and would provide further evidence that the old theater was situated in the building that still exists and was not located in one that was demolished prior to the construction of the current structure. Unfortunately, the link you provided did not go through. Can you try again? Thanks as always.
Thanks for the photo, HomecrestGuy. I just noticed, as the picture shows, that this theater featured an Amateur Night. I just wonder what that was like and how widespread – or not – these events were in other theaters at that time. This was a bit more ambitious than Dish Night.
A really impressive interior.
Very interesting. Just wondering if this was one of the Public Markets that Mayor LaGuardia created during the 1930’s, to reduce the number of sidewalk vendors, or was the name just a generic one used by a private owner. Great shot.
Thanks for the new photos. It is interesting that one of the marques references an extremely early 8:30 AM opening time. This probably highlighted the early hour nature of this theater which, even then, was hardly situated in a residential area. Also, the all male and very business-type nature of the opening day audience also underlines the business and governmental nature of the theater’s clientele.
Thank you SO much Chris. This really makes my day since this is the very first time that a picture of the old and very fondly remembered Winnie – as we used to call it – has made it to the pages of CT. Thanks again!
This is also a great picture of an old A&P. I guess even then, the supermarkets were moving into old movie houses.
Thanks for posting these old pictures.
A current picture of the Ridgewood posted in Facebook indicates that the 1st floor commercial space will be occupied by a health club; this is the same use that currently operates in the old Parthenon Theatre.
Great shot of what no longer exists/
Thanks for the update.
Nice find. Thanks for posting.
Since I have not been able to get around due to poor health, I have not been able to re-visit the old Imperial and see if any more businesses have moved in. I know that the wine bar only occupies a small portion of this site and that attempts are being made to rent the rest of the building – including the area containing the theater itself. Has anything come to this and, if so, who are the new tenants? Thanks in advance.
If this address is correct, it appears that the old theater site is situated on the Queens side of the borough line, which, at this juncture, runs right through Menahan Street. Even during its brief history when the border was somewhat different, it would still have been in Queens. Thus, its zip code should be changed to 11385.