Halsey Theatre

Anyone know of any interior photos of the Halsey?

Kevin,

i believe my grandparents lived there from 1953 till 1966 approximately….they moved to himrod street and knickerbocker ave….i remember playing in saratoga park….when you could not go on the grass and they had a park attendant……there was another movie theater in the neighborhood aside from the halsey that i used to go to….for a quarter you got 2 feature films….b- movies…cartoons during intermission and popcorn. i can’t rember the name…i think it was off bway
…i also remember one of the neighbors on the first floor left….her name was mrs halsey ( no joke) and she was african american i believe…..

zitch

zitch :

The name of the owner of Proces' Bar being ‘Jim’ reads right. Thanks for the details of that trolley barn, and that old car that you used to sit in.

Yes, the park across the street from the Halsey Theater, Saratoga Park, is still there. There are some old and recent images of it on Bushwick Buddies.

When my father was a small boy in the 1920’s, he used to go with his grandma to the Imperial Theater on the northwest corner of Halsey Street and Saratoga Avenue to take her to see silent Western films. Her husband was a night watchman for the Brooklyn Chair Company, and was asleep during the day.

There is a page for the Imperial Theater on this site, and pictures of it on Bushwick Buddies. It is still there, and is now in use as a church, as so many old theaters are now, like the Colonial, the Empire, Loews Gates, and Loews Valencia.

peter,

i believe the first name of the owner of proces bar was Jim??? there was an old trolley barn up the street on halsey going towards the el that was used for storage and car parking ……i remember my uncles talking about jackie g keeping his car there…it was diagonally right across from the theater……we used to sneak in there as kids and sit in an old convertable from ( guessing here) the 30’s that someone had stored there….i believe it was possible a packard…..would love to have that car today to restore….
is the park across the street from the halsey theater still there??? used to play there all the time while visiting my grandparents….

zitch

irish dj,

my mom used to go to the halsey theater back when jackie gleason got his start there…..my mom and uncles charles and john eckhardt grew up at 859 halsey street.
grandma and grandpa had the 1st floor right apartment……i remember as a child going by that theater and i believe it still had a gray marquee hung by two steel guy wires…..never got to go inside by my mom would remember that if folks would not like an act they would throw tomatoes at the vaudville folks!!! it was already converted to a factory by the time i was born…..my uncles hung out at Proces bar and grill…

small world….

zitch

Yes, Bway. Also The Colonial, at Bway, Rockaway Ave and Chauncey St. There was the smaller Imperial closer nearby the Halsey, on the northwest corner of Halsey Street and Saratoga Avenue, now a church, (you posted a recent photo of it), where my dad would see silent westerns with HIS Grandma Koch, my great-Grandma Koch.

I was born in Evangelical Deaconess Hospital in 1948 and lived at 859 Halsey Street (between Saratoga and Howard) until 1962. I attended Our Lady of Good Counsel between Madison and Putnam (between Ralph and Patchen) and graduated in 1961. It is now an SRO. Here are a few comments, as best as I can remember:
• Halsey Theatre later became a factory for Merrimakers (spelling?). My mother worked there until 1963. They made party favors. On New Years Eve, she would point out the hats she made when we watched Guy Lombardo on TV. It took several months before she got rid of the “sparkle” on her person.
• Broadway Arena was where the fights were held.
• The chapter “Limo To Bushwick” is true. Gleason visited the block and sat in Saratoga park telling stories about the “old neighborhood”. I believe it was before 1961.
• The interior of Lady of Lourdes, (grotto behind the altar) was the most beautiful sight I remember as a child.
• Joe the bartender was actually the bartender at Proces’s bar on Halsey and Saratoga
• Frank Fontaine was not a member of Gleason’s original show. He came along later. I believe he developed the character, Crazy Guggenheim, before he joined Gleason’s show. I doubt that it was based on anyone Gleason knew from Bedford-Stuyvesant /Bushwick.
• Al’s Billard Academy on Broadway and Halsey was where Gleason learned how to shoot pool.

There was a great bakery on Saratoga towards Decatur, but I cannot remember the name.

I searched for the Halsey because of the 50 anniversary of the Dodgers winning the World Series.

Bushwick Hospital is now a Juvenile Detention Center owned by the state.

fritz :

Here’s the link to “Bushwick Buddies” :

http://www.MyFamily.com/

Here’s the link to the Times Newsweekly (former Ridgewood Times).
This week’s “Our Neighborhood” article is about German butcher shops and pork stores in Ridgewood :

http://timesnewsweekly.com/NewFiles/OURNEIGH.html

Peter K.

Thank you, fritz, for those Gleason stories. Was Frank Fontaine’s character, Crazy Guggenheim, based on anyone Gleason knew from Bushwick ?

I was born in Evangelical Deaconess Hospital, which used to stand at the northern corner of Bway and Chauncey, in mid-November 1955. I lived in Ridgewood, on Cornelia between Cypress and Wyckoff, but my family and I knew Bushwick well.

My dad was born in October 1919, at the old Bushwick Hospital, which used to stand at Putnam and Howard Aves. His parents lived at 1044 Putnam Avenue at the time. He lived at six to a dozen addresses in Bushwick, the last one as a single man, 1454 Bushwick, between Chauncey and Pilling. My parents lived on Weirfield between Knickerbocker and Wilson, across the street from Irving Square Park, before I was born, and before they moved to Ridgewood.

My mom was born at 412 Harman St. My parents met at the Knights of Columbus at Bushwick and Hart.

Was Kelso’s Gym in “The Honeymooners” based on any real place in Bushwick ?

My dad remembers, among many places, Joe’s Barber Shop at Bway and Pilling, and Night In The Sky Chinese Restaurant, at the eastern corner of Bway and Cooper, by the stairs to the Chauncey St. el station. His boyhood church was Grace Lutheran on Covert between Bway and Bushwick.

Do you know about Bushwick Buddies ? Would you like the link ?

The 1939 WPA Guide to NYC describes the area south of Broadway to Fulton Street, east of Nostrand Avenue (including Chauncey Street) as Stuyvesant Heights. Bushwick is north of Broadway.

During the 1950s, I delivered the long Island daily Press to 358 Chauncey Street.
The houses there were four story flat front tenement buildings. The apartments were the prototype for the Honeymooners.
As for Chauncey Street being in Bed Stuy, I think that it was in mail zone Bklyn 7, which is East New York.