Empire Theatre
10 Ralph Avenue,
Brooklyn,
NY
11221
10 Ralph Avenue,
Brooklyn,
NY
11221
1 person
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The Empire Theatre predated 1908 and was located in the Eastern District of Brooklyn, close to the Bushwick Theatre. It featured low vaudeville and by 1910 was a burlesque house.
Other theaters featuring burlesque in the WW I period along with the Empire were the Gayety at Broadway and Throop Avenue, the Star at Jay Street near Fulton Street, and the original Casino at Flatbush Avenue and State Street.
All these theaters would show movies at times. After Mayor LaGuardia closed the burlesque shows, the Empire was showing double features as a neighborhood house after they had played the RKO Bushwick and Loew’s Gates. It may have switched before the ban, does any one know?
It remained open into the 1950’s and was served by the Broadway trolleys as well as the Ralph Rockaway Car line and the “El”.
Contributed by
J.F. Lundy
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Recent comments (view all 81 comments)
Joe..
Thanks for your memories. Those converible cars were great in the warm weather. As you say, they were widely used on the Canarsie shuttle during WW2 and into summer of 1946. Did you ever ride the convertible L cars on Myrtle Avenue and Lexington lines ? As a kid I used to ride back and forth from Fresh Pond Road to Bridge Street just to cool off. In the photo I don’t see the Lexington L Tower on Broadway. I can’t recall if it was visible from this angle but I think it would be partially. If so, that would also date photo after December 1950 and as people are in shirts, except for a couple of guys in wind breakers, that would put date in late spring 1951.
The old Gate Cars——Sure——Always——-I go to subway.org just to see photos of the old Gate cars, the BMT standards & the old Tin Lizzy Muti’s that you could walk from car to car—but to me the fastest cars were the Lexington Ave IRT Subway that went up to the Bronx and Yankee Stadium—-I was the only Yankee Fan on my block and boy did I get into fights with Dodger fans——Iwent to Ebbets Field more often since its was closer—Took the Gate Car to Thompkins and then the Bus-Trolley to the field——No AC, but fresh air!– I was lucky to see DiMaggio when I was 10 years old, then Mantle, Snider & Mays—The Polo Grounds was a dump compared to the other two parks—I worked after school at 10 years old to help out, [plus so I could do things like go to the movies and games——Joe
Some more photographs of interest at…
http://www.topix.net/city/brooklyn-ny
There’s a wonderful photo of the Empire on brooklynpix.com
I wonder if the scene may be of a visit from one of the stars in the movie, there seems to be a large amount of people waiting under the marquee and looking in one direction, perhaps looking at a star arriving or something to that effect. Also some people with cameras. I can’t explain why everyone would be there looking in the same direction otherwise:
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Thanks, Joe From Florida, for posting your Bklyn memories.
Thanks, Jayar1 and Bway for the links.
Bway, that’s a great shot of the Empire. I’ve seen it before.
Does anyone know of any historic exterior photos of what the building used to look like? I have seen marquee shots, but was wondering about the rest of the building. Unfortunately, it’s quite ugly architectually today, with an ugly stucco exterior.
They are looking at an old 4500 convertible trolley on a fan trip. At this point there was a switchback where double end cars could change direction. It dated from a time when people comuting to and from the City could ride the EL from Park Row in downtown Manhattan and take the Lexington Ave. EL to Broadway, then board the Cars on Ralph and homeward. The Cars coming down Broadway from Williamsburg were already loaded during the rush hour and so extra Cars from Canardie Depot were run up the line, loaded and switched back by the Empire Theater. A starter over saw the operation and helped pre collect fares with a portable fare box on the street at the normal exit doors to speed up the operation.
Thanks for the information!
My posting, two comments up, should read Canarsie Depot, not Canardie.
Sorry for the typo.
Empire Theater
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