Loew's Pitkin Theatre

Bobby S: Enlarge each Google map accompanying each theater on the respective pages; if you use the Prospect Park Parade Ground as a point of reference, you will see that they were not all that close to each other; as you noted, Brooklyn is pretty big.

Actually, the big downtown palaces fared reasonably well in the Depression, due to the relatively inexpensive tickets and did well into the 1940’s, though architectural tastes changed, and combination programs of live acts and movie programming became less frequent, eliminating the need for elaborate, fully-equipped stages. Yes, some chain owners like William Fox went bankrupt and some theaters did close and fewer were built.

But there were three major factors that really doomed both the existing and any planned palaces, and all of them occurred after the Great Depression: the 1948 Paramount Consent Decree that forced the major studios to divest themselves of their theater chains, the coming of television, and the exodus of so many people to the suburbs. There was, especially in the 1960’s a relatively brief flowering of large, single screen theaters that might be regarded as sort of second generation palaces, but the arrival of multiplexes eventually doomed many of these or resulted in their being subdivided, in many cases atrociously.

From NY.Curbed.com Thursday, September 6, 2012, by Jessica Dailey

When we visited the Loew’s Pitkin Theater in 2010, the movie palace, closed for 40 years, was falling apart and pretty creepy-looking. But no more! POKO Partners sent along a press release announcing the completion of their $43 million adaptive reuse of the structure, transforming the historic ruins into a mixed-used building featuring a charter school and retail space. Brownsville Ascend Charter School occupies 130,000-square-feet on seven of the building’s eight floors, with a discount store anchoring the street-level retail space along Pitkin Avenue.

The renovation, lead by architecture firm Kitchen & Associates, restored the historic building’s exterior neo-classical and Art Deco features while retrofitting the interior to accommodate the school. Along with classrooms for K-12 students, the school has a gymnasium, auditorium, science labs, and art rooms. The official ribbon-cutting ceremony will be held next Thursday, September 13.

I lived across the street from the Loew’s Pitkin. 1947 until 1963. Fond memories of saturday movies. 5 cartoons, a serial and a “double” feature. I even got to see Jerry lewis live on stage. the ceiling used to have stars and a moon that would slowly cross from one side to the other. Looking back, the theater was the most beautiful of theaters I have ever seen…to this day. It’s a shame to hear how run-down it has become.

Today at 11am marks the 82nd anniversary of the grand opening of Loew’s Pitkin. “Feast your eyes on this newest Loew wonder-theatre— a Castilian castle of surpassing beauty,” said an ad in The New York Times. On screen was MGM’s all-talking “So This Is College.” The stage presentation, originally created for the Capitol Theatre in midtown Manhattan, was “Cafe de Paree,” with music played by the Pitkin’s resident Symphony Orchestra…The opening date in this listing’s introduction needs to be corrected.

Thanks again Brad.

At least the Loews Pitkin building will become a school,they could tear the building down all together,I think it would be nice for me to go to a school that was once a movie palace.Large movie houses have always been “Creepy” in a good way.

my memories are of the sign outsideduring the summer saying how cool it was inside&boy was it cool!!,what a beautiful building to be cool and watch the latest Jerry Lewis movie, what a sin its present condition

The pitkin theater oh what memories . lived in Brownsville 1946 -1991. I was reading what everyone was saying about brownsville, it brought me to tears, because all we had to worry about is being kids. Sylvia wrote about the schools she went to,my sisters went to 84, my brother 66, I also went p.s.175 and surely remember kishe king.I went to J.H.S 263 on Chester St,when graduating from the 9th grade graduation was held at loews pitkin. The ceremony was so beautiful from the ambience of the theater. There was no such thing as cap and gown, the girls wore white dresses and the boys dark suits, when the organ played pomp and circumstanceand we marched out everyone felt like kings and queens. Brownsville had so many movies on saturdays we had the biggest arguments there was four of us and everybody wanted to go to a different movie, I was the youngest so Ididn’t care which ever one they picked they had to take me anyway.
Glad I became a member of cinema treaure the nostagia is off the hook ( have teenage grand children)

The NY Times posted a correction to the article I posted above on October 1; the reporter told me that the erroneous information was given to her by the architect of the redevelopment project.

You are correct; the clouds were projections from a cloud machine known as a Brenograph Jr. Dry ice?? Just goes to show you that some reporters will write about something they know nothing about.

I deplore the way in which the truth gets twisted by the press, as in the case of “Al Jolson’s last performance.” To the best of my knowledge, Al Jolson performed only once at Loew’s Pitkin, and that was just for a few minutes as part of a whirlwind p.a. tour of key Loew’s houses in 1949. Jolson died a year later, in October, 1950, and kept performing right up to the end. It’s possible that Jolson’s performance at the Pitkin was his last of that particular day, or of the Loew’s circuit tour, but nothing more significant than that.

Here is an article that I just found:

Showtime for School in Rundown Brownsville Theater
East | 7.29.10 | Matt Chaban

Where Al Joelson once performed, students will soon learn. (Courtesy POKO Partners)
Like many outlying parts of the city, Brownsville fell hard from its turn-of-the-century grandeur, with decaying reminders of its former greatness. Among them is the Loews Pitkin Theater, once home to the likes of Jackie Gleason, Milton Berle, Humphrey Bogart, and Al Joelson’s last performance, as well as thousands of eager movie goers. The building has been closed since 1969â€"until last week, when a ground breaking was held for a new charter school and retail complex. Curbed and Brownstoner were among those in attendance, and they got some pretty amazing pictures of the building’s decrepit interiors (see some after the jump). We’ve since been sent the above rendering by the developers, POKO Partners, who are working with Kitchen & Associates, a firm based in Collingswood, New Jersey on the renovation.

Something tells us they should have no trouble finding space for an auditorium. (Will Femia/Courtesy Curbed) According to POKO, the project will mesh what remains of the building’s sumptuous Art Deco interiors with high-tech, sustainable features, creating something at once historic and cutting edge. The base of the building will house some 70,000 square feet of retail with a 90,000-square-foot, 1,100-seat elementary and middle school above, run by Ascend Learning. The project is expected to be completed in the next 18 months. “The Loews Pitkin Theater is exciting because it embodies POKO¹s core values of revitalizing neighborhoods and enhancing communities through positive and responsible real estate development,” POKO President and CEO Ken Olson said in a release.

This is good news, the interior by the look of the photos is a total wreak. The roof is missing and the elements have taken their toll. At least the exterior will be cleaned and preserved and that is great. Much better than demolition which is usually the case with old buildings whose interiors have rotted away.