Gotham Theater

I did not enter this theater, but I have a good idea who did. Since it is already listed, maybe Warren would be kind enough to fill in the info for it.

The Gotham dated back to at least 1901, and may have opened in the previous century. Well into the 1920s, the Gotham was a playhouse, usually as a home for stock companies such as the Blaney Players, which put on new productions every week. To give the actors a day off, the Gotham would present vaudeville on Sundays, augmenting it with movies when the latter became popular. Somewhere in the late silent era, the Gotham switched to showing movies exclusively, but it closed down in 1930, still not "wired" for sound due to the onset of the Depression. According to Film Daily Year Books, it re-opened in 1932 as the New Gotham, but did not survive beyond 1934, when it disappeared forever from the listings for Brooklyn theatres. I have not found any other movie theatre listed for that address, so I presume that the premises were eventually demolished or converted to some other use. Does anyone know?

On January 27, 1927 this theater had alterations done. The owners name is listed as B.F. Keith Theatre Corp. Architects name begins with H.G. Wise.....something. The rest of the name is illegible.

The Gotham Theater began life as William Bennett's Casino in 1890;
a casino back then was not a gambling house but a public place for entertainment. It had bowling alleys in the basement, a theater on
the main floor, and billiard tables on the second floor. The Casino
is gutted by fire in September 1893. It reopens in February 1896 as
the Brooklyn Music Hall, which eventually goes out of business and
is replaced by the Gotham in 1901.

I have an image of the location from 1941 and the building is gone.
So we know it disappears somewhere between 1934 and 1941. If anyone
would like to see images they can be found on my site at
http://www.tapeshare.com/Gotham.html

The Gotham is mentioned as operated by RKO Theatres in this ad from 12/20/32. I don't think that the relationship lasted very long:
www.i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/rkousa.jpg

During my recent NY trip, I took a walk to the site of the former Gotham Theater as photo-linked by tapeshare. The intersection of Alabama Avenue and Fulton Street now boasts the Imperial Hotel, flanked on the west by Golden Krust, Nemo's Seafood, and a Subway sandwich franchise. Across from these at Herkimer and Broadway is the new Paphos Diner. The old one on Fulton between Georgia and Alabama is long closed and shuttered, and the apartment above it remains unoccupied. There is nothing left of Gotham Lanes and Pool Hall but fenced-off yard space. The J train above clatters and squeals by every 10 minutes or so, and the newly-remodeled el station now has dual staircases, 65 steps to platform access.

Researchers seem to agree that the Gotham Theater disappeared from the East New York scene by 1934, and yet one can almost feel the ghost of Brooklyn-born Mae West still lurking somewhere out and about.

Thank you all for these details, and my special thanks to BklynJim for recently going there in person, and reporting on what is there now. Tapeshare, your photos, old and recent, really put it into perspective for me. My thanks to you.

The zip code for the Gotham at the top of this page, 11237, is wrong (that's Wyckoff Heights, not East New York) and should be 11207.

Pete is correct re the zip: 11207. (In the Gotham's heyday, it would've read "Brooklyn 7, N.Y.")

Even though my "name" is on this theater, I didn't add this theater. One of the kooky people added it using my name. There have been so many kooks on here, I don't remember exactly which one it was. It could have been Ridgewood Bill. Anyway, your right. The zipcode should be 11207.

Alberto Gonzales added it, but he doesn't recall doing so.

Thanks for repeating your explanation, Lost Memory. Didn't mean to blame you for wrong zip code.

Gonzo did it, I tell ya!

Wasn't Alberto Gonzales the person that added the Ridgewood Folly Theater? :)

Don't worry about it Peter. No matter who added this theater, the zip is wrong and it should be corrected. My disclaimer is in the first comment. I think the person that added this theater posted a follow up to my comment but that comment must have been erased.

OK, thanks, Lost, I won't worry !

Here's a photo of the Gotham from the NY Public Library site:

Click here for photo

Thanks, Bway. The arches remind me of Carnegie Hall and the Cooper Union Foundation Building a bit.

How does one view the link posted by Bway? This is all that I get when I hit the link: http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital_dev/dgkeysearchdetail.cfm?trg=1&strucID=556555&imageID=TH-56380&total=72&num=60&word=theatre%20brooklyn&s=1¬word=&d=&c=&f=&k=0&lWord=&lField=&sScope=&sLevel=&sLabel=&imgs=20&pos=68&e=w

The link that Bway posted and the link that you just posted both load for me. This is a direct link to the picture. See if that works for you.

Worked for me.

The zip code given at the top of the page, 11237, is wrong. The theater was in East New York and 11237 is Wyckoff Heights two miles to the northwest.

Zip should probably be 11207, not 37.

Warren, I don't know why the link isn't working for you, it does work when I click the link.
if it still doesn't work, try this link, which will bring you to a thumbnail page you can click on:

http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital_dev/dgkeysearchresult.cfm?keyword=Gotham+Theatre

Thanks, Bway. I saw it via your new link.

This is such a congested area now, hard to believe there was a theater here.