Biltmore Theatre

I have extremely vague memories of this theater but I DID go there as a small child. In the 60;s you could go there as a kid without needing a bodyguard. After 1970 the area became dangerous, the theater closed as it says in 1971. Does anyone have vide or photos of the interior and surrounding streets circa 1970? VERY hard to find. (for good reason)

I was an usher at the Biltmore in the summer of 1960. I was in high school (Franklin K. Lane) and it was my first job. I believe the manager’s name was Sam Samuels. I lived in the Cypress Hills Houses and I either took the New Lots Avenue bus or my dad gave me a lift. The big movie then was “Psycho” and I saw it dozens of times. I’d walk through the theater and watch the reactions when Norman Bates' “mother” turned around and faced the audience. What a scream! Sometimes we’d hand out flyers at the IRT station on Livonia Ave. Those were good old days. Too bad they are gone forever. Oh yeah…I think I was paid 75 cents an hour. That was real money back then. Neil

1. You may remember that when you left the theater, there was a pile of flyers for upcoming movies (as they changed often). The pile sat on a pedestal at the entrance, where the ticket taker stood. The printed flyers were numbered sequentially. On Saturdays, the management (Mr. Siegel) put out a large piece of cardboard, with numbers. If you remembered to bring your flyer (which you took whenever you last went to the theater) and your number matched one of the numbers on the board, you won free admission. It didn’t take long before I realized that the same winning-number board was placed out every week. So, I wrote down all the winning numbers. Then, let the games begin!

I leave the theater and take a flyer. Let’s say it’s number 112. I look at my sheet, and see that the next winning number is 158. So, I just stick around the lobby and count as people take flyers. When flyer number 157 is taken, I walk by and take 158. We were not greedy. We did not take wining flyers and sell them. No scalping. If there were three of us, we just hung around until we all had free entrance to the next Saturday matinee. This went on for several YEARS!

Other Biltmore stories:

1. Our first two-wheel bicycle (a Raleigh) was won by my sister at one of the Biltmore coloring contests.

2. Mr. Siegel had a birthday club. You had to register your birthday. Before every Saturday matinee began, he came onto the stage for a little pep rally. First, he would yell the names of the local schools, so those kids who attended could scream at the top of their lungs. PS 213, being the closest, always won the shouting contest. Then he would announce whose birthday was that week, and the birthday boys and girls got to come up on the stage to receive their prize (nothing great, but much more substantial than a cracker-jacks toy). When, in early May, he announced my name, he said (and I quote): “Let’s here it for the wild boy of Wyona Street.” Yes, it was not just Bertha who knew me by name. I had quite a reputation.

3. By the time the numbers game stopped, I was in TJHS, and got a “job” selling the newspapers on Saturday night:
   News, Mirror, Brooklyn Eagle, Journal American, and two Jewish papers: Forwards and Tag. Because the weather could be a problem, we received permission to set up shop under the Biltmore marquee, from 6:00 pm until the movie “broke,” about midnight. In return for letting us use the marquee, every theater employee received free newspapers. I personally distributed them to the staff after the movie, before taking off to Rogers for a late night burger and shake. Next thing I knew, I go to know the entire staff by first name and I was allowed into the theater for free on ANY day of the week, at any time. The only downside was that if I entered the theater for free on Friday, I didn’t have a ticket stub, and so did not get a free dish! No problem, as my mother went every Friday night and dragged my sister and father, so we had lots of Biltmore dishes.

Now, you may wonder why so much of life revolved around the Biltmore. Easy. My house was right next door to the Biltmore, so it was my second home.

I have lots more Biltmore stories, but I had better save some for next time.

Howard – The Wild Boy Of Wyona Street

I lived on Wyona Street, right next door to the Biltmore. On Saturday nights, I sold newspapers under the marquis. Next door was a candy store and Murray’s Pool Room. On Saturday, for 25 cents, you got a double feature, 25 cartoons, serial (Flash Gordon, Three Stooges, Buck Rogers, etc.), MovieTone news and coming attractions. When Mr. Siegel was the manager, there was a birthday club with live performances (Three Stooges, Claribel, etc.) After the movie “broke” on Friday and Saturday nights (about midnight), everyone poured out and headed for Rogers for burgers, milk shakes, or a frappe.

Howard Topoff

Looked liked a nice theatre in its day.

I grew up in East New York, Brooklyn and outside of home,school and Hebrew School, I think I spent more time in this theater than anywhere else. I spent virtually every Saturday there or the other local ENY movie theater, the Kinema. I still remember this theater clearly despite not being in it for about 44 years. It is the only theater that I can remember that had its own custard making machine and sold delcious vanilla custard. I remember the layout of the theater clearly, even the location of the men’s room and water fountain.
I saw so many great films there with my family or friends: The Ten Commandments, Spartacus, Its a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, the first Bond film: Dr. No, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Hitchcock’s Psycho and The Birds, etc. etc. I remember my parents taking me to see Journey to the Center of the Earth there the Friday night of Christmas week and loving it so much that I went back to see it again the next afternoon with my friends. I remember the Saturday matinees, especially one where this theater showed 4 straight hours of cartoons. What wonderful memories. I lived about ten, twelve blocks away and when I got older sometimes I would walk there myself or take the bus down New Lots Ave.
I also remember that there was a Finkelstein’s pool hall next door. I had a Mrs. Finkelstein as my 5th grade school teacher at PS 202. Many of us always wondered whether she was married to or related to the person who owned the poolhall.
Great times at a great theater and wonderful times to be growing up in Brooklyn and the U.S. in general.

1973 Photo

1976 Photo

A Wurlitzer theater organ opus 1847 style “H” was installed in the Biltmore Theater on 2/23/1928.

From Howard Topoff. If you hung out at the Biltmoere Cornwer, please contact me and say hi at

I remember seeing the 3 Stooges in person at the Biltmore in the early 60’s. The kids went totally beserk, screaming and applauding. It was one of the best moments of my childhood. My day camp took us kids to see “7th Voyage of Sinbad” there one summer (1958). Candy counter was against the back wall.

A C/O for a new building at this address was issued on December 6, 1927. Purpose of building: 1715 seat motion picture theater. Owner was Weingarten Construction Co. Architect was C.A. Sandblom.

My father was an office manager for the Randforce movie chain which owned and managed the Biltmore Theater. We lived in East New York so this was my neighborhood theater. My sister worked at the concession stand and I spent many a Saturday afternoon there. On other Saturdays, I would ride around with my father to many of the theaters in the chain to chat with the managers, collect cash, stock the vending machines, hang out in the projection rooms or sit in the back row, wait for my father while watching the movies.