Kings Theatre
1027 Flatbush Avenue,
Brooklyn,
NY
11226
1027 Flatbush Avenue,
Brooklyn,
NY
11226
86 people
favorited this theater
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That is strange I posted something in here last night and now it is not here. :(
Astyanax-I don’t want to put words in Marty’s mouth, but very few things would make him happier than seeing the Loew’s Kings as the Kings County Center for the Performing Arts.
Try to convince Markowitz that he can become the showbix impressario that he aspires to be and use a renovated Loews Kings as his venue for staging his concert series. Convince him to get Keyspan, Bear Stearns, or Pfizer, blue chip corporations with a major Brooklyn presence to cough-up the renovation dollars, and rename the auditorium after Marty.
Hi Gustavelifting . Marty Markowitz is the brooklyn boro president and he is also a real A**hole. I have had dealings with him in the past when he was a state senator for Brooklyn. For almost the last 20 years he has run 2 free concert series in Brooklyn. He got public as well as private funding for the concerts but he some how was able to get away with hiring the sound and lighting companies without going to an open bid. I tried to get involved with doing his shows and he was a jerk. I doubt he would lift a finger to help save the Kings unless there was something major in it for him self.
Yeah, it’s a tough proposition. I believe that it could once again become a community centerpiece. But not without creative vision, organization, money and extraordinary dedication. Hopefully something better than a multiplex plan will come along.
Watch the Bronx Paradise.
I just came across this site tonight but it brings me to tears to read about the places i have seen or have been in that have gone the way of a wrecking ball. For some reason even though the Kings was closed as a public venue I was under the impression that Erasmus Hall High School was utilizing the stage and insides. I had no idea that the roof and interior was all messed up. I could go on and on here but i wont. As much as it pains me to know that the building still stands but in this day and age there seems to be no need for a 3600 seat theatre. Tthose days I am sorry to say are long gone.
This is my first time in a while online. Too bad because there was much buzz here. I don’t know how to contact Markowitz’s Office. However, that is a good idea. I also did not know the Kings was the location for the movie Sleepers, that’s also interesting. However, does anyone know how to contact the borough president’s office?
On at least one occasion the KINGS was used as the background for a filming location: the 1996 movie “Sleepers” with Brad Pitt, Jason Patrick, Kevin Bacon and others. A minor character is shown walking up to the front doors and the dillapidated marquee is shown as the camera cuts to the lobby, the grand staircase and the balcony foyer. Not too much is shown of the theatre, and parts of the background are draped in white cloth to hide lights or damage, I don’t know which. It is a relatively short scene near the middle of the film and acts as a local gang lord’s supposed throne room. The location never again appears in the movie, and nothing of the auditorium is seen. I wonder if it has otherwise been used as a location for film (aside from documentaries such as “Memoirs of a Movie Palace”)? Such use for location filming can bring in much needed funds; the LOS ANGELES now survives largely on such fees from the movie producers. Perhaps the NYC area interested ones could join with the NY film commission and prepare 8x10 photos of the original and current state of affairs views to file with the group that furnishes data on locations nationwide to the California producers/location scouts. This might raise the awareness of the wonderful KINGS so that it is seen in more films and thus is seen publically as a valuable resource left to moulder.
“Robbie” and others of the ‘now generation’ are all too eager to believe that currency of use is everything, and among those ignorant of the nature of the semantics of a language merely assume that it is enough for people of their acquaintance to use a slang term, so that it thereby becomes legitimate. In fact, it is history that determines legitimacy and useable currency of a term. Lexicoghraphically, there are two schools of thought on this matter; the ‘libertines’ represented by such as Merriam-Webster Co. see currency as definition and usage, and will accept the utterings of anyone at all as ‘authority’ (to the notorious extent of listing a madame of a bordello as an authority on sexual matters!), whereas more conservative authorities and renowned lexicographers connected with academia regard only educated speech/writings over time as the authority of usage labeling. I may be the last ‘voice in the wilderness’ in this regard, but will opine that it is the position of such authorities as the Theatre Historical Soc. of America that are much more to be respected as standard bearers of non-slang than those involved primarily for a profit motive, and of obviously less than sterling regard for history.
Yes, sad to say, this issue may be moot in a day and age of decaying social standards where newspapers and the Internet are regarded as ‘authorities,’ but I am not so unrealistic as to think that my defending scholarship here will make any headway with the young ‘whippersnappers’ who regard any appeal to history as unprofitable and not ‘with it.’ I am afraid that Robbie’s adduced modern ‘authorities’ are as guilty of the mindless, uneducated ‘monkey-see-monkey-do’ repitition of innanities as are those who so unthinking took up the phrase: “I could care less” in lieu of the correct and logical phrase as it originally was: “I couldn’t care less.” English does not have the luxury of a college of language arbiters as do such as French and Spanish, so it will be in the unwashed hurly burly of unrestricted writings such as these that the lustre of our theatres and their parts will be burnished by academic writings or sullied by slang. More’s the pity. Now I wonder just who was “Pontificating.”
