Mardi Gras Theatre
1295 Nostrand Avenue,
Brooklyn,
NY
11226
1295 Nostrand Avenue,
Brooklyn,
NY
11226
No one has favorited this theater yet
The Mardi Gras Theatre is located at the corner of Nostrand Avenue and Clarkson Avenue near the East Flatbush district of Brooklyn.
It opened in 1908 and for such an early movie theatre, is quite an elaborate building on it’s facade. There is a half-timber gable front and decorative mouldings (today partially covered by signage and painted a darker shade of blue).
It is listed in the American Motion Picture Directory 1914-1915, but apparently closed around 1915. Judging by the size of the building, the seating capacity would have been around 350-400.
Today the front entrance is in use as a deli and grocery store, whilst the main auditorium is used for storage by a local plumbing company.
Contributed by
KenRoe
Want to be emailed when a new comment is posted about this theater?
Just login to your account and subscribe to this theater
Recent comments (view all 11 comments)
This theater was later, post 1915, operated by the chain, Glynne’s, that operated the Patchogue Theater and other Brooklyn and Long Island houses until Loew’s took it over as the Century in the 1920’s and later around 1943 it became the Century Circuit Linden Theater. I last was in it in August of 1959 when “Three Little Pennies” (life of Red Nichols)was main feature. Century used a modified Loews’s marquee that was installed sometime in the 1930’s and lasted to the end. In the forties and fifties Century usually booked this theater with the same program as the Farragut.
J.F.Lundy….The Mardi Gras Theatre was never the Century/Linden Theater. That was located at 1260 Nostrand Avenue, had a seating capacity of 1,447 and has now been demolished. It has its own listing here on CinemaTreasures… /theaters/6322/
Perhaps you would care to re-post your most interesting comments above onto the Century/Linden Theater page and so help to build up a history of that theatre.
The building at the corner of Clarkson and Nostrand Avenues is listed on Google as 1295 Nostrand Avenue. See actual ariel photo at
View link
This was the Linden Theater in the mid 1950’s as I walked by it daily on my way to Erasmus Hall High School. I lived on Midwood Street and Nostrand. The address 1260 Nostrand was provided by another member for the Linden and is on the same side of the street but down Nostrand beyond Parkside. In the fifties, the buildings there were three storey row buildings of buff colored brick built prior to 1901. All were identical with stores on ground floor and a flats above. I can recall no indication of any sort of theater there.
Now I am getting confused here!! The link you posted as an ‘actual ariel photo’ actually shows an ariel view of the Century’s College Theatre, 1584 Flatbush Avenue listed on CT here: /theaters/3871/
The Century’s Linden Theatre has always been listed as 1260 Nostrand Avenue in Film Daily Yearbooks and had a seating capacity of 1,447 (now demolished). There was also another Linden Theatre, 815 Flatbush Avenue with 1,000 seats, listed on CT here: /theaters/7702/
The theatre on this page….the Mardi Gras Theatre, 1295 Nostrand Avenue (listed at this address in the American Motion Picture Directory 1914-1915) would have had a seating capacity of no more than 400. As it closed in 1915 I doubt that there are many alive today that would remember it operating as a movie theatre.
I lived on Clarkson Ave right off Nostrand Ave from 1959 to 1969. Everyone is confusing two entirely different buildings. The Linden Theater was at 1260 Nostrand Ave (on the northwest corner of Nostrand & Parkside Ave) and was a movie theater until 1961. The Mardi Gras was at 1295 Nostrand Ave (on the southeast corner of Nostrand and Clarkson Ave). For the ten years I lived there, the Mardi Gras building was an auto repair shop. In one of the pictures posted above, you can see the pull-down grated door where cars entered the repair shop on the Clarkson Ave side of the building. The two buildings were one block apart and on opposite sides of Nostrand Ave.
I have found some additional information which clears up many errors in my above postings. Bill Conklin is right.
As Ken Roe correctly says the Mardi Gras opened circa 1908. It was located on the southeat corner of Nostrand and Clarkson Avenues. It took up two address numbers, 1295-1297 Nostrand Avenue .
It closed in late 1916 due to competion from Ward & Glynnes’s new Century Theater which was located a block away across Nostrand. It became a new car dealership and served numerous other purposes over the years and still exists as posted photos show.
View link
Photo Mardi Gras Theater on Nostrand
Maybe there was another Mardi Gras Theater. Information comes from The Moving Picture World July 1915:
“Glynne & Ward will shortly commence work on the construction of their new moving picture theater to be erected at the southwest corner of Nostrand avenue and Robinson street. The house will be known as the Mardi Gras, cover an area 110 by 100 feet, have seating capacity for 1,500 persons, and cost upward of $65,000”.
This might clear up the confusion or it might add to it. :)
Judging by the street view, and Ken’s older photos, the building is now vacant and for sale.
Much of this article was derived from Cinema Treasures: forgotten-ny