Kings Theatre
1027 Flatbush Avenue,
Brooklyn,
NY
11226
1027 Flatbush Avenue,
Brooklyn,
NY
11226
86 people
favorited this theater
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Great tip and great article! Thanks very much Warren. Dan
There is a brief feature on the Loew’s Kings on my website with a promising new comment by Marty Markowitz:
http://www.PlanetPLG.com
Dan
PlanetPLG.com
Bruce and anyone else involved in the effort to bring this beautiful theater back to life. Please contact me at dan AT planetplg.com. I would like to help focus attention on the movement to restore the Loew’s Kings as well as cover the story of your fight to get this done.
Thanks,
Dan
PlanetPLG.com
Bruce: I think you are selling yourself short. Creating a business plan requires no advanced degree. Figure out what your ideas would cost and what kind of income they would generate down the line. Actually, if you had such a document put together in Power Point I think you would have an easier time getting people interested in investing. It doesn’t happen overnight. It involves at least a month’s time and multiple drafts. I think it would be a worthy goal for your group to accomplish this task. I would love to help. But I won’t be able to, beyond talking on this message board, for at least a year. That’s the soonest my current volunteer commitment could end. I will think about whether or not I know someone who would be willing to help you develop a business plan. I’m not sure off the top of my head.
Here’s a theatre-related example I saw online not long ago:
http://www.dupagetheatre.net/TheatreProposal2.pdf
Life: I have no idea what a business plan should cover and don’t feel qualified to create one. However, your idea makes sense to me! Could you create the business plan or do you know somebody that is proficient in such things. Naturally, they would have to appreciate all the possibilities the Kings has to offer and not expect to be paid for their efforts.
Through the years that I have tried to Save The Kings, I contacted various real estate developers and tried to interest them. One really seemed impressed and saw the potential and even came out with me to the theater and toured the neighborhood. However, more recently he did not return my calls.
It’s really very frustrating!
Bruce: I know of a bank that has been successful investing in low-income areas across the country. Contrary to popular business practices, they have made money by pursuing a socially-conscious agenda. If you come up with a business plan that makes sense I can run it by someone I know at the bank. I think they would relish the idea of bringing back the Kings in order to bolster the surrounding neighborhood. If the numbers makes sense, odds are they will give you financing.
Is anybody interested in a second meeting?
Richard organized the last meeting, but I have been unable to reach him. If there are people that are interested in a second meeting, please let me know.
In the meantime, what you describe for the Alpine might work nicely at the Kings. I would hate to see the auditorium divided up, but at this point saving the theater has to be the paramount goal. However, the Loew’s Kings has a unique advantage over most houses. In the basement is a basketball court and that could be used as a theater space.
Of late, I have been hearing that the Brooklyn Borough President is talking up the Loew’s Kings to various real estate developers! In the meantime, the NY Post is looking to do a follow up story — when and if something happens with the NYC Economic Development Corp. I have been in touch with a television documentry producer and he wants to shoot some interviews and footage within the building.
Kings…. Re the Loews. It seems a theater developer from Queens- who owns a few theaters in Queens and Manhattan has purchased the Alpine { wich was slated to close shortly} for an undesclosed ammount. Part of the plan is to refurbish it and present community theater and other events in one of that multiplexe`s auditoriums.What this has to do with the Kings I have no clue, but if someone can get him interested in it, maybe he will be interested. Also spoke to a friend in real estate. He claims that the neighborhood where the Kings is located is “dicey” at best and that the general location can possibly scare some investors off. Is there any info on having a new meeting? Please keep me posted.
Why does everything have to be about the theater’s past? Has anybody done anything toward getting it opened again? Has anybody contacted a developer? Has anybody written a proposal? Has anybody contacted the newspapers? If this theater is to be saved, somebody has got to do somethin
Dfc;
I believe the theater may have closed in 1979.
I stand corrected. So the Loew’s Kings made two brief comeback attempts. But I’m sort of right in one way regarding the 1974 closure. That was the last year for the Loew’s operation of the theater. It looks like 1980 was the last time a movie was shown there to a paying audience.
By the way, that ad for the Wonder Organ Disc has a way to get to the Loew’s Kings Tribute Page from my website. I am thanking anyone from that society who placed it on there. SAVE THE KINGS.
Here is the summer 1980 movie clock showing the King’s open again
View link
Here is the ad for the non Loews engagement of “Exorcist 2”. Notice it’s playing day and date with King’s Plaza which it never did before.
