Halsey Theatre

Remember on the Honeymooners Ralph Kramden or Alice made reference many times to seeing a movie at The Halsey. And on one of the lost episodes Ralph makes a crack about Trixie appearing there in burlesque.

The Halsey had 2,100 seats and was already listed as closed by the time of the 1947 Film Daily Year Book.

The A&E "Biography" of Gleason shows the exterior of the Halsey, which is now Saratoga Square, a city-owned housing complex.

The Halsey was one of countless victims of the "Hollywood Studio Monopoly." As an independently-owned movie house, it didn't stand a ghost of a chance against the neighborhood's two leaders, Loew's Gates and the RKO Bushwick.

That again is not Buswick but what we now call Bedford Stuyvesant. Bushwick is on the other side of Broadway (Broadway was previously called division street it seperated Bushwick and Brooklyn). There was live boxing on that block. Would a movie theatre make a good boxing ring? I use to walk buy there all the time to go to the train shop as a youngster, but never paid much attention to those buildings. Does anybody know anything about the Brevort Theatre in Brooklyn, that is where the Motown reviews preformed in Bedford Stuyvesant, it had lots of live entertainment.

Apollo, which of the theaters had boxing in them? Was it the Halsey, or one of the other theaters closer to the el?

The Brevoort has a listing here as Loew's Brevoort. It was the first Loew's theatre in the Bedford-Stuyvesant area. When Loew's later took over the nearby Bedford Theatre, it kept the Brevoort but reduced it to showing its programs after the Bedford. I think that by the time of the Motown revues, an "indie" had taken over the Brevoort from Loew's...During the Depression and later to combat home TV, theatres often featured boxing, wrestling and even basketball on stage to hype attendance. And, of course, Radio City Music Hall is now presenting basketball on stage. A recent news story said that the management will also present other sports if basketball proves a success. But ice hockey was ruled out because RCMH's stage isn't large enough.

I asked my neighbor about boxing on Halsey street. He said the boxing ring was across the street from the Halsey, in the old trolley barn (I have a picture). He also said there was also another boxing ring at the end of the Gates Avenue trolley line in Ridgewood.
He then mentioned a movie Theater called the Comic, it was on Gates between Patchen and Reid Avenues (now called Malcolm X Blvd.) I will ask him if the building is still there? There was also another Theater in that vicinity (This other Theater was pre air conditioning and supposedly it would show movies outside in a lot or on the roof on a hot summer evening). I was told this story by a two people. I am going to be talking to someone next month who remembers the last show at the Brevoort. It was a concert.
There is a building on Sumpter street near Fulton street that is not in use now, but looks like it could have possibly been a Theater.

Apollo, There is a church on Gates Avenue near the corner of Reid and Malcolm X Blvd). My late mother said she used to go there and pay 5 cents to see the movies and watch the serials. That's not the name that I remember her calling it. You can tell that it was a theater by the staircase.It's a small building.
Rose

I will ask my neighbor when I see him,if he can identify the building. I will ask him about the other Theater too.

Thanks Apollo, I would love to hear about the building Rose described, and if it was a theater.

I found this during one of my marathon theater research sessions:

Thomas A. Clarke (b. 3 Nov 1878 - d. 28 May 1935).

Thomas A. Clarke was a prosperous contractor who built churches, schools and public buildings throughout New York City. He also built the Halsey Theatre, Arcadia Hall and the Broadway Arena in Brooklyn.

I just found some interesting information about the Halsey in Eugene Armbruster's book, "Brooklyn Eastern District".

"A large open field streched from Rockaway Avenue down to a plain on Halsey Street near Broadway. In this plain was a pond, more or less large, according to rainfall. This plain became the circus grounds. The Saratoga Park occupies now part of the plain. In 1912 The Halsey Theatre was erected upon the old circus grounds, between Saratoga Avenue and Broadway by the T.A. Clark Company, the Benedict Amusement Company being the lessee. The cost of the site was 10,000 dollarsand that of the building 300,000 dollars, seating capacity 2400. About the same time, the Arcadia was erected upon the Saratoga Avenue plot".
pg. 191-192

Does anyone know if the original/full name of this theater was the Halsey Street Theatre? I seem to recall seeing an episode of "The Honeymooners" where Gleason (or another of the stars of the show) refers to the "Halsey Street Theatre" but maybe I am recalling it wrong...

