Loew's Pitkin Theatre

The Pitkin Theatre was not one of the five Wonder theatres that Loew's built. The real five wonder theatres were:
Loew's 175th Street (Manhattan)
Loew's Paradise (Bronx)
Loew's Kings (Brooklyn)
Loew's Valencia (Queens)
Loew's Jersey (Jersey City)

The Loew's Pitkin Theatre is located at 1501 Pitkin Ave. and it seated 2827 people.

Loew's Pitkin was one of architect Thomas Lamb's most beautiful "atmospheric" designs and first opened in November, 1929, with a combination policy of feature movie and vaudeville. As far as I know, the Pitkin was one of only three Brooklyn theatres in the "atmospheric" style, the others being the Loew's 46th Street (originally known as the Universal Theatre) and the Fortway. Have I missed any?

Even though not considered a "Wonder Theatre", the Pitkin was advertised as such in many ads in the Brooklyn Eagle when it first opened. When I spoke to a original Loew executive, he told me the "Wonder Theatre" was an advertising tool of the then in-house publicity team that were employed at the Loew's State building in New York. Seeing the building while it was open and many times since closed, I was able to get in two years ago, and it is now truly an atmospheric theatre now that the ceiling has collapsed into the orchestra. In addition, the auditorium looked like the "Titanic" that had risen with the water damage intense. It is beyond saving except for the original four exterior walls that still look majestic. It is safe to assume that this theatre was also "extremely vandalized" and not buy locals but people who knew the value of the treasures within. All that was left of the grand staircase was the steel frame, minus the marble steps, bannisters, light fixtures and the lions on the staircase levels leading to the balcony. It was a sad sight to see. The Parkway Theatre (aka Ronley) nearby is in much better shape.

Does anyone know what was the first movie shown at the Pitkin in 1929. My father played in a marching band at the opening and would like to know what the picture was. Thank you. Send to lb1951@aol.com

The first movie at Loew's Pitkin was "So This Is College" (MGM) with Elliott Nugent, Robert Montgomery and Sally Starr, all-talking and singing. There was a stage revue (if you want that info, let me know)as well, from the Capitol Theatre. Four De Luxe shows daily at 1:30-3:45-7:00-9:00. It was heralded as LOEW'S AMAZING NEW! PITKIN on Sat. Nov. 9, 1929 at 11 A.M.. Opening Day Prices were 11 a.m.-1 p.m. .35 cents, 1-5 p.m. .50 cents, 5 p.m. to closing .75 cents. Note (Loges slightly higher) Any wages, I say .90 or $1. ?

To orlando: I don't know how to respond to you directly, I hope you read this. Thanks so much for the prompt response re: opening day at the Pitkin. JUst got off the phone with my dad to tell him. He was going to call his friend who was also in that marching band 75 years ago!! I've been looking for that info for 4 years. Thanks again.

The Hopkinson Theater once stood five short blocks to the east of the Pitkin at Hopkinson and Rockaway Avenues. I do not know its size.

I know of no theater that once stood at the once-busy intersection of Pitkin and Rockaway Avenues in Brownsville.

After Loew's, the Pitkin was operated by Pozin Enterprises, headed by Thomas Pozin with HQ at 1619 Broadway, in New York City.

Is / was 1619 Broadway in Manhattan, NYC, the Brill Building ?

Yes, 1619 Broadway is the Brill Building. Thats where my office is located in Manhattan.

Thank you William !

In an ad of October 5, 1945 in the Brooklyn Eagle, the Hopkinson Theatre's location is stated as Hopkinson & Pitkin Avenues. At that time, the Hopkinson was presenting Yiddish stage plays, with "Hard To Be Honest," starring Lillian Lux and Paul Burstein, as the current attraction. I believe that the Hopkinson was a Yiddish theatre for all of its life, though movies may have sometimes been shown. I've yet to find it listed in any Film Daily Year Books, so I don't know the seating capacity. Does the building still exist?

Warren, I don't know if the building still exists. Thanks for this background info on the Yiddish Theater. The only two names I knew prior to your comment were Leo Fuchs and Molly Picon. My father, born 1919, remembers the Brooklyn Eagle. He remembers the intersection of Pitkin and Rockaway Avenues as a busy clothing retail area. His mother took him there in the late 1920's and early 1930's to shop for Easter suits, and he remembers clothiers grabbing his mother's sleeve to get her attention as they stepped off the Rockaway Avenue trolley. They bought from stores, not pushcarts.

The area had another large Yiddish theatre called the Parkway, which first opened in 1927 as the Rolland Theatre, with 1,630 seats. The Parkway closed in 1955 and is now used as a church called the Holy House of Prayer For All People. The address is 1768 St. John's Place, near Eastern Parkway.

Thanks, Warren. I wonder if the Holy House of Prayer For All People is related to the Tabernacle of Prayer for All People that the Valencia has become.

A 1930 view of the Pitkin's auditorium from the stage can be seen here.

Thank you, bryanb. My father, who remembers this theater, will enjoy this also. The interior appears similar to Loew's Valencia in Jamaica Queens in an image I saw a few eeeks ago.

They were both "atmospherics," but had different architects. John Eberson, the acknowledged "father" of that style, designed the Valencia, while Thomas W. Lamb did the Pitkin. The Pitkin is possibly Lamb's closest "imitation" of Eberson's work, perhaps because Loew's insisted on it. Eberson had designed both the Valencia and the Bronx Paradise for the circuit.

Thanks, Warren.

This is the information on the Brownsville and East New York theatres that I toured this past Wednesday with a resident of the area. The Hopkinson Theatre was razed and is now a lot. It did play movies in the 1940's & 1950's (check the New York Times for the weekly ads during this period. The Stadium met the same fate and is now a park according to the street address. (I think the entance to theatre is there and only the auditorium is the small park). The remaining part of the building has no address, but follows the numbers on the other side of the street. The Loew's Palace, the Supreme, the Ambassador, the People's Cinema (nee Bluebird), the Livonia, The Lyric (Hendrix), Elite (Euclid), Kinema, Biltmore, Premier, Embassy, Warwick, Adelphi (Gem), Gotham, have ALL been demolished. Those that remain as churches include The Parkway, New Prospect (Ralph Ave.), the Montauk Arcade (Montauk) and Brair's Theatre (Powell) both on Pitkin Ave, the Penn, Sutter, Miller
(Jehovah's Witness on site) all on Sutter Avenue.
For the retail spaces, the Stone (supermarket), Reo (New Singer) a .99 store, the Sheffield (storage area) as well as the early Select (Chester) at 1671 Pitkin Ave. I had no address for the Brownsville Theatre but there are a few buildings that look that they were theatres. On Fulton Street, the Norwood, a 1920's and early 1930's "Negro" Christmas house, still rertains its' unique theatre entrance. If I have omitted any theatre it is because I couldn't locate the buildings or had wrong addresses. Not bad for a 5 hour sweep. Let me hear from you if you have lived or went to any of the buildings listed above.

Thank you, Orlando ! It's amazing that these long-gone theaters are generating so many comments, from so many dedicated "urban archaeologists" !

This listing should be changed to Loew's Pitkin.

I was an usher at the Loew's Pitkin in 1940 when they showed "Gone With The Wind" twice daily to packed houses. It was located on Pitkin Ave., the most fashionable street in Brooklyn in the 1930's and 1940's. Those were the greatest years for me.

The organist at the Pitkin for many years was the talented Henrietta Kamaren (not sure of the spelling). "Follow The Bouncing Ball"

Thank you, muray, for your comments. It must have been great being an
usher at the Pitkin. I have seen the picture of its interior through the link posted by "bryanb" above. Beautiful !

My dad, born in 1919, grew up on and around the fashionable street of Bushwick Avenue, of the neighborhood of the same name. He and his mom shopped for Easter suits for him near Pitkin and Rockaway Avenues when he was a boy. He later dated a gal who lived on Pitkin Avenue.

I have seen "Follow The Bouncing Ball" cartoons as a kid (I was born mid-November 1955) and in the last ten years on the AMC cable tv channel. Film Forum, a lower Manhattan cinema that has revivals, often has live piano accompaniment at screening of silent films.

I am trying to do some genealogy research and was just told that my greatgrandfather's nephew owned the Pitkin Theatre at one time, maybe in the 1920-30's. Anyone have any idea of the owner or how to find out?

The Pitkin Theatre was built and operated (for most of its life) by the Loew's circuit. Founder Marcus Loew had died by the time of the Pitkin's building, but his family had a substantial stock interest in the company, and there were some relations who worked for it. Another major stockholder was CEO Nicholas Schenck, who also had relatives working for the company.

A recent view of the Pitkin's exterior can be seen here:
http://www.disassociate.com/theatre_for_rent.jpg

Thank you, Bryan Krefft, for posting the link to this image, and thereby following in Bway's footsteps, in providing images of these once-great, and once-busy, theaters, as they are now.

Still looks nice on the exterior but I can imagine by now the whole inside is gone.

That's sure one wealth of information from Orlando concerning
the theatres in the Bed/Stuy- Brownsville section.
During my high shool years I used to ride the B7 bus
to East Flatbush.
Along Saratoga was the remains of the Miller Theatre
and after passing Atlantic Ave. I would see a grand building
that was formerly the Loews Pitkin, but it was already closed
by the 70's. One of the last remaining stores of a bygone era
was the hat/haberdashery store on the Pitkin and Saratoga Ave.
The Pitkin was so big, that the church that was there at that
time called it a Cathedral !!

This is supposed to be an interior photo of the Pitkin theater:
http://historyproject.ucdavis.edu/imageapp.php?Major=TW&Minor=B&SlideNum=74.00

I wonder if anything is left inside at all?

The introduction needs to be corrected. The Pitkin was not one of the Loew's "Wonder Theatres." The only Brooklyn theatre in that category was Loew's Kings in Flatbush.

King Kong was advertised as "the eighth wonder of the world" by Carl Denham, who captured and exhibited him.

In what Manhattan theater do you think this happened ?

RobertR
Sorry to inform you that I have heard that a majority of the roof and ceiling have come down at the Pitkin. Looks like it will be gone eventually, well perhaps when land values in the area start to rise.

Peter.K
The 'New York' theatre featured in the 1933 version of "King Kong" was filmed in the Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles. CA The same venue was featured in the 1954 version of "A Star is Born". Of course over recent years, until 2001, the Shrine Auditorium has been host to the Oscar Awards and others. But back to the Loew's Pitkin>>>>>

Thanks, KenRoe. Any idea where in Manhattan that theater was supposed to have been, as, after Kong escapes, he demolishes an elevated train line and is then reported as heading west towards the Empire State Building ?

