Midway Theatre

The American Film Directory 1914-1915 has this listed as the Manhattan Theatre, a name it retained thru the 1930’s. By 1941 it had been re-named the Midway Theatre.

It is listed as the Midway Theatre in the Film Daily Yearbook;1957 edition but without a seating capacity being given, which usually indicates a theatre has closed (as mentioned by Lost Memory in his Oct 8 2005 posting above). Later the building was used as a factory. Looking at the site in June 2006, it is an empty plot of land awaiting developement

I just visited the site yesterday. While some construction has begun, it seems to have really bogged down. Seeing what I could through cracks in the wood fence, I saw some foundation work that had not been touched in quite a while. Even though the most recent building permit has not expired, I would not expect to see anything built here for a very long time. In the meantime, you can enjoy viewing a very old and hardly visible painted advertisement sign on the adjacent building’s wall.

If my father had not told me that a movie house stood on this site, I would never have known of the Midway. It was the first of Greenpoint’s theaters that survived beyond the silent era to close. Since I was born in 1950, a demise date of about that time seems about right.

The fact that a movie theater could have been situated at the extreme north end of this neighborhood – and in one of Greenpoint’s poorer districts – just underlines how localized the movies were in that now distant era. Even though that portion of Manhattan Ave. was busier when the Vernon Blvd. Bridge (now replaced by the Pulaski) linked it directly to Queens and what would become McGuinness Blvd. was a cobble stoned street, this was still far from the center of town.

Bway, thanks for that terrific picture.

The Astor Tool&Die Company was located at this location after the Midway closed.

I own a movie poster for the Midway Theater, it was on the back of a mirror that broke. The colors are red and black & the movies advertised are Flirtation Walk, The Dude Ranger, Cipher Bureau & Dawn Patrol.

The Brooklyn Theatre Index contains some interesting tidbits about this long lost theater. For one thing, a theater named the Manhattan Variety opened at this address in 1910 and, in 1913, changed its name to the Manhattan Theatre. In 1918, however, it appears that the old building was replaced by a new one. In 1938, the Manhattan became the Midway and continued to function as such until its cinematic demise in 1953, a few years later than I would have thought. …… One former name that the Index does NOT reference is the Eagle. Since this theater was situated near Manhattan Avenue’s intersection with Eagle Street, it is possible that the Eagle was an informal name used by the locals even if it never became official, in the same way that many kids refer to local parks by the street that borders them rather than by their official name. At least this is a good guess.