Savoy Theatre
1515 Bedford Avenue,
Brooklyn,
NY
11216
1515 Bedford Avenue,
Brooklyn,
NY
11216
3 people
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The Savoy Theatre was the largest theatre that William Fox ever built in Brooklyn prior to the downtown Fox Theatre. Opening publicity claimed 3,500 seats, but that has been debated ever since. Some industry year books say 2,750, but I would guess more like 3,000. The Savoy Theatre has a very large balcony with minimal space between the rows.
The Savoy Theatre was built at the same time as Fox’s Academy of Music in Manhattan, with Thomas W. Lamb as architect of both. The Savoy’s auditorium is in the Adam style, with boxed seats adjoining the stage and a shallow dome in the center of the ceiling. It first opened on September 1, 1926, with Fox’s “Fig Leaves” on screen, plus six acts of vaudeville. With program changes twice a week, the Savoy was considered the Fox circuit’s top Brooklyn showcase until the 1928 opening of the downtown Fox. After that, it became just another neighborhood movie house, but playing first-run for the area.
After William Fox’s bankruptcy, the Savoy Theatre landed under the Randforce Circuit, which, to signify the theatre’s importance, moved its executive HQ to office space in the building. The Savoy Theatre carried on into the 1960’s, despite all the social turbulence in the Bedford-Stuyvesant area.
Fortunately, it escaped demolition and is now the Charity Neighborhood Baptist Church. Except for removal of the marquee and alterations to the entrance, the Savoy’s interior is virtually intact, though re-painted in whitewash in most areas. Some of the original stage curtains are still hanging, and I’ve been told that old scenic backdrops are still stored in the lofts.
Contributed by
Warren G. Harris
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Recent comments (view all 30 comments)
The year given on the list is 1925. No specific month is given. I post the information that is on the list. I don’t alter the information so it will match the information given on this website. A certificate of occupancy was issued to a new building at this address on May 7, 1926. Purpose of building was a 2494 seat motion picture theater. This building was available for use about four months prior to its official opening. I don’t know when construction started but a permit for a new building was issued in 1925.
The main entry name needs to be changed to Savoy Theatre, which was used from the early 1930s until final closure. For most of its life, the Savoy was run by the Randforce circuit, which took over most of the Fox theatres in Brooklyn after Fox went bankrupt. Randforce did not attach its name to theatres as rivals such as RKO and Loew’s did.
Warren, Could you re-post the operating pictures? The ones above are not working. Thanks very much.
Here are new links to previously posted images:
View link
View link
A long article with many color photos about the Savoy as church can be found in Marquee Magazine, Vol. 37, No. 3. The magazine can be purchased for only $5 plus postage through the “Back Issues” link at: http://www.historictheatres.org/
Thanks Warren
The color picture of the interior is excellent.
Warren’s introductory header above states that the interior had been re-painted in whitewash in most areas. I recall that in the late 1950s when I attended the Savoy a few times, the color scheme was largely pale green with dark-green trim and dark-green stage curtain, house drapes, etc. That color scheme might not have been the original one. A neighborhood theater that I’d spent much more time in, the RKO Dyker, switched in the early 1950s from a cream-tan-and-ivory scheme that I remember through the 1940s to a pale-green/dark-green scheme introduced as part of a general remodeling.
I also recall that the Savoy seemed more dimly lit than most, with a cavernous glare bouncing off the screen onto the far reaches of the ceiling and rear seating areas. The large balcony overhang might have accounted for some of the darkness in the rear orchestra.
Street ad seen in this 1946 Life photo:
http://tinyurl.com/5k3nqa
1970 Photo
1972 Photo
Click here for an exterior view of the Savoy Theatre in 1929.