Cinart Theatre
102 Court Street,
Brooklyn,
NY
11201
102 Court Street,
Brooklyn,
NY
11201
3 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 40 comments found
If anyone has any stories about going to/ working at this threatre in its adult days, I would love to hear them. I am chronicling the histories of adult theatres in the US. Please contact me at Thanks!
Hello newbies…..the Paras Cort also pronounce as Paris Cort by locals was located on the west side of Court St neard Degraw St next to Court St Pastry, you can still see the facade has the happy and sad face figures on it. as a kid in the 50s I would go there to watch movies and also at the Lido, dont any of ya know this? I can tell you all are not native Brooklynites.
I remember this theater from the 1970’s, when it was very much in its XXX mode. At that time, Queen Restaurant, which has since relocated one block north, was situated just to the theater’s right and also maintained a pizza place just to its left. On one occasion, the Cinart provided dubious additional advertising or the Queen when it played the classic flick “Pizza Girls”!
for mattyparas:
he was my grandfather,too, email me at: INFOatYESNCdotCOM
dr m
my great grandfather owned the Paras court. I may be able to find out some information from my grandmother
Here is a link to the Forgotten Street Scenes website. It is the Court Street page. Some current or former theater are shown.
About three quarters of the way down the page , a building is shown, obviously a theater at one time. It is located near Baltic on Court Street. The web master asks help in identifying this old theater’s name.
View link
The link comes from Warren G. Harris. He believes that this building may once have been the Cinart.
View link
does anyone have information on the Paras Court, and maybe an old image?
Paras Court was a late-run neighborhood theatre. If a movie was first released at end of 1934, it’s very possible that it did not reach the Paras Court until early spring of 1935. It usually took months for movies to make a full circuit of “nabes” in the Greater New York area.
I am trying to date a foto of my father. He is standing near a poster for the Paras Court Theater. The date is blurred; however the poster does indicate two movies being shown: Secret Bride and I am a Thief. Based on where my father lived back then, I would venture to guess that the Paras Court Theatre was at Court and Union Streets. Since both of these movies were released in Nov/Dec, 1934, does anyone out there believe that they would still be shown in say early spring of 1935. Since my father is not wearing an overcoat (he is standing outside a store window) I believe that it was probably spring. Can anyone comment on my guesses?
Thanks
Photos of the Borough Hall Theatre in 1922 and 1931 can be seen here:
View link
1948 advertising in the Brooklyn Eagle for a cinema at 292 Court Street shows it as Parascourt Theatre (not Paras Court).
Personally, with regards to what is a “treasure”, the study of XXX theaters in the 1970’s and 1980’s is quite fascinating from a number of historical points, namely:
This site I have found to be an excellent information source in doing my research. One can never have enough information.
In case you don’t know what “tip of the Hatlo Hat” means, here is some background:
THEY’LL DO IT EVERY TIME
Medium: Newspaper comics
Published in: San Francisco Call-Bulletin
First Appeared: 1929
Creator: Jimmy Hatlo
Jimmy Hatlo was a sports cartoonist at The San Francisco Call-Bulletin when a package of cartoons failed to arrive from the syndicate, and he had to draw one to fill what would otherwise have been a hole in the page. As his topic, he chose the little ironies of everyday life. The first They’ll Do It Every Time appeared on February 5, 1929, and it’s been running ever since.
For seven years, Hatlo did the series just for that one paper. In 1936, King Features Syndicate picked it up and gave it national distribution. It was an immediate hit â€" in fact, it became so popular, its name became a common catch-phrase, like that of Arthur R. “Pop” Momand’s Keeping Up with the Joneses.
A memorable feature of Hatlo’s panel was the “tip of the Hatlo Hat” that appeared in the lower-right corner of the panel. Hatlo often used readers' suggestions, and always took the trouble to acknowledge it with a drawing of himself tipping his hat.
They’ll Do It Every Time didn’t have any central characters, but a few turned up in repeat episodes. Henry Tremblechin was a frequent victim of the daily irony, and his co-workers and family became familiar characters. Tremblechin’s young daughter, Little Iodine, was spun off into a strip of her own in 1943, and also held down a Dell comic book from 1949-62.
Hatlo died in 1963; and his assistant, Bob Dunn, took over the operation. The feature was named “Best Panel” by the National Cartoonists' Society twice during Hatlo’s tenure (1957 and ‘60) and three times during Dunn’s (1968, '69 and '79).
Dunn died in 1989. Today, They’ll Do It Every Time is handled by Dunn’s former assistant, Al Scaduto â€" who still acknowledges readers' suggestions in the lower-right corner, but no longer does so with a “Hatlo Hat”.
[Screwy filter @ CT: G – I – R – L – S and a – d – u – l – t – s printed out as “s” and “– – – – –.” Ha! We all be saved from the wages of sin and the flesh! LOL!]
EdSolero, another “tip of the Hatlo hat” to you, sir, for confirming the 102 Court St. address for both Boro Hall and Cinart. As soon as I can locate some local PC guru to follow your instructions re the DVD photo, it’ll get posted ASAP. (And I wasn’t kidding about the heat. It hit 113 degrees in El Cajon Saturday! We are in meltdown.)
