Stanley Theatre
7415 Fifth Avenue,
Brooklyn,
NY
11209
7415 Fifth Avenue,
Brooklyn,
NY
11209
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Isidor Goldmark (1893-1978) and his partner, Isidor (Irving) Gottlieb ran the Stanley, Electra, Center Theatres, Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.
The Phantom—
Thanks for the update and the news that Apple Bank has replaced the supermarket that replaced the theater. The photo shows that the bank has completely modernized the building, replacing the red granite exterior with apparent stonework.
I don’t believe that the marquee remained in the early ‘60s. The theater’s transformation into a supermarket occurred fairly rapidly after the theater closed in Spring '57. At least at that time, property in this area did not remain vacant for long.
There is a photo of the current site of the Stanley Theater on “ Bay Ridge Blog”
www.bayridgebrooklyn.blogspot.com
I may have seen the closed marquee of this theater, which would have to be in the 1960s ; I definitely did see it as a supermarket in the late 1960s and later on remember a Chase Manhattan Bank at this site.
Here’s a photo of the Stanley in 1944. It comes from Brian Merlis and Lee A. Rosenzweig, “Brooklyn’s Bay Ridge and Fort Hamilton: A Photographic Journey†(Brooklyn: Israelowitz Publishing, 2000), p. 126.
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The double feature on the marquee lists “Up in Arms†and “Yellow Canary.†Since the Danny Kaye feature opened at RCMH on 2 March of that year, the photo was likely shot in the following May or June.
Here’s a weekly program from the Stanley in 1955, dated exactly fifty years ago today, 24 April, 2005.
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“The Racers,†“The Country Girl,†and “Jupiter’s Darling†with their co-features were arriving at the Stanley at the very end of their initial release, as the first booking had already traveled through the RKO circuit and the other two through the Loew’s circuit. The remaining features were all revivals or “return engagements†of films ranging from one to ten or more years old. In the age before VCR or DVD, the Stanley was a great place to catch up on classics.
Warren—
You are exactly right again—I just located a cryptic statement that “The Stanley Theater was built in the 1920s as the Colonial Theater,” along with a photo of it(advertising “Up in Arms” on the marquee, therefore datable to late Spring ‘44),in Brian Merlis and Lee A. Rosenzweig, Brooklyn’s Bay Ridge and Fort Hamilton: A Photographic Journey, 1870-1970 (Brooklyn: Israelowitz Publishing, 1970), p. 126. The Stanley at 2075 86 Street was in the vicinity of the Bensonhurst Theater and Loew’s Oriental, no?, which doubtless overtook the area’s nickelodeons. Thanks for the bibliographical info about the Film Daily Yearbook—gotta take a look at those volumes.
I remember seeing “The Man With a Golden Arm” at the Stanley, at the age of fourteen, sitting in the balcony smoking cigarettes, thinking “Hey, this is great: this picture doesn’t have a Production Code Seal.” Who among us would today smoke cigarettes?
sorry for the typos — gotta remember to write my comments on WORD so that I can edit them and then transfer them to the screen — molto imbarazzato — Bill
Warren—
thanks for a rapid posting— all my remarks come from memory, so test them out. But you got the exact address right, AND the exact number of seats (my guess was good, huh?). We would have thought that “Stanley” spelled “Warner” circuit, but my hunch is that it had no connections—it was too small and idiosyncratic for circuitry. The Stanley had a mate, the Electra on 3rd Avenue and 75 Street. The latter was known as “the first motion picture theater in Bay Ridge, built in 1913.” By the ‘50s, the Electra was so independent that it showed pictures at an erratic schedule—recent product alternated with revivals and with foreign films (which none of the locals attended). I remember “Breaking Through the Sound Barrier”(Dab=vid Lean’s '52 paean to modernity) ans “Bonnie Prince Charlie” (with David Niven as trhe imposter) and “Man in the Dinghy” (everybody wondered who Liz Taylor’s new husband was, so they showed this Michael Wilding feature) and “La Ronde” (Ophuls! Ophu;s! Ophjus!) (in my youth, I pronounced the title as “La ROD-ne”) showed there. I guess that’s why it closed around '53, before wide-screen came in.