It’s hard to say, but, a VERY OLD man (I know his name but just can’t think of it now) owned the Fortway building. He MUST be dead now and it probably has to do with his family and estate and NOT anything to do with Golden Theatre Management.

As I’m sure you’re aware that theatres in general haven’t been doing very well, with the exception of the VERY large multiplexes. Within a couple of years the film companies won’t be making FILM prints any longer and if the theatre hasn’t converted to digital projection (DCI Cinema), which runs an average of $75-80,000.00, you can’t even run digital. It has already caused MANY small mom & pop theatres across the country to close down because they can’t afford the cost of converting. Yet, without that expense, the theatres would have had no problem staying in business. SAD, BUT TRUE.

The balcony at the Oceana, while steeper than the Fortway, wasn’t that steep. The Olympia theatre had a balcony that was so steep you were practically looking at your feet when you looked out the window from the projection booth. The Oceana was another theatre that, like the Fortway, was first tripled and then quaded and then two additional theatres were added back stage for a total of 6. The two partners of Golden Theatre Management, Bernard Goldberg and Jeffrey Deneroff, essentially sold all the viable theatres to Cineplex Odeon in 1989. They continued to own some of the buildings. Last year Mr. Goldberg passed away, but Mr. Deneroff is alive and well.

“From Ed Solero on March 28, 2011

Techman, you might be very pleased to learn that there are very legitimate plans that have been announced by the Brooklyn Borough President – at long last – to restore the Loew’s Kings to its former glory and put it to good use as a performing arts venue. The project is set to begin in earnest sometime next year and will hopefully be completed by 2014.“

Ed, I think that was a swindle from the start. I even sent an op/ed letter to the Times when it was announced that they were going to spend 70 million dollars to restore Loews Kings. It seems that 65 million was to come from BANKRUPT NEW YORK CITY and 5 million from the “developer”. I told them to give me only 15 million and I would do the same thing. It’s just another Bloomberg swindle. The city has owned the property for at least the last 25 years and leased it to the Flatbush Development Corp. for $1. a year. The theatre was IN PERFECT SHAPE when Flatbush took it over. They did NOTHING but let it sit and get destroyed and vandalized and NOW want to WASTE 65 million dollars. GIVE ME A BREAK!

techman707- I want to thank you for letting me pick your brain.

DJM78-While I was still working at the Alpine (until I retired in 1996) I stopped doing any installations and service in 1988. I did all the service installations for Golden Theatre Management from 1972 until 1988. In 1989 Cineplex Odeon took over the operation of the Alpine.

I’m the “engineer” that the security cop who worked for Golden referred to. The engineer that worked for Loews told them they couldn’t make more than a Quad out of the Alpine and even that design was severely flawed as far as I was concerned. That was the main reason the theatre was sold to Golden.

Apparently, the “original” Alpine design called for a small balcony. At some point they must have decided to remove the balcony from the design, however, they kept the unusually high rear section of the theatre where the projection booth was located. The design that Loews' engineer’s came up with called for elevating a new projection booth ON TOP OF the old booth, while continuing to use the old booth and projecting OVER THE CEILING of the two rear theatres that would be created. All they were going to do was run a new wall half way down the middle of the existing twin’s width. It was at that time that I was asked “can anything better be done?” After studying the original blueprints for a couple of weeks, I worked out a design for 10 theatres of more or less equal size with a unique stepped elevation running from the original stage to the rear of the theatre. In the end, the design wound up being only 7 theatres so they could have the 2 larger theatres on one side, instead of my original 5 and 5 design. The new design required a double “T” shaped booth instead of a straight in-line stepped booth.

