Casino Theatre

Bway on November 15, 2018 at 8:46 am

Here is stunning 1940 photo of the Casino Theater, operating as a theater. Unfortunately, I can’t find the actual tax photo of the building, but the next two links are of the adjoining buildings, which show it pretty well.

http://nycma.lunaimaging.com/luna/servlet/detail/NYCMA~7~7~856831~859926?sort=borough%2Cblock%2Clot%2Czip_code

http://nycma.lunaimaging.com/luna/servlet/detail/NYCMA~7~7~1010502~859911?sort=borough%2Cblock%2Clot%2Czip_code

Bway on May 17, 2010 at 9:37 pm

Oh good, like I said, I had a strange thing happen a few weeks ago, where photos didn’t show up, and a system restore solved the problem. I never figured out what it was.

Bway on May 17, 2010 at 11:28 am

John, I think it has to be a problem with your computer, as I see the photos fine. You also commented about my photo in the Parthenon Theater “not coming through”, so I think you may have a problem with your computer. You may want to do a system restore, I had a similar problem like that some weeks ago, and that fixed the problem. It’s definitely on your end.

Jayar1 on May 16, 2010 at 9:29 pm

DeKalb Theater

View link

doowopluvr101 on April 4, 2009 at 9:26 pm

Like Fenando I took the “nickleless tour” when i was about 10 years old in 1968. The largest theater I ever seen. Too dark to appreciate the decor. besides what 10 year old knows from gothic nor french revival. Spooky is what I remember most. So much space. The stage appeared to be so far away from the top of the balcony.

this place must have been some kind of business in the 60’s.
I won’t swear to it but I’m so certain that around the time the mets were winning the world series that place caught fire. I recall as if it were yesterday how I and a couple of pals joined in with some of the older guys from the neighborhood and went shopping through the charred remains. toys, dolls for my sisters is what I recall.

No I’m not suggesting that this was Bargaintown. I don’t remember a bargaintown. And Buy Rite was on a whole different block.

I do have a tenant thats in her 80’s, has been living in the same place since 1932 On Dekalb ave and she averts that yes they had vaudville shows, italian shows and it was in fact bargaintown.

PKoch on September 5, 2007 at 1:42 pm

Thanks, Lost Memory, for getting this page back on topic in general, and back to the right type of organ, in particular !

PKoch on July 16, 2007 at 11:53 am

Bway, I was thinking the exact same thing myself. I think the image showed that “Women in Bondage” was on a double bill at the RKO Bushwick, along with “The Lodger”, starring George Sanders and Merle Oberon, in 1942, and that the marquee also read “Burlesque every Tuesday and Wednesday evening”. The link to that image must be someplace on the page for the RKO Bushwick (theater # 1322).

I remember laughing when I saw the image, because the marquee read as though the “women in bondage” appeared as the burlesque at the Bushwick on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings !

Bway on July 15, 2007 at 6:56 pm

I believe even some of the more facny theaters like the RKO Bushwick and Madison did occasionally do burlesque shows.

PKoch on November 2, 2006 at 6:26 am

Thanks, Warren. I suppose the Halsey Theater was the one on Halsey Street, near Saratoga Avenue, between Broadway and Fulton Street, for which a page exists on this site, and at which the young Jackie Gleason got his start in show biz about seventy years ago.

PKoch on February 27, 2006 at 1:25 pm

Dorothy From Oz, thank you for your story of “Deep Coat” !

The Starr was a small neighborhood theater in Bushwick, on Starr Street, just a few blocks southeast of Flushing Avenue. There should be a separate page for it.

If the Star was on or near Fulton Street, much more of a main drag than Starr Street, in or near downtown Bklyn, then it was much larger than the Starr Theater.

PhilDB on September 19, 2005 at 8:04 am

This is a great discussion about the DeKalb/Casino theatre. I hope I can add some personal memory thoughts of the years when, as a youngster back in the 1930s and 40’s, I lived in Bushwick, at the corner of DeKalb and Evergreen Avenues, two blocks away from the theatre.
In those days the neighborhood theatres of choice for our family were primarily the Lowe’s Gates and RKO Bushwick on Broadway and the Rivoli on Myrtle Avenue along with the occasional visits to theatres along Fulton Street and in Manhattan. We went to see movies frequently and caught most of the classics that were being produced during that era.

