Rugby Theatre
823 Utica Avenue,
Brooklyn,
NY
11203
823 Utica Avenue,
Brooklyn,
NY
11203
1 person
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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!
Hey PragmaticGuy,
That'sfunny because I remember seeing that horrendous Sgt. Pepper movie at the Rugby, the one with the BeeGees in it!
I just found this site. I worked at the Rugby from 1970-1974. The pizza place next door was Little Venice and had incredible pizza. There was a deli across the street – I believe it as called Victors. I worked there before and after the conversion to a twin theater. The was a bowling alley next to Little Venice..
I used to go to the Rugby back in 60s and 70s. Saw Hard Days Night and Help there and I remember my folks taking me to see numerous movies there when I was a kid. By the 70s it was showing XXX rated films there and I do remember seeing a few at that time.
PaulKupperberg-Max Schering owned the Oceana, Granada and Rugby. Golden Theatre Management first took over the managment of the theatres with Max remaining as a partner until Golden bought him out around 1975. About 1976 he was going to manage the newly tripled Fortway Theatre for Golden, but after a short time he decided to retire and moved to Florida. I installed the projection equipment when the Rugby, Beverly, Oceana, Fortway, Benson and Alpine in Brooklyn and the Olympia and Quad Cinema in Manhattan were multiplexed, as well as servicing and repairing them from 1972 until 1987. In 1988, Golden Theatre Management sold the theatres that were still operating to Cineplex Odeon Theatres.
The Rugby most DEFINITELY ran XXX movies. I worked at the Granada a couple of miles up Church Avenue, run by the same owner from 1973 to about 1975 or 1976 (Max Schiering, or Schering). After the theater was twinned, it became a porn house, at least for a while. I spent a lot of time around Church and Utica Avenues and remember it well; there were several candy stores and newsstands my friends and I frequented weekly for the new comic books, and my grandmother (a former movie theater cashier) lived around the corner of Linden Avenue…plus the aforementioned pizza place next door!
Paul Kupperberg
The year given for this photo is 1972.
Pic of the Rugby on BrooklynPix.com:
View link
Here’s a new link to the 1940 Utica Avenue trolley photo described above on 6/10/07. The Rugby’s vertical sign and a portion of the building can be seen in the left background:
View link
Thanks, ken mc.
Current occupant:
http://www.shopbobbys.com/location.htm
Unless I’m mistaken, the vertical sign and stage housing of the Rugby Theatre can be seen in the left background of this 1940 view of trolley cars on Utica Avenue:
www.i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/rugby1940.jpg
POLICE ROUT PICKETS; BYSTANDERS INJURED; Taking of Pictures by Hired Photographers Starts Row in Front of Brooklyn Theatre.
NY Times August 16, 1934
Several bystanders were trampled and otherwise injured last night in front of the Rugby Theatre at 823 Utica Avenue, Brooklyn, when police reserves routed fifty pickets of the Motion Picture Operators Union, Local 306.
Here is a reminiscence of the Rugby:
http://eyeshot.net/grayson1.html
photo of rugby theatre and surrounding neighbrohood on the following website:
http://midwoodstreetreunion.blogspot.com/
I knew I had passed it many years ago and I guess it’s being close to the Rugby made me remember it as that. Great detective work :)
Warren, RobertR, Lost and BklynJim… Check out the page for the Carroll Theater in Brooklyn and ALSO on Utica Avenue. It seems that KenRoe has solved our mystery marquee riddle via a new post of some recent photos he took of the former Carroll (now a church) just this past May. I think we have a definite match.
RobertR… you missed the mark on the theater, but not by much… same street, just a few blocks to the north on the corner of Crown Street!
The c/o’s for this address are no help as you already found out. I checked real estate sites and it was a Yeshiva school. I’m not sure what its used for now. Information on this address is pretty vague. This building was just purchased in 2003. As far as the build date given below, I wouldn’t bet my house on it. 1931 could be the actual build date, but 1931 is also used as a “code” meaning we have no idea when this building was built. I can only find a modern deed and not the original deed. The original deeds usually contain much more info than these modern deeds. Maybe it was a theater at one time but not a movie theater. If anyone goes to this area to take photos of the former Rugby theater, could you please take some photos of 289 East 53 Street.