It might have been "supposed" to be the Hippodrome, which was a logical theatre for such a "freak" attraction, and also located on Sixth Avenue, which had an "el" at that time. The Empire State Building is situated only nine or ten blocks south, and between Sixth and Fifth Avenues.

No location, just fiction. Perhaps the Hippodrome was intended, but that is North of the Empire State Building. Peter.K

My father had a hat store as a bookend to the Pitkin named Jay Lord. When I was a boy in the 50's, he would bring me to the theater to be monitored by the ushers until it was time for the store to close. I cannot begin to think of the volume of movies I saw, but I was always in awe of the ornate design of the Pitkin. I am so glad I found this site as I remember the Pitkin with such fondness. Any other information would be wonderful.

My family lived on Straus Street when I was a boy in the 50s and my aunt and uncle had a men's clothing store on Pitkin Avenue at that time too. I don't recall the name of the store. Some of the first films I remember seeing at the fabulous Pitkin Theatre were SHOWBOAT, SINGIN' IN THE RAIN and THE GREAT CARUSO.

The current Loew's exhibition at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens, includes some wonderful B&W newsreel clips (silent and unedited) of Humphrey Bogart's personal appearance at the Pitkin in 1949 for his movie, "Tokyo Joe." The views include both the exterior and auditorium, and also show Bogart on stage. He apparently just greeted the capacity audience, then said a few words about the movie, and walked off waving.

Dear friends at Cinema Treasures.com,


What is a 'fake wall'?


Sincerely,
Peter H.
aka wheelieman

I am presuming the 'fake wall' mentioned in the opening text to this theatre is a cinder brick wall which now divides the foyer area from the main auditorium.

OK. Thanks. :)

I remember very clearly going the Pitkin a number of times when I was a boy. Since we lived at the intersection of Pitkin Avenue and Eastern Parkway, it was just a couple of minutes by foot to the theater. I remember the treat of seeing Teahouse of the August Moon at the Pitkin --- a real treat since it was a weekday school night. I only got to go to the movie, I think, because I was with my mother an grandmother shopping on Pitkin Avenue and I guess they wanted to see this particular movie. I also remember seeing Around the World in 80 Days there. In my mind, it was the most beautiful theater I'd ever seen.
I heard from someone who lives nearby (I'm in Crown Hts now) that the Pitkin may be reopened as a theater. Anyone else hear of this?
Mark M.

I remember Henrietta Cameron, the organist at Loew's Pitkin, eating at my Dad's place- Hoffman's Restaurant. He also built and owned Hoffman's Cafeteria (same block) but she preferred the "service" restaurant. Anybody remember the spectacular rolling-clouds ceiling at the theatre?

Ah, the Loew's Pitkin. Brownsville, 1957. It may not have been one of the elite in the Loew's chain, but who knew? who cared? Imagine, moving from the drab lower east side to Legion Street, Brownsville--right in the shadow of this massive Loew's! Grand Street never boasted this kind of theater.

I remember the "celestial" ceiling with its subtly lighted constellations, a captivating feature my childhood friend once proudly announced her dad helped create. Alas, like much of the Brownsville we once knew, the wonder of the Loew's Pitkin has long since faded into the limbo of Brooklyn history.

The exterior of the Pitkin looks very similar to the 175th Street in Manhattan....

StanS, your comment reminds me of something Mel Brooks was shown saying a few months ago on a Channel 13 program on Broadway musicals, namely, that what those musicals were selling was optimism, because there WAS no optimism in the Bronx, Brownsville, or Williamsburg, but your mention of "Imagine, moving from the drab lower east side to Legion Street, Brownsville--right in the shadow of this massive Loew's! Grand Street never boasted this kind of theater." reads like just the opposite, almost as if you had moved from "the drab lower east side" into Joy Itself ! Thanks for posting your comment !

My dad remembers a similar "celestial" ceiling at Loew's Valencia in Jamaica, Queens. He also remembers a thriving, aggressive garment trade right out in the street on puscharts at Rockaway and Pitkin Avenues in Brownsville at about 1930. He and his mom would take the
Wilson Avenue trolley there from Bushwick, and he remembers clothiers grabbing at his mother's sleeve before she'd even gotten off the trolley :

"New suit for the boy ?" This was a yearly ritual of a new suit for my dad for Easter.

"Take your hands off me, or I'll go to your brother's place down the street !"

My wife's Uncle recounted once how it was no big deal to ride the subway home to Brownsville at 3:00 in the morning in the 40s and 50s. Can you imagine that today? Hell, no.

I can imagine that today it would be hell, yes !

A Hispanic friend of mine recounted to me in the early '80's how scared he was in the '70's getting off the IRT elevated at Pennsylvania and Livonia late at night to visit his older brother in East New York.

wow this page is awesome!@! i backtracked a photo on my site to here
guys i got more here
peep it
http://www.lostbrooklyn.org bear with me its a slow server

peace

-matt

Wasn't there a Loew's theatre attached to the back of the Pitkin? The "Premiere" or something like that? My dad started as a usher for Loew's at the Pitkin and I think his first Assistant Manager's job was at the Premiere? Help.

Loew's Premier was in the same neighborhood, but "attached" to Loew's Pitkin only in the sense that they were operated by the same company. The Premier has its own listing here.

Check this one out
http://www.brooklynpix.com/images/bklyn-a-b/browns22_b.jpg

Oh, that's beautiful, Matt ! Thanks so much for posting that link !

There is a reference to this theatre in Billy Crystal's "Mr. Saturday Night" (1992). I wasn't sure if the Pitkin reference was fictional or real when mentioned, but this where Crystal and his brother in the film, David Paymer, got their start.

Thanks for mentioning that, hardbop. I love that film.

Any idea who "The Prince Of Pitkin Avenue" may have been, other than Crystal or his brother in the film ?

As a kid, I was always fascinated with this theatre even though it closed long before I was born. I do remember the skeleton of the marquee was still up until the early 80's

My father explained to me yesterday that "The Prince Of Pitkin Avenue" was merely an expression, and did not denote any one real person, or persons.

irvcohen, the Loew's Premier (without the "e" at the end), was not behind the Pitkin, but located about a mile away in the East New York section of Brooklyn at Sutter and Snediker Aves. It was a good size place with a balcony and showed films one week after it played the Pitkin. Joey Adams was the Emcee at some of their stage presentations since he lived in the neighborhood. I remember a catering establishment in the same building. I would like to hear from others who can give information regarding the Premier.

Three recent color photographs of the exterior of Loew's Pitkin can be seen in the new article, "First Train to Brownsville," at www.forgotten-ny.com

This film opened in almost every Loew's theatre in Brooklyn
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a13/ChmnofBrd/ManoftheWest.jpg

In response to Muray's 4/19 comment regarding Irvcohen's posting of 3/24, the theatre in question was the Palace not the Premier. Click Palace theatre in the index to see some ineresting posts, also one about the Parkway theatre which I was writing about ealier today.

Here are two images of the auditorium, which was more Ebersonian in decor than some of Lamb's other atmospherics, perhaps at the insistence of Loew's. Please compare with Lamb's Proctor's 58th Street and Keith's Flushing, which were built just before the Pitkin:
www.i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/128-2855_IMG.jpg

Beautiful ! Would you please define, or, better yet, provide an example of, the typical Ebersonian theater auditorium ? Thanks.

Here's an opening week ad, showing the Pitkin grouped with other Loew's theatres:
www.i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/134-3431_IMG.jpg

Here is a 1950's photo of the Loew's Pitkin Theater.

A Robert-Morton organ was installed in the Loew's Pitkin Theater in 1929.

Look on the side of the Loew's block ad. The Three Stooges were playing a childrens matinee along with WPIX's Officer Joe Bolton. New Yorkers will remember his character as the host of the Three Stooges show on channel 11. They also had shorts and cartoons on the bill. When the Stooges started making movies again and appeared in person at theatres Officer Joe was with them many times.
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a13/ChmnofBrd/Movie%20Ads/HouseonHauntedHill.jpg

I remember WPIX's "Officer" Joe Bolton as the host of the Three Stooges show on Channel 11 very well, cautioning viewers not to attempt their stunts.

It was a big leap from that innocence to a teenage boy tragically and accidentally killing himself about a dozen years later in emulation of rock star Alice Cooper mock-hanging himself on stage.

I remember watching Officer Joe Bolton on Channel 11 when I was a boy. And who was it that hosted Popeye on WNEW, Eugene McCarthy? I remember years later he was the Grand Marshall of the St. Patrick's Day Parade on 5th Avenue. Does anyone remember the episode of The Honeymooners where Ralph and Norton are in the house of a deceased rich dowager who has just left "her fortune" to Ralph... and Norton comments that the place is "even nicer than the lobby at the Loew's Pitkin!"

What a pity to think that lobby has been gutted for retail space!

That would have been Jack McCarthy, EdSolero. Eugene McCarthy aspired to the Democratic presidential candidacy in 1968. He had the support of many young people to the tune of "Be clean for Gene", but lost out to Hubert Humphrey, who of course lost the election to Nixon.

Thanks for the Honeymooners Loews Pitkin reference !

"What a pity to think that lobby has been gutted for retail space!"

Yes, but better retail space than vacant, with winos and homeless squatting there, criminal element lurking there, or a shooting gallery for junkies.

Jack McCarthy... of course. Good point about the lobby, PKoch. Of course, better still that the whole building be preserved and used as originally intended, but those days are gone. While a few of these magnificent showplaces might have been successfully saved and returned to theatrical use - or at least public space - the days are long gone when one can expect every abandoned 2800 seat theater be restored to former glory. Particularly those situated in residential neighborhoods. If there is no church in need of a space that large, what else can be done with such a structure, unless it is in a viable "downtown" area? This City has already pounded into dust all the viable old palaces it had in the Times Square and mid-town area. Those that remain on the fringes that are not already occupied and cared for by one church or another (Loew's Valencia, Regent, Loew's 175th Street, etc) hang on thin threads of hope. So far, the Loew's Paradise in The Bronx seems to be the only one to break from that paradigm. Only time will tell what kind of a run the Paradise will have in the 21st Century. My fingers are crossed.

Miracles DO happen. Witness the renewal of Loew's Jersey in Jersey City !

It really saddens me to see this old childhood friend in such poor condition. I was a little fellow in the late 50's but do remember this theatre as a beautiful ( and incredibly cold in summer) theatre.
We would walk up to the box office on a summer day to see Jerry Lewis as the Bellboy and the cold air coming from inside was simply incredible! In to the theatre we would go , my parents would buy me a mellow roll? ice cream, and into the auditorium we would go.
I remember missing a lot of the film because I was looking at all the
statues on the sides and the blue ceiling. Do I recall a blue lit cove under the balcony when sitting in the back of the orchestra section? What a great place, I feel honored to have seen such great architecture and design!

