My guess is that the Liberty Theatre only had live shows perhaps Burlesque or live Yiddish plays like the Parkway (Rolland) on Eastern Parkway. It is the policy of Cinema Treasures not to list theatres that did not show motion pictures. At one time this site had the Parkway Theatre with some posts of mine but it was removed when they learned that it was not a motion picture house. I’m assuming the same format was at the Liberty. By the way, Liberty Av & Watkins Street in Brownsville has been in the confines of the Howard Houses since the early 1950’s.
To dvcomo – I disagree with you. I lived in Bayview Houses from 1956 to 1982. See my posting above from 7/7/05 where I say the SeaView Theatre opened around 1961 . I have an ad of Ben Hur (1959) playing there a year or so after it’s debut. Philip’s posting of 6/21/05 that he saw Soldier in the Rain (1963) there is way before 1967. The theatre was built with the shopping center not years after it. I remember going to Kress’s soda fountain after seeing a movie there and that was way before Star Value took over the Kress store which was around 1966 (the same time Food Fair became Pantry Pride). Any other Canarsie people out there that agree with me?
To Gustavelifting re your Feb 7, 2005 comment:“ I thought there was a fourth theater by Erasmus. Apparently there were only the Albemarle, the Rialto, and the Kings”. My response: Yes there was a fourth and a FIFTH too: add the Kenmore which was on Church Avenue and the Astor which was right next door.
The address on the top of this page puts the Sutter in East New York. This should be corrected to Brownsville. I remenmber seeing many Jerry Lewis films here in the early 1960’s. East 98 Street and the elevated IRT Line was considered the border between Brownsville and East Flatbush even though Brooklyn postal zone #12 (zip 11212) extends to Remsen Avenue. My family members lived in this area on Winthrop St, East 93 St and on Tapscott St. We shopped at the small neighborhood stores on Rutland Road and at Henry’s Department Store on Winthrop and East 94th. My grandfather lived in the Hebrew Home on Howard Av. I remember going to visit him and then going to a movie at the Ambassador on Saratoga Av. I also went to the Carroll and the Rugby. The neighborhood at that time was all Jewish.
Moondog, My mother (maiden name Brana Lerner) who is 91 years old, also lived on Park Street, at #37 from 1921-1926, when she was 8-12 years of age (did you know the family?). She remembers going with her family to this theatre which she knew as the Lyceum and seeing silent movies with Mary Pickford. She distinctly remembers the paino playing and it being underneath the stage. When she moved to Kosciusko St she used to go to the Lowes Broadway, Lowes Gates and RKO Bushwick and also the Sumner Theatre. She also remembers shopping at Batterman’s Department Store on Flushing and Broadway. She attended PS 129 on Quincy St and graduated in January 1929. She still has a report card and her autograph book from that time!
Wow! I started the day off by writing about this theatre which had no entries before, and after two pages of historical data gets posted, you are going to delete all this!!!! why ? just because no films were shown? If it is so necessary to be so particular about film and not about theatres themselves and their rich history, why not just create a separate section of theatres that did not show films, so that visitors to this great site can avail themselves of access to historial comments. It would be a real shame to delete this information. Someone researching Brownsville theatre history is not going to be concerned so much if fims rather than stage shows were presented, but with the fact that this and other theatres existed at all. There are not that many websites of this type that we can afford to be so particular.
In response to Muray’s 4/19 comment regarding Irvcohen’s posting of 3/24, the theatre in question was the Palace not the Premier. Click Palace theatre in the index to see some ineresting posts, also one about the Parkway theatre which I was writing about ealier today.
This was a Yiddish theatre in a heavily Jewish and Yiddish speaking neighborhood (right on the border of Brownsville and Crown Heights) during the period of its operation. It is amazing that the building is still standing and in good shape. Across the street was the famous Eastern Parkway Arena and the Brooklyn Women’s Hospital. My father always referred to this as the “Rolland” rather than the “Parkway” and I think you should list this also under that name in the index. I have a Parkway Theatre program from the 1940’s of a Yiddish show starring Maurice Schwartz. The other Yiddish theatre in the area was the Hopkinson. The center of Yiddish theatre in NYC at the time was on 2 Avenue in the Lower East Side.
Greenpoint, you are confusing the strip malls (we call them shopping centers) in this area. The SeaView Theatre was in the one closest to the Belt and opened around 1961 – the one that had Star Value City (originally Kress) in it for years. The theatre was located between Splendore’s Pizza on the left and Taub’s Foor Coverings on the right. The shopping center with Rite Aid and the now defunct King Arthur (not King David) Kosher Deli, is across Rockaway Parkway around the corner on Seaview Avenue and was built in 1955 as part of Bayview Houses. The Rite Aid store was never a theatre- it originally housed a supermerket and if my memory serves me right (I lived in Bayview from 1956-1982), started out as Sunrise, then Grand Union, Bohack, Packers, Met and Key Food before becoming a nite club in the late 70’s.
Seems that the original name for the Loews Kings was the Loews Tilden. Map from 1929 shows it thus.
