I now believe that I may have erred on this one. The theater I talk about is actually the Lincoln. The Breevort was located further north on Bedford Avenue, not far from the Bedford. The Breevort might have also been a theater showing Negro movies.
Recently I walked past this site and find something odd in the addresses on the block. The theater’s address was 1211 Quentin Road, yet the addresses go from 1209 to 1219 Quentin. It’s as if the theater has disappeared from modern street mapping. Strange but true.
The theater is currently owned by Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise king Harold Bullard who, in the 1990s, made news by wanting to build an amusement mecca, similar to Steeplechase Park, on the fabled amusement area’s former site. Of course, his dream was shattered when his financing feel through. He still owns the theater as well as a few vacant lots in the Coney Island area.
The theater stood directly across Surf Avenue from Steeplechase park. Both were owned by the George Tilyou family. The theater’s fortunes went downhill, along with the rest of Coney Island, after the Tilyou heirs closed the Park and sold the land to Fred Trump, who wanted to but never did high rise apartments there. In the end, all he did was tear down the Park and the neighborhood with it. After opening and closing a few times, the Tilyou was taken over by the Horwitz family, which had run the Mermaid and the Tuxedo so successfully. But their luck ran out and they couldn’t make the theater profitable. Finally they closed the theater, and soon its interior, filled with memorabilia from Steeplechase Park, was vandalized and many valuable items stolen, In 1973, the wrecking ball put the theater out of its misery, and a parking lot now stands as testament to a sad time in the history of Coney Island.
I recently gained much more information about this theater. It was owned by the Horwitz family and stood at Mermaid Avenue and W. 26th Street. It had 550 seats and had an extremely large screen. Double-feature programs changed three times a week, and Saturday afternoons were reserved for kiddie matinees. In 1962, Horwitz approached Fred Trump to buy fixtures and seats from the closed Tuxedo Theater, which was slated for demolition. Instead Trump offered him an opportunity to run the much more plush Tuxedo, which Horwitz and his family did for the next three years before it was finally closed and torn down. Yet he could not run both the Mermaid and the Tuxedo. So he sold the Mermaid in 1963""
I believe an Office Depot was opened on the former site of the theater, yet when I drove past the place last April, the store had gone out of business and the space was for rent.
I saw this building last week, and although retrofitted for retail use, the facade and the look of the corner building still leave little to the imagination that this was once a movie house.
I drove past it the other day, and the site appears now is home for a C-Town Supermarket. By the looks of it, the theater building appears to have been demolished and the modern one-story supermarket now stands in its place.
It was the small neighborhood theater you passed on the bus that took you to LaGuardia Airport. It stood a few blocks from the still-operating Jackson Triplex. It ran Spanish-language films in its final days, but is now closed. I don’t know what occupies the site at present.
This was a huge theater that stood a few blocks from the LIRR station. It was a dollar theater late in its game, and I believe its marquee was used for a few years in a Newsday ad about the paper’s movie listings.
This was a bizarre attempt at megaplexing. This theater stood a few blocks away form its other two screens in what appeared to be a converted building space. The theater was quite large and minimalist in design. I’m not surprised that it was closed after a brief theatrical run.
The Mayfair was an Art Deco house on a small narrow thoroughfare. It was a double-feature house that went XXX in the 70s before closing a decade later. It experimented with live rock concerts for a very brief time (much like the Ritz and Paramount on Staten Island).
It was a Century Theater in the end, and I know it was split into a twin, with the orchestra and the balcony becoming separate screens. The theater also stood on Main Street in Flushing, some blocks south of the old Keiths Theater.
In its final XXX days, this theater also offered concerts as Banana Fish Park. Billy Joel, among others, played here. ABC television used to present a rock concert series taped here.
There is a recent photo of this RKO house from Jennifer Lopez’s old neighborhood on forgottenny.com. Check out it and other theaters from the Bronx as they look now. As for the Castle Hill, it is now a church.
The site now might be the home of a Rite Aid drug store, as the address appears to line up with the old movie house’s address.
I now believe that I may have erred on this one. The theater I talk about is actually the Lincoln. The Breevort was located further north on Bedford Avenue, not far from the Bedford. The Breevort might have also been a theater showing Negro movies.
Recently I walked past this site and find something odd in the addresses on the block. The theater’s address was 1211 Quentin Road, yet the addresses go from 1209 to 1219 Quentin. It’s as if the theater has disappeared from modern street mapping. Strange but true.
