Colonial Theatre
1746 Broadway,
Brooklyn,
NY
11233
1746 Broadway,
Brooklyn,
NY
11233
6 people
favorited this theater
Showing 101 - 125 of 198 comments
BY THE WAY FAND R’S WERE SOME KID OF GANG FERMAN AND ROCKAWAY BOYS I THINK IT MEANT…THE NEIGHBOR WAS STARTING TO GO DOWNHILL WHEN I MOVED OUT BACK IN SEPT.71 ALL THE OLD NEIGBOR’S MOVED AWAY ALREADY…I THINK THERE WAS AN OLD FACTORY UP ON THAT BLOCK WHERE YOUR PARENTS WERE GOING TO BUY A HOUSE…
HI AGAIN…I HAD IT IN MY HEAD TO VISIT THE OLD NEIGHBORHOOD AND SO I DID…I DRAGED MY SISTER WITH ME AND I WENT YESTERDAY AFTERNOON…I HAD TO DRIVE ALL THE WAY FROM STATEN ISLAND BUT IT WASN’T SO BAD…TOOK THE BELT AND GOT OFF AT PENNSYLVANIA AVE. AND TOOK THAT STRAGHT UP TO BUSHWICK AVE. I HAVE TO TELL YOU, ONE OF MY BEST GIRLFRIENDS GROWING UP THERE LIVED AT 1561 BUSHWICK AVE. RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER FROM DESALES PL. HER NAME IS DONNA MASSARI AND SHE HAD AN OLDER BROTHER NAMED LOUIE AND HER TWIN BROTHER KEVIN. I REMEMBER ALL THE KIDS FROM THE SURROUNDING NEIGHBORHOOD WOULD ALL COME AND PLAY ON THE BLOCK, STICK BALL ECT. I HAVE TO SAY THE BLOCK SEEMED SO SMALL TO ME COMPARED TO WHEN I LIVED THERE…I SEEN AN OLD NEIGHBOR FROM ACCROSS THE STREET FROM MY HOUSE AND HIS MOTHER SHE REMEMBERED ME AND MY FAMILY…I DROVE DOWN TO BROADWAY AND AROUND THE OLD SCHOOL BUT IT WASN’T THE SAME WITHOUT THE CHURCH THERE. I HAVE TO GO THERE AGAIN BY MYSELF ONE DAY AND TAKE THE TIME TO SEE THINGS MY SISTER WAS RUSHING ME…THE NEIGHBOR TOLD ME THEY HAD A BLOCK PARTY JUST LAST WEEKEND…I REMEMBER THEM THEY USE TO ROAST A BIG SIZE PIG OUTSIDE. BUT I CAN’T GET OVER THE BLOCK HOW LITTLE IT LOOKED…EVEN THE HOUSES LOOKED SMALL…THEY SEEM SO MUCH BIGGER BUT THEN…I SEEN THE ENTERANCE OF THE SUBWAY STATION, THE BUSHWICK AND ABBERDEEN STATION. I DONR RECALL THE NAME OF THAT PARK ON ABBERDEEN ST…USE TO GO THERE ONCE IN A WHILE…NEXT TIME I HAVE TO GO EARLY SO I CAN LOOK AROUND…I FIND IT HARD TO LOG INTO THAT WEB SIT…AFTER I LOG IN HOW DO I GET TO BUSHWICK BUDDIES?
Welcome, Lisa (remember when). I cordially welcome you to Cinema Treasures, and also invite you to join Bushwick Buddies. I think you’ll like us there. Here’s the link :
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There are pictures there of the new Our Lady of Lourdes northeast of Bushwick Avenue, not far from where you lived.
I graduated St. Brigid’s Parochial School in Ridgewood in June 1969. I lived in Ridgewood until late May 1999. In 1955, my parents almost bought a home on Vanderveer St, the dead end continuation of Eastern Pkwy, but bought a two-family home on Cornelia St. between Cypress and Wyckoff Avenues in Ridgewood instead.
Yes, Our Lady Of Lourdes was a beautiful church. Sadly, it was robbed several times before being burned by arsonists in 1975.