As for the Fortway, although my memory is gone, I’m pretty certain that the last two side theatres were done before 1982, probably 1979 or 1980. I would guess the security cop you spoke to was either John, a BIG TALL guy, or Dave, a guy with gray or white hair and thick glasses.

techman707, I was an usher at the Fortway from 1994 to 1997. I really miss the place. When I was there the two projectionist were Alan and Mike. Maybe you knew one of them? From what I remember Alan was there in the 80’s. If it’s not too much trouble I would love to know what the Fortway looked like before it was multiplexed. I know when it tripled there was only one screen on the ground floor. I believe it was 1982 when theatre #’s 4 and 5 were added on the ground floor. Also I remember it being part of the Golden Theatre chain before Cineplex Odeon took it over,is that correct?

I worked for a few years at the Fortway. The Alpine was our sister theatre in the Cineplex Odeon chain. The fortway was no palace but I always thought the Alpine was a dump. Still is even with the added screen in the back of the building.

Techman, you might be very pleased to learn that there are very legitimate plans that have been announced by the Brooklyn Borough President – at long last – to restore the Loew’s Kings to its former glory and put it to good use as a performing arts venue. The project is set to begin in earnest sometime next year and will hopefully be completed by 2014. That would mean that all five of the original so-called “Wonder Theaters” that Loew’s opened in the Metropolitan area between 1929 – 1930 will be preserved and open to the public – even if the Valencia remains open solely for church services. I think that is pretty remarkable for a town where the legitimate playhouses of Broadway hog up the official landmark spotlight, while our grand old cinematic palaces fall by the wayside. I mean, with the redevelopment of Times Square and the theater district, not ONE of the big-time Broadway premiere movie houses remains standing.

Let me correct myself… the old Warner Brothers' Hollywood Theater remains in all its glory as (surprise surprise) a church – having also spent some time as a legitimate Broadway theater. And the small, but elegant Embassy Theater, which was a newsreel showcase for much of its life, also survives as the home to the Times Square Visitor’s Center. But the Strand, the Warner, Loew’s State, Criterion, DeMille and Rivoli have all met with the wrecking ball after having survived well into the ‘80’s … and beyond in some cases. And before that, the Astor, Victoria, Capitol and Roxy all met with their demises as well. Pretty sad that such a rich history in cinematic presentation has just been wiped so thoroughly clean.

There’s also the Loew’s Paradise up in the Bronx, techman. It survived years of neglect after closing as a sub-divided quad cinema and has been restored to much of its grandeur as a live venue. And then we have the former Loew’s 175th – also turned over to a church back in the late 1960’s – which survives largely intact and well taken care of as the United Palace, a church and live venue. Finally, if one travels across the Hudson, the Loew’s Jersey has been lovingly restored by volunteers and is seasonally operated for a number of years now as a revival movie house. Every now and again they even air out the old Wurlitzer for special events. Both the Jersey and the Paradise were opened in 1929, while the 175th was opened in 1930. And let us not forget that awaiting its restoration and return to glory is the last of the Loew’s wonder theaters, the 1929 Loew’s Kings, still standing on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn. I, for one, find it quite remarkable that all 5 of these theaters remain in existence, with 4 of the 5 currently open to the public!

Thanks, I’ll check it out. Loews seemed to have two basic theatre types. The pre 1928 theatres and the post 1928 theatres. While ALL their theatres were beautiful, the theatres built between 1928 – 1935 were, in my opinion, spectacular. There is still one left in New York. It’s located in Jamaica, Queens, Loews Valencia. Loews gave it to a church for nothing, which wound up saving the theatre from demolition. It had a Spanish style outdoor design and with the sparkling stars and moving clouds, it made you feel like you were really sitting in an outdoor theatre.

Yep, sounds like the Vendome was a “real” one. Too bad it burned down. Does the shell still exist or was it totally demolished after the fire?

WTVJ is channel 6 right now. WFOR, which is CBS is channel 4 now. Like I said, about 1991 they swapped channels. I live in Coral Springs.

tsloews- I’ve been to Nashville, my sister inlaw is the District Attorney in McMinville (I think it’s spelled that way), however I didn’t realize Nashville had 4 Loews theatres. Were they all “real” Loews theatres or were some of them just new boxes?