Peerless Theater
433 Myrtle Avenue,
Brooklyn,
NY
11205
433 Myrtle Avenue,
Brooklyn,
NY
11205
5 people
favorited this theater
Showing 26 - 43 of 43 comments
I’m so glad to hear all the memories of the Peerless Theater. I have special memories, since my grandfather was the owner. It was pure delight to have him pick me up from school and take me to theater so I had someplace safe to be while my mother was ou and about. Fanny was the cashier; Frank ran the concession stand, and oh thoose great mello rolls ice cream. Good and Plenty; Turkish taffy which we used to break apart on the arm of the chair. To me, as an 7 year old, the theater seemed so large. I remember my grandfather pulling down the ladder to go up to the projection booth. Just think…. 2 movies. a newsreel and cartoon all for 20 cents, and I didn’t have to pay anything…ownership privileges.
Long live the memories!!!!!!!!!
Your 6/05 Peerless pix are much appreciated, Ken! They are also most illuminating regarding the acoustics question I’d posed last June 13.
My memory was correct about the two stories of apartments over the Myrtle Ave. entrance. Access was under the 2nd maroon canopy at far right. But the angle from which you shot that photo reveals a much shorter end to the rear of the apartments (left side) than I’d remembered. The small apartments would barely make it lengthwise over the projection booth. (The Peerless had no balcony: the projectionist had to climb a metal ladder at the far north end of the theater to enter the booth.)
From your view, just beyond the original four doors, (now newly redesigned, at least since the early ‘90s), I can recall the large lobby area and all the colorful displays for upcoming features. Up the ramp to the right was the ticket booth: admission for kids was 20-cents up to 1958. A man took our tickets, ripped them and deposited half in a glass and wood stand. We then continued up the ramp, past the restrooms on the right and windows at left showing yard space.
At the projectionist’s booth were the black curtains. We entered the seating area by making a sharp 90-degree turn to the right. The floor began to slope toward the screen, concession stand under the screen and exit doors at Waverly Ave. The middle rows had the most seats, maybe 20-22, and two side rows of 5 seats each. Old art deco sconce light fixtures (soft green, orange and yellow) were mounted on both north and south walls.
Back outside in your view, I still miss the shadows of the Myrtle El train. We kids had learned to tell time by how the shadows fell, regardless of season! The small marquee hung where the white church sign is now. Immediately to the left was Louie’s Barber Shop, now gone, too, along with ol' Louie.
The Waverly Ave. shot revealed no structure above it, so the loudness of the sound system would not have affected the apartment dwellers as severely as I’d previously thought, though the renters may still have used noon-5:00 P.M. on Saturdays to do their weekly shopping or to go visit Aunt Matilda.
Damn good job, KenRoe! And big thx for jogging my aging memory vaults!
Here are a couple of photographs I took in June 2005:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kencta/437810268/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kencta/437811997/
Sorry it’s taken so long to post them!
Just thought of something about the Peerless, and I’m not sure how common it was regarding other small outlets in other neighborhoods.
There was a door to the immediate right of the 4 main doors by which we frenzied ones gained admittance to the kiddie matinee virtually every Saturday. This door was exclusively for the apartment dwellers who lived on the two floors directly above the theater.
I’d never given this much thought until now, but I’m wondering how acoustically soundproofed those apartments were. The sound system of the Peerless was quite loud – it hadda be to drown all 400 of us out at fever pitch! The theater opened at noon all week long and ran features until midnight, or an hour or so before. If the walls were thin plaster and the floorboards made of wood, how did those people ever cope with the incessant noise emanating from below?
Color me curious, George.
Growing older is a real experience, JoeB. I can sometimes recall the minutest detail of something 50+ years ago, but I’m not always lucky enough to remember what I ate for dinner last night!
Do you remember which other dumps had concession stands under the screen? I always figured that’s where they put the guy who played the piano in the silent era…
Here’s an site that’ll bring back some memories for all you guys who are real life members of the Myrtle Ave. el Q-car set c. 1969:
www.nycrail.com/bmt/historical_myrtle_el.htm
Photog Michael Littman put up some 50 B&W shots, some evocative and others artsy, but all good, that knocked me on my tiny heinie. About ¾ of the way down on the left is a “widescreen” shot at track level, with the tracks bearing slightly toward the left, which was where the Peerless was. When I first saw this pic, I immediately e-mailed the URL to my boyhood pal Tom, now in Jersey. He, too, knew that it was where we crossed over countless times to the other side of Myrtle without ever having to cross the street physically and dodge traffic, and where we traded a lot of Scoop, Look ‘n’ See and Wings (“Friend or Foe?”) cards back then without being bothered.