My father grew up in Bushwick near where you did. He lived at 1454 Bushwick Avenue, between Chauncey and Pilling Sts. when he married my mom in October 1945. Even though his mom was not Catholic, she liked to stop into Our Lady Of Lourdes, and light a candle inside, on the way home from shopping, because it was so quiet and peaceful inside.
I remember Bargain Town at Bway and DeKalb. I was last inside there Nov or Dec 1965 and got an LP record there of the story of King Kong.
Who were the F & R’s ? I remember the Chaplains and the Halsey Bops in that area.
I remember Bungalow Bar and Good Humor ice cream trucks in Ridgewood.
I know what you mean about Evergreen Cemetery. I last walked through there Saturday August 5 2005. I came down from the el at Bway and Cooper, at 3 p.m. that day, walked north on Cooper to Bushwick, past 1454 Bushwick Avenue, thence to the Bushwick Avenue gate of Evergreen Cemetery at Conway Street. I walked through on the main drive, past the gazebo and admin offices, and exited at the Cooper Avenue gate near Wyckoff Avenue.
I don’t remember “Chickie”. My dad and his friend Vinny Ferro once took a shortcut through Evergreen Cemetery at night, from Highland Park, to the Central Avenue gate, one moonlit night, and got scared.
My dad went to Cypress Hills pool as a kid, and took me there the summer of 1964 when I was 8 going on 9. There is a photo of, and thread for, this pool, on Bushwick Buddies.
If you log into and join Bushwick Buddies, it would be like visiting your old neighborhood. There are so many pictures and stories there that I think you would enjoy.
Yes, I remember skelly and ring-a-levio.
I’m mildly surprised you had a neighborhood cop named Murphy as recently as 1963 to 1971.
What was your neighborhood like when you moved away ?
Hi all,my name is Lisa,
I’m glad I found this blog. I use to live at 65 De Sales Pl. around 1963 to 71. It was a dead end block because of Evergreen Cemetery. I also went to Our Lady of Lourdes school, I graduated from there in 1969. It was a beautiful church. I felt bad when I heard it was demolished back in the early 1970’s because of a fire. I remember the Key food supermarket on Broadway and the Bargain Town store. Does anyone remember the Bohack store on the corner of Broadway and De Sales? I remember being in school and the kids talking about the F&R’s. One of the girls in my class said she new some members, she also told me she was in the gang. I remember the ice creme man who came to my block about three times a day, he had strawberry blond hair and us kids called him “Jimmy the bungalow”. I remember him arguing with the good humor man at times. I also remember one of my girlfriend’s mother who lived on the block would take us for a stroll and picnic in Evergreen Cemetery. That cemetery was like a huge park. Some of the older kids on the block would go into the cemetery at nite but the security men would chance them out, but I remember the kids would refer to them by the name “Chickie”. Does anyone recall that? A big treat at the time was being allowed to go to Cypress Hills pool. I would love to go back and see the old neighborhood. I live on Staten Island now. I had a great childhood there playing all the street games like, ringo-livio, do you remember the game skelly? At that time you would know the name of the neighborhood cop. The one I remember, I think his name was “Murphy the cop” as he was called back then. He was nice to all the kids.
Thanks, leroyelliston, for your answer about the Krugs.
What about the Cypress Hills Swimming pool ? My dad “learned” to swim there the hard way when a cousin pushed him into the deep end as a prank. My dad took me there once in the summer of 1964.
pennsy pinky, I remember Bargain Town well. My last trip there was November 1965 to get an LP record of King Kong for my 10th birthday, which record I still remember parts of. My mother bought my baby carriage at Bargain Town, and my oldest aunt did the same for her daughter.
Marcy Avenue is the last stop in Bklyn going to Manhattan. Kosciuszko is right before Myrtle-Bway going to Manhattan.
anyone remember one of the first large discount stores. It was first called baby town then renamed bargain town. We took the EL from chauncey st to the Kosciusko st stop. Last stop before manhattan
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Krugs were the battery run bakery trucks that covered that part of Brooklyn and Queens. The Cypress Hills Swimming pool.
