To Joe B….I grew up on So.9th St. between Berry & Wythe near the Shaefer Brewery as well. I attended the Williamsburg Theater between the years of 1945 to 1954. To Joe R. in Florida it is good to see you collecting old movies on DVD & Video. It is great to see an old movie remastered for DVD and see what some of these pictures looked liked during their first release in Theaters.
Since both Joes grew up in Williamsburgh maybe you can answer a question of the Wilson Theater which was on Roebling St. & Lee Ave. It was closed by the time I was born and I can’t seem to get any information about it.
To Warren….the serial I saw as Nyoka (got the spelling right this time) Jungle Girl. Not only did I sit through the credits some fifteen times but I got to see the previous ending of the chapter over each time as well.
To ErwinM (your last name is not Marcus, is it?) thanks for reminding me that the theater was named New Delancey. On the web site for the New Delancey most everyone thinks that the New Delancey was only a Spanish language theater. It definitely had another life in the 40’s and 50’s. I really don’t remember if it had a balacony.
On another subject it is amazing how with all the things that we remember the names of all the movie theaters we attended during the course of our lives.
My Grandmother lived on Orchard St. & we used to visit her with my Parents during the late 1940’s & early 1950’s. At that time there were two theaters on Delancey St. that were called the Delancy Theater. The one pictured above was called the Loews Delancey and the other just Delancy. Cinema Treasures makes no mention of this other Delancey Theater and I hope someone out there knows about it.
In any event, the Loews Delancey showed first run features while the other Delancey showed really old films. In fact, my Grandmother used to give my brother and I a quarter apiece which would buy us admission to see….three feature films, five cartoons, coming attractions and Movietone News. We were in the theater for seven hours. One weekend they were showing instead of three features all the chapters of Nioka, Queen of the Jungle back to back. Instead of editing all the chapters into one film they showed all the chapters with their respective credits one after another. We had to watch the credits every fifteen minutes fifteen times in the day. By the time it ended I could tell you who directed, produced, wrote the music, the makeup, etc. etc. At least thirty minutes of this showing we watched nothing but credits. But it was fun.
asbag
Unfortunately, I live in St. Louis now and don’t get back to Williamsburg as often as I would like to. If you look up the Commodore Theater you will see a number of comments by others regarding what is happening with the movie scene in Williamsburg. Are you someone who has lived in Williamsburg for a long time or like me lived there many years ago?
Having just discovered Cinema Treasures I looked up the Republic Theater and was bowled over to find that the theater had over 2,600 seats. It’s amazing. In St. Louis they had restored the Fox Theater many years ago and it is spectacular. Having some 4,500 seats and in a Moorish style they now use this theater for traveling Broadway Shows.
At the St. Louis Symphony Orch. they recently showed Charlie Chaplin’s City Lights and the Symphony played the entire score accompanying the film LIVE. It was terrific. If any of you are interested in what Williamsburg was like in the years I lived there please let me know.
I grew up in Williamsburg between 1940 and 1953 and attended all the theaters in that part of Brooklyn. At Roebling and Lee Avenue was the Wilson Theater which was closed by then. The Astor Theater was at Roebling and Broadway. I attended the theater until it burned down. It was later converted into a cafeteria called the Concord. The Marcy Theater was at Marcy Ave.& Broadway. Further east was the Commodore and north the Republic which both played first run films. The pecking order of films was that they started in Times Square, went to Downtown Brooklyn and then the Commodore & Republic. The Williamsburg received older films.
The Williamsburg was located next to Stevens Custard & Levy’s Hot Dogs. My cousin owned Levy’s and one afternoon he told me that another cousin (who I didn’t know) owned the Williamsburg Theater. He brought me over to meet the owner who promptly gave me a lifetime pass to the Theater. I thought I died and went to Hollywood heaven. If there is anything else you would like to know about Williamsburg and the theaters there, let me know.
