Kingsway Theatre

EcRocker on January 30, 2009 at 10:14 pm

Just to put an end to Brownstone limestone dispute. Lets just call it what it should be called. A ROW house.

Oh no not Mrs Stahls. They were the last of a dying breed. I sometimes used to walk from where I lived in Luna Park on W 8st to get knishes. Could it be that they moved to another location? I seem to recall a while back that the property owner was looking to put another building in it’s place. I saw something on www.Coneyisland.com that Mrs Stahls may have been sold and turned in to a pizza place. The original owners must have been feeling the pinch of the area being overun by the russians. I lived in the Coney Island ,Brighton Beach area most of my life and it makes you wonder if you are going to need a passport to be there. he last time I was upp in the area in 2004 the Luna Park Housing Complex was about 95% Russian occupied including the current board of directors. Even the area where the former Kingsway was is a mix of Russian and Asian.

tribby on January 16, 2009 at 3:34 am

I just discovered this site by accident, but a good accident. The Kingsway brings back so many memories. I used to live on E. 7th Street between Ave. R and Ave. S, so it was real close. After whatever movie we saw, we would go to Quickway Pizza on E. 10th and Kings Highway. I remember seeing Dr. No and From Russia With Love on a rainy Saturday. I also remember seeing a movie I shouldn’t have seen with my younger cousin. The movie was Boy Did I Get The Wrong Number, with Bob Hope and Elke Summer (sigh). I was 11 and she was 8, and our parents warned me not to see that movie, there were movies more suitable for us. Well, we went anyway and I got in a lot of trouble, but for an 11 year old boy to see Elke Summer in a bath, not nude of course, it was worth it!!

EcRocker on January 3, 2009 at 7:32 am

I don’t know why my last post in here seems to be missing.

Once again I say who cares what type house it is. It’s just a building where people live. I am not asking for world peace just a little CT peace for 2009. I think most if not all of us are adults and there is no need to have a pissing contest of a bunch of bricks.

Happy New Year to all in 2009

Broadwaychris on January 2, 2009 at 5:23 am

For fear of reprising what appears to be an avalanche of misdirected psychological projection, I’m hesitant to answer Mr. bmovie again, however, that building found here… View link is not a brownstone by any stretch. Not a “Limestone” either.
Now, I’m sure the guy who was kind enough to host this lovely site didn’t go through all that trouble to have his site serve as a vehicle for blustery, spam-like ramblings and I won’t help you continue to litter the joint up. So, I say so long, enjoy the pictures in your head and again, there weren’t any “Brownstones” in that neighborhood.
Buh-bye

bmovies on December 16, 2008 at 4:37 pm

“The neighborhood was well kept and all the homes (mostly 1 family) all clean and well taken care of. This did not look like a poor neighborhood at all.”

I recall East 13th street. :–) I had friends (and bullies) living there. True it didnt LOOK poor. Just average. Indeed some people there seemed to be doing better than on my street. I do recall a mix of single family homes and apartment buildings.

I also recall the little grocery store there on East 13th. I also remember a synagogue on East 13th (this is different from the Jewish center on Ave. P and 12th). I recall right next door to the synagogue was an old private house. That old house it seemed was not occupied by anyone. As the years passed, it would deteriorate and no one would come and repair it. Inside the first floor of the house, you could see inside somewhat, and there was nothing but cardboard boxes piled high, but obviously filled with something. Due to its creepy loook and feel, that house gained the reputation as the neighborhood “haunted house” (not because it was actually haunted, but because thats how kids are).

Eventually, that old house burned down to the ground. I personally watched the firefighters fight that fire. As the firefighters battled the blaze, I remember one of the neighborhood bullies giving some guy his version of events on how he discovered the fire and the guy was writing it all down in his little notebook (no doubt the guy was a police or fire investigator). I overheard the bully tell this guy how as he was playing ball, his ball went over into the driveway of the house, he went to retrieve it, and saw that the house was burning, so he went and called the fire department.

His version of events completely struck me as a bunch of BS. As I’ve NEVER known this kid to play ball. And what kind of game with a ball, he never specified (basketball, football, baseball, stickball, handball?). Plus, he used the word “ball” so damn much. “I was playing ball, my ball went over, I went to get my ball”, etc. Which made ME suspicious. I assumed that he was the one who set the fire. I wondered if the investigator was buying that kids story. Anyways, doing a google street view on that property lot reveals that its now occupied by a apartment house of 6 apartments (3x3).

“I also went to P.S. 238 from K – 8th grade from 1952 – 1960. Then to James Madison H.S. I remember at P.S. 238 you would hang out in the schoolyard until a whistle blew & then you had to line up by class. There were 2 big yards. One for boys on the north end and one for girls on the south side. These were for the older grades. The younger grades were in a smaller middle yard between the other two.”