My guess is that the Liberty Theatre only had live shows perhaps Burlesque or live Yiddish plays like the Parkway (Rolland) on Eastern Parkway. It is the policy of Cinema Treasures not to list theatres that did not show motion pictures. At one time this site had the Parkway Theatre with some posts of mine but it was removed when they learned that it was not a motion picture house. I’m assuming the same format was at the Liberty. By the way, Liberty Av & Watkins Street in Brownsville has been in the confines of the Howard Houses since the early 1950’s.
To dvcomo – I disagree with you. I lived in Bayview Houses from 1956 to 1982. See my posting above from 7/7/05 where I say the SeaView Theatre opened around 1961 . I have an ad of Ben Hur (1959) playing there a year or so after it’s debut. Philip’s posting of 6/21/05 that he saw Soldier in the Rain (1963) there is way before 1967. The theatre was built with the shopping center not years after it. I remember going to Kress’s soda fountain after seeing a movie there and that was way before Star Value took over the Kress store which was around 1966 (the same time Food Fair became Pantry Pride). Any other Canarsie people out there that agree with me?
Just thought of a SIXTH: the “Flatbush” on Church Av going the other way from the Kenmore
To Gustavelifting re your Feb 7, 2005 comment:“ I thought there was a fourth theater by Erasmus. Apparently there were only the Albemarle, the Rialto, and the Kings”. My response: Yes there was a fourth and a FIFTH too: add the Kenmore which was on Church Avenue and the Astor which was right next door.
The address on the top of this page puts the Sutter in East New York. This should be corrected to Brownsville. I remenmber seeing many Jerry Lewis films here in the early 1960’s. East 98 Street and the elevated IRT Line was considered the border between Brownsville and East Flatbush even though Brooklyn postal zone #12 (zip 11212) extends to Remsen Avenue. My family members lived in this area on Winthrop St, East 93 St and on Tapscott St. We shopped at the small neighborhood stores on Rutland Road and at Henry’s Department Store on Winthrop and East 94th. My grandfather lived in the Hebrew Home on Howard Av. I remember going to visit him and then going to a movie at the Ambassador on Saratoga Av. I also went to the Carroll and the Rugby. The neighborhood at that time was all Jewish.
Moondog, My mother (maiden name Brana Lerner) who is 91 years old, also lived on Park Street, at #37 from 1921-1926, when she was 8-12 years of age (did you know the family?). She remembers going with her family to this theatre which she knew as the Lyceum and seeing silent movies with Mary Pickford. She distinctly remembers the paino playing and it being underneath the stage. When she moved to Kosciusko St she used to go to the Lowes Broadway, Lowes Gates and RKO Bushwick and also the Sumner Theatre. She also remembers shopping at Batterman’s Department Store on Flushing and Broadway. She attended PS 129 on Quincy St and graduated in January 1929. She still has a report card and her autograph book from that time!
Wow! I started the day off by writing about this theatre which had no entries before, and after two pages of historical data gets posted, you are going to delete all this!!!! why ? just because no films were shown? If it is so necessary to be so particular about film and not about theatres themselves and their rich history, why not just create a separate section of theatres that did not show films, so that visitors to this great site can avail themselves of access to historial comments. It would be a real shame to delete this information. Someone researching Brownsville theatre history is not going to be concerned so much if fims rather than stage shows were presented, but with the fact that this and other theatres existed at all. There are not that many websites of this type that we can afford to be so particular.
In response to Muray’s 4/19 comment regarding Irvcohen’s posting of 3/24, the theatre in question was the Palace not the Premier. Click Palace theatre in the index to see some ineresting posts, also one about the Parkway theatre which I was writing about ealier today.
This was a Yiddish theatre in a heavily Jewish and Yiddish speaking neighborhood (right on the border of Brownsville and Crown Heights) during the period of its operation. It is amazing that the building is still standing and in good shape. Across the street was the famous Eastern Parkway Arena and the Brooklyn Women’s Hospital. My father always referred to this as the “Rolland” rather than the “Parkway” and I think you should list this also under that name in the index. I have a Parkway Theatre program from the 1940’s of a Yiddish show starring Maurice Schwartz. The other Yiddish theatre in the area was the Hopkinson. The center of Yiddish theatre in NYC at the time was on 2 Avenue in the Lower East Side.
Greenpoint, you are confusing the strip malls (we call them shopping centers) in this area. The SeaView Theatre was in the one closest to the Belt and opened around 1961 – the one that had Star Value City (originally Kress) in it for years. The theatre was located between Splendore’s Pizza on the left and Taub’s Foor Coverings on the right. The shopping center with Rite Aid and the now defunct King Arthur (not King David) Kosher Deli, is across Rockaway Parkway around the corner on Seaview Avenue and was built in 1955 as part of Bayview Houses. The Rite Aid store was never a theatre- it originally housed a supermerket and if my memory serves me right (I lived in Bayview from 1956-1982), started out as Sunrise, then Grand Union, Bohack, Packers, Met and Key Food before becoming a nite club in the late 70’s.