Denpiano, your description of the Jersey reads a lot like Loews Valencia, the Queens Wonder Theater of which the Loew's Jersey was one. The others were the 168th St. Theater in Manhattan, where Rev. Ike used to have his services, Loew's Paradise in The Bronx, mentioned in the 1955 Academy Award-winning film, "Marty", and Loew's Kings on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn, which has a page on this site, but which I think is still a rotting, unused hulk.

How old are you, Denpiano ? I will turn fifty on this coming Thursday, the 17th. I remember MelloRol soft ice cream cones also, and the blue, white and yellow three-D icicled block letters on the horizontal banner out front, advertising "HEALTHFULLY AIR CONDITIONED CONDITIONED", and that inviting universal movie theater smell beckoning the customers.

You read like you're due for a visit to the Jersey in Jersey City. Unlike the other four Loew's Wonder Theaters, it's still showing movies !!! Not sitting forlorn in poor condition at all !

Ov vey iz mir, I'm not sure what condition Loew's Pitkin is in now.

The "Wonder Theatre" in Manhattan was Loew's 175th Street (not 168th Street). As far as I know, it is still used as a church, which sometimes rents it out for secular concerts and business meetings.

PKoch- I don't usually give my age away, however, what the heck! I'm 53.. Thanks for your description of the 3-D banner and the "movie theatre smell" you describe. I remember it well, I went to the Pitkin quite a few times between 1959-1961. As I described in an earlier comment, I really never looked at the movie, I would look around at everything else that the eye could see in the dark. I remember asking to see the orchestra pit, but the usher would'nt let me "Down There" !! I was quite upset to say the least, but, after all, I was a little kid with no clout. I wish I could have heard the Morton pipe organ, that would have been neat. I understand it was quite powerful for its size due to larger scaling of the pipework.
An older friend of mine described it as sounding really good.

Warren, thanks for the correction on Loew's 175th Street.

BTW, I tend to picture you as resembling the actor Everett Sloane when I read your posts.

Denpiano, thanks for disclosing your age. You're welcome to my descriptions. Most of my childhood movie experience was at the RKO Madison and Ridgewood Theaters, which also have pages on this site.

I, too, often looked away from the movie screen while there. What I noticed most were the balcony box seats off to both sides of the screen, the design of the ceiling, which reminded me of gathered drapes and the planet Saturn seen from below, and, at the RKO Madison, a luminous clock on the wall to the left of the screen, which was bright enough to be read but not so bright as to distract from the screen.

So your early movie-going was to the Pitkin, not Loew's Jersey City. I think there are links on this page to how the interior of the Pitkin used to look, and how the exterior looks now.

The only movie theater pipe organ I heard as a kid was at Radio City Music Hall in Manhattan.

Your contribution to this page is valuable, because you experienced the Pitkin in its last few years before it closed. Please elaborate on your memories of what Brownsville was like, 1959-1961.

A friend of mine used to live on Georgia Avenue, near Livonia Avenue, about that time, before she and her family moved to near the Avenue U station on the Brighton Line.

Some time toward the end of the 1930's, my dad, who was from Bushwick, dated a gal who lived near Pitkin and Pennsylvania Avenues, and went to Loew's Pitkin with her. He remembers it as a beautiful theater.

PKoch, I lived on Pacific Street between Saratoga & Hopkinson until I was 11 yrs.old. My family went shopping on Pitkin Ave. many times.
They would buy all my suits accross from the Pitkin Theatre & I also recall a guy on the corner who sold coconut drinks. He was easy to remember because he had fake heads with faces & sticks in the noses that scared the heck out of me! (ha,ha)Funny Now! I went to the Pitkin many times and as I said previously ,I was quite impressed even as a young man. It was a very nice area up until we moved in 1963. I don't remember what a bad area looked like at the age of 11,
to me the Theatre was all I could think about. A couple of years ago, my friend claimed he found the Morton organ console at a guys house that was selling organ parts, he wanted to buy it for me but said it was in bad condition. I guess the "mystery" of these great houses is what kept me interested in theatres till this day.

PKoch, I lived on Pacific Street between Saratoga & Hopkinson until I was 11 yrs.old. My family went shopping on Pitkin Ave. many times.
They would buy all my suits accross from the Pitkin Theatre & I also recall a guy on the corner who sold coconut drinks. He was easy to remember because he had fake heads with faces & sticks in the noses that scared the heck out of me! (ha,ha)Funny Now! I went to the Pitkin many times and as I said previously ,I was quite impressed even as a young man. It was a very nice area up until we moved in 1963. I don't remember what a bad area looked like at the age of 11,
to me the Theatre was all I could think about. A couple of years ago, my friend claimed he found the Morton organ console at a guys house that was selling organ parts, he wanted to buy it for me but said it was in bad condition. I guess the "mystery" of these great houses is what kept me interested in theatres till this day.

Thanks, Denpiano. Around 1940 or so my dad worked at National Biscuit Company at 1000 Pacific Street near Classon Avenue. He took the then-new A train Independent Subway from Bway - East NY to Franklin Avenue. The Fulton Street el had just stopped running in 1940, between downtown Bklyn and Rockaway Avenue.

My dad's mom bought him new suits for Easter every year in the thriving garment district centering around Rockaway and Pitkin Avenues. They would go on Sundays after church, circa 1930, taking the Wilson - Rockaway Avenue trolley from Bushwick. Some merchants would start grabbing my dad's mom's sleeve as she was getting off the trolley :

"New suit for the boy ?"

"Take your hands off me, or I'll go to your brother's pushcart down the street !"

-PKoch (Peter)

Am wondering why Cinema Treasures does not list the "poor man's Loew's Pitkin" which was the Loew's Palace located around the corner from the Pitkin.

Muray,
http://www.cinematreasures.org/theater/3869/

The Loew's Pitkin organ was a junior version of the larger Robert Morton organs found in Loew's Jersey, Paradise, 175th Street, Valencia, and Kings. These "Wonder Mortons" were all 4 manual 23 rank jobs with large scales and heavy pressures.

The Loew's Pitkin Morton was 3 manuals and 14 ranks. I have no idea what became of the organ, but I suspect it was broken up for parts.
A similar Morton organ was installed in Loew's Fairmont.

As a point of fact, the organs mentioned above exist as follows:

Loew's Jersey Jersey City, moved and reinstalled in The Arlington Theatre Santa Barbara, CA

Loews' Valencia: Organ spent many years in a private home and is now slated to be installed in the Balboa Theatre in San Diego, CA

Loew's 175th Street: Intact but unplayable, as far as I know.

Loew's Kings: Broken up for parts. Organ was to have been installed in Town Hall NYC by ATOS, but, some mess took place and the organ broke up. Loew's Kings console is in a private home in Wheaton, IL. Console now plays the Morton organ from Loew's Fairmont.

Loew's Paradise: Organ is to be reinstalled into Loew's Jersey, Jersey City.

Wonder Morton Information
www.gstos.org/wonder.htm

The Loew's Palace was located on Strauss Street cnorner East New York Avenue amd usually showed movies a week or so after the Loew's Pitkin at a lower ticket price. It was less fancy and had a very tough dyed blonde matron named Sally, who kept a tight reign on neighborhood kids.


The Hopkinson on Hopkinson Avenue, between Pitkin and Sutter Avenues, did become a movie house, and after WWII specialized in foreign films including Russian, German, Italian and French (re-runs of pre-war classics, as well as showing those films that were in vogue at the artsy-fartsy NY art cinemas.

The Stadium on Chester - off Pitkin and Sutter - showed lots of B pictures -- Charlie Chans and the like.

The Sutter, near the IRT Sutter Ave. Rutland Rd. elevated, also showed lots of B pictures.

They all featured special kiddie line-ups for Saturday afternoon.


The fun for a kid was to somehow be able to stay for at least an hour or two after they "kicked the kids out" at 5 or 5:30. It was a challenge. One trick was to change your seat around 4 oclock and line up with an adult in the adult section and get them to say you were with them. That way you got to see the main feature one more time for free and killed time until dinner was ready at home.


Does anyone have any pictures of the Loew's Pitkin Interior???


sylvia schildt
creativa@charm.net

My post above of 7/25/05 has two photos of the Pitkin's interior.

This is an amazing theatre from the outside, too. When I drive by I can only stare in wonder.

I get exteriors at this post, not interiors -- got another date? Can you e-mail me a photo at creativa@charmm.net?

Also interested in pitures of Loew's Pitkin ephemera - such as announcements, ads, beauty contest materials, etc.


Sylvia Schildt

oops - there's only one "m" in charm.net


Sylvia Schildt

Sylvia, these are the interiors that I originally posted on 7/25/05. Both show portions of the auditorium:
www.i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/128-2855_IMG.jpg

Got them and thanks. But are you sure these are the Pitkin interiors ??? I remember a darker ambience with stars and floating clouds -- of course it's been over 5 decades since I was last there. And these are fully lit sans atmospherics.



Sylvia

Got them and thanks. But are you sure these are the Pitkin interiors ??? I remember a darker ambience with stars and floating clouds -- of course it's been over 5 decades since I was last there. And these are fully lit sans atmospherics.



Sylvia

You can see clouds in first photo. Second photo was taken in full light, so you can't see clouds or stars on ceiling, but you would in darkened house.

And as I stare further, isn't that niche in the front where the organ stood??? It used to magically come up from below and then descend and there used to be a sign "Henrietta at the Organ" if memory serves me.


Now all that's missing to share with my kid is the grand staircase and lobby. Or maybe the ladies lounge outer area.



Heartfelt thanks,

Sylvia

I would love to see what it looks like now. I wonder if there is anything left?

Maybe I should look up the current ownership of this building in the Brooklyn Hall of Records? Perhaps the current owner would allow me to enter the unused area with a camera? Since I currently live in Crown Hts, I'm not all that far away and I've passed by the theater many times on my bike. It always reminds me of the days when I lived not 2 blocks away (from 1949 to 1957).

That would be a great contribution to this site, alkan. Hope you make out.

Sylvia Schildt, thank you for all this wonderful information !

What was your past experience of Loew's Ambassador Theater at Saratoga and Livonia Avenues, or have you already commented on that theater's page, on this site ?

Lastly, do you know a gentleman named Saul Zaveler from your former neighborhood of Brownsville ?

I thank you in advance for your replies.

I was born and raised in Brownsville. First at 38 Herzl Street (corner Pitkin, just 3 blocks away - and then when I was 17 we moved to Legion Street at Dumont (above the pool hall) also 3 blocks from the Pitkin. It was the place I got my news as well as culture growing up.


