Gayety Theatre

18-22 Throop Avenue,
Brooklyn, NY 11206

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1907 post card view of the Gqyety Theatre, at 18 - 22 Throop Ave., Brooklyn, NY

The Gayety Theatre opened in 1892 and met its demise in 1932. During most of this time, it was one of Williamsburg’s major legitimate theaters, and also featured high class burlesque and - at times - Yiddish drama. The 1914-5 edition of the American Movie Pictures Directory lists the Gayety Theatre as one of its participants, as does the 1918 edition of the Graves Directory of Motion Pictures. (Much thanks to Cezar Del Valle of Brooklyn Theatre Index fame for this information.) Thus, while the Gayety Theatre mostly featured straight theater, it did - like the Lyric Theatre on neighboring Seigal Street - also feature some cinema during a portion of its very interesting life. Any other documentation of the Gayety’s cinematic history will be most appreciated.

Contributed by John Dereszewski

Recent comments (view all 1 comments)

johndereszewski
johndereszewski on July 9, 2011 at 7:15 am

This site is now occupied by a recently constructed apartment house. This, in turn, replaced whatever building occupied the site after the Gayety’s demolition.Except for its relatively brief use as a cinema during the 1910’s, the Gayety struggled on as a legitimate for most of its life. This probably worked to its fatal disadvantage during the 20’s and 30’s, when vaudevile “died' and there were all too many movie houses in the neighborhood.Finally, I found that I supplied the wrong zip code in the introduction. It should be 11206 – not 11211. (The address is situated very close to the boundary.) Sorry about this, and I hope this error will be corrected.

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