When I was about 10 or 11 years old, I got the bright idea that I ought to go to a movie without my parents tagging along. They weren’t too keen on the suggestion, but I pestered and they finally consented with the proviso that it would have to be to the theatre nearest to our home rather than to any of the ones I had in mind.

Ergo, my introduction on a cold Saturday afternoon to DeKalb/Casino. The theatre looked old and dingy, nothing like I was used to. There was no concession area, hardly any audience and the interior was bitter cold with old radiators against the wall sputtering and whooshing out wet steam to no effect. But I was there on my own and for a young kid on a solo adventure, it was a “big deal” as I sat there munching on a package of Yankee Doodles my mother had packed for me and watched on the big screen, Frank Capra’s 1937 classic, “Lost Horizon,” starring Ronald Coleman. Even though it was the first and last time I would sit in that theatre, the experience would leave a lifelong positive impression.

Coincidentally, about 4 or 5 years ago in relating this story to one of the Brooklyn Board’s memory threads I had to confess to the fact I could not remember the theatre’s name. Next day, Warren, a great movie historian, e-mailed me and clued me in to the name changes. I thank him for that and for directing me to this website.

Now fast-forward to the present and let me recall things about that theatre experience that may relate to some of the points and questions raised in the current thread:
For sure, the two photos of the theatre building that “Bway” recently posted resemble the theatre building I knew in 1940. I remember entering the theatre through the large entrance on the left as you face the building, which at that time was covered by a marquee that extended out over the sidewalk area to the curbstone. In addition, I’m pretty sure the there was also a sign, a long, vertical, impressive looking sign that rose up to the roof line typical of what you often see attached to the side of theatre buildings. I don’t remember if the sign was mounted over the marquee or at some other point along the front of the building. I suppose that both the marquee and the sign may have displayed the name “Casino” based on what has been said on this thread about the name changes. But once again, I’m just not sure.

The brick building on the right side of the theater I recall as an automobile garage that rented parking space and provided auto serviceâ€"tires, gas, oil, repairs, etc. I believe it was called “The New Deal Garage.” My father, who used to jokingly call it “Used Deal Garage” serviced his used 1934 Chevrolet there but paid to park his car in an open lot either next to the garage or down the street away.

Now, on the matter of the building site on which the theatre is located and other interesting data about it. I have excerpted some information from an article from the microfilm file of the New York Times of March 5, 1911 stating that work was to begin on what would be the “Largest Theatre in Brooklyn,” that it would be known as the “DeKalb” and that it would “occupy a plot 180 by 170 feet on the north side of DeKalb Avenue about 200 feet east of Broadway.” The article went on to say that the architecture would be “Italian Renaissance” and that the front would be of “white glazed terra-cotta” and that there would only be “one balcony” but that there would be a “row of fourteen boxes, seating twelve persons each” and that the “total seating capacity will be 2,500.” It stated that the theatre was to be erected by the “Thomas A. Clarke Company, the builders of the Shubert Theatre” and that the building cost would be “about $500,000.”
I hope I’m not posting facts you already know. If not and if these figures hold true for the present structure, then they might answer some questions about how the building may or may not have been used in recent years.

The discussion about the traffic direction on Dekalb Avenue puzzled me. I believe that in the 1930s and 40s, DeKalb Avenue carried 2-way auto and trolley traffic over its entire route including the portion on which the theatre was located.

Like some other correspondents, I also attended PS 68 (through 6th grade) and PS 74 (grades 7-8). When the war began in 1941 our family moved to Stockholm Street near Central Avenue. I graduated from Grover Cleveland HS in 1948 and entered military service. I have not been back to the neighborhood since that time so I look forward for some interesting memory trips on this web site that will takes us back to the “good old days.”

Bway on May 5, 2005 at 7:22 am

I believe “Casino” was it’s name near the end (the last or current name of any theater is the name used on this site, even if it’s not the name that it is most known for. This is done for consistency.)
Anyway, “Casino” was definitely it’s name, it’s noticable in the www.nycsubway.org photos taken at the Kosciuszko St station, linked above.
According to your account, someone familiar with the area back then, apparently it seems that it wasn’t too long that it was known as the “Casino”, just before it was abandoned as a theater i assume.