Apollo....Thanks for the additional info. I didn't read the book that you mentioned, but I did come across the builder Thomas Clark on the web.

Jackie Gleason saw vaudeville and burlesque at the Halsey as a boy and got his start in show business there on amateur nights.

I think the address on his mother's death certificate was 357 Chauncey Street, if the TV bio I saw in early November 2002 was accurate, and if I am remembering it correctly.

The references to streets in "The Honeymooners" are to real streets in Bushwick, like when Norton mentions "that vacuum cleaner place on DeKalb Avenue".

I don't think it was ever called more than the Halsey Theatre, but since it was located on Halsey Street, it would be easy for anyone to incorrectly remember it as the "Halsey Street Theatre."

The house that Jackie Gleason grew up in is in the Bedford Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn and not Bushwick! People are constantly going back to that house and photographing it. Many of the older people here remember Jackie Gleason returning to the neighborhood. I also use to work with a gentlemen who was one of the June Taylor dancers.
On thursday I was at Chauncey and Broadway, a devastated area, but the theatre their seem to be well maintained (It is a church). What was the name of that theatre? Also I have not forgotten that I promised to research the Williamsbugh borders and I will as soon as I finish my calender. Finally does anybody Know who has detailed information about the old Pennsylvania Railroad station, a friend asked if I could point him to someone?

Apollo, what is the address of the house that Jackie Gleason grew up in ? Is it on Herkimer or Chauncey Street ?

I read a Gleason biography twelve years and two weeks ago. There was a chapter in it, "Limo To Bushwick", about a 1962 or 1963 visit Gleason paid to his old neighborhood.

One of the June Taylor Dancers was a man ?

It was the Colonial Theater at Chauncey and Bway, now the Wayside Baptist Church. Bway has posted a link to a recent photo of it, on its page here.

I was born at Evangelical Deaconess Hospital, formerly at the north corner of Chauncey and Bway, on the northeast, or Bushwick, side, across the street from the former Colonial Theater. I think one of the hospital buildings is gone now, as I recall from my last el ride past there.

Do you mean the old Pennsylvania Station at 34th and 8th in Manhattan ? Try :

http://www.nycsubway.org/

You may have to look around a bit there, or search it with Google.

Commenting on the new vs. the old Penn Station, someone once said, "We used to come into the city like gods. Now, we come in like rats !"

Peter, the question you had of whether the Halsey was demolished or not for sure is solved. I drove past the other day, and the building no longer exists. A large apartment building now occupies the site. It looks like those standard late 1960's to 1970's type of large apartment buildings so it was probably demolished during that time.

The Halsey is listed as a "closed" theatre in the 1945 edition of the Film Trade Directory for Greater New York. If it ever re-opened after that, it was probably only briefly. The Halsey seems to have been a victim of being in an "over-seated" neighborhood with too many large theatres, and the dominance of the RKO Bushwick and Loew's Gates, which got the movies before the others.

Bway, thanks for mentioning that the Halsey no longer exists.
I will tell my dad, who will be sad, but who will appreciate having been told.

The Halsey theater closed in 1945 right after WWII just as many other theatres did.

I don't think the Colonial Theatre went out of business in 1954. I remember going to this theatre with my friends as late as 1958.

Our Lady of Lourdes was a beautiful church with a grotto behind the altar. My husband and I were married there in 1962. There was also Our Lady of Lourdes School on the same block. My brother, cousins, many of our friends, and I attended this school.

We also spent a lot of time at the Colonial Theater. We lived across the street from Evangelical Deoconess Hospital and Nursing Home.

Peg, although unfortunately the beautiful church was destroyed, the school building still exists, and still has something to do with the church, because "Our Lady of Lourdes" is on the sign. I don't know exactly what they use the school for.
I can't believe they decided to demolish the church building.
Here's a photo of the church in 1969 from behind:

http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?35304

Thanks for the picture. In talking to my husband last night, he said the church was burned down by an arsonist. He used to work for the Transit Police and he worked the Chauncey Street station, so he remembers the incident very well. What a shame!

