Shore Theatre
1301 Surf Avenue,
Brooklyn,
NY
11224
1301 Surf Avenue,
Brooklyn,
NY
11224
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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!
Pic from Brownstoner of Shore vertical blade after Hurricane Sandy posted in photos.
“Sandy” strikes: brownstoner
Article with plenty of photos in NY Daily News on 8/24/12 by Lore Croghan Link
Text:
The last of Coney Island’s movie palaces has been locked up tight for four decades – but flapper-era glamour flourishes within, shining through peeling plaster.
Historian Charles Denson got a rare glimpse inside the Shore Theater, and is sharing what he saw in a photo exhibit at the Coney Island History Project.
“They don’t build ‘em like this anymore,” said Denson, 59, whose visit to the Surf Ave. landmark took his breath away.
“It was constructed during the Roaring Twenties, the last time there were grand plans for Coney Island,” he said. “My hope is the Shore is part of Coney Island’s future, too.”
When the Shore’s caretaker Andy Badalamenti let him take photos in 2006, the theater’s seats were torn out and there was rubble underfoot. But the electricity worked perfectly – Badalamenti had rewired the building.
“I went into the balcony with flashlights,” Denson remembered. “Andy said, ‘Wait a minute,’ and flipped a switch, and it all lit up. I was awestruck.”
The golden glow lit up a mix of neo-Renaissance grandeur and nautical fantasy he had never noticed when he went to the movies there as a teen.
Graceful arches flanked the stage where celebs like Al Jolson and Jerry Lewis had performed, and the soaring ceiling was crowned by a 150-foot-in-diameter dome.
In the mezzanine, a dramatic semicircle of pillars stood before walls painted glowing red. Overhead, plaster mermaids set in sea-green diamonds danced.
Henry Hudson’s ship, the Half Moon, sailed above the sea sirens.
What he saw gave him hope: “Theaters in much worse shape have been brought back to life,” he said.
Denson promised Badalamenti, who died last year, that he wouldn’t go public with his pix to avoid provoking break-ins by scavengers.
But this year, a photographer with a blog about abandoned theaters, Matt Lambros, figured out a way into the Shore. His pictures are all over the Internet, with pickup up by Gothamist and Huffington Post. The Shore’s secrets are secrets no longer – and security has been beefed up at the building to foil copycats.
The theater – a Loew’s for much of its five-decade run and a porn palace right at the end – was long vacant when Horace Bullard bought it in the late 1970s.
It won’t sit idle much longer, he said – he’s putting it up for sale by year’s end after he repairs the building exteriors, which he has permits to work on.
“Somebody will come along and know what to do with it,” he said. “It’s a beautiful place. It has a name. It has a history.”
He has been widely criticized for letting the Shore languish, most recently by Coney Island’s unofficial mayor Dick Zigun – who said city officials should take it over through eminent domain.
Bullard shrugged off the salvo: “Dick Zigun is not the city,” he said.
The man who mothballed the famous movie palace has at least one defender, though.
“He installed a new roof and stopped water damage – it cost a fortune,” Denson said. “He’s a controversial figure, but whatever you think of him, he preserved our theater.”
The photos stay up through Oct. 14 at CIHP on W. 12th St. See www.coneyislandhistory.org
I’d agree with you if we could see more of them, but it’s only like 4 photos of the theater then the office building. I’d love to see the building saved, but I doubt it will come from a youtube video that only 260 people have watched.
Charles Denson’s photos/video of the Shore Theater are beautiful and heartbreaking. Let’s hope a buyer who wants to restore the interior comes forward as a result of seeing the photos. Things are looking up for the north side of Surf Ave. There are new restaurants and bars including a Grimaldi’s Pizzeria as well as a new commercial building breaking ground on an empty lot until recently owned by Shore Theater owner Horace Bullard.
If no private buyer comes forward, the City should save the Shore by either buying it —the selling price is now $13M—or a Demolition by Neglect lawsuit which, if successful, requires the owner to fix up the property or sell it. More in my new blog post about the Shore.
That video is boring. I’d like to see more of the theater, not the abandoned office building.
