Olympic Theater Concert Hall

Well, considering that it sounds like they want to strip the place, I have to respectfully disagree on the “Very nice!” comment.

I haven’t seen the film AUGUST RUSH, but I’m curious how the Fillmore East was depicted in the film. I understand that both interiors and exteriors of this theatre were used to stand in for the Fillmore in the flick. I see they dressed up the Olympic’s marquee to look like the Fillmore East, but the facade bears absolutely NO resemblance to the fabled concert hall’s edifice. Did they use CGI to complete the illusion, or did they leave the Olympic’s facade as-is to depict the theatre as a long vacant site?

Hi In Charge,

Yes, my site is down, and may never get back up. Earthlink unplugged me due to a billing dispute (about which I’m still really steamed). One of their “call center representatives” gave me some bad info earlier this year, resulting in overcharges I refused to pay. Fortunately, I saved the theater pics to my hard drive. Unfortunately, the links in my post no longer work, and I feel bad about that. I’d be happy to send any of my pics via e-mail to anyone who asks. E-mail me at:

Thanks Charlie for the info! While I am always disappointed to find out that a theater is taken out of “service” to the public I am always gratified when the alternate function is that of a church. Over the years, more theaters have been (pardon the pun) faithfully preserved by religious orders than any other alternate use. I hope they prove to be great stewards of this theater and, someday, I hope to pop in to the theater that my parents went to so many years ago (though I will most defintely NOT stay for the service.

It would also be nice to see some interior shots once if the church allows it. I haven’t seen any interiors posted previously.

I went to the Bronx Zoo on Saturday and I took the #2 train. While looking out the window I noticed the “Olympic Concert Hall” aka “Prospect Theater” looking very dilapidated and with a “for sale” sign on the marquee. It was disconcerting since the rest of the neighborhood looks like it’s in the middle of a building boom and, per above postings, had been recently renovated.

I was born in the Bronx and I asked my mom if she had gone to the Prospect way back when. She said it was one of her favorite theaters, but that she usually went to The Freeman on Southern Blvd. As a matter of fact, she went into labor (with me) while she was attending some Spanish language movie on November 23, 1959!

I love the fact that I decided to come into the world while I was actually IN a theater!

Six photographs of the former Prospect Theatre that I took in June 2005:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kencta/226276891/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kencta/226277509/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kencta/226278151/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kencta/226278889/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kencta/226280422/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kencta/226281083/

For sale at http://listing.loopnet.com/14211693 for $3,300,000.

New e-mail

Funny, yesterday I was reminiscing about my childhood in the South Bronx in the 60s and 70s when I left a comment for the President Theater of Westchester Avenue. So of course I did a search for my beloved Prospect Theater on this site, as I’d done many times before, and once again come up empty -handed. I never dreamed it had been restored and renamed! When I searched on the Web, I was directed back to this page, and got a big surprise. I immediately recognized the interior, especially the big double columns on either side of the stage. I remember vividly keeping one eye on the screen and the other on the door situated behind the columns because I knew that at a certain point one of the uniformed ushers would emerge with a stack of ice cream cups (remember the little wooden spoons?) to sell to the kiddies from the sidelines, while the film was in progress. In retrospect it was a smart thing for the management to do; it kept us quiet as we licked away!

I lived in the McKinley Houses on Tinton Avenue a few blocks north of the theater; the Prospect was definitely my household’s social hub. There was a time in the late 60s when it seemed we were at the theater every Sunday to catch the latest Mexican mariachi western starring the great Antonio Aguilar, or Jorge Negrete, or Luis Aguilar (relation to Antonio?) who in particular had a gift for comedy as well as being a a romantic lead, and of course, being mariachis they could all sing their hearts out besides being great horsemen and two-fisted champions of good. We were Puerto Rican but I always felt my dad had a Mexican soul; he loved those movies so. My mom went for the romantic comedies and dramas starring the latest Latino pop idols: Raphael, Sandro, and later Julio Iglesias. Ialso remember seeing movie treatments of popular Latino soap operas. Unlike their American counterparts, these soaps were more like long-running miniseries, structured like novels with beginnings, middles, and endings. Of course, my brother and I loved best the masked Mexican wrestlers, who fought in the ring by day and battled master criminals, zombies, Aztec mummies and vampires by night (El Santo, the Silver-masked One, even had a secret laboratory and hot convertible sportscar, kind of like a south-of-the-border Batman). So while we went further afield (Fordham Road, Eastside Manhattan, Times Square) to catch the Hollywood blockbusters, we were nurtured by the Prospect, now the Olympic, on a week to week basis. Needless to say I’m going to have to come visit the old neighborhood after nearly 30 years to pay my respects and relive old times.