Palace Theatre
1823 Strauss Street,
Brooklyn,
NY
11212
1823 Strauss Street,
Brooklyn,
NY
11212
2 people
favorited this theater
The Palace Theatre, which opened in 1915, was once located around the corner from the now-closed Loew’s Pitkin Theatre. The Loew’s Palace Theatre was equipped with a Moller 3 manual 16 rank theatre pipe organ. In 1918, alterations to the interior were carried out by architect Thomas Lamb. Loew’s operated the Palace Theatre until 1955.
Story has it, that it didn’t have air conditioning which forced its early retirement from the movies. It was taken over by an independent to be used as a Yiddish theatre, but this was a short lived venture and it retrned to movies, operated by the Island Theatre Circuit, closing in 1969. Demolished in the 1980’s after the roof caved in.
Contributed by
philipgoldberg
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 25 comments)
Dr J you must have lived right next to the Palace bar.
My father would take me in there once and awhile. It was directly accross from the Palace movie house.
The 1967 FDY lists the Palace as part of the Island Theater Circuit, as Orlando pointed out back in 2004, along with the Majestic, Banco, Starr, Kent and Graham, all in Brooklyn. All these theaters are listed on CT with the exception of the Banco, which doesn’t turn up as an aka either. Anyone heard of that theater?
Here’s a 1950 view with “Temporarily Closed…Visit Loew’s Pitkin” on the marquee:
View link 354
Speaking of the Banco Theater, here is a photo of the Banco. Anyone know where this theater was located?
Great picture Warren 1950 Loews..
Even in the early 1960s when Brownsville was still decent and my father would take me to the Pitkin, Premier and Stadium, he always told me that the Palace was a dump. I remember being fascinated that it used to show 3 pictures. Apparently it was or became a kind of grindhouse that was open 24 hours.
Several years later I met a guy in high school who went to the Palace once. He advised that the place was loaded with winos and described to me some of the things they were doing during the picture. I won’t go into them here. Ugh.
I always attended the Palace in the 50s. I also went to the Peoples Cinema on Saratoga and the Rio on Stone Ave. They were all the same. Three pictures a short such as Joe Behind the Eight ball or Three Stoges. Ten cartoons, a serial coming attractions and always a western.
Now you tell me were could a kid have more fun then to spend a Saturday afternoon enjoying all of that?
The closed and very run own Palace Theatre is clearly visible in the TV movie The Marcus Nelson Murders (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070372/) at around 16 minutes in. It looks like the whole block has been demolished since 1973 though. Also, the Google street view is not the address given on this page. The view is the actual location of where the building was located – the corner of Strauss and E. New York Ave at St. John’s Place.
The entire block hasn’t been razed, as the apartment building on the corner of Saratoga at the far right of the street view was there back then.
As with Saluki16, I grew up across the street from that poolroom & the candy store of which he speaks was run by The Clayton’s & we used to call the lady Ms. Estelle, which means that he lived in the building right next to mine, though I moved there in 1969.
This would be around the corner from The Capitol Theatre, but I remember when it was a store with the name “Miller Capitol Theatre” engraved into the brickface. I sure wish that I had thought to take a picture of it back then, but I was a kid, it was a general store, later convertedto the Afro Carting Company & I had no idea of the significance of it back then.
lostmemory – The Banco was on Fulton St. near Nostrand Ave.