The theater is currently owned by Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise king Harold Bullard who, in the 1990s, made news by wanting to build an amusement mecca, similar to Steeplechase Park, on the fabled amusement area’s former site. Of course, his dream was shattered when his financing feel through. He still owns the theater as well as a few vacant lots in the Coney Island area.
The theater stood directly across Surf Avenue from Steeplechase park. Both were owned by the George Tilyou family. The theater’s fortunes went downhill, along with the rest of Coney Island, after the Tilyou heirs closed the Park and sold the land to Fred Trump, who wanted to but never did high rise apartments there. In the end, all he did was tear down the Park and the neighborhood with it. After opening and closing a few times, the Tilyou was taken over by the Horwitz family, which had run the Mermaid and the Tuxedo so successfully. But their luck ran out and they couldn’t make the theater profitable. Finally they closed the theater, and soon its interior, filled with memorabilia from Steeplechase Park, was vandalized and many valuable items stolen, In 1973, the wrecking ball put the theater out of its misery, and a parking lot now stands as testament to a sad time in the history of Coney Island.
Pardon my error. It was the Tilyou, not the Tilden, owned by the same family that owned Steeplechase Park.
The Surf was transformed from a movie house to a bowling alley in 1956.
I recently gained much more information about this theater. It was owned by the Horwitz family and stood at Mermaid Avenue and W. 26th Street. It had 550 seats and had an extremely large screen. Double-feature programs changed three times a week, and Saturday afternoons were reserved for kiddie matinees. In 1962, Horwitz approached Fred Trump to buy fixtures and seats from the closed Tuxedo Theater, which was slated for demolition. Instead Trump offered him an opportunity to run the much more plush Tuxedo, which Horwitz and his family did for the next three years before it was finally closed and torn down. Yet he could not run both the Mermaid and the Tuxedo. So he sold the Mermaid in 1963""
In its later days, it was known as the 16th Street Theater.
It was a small Century house that stood at the far end of the Convenience Center of the Staten Island Mall.
I believe an Office Depot was opened on the former site of the theater, yet when I drove past the place last April, the store had gone out of business and the space was for rent.
The theater was razed for a gas station was closed years ago. The old gas station is fenced in and is now used as a parking lot.
I saw this building last week, and although retrofitted for retail use, the facade and the look of the corner building still leave little to the imagination that this was once a movie house.
I drove past it the other day, and the site appears now is home for a C-Town Supermarket. By the looks of it, the theater building appears to have been demolished and the modern one-story supermarket now stands in its place.
This was part of the Century Theaters circuit, which once owned many theaters along Jamaica/Jericho Avenue.
It was the small neighborhood theater you passed on the bus that took you to LaGuardia Airport. It stood a few blocks from the still-operating Jackson Triplex. It ran Spanish-language films in its final days, but is now closed. I don’t know what occupies the site at present.
I also believe that it was razed for a parking garage.
This was a huge theater that stood a few blocks from the LIRR station. It was a dollar theater late in its game, and I believe its marquee was used for a few years in a Newsday ad about the paper’s movie listings.
This was a bizarre attempt at megaplexing. This theater stood a few blocks away form its other two screens in what appeared to be a converted building space. The theater was quite large and minimalist in design. I’m not surprised that it was closed after a brief theatrical run.
The Mayfair was an Art Deco house on a small narrow thoroughfare. It was a double-feature house that went XXX in the 70s before closing a decade later. It experimented with live rock concerts for a very brief time (much like the Ritz and Paramount on Staten Island).
It was a Century Theater in the end, and I know it was split into a twin, with the orchestra and the balcony becoming separate screens. The theater also stood on Main Street in Flushing, some blocks south of the old Keiths Theater.
In its final XXX days, this theater also offered concerts as Banana Fish Park. Billy Joel, among others, played here. ABC television used to present a rock concert series taped here.
This theater may have stood in the southernmost S.I. neighborhood of Tottenville.
It was known as Sander’s Globe, as the owner’s of the Sanders (now the Pavillion) also owned this smaller house.
After Century closed the theater, it became a roller rink.
There is a recent photo of this RKO house from Jennifer Lopez’s old neighborhood on forgottenny.com. Check out it and other theaters from the Bronx as they look now. As for the Castle Hill, it is now a church.