Enow or meow? Either way, ‘nuff said.
Jim, you are in error.
Let me set the record straight with some actualities:
The correct term in all English-speaking countries is what they were originally called by the artists who designed them (and who continue to design them): BLADE SIGNS.
Pontification in lieu of research is as empty as the Pitkin.
Some facts:
Ledtronics of Torrance, CA relampers of the Bardavon Theater signage View link along with,
Wagner Electric Sign Company, of Ohio, restorers and rebuilders of countless examples of theater signage including such notables as the Bardavon, Michigan (Ann Arbor), Tampa, and Fox (Oakland) theaters http://www.wagnersign.com/theatermarquees.htm
pushing ahead with,
The Preservation Coalition of Erie County (Shea’s Buffalo Info http://preserve.bfn.org/archives/shea/))
the signage codes of municipalities such as San Diego, Menlo Park among scores of cities
and let’s not forget good ol' (get this, kids)
SIGNINDUSTRY.COM who’s masthead proclaims “The online magazine for the sign industry”,
yes folks, all these and myriad others refer to any sign, lit or unlit, that projects perpendicularly from the face of a building and has two faces as a blade sign.
Just wanted to give this dying-horse-of-a-thread the coup de grace.
Begone Vertical! Get thee to a nunnery. Thy slangy ways have no place here! Enter Noble Blade!
(Enow! Back to my dungeon)
Those considering the Kings theatre should also look into restoring the beautiful Walker theatre in Brooklyn which is intact.(See Walker site on Cinema Treasures) If I lived closer to New York I would start a group myself.
excuse me for calling them “those nice signs” I didn’t know this site was that acedemic, I just love old movie palaces.
Hi Gustavelifting,
Presently, I am not a resident of New York. However, my friend is and he is the one who is creating an organization to save the Kings. When it is formed, I will advise you. I am planning on moving back to New York. In the interim, I will be writing letters, making phone calls to make more people aware of the Loew’s Kings and how restoring it would benefit Brooklyn, NY.
Since I am from this part of Brooklyn, NY, I am aware there are alot of people who would like to see the Kings saved including me. Unforunately, this “Wishful Thinking” on behalf of many people has not saved the Kings from being vandalized of everything of value(light fixtures, etc) nor from the horrifying condition it is presently in.
It would behoove you to make an appointment with the Brooklyn Borough President’s office so that you will be aware of the present conditon of the Kings and some of the tough decisions they are facing with the Kings.
On a positive note, another Wonder Theater: Paradise Theater in Bronx, NY has been beautifully restored. Their first concert last month was sold out. It is never too late to restore a great movie palace!
Ken:
The correct term in all English-speaking countries is what they were originally called by the artists who designed them: VERTICAL SIGNS, which, of course, distinguished them from the horizontality of the MARQUEE. Architects and designers of such signs are the authority on how they are termed, since they invented them. I don’t disaprove of slang terms in speech, most of thye time, as long as the connotation is not changed by them, but in writing I think that we all must attain to a higher standard for the written record.
You astutely mention MARQUEE versus CANOPY, and here it is merely a limitation of how the thing is observed: a MARQUEE (in the theatrical sense of the word) is composed three principal parts in most all cases after 1920: (1) the Canopy which is what started it all to protect the patrons and the front entry from rain; (2) the ATTRACTION BOARDS where some means was used with or without lights to advertise the bill of fare; and (3) the NAME SIGN, a horizontal affair of the name of the theatre. I wish I could easily say just where the first true MARQUEE and VERTICAL SIGN appeared, but I do not know. Perhaps you will have the resources and energy to persue such research in England as well as at the Archive of the Theatre Historical Soc. here, but, unfortunately, I do not.
Your British use of the term PIT, of course, dates from the earthen floor days of the Shakespearean theatre such as the GLOBE, and once orchestras came about, they were positioned in what remained of that originally seatless area, and were therefore the new ‘Pits’ and by extension, the ground floor of the theatre became the ‘orchestra,’ for better or worse.
The term STALLS is rather more complicated since it brings in the references to both area of seating level, as well as type of seats. And through the years, with differernt types of theatres in different countries, there are too many exapmles to mention in our short space here to do the subject justice, so as “saps” emplores, I will “call the whole thing off” (to shamelessly borrow from the song)!
Let’s call the whole thing off!
Jim;
I was only trying to convey what I know this type of signage is called collectively in our two countries. I am led to believe that in the USA it is a Blade sign, in the UK is is generally known as a Fin sign or sometimes known as a Vertical sign. What is the correct term in the USA?
If I mentioned Stalls seating or Pit seating, there are probably not many viewers of this site based in the USA who would know what I was talking about. Yet if I said Orchestra seating, all in the USA would know I mean’t what we in the UK would call the Stalls (downstairs) section of seating (The Pit seats were very cheap priced seats on long wooden benches in the rear of the orchestra stalls area in live theatres in the UK at the turn of the last Century.)
