Avon 9th Street Theatre
289 9th Street,
Park Slope,
Brooklyn,
NY
11215
289 9th Street,
Park Slope,
Brooklyn,
NY
11215
7 people
favorited this theater
Showing 22 comments
The photo I posted does not look like the same building in the other 3 photos. But the current street view of 9th Street buildings is mostly the same as the 1940 photo. It’s probable the other Avon photos are of a different theatre.
June 14th 1940 photo added. Percy Loomis Sperr, photographer.
I loved this little theatre. My best friend,Victor,and I would go to the movies every Saturday – a double feature with several cartoons in the early 50s. I believe when we first went the the cost was 10 cents. It eventual went to 25. I remember seeing the the Four Horse of the Apocalypse starring Glenn Ford with my father there. It was one of the moview that shape my life-long philosophy.
I just posted three photos of this theater — one from the 1920’s, one from 1939 and one from circa 1970.
My Mom and Dad were from nearby Red Hook. They told me stories about going to the Avon and The Prospect which was a block away.
Neighborhood sub-runs, not affiliated with any of the major chains, would distribute cardboard posters among the local merchants for display in shop windows, announcing the features for the week. The posters were fairly ordinary, just print and no photos with the basic information. I don’t recall any listing of starting times as patrons were more than likely to walk-in in the middle of the feature.
Yes, Tinseltoes, it was a Sunday. I’m curious as to what movie was playing. Do you have a resource for that sort of info?
Are you still in Breooklyn?
Wow! I was about 10, it was December 7, 1941, the film (don’t what one) was interrupted and the manager (?) of the theatre announced the bombing of Pearl Harbor. It scared the heck out of me and I ran all the way home to my family. We were living in a brownstone near 5th Avenue and 5th Street. Anyone out there who was around in those days? I went to PS 39, at 417 6th Avenue, Brooklyn, NY. BTW PS 39 is now known as “The Henry Bristow Landmark School.” My daughters and I visited the school in May 2009. As a landmark school its exterior is just like it was when I attended. See http://www.ps39.org/ Any PS 39 alums out there?
Just discovered this site. I think my grandfather, Julius Charnow, may have owned or leased the Avon in the 1950’s. Does anyone know of a way to research this?
Thanks, in advance.
Films I remember seeing here: “By Love Possessed”, “Pal Joey”, Return to Peyton Place", “Road to Hong Kong”.
The Avon appears at 2:30 in this 1938 film.
The Endicott Circuit, operator of the Avon in 1970, was headquartered in the Avon Theater building. Endicott also ran theaters in the Bronx, Dobbs Ferry, Yonkers and Hastings-On-Hudson at the time.
Here is a movie shot in 1948 on 5th Ave and 9th Ave showing trolleys in last year of service. Car 1000, one of a kind PCC type of 1936 streamlined trolley, passes the Avon mid way through the film. Best guess it was shot in early January. UTUBE link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Gmxm_xboqk
Note shape of marquee at this time.
Warren—
That’s a terrific photo— It recalls the neighborhood as I knew it in the 1940s when my grandparents lived there— Thanks.
Yes, the new marquee went up in the early ‘50s. From visiting my grandparents in the neighborhood, I remember its predecessor, an very old-fashioned but quite elegant one. Despite its elegance, everyone still called the theater “The Tub o’ Blood,” as I noted in my post of 7 Aug. ‘04 above.
Man, I didn’t know the theater but what great programming in January 1970:
SAT….Eye of the Cat, Frankenstein Created Woman, Tickle Me (Elvis)
SUN & MON…..Daddy’s Gone A-Hunting, Tarzan Goes to India, Guns of the Magnificent7
TUES-THURS Films for Adults
FRI & SAT….The Ambushers (Dino/Matt Helm), Clambake (Elvis), Once Upon in the West……(tell mom you’ll be home late for this program)
Great stuff. It seems that the Banco also listed for Park Slope. Graham & Marcy in Williamsburg/Bushwick had the same type of programming. j
Here is the Avon when it played X
View link
I’ve identified this theater as one of a couple of possible locations of a theater that my grandfather, Louis Eisner, opened in Park Slope in 1916. I have only a fragment of a note he wrote about it. He was a professional photographer, and said the following:
“I had just gotten another business idea with the potential for bigger money. I sold the studio, put together $2,000, moved to Brooklyn and opened a movie theater in Park Slope. I was proud of the theater. It seated 600 and we had a big opening might party, complete with a five-piece woman orchestra. The place was packed every night. And then, another disaster. New York had an outbreak of infantile paralysis. Children were dying and the only thing doctors could say was to keep children out of crowds and stay home to avoid contagion."
The Avon, along with the Deluxe or Garfield are other possible choices, based on timing, location and size of the house. All ideas on this welcomed.
As a kid growing up in Park Slope,I often went to the Avon & the RKO Prospect. I loved the Avon because it always had a great double feature on the weekends. I can still remember seeing Jerry Lewis in “The Nutty Professor” along with Ann Margaret in “Bye Bye Birdie” at the Avon with my friends for only 50 cents.It was a smaller theatre than the Prospect but was still cozy.I have great memories of 9th street and those theatres. I even recall going to the locksmith next door to the Avon. I wonder if he is still there?
Locals called it “The Tub o' Blood,” because rumor went that in the ‘20s a gangland-style execution related to Prohibition took place there (during a Lillian Gish feature?). When I knew it in the '50s, it was quite cozy. It showed many terrific revivals and some foreign films, arty stuff of the sort that the Plaza on Park Slope was beginning to cash in on.
Additional photo of the marquee exist in the Post Office next door.
The Avon Theatre was located at 289 9th Street, it seated 573 people.