The "Limo to Bushwick" chapter Peter K. mentioned was in "Jackie Gleason: An Intimate Portrait of the Greatest" by W.J. Weatherby. In remembering his mother, Jackie said "It was a rainy day like this for her funeral. We were living on this street then - Chauncey Street - number 358". I recently went to the location. Two-story attached houses have replaced 356 through 364 Chauncey.

During the 1950s, I delivered the long Island daily Press to 358 Chauncey Street.
The houses there were four story flat front tenement buildings. The apartments were the prototype for the Honeymooners.
As for Chauncey Street being in Bed Stuy, I think that it was in mail zone Bklyn 7, which is East New York.

Fritz, thanks for the bit about the "prototype for the Honeymooners" apts.

The part of Chauncey Street between Bway and Fulton St., which includes # 358, is in postal zone 33 (Stuyvesant). The part between Bway and Central Avenue is in postal zone 7 (East New York). I still think of the area northeast of Broadway to the Bklyn-Queens boundary as Bushwick, and I always will.

The 1939 WPA Guide to NYC describes the area south of Broadway to Fulton Street, east of Nostrand Avenue (including Chauncey Street) as Stuyvesant Heights. Bushwick is north of Broadway.

Peter K, I stand corrected.I lived on Eldert St. between Broadway and Bushwick and that was BKLYN 7. As for Jackie Gleason he was a regular in the neighborhood in the 50s. He drove a baby blue Cadillac with a leather top. As times he would go to Als Billard Academy on Broadway and Halsey.I guess he went there to play Al who was former champ of billards in New York.Many of Gleason's characters
were thought to be caricatures of local people. For instance Joe the bartender's bar resembled Proces,s bar on Halsey and Saratoga. In fact Gleason mentioned Proce in his show many times.An interesting story of Gleaason occurred once when this kid, Maxey saw Gleason and tried to take his picture. Gleason stopped him, threw his arm over his shoulder and said- come here kid-
and then had someone else take the picture with him and the kid.
That was class and Maxey was proud of his picture and he probably is
still proud of his picture. That was one story from Brooklyn near the Halsey Theater.

Thank you, fritz, for those Gleason stories. Was Frank Fontaine's character, Crazy Guggenheim, based on anyone Gleason knew from Bushwick ?

I was born in Evangelical Deaconess Hospital, which used to stand at the northern corner of Bway and Chauncey, in mid-November 1955. I lived in Ridgewood, on Cornelia between Cypress and Wyckoff, but my family and I knew Bushwick well.

My dad was born in October 1919, at the old Bushwick Hospital, which used to stand at Putnam and Howard Aves. His parents lived at 1044 Putnam Avenue at the time. He lived at six to a dozen addresses in Bushwick, the last one as a single man, 1454 Bushwick, between Chauncey and Pilling. My parents lived on Weirfield between Knickerbocker and Wilson, across the street from Irving Square Park, before I was born, and before they moved to Ridgewood.

My mom was born at 412 Harman St. My parents met at the Knights of Columbus at Bushwick and Hart.

Was Kelso's Gym in "The Honeymooners" based on any real place in Bushwick ?

My dad remembers, among many places, Joe's Barber Shop at Bway and Pilling, and Night In The Sky Chinese Restaurant, at the eastern corner of Bway and Cooper, by the stairs to the Chauncey St. el station. His boyhood church was Grace Lutheran on Covert between Bway and Bushwick.

Do you know about Bushwick Buddies ? Would you like the link ?

Peter K
I also was born in the Bushwick Hospital in 1940 same as your dad. When I grew up in the 50s the Lutheran Church your father went to was the Lutheran Church of our Savior. The pastor was
Theodore Muller- I attended the Church and was confirmed there.
I lived at 16 Eldert and I could actually go to the church thru my backyard.
As to the characters such as Crazy Guggenheim, I do not know. However growing up near Chauncey St. many people knew Gleason and they all had stories about his characters. I do not think anyone however claimed tobe Crazy Guggenheim- hmmm I wonder why?
My mother remembered Gleason from the Halsey Theater as the kid emcee with the pimply complexion.
Memories I have of the area are shopping with my mom at Trunz's butcher on broadway and Schaffer-she would give the butcher hell if he left his thumb on the scale, Sperling greengrocer run by Irv across from Trunz, Phils newstand on Halsey and Broadway, dish night at the Colonial( I was forced to see Gone with the Wind about ten times),stickball, punchball(I was one of the best),stoopball, egg creams, knishes at the stand on Broadway and Covert.The Brooklyn Day Parade on Bushwick Ave- I think it was on June 5th and I remember seeing General Mc Arthur there.
Kelso gym I do not know.
As for Brooklyn buddies, I would like the link.