Now that brings back a memory! I didnt go to 238 for that long. Just from grades 2-5. But when I went there, they were still doing that: made us hang out in the schoolyard untill the whistle blew, and then lining up by class. I do not recall which yard was for which classes, but I do recall that by the time I went to 238, they werent segregating us by boys and girls anymore. The girls in our class were in our line with us.

I recall one classmate, I was in the same class with him from 2-5, all those years. We never spoke one word to each other all those years. Not out of animosity, but because we just never got together.

In the 5th grade, our teacher mentioned, in an offhand comment, that this kid was in the tv show Sesame Street. All us kids stared at him as if he had a second head growing out of his shoulder. I had watched Sesame Street from time to time, but didnt remember him. That afternoon, after school had let out, I went straight home and turned on Sesame Street. About 15-30 minutes had passed and sure enough, there he was with his little brother runinng around in a taped segment. I couldnt believe that I had watched Sesame Street all that time, and had been classmates with this kid all those years, but didnt notice the similarity between him and one of the kids on that show up untill now. On subsequent shows I watched as he appeared in other segments of the program.

“I remember there was a real small park called Sgt. Joyce Kilmer Square at the intersection of Kings Highway, Quentin Rd. and E. 12th St.”

Yep, that small park was there when I was a kid, and, going by gogle street view, its still there today.

“E. 12th St. did not have brownstones in the same sense as in Manhattan or Brooklyn Heights.”

Okay, my place was a Brooklyn type brownstone. :–)

“These were 1 family attached homes made of brick with steps & porches.”

Again, here is my old place:

View link

This is not a one family house. This is a 2 family apartment house. The same with the places on either side. (I ought to know, I’ve seen them from the inside as well as the outside, as I made friends with the people who lived in them).

Here is how its listed on NYC property website:

Building Class: B1 – Two-family dwelling

Construction Type: Brick
Year Built: 1910
Exterior Wall: Masonry

According to that site, the current worth of that property is 676 thousand. It certainly doesnt look like its worth that much and I wonder IF it still is infested with cockroaches.

“On the corner of E. 12th St. and Ave. P was a Jewish Center where I would go to play Bingo with my mother”

The Jewish center I remember. I went inside all of a couple of times. I mostly played outside it. We kids loved the front steps, which sometimes we wouldnt bother going up or down. We pretty much would try to lift ourselves up, or climbed down from, the landing, without using the steps.

bmovies on December 2, 2008 at 5:50 pm

By the way Broadwaychris, you write: “Like BdwyPhil, I too worked there in the late 70’s, early 80’s as an usher, I ‘barked’, was ‘head usher’ and had the time of my life there. Someone who commented about seeing "old costumes” from the backstage area being tossed into dumpsters is talking out of their tukkus- there were no ‘old costumes’ anywhere in that theatre"

Could it be that was because the “old costumes” had been thrown out long before you first began working there? After all, you mention working there in the late 70s-early 80s, and the guy who claimed to have thrown out old costumes didnt give a date as to when he worked there. The theater opened in 1921, a time when they, among other movie theaters, showed live vaudeville acts as well as movies.

What I’m curious about is what kind of vaudeville acts appeared at the Kingsway (any famous ones like Fanny Brice, WC Fields, the Marx Brothers, Ed Wynn, etc), and when the Kingsway stopped having live vaudeville acts altogether, and just showed movies.

bmovies on December 2, 2008 at 11:01 am

“bmovies seems to have status issues,”

What are status issues? If thats anything like calling me a liar, I don’t appreciate it. (Someone from Brooklyn went to College, and it wasnt me)

“that aside, it wasn’t a ‘very poor’ neighborhood”

It sure as hell was. I was poor, my downstairs neighbors were poor, my family, and the downstairs neighbors were welfare cases. Alot of the people in the apartment buildings near the corners were poor (one family down the block I recall I was friends with. They had mattresses on the floor, no beds. Very little furniture. Even we welfare cases had more furniture. And as for toys for their kids, I dug into my toy collection so that they could have some. Over time they would add some furniture here and there to their apartment). The kids around the corner were poor, etc. Alot of people on the block were struggling by. There were some homeowners (with single family homes) on the block, but most people were renters. Not all, but alot of people on my street didnt have much money, if any at all.

I do not know what’s the financial makeup of the neighborhood today, but back then it was POOR, we were POOR. The fact that this was the recession era 70s didnt help either.

“and there aren’t any brownstones on 12th St or in the general vicinity.”

The hell there isnt. My home was indeed a brownstone. Well, I COULD be wrong in describing it as a brownstone, but when I was living there, thats how I heard the adults (my mother, her friends, etc) refer to it.