Ah, memories - I wrote about it in my collection of stories "Remembering Brownsville/Mayn Shtetele Bronsvil". When you look at the grandeur in full detail and remember the crowded conditions in which we lived (in my case 7 people in 3 very tiny rooms), it's amazing.

If you do get over to the Ptikin, could you snap a shot of 38 Herzl Street which is now the New Cibao Grocery?

I live in Baltimore these days and am physically handicapped so even a trip is pretty problematic.

Sylvia

We must all be nuts -- waxing so nostalgic over a movie theater. But I guess it was such a rich experience, so different from our everyday poverty. Yet, we did have stuff I don't think inner city communities have today and in abundance - we had the Pitkin, and the other ancillary movies, within walking distance. Each was a window on something better than we had and that I suppose fed optimism. Also, we had an olympic sized outdoor pool at Betsy Head, lush playgrounds at Lincoln Terrance Park, and a rich stream of fascinating retail shops (mostly beyond our means) all along the Avenue. Then there was the HES on Hopkinson. Weddings at various catering halls which meant free live wedding music (klezmer/pop) streaming from their windows in summer. The Stone Avenue Library just for kids. And for a pittance you could catch the bus or IRT and see all of Manhattan, the Bronx, and of course Prospect Park, Ebbetts Field, Coney Island, Brighton Beach. We never lacked for amusement, much of it free, did we?


Sylvia

Thank you, Sylvia. Mayn own shtetele ist Bushwick und Ridgewood (Ritchvoot). I am a youth of 50. Where can I find your collection of stories, "Remembering Brownsville" ?

Perhaps "Bway" on this site could get a current picture of 38 Herzl St. for you.

My condolences on your physical handicap(s).

May I ask what year you were born ? I ask so I will know where you stand re : my generation and my father's (he was born in 1919).

Around 1940 or so my dad dated a gal named Anne Scherbach who lived on Pitkin near Pennsylvania. They went to Loew's Pitkin once.

Thanks again !

Re: Loew's Ambassador - when we moved to Legion Street it moved into our lives a bit -- although we still preferred the Loew's Pitkin -- as I recall the Ambassador it was right under the Saratoga Avenue El station stop and there was a newspaper stand cum candy/soda joint across the street - I read years later that this was the HQ of Murder Inc, but I did often pick up papers, magazines and candy when coming home from the city. (Knew nothing about Murder Inc's role until years later.)

I remember one movie I saw at the Ambassador -- with Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant - I think it was called "Indiscreet" - a lighthearted farce.


Glad you are enjoying my trip down memory lane.

Would love those photos - might even inspire me to write a sequel -- the book contains what photos I could muster including a picture of the Kishke King.

I was born in 1934 at the Brooklyn Women's Hospital - am the eldest of 5 kids (all still living thank God) - went to PS 175, JHS 84 (my brothers went to JHS 66) then Jeff. Although my sister was able to go to 156, Arthur Summers JHS and then Tilden (the traitor!!).

The book is technically out of print -- but the main library at Grand Army Plaza bought a copy when it first came out. I was very proud of that. It was a little like coming home.

Sylvia

To the best of my knowledge, the Ambassador was never a Loew's (or Loews) theatre. The Ambassador was built by the Supreme Circuit, which was acquired by William Fox, and eventually became part of Randforce, which took over most of the Fox properties in Brooklyn. And one of the heads of Randforce had been a partner in Supreme.

Thanks for your answers, Sylvia.

Who was the Kishke King ? Did you ever hear of "the prince of Pitkin Avenue" ?

Half my ancestry is Polish, so I grew up thinking that kishka was pig's blood and rice inside a sausage casing. Ugh !

There's even a polka, "Who Stole The Kishka ?"

My small "Oy vey - it's Yiddish !" glossary says that "kishkes" means guts, or intestines.

Another word I grew up with was "schmata", which seems to be both Polish and Yiddish for "rag" :

"Oy gut, Mama, take that schmata off your head !"

I am VERY MUCH enjoying your trip down memory lane !

If you go to www.nycsubway.org, Station By Station, IRT Brooklyn Line, Saratoga Avenue, you will see the brown brick hulk of the Ambassador in about ten images of that el station.

My Uncle Joe, the younger of my two uncles, was born November 9, 1934.

My dad, who grew up in Bushwick, recalls Murder Inc. as active also in the Bway Junction - East NY area.

My wife and I just watched "The Bishop's Wife", with Cary Grant, Loretta Young, and David Niven, last weekend. One of our Christmas movies.

What does your last name mean ? I should know, because I'm half German, but I don't. I ask, because I've seen ads for a Schildtwachter Fuel Oil Company.

I could not connect to nycsubway.org. Have they shut down in sympathy with the TWU strike?

Sylvia, I too remember that beautiful Pitkin ceiling with stars and drifting clouds. A memorable highlight for me from those early years (I was born 1923) was when Henrietta Cameron came for lunch at my Dad's restaurant ("Hoffman's") a block away from the Pitkin. I couldn't have been more thrilled if she were the Queen of England !

Several comments --

I got to the subway but unable to access the images yet -- will work on it.

Schildt in this case is Dutch -- my late husband was from Holland -- it can mean a picture or a shield in the medieval sense of a coat of arms or it can mean a sign.


I saw your allusion to Hoffman's -- there was a sit-down restaurant and a very popular cafeteria -- eating out was not in the family budget, so I think I only ate there once or twice. But of course I passed in front of it thousands of times - there were always people (mainly men) milling in front of it with toothpicks in their mouths. It was a kind of social hangout. And if memory doesn't fail me, there was an upstairs, which occasionally served as a shul for the High Holy Days.

Henrietta was the continuous live performer -- but I do remember there was also vaudeville - I have seen Buck and Bubbles, The Ritz Brothers and I forget who else. What I remember clearly was a marquee sign

5 VAUDEVILLE 5
Acts Acts

The vaudeville show, when offered, and the movie line-up were included in the price of admission.

Saturday afternoon was mostly Loew's Pitkin Day for kids in the neighborhood, unless we were really turned off by the main attraction.

The line-up was normally a main top run movie, followed by a B-movie. There were also serials which we called the "chapters" like "The Perils of Pauline" which featured cliffhanger installments, typically 12, one each weekend. There were the cartoons, specially selected short subjects, travbelogues, and of course the Paramount News. We would show up when the lineup started - around noon - I carried a bag of sandwiches and fruits - along with money for drinks and candy TO SHARE (nonpareils were a favorite) and I doled the food out in bits all through Saturday afternoon. All of this would end about 5- 5:30 when they through the kids out. We sat, all 5 of us, in a special children's section monitored by a matron and usher. If we wanted to see the main feature over again, we would split up and sneak one by one over to the adults section and glom onto a grown-up, who would agree to say we were with him or her. That way, we could finish by 6:30 or 7, just in time for supper. A great day for 25 cents apiece minus treats.

Kishke King was a place - a deli on Rockaway and Pitkin that sold kishke and knishes (Jewish style - no pork) and foot-long hot dogs. You took your purchases home or ate them in the street -- long before fast food. My Kishke King story is about their long-standing promise to give out free foot-long hot dogs if the Dodgers ever won the World Series and I was there the day they made good their promise --a mob scene!!! The lines wound several times around the block.

Reading these most recent posts, I feel a little bit young. At the age of 57, this is definitely not the way I feel all of the time. As I said earlier, I live in Crown Heights, so I am still close enough to have passed by the Pitkin many times in recent years. I went to movies mostly at the Pitkin and the Sutter.

At the Pitkin, I distinctly remember seeing Teahouse of the August Moon and Around the World in Eighty Days. I’m sure I saw many others, but perhaps they remain in my mind because they were both fairly “adult” films and I was still quite young at the time they played there. Like you, Sylvia and Beverly, I also remember those clouds and stars in the Pitkin’s ceiling.

Outside the theatre, I definitely remember the store selling coconut milk. I remember begging my mother many times to let me buy some. When she eventually gave in, I remember thinking how terrible it tasted and wondering why I had wanted it in the first place. It must have had something to do with those carved coconut heads.

I also remember the Brooklyn Women’s Hospital. I lived directly across the street from it at 1402 Eastern Parkway. The hospital began an expansion on the Eastern Parkway side sometime around 1957 -58. (I’m fairly sure of the date since this is when we moved out of the area.) Apparently because of changes in the neighborhood, this expansion halted in midstream. For many years, the iron expansion skeleton stood there looking quite forlorn. I gather that the hospital closed years ago, but I don’t know when. Just in the past year, however, the skeleton was removed and the hospital was rehabbed into apartments with its entrance on the Lincoln Place side. It’s too bad they did not make a nice entrance on the Eastern Parkway side.

Thanks for your answer, Sylvia, and thank you, alkan, for YOUR post.

The closest thing Ridgewood had to the Kishke King was the hot dog and knish stand at the "depot" : Myrtle Wyckoff and Palmetto, intersection of M and L subways, and start of the B26, B38, B52, B54, Q55, and Q58 bus lines. A bit fancier was Gottlieb's Jewish Deli Restaurant on the north side of Myrtle, just to the east of the depot, between Palmetto and Woodbine. I grew up in Ridgewood on Jewish deli food, among other kinds of food.

Did you ever go to Knish Nosh on Queens Blvd. in Forest Hills, near the 67th Avenue subway station ?

Spring and summer 1968 my mother went to a doctor on East 98th St. near the Rutland Road IRT el station, between, I believe, Clarkson and Winthrop, so I got to know that area, on the cusp between Brownsville and East Flatbush, a bit. I think there was a small Jewish deli restaurant there that had all kinds of knishes, kasha and groats and maybe spinach, as well as potato, the round kind with a burned-looking crust, like the ones at Canarsie Pier, as opposed to Gabila's knishes, "King Of Potato Pies", which were more common, and looked like golden-brown square pillows with sharp corners.

Check out this ad for "Rosemary's Baby", it shows the Pitkin was open as late as 1968. Can you believe it's playing in 29 theatres just in Brooklyn? Are there even 29 screens among the plexes in Brooklyn anymore?
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a13/ChmnofBrd/Movie%20Ads/RosemarysBaby.jpg

Thanks, Robert R !

"Rosemary's Baby" at the Pitkin ! Oy gevalt ! Meine Yiddische Mama, Ruth Gordon, mit der dybbuk ! Whatever happened to the Yiddish Theater ?

29 screens among the plexes in Brooklyn any more ? Someone more ambitious than me, can count them !

Off-topic.Yiddish theater is still alive and well. New Yorkers can check out the Folksbiene, now in its 90th consecutive year, doing productions at the Manhattan JCC.


Sylvia Schildt

Thank you, Sylvia. Please, where is the Manhattan JCC that the Folksbiene now does its productions at ?