fritz :

Here's the link to "Bushwick Buddies" :

http://www.MyFamily.com/

Here's the link to the Times Newsweekly (former Ridgewood Times).
This week's "Our Neighborhood" article is about German butcher shops and pork stores in Ridgewood :

http://timesnewsweekly.com/NewFiles/OURNEIGH.html

Peter K.

Crazy Guggenheim real name was Frank Fontaine he was very funny. He was from Massachusetts and maybe you didn't know this but he had a good singing voice and made a few record albums.

Bushwick Hospital is now a Juvenile Detention Center owned by the state.

Evangelical Deaconess is currently the Bushwick Outreach Program, a homeless shelter.

This is a photo of the corner of Halsey Street and Saratoga Avenue circa 1967:
http://www.housingauthority.lagcc.cuny.edu/photos/nycha/photos/02.005.026.jpg

Caption that was with this photo:
"The corner of Halsey Street and Saratoga Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, was photographed for the Bedford-Stuyvesant Model Cities program, circa 1967. At the time the building seems to be a store called Merrill's; before that it was the Halsey Theatre, 928 Halsey Street, built in 1914 as a vaudeville and movie house. It is apparently next to the famous Broadway Arena at 930-44 Halsey Street, built around 1904, where boxing matches were staged, featuring fighters such as Jake La Motta and Rocky Graziano. Parts of this block were eventually torn down to build Saratoga Square Houses -- two buildings, 12 and 13-stories tall exclusively for seniors. It has 251 apartments housing about 271 residents. The 2.35-acre site was completed November 30, 1980 and is bordered by Halsey and Macon Streets, Broadway and Saratoga Avenue".

A Midmer-Losh organ was installed in the Halsey Theaterin 1921.

I was born in Evangelical Deaconess Hospital in 1948 and lived at 859 Halsey Street (between Saratoga and Howard) until 1962. I attended Our Lady of Good Counsel between Madison and Putnam (between Ralph and Patchen) and graduated in 1961. It is now an SRO. Here are a few comments, as best as I can remember:
• Halsey Theatre later became a factory for Merrimakers (spelling?). My mother worked there until 1963. They made party favors. On New Years Eve, she would point out the hats she made when we watched Guy Lombardo on TV. It took several months before she got rid of the “sparkle” on her person.
• Broadway Arena was where the fights were held.
• The chapter "Limo To Bushwick" is true. Gleason visited the block and sat in Saratoga park telling stories about the “old neighborhood”. I believe it was before 1961.
• The interior of Lady of Lourdes, (grotto behind the altar) was the most beautiful sight I remember as a child.
• Joe the bartender was actually the bartender at Proces’s bar on Halsey and Saratoga
• Frank Fontaine was not a member of Gleason’s original show. He came along later. I believe he developed the character, Crazy Guggenheim, before he joined Gleason’s show. I doubt that it was based on anyone Gleason knew from Bedford-Stuyvesant /Bushwick.
• Al’s Billard Academy on Broadway and Halsey was where Gleason learned how to shoot pool.

There was a great bakery on Saratoga towards Decatur, but I cannot remember the name.

I searched for the Halsey because of the 50 anniversary of the Dodgers winning the World Series.

It's amazing that this theater even survived into the 1940's. This seems like it was such a saturated area for movie theaters back then. There was literally almost a theater on almost every block. And that doesn't even count all the "big player" theaters all in the middle of the smaller ones, like the RKO Bushwick and the Loews Gates.

Yes, Bway. Also The Colonial, at Bway, Rockaway Ave and Chauncey St. There was the smaller Imperial closer nearby the Halsey, on the northwest corner of Halsey Street and Saratoga Avenue, now a church, (you posted a recent photo of it), where my dad would see silent westerns with HIS Grandma Koch, my great-Grandma Koch.