Here’s a description of a brownstone:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brownstone

Here’s a pic of my old place (the one in the center) on East 12 street:

View link

Here’s a close up:

View link

The cement strip between the first and second floor is where the terrace used to be. The window on the left was where the doorway to the terrace was, but obviously it was replaced with a window. I was still living there when the landlord had the terrace demolished. I never heard the reason why he did it, but my best guess is that he did it for safety reasons. The terrace was made of cement, and the posts supporting it was made of wood, which was rotting away. I assume that he thought it was cheaper to have the terrace removed than to have the support posts replaced.

Under the support posts was a low brick wall (kind of like the one right next door dividing the two porches), now replaced by that metal fence on the front porch. When we moved out, the terrace was gone, but the low brick wall was still there.

It also STILL has the same old wooden doors in the entranceway (I heard someone once claim that those doors were around 100 years old. I kind of doubt that, but they sure did look it)

Is that or isnt that a brownstone? And if it isnt a brownstone, then what the hell kind of building can it be called? Or are you going, “I’ll be damned. A brownstone on East 12 street!”

Here’s another small part of the neighborhood, the corner of East 12th street and Quentin road. It’s now a dance studio, but it used to be, IIRC, a nightclub/disco.

View link

I used to play handball against its wall on the East 12 street side. Even the graffiti looks familiar. (could it be that they never cleaned up the graffiti after 30 years?)

View link

This location, east 12 street between Quentin and Kings Highway, of the EB Games store, used to be a Mens clothing store (I do not recall the name of it):

View link

In the old clothing store, John Travolta made a personal appearance, either that or he was just shopping for clothes. This was around the time when his tv series Welcome Back Kotter was still on the air. I do not recall if this was before, during, or after his movie Saturday Night Fever came out. In any case, despite his superstar status, never having watched Welcome Back Kotter, I really didnt know or care who he was, but the rest of the neighborhood seemed to be intrigued. The front of the store was mobbed. People were even climbing up on the traffic light to get a better look into the store.

Parked across the street on 12th near the corner of Quentin, right across from the nightclub, was a fancy white Cadillac (I THINK it was a Cadillac, a Cadillac El Dorado). I was told that this was John Travolta’s car, but strangely, no one really bothered to come near it even though it wasnt guarded. Being a poor neighborhood, this kind of fancy car was never seen before parked on our street that I can recall. It was a convertible, the top was down, and in the front passenger seat was a large pink panther doll wearing big giant sunglasses. Attached to the trunk of the car were various cartoon character magnets. Bugs Bunny, Yosemite Sam, Daffy Duck, etc. One of the kids in the neighborhood dared me to steal some of the magnets. But I didnt have the guts. Imagine what those magnets would get on ebay these days? “Magnets stolen from John Travolta’s car 30 something years ago!”.

Months afterward, every so often when I would pass by the front entrance of the clothing store, I would look in and see an autographed photo of John Travolta hanging inside.

The neighborhood on East 12 street hasn’t changed much over the years.

Lastly, the school I went to from 2nd to 5th grade, PS 238:

View link

View link

Those two photos show the East 9th side. I know that the front entrance is on East 8th, but alot of us kids entered and exited the building on the East 9th side. In all the years I went to that school, I hardly recall entering or leaving the building through the East 8th side. So my memories are basically on the East 9th side.

bmovies on November 27, 2008 at 2:54 am

Yeah, ALOT of the old movie theaters in Brooklyn have long since closed. The Midwood is closed, The Nostrand is closed, the Marboro, the Kingsway, etc., etc.

However, according to this website, the Kent (on Coney Island Avenue, near the corner of Avenue H) is still open. Apparently its known for showing Woody Allen films. I saw the Woody Allen film “Zelig” there somewhere around the early 80s, among a couple other films. When I went there, it seemed to be run by a family. The Kent looked kind of run down and didnt seem to sell many tickets. And the location of the theater didnt seem to be a good one. So at the time I thought it wouldnt be long before the Kent went out of business. Shows what I know, as the Kent has so far outlasted the Midwood and the Kingsway, among many other theaters.

bmovies on November 26, 2008 at 8:26 pm

East Coast Rocker, this picture was posted back on 2006:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kencta/190189864/

Apparently it’s a Walgreens on the first floor and on the second floor is Touro College. Doing a google search confirms that both the Walgreens and Touro college are still there now in 2008.

I’ve also done a street view on google maps. I lived only a couple blocks away (on East 12 street) from the Kingsway. My family moved into the neighborhood in 1975. We moved away in Feb. 1981 when I was just 12 years old. Damn, but its nice to look at my old neighborhood, and see what it looks like today. Brings back alot of nostalgic memories. My old apartment (a two family apartment house brownstone) is still there, and hardly changed. A few cosmetic changes were made. For example, a metal fence has replaced a low brick wall. The tree and rose bushes on the front lawn has been removed. Other than that, its still the same. The houses on either side has also not changed. Though, I wonder if my old place still has masses of cockroaches and a couple of mice still infesting the place.

