Flatbush Pavilion
314 Flatbush Avenue,
Brooklyn,
NY
11238
314 Flatbush Avenue,
Brooklyn,
NY
11238
6 people
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Hello fellow movie theater lovers,
I’m doing a project for my photojournalism class at NYU about closed down independent movie theaters in New York. I hope to gain information about people’s past experiences at these movie theaters, recollections of favorite memories or not so great experiences, perhaps economical insight, contacts with owners/managers, etc. On a larger level, I hope my project is able to show the significance of the role that these establishments play in our city and the importance of keeping them afloat.
If anyone would be willing to answer a few questions via email about your personal memories at the theater, please let me know! It could be as simple as recounting a favorite movie you remember seeing back when it was open. I would greatly appreciate your insight.
You can contact me at:
Thanks,
Gabi
What’s gonna happen to this place now that American Apparel has gone belly-up? I hope whoever moves in next restores the marquee.
Back in the late 50’s, early 60’s it showed most foreign and “art” movies.
After it switched back from porn, it played mainstream for many, many years.
I remember passing by the theater when it was the Plaza and the for a quite awhile the community was up in arms because it was showing XXX rated movies. Then it went back to first run for a short time before closing.
Here’s a photo when it was Cinema Plaza in 1980:
View link
The closeing of this dive was a mercy killing. The place was a horrid place to see a film. The lobby was dark and dank; the auditoria were even more forboding. The film presentation was beyond bad. In a day and age of 6 channel digital sound, this place was still sporting a mono system in both rooms.
It was a scouting exhibition just to find a seat that wasn’t broken, and even those that were in decent shape were very uncomfortable.
The screens were placed much too high making the viewing angle very hard on the neck muscles. Because it was twined, the rooms were long and narrow, giving you the feeling that you were in a tunnel. This shape was detrimental to speech intelligibility, which sank to near zero; it was a good thing they ran lots of foreign films so you could read the dialogue.
This abomination is an example of just how terrible a movie theatre can be when it is tortured into more than one screen, even though it was designed as a single — a sorry practice in the rush to multiplex. It is no wonder it drove patrons away.
Sadly, there are many, many theatres that should have been saved; this is not one of them.
Here is another photo of the marquee:
http://tinyurl.com/3275jh
The marquee is still up and it’s still an American Apparel clothing shop (socially conscious, American and union made, sweatshop free).
The little pics above the marquee on the sides are no longer there but the “1, 2, 3” still is with messages on the side.
Of course, now that we know the theater, if you look above the building across the street from the Strand, you can make out the V-shaped roof-top sign for the Brooklyn Paramount looming a couple of blocks away on the corner of DeKalb and Flatbush Aves. That should have been a dead giveaway.
My error (again!) Rockwell Place angles in to Fulton to the theater’s LEFT not the right.
I think Ken and Lost (well, his first instinct anyway) are correct. The Ionic columns belong to the old Strand. But then, the subway site has mis-captioned the photo by locating it on Flatbush Avenue. The Strand is OFF Flatbush at the corner of Rockwell Place and Fulton Ave. Here’s one of Lost Memory’s favorite images of mine (clipped from the local.live site and highlighted for the mentally challenged – heh heh):
Aerial View of Strand
The angle of Rockwell Place to the theater’s right matches up in both images, and you can make out a slight angle to the theater facade in the subway photo that matches up with the aerial view.
(Slipping on my architectural nerd beanie now…) Ahem! Bway – a Doric order column has no capital feature. The columns on the Strand evidence the opposed volutes (the scroll-like feature) at their capitals that define the Ionic order. Here endeth the lesson.
The photograph showing a theatre on Rockwell Place shows the Strand Theater, located at 647 Fulton Street and Rockwell Place. It’s most interesting feature, still to be seen today is the Romanesque exterior facade. See… /theaters/1407/
I don’t think it’s the Orpheum, because in the photo on the Orpheum, it doesn’t seem to have the large Doric columns that the photo with the el has.
/theaters/1924/
Bway, the first photo is captioned “Rockwell Place”. Rockwell is a short street that runs farther up Flatbush Ave near Lafayette and the Brooklyn Academy of Music. The shot is definitely not of BAM, but must be one of the old downtown Brooklyn theaters and not the Flatbush Pavillion (which is further to the South near 7th Avenue). With that Ionian facde, it should be fairly easy to identify on this site. It’s definitely not the Strand or Majestic (which were not on Flatbush Ave). Maybe the Albee? Or the Fox?
And while we’re at it, here’s a phot of after they took the Fulton St Elevated down at Franklin and Fulton….is that a theater on the right?
http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?52499
I found this photo on nycsubway.org, but can’t read the name of the theater. It says it’s Flatbush Ave….however, I am not sure what theater it is, so I figured I’d start my search here….
Here’s a photo of some theater on Flatbush Ave, when they were about to tear the old Fulton Elevated down….
Is this the Flatbush Pavilion?
http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?52097
Current May 2006 photographs I took of the Flatbush Pavilion (including one of the former auditorium):
http://flickr.com/photos.kencta/183326058/
http://flickr.com/photos/kencta/183328319/
http://flickr.com/photos/kencta/183328664/
http://flickr.com/photos/kencta/183329070/
http://flickr.com/photos/kencta/183329495/
Some tricksters/PR people for a new restaurant rearranged the letters on the marquee to read “revel in fish in non glaring semen from Havana.” Passed it by a few days ago; made me want to cry, and reminded me of the last days of the old Times Square, when titles of movies were rearranged into “poetry.”
View link
http://www.picpatrol.com/category.php?category=18
Now the word is the store will be an American Apparel. Wonderful.
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Thanx dailyheights
yes.
Is the marquis still up?
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They’re converting it into a pool!!!
The Film Daily Yearbook, 1930 gives a seating capacity of the Bunny Theatre as 450 and lists it as ‘closed’. By the 1941 edition it still has the same seating capacity, but has been re-named Plaza Theatre.
Was it attractive?