Here’s an activated link to the above: Youtube
Coney Island’s Shore Theater, a film by Charles Denson, director of the Coney Island History Project and author of “Coney Island Lost and Found.” The film features some of his photos of the interior of the Shore… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jllTm9frw2k
The owner should be prosecuted for gross negligence of a community asset. According to NYC Property Search, the building belongs to Surf Coney Island, Incorporated. A Google search shows the owner of that company as Horace Bullard, founder of the Kansas Fried Chicken restaurants. A Bronx address of 3333 Henry Hudson Parkway is given for Bullard. Let’s send pickets to express our disgust!
There’s a new post on the Shore Theatre on After the Final Curtain, along with some pictures. Check it out here
New Exhibit: Inside the Shore Theater: Photographs by Charles Denson
Never-before-seen photos of the ornate interior of the Shore Theater Building by Coney Island History Project director Charles Denson are on view at our exhibition center through September 3rd. The new exhibit “Inside the Shore Theater: Photographs by Charles Denson” is open to the public on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays from 12 noon – 6pm. Admission to the Coney Island History Project is free of charge. The History Project is located at 3059 West 12th Street at the entrance to Deno’s Wonder Wheel Park, just a few steps off the Boardwalk.
“This purpose of this exhibit is to remind the public of the importance of the Shore Theater and the role it should play in the future of Coney Island,” said Mr. Denson. “With the latest round of proposals to build casinos and hotels in Coney Island, it’s easy to imagine a restored Shore Theater as the centerpiece of a year-round entertainment venue.”
The seven-story, neo-Renaissance style theater and vaudeville house and adjacent 14-story office building at the corner of Surf and Stillwell Avenues opened in 1925 and operated for half a century. Both structures have been closed and sealed up for decades. The theater’s facade was granted landmark status in 2010, but the interior is not protected and vulnerable to demolition. The images provide a rare glimpse of a Coney Island treasure.
http://www.coneyislandhistory.org/news/?p=950
Two photos posted on the History Project’s flickr photostream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/27583836@N08/sets/72157630751139790/
Here’s a 1980s tax photo of the building from the Municipal Archives: lunaimaging
Nice shot of the Loews Coney Island, Tinseltoes.
Here’s a link to a 1954 postcard view of the annual Mardi Gras Parade, with Loew’s Coney Island in the right background: View link CONEY ISLAND 102
The Landmarks Commission’s report in support of the Shore’s designation has just been put on line and is linked below. (If the link does not work, you can access it via the Commission’s web site in NYC.GOV.)
Congratulations to all involved.
View link
The interior is in pretty bad shape. I have seen photos that were taken over 6-10 years ago, and back then it was already in pretty dire shape. Part of the plaster ceiling collapsed on one side of the proscenium for sure, and who knows how much more. Also, I am sure it hasn’t gotten better in the last 10 years either.
The building is for sale for $12 Million! The broker says there are prospective buyers.
Only the exterior is landmarked at this time. Elisabeth de Bourbon of the Landmarks Preservation Commission told ATZ that by law the commission may consider only those buildings which are “customarily open to the public†for interior designation.
View link
btw
Thank goodness it has been saved.
Per New York Post 12/16/10
Coney theater landmarked
A long-shuttered 85-year-old Coney Island theater that once hosted Al Jolson will be preserved as part of the city’s amusement-district revamp.
The Landmarks Preservation Commission yesterday unanimously approved designating the 2,500-seat, seven-story Coney Island Theatre building on Surf Avenue — renamed the “Shore Theater” in 1964 — a city landmark.
View link
WooHoo! Excellent news! I still wonder about the true condition of the interior.
GOOD NEWS! The Shore Theater will be landmarked today!
Once the building is landmarked, the City’s Demolition by Neglect laws could come into play. I would not be surprised if the City ended up acquiring the building
View link
Well if you ever find them, I would love to see them.
Maybe, but that person that posted them asked this site to remove them because the owner wanted them removed. I remember downloading them ages ago, but I don’t remember disc or drive they are on.
@William, thanks for the update… is there any possible way to get those photos elsewhere? Via email perhaps?