It was always a very poor area, so its no wonder that very few, if any, cosmetic changes were made over the years. I guess the residents and property owners cant afford to make real changes to their places on that street.

The neighborhood I eventually moved away to, was a little more upper class. People in my new neighborhood had money. They owned their own homes, either owned their own businesses, or were very high up on the ladder for the businesses they worked for. I lived there for almost 15 years before moving away again to a new place. Looking at that old neighborhood of mine, that one has changed ALOT since I moved. I hardly recognize the old place I once lived in as well as the houses on either side, not to mention the rest of the neighborhood! :–) There, the residents have the money to completely renovate their homes inside and out.

bmovies on November 22, 2008 at 8:10 pm

OverCertified wrote on Jan 16, 2006: “Then, crazy eddie moved into the Coney Island Avenue location, which most people belived (incorrectly) to be the first store – which was directly across the street from the theater”

I remember that store. I remember when they first opened that store on coney Island avenue. I couldnt have cared less about the grand opening, but my mother heard that they were giving away free stuff (caps, t shirts, etc), so she sent me to grab what I could. A guy was standing on top of a van, with boxes of the freebies, encouraging the enormous crowd to yell “CRAZY EDDIE! CRAZY EDDIE!”, after which he would throw some stuff to the crowd. Me, being a little kid, couldnt get anything because I was surrounded by fully grown adults who were much taller than me and managed to grab everything in mid air, long before they could get anywhere within reach of my hands. I came home empty handed.

I also remember the Kingsway. From 1975-1981, I lived only a couple blocks away. I remember seeing a Pink Panther movie (cant recall which one) there and in the lobby they were selling plastic pink panther dolls, which my father bought one for me and one for my sister. I also recall seeing the Goldie Hawn movie Private Benjamin there. And “Who is killing the great chefs of Europe”, and, after I had moved away, seeing Purple Rain there ( a couple of female teens were harassing me, so I moved up to the balcony to get away from them). I also recall one time, when the movie let out from upstairs, one guy came out of the crowd coming down the stairs, and promptly ran to sneak in to see one of the other movies that was playing downstairs (Kramer vs. Kramer)

One time, I went with a friend to see a movie there (cant recall what movie we wanted to see) which was playing in one of the theaters upstairs, and the old lady usherette refused to allow us and the other theater patrons to go up. She made us all wait in the lobby for a while. I cant recall the reason why. Was it filled to capacity upstairs? Was the first showing not yet over? In any case, me and my friend passed the time waiting to be allowed upstairs by occasionally glancing through the glass window in the door that led to another theater where a movie was being shown.

We didnt stand there with our noses pressed up against the glass, and watched the movie in its entirety. No, all we did was give an occasional glance from where we stood. A second here, a second there. And my friend bought himself a tub of popcorn from the conecession stand

Finally the usherette let the crowd go upstairs, except for my friend and I. She stopped us, and told us that we had already watched a movie, and insisted that we now leave the theater. She kicked us out. No refund either. My friend and I went to my house, and my mother saw that we were home too early and asked what happened. I told her the whole thing, and she led us back to the theater where she spoke to the manager who promptly let us back in to see the movie we paid to see.

Elena1 on August 19, 2008 at 9:13 pm

What a shame this one closed. The sheer size of some of the houses in brooklyn was magnificent. At least it wasnt demolished totally or sit rotting like the Poor Kings. My memory was going to see i think it was born on the 4th of july? and we couldnt all agree on what to see and one guy said lets see it there and we couldnt figure out why he wanted to go here when there were other theatres closer & better time and parking. We go in and we sit down and my friend says ill sit on the end, then he goes im going to get popcorn before the movie starts. We never saw him again till almost the end of the movie. He snuck into one of the other movies to see kickboxer. that was his plan all along. we laughed at that for years. so cool that you could go see like 5 movies if you were slick.

Louella on July 24, 2008 at 10:02 pm

Crawford’s was a men’s clothing chain throughout the NY Metropolitan area. They had a store on the corner of Kings Highway & East 14th St. Right after WW2, when things got better, the building was totally remodeled and enlarged. Crawford Clothes had the corner store. I was fascinated by the balcony inside and always wanted to go up there but I never did as my dad didn’t buy there. The 2nd store from the corner was Raphan’s Carpets. The Crawford’s remodel was very high end. When the store went out of business, the new store used the Crawford name because the neon sign outside was large, expensive and almost new. Of course the type of stuff sold in the store changed completely. I grew up on East 7th & Quentin.
Karl B.

NanRomeu on July 10, 2008 at 1:31 am

I was about 14 at the time you mentioned and remember shopping at Crawfords. Could have sworn it was a houseware type store — I remember they had curtains, linens, pots and pans, etc.