Same difference with Marquee in the USA, in the UK is Canopy.
I wont go on and bore you all. You say tomato and I say tomato…LOL
Ken was kind to provide this current photo of the facade, but permit me to respectfully disagree with his use of the ersatz terms “blade/fin” for the VERTICAL SIGN. Slang usage does not help us gain respect for our theatres or their parts by designating them in so casual, and even flippant manner. Ken is a veteran theatres buff, and while he may have heard such terms in his London area, it does not follow that they have currency everywhere. Yes, one or two American sign companies of today have resorted to such slang, but they are cases of being more concerned with being ‘hip’ and ‘modern’ than of having any historical accuracy. This is something like using the disparaging British term “flea pit” to describe such as Covent Garden or Radio City Music Hall; it is just juvenile. Ken is too noble to advocate such, so I assume that he was misinformed.
A recent close-up photograph of the facade (minus it’s blade/fin name sign) and marquee:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/joereifer/56786172/
To Whom it May Concern:–
In the past couple of hours I’ve been reading all about the
“old” movie palaces. It fascinates me. I only wish that something
could be done with the ones that are still standing! Namely the
former Loew’s Kings, on Flatbush Ave. in Brooklyn. The theatre has
been declared a “landmark” & therefore can’t be torn down. I have passed the theatre many times, & each time that I did so, I wanted to
cry. The theatre, which has been closed for 28yrs now, is slowly
deteriorating! I shudder to think of what it now looks like inside.
It was such a beautiful theatre, and how it could of been allowed to
deteriorate the way it has, is way beyond me.
With everything that I have read about the theatre, there’s not
a single person that gets the capacity right. The theatre has a
capacity of 4,200 seats! Isn’t there a person out there that will
come forth and revitalize this magnificent theatre? I also shudder
to think that several years ago, Magic Johnson was supposed to come & make a multiplex out of it. I’d rather see the place torn down!!
Sincerely,
Carmine
Lance;
Is there any address, postal or E-Mail that can be added to the Kings Page in the Unofficial New York Nostalgia Buff Website? I figure, if you wish, you can give either one of them here and it will be gladly handled there.
IT SHOULD BE NOTED THAT MANY PEOPLE BELIEVE THAT THE KINGS WILL COME ALIVE AGAIN, AND ,IF SO, LONG LIVE IT!
Jim, Thank you. A word of encouragement goes a long way!!! Again, thanks. Lance.
Lance, if you and your friend and others can do it, more power to you! If I had good health and money, I would travel there to volunteer too. Jim Rankin
Unlike alot of people who write about the Kings, this was my neighborhood theater. To generalize The Kings situation is an insult to anyone who lived in that area. During the mid 1970’s, due to some unscrupulous real estate deals, the neighborhoood changed within a few years. Like most middle class, I left. It took about 10 years for the neighborhood to stablize. Since than, the neighborhood has a working class,a middle class and than there is the affluent Historic South Prospect Park area (and the surrounding areas). Granted you have a very diverse population. However, this could be an advantage if the Kings was to take advantage of meeting the needs of each of these diverse populations. Presently, there is only one major performing arts venue and that is Brooklyn Academy of Music,which is located downtown Brooklyn, NY. This is not sufficent for such a big borough that is growing more prosperous each day.
I am also very much aware that the Kings is very costly to maintain and operate due to its size. However, since there is no performing arts venue other than Brooklyn Academy of Arts, it would be worth the investment especially if Brooklyn wants to continue it’s revitalization. Eventually, Brooklyn is going to need another performing arts venue and to build a new one would be at least 100 millon dollars or more. Disney spent over 250 million to build a performing arts venue in Los Angeles, CA. Has anyone seen this venue? I have and it is a waste of money. Granted, the acostics are suppose to be perfect. However, 50 years from now is anyone going to care about this building. To restore the Kings would be about 60 million. Due to the immense size of the Kings, you could cut open a doorway in the lobby and have a couple of 200 screen theaters next to it. The size of Kings could be used to advantage just like they have with the Brooklyn Academy of Arts.
Back in the late 1970’s when the Kings closed it’s doors, this was a working theater. During the 1980’s, store fronts on both sides of the building were being utilized. However, over time, with no one voicing their concerns about the future of the Kings, it was vandalized of everything of value and left to rot.
We no longer can depend on someone else to do the work we can do. Take the time to make the phone calls, write letters to the legislators and make an appointment with Brooklyn Borough President(my friend did). The more proactive each of us is, the more we will be taken seriously.
My friend(who is on vacation)in the near future will be recruiting volunteers to help save the kings. Is anyone interested?
Well, you truly can never tell what the future will bring. Jim, I found your thoughts above to be well stated, but remember that you also gave us a long and well thought out argument as to why the Paradise would never reopen as well. It all comes down to the fact that you truly never can tell.