Rio Piedras Theatre
912 Broadway,
Brooklyn,
NY
11206
912 Broadway,
Brooklyn,
NY
11206
7 people
favorited this theater
Showing 26 - 50 of 55 comments
i lived on hart st. between broadway and stuyvesant ave. every
saturday i went to the movies at the broadway regardless of what
was playing. almost every kid in the neighborhood was there.
sometimes in the fifties the name went from the lowe’s broadway
to the century broadway and then became a spanish speaking movie
house. wong’s restaurant was up the block and some kids actually
took out lunch there and brought it to the movies. when things
got dull the guys would run through the balcony and the matron
would run after them. while the matron was upstairs someone would
open the side doors and let kids in. my friend’s mother use to take us to the movies on a weekday night and get free dishes.
i loved that movie.
I’m trying to find proof of the existence of a drive-in theater in Brooklyn. All I could find was one called the Broadway Drive-In, but no other information was available.
http://www.drive-ins.com/theater/nytbro2
Can anyone help me out on this? Thanks.
GREAT photo….only thing is, they took some creative license…..where’s the Broadway El?
This is exactly the way I remember the theater in it’s final decades passing by it on J or M trains. The place was in shambles by the 90’s. You could look inside those coupola windows right from the platform. My only regret is that I didn’t take any photos when they were tearing it down….The last wall to go was the procenimu arch wall, and it stood exposed to the elements, a cornitian column, and even with a chandelier swinging in the wind….
Anyone know of any interior phtoos available, historic or later years?
Yes it is. Perhaps if it had lasted a few more years it would have survived, as the area is improving. If current trends continue, it won’t be long before the vacant land is built on again, probably for new homes. However, the opulent Broadway is unfortunately gone forever. I would LOVE to see a photo of the interior of this theater, but have never been able to find one.
Bway, it’s a shame that the site now lays dormant after demolishing the Broadway Theatre. It would have been a better idea to save the palatial theatre. What a waste!
JoeB
Not too much going on at this site yet. There’s still sort a shanty town built at the area where the stage used to be, at the back end of the property.
Hello JoeR, I’m also living in Florida now and it’s a beautiful day today. It’s nice meeting you here.
Sorry, I don’t recall the name of your Aunt & Uncle or your cousins. I lived at 178 Stockton St. I’m also in my 60s.
I do realize that the stills could be worth some money and I’m gonna take your advice and check with Ebay. Thanks.
My family and I just about lived at the Rogers Theater on Broadway.
I’m going to that site right now.
JoeB
Hello JoeB from JoeR in Florida: My Aunt & Uncle lived on Stockton, along with my 5 Cousins……….Their name was Cosentino…..Do you recall that name or the Family?——-Two were youngre then me by one year(I’m 64, will be 65 next month) all the others were much older Two Brothers, Carmine & Joe served in WW-2……….Back to the Loews Broadway as I knew it by….I lived on Willoughby Ave between Central & Evergreen Ave’s between 1946 & 1959,,,,,,I’m sure you went to some of the other old movie houses on Broadway & off it, as we all did…….My favorite itch, was the Rogers, since they showed westerns……also the Starr on Knickerbocker Ave…..The RKO-Bushwick or Madison—-Rivoli——You can check my favorites——-Those stills may be worth something today, as there is a big market for Original stills—-check Ebay and you will see what some are going for———Good to see another Bushwick-ite posting——-I always stay logged in to receive messages, and so I don’t have to log in every time I receive one from my favorite Movie Houses——JoeR from Florida—-sasheegm user id
I lived on Stockton St., directly down a few blocks from the Loew’s Broadway Theatre. It was located on a corner of Broadway under the El. I would have to walk up hill to the theatre.
It was usually darkish under the marquee around the boxoffice and where the now playing pictures were posted in the frames under glass.
I recall the day I struck gold, while walking past the gated area on the Stockton St. side of the theatre where they disposed of the trash. The gate was ajar and I poked through the barrels and found some 8 x 10 glossies of movie stills that was discarded. It must have been 1958 since the glossies were of the films “The Long Hot Summer”, “Cy Terror” with James Mason, “Harry Black and the Tiger”, “The Big Country”, etc. I still have the stills today.
You could imagine what a find it was, especially for a moviebuff like myself.
Good memories of a grand theatre.