I know there used to be a thriving Yiddish Theater scene around Second Avenue and East 7th St. in Manhattan (corrections welcome).

Was there ever a Yiddish Theater scene in Brooklyn, perhaps at Loew's Pitkin ? Not off-topic at all.

To the best of my knowledge, Loew's Pitkin was never part of the "Yiddish Theater scene in Brooklyn." But the borough had some Yiddish playhouses, including the Hopkinson and Parkway.

Thanks, Warren.

I'm not sure it was a Yiddish theater, but, when I was riding my bike down Pitkin Avenue a few years ago, I noticed an old building perhaps 15 blocks east of the Loew's Pitkin that had "Brein's Theater" carved into the stonework over its front door. Has anyone heard of this place before? Its name certainly sounds like it could have been a Yiddish theater once upon a time. (As I remember, it is some sort of church now.

alkan, have you looked for "Brein's Theater" on this site, or on Cinematour ?

Who owns this theatre? I would love to see the inside and pictures on how it looks now. Maybe someone can do a documentary of closed theatres in new york and they can show us the insides.

Kris

Hopkinson theatre was on Hopkinson between Sutter and Pitkin.
I lived on Sutter and Strauss. Used to go there for 5 hour laugh riots.




Herbie

Thanks, Herbie, laugh riots are better than race riots.

Nary a dry eye or seat in the house, eh ?

Herbie, you're not a Volkswagen, are you ?

Ah, Brownsville : militant and criminal blacks vs. corny old show business and Garment District Jews !

Tune in next week for yet another episode of that ever-popular Marxist game, "Class Struggle" !

Same Bat Time, same Bat Channel !

Directed by Spike Lee.

It's better than Ghettopoly !

a.k.a., "Oy Gut Gevalt, There Goes The Neighborhood !"

Co-directed by David Susskind and Steven Spielberg.

"This week's current social controversy is brought to you by ..."

P.Koch

Do you still have your arm bands?

Yes, that was rather tasteless and cynical of me. I apologize.

since you are probably from my old neighborhood I forgive you.

Thanks, Herbie, what was your old neighborhood ?

Sutter and Strauss 3 blocks from the Pitkin 1937 thru 1959

I'm from Bushwick and Ridgewood myself. My father was from Bushwick but he knew Pitkin Avenue from about the Pitkin, past Rockway Avenue, to about Pennsylvania Avenue.

I went to HS at ENY VOCATIONAL Logan and Wells 1 block from Liberty Ave

My father went to ENY VOCATIONAL high, near the Atlantic Avenue station on the Canarsie and Fulton Street elevated lines. I was delivered by a Dr. Joseph Berman whose office was at, I think, 25 Logan St. near Jamaica Avenue.

small world. I live in NJ now

Where in NJ ?

Monroe exit 8A NJTPK

Hey Guys, Interesting as this may be to to the two of you, but this has nothing to do with the Pitkin. My e-mail box is filling up fast here! Can you chat on another forum or swap e-mails please. Thanks

you are just jealous

Go for a walk around the exterior of the Loew's Pitkin Theatre with these photographs I took in June 2005:
http://flickr.com/photos/53257210@N00/115517916/
http://flickr.com/photos/53257210@N00/115518198/
http://flickr.com/photos/53257210@N00/115518489/
http://flickr.com/photos/53257210@N00/115518780/
http://flickr.com/photos/53257210@N00/115519057/
http://flickr.com/photos/53257210@N00/115519332/
http://flickr.com/photos/53257210@N00/115519598/
http://flickr.com/photos/53257210@N00/115519875/
http://flickr.com/photos/53257210@N00/115520255/
http://flickr.com/photos/53257210@N00/115520590/
http://flickr.com/photos/53257210@N00/115520929/

Ken.....Those are great photo's of the former Pitkin. Thanks for sharing them.

Thanks, KenRoe.

BTW, are you Kenneth Roe of the engineering firm of Burns & Roe ?

Herbie, are you the fabled and famous "Prince Of Pitkin Avenue" ?

Thanks for those pictures Ken. What's the neighborhood like these days?

A C/O was issued to a New building at this address on February 21, 1930. For some reason the permanent C/O is usually dated after the actual opening of the theater. The owner was Allied Owners Corp. Architect was Thomas W. Lamb. Purpose of building: 2820 seat motion picture theater.

Thanks for the complements guys. It is a wonderful building to photograph and I though I would get it at 'all angles' before anything happened to it! I'm happy to share with you all.

Bob..It was a sunny hot day, and this atmosphere led to a feeling of security as I wandered around. Schoolkids were just leaving class and at a quick glance all would seem to be ok. However, there were gangs congregating on the street corners who were eyeing me up, but I felt fairly confident I would be ok. Especially as my camera is not large (its the size of a credit card) and I was not pointing my lense at them. I just took my pictures, then left the area. Not a place I would go to after dark though.

PKoch...no relation to 'that' Kenneth Roe, I am British and based in the UK (but come to the States quite often). I'm back in NYC in June 2006 to explore more theatres hidden away in the Bronx and Queens this time!

Lost Memory : C/O is "certificate of occupancy" ?

KenRoe, you're most welcome to the compliments ! Welcome to the USA ! Please stay safe.

What theaters in Queens will you be exploring ? Have you noticed the place and street names of Richmond Hill, Kew Gardens, Kensington, Mayfair and Curzon, to name a few, common to London, UK and Queens ?

Peter....That's exactly what C/O means. I noticed that many of these NYC theater's opened with a temporary C/O and the permanent one followed later. I guess that was the policy back then.

Ken....Maybe on your next trip, you could take in a movie at the Ridgewood theater and get some interior photo's while your in there.

Ken; please be careful when you go exploring. Many (if not all) of these grand surviving palaces are in rough areas. My brother and I were chased out of a Detroit neighborhood when we tried to look at the Grand Riviera, and I was cornered by a gang of thugs beside the RKO Kenmore in Brooklyn - and that happened in 1976!

Do exercise extreme caution.

PKoch & Bob...Thanks for your concern. I am well aware of some of these areas (I have been visiting the USA since 1976, usually a couple of times a year) Actually only got robbed once(my bag had a 'going over' in a restaurant in Times Square!). I live in London and there are some areas here I wouldn't think of going to at certain times, in fact, come to think of it I live in one! LOL. I will be careful and aware...as always. As you say though, these areas have theatres and I feel the urge to visit, armed with my Film Daily Yearbook lists, I just hop on and off the Metro and buses. I found South Bronx scary a few years ago, when I was there last year, there was a great improvement and I spent 2 days wandering the streets.

In Queens I want to get to the Trylon as I missed it last time I was in the area, also going take a last look at the RKO Flushing, plus there are many more I need to track down. I like to compare Richmond Hill, Kew Gardens etc. with their London counterparts!

Lost Memory...and all of you....I have posted some photos I took last June on the Ridgewood Theatre page. I see its now 3 screens in the former balcony and 2 screens in the former stalls. I wonder which would be best to go into to see anything of original decoration?

KenRoe, you're welcome. I heard on the TV news six weeks ago about luxury condos being built in the South Bronx : "SoBro" : the new "cool" area in NYC to live in !

By all means, go see the Trylon while it's still there. I first saw a film there Saturday November 3rd 1984 and last saw a film there Friday November 11 1994.

How do Richmond Hill and Kew Gardens compare with their London counterparts ? The last Jahn's ice cream parlor is in Richmond Hill, 117-02 Hillside Avenue, corner of Myrtle, eastern end of the Q-55 bus line, next door to RKO Keith's Richmond Hill, now a flea market and a bingo hall. It, like the Ridgewood, is rich in internal original decoration.

How do NYC cinemas compare to London cinemas ?

Ken Roe, it's been many years since I have been in the Ridgewood Theater, but all of the auditoriums retained ornamentation from what I remember. Vaguely, I remember the side balcony theaters having a lot. In each of those, you have the original walls on one side (outer walls of the original theater, and the ceiling had "half-circles" of ornamental plasterwork, until of course you would hit the "new" wall that divides it up. You also had the original fancy balistrade railings too. I remembered liking to sit in the first row in front of the railing on the sides, which would be about half way up in the what was the balcony.
Downstairs ornamentation also survived, but again, you have a "new" wall on one side, and the original on the other. I believe all the theaters were painted a dark blue, with brown railings, floors etc. The original paintjobs and all different colors are long gone.

If you come to Queens, and stop in Richmond Hill, you should REALLY try and stop at the RKO Keith's Richmond Hill, which is now a flea market and bingo hall. Every Sunday the flea market is run, so you can freely enter the building, and look around. I haven't been there also in many years, but when I was last there, it was a diamond in the rough, the only desecration done to that theater was removal of the seats, and painting the walls plain beige, other than that, just about everything remains inside, right down to the balcony seats and all the old original light fixtures (although flourescent lighting was hung withing the auditorium). Definitely worth a trip, but do it on a Sunday so you can go inside. I have been thinking about going back for years, but just can't seem to get there on a Sunday.

Right on, Bway !

I seem to recall walking around the inside of the RKO Keith's Richmond Hill on or about Saturday July 12 2002. Perhaps now the flea markets are only on Sundays.

This would be more appropriate to the Kieth's site, but I just thought I'd add that while the Flea Market may only be in operation on Sunday (I seem to recall it operated in the foyer and lobby space), the theater is open whenever there are Bingo games being run in the former auditorium.

Ed, the flea markets (at least when I was last there, were on Sundays only (except certain weekends when they were also Saturday), however, they did indeed take up not only the outer foyer and lobby, but the entire auditorium also. There were vendors in the outer lobby (with the original etched mirrors on the walls yet), the inner lobby, and the auditorium itself.

Does anyone out there knows the name of the catering hall that was replaced by I.J. Morris Funural Home. It was situated on Rockaway Pkwy and Church Avenue?
Chip

Here are four ads that seem to prove the Pitkin's right to be called one of the "Loew's Wonder Theatres." There were actually six such "Wonder Theatres," not five, if the out-of-state Loew's Jersey is included. The opening ad for the Pitkin also includes the Metropolitan, which suggests that Loew's may have originally intended to apply the word "Wonder" to all of its large and deluxe theatres:
www.i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/pitkinopener.jpg
www.i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/applause.jpg
www.18.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/wonderbig5.jpg
www.i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/talmadge.jpg

Wow, that should start some controversy. I don't know if these were posted here before but here are some modern photos of the Loew's Pitkin.

Okay, adverising the Loew's Pitkin theater as a "Wonder" theater was probably an advertising gimmick by Loew's. I could be wrong but from what I have read, a "Wonder" theater had to have a special theater organ installed that was built by the Robert-Morton Organ Co.