Asbag
To Joe B….I grew up on So.9th St. between Berry & Wythe near the Shaefer Brewery as well. I attended the Williamsburg Theater between the years of 1945 to 1954. To Joe R. in Florida it is good to see you collecting old movies on DVD & Video. It is great to see an old movie remastered for DVD and see what some of these pictures looked liked during their first release in Theaters.
Since both Joes grew up in Williamsburgh maybe you can answer a question of the Wilson Theater which was on Roebling St. & Lee Ave. It was closed by the time I was born and I can’t seem to get any information about it.
Asbag
To Warren….the serial I saw as Nyoka (got the spelling right this time) Jungle Girl. Not only did I sit through the credits some fifteen times but I got to see the previous ending of the chapter over each time as well.
To ErwinM (your last name is not Marcus, is it?) thanks for reminding me that the theater was named New Delancey. On the web site for the New Delancey most everyone thinks that the New Delancey was only a Spanish language theater. It definitely had another life in the 40’s and 50’s. I really don’t remember if it had a balacony.
On another subject it is amazing how with all the things that we remember the names of all the movie theaters we attended during the course of our lives.
My Grandmother lived on Orchard St. & we used to visit her with my Parents during the late 1940’s & early 1950’s. At that time there were two theaters on Delancey St. that were called the Delancy Theater. The one pictured above was called the Loews Delancey and the other just Delancy. Cinema Treasures makes no mention of this other Delancey Theater and I hope someone out there knows about it.
In any event, the Loews Delancey showed first run features while the other Delancey showed really old films. In fact, my Grandmother used to give my brother and I a quarter apiece which would buy us admission to see….three feature films, five cartoons, coming attractions and Movietone News. We were in the theater for seven hours. One weekend they were showing instead of three features all the chapters of Nioka, Queen of the Jungle back to back. Instead of editing all the chapters into one film they showed all the chapters with their respective credits one after another. We had to watch the credits every fifteen minutes fifteen times in the day. By the time it ended I could tell you who directed, produced, wrote the music, the makeup, etc. etc. At least thirty minutes of this showing we watched nothing but credits. But it was fun.
asbag
Unfortunately, I live in St. Louis now and don’t get back to Williamsburg as often as I would like to. If you look up the Commodore Theater you will see a number of comments by others regarding what is happening with the movie scene in Williamsburg. Are you someone who has lived in Williamsburg for a long time or like me lived there many years ago?
Having just discovered Cinema Treasures I looked up the Republic Theater and was bowled over to find that the theater had over 2,600 seats. It’s amazing. In St. Louis they had restored the Fox Theater many years ago and it is spectacular. Having some 4,500 seats and in a Moorish style they now use this theater for traveling Broadway Shows.
At the St. Louis Symphony Orch. they recently showed Charlie Chaplin’s City Lights and the Symphony played the entire score accompanying the film LIVE. It was terrific. If any of you are interested in what Williamsburg was like in the years I lived there please let me know.
asbag
I grew up in Williamsburg between 1940 and 1953 and attended all the theaters in that part of Brooklyn. At Roebling and Lee Avenue was the Wilson Theater which was closed by then. The Astor Theater was at Roebling and Broadway. I attended the theater until it burned down. It was later converted into a cafeteria called the Concord. The Marcy Theater was at Marcy Ave.& Broadway. Further east was the Commodore and north the Republic which both played first run films. The pecking order of films was that they started in Times Square, went to Downtown Brooklyn and then the Commodore & Republic. The Williamsburg received older films.
The Williamsburg was located next to Stevens Custard & Levy’s Hot Dogs. My cousin owned Levy’s and one afternoon he told me that another cousin (who I didn’t know) owned the Williamsburg Theater. He brought me over to meet the owner who promptly gave me a lifetime pass to the Theater. I thought I died and went to Hollywood heaven. If there is anything else you would like to know about Williamsburg and the theaters there, let me know.
Asbag