JoeB
i remeber it as the loews broadway because they showed paramount films…i saw star spangled rhythm with bing crosy in 1942 there and rode home on trhe old wooden elevated myrtle av line back to ridgewood
This may have been the theater where Mae West played her pre-Broadway try-out of Diamond Lilin around 1928. frankie from Brooklyn
When my Mother had some extra money, we would go to the Loews Broadway, which was on the corner of Broadway & Stocton St……One block from Myrtle Ave……It showed primarily 2nd run MGM features after they had played the Loews State in Manhattan & Loews Metropolitan in downtown Brooklyn………Some of the films I saw there as a kid were “Anna”-1951 with Silvana Mangano, “King Solomon’s Mines-1950 with Stewart Granger, and one weird double feature of "Bella Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla"with Sammy Petrillo(a Jerry Lewis look alike) & Duke Mitchell( a poor man’s Dean Martin) plus Tarantula with John Agar & Leo G .Carroll———-I went with a couple of school chums, and when Leo G Carroll turned to the audience after injecting himself with this serum that made animals and insects larger, I almost jumped 3 rows back——-YIKES, what a kisser———One eye up in his forehead, drooping mouth——Carroll was nothing to look at to begin with, but the make-up guy did a hell of a job on him——-The Giant Spider was nothing compared to Carroll’s kisser in that one——-Incidently, the Jet Pilot who eventually barbeques the giant spider was Clint Eastwood in an early role——-Joe From Florida—-sasheegm——
Someone has just emailed me and just told me that the URL
I submitted for The Broadway Theatre on February 1st 2004 is no longer there..
Unfortunatly URL’s come and go.
But for all of you interested in The Broadway Theatre, just do some
online searches- thats how I ran across the URL to begin with.
Another good thing is actually capturing the whole webpage…
File>Save As> Web Page, complete (.htm .html)> Save.
Now you have pictures and text from that website for your own usage.
I am guess that this is the theater that is visible from the platform waiting for the M or J train heading into Queens? If I am correct I remember going to this theater over 30 years ago. The theater was known as the Rio Piedras. I went there for a Christmas show. However as I recall, the theater was small.
I tried accessing the link to find out more about the Broadway Theater but it is wrong or missing. Anyone have any updated site?
The theater stood there vacant for many years. All the windows were gone, and just gaping holes allowing the weather to enter. I would often stand on the Myrtle-Bway subway platform looking into the second story windows, in the “turret”, and the ceilings had completely colapsed onto the floor in many spots. Unfortunately, it, like the RKO Bushwick were left for too many years to the forces of nature, and both were probably not salvagable on the interiors. Fortunately, at least the Bushwick had it’s exterior saved, even if interior gutted. The palatial Broadway wasn’t so lucky.
Someone mentioned to me that this theater showed Spanish (Latin American) films in it’s final days. When did it close for good? Was it a theater right to the end, or was it converted to a store first?
Why did they tear this great old theater down? It could have been put to some other use like the RKO at Gates subway station was. It was an attractive building, even if in bad shape.
Anyone know of any photos of it inside or outside, past or in later years?
Stockton is still the street that abutted the Broadway. It’s the street with the bulldozer you see to the right of the theater…eh…theatersite in my photo linked above.
If there was a “Court St”, it had to be that alley like road behind the “shantytown” in the photo.
The stage was in the location of the shanty town. That back wall was the last to be torn down. The procenium arch stood there exposed in all it’s glory, with corintian columns and even a chandelier waving in the wind for months, while the other three side walls were removed. What I wouldn’t do to have had my camera with me on the el station then to take a photo.
Apollo, I regret that too. I can still visualise the interior exposed while transferring between M and J trains at Myrtle-Bway station. I only wish i took a few photos at the time. This is another theater that I wish I could see the interior of. I looked at it in progressing stages of decay since I was a child…and now it’s gone.
I was to lazy to photograph it, they left the building standing as a shell for months with the interior exposed.
Here’s a photo taken the other day of the Broadway’s site and the unfortunate fate of the beautiful building. In the background is the shantytown that sort of took up residence in the former stage area.
I only wish I had my camera with me the day I was there when they were demolishing the building, the whole interior was visable from the el station platform at Myrtle-Bway.
I was sad to see it go, although it had been in shambles for years. A shame.
View link
This theatre should be relisted:
It was the Loew’s Broadway for most of it’s life.
It was demolished in mid to late 1998.
Ah, thanks, I missed that.
Actually, you can scan slides with a slide scanner (I have scanned many of my slides). Mine is an Epson, and it works very well.
Of course I’m not expecting you to go out and buy one (They are about $100), but if you ever had an interest to do such a thing for any of your slides, it’s an easy option, and of course once it’s a scan, they print just as easily as any digital photo.
But anyway, if you do ever find any interior photos of it on the net somewhere, please post the link here. I really would love to see the interior intact. (My only viewing of it was from the subway platform as it was being torn down).
Nice Brooklyn link above. Thanks.
Should be listed as Loew’s Broadway