Tracking Brooklyn's Old Movie Theaters

from Curbed:

The "Subway Circuit" isn't something that is going to go wrong tonight with some signals to screw up the 4 Train. It's what the Brooklyn theater circuit used to be called. There were so many at one time that the Times once called Fulton Street and Flatbush Avenue "a regional attraction to rival Times Square." Windsor Terrace blogger Icky in Brooklyn offers a trip down memory lane to places like the Albee Theater, the Paramount, the Flatbush and the Oceana. Plus, updates on their fate: the Oceana in Brighton Beach is now a Russian nightclub/dinner theatre, the Paramount is the gym at Long Island University, the Albee fell for the Albee Square Mall which is falling for the big City Point highrise and mall. And the Flatbush's stage is a carpet store. The fate of another Brooklyn landmark theater, the Loew's Kings on Flatbush Avenue, meanwhile, is still up in the air.

The Subway Circuit {Icky in Brooklyn}
Loews Kings Theater: Is There Hope? {Brooklyn Junction}

Whilst researching my addendum to this post, I stumbled upon a wonderful website called Cinema Treasures. Launched in December 2000, Cinema Treasures is a groundbreaking website devoted to movie theater preservation and awareness. Utilising the community-building capabilities of the world wide internetweb, Cinema Treasures unites movie theater owners and enthusiasts in a common cause—to save the last remaining movie palaces across the country. Word.


Now playing in theater 2: Overpriced Blank T-shirts. For months, the marquee outside the shuttered Flatbush Avenue Pavillion theater said "Aliens Mourn Waning Fashion."


Opened in June of 1927, the Marboro served Bensonhurst for 75 years. It was closed by United Artists Theatres on July 2, 2002 and demolished in May of 2007. I saw The Doors movie there.



The old Loews Oriental on 86th Street. It's now a ramshackle Marshalls. Saw a lot of movies at this jernt back in the day. Never found anything good at the Marshalls though.



Below is/was 7120 3rd Avenue, "The Bay Ridge Theater". It is now a McDonalds downstairs and a NYSC gym upstairs. For years after they stopped showing movies it was a Bingo Hall and I think they did Golden Gloves there once and a while, too.





Unfortunately, I couldn't find a picture of the old Fortway on 67th and Fort Hamilton Parkway. When it opened in 1928, the theatre had a beautiful atmospheric interior. Electric stars used to twinkle on the dark blue ceiling. The Fortway originally had a Kilgen theatre organ. There was a small stage in front of the proscenium. The theatre was divided into a multiplex in the 1970's and turned to shit in the years that followed. The Fortway was famous for the cheap movies in the summer because the AC wasn't working. The Fortway was closed by Loews Cineplex in June of 2005. It is now a mammoth Chinese supermarket where the sidewalk is violently hosed down bi-hourly.