RKO Bushwick Theatre
1396 Broadway,
Brooklyn,
NY
11221
1396 Broadway,
Brooklyn,
NY
11221
13 people
favorited this theater
Showing 51 - 75 of 418 comments
I have seen that photo before, it is definitely one of the last photos taken before the Bushwick began it’s treck into shambles. The Pilgrim Church moved into the Bushwick Theater shortly after it closed to movies. But it was very brief as them moved out for some reason as soon as the Loews Gates became available. It’s possible that they got a better “deal” on the Gates, perhaps even easy ownership, whereas they may have just been a tenant at the Bushwick. But that is just speculation. But there had to be a good reason that they moved out of the Bushwick and into the Gates instead, and it had to do with the “deal” they were getting. Obviously the Gates was the better deal for their church.
Anyway, that event did set the fate of the Bushwick, as nothing ever occupied it after the Pilgrim Church. And while the Loews Gates is supposedly beautifully restored, the interior of the Bushwick fell into shambles, and as we know, is now gutted. and reused a s the school.
Interestingly, if they got a good deal on the Bushwick, the Bushwick may be the theater that is beautifully restored, and the Loews Gates may be the one that fell into shambles….
A tale of two theaters…
Thanks, John.
Not sure. But since the Gates closed in 1977, my guess is that the church left the Bushwick and moved into its new home pretty soon thereafter. So, this may have been one of the last pictures of the Bushwick to be shot before its long-term abandonment.
How brief, John ?
I just noticed the message on the facade. This picture was snapped during the brief period when the old Bushwick hosted the Pilgrim Baptist Church. i.e., before it moved to the old Loews Gates. This was, in fact, a very brief sliver of time.
Great shot, John. Thanks. And it’s dated ! I love that ! And not even MY stupid computer mis-blocked it as porn !
In a set of photos regarding the old Republic Theater in Williamsburg, I found this great shot of the Bushwick, which I do not believe appears on this page,
Enjoy – and hope the link works.
View link
Those are great!
Good pix ! Thanks, Jayar1 !
Some interesting pictures at this website…
View link
Thanks, Bway, it would be interesting to see some photos, just the same, to have a comparison such as you did for the RKO Madison Theatre.
I think it has mostly been cut up into various floors, and classrooms. I don’t think any of the interior survives, but I am not sure.
It would be interesting to see what the interior of the building looks like now, as the School For Social Justice.
That is beautiful, Warren. Thanks. I think I have seen it, but it’s always good to see it again. It’s a good, positive companion piece to the 1980’s images of abandonment and decay.
This is a new link to an auditorium image posted above on 7/7/2005. The photo was taken around 1946-47, well before the wide-screen era:
View link
Thanks so much Warren! Those are very interesting. There is a photo linked up above, I think by JF Lundy a long time ago, of when the theater was new, and those boxes look just like them….of course, deteriorated. I would love to see any other photos there may be of the interior.
Thanks, Warren. It’s great to be able to see the additional detail. It’s simultaneously sad, majestic, and decrepit.
My dad remembers the RKO Bushwick Theatre as having two balconies. Is this correct ?
My friend, Jack Robinson, has sent me another snapshot showing a larger portion of the right front wall of the auditorium. There were actually two tiers of box seats. The other photo shows only a portion of the lower left box: View link
Thanks, Warren. Something has changed on my pc so that I can now view your Photobucket images.
It looks like a b & w still from inside the RKO Bushwick Theatre from the 1987 film “The Believers”.
A friend who visited the abandoned theatre in the 1980s sent me this B&W snapshot of the right front side of the auditorium, adjacent to the stage. At top right, one can see a box of seats with a decaying banner draped on it. At the edge of the proscenium, there’s a vacant spot at the bottom where an annunciator had been removed:
View link
Thanks Lost. I have to agree. The place really looked beautiful near it’s cinema end in the late 60’s, with it’s marquee all lit up. A sharp comparisan to 15-20 years later when it began it’s fall into shambles. In the mid 80’s, the place still didn’t look “that bad”, at least not as bad as I remember it 10 years later in the mid 90’s when it was in complete and utter shambles.
Today it looks good again, although sad it was gutted inside.
joe zizzo, I meant CT, not BB (Bushwick Buddies) although you’d probably enjoy being there, too. Freudian slip :
http://www.bushwickbuddies.com/
Thanks for the 1986 photos, LM. Beautiful still, but what a waste of all those years that the RKO Bushwick sat derelict and unused. The closeups of the window details are majestic, though, like the Palace of Green Porcelain, a vast future museum in H.G. Wells' classic novel “The Time Machine”.
A shot of the southwest corner of the RKO Bushwick, at the northeast corner of Howard Avenue and Madison Street, would well convey its impressive bulk. There’s a shot of the Bushwick like that in Matthew Melnick, “Lost Brooklyn Trips” :
http://www.lostbrooklyn.org
Melnick’s shots of derelict buildings in Brooklyn make it look (to me) like an abandoned city of the dead.
Thanks for joining us here on BB, joe zizzo. Welcome ! And thanks for sharing your treasured memories with us. I hope to read more from you !
I remember taking my first date to the RKO around 1952 35cents That was big time in those days because the other movie theaters like the rodgers on Broadway was 14 cents That was a time when you could walk with your date late at night and take her back to her home and get a kiss in the vestibule.And her family would ring the buzzer to let you know they new you where there with her.Wow good times.
So would have I, John D.