In 1930, these two old-timers in Brooklyn's so-called Eastern District were "Entirely Remodeled, Redecorated and Refurnished Throughout" by new owners. Note that one of the films advertised featured Brooklyn's own Ruby Stevens, by then better known as Barbara "Standywick":
www.i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/ttduo.jpg

Thanks, Warren, for also posting this on the Halsey Theater page.

I see Jackie Gleason got started in show biz here in 1931, not 1936.

R. Thomas Short was the architect of the Halsey Theatre, according to an article in The New York Times of April 3, 1915.

irish dj,

my mom used to go to the halsey theater back when jackie gleason got his start there.....my mom and uncles charles and john eckhardt grew up at 859 halsey street.
grandma and grandpa had the 1st floor right apartment......i remember as a child going by that theater and i believe it still had a gray marquee hung by two steel guy wires.....never got to go inside by my mom would remember that if folks would not like an act they would throw tomatoes at the vaudville folks!!! it was already converted to a factory by the time i was born.....my uncles hung out at Proces bar and grill...

small world....

zitch

Welcome, zitch ! It appears we have much to talk about, and much in common. Thanks for sharing your memories of the Halsey and Ridgewood Theatres.

I have heard that Proces bar and grill was the basis of Jackie Gleason's Joe The Bartender routine : with Frank Fontaine as Crazy Guggenheim, and the unseen Mr. Dunahy .... hee hee hee hee ....

Suggest you visit Bushwick Buddies at www.bushwickbuddies.com for more great memories, and pictures as well, if you haven't already.

Here's a new link to an ad described above on 11/2/06 at 4:31am. I recently posted ultra-rare views of the DeKalb's auditorium at CT listing #6900:
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/ttduo.jpg

peter,

i believe the first name of the owner of proces bar was Jim??? there was an old trolley barn up the street on halsey going towards the el that was used for storage and car parking ......i remember my uncles talking about jackie g keeping his car there...it was diagonally right across from the theater......we used to sneak in there as kids and sit in an old convertable from ( guessing here) the 30's that someone had stored there....i believe it was possible a packard.....would love to have that car today to restore....
is the park across the street from the halsey theater still there??? used to play there all the time while visiting my grandparents....

zitch

The Park across from the old Halsey is still there, actually, it's a really nice park.

zitch :

The name of the owner of Proces' Bar being 'Jim' reads right. Thanks for the details of that trolley barn, and that old car that you used to sit in.

Yes, the park across the street from the Halsey Theater, Saratoga Park, is still there. There are some old and recent images of it on Bushwick Buddies.

When my father was a small boy in the 1920's, he used to go with his grandma to the Imperial Theater on the northwest corner of Halsey Street and Saratoga Avenue to take her to see silent Western films. Her husband was a night watchman for the Brooklyn Chair Company, and was asleep during the day.

There is a page for the Imperial Theater on this site, and pictures of it on Bushwick Buddies. It is still there, and is now in use as a church, as so many old theaters are now, like the Colonial, the Empire, Loews Gates, and Loews Valencia.

Zitch,

We lived on the 2 floor left. I have a picture of my grandmother looking out the window. You didn't say want years the Eckhardts lived there. We moved out in 1962. I will ask my older brother if he remembers them.

Sevearl years ago a couple of guys cut up the bronze statue in Saratoga park in broad daylight and took it away. If I remember correctly it was 6 feet tall. I didn't believe it so I went back to see for myself.

Pax et bonum,
kevin Westley

Kevin,

i believe my grandparents lived there from 1953 till 1966 approximately....they moved to himrod street and knickerbocker ave....i remember playing in saratoga park....when you could not go on the grass and they had a park attendant......there was another movie theater in the neighborhood aside from the halsey that i used to go to....for a quarter you got 2 feature films....b- movies...cartoons during intermission and popcorn. i can't rember the name...i think it was off bway
...i also remember one of the neighbors on the first floor left....her name was mrs halsey ( no joke) and she was african american i believe.....

zitch

Thanks for the memories, zitch and Kevin Westley ! Keep 'em coming !

Anyone know of any interior photos of the Halsey?

...or even exterior ones...I don't think I have ever seen a photo of it, and since it was so large, that is hard to believe.

