Werba's Brooklyn Theater
409 Flatbush Avenue Extension,
Brooklyn,
NY
11201
409 Flatbush Avenue Extension,
Brooklyn,
NY
11201
1 person
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Werba’s Brooklyn Theater stood at the busy intersection of Flatbush Avenue and Fulton Street. It was razed to make way for an office building.
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philipgoldberg
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Recent comments (view all 62 comments)
Correction, it was the “Marx Brother’s Scrapbook”. An extensive late life pictorial history compiled by Groucho. Which I’ll try and find, and help identify the theatres when I can.
Many plays “tried out” in Brooklyn prior to opening on Broadway. Some producers couldn’t afford the costs of sending the plays to Boston, Philadelpia, Washington DC, or even New Haven, which were the traditional “try-out” spots on the East Coast.
Crime at the Werba….
NY Times September 4, 1928
WATCHMAN, 70, REPELS 3 THEATRE ROBBERS; Attacked With Blackjack, He Fights Off Trio With Fists, Saving Werba Receipts.
For all his seventy years Peter McClean, night watchman at Werba’s Theatre, 405 Flatbush Avenue Extension, Brooklyn, routed three yeggmen last night when they waylaid him in the lobby as he was making his rounds.
Difficult to believe that such an extraordinary theater (judging from the lenghty description in, “Colonel Sinn’s Montauk Theater Souvenir” program) should last what amounts, really, to just a brief period of time.
The entrance to B.F. Keith’s Crescent can be seen at the right of this photo: View link 57
They were going to tear down the FOX in Atlanta for a office building like New york and Atlanta need another high rise.
Its pretty amazing they could move a theatre like they did back then.
An interesting discussion thread above, which I picked up on when googling ‘Keeney’s Theatre Livingston St. Hanover Place.’ I have a photo of my grandmother and her Vaudeville troop outside a theatre poster, it maybe the theater too, from roughly 1925. It is posted here: View link
Could anyone verify for me whether she’s outside the theatre itself? Comparing with the 1905 snap of it here: http://www.shorpy.com/node/4906?size=_original it wouldn’t appear so. Thanks,Inesita (of interest?: View link)
I would guess that the photo was taken at the back or side of a theatre, near the entrance for stage performers. Keeney’s is listed at CT under its later name of Loew’s Melba. Though the poster is for Keeney’s, it doesn’t necessarily mean that those are the premiees of Keeney’s. It might be another theatre that “cross-plugged” Keeney’s.
Many thanks Tinseltoes! I agree, but I guess my grandmother was stood before her own theatre poster ;–) I have continued the line of enquiry regarding Keeney’s in the context of Loew’s Melba Theatre over at: /theaters/4149/ Thanks again and Best wishes, Inesita