Colonial Theatre
1746 Broadway,
Brooklyn,
NY
11233
1746 Broadway,
Brooklyn,
NY
11233
6 people
favorited this theater
Showing 151 - 175 of 198 comments
So that’s why the lady is a vamp !
Perhaps Selena Royle and Nova Pilbeam would know.
I won’t go into the udderly bovine implications of a last name like “Mooers”.
I’ll leave it to Fast Eddie.
Jack S. My dad, Irving was the projectionist in the Colonial theater until its closing. He loved his job. He never once said he was going to work. He always said, “I’m going to the movies.” My friends and I got in free every Saturday. My dad would go to the candy stand lady and get us free popcorn. We went up to the balconey and chucked jubies down on the kids below. When the usher told us that the balconey was closed, we politely informed him that we were there with Mr. S. He always left us alone. Boy, did we feel important. I hated climbing up the swirling staircase to the projection booth.
I remember the kids yelling that there was no color when the Wizard of Oz started. I felt bad for my dad with all the yelling, however once Judy Garland opened the door in Oz, everyone quieted down. I visited there in 2004 and the Reverend was quite hospitable. He let me go up those dreaded stairs into the projection booth where I said a few prayers. It brought back tears and thoughts of happier and innocent times.
Please r.s.v.p. if anyone has any photo of the Colonial Theater.
Jack S. My dad, Irving was the projectionist in the Colonial theater until its closing. He loved his job. He never once said he was going to work. He always said, “I’m going to the movies.” My friends and I got in free every Saturday. My dad would go to the candy stand lady and get us free popcorn. We went up to the balconey and chucked jubies down on the kids below. When the usher told us that the balconey was closed, we politely informed him that we were there with Mr. S. He always left us alone. Boy, did we feel important. I hated climbing up the swirling staircase to the projection booth.
I remember the kids yelling that there was no color when the Wizard of Oz started. I felt bad for my dad with all the yelling, however once Judy Garland opened the door in Oz, everyone quieted down. I visited there in 2004 and the Reverend was quite hospitable. He let me go up those dreaded stairs into the projection booth where I said a few prayers. It brought back tears and thoughts of happier and innocent times.
Please r.s.v.p. if anyone has any photo of the Colonial Theater.
Does anyone know of any current or historic phtoos of the interior of the Colonial?
Joe G. Yes, Grim’s bar was on the corner of Sumpter and B'dway, a couple of blocks down from the Colonial, It was owned by Bob Grim’s father who had previously owned a little diner further up B'dway toward where it turned into Jamaica Avenue. Anton Grim, another son was a fireman for many years and is now retired. He showed up at a parish reunion not too long ago. Before Grim’s was Grim’s it was named O'Connor’s. Sperling’s meat market was right near it on Sumpter St. Across B'dway from Grim’s was Ryan’s, owned by Eddie Ryan. McLaughlin’s, like the Colonial, is now a church or was the last time I drove past. Pat Hogan was a long time bartender there. All of this the signs of a misspent youth. Billp
Peter L. I remember the Abar very well but not the name. I remember when it worked and the mechanical piano player played and flopped around on the canopy, and then for years it didn’t work. I was near that neighborhood, around Grand St., the other week. It’s changed a lot, and I’m happy to say for the better, though I couldn’t afford to live there now. And Bill P., another bar near the Colonial was Bob Grim’s. He was a Yankees pitcher and he was in there all the time after he retired. I remember him. I was just a little kid, about 4 years old, and my father used to take me in there and sit me on a bar stool or the pool table. The priests from Our Lady of Lourdes used to drink in there too.
In response to Boob or Bob A. who has got to be Bob (Inky)Atwell and who talks of playing basketball in Marion St. Park a couple of blocks from the Colonial Theatre with Tommy Tilson, Tom dawson, Bill Schmitt and jim Cassidy: You also played with me, Bill Proefriedt.Incidentally Jim Cassidy passed away when he was only 50. And you had a great left-handed lay-up.
I went to the Colonial Theatre often and to the lowly Decatur a few blocks down Broadway. That was a great neighborhood to grow up in and tomorrow I am going to see friends who grew up there, Gary Kelly from Chauncey St. and Ray Staib, now 82, who lived at several addresses but entertained us all at McLauglin’s bar which was almost right across B'dway from the Colonial. BillP
Does anyone remember the name of the club on Bushwick Avenue that had the animated piano player above the entrance awning way? Also there was an infamous hotel called the Hotel Bushwick which was alleged to be a house of ill repute. It was a small building off of Broadway. Anyone have any stories of information on that. This would have been back in the early Fifties.
