Rainbow Theatre
167 Graham Avenue,
Brooklyn,
NY
11206
167 Graham Avenue,
Brooklyn,
NY
11206
7 people
favorited this theater
Built by the Randforce Circuit at a cost of $240,000 (not including the price of the underlying land), the Rainbow Theatre was one of the few large theatres to be constructed in Brooklyn during the Depression era. Though the double-features were subsequent run for the Williamsburg area, Randforce seemed to be relying on architect Charles Sandblom’s ultra-modern style to draw crowds.
To suit its name, the Rainbow Theatre had a two-story space above the marquee that was built of translucent glass bricks with lighting machinery behind it that created rainbow effects in constantly changing colors. The rainbow motif was repeated in the auditorium, the ceiling of which had a central cove with multi-colored lighting. Each side wall had a tall, false window with real drapes but providing a painted view of lush countryside, with a rainbow in the sky background. Patrons were supposed to feel like they were sitting in a posh living room. All of the 1,746 seats, most of them on the ground floor, were the oversized ‘Opera Style’ made by Ideal Seating Co. The balcony, was was almost at the rear of the auditorium, had only a few rows of seats to provide for space for a lounge area and restrooms.
Due to the penny-pinching of the Randforce circuit, the Rainbow Theatre was rarely advertised in the daily newspapers, so it’s difficult to chart its history. I think that Randforce operated it until 1964, when the Rainbow Theatre closed. In 2002, I found the theatre still standing and being used as a evangelical church that was closed at the time of my visit. The glass brick area above the entrance was still there, but with quite a few bricks missing. Pigeons were roosting in some of those spaces.
In June 2012, work commenced to convert the building into apartments.
Contributed by
Warren G. Harris
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Recent comments (view all 116 comments)
While I do not believe that the Rainbow is still being used actively as a church, it appears that the church elders – if that is what they are called – are trying to keep the place in good shape to enhance its value to potential buyers. So I do not think that a Ridgewood-like situation is occurring here……. I also agree that the Rainbow can serve as a terrific arts and performance center – they might even show movies once in a while – to the new East Willliamsburg community – though the price will be steep. If the BushwickBk blog is ever resurrected, this would be the place to push this idea.
Found a picture by accident for you guys from 1939.
It’s already been sold and is currently being converted into a mixed use building.
The plans don’t call for any theater space in the building, so I assume it will be stripped.
Sad loss of a lovely auditorium.
Its being demolished as of today. The demo team couldn’t tell me anything about the owner/new plans. Matt Lambros, do you know how much it sold for/whats going to become of it? Such a loss- my backyard leads to the Rainbow Theatre backyard, had really hoped for something wonderful and maintaining the original features and functions to come here! Wish we could at least get in and salvage some of the theater seats or SOMETHING…
This is really awful news, especially since we had, for a while at least, some hope that sometime positve might occur here.
One question: ollyoxen, by “demolition, do you mean the actual razing of the building or the gut renovation of the interior? While both options are pretty terrible, at least the latter would keep the exterior in place.
Also, Matt, have you seen the plans for the development of this site and, if so, can you share them with us?
Talk soon.
Sorry, I misspoke. The interior is all being destroyed, but the building is not being razed. It’s being converted into 6 story frontage on Meserole and 4 stories on Graham, with modifications to exterior ‘as needed’…The permit approves it for Residential R-2. Basically another condo. http://www.brownstoner.com/blog/2012/06/williamsburgs-rainbow-theater-gets-a-major-gut/?stream=true
This should have been landmarked!!!
I don’t know how they got the zoning approved to convert from the movie theater/chapel into residential, ugh.
Thanks for your response, ollyoxen. Given the current R-6 zoning of the area, I believe that the condo conversion of this property could probably go forward “as of right”. This is why the successful submission of a building permit was probably all that the developer had to do in order to get a green light from the NYC Building Department. The only possible issue here could concern additional parking space requirements. But this has apparently not stopped this project from advancing.
Regarding the exterior, one would hope that the Graham Ave. entrance to the old Rainbow – what will probably also be the entrance to the new condo – will remain as is – and hopefully be returned to its former glory. While this makes great real estate marketing sense, you never know how these short term bottom liners will approach this issue. Hopefully, rationality – and long term good business sense – will prevail here.
Here is the link to the story announcing the interior demolition. Alas, It has been completely gutted.
http://www.brownstoner.com/blog/2012/06/williamsburgs-rainbow-theater-gets-a-major-gut/
John – I don’t know anything about the developers plans other than what’s been said already. I can confirm that there is nothing left of the Rainbow Theatre except for the shell.