Momart Theatre
590 Fulton Street,
Brooklyn,
NY
11217
590 Fulton Street,
Brooklyn,
NY
11217
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The 1928 Brooklyn Red Book lists a movie venue, the Putnam Theater, up Fulton from the Momart’s 590 Fulton. It is listed at Fulton and Grand Avenue. That would put it somewhere around 1003 to 1012 Fulton. Is this theater listed under another name on this site ?
In December, 1930, the Momart shifted to showing short subjects and newsreels only, but I don’t know how long the new policy lasted. Here’s a view of the Momart’s entrance, copied from a trade journal photo: www.i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/momart30.jpg
Here are several ads showing the progress of the Montmartre, the first for its opening day in November, 1927:
www.i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/mont27.jpg
Early in 1928, the Montmartre turned up under Keith-Albee management. This ad shows it with some of its affiliates in the Keith’s, Keith-Albee and B.S. Moss family. Most of these theatres would eventually carry the banner of RKO. which had not yet been formed, but not the Montmartre or Flatbush:
www.i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/mont28.jpg
A new name and policy for the theatre:
www.i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/mont28a.jpg
At the start of 1928, the name of Keith-Albee suddenly started appearing in newspaper advertising for the Montmarte Theatre. I don’t know if Keith-Albee had just acquired the theatre or had been running it from the beginning. But in the advertising on January 17th, the theatre had the new name of Momart, so Keith-Albee was at least responsible for that change. This happened during an engagement of Tiffany’s silent “Night Life,” which made that movie the last to play at the Montmarte and the first at the Momart. Keith-Albee soon increased the size of its Momart ads, describing the theatre as “The Cinema Salon in the Heart of Brooklyn.” The feature movies were first-run for Brooklyn and accompanied by short subjects. Keith-Albee apparently ran the Momart until Herman Weingarten took over later in 1928. I would guess that Keith-Albee decided that it had enough representation in downtown Brooklyn with its flagship theatre in Albee Square and the Orpheum.
The spelling of the original name in the introduction is incorrect. The theatre was called Montmarte, not “Montemarte.”…The Montmarte first opened on September 2nd, 1927, according to an article in the next day’s issue of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Here are some excerpts from that report: “Brooklyn, it seems, has at last been given a chance to show its cinematic appetite by supporting a house boasting of long-run pictures. It is the only one of its kind in this boro, we suspect. Opening the theater is ‘Les Miserables,’ Universal picture also current at the Central Theater in Manhattan. The Montmarte is destined to succeed because of its novelty. The theater is small, seating about 600 in the orchestra. There is no balcony, and the place is calmly furnished…From all appearances, the theater presents a very ‘arty’ front. In order to maintain this pose, it will have to live up to its policy of exhibiting very recent productions. We quote the following from its programme: ‘It has always been necessary for you, the public, to leave your boro in order to view a motion picture in its premier form. This theater will be operated along the line of the so-called Broadway pre-release policy theater, thereby giving you the opportunity of this convenience right in your midst, with the thought in view of ever catering to the discriminating audience.’ Then the programme goes on to hope that we may become ardent rooters of the Montmarte. Let us say that our cheers are mildly given. Furthermore, we sincerely hope that the chocolate vended in the slot machines at the rear of the auditorium will always be fresh and inviting…The Montmarte is on the site of old Val Schmidt’s Hofbrau Haus which was in existence many years ago. The hostelry closed its doors with the advent of the subway and was later torn down. The cinema progresses apace.” Curiously, the report does not name the Montmarte’s owner and/or management. If it was Keith-Albee, they were keeping it secret for the moment.
Upon closer examination of the photo, I must withdraw my comment about theatres possibly shown. I think that the marquee at right belongs to the Strand Theatre, and not to the Orpheum. In which case, the Momart is not shown in the photo, since it was on the opposite side of Fulton Street from the Strand.
There seem to be two theatre marquees in that image. I believe that the one at the right is the Orpheum’s, so the other could be the Momart. Contrary to what I said on 5/31/07, it appears that Herman Weingarten was not the original operator of the Momart. I think that Keith-Albee, which also ran the Orpheum, started the Momart as an experiment, was disappointed with the results, and then leased it to Weingarten.
Could this be photo of Momart ?
http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?52097
Newspaper advertising from November, 1928, shows this as Weingarten’s Momart, “Brooklyn’s Little Art Theatre.” I suspect that Herman Weingarten ran it from the start, since he was a pioneer exhibitor in Brooklyn and Queens, and is probably best known at CT for the Parthenon Theatre in Ridgewood. One ad even includes a photo of Weingarten and says that he “has dedicated the Momart Theatre to the presentation of German films for the German people of Brooklyn.” The current attraction was a German filmization of “Crime and Punishment,” directed by Robert Wiene and featuring actors from the Moscow Art Players. This was followed by UFA’s “Bondage,” starring Heinrich George, and then by “Q Ships,” which featured “sensational submarine warfare.”
A Kilgen organ Opus 3898 Size 2/4 was installed in the Momart Theater in 1927. Cost of organ was $5,675.00.
In 1927, there was no way that the Montmartre could have shown first-run movies unless it was affiliated with one of the major Hollywood-owned circuits that controlled distribution. As an “indie,” the best it could hope for as a first-run would be minor releases from the “Poverty Row” studios or foreign imports.
I read that before the Montemartre opened, there was a restaurant and opera house on that site. When the restaurant went out of business, in 1927, it was replaced by the Montmartre theater, a movie theater that promised to show first-run movies but ended up settling for considerably less.
The following information for the Momart was found on the Orpheum (Brooklyn) page and really should be here…..
Up the block (from the Orpheum) was the Montemartre (aka Momart) a small theatre which opened in 1927 at 590 Fulton Street. The Momart was opened by Warner Brothers and featured foreign films for its' 26 years as neighbor to the RKO Orpheum. This area of theatres came about in the early 1900’s as the turn of century theatres of the 1860’s started to move away from Brooklyn Government Buildings now Cadman Plaza. The movie palaces where in the proximity of Flatbush & Fulton Streets. Brooklyn’s Times Square was just as impressive as New York’s. How 12 theatres in the area boasting over 40,000 seats survived the depression is just how important movies and theatres were a fabric of society during the 1930’s and ‘40’s.
posted by Orlando on Mar 1, 2004 at 2:57pm
In addition to above, The Momart went down with the Orpheum 1n 1953-54. The Strand was out by 1958. The Majestic just kept on going.
posted by Orlando on Mar 1, 2004 at 3:00pm