Savoy Theatre
1515 Bedford Avenue,
Brooklyn,
NY
11216
1515 Bedford Avenue,
Brooklyn,
NY
11216
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Showing 1 - 25 of 36 comments found
Hi, Sorry to say this, but there is a NYC department of buildings permit posted in window to left of theater entrance. The permit allows all interior partitions to be removed. I visited for a friend who has an architectural ornaments business. Whole interior has been gutted out. Ceiling, walls, seats all gone. Just large piles of plaster and bricks. Shortly additional permits will be issued allowing the demolition of rest of building. I had visited savoy in 80’s 90’s and again after 2000 when Rev. Armstrong was the pastor. Each time I was there it always looked like it needed major work which they could not afford. I use to do repair work in projection rooms of the small independent theaters, these old theaters were a good source of cheap parts. For the record NYC in 1943 had over 570 theaters in operation. Today only a hand full are still in operation and some of them are only part time. Also in Brooklyn the old Regent theater (aka Slave) may have been sold. It may be next on hit list of developers. John D.
Ed – I’m working on it.
Matt, I know it’s not necessarily your thing to photograph adapted-use theaters, but were you ever inside the Savoy with your camera?
It’s currently being demolished.
Seems ominous. If exterior fire escapes were removed, it could be the first step towards demolition of the building. The large ground site is ripe for re-development for an apartment building or shopping center.
I went by the theater today. The Church is gone, store fronts boarded up and there is an “ X ” painted on the front of the building, apparently to signal fire-fighters not to go inside…
Also a construction worker with a hard hat and harness walked out. Plus it appears the fire-escapes on the north side have been torn out recently.
Anyone have any information as to what is happening to the building ???
Click here for an exterior view of the Savoy Theatre in 1929.
1970 Photo
1972 Photo
Street ad seen in this 1946 Life photo:
http://tinyurl.com/5k3nqa
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.
Thanks Warren
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/
Here are new links to previously posted images:
View link
View link
Warren, Could you re-post the operating pictures? The ones above are not working. Thanks very much.
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.
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 Savoy first opened in September, 1926. I somehow doubt that an organ was installed in 1925. I’m not sure that the Savoy had even started construction in 1925. It was built simultaneously with Fox’s new Academy of Music in Manhattan, which opened in October, 1926. Thomas Lamb was architect of both theatres, and they were similar in design, although the AOM was larger and had a more spacious lobby.
A Kimball theater organ opus KPO 6865 size 3/8 was installed in the Savoy Theater in 1925.
Even though William Fox built and first operated this theatre, I don’t think it was ever actually called the Fox Savoy. It was just the Savoy, as witness the 1927 ad that I displayed earlier today. When Fox Theatres went bankrupt, the Savoy fell under Randforce management, which rarely advertised it with the circuit name attached. Last year, Marquee Magazine published a seven-page article by historian Craig Morrison which not even once mentioned William Fox, Fox Theatres, or Randforce Theatres. On the front cover of Marquee and throughout the article, it was just Savoy. I think that the main name in the introduction should be changed to simply Savoy. Fox Savoy and Randforce Savoy could be listed above in smaller type.
A silent home run (1927): www.i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/homer27.jpg
In 1928 as part of a Fox foursome presenting vaudeville, a feature movie, and the latest in sound innovations:
www.i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/foxfour.jpg
Here are a couple of recent exterior photographs I took of the Fox Savoy Theatre in May 2006:
http://flickr.com/photos/kencta/183529587/
http://flickr.com/photos/kencta/183530562/
brevoort is not considered an actual neighborhood. the theater is located in crown heights, just south of bed-stuy.
Warren: Thanks for this information as I was aware of this being the case. I plan to join THSA in the near future and receive Marquee issues.
There will be a major article with color photographs about the Savoy as church in the next issue of Marquee, the quarterly publication of Theatre Historical Society of America.