"Five such "ultra-deluxe" instruments built in 1928 - 1929 by the Robert-Morton Pipe Organ Company of Van Nuys, CA were installed in the large Loew's New York metropolitan area "Wonder Theatres".

This theater did have a Robert-Morton theater organ but it wasn't one of those five specially built organs.

I've heard that the term "Wonder Theater" was used with varying degrees of specificity by Loew's during this period. Interesting, however, that Loew's would advertise the Pitkin as one of the "big 5 Wonder Theaters", particularly in that 3rd ad Warren posted that heralds the "new wonder" of the 175th Street which was the last of the Wonders to be built. Did they merely decide to drop reference to the Jersey (already opened the previous year) to target New York audiences?

Check out Orlando's comments from March 4th, 2004, way at the top of this page for an early reference to the use of the phrase as a marketing tool by Loew's.

The ad posted about the Pitkin is NOT a Loews paste-up. It was made by the newspaper, and hence it is an error on their part. I'm sure you won't find the same mistake repeating week after week.

If you're referring to the ads that I posted on 5/20/06, there were four. Which one do you mean?

I’m intrigued by the starting times of the De-Luxe Wonder Stage Shows in the ad for “Applause” (evidently in January, 1930; the film opened a two-a-day run at the old Criterion on 7 Oct. ’29): 1:00, 3:45, 7:00, and 9:00 (with a referred-to morning film at an 11:00 am bargain price). That’s highly irregular scheduling which implies some complete shows ran for just two hours, while others promised three and a quarter hours of entertainment.
Might the real schedule have been normalized to 1:00, 4:00, 7:00 and 10:00 pm, with the advertisement doing its best to rope in afternoon ladies (for whom a 4:00 start would have suggested too late an exit to preside over family suppers) and evening couples (for whom a 10:00 start would have implied a post-midnight exit with a sleep-deprived next day)?
A three-hour complete show seems reasonable in any case for a 90-to-110-minute feature film, forty-minute five-act variety show, and a half-hour or so of newsreel, short subjects, coming attractions, and intermission. In contemporaneous newspaper ads for the Roxy, Paramount, Capitol, et al. I’ve seen similarly irregular timetables. The point is moot, since performances were continuous and audiences were socialized to drop in at any time and leave when the loop came ‘round again.
As Joan Crawford used to say, whom was kidding whom?

The Pitkin was still open in November of 1969 without the Loew's name.
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a13/ChmnofBrd/Movie%20Ads/FloatLikeaButterfly.jpg

I wonder if those were four-walled engagements, Robert...

I lived in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn on Carroll Street near Utiva Avenue in the fifties and sixties and used to go to th Pitkin by bus along East New York Avenue. I remember a Ripleys mens clothing store near the theater and a men's hat store across the street. Some of the movies I saw there were "Witness for the Prosecution," "Don't Give Up The Ship," "The Last Hurrah." and "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad." My parents would take me and I recall getting a bag of plain popcorn for 10 cents, a box of popcorm for 15 cents, or buttered popcorn for 25 cents. The ceiling of stars was great. Atrip to the Pitkin was a treat. Usually my friends and I would go to the Carroll Theater (which interestingly was located on Crown Street not Carroll Street) every Saturday afternoon. If we caused a disturbance the matron, always an older woman in a white dress, would shine that flashlight in our eyes demanding silence. Those were fun times.

Thanks for posting your memories of the Pitkin, DaveL. I hope to read more from you about your experiences of this remarkable theater.

I have a memory of the Pitkin. In the early 50s
Quo Vadis was comming to the pitkin. All over Pitkin
avenue on the sidewalk was Painted Quo Vadis is comming.
It always struc me as a weird form of advertising.

JHB

Especially weird if "comming" was actually spelled that way!...But seriously, that form of sidewalk advertising was very popular when showmanship reigned. They used a stencil and whitewash, which would eventually be erased by rain.

Don't you just hate people that have nothing better
to do then try to shame people for there incorrect
spelling!

Here is a rare view of the Pitkin's proscenium. Like most of Thomas Lamb's atmospherics, the design reminds me of a budget imitation of John Eberson, but it is less austere than the proscenium that Lamb did two years later for Loew's Triboro in Queens:
www.i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/pitpro.jpg

Thanks Warren. All that elegance and baroque and / or rococo detail that is now gone ...

I'm not sure that it's all gone. The owner has been very secretive about what remains of the interior. There were reports that it "all got washed away" from water leaking through the roof. One report said that the roof, or at least parts of it, actually collapsed. The roof was eventually repaired, but we may never know the extent of damage to the interior.

Thanks for the details, Warren.

Go to this link: http://local.live.com and type the address of the Pitkin which is: 1501 Pitkin Avenue, Brooklyn, NY
It will give a bird’s eye view of what the condition of the roof was at one time. I do not know when these pictures were taken, but I hope Warren is correct and these large holes have been repaired.

I'm doing research for a project for my grandfather. He sang in a children's talent show on Mother's Day at the Loew's Pitkin between 1930 and 1933. He won first prize, a snake plant for his mother. Does anyone have or know where I can find any newspaper ads or photos of the event. I'm also looking for a photograph of the organist at the time, Henrietta Cameron (or Kamaren, I'm not sure of the spelling).

Thank you for your help. Your postings on the theater have been incredibly helpful.

You might start your search by looking in the entertainment pages of the Brooklyn Eagle for the months of May in those years. I suspect that an identical contest was held by many, if not all, of the Loew's theatres in Brooklyn, so you might find something that covers all of them, rather than just the Pitkin. Good luck!...As for the organist, I'm not familiar with that name, or anything close to it, but if I ever happen on something, I will post it here.

Warren, thanks for the advice. I'll check in to The Brooklyn Eagle.

Postings above on 12/21/05 by "Beverly" and "Sylvia Schildt" mention Henrietta Cameron, so that could be the correct spelling of her name. Sorry that I didn't remember those posts or the name. I have read so many in the interim. I just found them through a Google search.

I don't know how often Google updates their image library. But in this satellite photo the roof does not look good at all:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=1501+Pitkin+Avenue+brooklyn,+ny&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=30.130288,59.238281&ie=UTF8&ll=40.668921,-73.918231&spn=0.000879,0.001808&t=k&z=19&om=1

I visited this place around 1989. It looked neglected then. I don't think there is a lot of hope in this particular situation, at least as far as reusing the interior goes.

Yikes! Life, if you view this satellite image, the damage to the roof is even more evident!

Doesn't look good.

At the very least there must be large holes in the dome. But my gut says that it is probably worse than that. What is the name of the former cinema off to the right, across from the basketball court. I visited that one too. But the identity is escaping me right now. It looked like a church at the time. Seems like it is in good repair these days.

I was only at the Pitkin once. It was late in `68. I went to see "Rosemary`s Baby" with my uncle Rocco and cousin Cosmo.The theater was absolutely beautiful- be it a "wonder theater" or nor. You could have spent days in there just exploring the statuary work and the details that were incorporated into it.Although the neighborhood was predominately Jewish{with a smattering of Italians}, it was sinking faster than the Titanic back then.From what I understand, there were many fine theaters in this nieghborhood, but the Pitkin WAS the prince! God only knows what the inside looks like now.

So the Pitkin Theatre was once "the prince of Pitkin Avenue" ? Great !

That is what my uncle told me! He STILL insists that this was the best theater in the neighborhood.

"King" or "Queen" would be better. Loew's Pitkin ruled the area, which had no other theatres as large or luxurious.

Perhaps, Warren, but the "Prince of Pitkin Ave" is far more euphonious!

Yes, in it, you have a repetition of the "p" sound for emphasis (alliteration), and "Prince of Pitkin Avenue" was an idiom, long associated with that part of Brownsville.

Prehaps the purple prose placed on the Prince of Pitkin placed positive projections ,providing that the principal posturing promoted pride, prejudice and passion concerning the princley palace the Pitkin was purported to be. "Euphonious" anyone?

Sheer genius, Theaterat. LOL!

Thanks Ed!

Bravo, Theaterat !

Hi,

I'm a member of the Three Stooges Fan Club in Pennsylvania. The Fan Club also has a museum: www.stoogeum.com

The Fan Club is presently trying to compile a list of all Three Stooges personal appearances. We're sure there were personal appearances in the Asbury Park area. The era may range from 1930's to 1980's. Please let us know how a search like this could be done. The 1960's to 1980's appearances may have been in connection with Officer Joe Bolton.

Thanks,

Frank Reighter

Frank Reighter
501 West Court Apt A1
(Andalusia) Bensalem, PA. 19020-7773
267 523-5166
fereighter@aol.com

I don't know the name of the rapper but he has a home theater with a marquee that reads, LOEW'S PITKIN. I think it's 50 Cents. I would love to find that picture.

Good idea, cypress. I hope you find that picture, too.

Here are a few photographs I took on the Cinema Theatre Association(UK) visit to NYC's movie theatres that I organised in November 2007:
http://flickr.com/photos/kencta/1936118091/
http://flickr.com/photos/kencta/1936972624/
http://flickr.com/photos/kencta/1936143135/
http://flickr.com/photos/kencta/1936987238/
http://flickr.com/photos/kencta/1936987682/

Thanks, Ken Roe. Good work. Good to read you. Hadn't, for awhile. Glad you're back on CT, and on the page of so illustrious a theater as the Pitkin.

It looks like they are going to demolish that beautiful building and replace it with an ugly condo.

Wow... Look at that roof damage! The inside must in a complete shambles! The motif of the tower above the corner entrance appears nearly identical to that of Lamb's Loew's 175th Street Theatre, albeit on a somewhat smaller scale.

Thanks, Ed Solero. An interesting, and probably significant, comparison to one of the five Loew's "wonder" theatres of 1929 and 1930.

Perhaps all too true, cypress.

ouch. it would be great to rescue rehab and turn this building into a museum of brownsville's unique history and classic film. anybody know how to make this happen??


sylvia


ps i am preparing my new book Brownsville: The Jewish Years for publication. It has an entire chapter on the LOEW's PITKIN!!!!!!

Good for you, Sylvia. I'm not sure I can help you rescue the Loew's Pitkin, though.

i have a photo of henrietta kammern. there's even a recording on edison of her playing


sylvia

Who is she, Sylvia ?

the organist who played during intermissions or at vaudeville shows.

Thanks, Sylvia.

Sylvia-do you have any photos of opening day or news accounts of the opening? I am particularly interested in a parade or marching band at the opening.

lb1951@aol.com

I have some photos of Jerry Lewis at the Pitkin in 1960 when he appeared on stage promoting "The Bellboy."

