Fox Theatre
20 Flatbush Avenue,
Brooklyn,
NY
11217
20 Flatbush Avenue,
Brooklyn,
NY
11217
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Showing 151 - 175 of 178 comments
Thanks for the hook up to all the photos of the Fox! What great memories they brought back. I’ll never forget all the Murray the K shows I went to there as a kid. I think over the years the downtown Brooklyn area started to decline and people just stopped traveling there to see a movie. I remember the huge Fox & Albee showing movies straight from their run in Manhattan,but towards the end the movies seemed like lousy B flicks. People started watching more TV and catching movies at their neighborhood theater.I still mourn the loss of this great movie palace.
Was the Fox loosing money that they decided to close it in 1966? What a shame it sat there all that time neglected.
Besides attending those great Murray the K shows at the Fox I remember seeing a great Sci Fi flick there called “The Day of the Triffids” about man eating planets from space. I loved that theatre and was sad to see it go. Many good memories!
For many years, the FOX was operated by Fabian and was advertised in the newspapers as Fabian’s FOX. They also had Fabian’s STRAND, which was a short distance away on Fulton Street.
Did Fabian ever have any other theaters in the five boroughs of NYC ?
Why did I have to be born in 1961?! There are so many great Brooklyn Theaters I don’t remember! Man! I wish I went to the Fox!
I am responding to the Sept. 24, 2004 post of Organ-ized.
This is such a wonderful thread of information but I want to give the readers some good news. The Brooklyn Fox Wurlitzer was not destroyed but rather found a home at the Fort Wayne Indiana Cardinal Music Palace before coming to rest here in our home in Gig Harbor, WA. It was moved here and installed by Ed Zollman and a bit can be read about it below.
The following is from Theatre Organ magazine, May-June 1988
Written by Paul Quarino
View link
Best regards, Barbara Hammerman
I guess I didn’t mean literally why was it torn down, but more why would they do such a thing. There must have been plenty of vacant lots or abandoned buildings they could have removed to build the Con Ed building.
“Despite its popularity, it was torn down in the late 60’s and The Consolidated Edison company of New York was built in its place.”
What a shame they destroyed such a beautiful theater. Was it empty long before they demolished it?
Why was it demolished?
What is there now?
The organ at the Fox is known as the “Crawford Special” not the “Fox Special”.
More Brooklyn Fox trivia. There was one item in the Brooklyn Fox that was identical to the Saint Louis, Detroit and San Francisco Fox Theaters. All of them had identical WurliTzer pipe organs, known as “Fox Specials.” There were five of these instruments built, the first was for the New York Paramount Theater. You can see the console in the picture above at the left side of the orchestra pit.
These were the five largest instruments built for a theater by WurliTzer until 1932 when WurliTzer installed the organ in Radio City Music Hall. All of the Fox Specials, to my knowledge, had one fully working main console and a second slave console that looked like the main console, but only the keyboards were operable. The only installation by WurliTzer with two independently working consoles is the Radio City Music Hall. Two organists can actually play two independent piece of music utilizing the same pipes. (Wouldn’t probably sound too well, either!) Four of the Fox Specials survive, but sadly, the Brooklyn instrument was sold for parts.
WurliTzer spared no expense on these instruments. In addition to their 36 sets (ranks) of pipes, each organ had a set of 12d tune kettle drums which look like large wash tubs. Pity that there are no recordings of the Brooklyn Fox instrument known.
The two above photos of the Fox Brooklyn Theatre are available on eBay under Fox Theatre.
I never heard of the two films that were playing there. The closed view is sad, another lost palace.
C.Howard Crane did not design the San Francisco Fox or the Atlanta Fox. Eve Leo did however have carte blanche to decorate the San Francisco Fox.
The above photo submitted by J.F. Lundy is definitely not circa 1951. It is very late 1946 or very early 1947. I verified this by the release dates of the films listed on the marquees. On the FOX marquee is “THE JOLSON STORY†with Larry Parks and Evelyn Keyes (10/10/46). On the RKO ORPHEUM marquee is John Garfield and Geraldine Fitzgerald in “NOBODY LIVES FOREVER†(11/1/46) and “PLAINSMAN AND THE LADY†(11/11/46). The MOMART marquee appears to the left of the Orpheum’s, but the lettering is not legible enough.
This exact photo appeared on the cover of a 1999 calendar devoted to Brooklyn’s theaters of the past and the marquee lettering was more legible than on the internet photo. However, if you enlarge the internet photo, the marquee lettering becomes legible enough to see that THE JOLSON STORY is indeed playing at the FOX.
This photo looks down Flatbush Avenue circa 1951. Trolleys were gone from late spring ‘51. Shows FOX marquee and vertical which were colored faded copper color at this time.
