2jakes
I'll Lock Up
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- Alamo Heights ☀️ Texas
The past....
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Cinemas and theaters
- Thread starter Radiospector
- Start date
2jakes
I'll Lock Up
- Messages
- 9,680
- Location
- Alamo Heights ☀️ Texas
The Future...
Last edited:
Formeruser012523
Call Me a Cab
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- null
2jakes
I'll Lock Up
- Messages
- 9,680
- Location
- Alamo Heights ☀️ Texas
We had two theaters downtown similar to this one. The usher in uniform carried a small flashlight.
LizzieMaine
Bartender
- Messages
- 33,055
- Location
- Where The Tourists Meet The Sea
The People's Cinema, Saratoga and Livonia Avenues, Brownsville, Brooklyn USA.
As the name suggests this was the place for Brooklyn comrades to go for the best in Popular Front "message movies" of the Era. Positively no Hearst newsreels shown. Conveniently located on the IRT New Lots Elevated line!
You might be careful going to a nighttime show, though. The candy store directly across the street was the headquarters for Murder, Incorporated. If Lepke says "Hello" you better be sure to smile back.
As the name suggests this was the place for Brooklyn comrades to go for the best in Popular Front "message movies" of the Era. Positively no Hearst newsreels shown. Conveniently located on the IRT New Lots Elevated line!
You might be careful going to a nighttime show, though. The candy store directly across the street was the headquarters for Murder, Incorporated. If Lepke says "Hello" you better be sure to smile back.
- Messages
- 16,870
- Location
- New York City
Bound Brook NJ was a few towns over from where I grew up and when I was a kid, occasionally, on one of our movie outings, my grandmother and I would go to the movie theater there which was old, run down but still cool. Some internet searching this morning produced this info (which I think Lizzie will enjoy, especially the Vaudeville detail) and these pics:
From Wikipedia:
Brook Arts Center, formerly Brook Theatre (opened 19 January 1927), is a historic theater in Bound Brook, New Jersey.[4] It was designed by William E. Lehman.[5] Originally a 1,300-seat vaudeville house, the theater was the hub of a theater district serving surrounding towns and counties. As motion pictures took over in the 1930s, the theater became a performing arts center and first-run movie house, operating until the floods of 1999 and 2007 required extensive rebuilding.[2]
The theater is notable for its contributions to Bound Brook and remains the only surviving vaudeville theater in Somerset County.[2] It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2014.[1]
Love this pick
What I remember it looking like in the early '70s - but not with as fresh a sign - when I was going (although the car peaking out says this pic is later than that which probably accounts for the newer looking sign)
This looks fresher than when I was going / the seats were threadbare in the '70s.
From Wikipedia:
Brook Arts Center, formerly Brook Theatre (opened 19 January 1927), is a historic theater in Bound Brook, New Jersey.[4] It was designed by William E. Lehman.[5] Originally a 1,300-seat vaudeville house, the theater was the hub of a theater district serving surrounding towns and counties. As motion pictures took over in the 1930s, the theater became a performing arts center and first-run movie house, operating until the floods of 1999 and 2007 required extensive rebuilding.[2]
The theater is notable for its contributions to Bound Brook and remains the only surviving vaudeville theater in Somerset County.[2] It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2014.[1]
Love this pick
What I remember it looking like in the early '70s - but not with as fresh a sign - when I was going (although the car peaking out says this pic is later than that which probably accounts for the newer looking sign)
This looks fresher than when I was going / the seats were threadbare in the '70s.
LizzieMaine
Bartender
- Messages
- 33,055
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- Where The Tourists Meet The Sea
Bound Brook was a notable town for hosting the 640-foot transmitting tower for NBC's Blue network flagship station WJZ. Something about "unusually conductive soil" there.
2jakes
I'll Lock Up
- Messages
- 9,680
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- Alamo Heights ☀️ Texas
Hoooray for Hollywood!
Standing room only!
Standing room only!
2jakes
I'll Lock Up
- Messages
- 9,680
- Location
- Alamo Heights ☀️ Texas
"Pidgins"...now playin'
- Messages
- 16,870
- Location
- New York City
Link to many good theater marquee pics:
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articl...8_weekly)&mc_cid=8e191fef39&mc_eid=cd91324efb
A couple of my favorites from the link:
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articl...8_weekly)&mc_cid=8e191fef39&mc_eid=cd91324efb
A couple of my favorites from the link:
Bahahaha. They're praying for somebody, anybody to buy a ticket. I'll leave it at that.
- Messages
- 16,870
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- New York City
Funny, I didn't even notice the movie - just liked the overall architecture of the marque and building.
LizzieMaine
Bartender
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We don't enforce R ratings on anything. If anyone under the age of 60 comes to our place, we roll out the red carpet.
Meanwhile, here's one of our vanished predecessors.
B. F. Keith, founder of the Keith time -- one of vaudeville's better circuits in the 1910s -- was a New England boy, and his pruny influence was strongly felt in the region's theatrical evolution. He had a rule that performers could not use any chancy language on his stages -- saying "hully gee" in a comedy routine was enough to get an act canned. So you can imagine how "refined" the Photo Plays were.
This theatre evolved into the Park Theatre in the 1920s, and subsequently the Knox Theatre in the 1940s before evolving into a parking lot and a cinder-block supermarket in the 1960s, and a Rite Aid and place for poor old rummies to buy "nip bottles" of cinnamon-flavored whiskey in the 1990s. B. F. Keith would not be pleased.
Meanwhile, here's one of our vanished predecessors.
B. F. Keith, founder of the Keith time -- one of vaudeville's better circuits in the 1910s -- was a New England boy, and his pruny influence was strongly felt in the region's theatrical evolution. He had a rule that performers could not use any chancy language on his stages -- saying "hully gee" in a comedy routine was enough to get an act canned. So you can imagine how "refined" the Photo Plays were.
This theatre evolved into the Park Theatre in the 1920s, and subsequently the Knox Theatre in the 1940s before evolving into a parking lot and a cinder-block supermarket in the 1960s, and a Rite Aid and place for poor old rummies to buy "nip bottles" of cinnamon-flavored whiskey in the 1990s. B. F. Keith would not be pleased.