Hey Bob... Do you have a photobucket account? It'd be fun to have you share those photos here! The tight schedules on those promo tours through the local Loew's or RKO chain always amazed me. Five minutes onstage and then dash off and fight traffic to get to the next appearance in some other neighborhood. I just think of the congestion on some of the borough thoroughfares today and it makes me laugh. I presume that the streets were not nearly as gridlocked back then as they can be these days. Or did the promoters arrange for police escort?

Yes, I have a Photobucket account. I'll try to get some of those images scanned and posted.

In looking at the film coverage and photos of Mr. Lewis' theater tours, both RKO and Loew's had police escorts to arrange for a quick passage to each theater.

my book is finally out! and as promised, it features an entire chapter about the loew's pitkin and other local brownsville cinemas. it talks about the pitkin experience in detail, showcases some photos that round out the impression. thanks to all who shared some of the photos with me. it can be ordered through amazon, or personally through me. here's my link - http://web.mac.com/sylviaschildt/brownsville-the-jewish-years.mac.com/Welcome.html

And I always thought that the original Kitzl Park was in Williamsburg at the juncture of Lee Ave. & Roebling St. and not in Brownsville backing on the Loews Pitkin.

it's one of those ideas that alights on different spots.

Congratulations, Sylvia, on the publication of your book. I look forward to reading it. What theatres are covered in addition to Loew's Pitkin?

The Palace secondarily, others (Hopkinson, Stadium, Sutter) are wrapped up in general descriptions.

BTW The cover, is kitzl park (Zion Memorial) backed up by a view of the Legion St. side of the Pitkin.

But the emphasis of the chapter is on the vital role of the Pitkin, and the way it was experienced by Brownsville residents. My aim was, if you had lived it before, to take you back, just short of eating the popcorn and nonpareils. And if you had not, to re-create it for you in as much depth as a printed page could offer.

To fully appreciate this ad, one must be aware that "Loew" is pronounced exactly like the words "lo" and "low": www.i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/pitkin29.jpg

i sometimes heard it pronounced, in the neighborhood as low-eez.


sylvia

Is it fair to say that the Loew's Pitkin is the 3rd largest movie palace in the city just sitting in decay? The largest, of course, is The Kings in Brooklyn and the 2nd largest (by just a few seats over the Pitkin) is the RKO Keiths in Flushing. The Brooklyn Paramount doesn't count because it is not decaying. I assume what is left of it is being taken care of by LIU. Maybe that's assuming too much. Are there any others?

This is a new direct link to the vintage ad posted above on 2/20/08:
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/pitkin29.jpg

Sylvia is right...it was "low-eez"...or more formally "loweezpitkin"---or just "the pitkin".

Bev

Warren, thanks for the link to the ad which proclaims "Loew and Behold!" That's brilliant. It's not as clever when you say "Low-eez and Behold". Unless, of course, if youse guys are from Brooklyn. :-)

The building is going to be converted to affordable housing and retail space.

http://www.pokomanagement.com/projects_1501brooklyn.html

A rendering of the project can be seen at architect Kitchen & Associates' website:

http://www.kitchenandassociates.com/projects/07005_POKO_Pitkin/07005_popup.shtml

That seems a logical fate for both the Pitkin and Kings. Is the Pitkin project really going ahead or just in the proposal stages?

I never had any real hope that this palace could be saved; too much damage and a very poor location. It appears from the links posted above that much of the very handsome exterior will be preserved, but I assume that all of the interior (or what's left of it) will be lost.

At the end of the day, the preservation of the Pitkin's exterior is probably the best that could be hoped for. The eyesore of this abandoned building will be replaced with new retail and much needed affordable housing.

Every time a palace is lost, it hurts. From the photos I've seen, this one was particularly beautiful and therefore even more painful. But all of them cannot be saved. Our concentration needs to be focussed on those with the most promise; specifically, in the case of Brooklyn, The Loews's Kings and The Brooklyn Paramount. In Queens, it's probably too late for the RKO Keiths Flushing, but not too late for the RKO Keiths Richmond Hill. A movement is now afoot to save the just shuttered Ridgewood.

With every palace that is lost, every remaining palace becomes even more valuable.

The interior already has been lost. The ceiling had fallen to the floor, and much of the ornamentation was stripped away by vandals and scavengers over the years. Add to that some workers performing interior demolition back in 2003 or '04 -- I don't know the extent of their work, but it's likely that the interior has already been in a landfill for a few years.

Since signs stating "Another POKO Development" are already posted on the sidewalk bridge, I think the project is going ahead.

this breaks my heart. have you seen the travesty of architecture that this rehab has come up with?puts me in mind of Howard Roark in "The Fountainhead".

so that leaves the grandeur that was the low-eez pitkin to memory. i am thankful for the preservation and honor i gave it in my chapter dedicated to the pitkin experience in my book BROWNSVILLE: THE JEWISH YEARS. I include interiors, exteriors, even a picture of the organ and of course, memories of its glory days. If you look at the list of 100 great American films, a chunk of them made their neighborhood first runs here -- be it Gone With The Wind, Casablanca, Best Years of Our Lives, The Ten Commandments, not to omit great cartoons, the chapters, the Paramount News. If it was worth seeing, I saw it at the Pitkin. Farewell old friend, sylvia (the kid with the four siblings, a big lunch bag for 5, and a big box of nonpareils)

re. the May 25,2007 reference to "The Prince of Pitkin Ave."---that title went to Abe Stark, who owned a men's clothing store across the street from Hoffman's (my Dad's restaurant). He eventually became Borough President of Brooklyn.

Thanks Sylvia for your memories. As I mentioned above, it's impossible to save all of the theaters that are worthy and based on mp775's post above, there is virtually nothing salvagable of the interior. At least the exterior looks like it will be incorporated in to the adapative reuse.

Today, I went on a tour of the Loew's Kings which the city is making every effort to save. Please go to that page to see my post. Though it is too late for Loew's Pitkin, it is not too late for Loew's Kings. I think The Kings will make it!

it could have been something more than 71 apartments and 70k sf of retail space. i had hoped for a museum -- commemorating either/or brownsville history and/or the great movies of yore that glittered here.

as to abe stark, he's well covered in my book, handing out tickets for ebbetts field and more. hoffman's cafeteria is also mentioned - it was part of the pitkin avenue scene.

Sylvia, I absolutely mean no disrespect, but it takes much more than hope to save a movie palace and have it survive as a functioning theater, performing arts space, or a museum. It takes people who care passionately about the project, people with money and or connections and people with patience. These projects have to pay their own way unless a governmental agency steps in to do so which is very, very rare.

That is what is so exciting about the current state of the Kings which has been dark for almost 30 years. The city is behind it and they are willing to give grants to help restore the theater provided a developer comes up with viable plan to have the restored theater pay its own way afterwards.

The Pitkin (as well as many, many palaces that have been lost over the years) didn't have these benefits. At least you've been able to preserve your memories of this grand theater in your book and in your memories. Thank you!

for myself and i hope others -- now and in the future years. if any of you get to read my book (see amazon) let me know what you think.

Here are new direct links to previously posted images of the Pitkin's auditorium:
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/128-2855_IMG.jpg
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/pitpro.jpg

This ad from March 8th, 1930, shows the Pitkin described as one of "Loew's 'Big 5' Wonder Theatres." If "midnite pictures" is any indication, the Pitkin, Paradise and Valencia were proving more popular than the Kings and 175th Street: http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/lobigfive.jpg

Orando posted back on March 4th 2004, "the Pitkin was advertised as such in many ads in the Brooklyn Eagle when it first opened. When I spoke to a original Loew excutive, he told me the "Wonder Theatre" was as advertising tool of the then in-house publicity team."

I am seriously considering creating a documentary about the rise and fall of the Loew's Pitkin. It will include stuff about the theater, movies it showed and more importantly, personal memories of experiences at the theater -- from dating and "making out" in the balcony, kid stuff, vaudeville shows seen. If you have any tales to tell and/or would like to be interviewed, please write me privately at creativa@charm.net

I have some photographs of Jerry Lewis at the theater, including some great backstage shots. I'll drop you a note.

We lived in Brownsville from '51 through '57. Since the Pitkin was the high end in our part of Brownsville ($1 for kids), it was only for "special occasions." One was for the premier of the first 3D movie, "B'wana Devil" ('52), which was preceded by a trailer in which an opthalmologist assured the audience they would't go blind watching it. A sign of the Pitkin's "class": their 3D glasses had plastic frames, vs. cardboard frames for those distributed in other houses. The ushers collected them after each show, so we kids always tried to sneak out with them. For "Quo Vadis" ('51) the Pitkin's management stenciled the title and its dates on every sidewalk crossing in the theater's area. If the movie was boring, we'd explore the vast, uncharted balconies, which were almost always empty on Saturday mornings. The proscenium arch had a tromp l'oeil mural called "Dawn." After the show, we'd get a papaya drink at Jungle Jim's Cocoanut Whip stand on Herzl Street off Pitkin.

The two movie houses closer to us were the Ambassador and the Peoples Cinema, diagonally across from each other on Saratoga and Livonia Avenues. The former was the "nabe," two program changes per week, 26 cents for kids, with 3 features, 25 cartoons, serials, Three Stooges, etc., on Saturdays. Its covered emergency staircase was home to the neighborhood winos, and stank of urine so badly that you had to cross the street to go by it. It was demolished and is a day care center today. The Peoples was a low-end B-movie place, 14 cents. Memorable feature: a 5-cent soda machine with four flavors--if you pushed all four buttons simultaneously, it gave you "tutti frutti." It was converted ca. '54 to the neighborhood's first superette, whose opening was enlivened by an actor playing "Rocky Jones Space Ranger" of the eponymous TV show. Now it's the Brownsville Bargain Center.

Thanks, turnbull, for all the info on the Pitkin and environs, more than half a century ago, and welcome to Cinema Treasures ! I hope you enjoy the site as much as I have, and do.

I would think your handle comes from Turnbull Avenue near the 14th Street Canarsie Line between East 105th Street and Rockaway Parkway stations.

Pitkin afficionados and old Brownsvillians, think back. Do you have Pitkin photos, date photos, Brownsville street scenes. My plans for the documentary rests on being able to locate some of these.


Sylvia (Author of Brownsville: The Jewish Years)

Bob Furmanek, I never got your note or Jerry Lewis backstage photos.

Has the residential project mentioned above proceeded? Has this theater been gutted? Was the exterior preserved?

Sylvia, I don't have any old B'ville photos. I do have some Pitkin Avenue (and other Brownsville) photos taken in '97, '98 and 2000, and I can identify what the stores and sites were in the Fifties. I'm sure you've seen the Pitkin Avenue photos in Roger Willensky's "When Brooklyn was the World," and Wendell Pritchett's "Brownsville, Brooklyn."
Peter.K: I know Turnbull Avenue, but my name comes from the line, "Turnbull is a good man," in "The Godfather, Part II."
LuisV: I read elsewhere (maybe on this site) that, while the exterior is still standing, the ceiling has collapsed onto the stage, and the entire theater has been heavily damaged by water.