As for the DVD you asked about: The guy who puts these up on eBay, Alan I. Zelazo, is over in Morris Plains, NJ. Generally, you can get his titles on a single bid. The one I referenced about the Peerless is on the Myrtle Ave. El DVD. So when you get to eBay’s opening page, search for Trolley DVDs. SubwayAl’s material is there. Get back to me if you run into any snags. Good luck obtaining your own time machine!
BrooklynJim, It’s amazing how well you recall most of the films that you saw at the Peerless Theatre.
By the way I was in a few ‘dumps’ that also had the concession stand directlty under the screen.
And I miss that clanky Myrtle Ave el, which I use to see go by from my window on Stockton St. through an empty lot.
By the way I would appreciate some info on how to obtain that DVD you mentioned.
JoeB
Look at the last line my post above. Is there any reason (it’s happened twice now in both Peerless posts) that the word a-d-u-l-t-s comes out as only an “s”?
Looks as if Cinematreasures might have a goofy filter of its own.
In the future guess I’ll hafta write g-r-o-w-n-u-p-s instead…
A year ago, myrtleave posted that the Peerless never had a 3-D or CinemaScope screen. Partially true. In ‘53 or '54, I recall that we were given 3-D glasses as we paid the two dimes for our admission and watched one of the coming attractions, some kind of jungle movie. My whole row and the one in front quickly ducked a spear that was thrown our way by the natives (or so it seemed), but “Creature From the Black Lagoon,” originally shot in 3-D in '54, was projected in flat B&W.
I believe that CinemaScope as a process debuted with “The Robe” in 1953. The Peerless screen used to be referred to a “postage stamp” size, but at some point in the summer of ‘54, the theater did close for a while for some renovations. (Was it closed for 3 weeks? 2 months? Time is relative and very “iffy” to kids, even though we developed a knack for knowing what time of day it was by the way the shadows fell through the ties of the elevated structure above!) When it opened its doors again for business, there was a larger screen – perhaps not CinemaScope in size, as the width of the theater across Waverly Ave. would not permit that, but definitely larger than the one they had. There might even have been a new lens on the projector to accommodate this wider view. The new screen was a topic of conversation, both s and kids alike, for quite awhile afterward.
A year ago, myrtleave posted that the Peerless never had a 3-D or CinemaScope screen. Partially true. In ‘53 or '54, I recall that we were given 3-D glasses as we paid the two dimes for our admission and watched one of the coming attractions, some kind of jungle movie. My whole row and the one in front quickly ducked a spear that was thrown our way by the natives (or so it seemed), but “Creature From the Black Lagoon,” originally shot in 3-D in '54, was projected in flat B&W.
I believe that CinemaScope as a process debuted with “The Robe” in 1953. The Peerless screen used to be referred to a “postage stamp” size, but at some point in the summer of ‘54, the theater did close for a while for some renovations. (Was it closed for 3 weeks? 2 months? Time is relative and very “iffy” to kids, even though we developed a knack for knowing what time of day it was by the way the shadows fell through the ties of the elevated structure above!) When it opened its doors again for business, there was a larger screen – perhaps not CinemaScope in size, as the width of the theater across Waverly Ave. would not permit that, but definitely larger than the one they had. There might even have been a new lens on the projector to accomodate this wider view. The new screen was a topic of conversation, both s and kids alike, for quite awhile afterward.
WOW! What a site Cinematreasures is: less than half an hour after my debut post, Lost Memory replies with a fascinating item of trivia! And I thank you, though I’m still trying to visualize seating 500+ kids on any given Saturday afternoon, but perhaps it was so. The other fact that caught my eye was that the Peerless was owned ‘way back in '27 by Vanderbilt Theatre, Inc., so named, I’m sure, due to the proximity of the Vanderbilt Ave. station of the Myrtle El a mere 1-½ blocks away – but then, so was Washington Ave!