289 East 53 Street, East Flatbush, New York 11203
Block & Lot #: 04679 – 0054
Building Class: Miscellaneous Indoor Public Assembly (P9)
School District: 18 map/schools
City Council District: 41
Police Precinct: 67 (Crime Statistics)
Political Contributions: search
BUILDING CHARACTERISTICS
Zoning R5
Building Size (F x D): 60.00ft x 93.00ft
Lot Size (F x D): 60.00ft x 100.00ft
Building Height: –
Total Gross Area of Building:
Year Built: 1931
Historic District?: No
Corner Lot?: No
Has Garage?:
Number of Floors: 3
Units: 0
FAR as built: 1.86
Allowable FAR: 1.25
289 East 53 Street, East Flatbush, New York 11203
Property type Miscellaneous Indoor Public Assembly (P9)
Sold by Yeshiva Rabbi Meyer Simche Hacohen Of E. Flatbush
Bought by 281 Plaza Llc
Date sale recorded Sep 27, 2003
Sale Price $350,000
Ed….The building on E 53rd St looks more like a theater building than the Rugby theater building does. LOL I’ll check on that address and see what I can find.
Warren… the shot of the fire escapes is of the Mt. Morris Theater in Harlem on 116th Street and 5th Ave. I posted the image on the CT page for that theater.
Nice discovery there, Lost, with that building on E. 53rd St. Sure looks like it could be a theater building. The only odd thing is that, assuming that any theater in this building ran straight back and perpendicular to 53rd Street, the screen wall would have been at the rear of the property, which is where the fire escapes are located. I looked it up on oasisnyc.net and the address is 289 E. 53rd. It is listed as a place of assembly and might be home to a Jewish congregation. The only listing I could come up with for that address is for a senior citizens nutrition club. The NYC building records I have access to seem to have some erroneous certificates of occupancy in this property’s bin. Lost, can you access better records?
Okay, we are all commenting around the same time so I waited until the smoke cleared. In the “View to the East” I can clearly see Bobby’s Department Store. It appears that the auditorium is in the rear and runs parallel to Utica ave. We really need photos of this building to tell if its the same building as the marquee in the mystery photo.
Getting back to that large building that looks like a theater building. Using the “View to the East” map, you can see a nice view of the front of that building. If the aerial photo is facing east, the large building should be three blocks from the former Rugby theater on E. 53rd St near Church Ave.
One more note… if you look at the aerial view of the theater (particularly if you swing it around to a view to the north) you can see an indication of the old roof garden. At the northern end of the building is a projection that looks from profile like a really skinny stage loft (but far too skinny to be such). With that southern view you can see that the structure is a hollowed out sort of alcove facing the rest of the roof… perhaps where a small stage or screen might have been installed?
That same group of Matt Weber photos at his website shows a side of a theatre with fire escapes and a Breyer’s ice cream ad on the wall. Is that the same theatre as the possible Rugby?
It is possible that the former entrance to the theater was at the far left end of the building through that part of the facade that is only one story and has no windows above. If so, it might be possible to inspect the facade in person and determine that under all that white paint there exists some detail (the vertical columns, for instance, if not the medallions) that might help confirm that the Matt Weber images I posted are in fact of the Rugby.
OK… I stand corrected. I’ve turned the aerial image around to face in the opposite direction (East) and I find that the large white building is infact the former Rugby. As Warren indicated on the Cumberland Theater page, the theater is now occupied by “Bobby’s Department Store”, which seems to be how the signage indicates above the red awning on the white building. The former Woolworth’s storefront I was using to get my bearings (from Peter K’s vintage photo) has been altered beyond all recognition… it is the facade several doors to the right of the theater building with the alternating black and white vertical stripes:
View to the East
Apologies. Still – back to the matter at hand – the current facade doesn’t resemble anything shown in the marquee photos I posted, so the mystery continues until someone can confirm or rebuke Robert R’s suspicions that they show the old Rugby.