Monroe Theatre

Bway: I wondered about that so will forward your comment to my friend and see what he tells me. Unfortunately, my friend’s father passed away so he can only go by his own memories of talking to his father over the years.

Bway: I have emailed my friend whose father worked at the Monroe and will post his additional comments soon.

Thanks for your posts, Patsy. I, too, would love to see a vintage photo of this theatre’s exterior and interior!

A good friend of mine whose father managed this theatre in the 40’s met Lucille Ball when she performed on stage and he always talked about that experience throughout his life time. I only wish I had known this as it would have been fun chatting with him about this special experience!

Bway, I will ask my dad, but there is no guarantee that he will remember even an approximate year. Shall we get ready to search old newspaper ads again, assuming we can find them ?

As a kid, I remember going to the Monroe for a Saturday mantinee and seeing 3 features, 21 cartoons and a serial or two. All of this was for 8 or 9 cents.

I also remember that when we exited the matinee we were handed a colored card that had the next week’s attractions on it. When we came to the theater the next week, one of the colored card was taped to the box office window. If the colored card you had matched the one in the window, you were admitted for free.

Did anyone attend PS 26 on Gates Avenue? I remember the school burning down while I was attending it, in the 40’s.

as for the monroe it was one of the few that showed THREE 3 features as well as newsreels , shorts,cartoons and serials all for 10 cents what a great place for kids ..we would walk there from ridgewood to save the trolley=fareof 5 cents …if we didnt like the program we would go the EAGLE on centyral avenue near woodbine street …tthis is circa 1938-48 I might mention the reader should look at the LUXOR theatre site in cinema treasures for further information about the EAGLE (luxor) one triple bill at the MONROE i remeber was Frankenstein, Flash Gordon and THe Ghoul what a fright bill@!! i wsh i had saved some of the programs from the Monroe, Eagle and Oasis among many others …as a kid i went to the glenwood, acme, belvedere, madison, oasis,parthenon,wyckoff and many many others we used “shoe leather” for transport

It was on the corner of Monroe St and Howard Ave. If you look at the photo I linked above, the streetsign next to the McDonalds is Monroe.

On another post (Century Theatre) it mentions that place being alongside the Monroe but closing in the forties. I, however, seem to remember a Century Theatre being open in the late fifties on Broadway
down toward Flushing Ave.

Here’s a current view of the site of the Monroe Theater taken today.

Click Here for Link

The theater is now demolished, and a vacant lot awaiting it’s next use with all the construction going on around it.

The date of that image # 2637 you refer to was 21 September 1975. I do not know what that tall structure behind the RKO Bushwick was, that appears in that image.

The address of the Monroe was 4 Howard Avenue. Let’s one of us get a tax map showing that address, and that should settle where the Monroe was located.

I found an old photo of the block, but the Monroe is just out of view. To the right of the RKO Bushwick is a red brick building with lots of windows, that appears to be the site McDonalds is on now. But just over that building’s roofline there appears to be the roofline of a slightly larger building (the height of the RKO Bushwick), that must be the Monroe Theater.
http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?2637