Joe G., good having you back. My father remembers the Night In The Sky / New Eastern Chinese Restaurant, from around 1929 or so, at the eastern corner of Bway and Cooper, third floor.
It’s a red and white striped building now. Bway can provide a link to a photo, if he hasn’t, already.
I was last there Saturday Aug 6 2005, about 3 p.m. Just as I was getting off the Manhattan-bound Bway el at Chauncey Street station, Westminster Chimes type bell sounds were coming out of the loudspeaker atop the roof of the Wayside Baptist Church, formerly the Colonial Theater. I then exited down to the street at the eastern corner of Bway and Cooper, next to the former Night In The Sky / New Eastern Chinese Restaurant.
Peter, I came along later, in the ‘60s, but I remember Einhorn’s, which I believe later became Key Food. There was also a great little Italian pastry shop there. And I remember the newspaper stand with the deaf-mute couple. The woman used to try to communicate with my mother; she always would have a big, warm smile even though she couldn’t speak. Fred M., I went to Lourdes, again, later, late '50s to mid '60s. I wrote some stuff about it that is posted up above.
I remember that on the corners of Rockaway Ave and Broadway was the Starbright Diner and next to it was the first Chinese restaurant I’d ever seen. This would be around 1948 or so. The Chinese restaurant, who'se name I cannot recall, was a one story walkup. The first super market opened across from the Starbright diner. It was called Einhorn’s and was the prototype of super markets to come. Under the Broadway el was a newspaper stand that was operated by a husband and wife, both of whom were deaf and dumb. Across Broadway was a cigar store, I think it was called Philadelphia Phillie. Next to the Colonial theater was a candy store. On summer evenings crowds would mill about waiting for the newspaper delivery of the first editions of the Daily News and Daily Mirror.
FRED M.; I lived at 130 Saratoga Avenue between Bainbridge and Chauncey in the late 30’s until 1954. We used to play basketball at Marion Street playground, some of the players at that time were Tommy Dawson,Jimmy Cassidy, Tommy Tilson, Billy Schmidt among others.I used to go to the Decatur Street theatre and Colonial theatre as well. I played for Our Lady of Lourdes Columbian Squires basketball team and was coached by a Mr. Ward.Any recollections you may have would be appreciated. regards bob a.
I have one particular memory of the Colonial Theater. During the Early Fifties I had a newspaper route for the Long Island Press. My route, which was maintained on foot, was Chauncey, Bainbridge and Marion streets between Broadway and Ralph Avenues. Even at a very early age I was a very responsible person. One day I came down with a bad case of the flu and was worried about the delivery of the press to my customers. My dad volunteered to pick up the papers and deliver them for me providing I supply him with a list of my customers. I did, and assumed that they all received their papers on time. Wrong! When I finally went back to delivering the papers I was greeted with a slew of complaints of not receiving the newspaper on the day I was sick. I could not understand what happened. Well, on the backside of the Colonial Theater was a two story fire escape with a stairway leading up from the street. It was a rather windy day. I’d noticed some newspaper flying down from the top of the stairs. They were copies of the Long Island Press! When I climbed the stairs, much to my dismay, were about a hundred copied of the Press dumped on the second level of the fire escape. Needless to say, my dad didn’t make the delivery and life continued on without any great loss to anyone.
Joe G, Fred M, and anyone else interested in sharing memories of Bushwick with other former or current Bushwick residents, please contact Eleanor Phillips of the Bushwick Buddies website at :
I grew up at 488 Chauncey Street (between Rockaway and Hopkinson) in Brooklyn during the 40s and 50’s and spent many Saturdays at the Colonial Theater watching double features, a cartoon, and a Superman or some other superhero serial for 14 cents. They also used to give dishes on Tuesday nights to all patrons. It was a somewhat “upscale” neighborhood theater, much superior to the Decatur, further along on Broadway which showed triple features! My friend Pete L who steered me to this site recalls seeing Marlon Brando in “Streetcar named Desire” at the Colonial and being blown away by it.
Fred M
Thank you, Joe G. for this information.
In August 1995 I came across a Bickford’s restaurant in Norwalk, Connecticut, more than twenty years after they closed in NYC.
About a year ago, I saw an ad on TV for a Triangle Hofbrau Restaurant in Pequannock, NJ. I wonder if this is the relocated Triangle Hofbrau Restaurant from Richmond Hill, Queens.
My home libraries were the Irving Branch at Irving and Woodbine next to Bushwick H.S. until Sept. 1968, and then the Ridgewood library at 20-12 Madison St. between Fairview and Forest Avenues.
