Kings Theatre

I meant to write photo after vintage. The Loew’s is a theater not a wine. The book is the Best Remaining Seats. And if you haven’t seen it you’re in for a spectacular treat.

Great pictures Ken, its really a shame that a thing of beauty is deteriorating like this. I don’t even live in Brooklyn but I think something should be done to get things moving. I would love to see this theatre in its original look.

It’s this Palace below….the conversation already moved there:

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I was also taken aback by the appearance of the Palace when I was by for a matinee last week. Curious that the folks at the Roundabout have declined to reopen “Pajama Game” citing that a 1200+ seat theater was not available. After having read the reviews of “Lestat” they should have realized that the Palace would soon be able to accomodate the show.

The Disneyfication was the worst thing to ever happen to midtown. If you actually think it was a good thing then may you live in a shopping mall for the rest of your life.

I also think that whoever built one of the hotels should be praised for the one by the Broadway Palace rises above the original theater which is still intact. In other words, the interior of that famous vaudeville palace was preserved and they are presently running the musical Lehstadt there. So, there is at least one old picture palace on Broadway that we can enjoy.

However, how does that help save the Kings. It is in need of a revival. Maybe they should reopen it for legitimate theater. Get some new artists interested in the place and produce plays.

The problem New York City had in saving there Times Square movie palaces is that the city had so many legit theatres.The demand for larger musical theatres didn’t take place until the 1990’s after all the large movie palaces had been demolished. Its a shame that a skyscraper couldn’t have been built over the Loews Capitol becuase this theatre had a large stage and would have made a great Broadway House instead of the Ugly Gershwin (Uris) Theatre. Thank god the Hollwood (Mark Hellinger) is still standing. The San Francisco Fox one of the greatest movie palaces ever built had a chance to be saved and the voters turned it down. There is a lot of blame to go around for the demise of our beloved movie palaces but I wouldn’t be to harsh with the Mayor of New York there were forces beyond his control. The fight to save the Music Hall made national news and thank god it was saved. The Shuberts pushed very hard to have the City clean up Times Square which has been a major plus for Broadway and tourism. I give credit to Disney for restoring the New Amsterdam when 42nd St looked like shit and nobody else wanted to invest in the area. I think the speed of development in Times Square even surprised the City of New York.brucec

Vincent, we do share common ground. The Kings can use a bunch of passionate people as the Jersey is fortunate enough to have. Hopefully one day the two of us, with some others, can show up with some brooms and large supply of Endust. Anything is possible as long as it’s still standing. The good news is the Borough President appears to be on our side.

Vincent, your venom should then be directed to Mayor Wagner. Much of your list of landmarks fell to the wreckers under his watch. You can also add the Roxy, Brooklyn Paramount, Ebbets Field, the Polo Grounds, and countless other structures to Wagner’s list.

Someone… Giuliani, the LPC… SOMEONE should have fully explored the idea of preserving at least one or two of the big Broadway movie palaces (the Rivoli and maybe the State or Strand) as bonafide architectural and cultural landmarks. The rich cinematic heritage of Times Square was completely ignored, while just about every legitimate B'way house was granted designation including some seriously unprofitable theaters in each of the three major circuits. If the Loew’s Astor Plaza can make a run for it as a concert venue and the Beacon uptown can thrive for decades as such, surely the Rivoli or Strand (despite the cosmetic twinning and sealing off of the stages) could have made a run at some sort of acceptable adaptive re-use. The plans to redevelop the area ran complete rough-shod over the area’s proud legacy of motion picture exhibition and our leader’s in government from Koch to Giuliani should have done better by that tradition.

Vincent, this really isn’t the place for a lefty hissy fit. The fact that we can contemplate the resurrection of abandoned theaters rather than worry about simple survival five years after the worst attack on American soil is a testament to past and current leadership.

A Major blow to the huge movie palaces around the country was the drop in attendace in the late 1950’s,with a drastic reduction in movie production resulting in fewer releases and the birth of the roadshow reserved seat event film which would run from 6 months to a year in the major markets. Each of the major studios would release up to two event films a year and would prefer to book them in theatres seating between 1200-1500 seats. The event films would be exclusive runs but other films released started opening more and more on showcase runs in the 1960’s. Downtown’s across the country were on a slow decline by the mid 1960’s, some more rapidly than others. Real Estate was also a factor in the decline and fall of many movie palaces around the country. The Times Square Capitol a successful roadshow house at the end of its life was demolished to make way for a skyscraper and Loews repaced the Capitol by twinning the Times Square State into two roadshow houses. The 1970’s ended the era of the movie palace as more films were relaesed wide and more business was being done in the suburbs rather than downtown. The decline of the single screen theatre started slowly in the 1960’s and was dead by the 1980’s with a few exceptions.The twin,triplex,sixplex which replaced the single screen theatre were replaced by the megaplex 14-30 screen theatres in the 1990’s. Most restored movie palaces are used for live stage and not movies. I always hope that movies are part of a restored movie palace future life such as the Fox in Atlanta with there classic summer movie program. I have to give credit to the Friends of the Loews Jersey for bringing movies back to a big movie palace. The Kings has suffered and lasted this long so she can be restored back to the people of Brooklyn.brucec

Hope never left NYC, rlvjr… not even when people were leaving by the 100’s of thousands. The City was already coming back from the brink during the Koch administration and the drop in crime started following the national trend during the last years of Dinkin’s largely ineffectual mayoralty. Lionizing Rudy Giuliani for all that has gone “right” in NYC is as misguided an oversimplification as blaming all the ills of society today on liberalism. No doubt the man accomplished much in his tenure here, but it did not come without a price and many New Yorkers had grown weary of his egomania by the end of his 2nd term… His exemplary leadership during the tragedy of 9/11 managed to erase a lot of ill will between hizzoner and the good citizenry of New York.

Anyway… I recommend we leave the political discourse on this site to those news and poll items that call for such debate. Let’s leave the theater pages to less rancorous subjects. I hereby surrender my soap box.