BTW: I saw a TV segment a few years ago about the Hip-Hop producer Russell Simmons. He had a home theater in his NJ mansion that he modeled on the Pitkin.

Turnbull.....yes, it was on this site that it was stated that the ceiling had collapsed and that there was little of the interior to save. The only remaining hope was that the exterior would be preserved as part of it's reuse into residential housing. Nothing has been posted on this site about that project since so I was wondering if it was ever done. Has the exterior been preserved?

The last time I rode by the Pitkin (sometime during the past couple of months), I did not notice anything much changed so far. The only think I remember seeing on the exterior was some sign about its future use. I will try to ride by there on my bike in the next week or so. (I live nearby in Crown Hts.)

Turnbull, thanks for the clarification.

I think that's Elliot Willensky, rather than Roger, as author of "When Brooklyn was the World".

Sylvia Schildt, I wish you well on your project, but, unfortunately, I have nothing to contribute to it. Sorry.

Does any one remember the name of the Catering hall on Rockaway
Parkway.and Church Ave and then replaced by I.J. Morris Funeral home
in the early 1940's
Chip Wahl
Bojone5@aol.com

There was a public hearing on October 28. See page 4 of http://www.nyhomes.org/docs/10-28-08_multi-project_tefra.pdf.

Thanks, mp775.

What does this have to do with Loew's Pitkin Theatre ?

Peter....The building is going to be converted into apartments. Here is the part that applies to this building:

1501 Pitkin Avenue Apartments Project consists of the acquisition and rehabilitation of a 6-story former theater into approximately 66 residential units. The Project is located at 1501 Pitkin Avenue Brooklyn, New York. All sixty-six of the residential units are expected to be occupied by households earning no more than 55% of Area Median Income for the New York City FMR, adjusted for family size. It is anticipated that the Project will be owned by an entity or entities controlled by POKO Partners, LLC. The total development cost of the Project is estimated at approximately $24,882,422. The Agency expects to issue tax-exempt and/or taxable Bonds in an amount estimated not to exceed $13,750,000 to finance a portion of the acquisition, rehabilitation and other costs associated with the Project.

Those are expections/anticipations only. Given the current economy, they might never get off the ground.

Thanks, Lost Memory. Warren, we shall see.

Hmmm. What does "rehabilitation" mean? Does it imply some preservation of the building's design elements - even if just exterior appointments? Or is the term broad enough to include complete demolition followed by new construction?

I would think the first definition, Ed Solero.

I also believe that the exterior will be retained. At this point it is the most we could expect.

Better the exterior only than nothing at all. Such was the case with the RKO Bushwick.

Agreed!

You may be able to find a few pictures of Brownsville at this website.



http://brooklynpix.com/index.php


JHB

Thanks JHB. That's a great shot of the Loew's Pitkin under Brownsville II.

There was a story in the NYT on Christmas Day, 1921, about a robbery at the Elite Theater, 707 Pitkin Avenue, Brooklyn. I didn't see any aka for this. It may be an easy question, but as I'm not from New York I'm curious as to the answer.

FOUR HOLD-UP MEN ROB THEATRE IN BROOKLYN; Owner of the Elite and Woman Cashier Forced to Hand Over $100 and $175 Watch.

Four men held up the owner and cashier of the Elite Theatre, at 707 Pitkin, Brooklyn, last Thursday night, it became known yesterday, and escaped...

Why post it here? Does it state motion picture theater?

It could have been a live theater or a motion picture theater. I posted here because this theater is also on Pitkin Avenue.

This theater opened in 1929 so it can't be this one. There were other theaters on Pitkin Ave. There is a good possibility that it was a motion picture theater. If it is listed here under another name, I have no idea what it could be.

My apologies if this has already been posted, but this website has a photo of the ruinous interior of the Pitkin.


http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.safetgallery.com/RacioppoInteriors/Loews-Pitkin600.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.safetgallery.com/RacioppoInteriors/LRBIWriteUp.html&usg=__BJuZ0KwzXKFTEQWGRu3oefmTkkU=&h=473&w=594&sz=43&hl=en&start=3&um=1&tbnid=c_G_C4c9K4phTM:&tbnh=108&tbnw=135&prev=/images%3Fq%3DLoew%2527s%2BPitkin%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Dactive%26sa%3DN

Surreal ! It looks like a movie set ! Thanks, ziggy.

It also resembles what's left of the balcony of the RKO Madison in Ridgewood, Queens, above the ceiling of the Liberty Department Store, which currently occupies the street level, orchestra area of what used to be the RKO Madison Theatre (# 4621 on this CT site).

You're welcome, but I want to thank Mr. Racioppo for putting the photo on the web. I just wish I could have been looking over his shoulder when he took it.

As indeed you should, ziggy. But that's between you and Mr. R.

There is more left than I would have thought. The sky is gone, but it looks like the "castle" plaster work is more or less still there. I would think the sky would be the easier of the two to recreate.

Indeed that is a marvelous photograph. Perhaps someone would know when the photograph was taken.
George

I was watching an episode of "The Honeymooners" last night. There was one scene where Ralph and Norton were in a Park Avenue apartment, which prompted Norton to comment that it was "almost as pretty as the lobby of Loew's Pitkin!"

Of course, Norton pronounced Loew's "Loweez"

I find a Liberty Theater that was located about 10 blocks away from the Pitkin's location listed in the 1928 Brooklyn Red Book. The address given is Liberty Avenue and Watkins Street. Google indicates that these streets no longer exist on the grid. Does this Liberty Theater appear under another name on this site ?

Thanks, ziggy. I'll tell my dad what Norton said. My dad still pronounces Loew's as "Loweez", too, same as Ed Norton.

J.F.Lundy, Liberty Avenue is still there. I'm not sure about Watkins Street. This may be a clue to another (to me) mystery :

Where was Liberty Pool ? I only know it was somewhere in Brownsville or East New York.

My guess is that the Liberty Theatre only had live shows perhaps Burlesque or live Yiddish plays like the Parkway (Rolland) on Eastern Parkway. It is the policy of Cinema Treasures not to list theatres that did not show motion pictures. At one time this site had the Parkway Theatre with some posts of mine but it was removed when they learned that it was not a motion picture house. I'm assuming the same format was at the Liberty. By the way, Liberty Av & Watkins Street in Brownsville has been in the confines of the Howard Houses since the early 1950's.

Thanks, HerbS. That would explain why Watkins Street in Brownsville has gone the way of Turnbull Avenue in Flatlands / Canarsie (East 105th St. station on the L line).

The Liberty Theatre did show movies in the later 1920's early 1930's and I have added it to its own page on Cinema Treasures. Thanks to J.F. Lundy for bringing the Liberty Theatre to our attention.

is the old marquee still under all the covering? does anyone know?
please forgive my spelling as I can only type with one nand since my stroke. Dennis

Regarding the Lowes Pitkin Theater in Brooklyn.
I have actually been inside the structure. Sadly the roof has failed and most of the interior plasterwork is destroyed. The wood stage has collapsed. I actually fell through the backstage stairs. The lobby has been stripped to the steel frame. Some of the corridors on the balcony have some detailing left. The building originally had a childrens play room room in the front tower and green room with fireplace backstage just off the stage.

Thomas Lamb designed another theater in NYC using the same terra cotta detailing and materials on the exterior. This is the Palace located at 175th street and Broadway in Manhattan and has been restored by Rev. Ike as his headquarters church. Based upon what I saw in the original Lowes Pitkin drawings (on file at Columbia's Avery Library) I suspect that the interiors at Rev. Ike's Palace are a good representation of the interiors at Lowes Pitkin in Brooklyn.

There might be certain similarities in the lobbies and such, but the auditoriums are completely different. Loew's Pitkin was an atmospheric, and Loew's 175th (United Palace) is not.

I loved this theatre, growing up withit. what a sad state of affairs, wish some millionaire woul rebuild it&use it for local talent shows like they do with the Appollo, butthats just daydreaming
I now live in new hyde park&sometimes I go to a coffee shop across
from th Floral theatre, they made that a catering hall,its sad, you still see the building must have been quite lovely at one time, ah,I'm outta here

the loew's pitkin is now slated to be a subsidized unit for over 60 families



sylvia schildt

Douglas, can I ask you how you got inside ?
I would love to have the oportunity to photograph it before its conversion into apartments.

The year given for this photo is 1970. If the year is correct, the Loew's Pitkin didn't close in the late 1960s.

Notice Loews is pried off the marquee and the vertical must have ended as an indie

Good observation. It should probably have an aka name of Pitkin Theatre.

Wow, I just looked at the photo Ziggy posted a few months ago, and the Pitkin's interior is really in shambles. It almost seems worse than what the Keiths in Flushing looks like. Not much hope here for the interior....
When did the church move out?

Sad picture posted by ziggy. Interesting history of this house.

My father grew up about a block away from this theater and while he took me to the movies a lot as a child, we never went here very much. Hedid tell me about the stage shows this theater used to show and what a beautiful theater it was. I did finally go in 1961 to see "The Guns of Navarone" here and found the theater to be sort of a small version of Radio City Music Hall with a round second level overlooking the massive inner-lobby. When I next was there in 1963 the area was going downhill fast and the theater was reduced to showing 2 horror films: "Werewolf in a Girl's Dormitory" and Boris Karloff in "Corridors of Blood." While these films do sound kind of low-grade, I have no doubt that there was a lot worse to come. This was a spectacular theater in its prime though.

Is there any way at all anything can be done to save this theatre? I am not from Brooklyn, I live in Staten Island but I love old theatres and I love Brooklyn. I have known about this theatre for a few years reading about it on here and would really love to see it restored. Who was the one who took the picture of the interior as it is now? Are there any way to have any more pictures of what the rest looks like? Maybe I can ask the owner of the store if he will allow me to take some pictures. Is this really going to be a doomed theatre by the wrecking ball? I hope not we need to all do something and contact the owner. Does anyone know if the dressing rooms are still intact as well as the projection booth and anything else? Please let me know if you have information on the present state. We cannot let this theatre be lost. I have a question as well on another theatre or what I think is a theatre. I noticed what seemed to have been a theatre on Rogers avenue in Brooklyn. Are there any old theatres that were closed down there? Rodges avenue I think it is right before Atlantic avenue on Rogers avenue. It looks like it was a theatre at one time. And does anyonw know besides this theatre and the Kings which other theatres in Brooklyn are still intact and closed and no longer in business. Thank you so much and if we all band together we can save and restore this theatre. I am surprised the stage and side decor is still intact.