Regent Theatre
1215 Fulton Street,
Brooklyn,
NY
11216
1215 Fulton Street,
Brooklyn,
NY
11216
1 person
favorited this theater
This small theater sits on Fulton Street near Bedford Avenue. In its later years, it was a grind house.
After the Regent Theater closed, it was sold and renamed the Slave One, complete with an African-motif marquee. It showed movies for a brief while, before closing in 1998. It has since occassionally been used as a meeting hall for African American issues.
Contributed by
philipgoldberg
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Recent comments (view all 49 comments)
The titles on the marquee in that photo are Abbott and Costello in “Keep ‘Em Flying” and “South of Tahiti.” The A & C flick at the top of the bill opened in NYC on 11/27/1941, so the photo couldn’t date any earlier than that. The supporting feature had opened a month earlier. John Dereszewski is right on the mark with his last comment. If the Regent was a 2nd or 3rd run nabe, the photo probably dates from early 1942. Sure looks like a bright Spring Day, but impossible to tell, particularly with no pedestrians in the shot to help pinpoint the season.
Ed, thanks for your comment that confirmed my previous observation. Also, thanks for all of the other great contributions that you have made to CT.
Thanks, John. Making an effort to find the time to get back into the swing of things on this site.
This NY Times article may only be viewable by Times subscribers, but I thought I’d post the link anyway. Seems the theatre is not only in very sad state of disrepair, but it is also at the center of a bitter real estate battle between several parties who lay claim to some entitlement. When I get some more time to do so, I’ll try to provide a better re-cap for those who cannot view the article themselves. The article appeared in print as a front page item in the Metropolitan section of last Sunday’s paper on February 12th, 2012.
I posted 2 images I snapped from my copy of the NY Times from February 12, 2012. They are images that accompanied the article I referenced in my last post.
This theater is about to be auctioned on August 9th at 2:30 PM:
http://www.brownstoner.com/blog/2012/07/foreclosure-auction-set-for-slave-theater/
The news today is that there is a grass roots effort to save and restore this theater. There is a cool photo on the link below:
News that Bed-Stuy’s historic Slave Theater was headed for the auction block prompted two theater professionals to form the non-profit New Brooklyn Theater and take to Kickstarter to try to raise $200,000 to buy the building. Brownstoner notes that the individuals have no apparent ties to Slave Theater, but they plan to restore the building and keep it as a performing arts venue for Brooklyn artists. They estimate the $200K to be enough for the downpayment, and they think the full renovation should cost between $3.5 and $5 million. “We are deliberately foregoing other more traditional development formulas that would require unnecessary and costly plans,” they write. “Instead we turn to you to help spark Brooklyn interest in the restoration of this landmark space.” So far, 62 backers have pledged more than $15,000.
http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2012/08/09/200k_kickstarter_campaign_to_buy_bedstuys_slave_theater.php#reader_comments
LuisV, if your cutting and pasting your comments it is cutting them off at the end of each line.
Hmmm…thanks Chuck. I’ve never had that happen before.
New Brooklyn Theater is incorporated to restore the theater and turn it into a 3-stage performing arts center. You can learn more about our efforts at www.newbrooklyntheater.com. We have launched a crowd-funding campaign at bit.ly/NBTKickstarter and need to continue the momentum as we now have 3 weeks left so please contribute and spread the word. Thank You, New Brooklyn Theater