Did anyone else ever see “Robot Monster” there in ‘53 – the one with Ro-Man, the guy in the gorilla suit, diving bell helmet & Lawrence Welk bubble machine? Legend has it that the director, Phil Tucker, shot this dud in L.A.’s Bronson Canyon in just 4 days, and then tried to commit suicide after he saw the final product. Dunno for sure, but it scared the daylights out of us l'il kids!
Having lived at 196 Clinton Ave. from ‘46-'58, the Peerless (one block away under the clanky Myrtle el) was the “Popcorn Palace” of my childhood. Between '53 and '58, my rowdy ragamuffins and I devoured many a Saturday matinee at the ridiculously low price of 20 cents, our parents scrimping and saving so that they could get us out of the house or apartment for 4-5 hours.
“Beast from 20,000 Fathoms” was the first one I saw – at age 7! – along with “Gog” ('54, in beautiful Eastmancolor), “Them!” (also '54), “It Came From Beneath the Sea ('55), "The Indestructible Man” with Lon Chaney, Jr. ('56), etc., along with re-runs of the '43 Columbia “Batman” serial (J. Carroll Naish, an Irish-American actor, as the evil Japanese Prince Tito Daka!), “Don Winslow of the Navy” (another wartime re-run from '41 or so), Randolph Scott westerns, John Carradine horror flicks, Three Stooges 2-reelers, Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies up the wazoo, newsreels and coming attractions. We were in kid heaven, oblivious to the fact that the Peerless was a 3rd-rate dump. And I’ve never encountered any other theater that had its concession stand just below the screen!
My mom has said that in the '40s Thursday nights were dish giveaway nights – and no problems as recounted in the late Jean Shepherd’s hilarious short story, “Leopold Doppler and the Great Orpheum Gravy Boat Riot."
As previously stated, the theater had an L shape: entrance on Myrtle and two exit doors on Waverly Ave. Seating has been listed as between 520-560, but I suspect these numbers were padded. 400-450 at best. No balcony. Smoking section for the s was the last 3 rows. The projectionist had to climb a rickety ladder to access the projection booth.
Although my family moved out of the immediate area in '58, I revisted from time to time. It was about '61 that the doors of the movie house closed forever. A church took over. While visiting from CA in '94, I snapped a photo. Louie’s Barber Shop was long gone, as was the marquee, and there was a foreclosure notice on the door for the church to ante up some back taxes. From recent postings, I guess they finally paid.
Last week, I obtained a DVD of Myrtle El color/b&w films, and sure enough, there were 2 separate shots of the Peerless marquee from '66-'67 or so. The name of the old theater was in disrepair and nothing was listed. (I’d be more than happy to provide anyone who is interested on how to obtain a copy.)
I have a ton of memories about this theater, so feel free to ask away in future posts.
So this actually lasted longer then the Parthanon which I think closed in 1960.
I have found the opening year of the Peerless Theater was 1914.
lostmemory;
I have just returned from taking a look at the Peerless Theatre. To my trained eyes, it is definitely the original building still there, currently in use as a church. The facade matches with others in the block along Myrtle Avenue and the rear of the auditorium (screen end) viewed from Waverly Avenue is certainly the original theatre auditorium. I took photos of both the entrance facade and auditorium exterior.
The Peerless Theatre opened pre-1920 and closed in 1961.
ken roe
i hope you post the photos of the peerless
i called a old friend from myrtle ave
and he said the theater did close in 1961
i left the neighborhood in 1956
the peerless theater was my neighborhood movie house
the enterce was on myrlte ave it had a long labby
in the midele of the labby was the box office
the theater was in a el shape the screen faced waverly ave
the building is stell the same just the enterce doors
on myrtle ave are different
it had to close after 1954 becouse i saw johnny guitar-
rear window-stalag 17-dial m for murder
it never had a cinemascope or 3-d sreen
you had to go to state theater on dekalbe ave to see c-s or 3-d
and yes the candy counta was by the screen
I never saw a theatre where the candy counter was in the front of the theatre by the screen. Was this the only one?
the el is gone and so is the trolley car
but the peerless is still ther
it closed in 1961 as a movie house but now is a bible church
i rember going to the peerless in the fifties
you could see a movie that you missed after it played
the 3rd rune movie house and the candy counta was under the screen
it had a lettle light on so you could see the candy you wanted to by
think you for making me rembering the good old days