View link
I want to be at the next meeting. It seems this page is getting too negative. I’m glad I got back on. Everything can be saved. If the molds don’t exist, then we may be able to make them at other theaters. You see we need to be positive.
Robert-Now I feel terrible that I missed ‘Black Street Fighter’ and ‘Tatooed Hit Man’. Do you think they’re available on DVD? What a sad ending for a theater that had so much glory.
I can’t believe it but July 18, 1980 they appear again showing something called “Almost Human”
I just went to NY Times archive and checked the ad for Exorcist 2 and sure enough the Loew’s name has been dropped. Whoever ran the place after Loew’s may have closed quickly because the last listing I can find is the week of 7/28/77 when they played a double bill of “Black Street Fighter” and “Tatooed Hit Man”.
There is a new CD just released that features Lee Erwin playing the Robert-Morton Theatre Organs at Loew’s 175th and Loew’s Kings. The Kings Wonder Morton recording on the CD is of the organ’s farewell concert. More info at http://www.gstos.org/TheWondersOfItAll.htm
Yes they did and unfortunately they ran it into the ground and that’s when the NYC Economic Development Corporation took over – thanks to tax default.
Bob, thanks for point out that you saw the EXORCIST II in the summer of 1977 and I have been told that there was a live show put on in 1979 by the Flatbush Development Corporation. That show featured Arthur Tracy, the Street Singer. He and I talked in the late 90’s-early 2000 and at the time he told me that he was friends with George Burns, Goodman Ace (Jack Benny’s writer) and a few others. They sat around the round table at the Algonquin Hotel and Arthur remembers being very depressed over his career being at a stand still. His friends said he should keep his chin up and keep plugging. “Look at George Burns, when Gracie died he found a new career as an actor in ‘The Sunshine Boys’ The picture was supposed to star Matthau and Benny, but Benny died and Burns got the part. So Arthur looked at his friends and said, ‘That’s true, but I don’t have Jack Benny to die for me!!’
Both acts, Arthur Tracy and Burns & Allen worked the boards at Loew’s Kings.
I bought a ticket for EXORCIST II in the Summer of 1977, and spent the entire time exploring the theater. I seem to recall somebody telling me that the theater had closed and was re-opened with new management. Did somebody briefly try to revive the place after Loew’s pulled out?
You’ve got me! I have read about the theater’s past and talked to informed sources and they all agree that it was 1978-1979. Perhaps it closed and then reopened? I know that Loew’s sold and another company took over for a year. I also knew people at the Flatbush Development Corp. who took over custodial duties from the NYC Economic Development Corp, the present owner and they all said it was 79. But what is more important than when it closed is when it can reopen. That’s why we need Save The Kings and that’s why I hope you can attend our next meeting.
As far as the housing and the retail, I would say it’s gone through a major upswing. Many of the apartment houses on Ocean Avenue have either gone coop or have had kitchen, bathroom work upgraded. Also the mansions just a few blocks from the Kings are selling for at least $500,000 and some going for over a million. That is not the sign of a neighborhood in decline!
Regarding the closing date of the Loew’s Kings. I’m certain it was 1974, not 1977 or 1979. I graduated High School in June, 1974 from the Loew’s Kings. The movie on the marquee that day was “The Great Gatsby”, the last film ever to play there. I’m sure the theater closed up later that summer. Flatbush Avenue was in horrible shape by 1974, the surrounding neighborhood was in a steep decline. The area west of Ocean Avenue contained those large beautiful homes, but the homeowners were under siege for years with burglaries and robberies. The area has come back a bit but has a long way to go. Is the Loew’s Kings really a salvagable structure in 2006, 32 years after it shut it’s doors?
Can the Loew’s Kings rise again as a local theater or might it become a regional destination? If the only subdivision is to the air rights, then this once grand vaudeville/movie house can rise to the occasion and take it’s place as one of the most beautiful theaters in any direction. Remember the Loew’s Kings was patterned after the Palace of Versaille and the Paris Opera House.
When you look at other Brooklyn neighborhoods like Downtown Brooklyn, Williamsburg and Coney Island, it’s easy to see how gentrification can change everything. Flatbush, home to our favorite – theater has been on the UP SWING for a number of years and there is no entertainment/retail center. There is no place where the locals and the regionals can go. Yes, there’s Brooklyn Academy of Music and Brooklyn College, but they only serve a portion of the public.