Yes, Bway. I suppose their chimes chime every hour on the hour, and perhaps on the quarter hour as well. I only heard them that one time.
Haha, I am sure you meant the “eastern corner of Cooper and BROADWAY”….
As for the Colonial, now the Wayside Baptist Church, I guess they chime the chimes just like any church on the hour?
Thanks, leroyelliston. What were Krugs trucks ?
My dad remembers a Chinese restaurant, “Night In The Sky / New Eastern”, at the eastern corner of Cooper and Bushwick, third floor, by the el stairs (the Cooper Street / Rockaway Avenue end of the Chauncey Street Station). Familiar to you ?
My dad remembers the Wilson / Rockaway Avenue trolley, and also those bumpy red Decatur Street buses, with the solid tires, quite well.
I walked on Cooper Street from Bway to Bushwick Avenue on Saturday Aug 6 2005. Right before, as I stepped off the Manhattan-bound J train, the Westminster-style chimes of the Wayside Baptist Church were just chiming 3 p.m. through their external speakers. Beautiful !
I lived at 40 Cooper Street from 1948 to July 1956. The Colonial was a great theater during that period. The managers and matrons were stern at times but always friendly and helpful when there were problems. Being age ten was that age were things, unpredictable things happen. Many times after coming home from JHS 73 I would head for the movies. My bottle return place was Einhorn’s market and Smith’s candy store on Cooper and Bushwick. Many fond memories evolve around those theaters…even the Decatur. Remember the Wilson Ave. Trolley, Krugs trucks?
I lived at 40 Cooper Street from 1948 to July 1956. The Colonial was a great theater during that period. The managers and matrons were stern at times but always friendly and helpful when there were problems. Being age ten was that age were things, unpredictable things happen. Many times after coming home from JHS 73 I would head for the movies. My bottle return place was Einhorn’s market and Smith’s candy store on Cooper and Bushwick. Many fond memories evolve around those theaters…even the Decatur. Remember the Wilson Ave. Trolley, Krugs trucks?
Thanks, Peter L. Did you cash them in at the Colonial Theater itself, or did you have to go to a nearby deli / grocer, say, Schumacher’s, on the corner of Bushwick and Pilling ?
No, I mainly got into the Colonial by cashing in deposit bottles.
Thanks, Peter L. Please continue. Could you gain admission to the Colonial Theatre with pickles from the Orchard Pickle Works on Stone Avenue ?
Or perhaps “nipples of Venus” from Areola’s Pastry and Candy Shop.
Dish Night at the Colonial. Boy, does that conjure up some neat memories. Inevitably, during the movie someone would break a dish which would be followed by a round of applause from the other patrons. During dish night at least four dishes would meet their fate on the Colonial floor. Those that made it through the entire dishcollection without a breakage were very rare.
You’ve raised an interesting and relevant point, Warren. Thank you.
Namely, how the Colonial Theater related to Schmearman’s, just across Broadway from it, and other neighborhood stores and merchants. I’m thinking of what theaters would offer people to induce them to come in and see films, during the Depression : “dish night”, or, price of admission, a can of baked beans.
Or maybe a butter cream cake from Schmearman’s, or cannolis from Ariolla’s Pastry.
Thanks, Peter L.
They had a birthday cake I would look forward to when I was a kid. They used to hide little metalic cars, boats, planes etc. inside the birthday cake as a surprise. I wonder how many kids lost a tooth or worse, swallowed one of the tiny toys. Since my family was Italian American, most of our pastry needs were supplied by Ariolla’s Pastry on Fulton and Rockaway avenues. They made the greatest cannolis ever.
Thanks anyway. What else do you remember about Schmearman’s ?
No a clue
Thank you, Peter L.
I spelled Schmeaman’s the way my dad has always pronounced it, but “Schmear” as Yiddish makes sense, as it was a Jewish deli bakery, also featuring noodle pudding or kugel (cake).
Do you remember when it closed ?
Cooper and Moffat
Thanks, Peter L. Was it between Cooper and Moffat, or Moffat and Chauncey ?