Cobble Hill Cinemas
265 Court Street,
Brooklyn,
NY
11231
265 Court Street,
Brooklyn,
NY
11231
4 people
favorited this theater
This old Rio Theater stands on Court Street and Butler Street in the Cobble Hill section of Brooklyn. A double-feature neighborhood theater into the ‘60s when the neighborhood changed.
It opened and closed a few times after that, showing kung fu and action fare. When the neighborhood became hot again, the theater reopened as the Cobble Hill Cinema. It showed first-run fare. The theater was an instant success and soon the owner twined, triplexed and finally build two new theaters on the roof, making it a fiveplex. The interior was redone, and the theater continued to show a mix of first run, foreign and independent fare.
Clearview Cinemas took it over for a few years, but when Regal opened the Court Street 12, it tried to show foreign and independent films exclusively there and lost a lot of business. Soon Clearview wanted out and the theater was again taken over by its previous owner, who returned to showing first films in addition to the mix of independent and foreign films.
It is still operating, serving Cobble Hill’s movie needs. The one downside of the theater is that it has a tiny lobby, forcing patrons to stand on line outside, no matter what the weather is.
Contributed by
philipgoldberg
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Recent comments (view all 47 comments)
in response to film101, i work at the cobble hill and he’s way out of line. i know for a fact that this person was totally unprofessional and ran a film festival for ten years and did everything an hour before the first screening. of course everything went wrong. he hooked up a 220volt projector without letting anyone know by his own technician using jumpers directly to a rectifier. he could have burnt down the building. he shorted out three power supplies. the sound systems are all dolby with QSC state of the art amps. the two auditoriums are also digital, DTS and Dolby Digital. he’s taking out his frustration on the wrong theatre. take some blame yourself for being so unprepared to run the festival properly.
Cobble Hill Cinemas website. Scroll to the bottom of the page for a photo of the Lido Theater.
THE ONLY THEATER IN NY TO PICK UP POSTAL….
My Mother worked at the lido theater as the matron and cashier when Louie Cohen owned it. (early 50’s) We lived on Carroll st. and I remember walking up president with my father to go there. Sometimes Louie would watch us while my mom cashiered. They also owned the candy store across from PS 32. where we went to school.
Here is a recent photo.
Was there for the first time on Sunday to see Frost/Nixon. Small theatre, the line outside, yep. The “main” theatre inside is quite small but has a high ceiling. We had to truck it up 2 flights to our theatre and it was quite cramped. The seats were bucket seats like in a coupe and didn’t recline, rather they were oblique to begin with and my rather large legs had no room at all.
Here is an eye-popping, two-sided handbill for the Lido Theatre circa 1937. The Hurricane was playing. One side is in full color. I think this item is for sale on ebay. View link It’s really cool.
Very nice looking theatre.thanks for the picture.
This place has charm. Glad it’s still open.
I will always remember it as the Lido, @Iamma9… was your mom the matron up to the 60s or just early 50s? as a kid going to Sat. matinee we would drive the poor matron nuts(Sorry if it was your mom). my mom and grandmother knew Louie Cohen, in the days(mid late 40s-early 50s)with much less traffic in the street my irish setter would roam the street even being crossed by a cop at times. he would make a stop outside the Lido and relieve himself on the tri-angle ad in the street showing coming attractions, Louie would asked my grannie to tell my mom please dont let your dog piss on my sign as its turning colors. my grandmother would always sit in the back row of the Lido and talk to the screen, we seen many double features in the 50s/60s for 25 cents and Sat.