“BrooklynJim… where are you?!?”
[Please note that “BrooklynJim” is out somewhere in the west coast heatwave trying to find Cheryl Hansson and her Cover s to cool off with. He may even find them in the – – – – section of the San Diego ComiCon, currently in progress. – Cinema Treasures Mgmt.]
Here are some ads for the Cinart during it’s XXX period. The address is clearly identified as 102 Court Street, which means this was the former Borough Hall/Boro Hall Theater. So we can update the address above and ad some AKA information.
Offering videos 3 for $100:
NY Post 3/8/82
Day and dating with the Deluxe on Bath Ave:
NY Post 3/10/82
Listed in the old Neighborhood Movie Guide:
NY Post 12/11/80
BrooklynJim… where are you?!?
Warren… we must be tolerant here. One person’s toilet is another one’s treasure. This site is already overpopulated with theaters that certainly wouldn’t be considered “treasures” from an architectural or aesthetic point of view. Like it or not, this site has become a repository for any and every theater past or present that membership cares to post. Fortunately, we can all choose which theaters to keep track of and which to ignore.
Is it one of the mandates of this website to list every cinema that ever existed? I seriously doubt that the Cinart deserves to go down in history as a “treasure.” More likely, it was one of the area’s fleapits. One has to draw the line somewhere between what is a “treasure” and what’s not. My understanding of the word “treasure” is some thing or person that is greatly valued or highly prized. I would say the Cinart was neither.
Looking at the FDYbook theater list posted by Ken Roe, I think that only the Court and Paras Court theaters are missing from this website. I checked the two theaters on the 1914-15 list that have addresses. The Melville Theater at 551 Court Street returns an invalid address when I try to research that address. That number would be located under the BQE (Brooklyn-Queens Expressway) and might have been demolished. 222 Court St is listed as two apartments over a store. No build date given. If the St. George Theater was located in this building, it must have been a small storefront theater.
I would write up some of these theaters but I’m not adding any theaters right now.
An address search for the multiplex that stands where the Cinart used to stand, returns either 106 or 108 Court St depending on the search engine used. NYC gives the current theater an address range of 102-110 Court St. I still think that the Borough Hall theater at 102 Court St became the Cinart. The Lido theater did become the Cobble Hill Cinemas. The Cobble Hill Cinemas already has an aka Lido and aka Rio theater.
Borough Hall
102 Court St
AKA: Teatro Maor
http://www.cinematour.com/theatres/us/NY/9.html
The Lido – 265 Court Street is now called the Cobble Hill, or at least the Cobble Hill has a 265 Court Street Address
Theatres listed on Court Street, Brooklyn in the following years:
American Motion Picture Directory 1914-1915
Melville Theatre, 551 Court Street
St. George Theatre, 222 Cort Street (mispelt possibly?)
Remsen Theatre, Court Street & Remsen Street
Film Daily Yearbook 1926
Borough Hall Theatre, Court Street. 600 seats
Lido Theatre, Court Street. 600 seats
Paras Court Theatre, Court Street & Union Street. 600 seats
Film Daily Yearbook 1927
Same details as 1926
Film Daily Yearbook 1930
Borough Hall Theatre, 102 Court Street. 598 seats
Court Theatre, Court Street & Smith Street. 589 seats
Gloria Theatre, 395 Court Street. 599 seats
Lido Theatre, 265 Court Street. 530 seats
Paras Court Theatre, 292 Court Street. 600 seats
Film Daily Yearbook 1941
Borough Hall Theatre (as above)
Gloria Theatre, 395 Court Avenue (a misprint?) 550 seats
Lido Theatre, 265 Court Street. 500 seats
Paras Court Theatre, 292 Court Street. 570 seats
Film Daily Yearbook 1943
Borough Hall Theatre, 102 Court Street. 585 seats
Gloria Theatre, 395 Court Avenue (still misprinted?) 594 seats
Lido Theatre, 265 Court Street. 550 seats
Paras Court Theatre, 292 Court Street. 593 seats
Film Daily Yearbook 1950
Boro Hall Theatre, 102 Court Street. 585 seats
Gloria Theatre, 395 Court Street. 594 seats
Lido Theatre, 265 Court Street. 512 seats
Paras Court Theatre (as above)
Film Daily Yearbook 1957
Lido Theatre, 265 Court Street. 512 seats
One other thing. Cinematour lists a Borough Hall theater at 102 Court St. They have an aka name of Teatro Maor for the Borough Hall theater. I don’t know if that will be of any help or not.
Smith and 3rd Street do intersect so that is a good location. On the Google satellite map, there is a building near that intersection that appears large enough to be a theater. I can’t research it without an address. Google satellite also shows a large building at 292 Court St. NYC lists a 599 seat motion picture theater at 292 Court St in September of 1924. It is a New building so the Paras Court theater probably opened in 1924. As for the Borough Hall theater, I still think its the same as the Cinart.
The 1926 FDYB gives an address of Smith & 3rd Streets for the Court Theatre. The Borough Hall is given as just Court St., with no #. The Paras Court is listed for Court & Union Streets.