Trump Cinema
490 Neptune Avenue,
Brooklyn,
NY
11224
490 Neptune Avenue,
Brooklyn,
NY
11224
5 people
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Trump Cinema protests
Trump Cinema XXX protest Thu, Feb 24, 1977 – 322 · Daily News (New York, New York) · Newspapers.com
Two advertisements added to photo section
Papa did demolish the Tuxedo Theatre on Ocean Parkway to build part of his Trump Village though.
This is named after his father Fred, not the Donald.
Status should now be listed as demolished, as that section of the shopping center has been torn down to make way for a new apartment complex.
I added a photo (see Photos) of what the site of the Trump Cinema looks like today(1/14/2015) : A small Radio Shack store -which is currently liquidating after being at that location at 490 Neptune Avenue for 36+ years. This is due to all stores in the half century old Trump Village Shopping Center closing in anticipation of the center’s soon to be confirmed demolition. Soon (if all the rumors are true) the entire shopping center -which once included The Trump Cinema will be demolished. (took pix of it today- before it’s gone as I grew up there with such stores as Shluker’s Bakery, Sea Garden Diner, Jade Pagoda, My Place Pizza (now Rocco’s) and of course our tiny movie theater, the Trump Cinema…too bad no pix of the Trump Cinema …but remember film was costly back then..not like the snap and delete convenience of digital.)
Anyway (it took me long enough), getting back to the Trump. The entire introduction is wrong. The Trump Cinema was opened in 1968 with Zeiss Ikon 16mm projectors as a prototype for its owner, Automated Theatres of America. They, like Jerry Lewis, sold “turn key” theatre packages. The main difference between them and Jerry Lewis theatres is that ATA franchises were all equipped with Zeiss Ikon 16mm projectors and NOT 35mm.
Obviously, there wasn’t room for ONE theatre franchise company, let alone two and sometime in 1970 they sold the theatre to Ted Morse, whose brother in-law managed the theatre. Realizing they couldn’t get many current pictures in 16mm, I installed 35mm projection equipment for them in 1971. The “red” automation “start” button referred to was NEVER used from day one and I disconnected it when I installed the 35mm projectors, but it remained on the wall of the box office. They had union projectionists from the day the theatre opened, until the day it closed, which I believe was some time around 1977. In addition, it was nowhere near the site of the old Tuxedo Theatre.
Thats funny techman so the “Dumps” got the better original format,how ironic.
There seems to be a lot of mis-information about the Trump Cinema. It opened in late 1968 and was the “prototype” 16mm theatre of Automated Theatres Of America. They sold the theatre to the owner of the Card Shop in the shopping center. Because getting a continuous supply of 16mm current features wasn’t reliable
the new owner converted the projection equipment to run standard 35mm films, starting with the re-release of The Ten Commandments. It had absolutely nothing to do with union projectionists, which the theatre had from the day it opened (automated or not) until it closed.
This theatre had NOTHING to do with Jerry Lewis Cinemas. There was a Jerry Lewis Cinema in New York, but in was located in a strip mall in Rockaway. It burned downed and was reopened as a twin, then a third theatre was added shortly later.
Sounds like it was a great little dump.
What as tiny horible dump this was. The screen was so small, it was like watching a movie in someone’s living room. I think I was there one time to see a double-feature of “Don’t Look Now” and “Bang the Drum Slowly.” I’m not surprised to hear that is gone, no great loss.
I grew up in Warbasse across from Trump Village and I think this tiny theater -which existed only nine years from 1969-1978, was more a victim of “Pay TV” once Warbasse and Trump got HBO, the Trump Cinema went XXX. Still as a kid growing up…this was sort of our neighborhood’s own,private theater.
the toilet was behind the screen, so everybody saw you when you had to go use it
I grew up in (and with) Trump Village from the day I was born in 1964 through the mid-80’s. I look back now from this nice house and “neighborhood” in the suburbs and think, “Man, what a great place to have been a kid.” With all that we have now, I really wish my kids could experience half the adventures and half the spontaneity we had in Brighton Beach/Coney Island and, in particular, in Trump, that Jewish ghetto by the sea. Between the beach, the parks, the street games, the public transportation, the thousands of kids in Trump and in the surrounding neighborhoods, and all the energy and excitement only the streets of New York can offer, it was an amazing place. My clearest memory of the Trump Cinema, aside from the short time it turned into a XXX theater, was as a 7 year old, picketing outside the theater with my older brother (by 2 years) and his (our) friends. We were “protesting” because they wouldn’t let us in to see “Billy Jack.” We went back three days in a row after school and really thought they’d eventually let us in. Never happened. The theater was as small as described in other posts, but for us it was magical, a place our parents could drop us off to see the newest kids' movies and cartoons. Really cool to have found this site. Mitch
The address should be 490 Neptune, per an old city directory listing as well as the current listing for Radio Shack.
I saw my first movie here, The Wilderness Family. The last movie I remember seeing in this theater was The Towering Inferno when I was a kid and all I want to be was a fireman. My grandmother used to sell the popcorn.
The screen in this theatre was UP on the wall! Since it was so small and the rows of seats went right up close to the screen, the screen was put up higher on the wall.
You had to look up to see it, and had a pain in the neck by the end of the movie.
The screen also had a really bad curtain that came DOWN over it. You could see the bottom of the screen between the rounded parts of the bottom of the curtain.
I saw PHASE IV at this theatre.
There was a POPCORN machine for snacks.
The theatre doors were CHAINED from the outside when it went XXX. Do not know all the circumstances.
The Trump Cinema…named after Donalds father who developed middle class housing was a tiny theater that stood in a strip mall on Neptune AV. in Coney Island. This theater was SMALL< and if it sat 250 people, it was a lot.The average theater on a cruise ship is at least two and a half times bigger!It opened in the spring of 1969. A hardware store once stood there. It was plain to the extreme, and snacks wetre dispensed by vending machine. Even though it resembled an “art house” from NYs Upper West Side, people called it a hole in the wall.Remember seing Bonnie and Clyde here long after it opened. I also saw The Longest Day for the Twenty fifth anniversary of D Day. The last film I saw here was THE Sorrow And The Pity with my friend Jerry D who lived in the housing development. This was in early 1975. They showed porn after that and eventually it closed.
This theatre was a hardware store before it was the Trump Cinema.
As any former Trump Village resident will tell you, the last movies (XXX) played there.. and ONLY XXX played there were “Sweet Cakes” and “Honey Pies”