Carroll Theater
381 Utica Avenue,
Brooklyn,
NY
11213
381 Utica Avenue,
Brooklyn,
NY
11213
2 people
favorited this theater
Neighborhood theater in Crown Heights area of Brooklyn. Unusual corner marquee, buit on sloping street ascending to the entrance. Was a Fox house till early-1930’s.
Served by Utica Avenue trolley. Competion to south was the Empress Theater on Empire Boulevard. and the Lincoln Theater to North on Lincoln Place.
Contributed by
J.F. Lundy
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Recent comments (view all 23 comments)
I was thinking the same thing while looking at your photos, Ken. The marquee probably appeared abnormally higher than most on the Utica Ave frontage due to the way the street slopes up towards the corner. I can’t imagine the underside of the canopy lining up any lower than about where the sills of those new windows above the current entrance are located. I also assume that the original entryway was partially bricked over and replaced by the set of five gated doors we now see. I would think that, as a theater, there’d have been a much wider point of entry perhaps with a recessed vestibule. But, I’m just guessing. The introductory comments do mention that the marquee was “unusual”.
Anyway… Now that we’ve identified the theater, I moved the images around in my photobucket album (to a Carroll Theater folder – where I also poached your pair of shots, Ken, if you don’t mind) and so the links I posted above will no longer work. Here are updated links for the photos:
Best In Entertainment
Always Air Conditioned
As I said earlier, I suspected that the “mystery” theatre would turn out to be from the Randforce circuit. The Carroll was, in fact, one of its earliest theatres and dates back to the time of the Supreme Circuit. In the late 1920s, William Fox took over the Supreme Circuit, and after his bankruptcy the ex-owners of Supreme became heads of the newly formed Randforce circuit, which managed the ex-Fox theatres in Brooklyn (with the notable exception of the downtown Fox Theatre). Thanks, Ken, for taking those photos, and also for saving me a trip to the ex-Rugby to look at the building.
The catalog for the Michael Miller Photo Collection of Theatre Historical Society of America lists a 1975 exterior of the Carroll Theatre. The theatre had closed by that time, but the marquee was almost certainly still there if the “mystery photo” was taken in the 1980s. You don’t have to be a member of THS to order a copy of the photo, which is available as a color slide. The catalog number is NYC-MM-BRK-30-1.
anyone have an old photo of the Carroll Theatre or surrounding neighborhood?
see http://midwoodstreetreunion.blogspot.com/
for rugby and eastern parkway area photos
I remember the Carroll Theater and it definitely had a wrap-around marquee. It also had a small lobby with the ticket window in the right hand corner as you entered the lobby.
I recall going there several times in one week in the mid-50s to see Godzilla. I must have sat through the movie 3 or 4 times.
Great memories of the good old days.
New York Times of November 26, 1925
“1,800-SEAT THEATRE FOR UTICA AVENUE; A. Brody, Builder, Sells Crown St. Corner for $75,000.
A. Brody, builder, sold the northeast corner of Utica Avenue and Crown Street, being 140 feet on Utica Avenue by 100 feet on Crown Street, to the N. R. Theatres, Inc., which will improve with a theatre to contain 1,800 seats, with stores, facing on Utica Avenue"
Here is a 1968 photo.
My JHS school graduation was at the Carroll in 1958
The LAST thing this poor theatre ran was 16mm porno and was operated by a guy named Archie Diskin. The organ had been ripped out, but, the white console was still sitting up front below the stage.
The last time I was there was to run a TV fight in 1970 between Muhammad Ali and Jerry Quarry. It ended so fast they lit the seats on fire and tried to throw them at the screen.
Wow! An 1863 seat porno theater. Sorry I missed it. (How does it look inside now with a church in occupancy?)