Brooklyn Public Library link
The fact remains that none of the movie palaces survived as theatres. The buildings have been altered to serve other purposes. The Paramount auditorium is a gym- and the Metropolitan has become a church.
I remember admiring the beautiful interior of this grand theatre.
What a shame that not one of the movie palaces in that area survied.
Omitted from all of the above comments was what the Brooklyn Fox was best noted for and this their “Amateur Night”
From November 1929 to October 1933, WFOX licensed to Paramount Broadcasting Corporation (1400 on the dial) was on-the-air with studios at 1 Nevins Street.
The ANNUAL of the Theatre Historical Soc. for 1982, “The Brooklyn Fox” is Report No. 8 (in a series of 10) by the Historic American Buildings Survey of the Department of the Interior. It is reprinted in its entirety in this ANNUAL NO. 9 by architect A. Craig Morrison in 1971. The Report there lists the FOX to have been at 20 Flatbush Ave. (not “10”) and the address of its surrounding office building to have been: 1 Nevins St. It also relates under “Alterations and Additions” that in 1934 William Fox’s 8th floor apartment became radio station WBNY. Within the 50-page softcover publication are 44 pages of dense text describing all surfaces in the theater.
Of note in the descriptions is a statement on page 40, column 2, paragraph 2: “Above the foliated semicircular top of the ‘boss,’ there was an acanthus crown from which sprouted a burst of voluted foliation atop which perched a very large, long-necked bird with wings outspread, perhaps meant to represent a phoenix.” The photo of this area on page 28 (left) shows the bird in question to have been a CORMORANT, a species of oriental diving bird. This is the only significant error of description I have found in the multi-thousand word text.
For those wanting this publication, it is still available from the Society:
PHOTOS AVAILABLE:
To obtain any available Back Issue of either “Marquee” or of its ANNUALS, simply go to the web site of the THEATRE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA at:
www.HistoricTheatres.org
and notice on their first page the link “PUBLICATIONS: Back Issues List” and click on that and you will be taken to their listing where they also give ordering details. The “Marquee” magazine is 8-1/2x11 inches tall (‘portrait’) format, and the ANNUALS are also soft cover in the same size, but in the long (‘landscape’) format, and are anywhere from 26 to 40 pages. Should they indicate that a publication is Out Of Print, then it may still be possible to view it via Inter-Library Loan where you go to the librarian at any public or school library and ask them to locate which library has the item by using the Union List of Serials, and your library can then ask the other library to loan it to them for you to read or photocopy. [Photocopies of most THSA publications are available from University Microforms International (UMI), but their prices are exorbitant.]
Note: Most any photo in any of their publications may be had in large size by purchase; see their ARCHIVE link. You should realize that there was no color still photography in the 1920s, so few theatres were seen in color at that time except by means of hand tinted renderings or post cards, thus all the antique photos from the Society will be in black and white, but it is quite possible that the Society has later color images available; it is best to inquire of them.
Should you not be able to contact them via their web site, you may also contact their Executive Director via E-mail at:
Or you may reach them via phone or snail mail at:
Theatre Historical Soc. of America
152 N. York, 2nd Floor York Theatre Bldg.
Elmhurst, ILL. 60126-2806 (they are about 15 miles west of Chicago)
Phone: 630-782-1800 or via FAX at: 630-782-1802 (Monday through Friday, 9AM—4PM, CT)
I think you are mistaken here in regard to the Rock n Roll shows. They started in 1955 and lasted through April 1966 when the Fox was opened for one last engagement that Easter. The Fox had closed the first week of February with “Where The Spies Are”. There were about four to five shows per year during that 12 year period. The engagements in the earlier days lasted 10 days. Some shows were held in the N.Y. Paramount as well. The grosses for these 10 day engagements reached $180,000 (crushing even the best of Broadway grosses for these weeks. I don’t believe any of the film engagements for those years at the two Brooklyn houses ever grossed more than $30,000-$40,000 a week. So that’s why the rock n roll shows are remembered fondly. 12 to 15 singers/groups performed 5 times a day for 10 days (with some “acts” they came in for a few days at a time). I doubt any of today’s recording stars would be able to fill the shoes of or have that much stamina for that kind of a grind show. The Fox was demolished in 1971/2 shortly after the filming of the George C. Scott/Joanne Woodward film “THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS” in 1971.
I too remember the Rock & Roll shows at both theaters. Yes, both theaters were the epitome of architectual splendor and a cultural masterpiece. However, both seem to serve an ironic purpose. The Brooklyn Paramount in the early 50,s ushered in the beginning of the Rock and Roll era. When the Paramount became an edifice for higher learning, The Fox became the new melting pot for Rock & Roll shows and sadly, not by its own doing, ushered in the end, if you will, of that era in the early 70,s. A tiny percentange? I think not.
Warren…. really? Suzie
I just remember the Rock and Roll shows I saw… the best… they went on for hours with so many performers…Suzie