The closest I've come to seeing an exterior view of the Halsey Theater was the A & E Biography's version of it in October 2002, with Brad Garrett as Gleason, but not the real thing. Perhaps Warren will come forward with some images of the Halsey Theater. Perhaps one of those NYC tax photos from around 1939 or so, which is how we got images of the Monroe, and of the Eagle / Luxor Theatres.

The park supervisor was Mr. Jackson. Poor guy had his hands full with the wino parkies that worked there. Myself, Rickie and Billy were going to egg his car. Unfortunately, my eggs broke climbing onto the roof.

Was anyone there the day the place went nuts? The day the Dodgers won the World Series.

Pax et bonum,
Kevin

Kevin,

What date that the Dodgers won the World Series did you have in mind ? Fall 1963 would have been way too late for the Halsey Theater.

Pax et bonum,
Peter

Peter....I think Kevin might be talking about the 1955 World Series when the Dodgers were still in Brooklyn. They beat the Yankees in seven games. I'm sure that the residents of Brooklyn did go "nuts" after that victory.

OK, Lost Memory, and thanks, but didn't the Halsey Theatre close about 10 years earlier, in 1945 ?

That's a good point Peter. Now I'm confused. I guess that Kevin will have to elaborate on this.

I guess he will, and I hope he does.

Kevin,

do you remember who the statue was dedicated too in Saratoga park.......????

Zitch

I don't know who the statue was. If I remember correctly it was a woman in robes, holding something up with her left hand (maybe a light). She may have had a wreath around her head.

Pax et bonum,
Kevin

PS: The BROOKLYN Dodgers (Dem Bums) only won 1 World Series (God bless Johnny Padres!!!)

Zitch,

Spoke to to my older brother Ed (somehow he is now my younger brother). He thinks he remembers a Charlie Eckhardt. However, he says the landlord was Mr. Hardey (not Halsey). He brought the building in the mid 50's. He spent a lot of money putting in central heating and hot water. The "slumlord prior to that was Mr. Giagantie.

Spoke to someone at work. He remembers a gang called the Halsey Bops. THe only gang I remember was the Chaplins.

Pax et bonum,
Kevin

Zitch and Kevin :

I remember both the Chaplains and the Halsey Bops, not personally, but as graffiti, the Chaplains en route on the B-52 Gates Avenue Civic Center bus from Ridgewood to downtown Brooklyn, somewhere on a building in Bushwick or Bed Stuy, and the Halsey Bops on the concrete abutments of the Cypress Avenue LIRR / Connecting Line trestle, along with "Russ and Connie" (on the northern abutment).

I remember thinking that maybe "Chaplains" was a dirty word that I should ask my parents about before using it aloud.

Please be advised : There is a Warren (G. Harris) out for our arrest for OT posting.

Any connection between the Halsey Bops and the Halsey Theatre ?

Does anyone have a chronology of Jackie Gleason's appearances at the Halsey, first in the audience, then as a performer, on Amateur nights ?

Does anyone have any images of the Halsey, either interior or exterior, when it was still a theater ? Perhaps one of those 1930's NYC tax photos, with the sign in the foreground, such as I have seen for the Eagle / Luxor and the Monroe ?

Pax et bonum,
Peter K.

Peter, Kevin,

I am currently going through old family photos of the Halsey theater area..I have plenty so far of Sarotoga park and one of Jim Proces bar where Jackie Gleason hung out........hopefully I will be able to find one of the Halsey theater marquee
..I am also reviewing photos of the Ridgewood hangout around the theater...if I come up with any of the marquee i'll let you guys know...another bit of movie/tv trivia....I think I remember my mom mentioning that Jack Lord (Hawaii 5-0 ) growing up around Sarotoga and Halsey street also....Kevin????

Kevin....my uncle was Charlie Eckhardt.....sadly he passed away in Florida 1992....I believe he did indeed know your family..

Zitch

Thank you, Zitch, particularly, in advance for those photos you may find, and which you may be posting.

Peter K.

The 1924 Eagle Almanac lists the Halsey as seating 2500, with George W. Powell as manager.

This is what the building looked like in 1967.

It looks like the Halsey was already abandoned by 1967, it must have been torn down soon after this photo was taken. Anyone know when it closed to movies?

It was converted into a factory (Merimakers). My mom worked there in the early 50's.