Halsey Theatre
928 Halsey Street,
Brooklyn,
NY
11233
928 Halsey Street,
Brooklyn,
NY
11233
1 person
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Showing 51 - 68 of 68 comments
Thanks for the picture. In talking to my husband last night, he said the church was burned down by an arsonist. He used to work for the Transit Police and he worked the Chauncey Street station, so he remembers the incident very well. What a shame!
Peg, although unfortunately the beautiful church was destroyed, the school building still exists, and still has something to do with the church, because “Our Lady of Lourdes” is on the sign. I don’t know exactly what they use the school for.
I can’t believe they decided to demolish the church building.
Here’s a photo of the church in 1969 from behind:
http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?35304
I don’t think the Colonial Theatre went out of business in 1954. I remember going to this theatre with my friends as late as 1958.
Our Lady of Lourdes was a beautiful church with a grotto behind the altar. My husband and I were married there in 1962. There was also Our Lady of Lourdes School on the same block. My brother, cousins, many of our friends, and I attended this school.
We also spent a lot of time at the Colonial Theater. We lived across the street from Evangelical Deoconess Hospital and Nursing Home.
The Halsey theater closed in 1945 right after WWII just as many other theatres did.
Bway, thanks for mentioning that the Halsey no longer exists.
I will tell my dad, who will be sad, but who will appreciate having been told.
Peter, the question you had of whether the Halsey was demolished or not for sure is solved. I drove past the other day, and the building no longer exists. A large apartment building now occupies the site. It looks like those standard late 1960’s to 1970’s type of large apartment buildings so it was probably demolished during that time.
Apollo, what is the address of the house that Jackie Gleason grew up in ? Is it on Herkimer or Chauncey Street ?
I read a Gleason biography twelve years and two weeks ago. There was a chapter in it, “Limo To Bushwick”, about a 1962 or 1963 visit Gleason paid to his old neighborhood.
One of the June Taylor Dancers was a man ?
It was the Colonial Theater at Chauncey and Bway, now the Wayside Baptist Church. Bway has posted a link to a recent photo of it, on its page here.
I was born at Evangelical Deaconess Hospital, formerly at the north corner of Chauncey and Bway, on the northeast, or Bushwick, side, across the street from the former Colonial Theater. I think one of the hospital buildings is gone now, as I recall from my last el ride past there.
Do you mean the old Pennsylvania Station at 34th and 8th in Manhattan ? Try :
http://www.nycsubway.org/
You may have to look around a bit there, or search it with Google.
Commenting on the new vs. the old Penn Station, someone once said, “We used to come into the city like gods. Now, we come in like rats !”
The house that Jackie Gleason grew up in is in the Bedford Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn and not Bushwick! People are constantly going back to that house and photographing it. Many of the older people here remember Jackie Gleason returning to the neighborhood. I also use to work with a gentlemen who was one of the June Taylor dancers.
On thursday I was at Chauncey and Broadway, a devastated area, but the theatre their seem to be well maintained (It is a church). What was the name of that theatre? Also I have not forgotten that I promised to research the Williamsbugh borders and I will as soon as I finish my calender. Finally does anybody Know who has detailed information about the old Pennsylvania Railroad station, a friend asked if I could point him to someone?
Jackie Gleason saw vaudeville and burlesque at the Halsey as a boy and got his start in show business there on amateur nights.
I think the address on his mother’s death certificate was 357 Chauncey Street, if the TV bio I saw in early November 2002 was accurate, and if I am remembering it correctly.
The references to streets in “The Honeymooners” are to real streets in Bushwick, like when Norton mentions “that vacuum cleaner place on DeKalb Avenue”.
I just found some interesting information about the Halsey in Eugene Armbruster’s book, “Brooklyn Eastern District”.
“A large open field streched from Rockaway Avenue down to a plain on Halsey Street near Broadway. In this plain was a pond, more or less large, according to rainfall. This plain became the circus grounds. The Saratoga Park occupies now part of the plain. In 1912 The Halsey Theatre was erected upon the old circus grounds, between Saratoga Avenue and Broadway by the T.A. Clark Company, the Benedict Amusement Company being the lessee. The cost of the site was 10,000 dollarsand that of the building 300,000 dollars, seating capacity 2400. About the same time, the Arcadia was erected upon the Saratoga Avenue plot”.
pg. 191-192
Thanks Apollo, I would love to hear about the building Rose described, and if it was a theater.
I will ask my neighbor when I see him,if he can identify the building. I will ask him about the other Theater too.
Apollo, There is a church on Gates Avenue near the corner of Reid and Malcolm X Blvd). My late mother said she used to go there and pay 5 cents to see the movies and watch the serials. That’s not the name that I remember her calling it. You can tell that it was a theater by the staircase.It’s a small building.
Rose
I asked my neighbor about boxing on Halsey street. He said the boxing ring was across the street from the Halsey, in the old trolley barn (I have a picture). He also said there was also another boxing ring at the end of the Gates Avenue trolley line in Ridgewood.
He then mentioned a movie Theater called the Comic, it was on Gates between Patchen and Reid Avenues (now called Malcolm X Blvd.) I will ask him if the building is still there? There was also another Theater in that vicinity (This other Theater was pre air conditioning and supposedly it would show movies outside in a lot or on the roof on a hot summer evening). I was told this story by a two people. I am going to be talking to someone next month who remembers the last show at the Brevoort. It was a concert.
There is a building on Sumpter street near Fulton street that is not in use now, but looks like it could have possibly been a Theater.
Apollo, which of the theaters had boxing in them? Was it the Halsey, or one of the other theaters closer to the el?
That again is not Buswick but what we now call Bedford Stuyvesant. Bushwick is on the other side of Broadway (Broadway was previously called division street it seperated Bushwick and Brooklyn). There was live boxing on that block. Would a movie theatre make a good boxing ring? I use to walk buy there all the time to go to the train shop as a youngster, but never paid much attention to those buildings. Does anybody know anything about the Brevort Theatre in Brooklyn, that is where the Motown reviews preformed in Bedford Stuyvesant, it had lots of live entertainment.
The A&E “Biography” of Gleason shows the exterior of the Halsey, which is now Saratoga Square, a city-owned housing complex.
Remember on the Honeymooners Ralph Kramden or Alice made reference many times to seeing a movie at The Halsey. And on one of the lost episodes Ralph makes a crack about Trixie appearing there in burlesque.