Flatbush Theatre

The organ in the Flatbush was an early Wurlitzer, their opus 59 (out of a total of 2234 organs). The factory records show a Style “V” – vee, not roman numeral 5 – the first of 26 Style V instruments built over the next 3 years. The V was a fairly small instrument for a house of this size; 2 manuals and 8 ranks of pipes, lacking the distinctive Tibia Clausa which became the iconic sound of the Mighty Wurlitzer organ.

Hostile Country is 1950 … I believe this photo is ‘51

Jerry DeRosa began his theater career in 1920 as assistant manager of the B.S. Moss Flatbush Theatre before moving on to manage Moss’s Cameo Theatre on Eastern Parkway and the Colonial in the Eastern District.
In 1928 he became manager of Loew’s Paradise in the Bronx where he died at his desk in October 1945.

On 30 July 1920 Keith’s took over B. S. Moss theaters including Flatbush for Vaudeville and movies. See story at link:
View link

someone recently thought the Flatbush was just plays and vaudville..no growing up during ww2…………

on a satuday we would go at 10 or 11am for cartoon then 3 short like stooges……then the coming attractions………then 5h3 first movie………..the lights would go up on the stage and there would be several acts of vaudville……..then the lights dimmed and another movie………..by the end it would be six or more and mom never let us stay for one more showing……..

ALL 4 A PRICE OF THIRTEEN (13) cents!!!!!!!

yes, the develins and the kennedys lived there then……
erasmus was the school and loved garfield because u could see the old dudes going in and getting a ticket and getting water filled[free glass} and putting kettchup[into glass] and waiting for the next class we chattened ………………too long ago…..it was ritzE burbs when the kennedys crossed the divide of downtownB'K and moved to midwood st…………..we moved thru bk as the subwaywas built……….what happened to the granada theatre,,,,,anyone…..
that was on church av near nostrand av???? over

William Brandt opened his first theater in 1908. During WW2 he began a series of live theater presentations called the “Subway Circuit”.
These were featured during the summer months at the Windsor Theater in the Fordham section of the Bronx and the Flatbush Theater in Brooklyn. At times the Jamaica Theater in Queens and the Asbury Park Theater in Asbury Park, New Jersey were part of the circuit. At the end of the 1951 season, George Brandt, William’s son and producer of the shows, announced that due to escalating labor costs the shows would end as the box office receipts could no longer bear the costs.
In 1942 William Brandt told an interviewer that he put the shows on as a personal joy, to give ordinary people a chance to see live theater at a price they could afford, in in some cases only .25 cents.

Here is a photo taken circa 1950 of the Flatbush Theater.

[url=http://brooklynpix.com/photo1/F/flatbush58.jpg]

The 6000 class trolleys were shortly afterwards replaced by the streamlined 1000 Century class cars.

Warren; Many thanks for posting that great vintage photograph on July 22 2005. It was not until I saw it that I now realise the current furniture store is in the former stage house and was not the main entrance to the theatre.

The furniture store operates out of the former stage house, so obviously there is no decorative detail inside that part of the building, although rather unusually for a theatre stage house, there is some nice decorative brickwork on this section of the building). The block to the left could be the remains of the auditorium or a replacement building, it is difficult to say. I would think it strange to demolish a theatre auditorium and leave the stage house standing? But then strange things do happen!

Here is a photograph I took of the Flatbush Theatre in June 2006:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kencta/204345017/

The Flatbush theatre was very attractive and had a large stage. The acoustics were very good.

Was this a sub-run house?