The Crane Plumbing Co., for which my dad’s Uncle Jimmy worked, kept its name when it moved from Bushwick to Hempstead, L.I.
Peter, the Saratoga Branch, a Carnegie library, is on Hopkinson Avenue, also now called Thomas S. Boyland St., right off Broadway (Saratoga Avenue is actually a block away). It is still there and in use since 1908, one of the city’s smallest and poorest in one of its poorest neighborhoods, but it gave a kid from a poor neighborhood in Brooklyn a wealth of information and instilled in me the love of the library that I retain today, and will always have. P.S. I lived at 1501 Bushwick Ave. A couple of years ago I came across some sort of ironworking company way out in Connecticut, near Hartford or somewhere, called the Bushwick Iron Co. or something. Turns out they had been located in Bushwick decades earlier, moved but kept the name.
Yes, thank you Joe G for this wealth of information !
The last of my family left that part of Bushwick between 1955 and 1960, when my dad’s parents and sister moved from 1454 Bushwick Avenue between Chauncey and Pilling Sts. to 169 Chestnut Street in Cypress Hills.
Where was that Saratoga Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library ?
The address on Jackie Gleason’s mother’s death certificate, so far as I know, was either 357 or 358 Chauncey Street, which is near the corner of Howard Avenue, the north-south avenue between Ralph and Saratoga Avenues.
I had estimated that Lourdes burned sometime between 1972 and 1976, based on photos with it and without it in the background from the nycsubway.org website.
Joe, thanks so much for sharing all your memories!
Yes, while the neighborhood still has quite a way to go, it is improving quite nicely. It’s night and day from just 5 years ago. Who knows what is in store for the next 10+ years. The neighborhood finally has a light at the end of the long dark tunnel it was in.
It’s a shame that arsonists destroyed such a beautiful building, as the Our Lady of Lourdes church..
Hey, guys: I stumbled across your website quite by accident and it brought back many memories. There’s so much more I could tell you than I have time to go into right now, but in brief: I lived from shortly after birth in 1952 till 1959 on MacDougal St. near Broadway, and from ’59 til 1971 on Bushwick Ave. between Furman Ave. and Granite Street. I went to the Colonial Theater many times but I don’t remember many movies I saw there besides “Ben-Hur.†I saw some other posts about the RKO Bushwick and Loew’s Gates, which I also attended many times (we always walked â€" took 20-30 minutes). Movies then cost 50 cents for kids, and there was nothing you couldn’t see â€" no ratings, and no need for them. To answer a couple of questions: I attended Our Lady of Lourdes church and school, and it closed because of neither the neighborhood’s decline nor low-flying planes. The neighborhood started going into decline in the mid ’60s, long before the ’77 blackout. (On the night of the ’65 blackout, when I was 12, my friend and I went into the street with flashlights to guide traffic.) Lourdes was a huge, magnificent Gothic church known to everyone for miles around. Jackie Gleason did live on Chauncey Street but not at 328; he lived near the public library’s Saratoga branch, and attended public school but took Catholic instruction at Lourdes. The church had a $10,000 gold monstrance, a vessel used in some services, that was paid for through the donations of parishioners’ gold and jewelry, which were melted down to create it. It was once stolen, and the word went out that the local Mafiosi had vowed to find the thief. (The young John Gotti lived in and terrorized the neighborhood.) A day later a priest found the vessel sitting on the church steps when he opened up in the morning. As the neighborhood declined more thefts took place, including, incredibly, that of a life-size bronze statue of St. Peter seated on the papal throne, modeled after the Vatican’s, that weighed thousands of pounds. It was cut into pieces at night in the church and carried out. Around 1975 arsonists burned the church. A day or two before it was demolished, I walked with the pastor through the still-smoking ruins and we reminisced. The services were moved a block away to the garage of a former Chevrolet dealer. Other famous people who lived or worked in the neighborhood were the actor Vince Edwards (“Ben Caseyâ€) and cops Frank Serpico and Eddie Egan (“The French Connectionâ€). The neighborhood went all the way downhill but has become gentrified, especially out toward Williamsburgh. I’m told that houses like the one I lived in, which my parents sold for $50,000, now command 10 to 15 times that amount. It’s doubtful we could have lived there that long. Oh, well, hope you enjoyed reading this.
bobbyboy, here is a private e-mail I just sent to you :
Small world !
I just saw your comment on the former Colonial Theater on Cinema Treasures.
How “old” are you ? I’m 49, and my dad is 85.
My father lived on Moffat between Bway and Bushwick in the 1930’s. His and my last name
is Koch. Across the street lived my dad’s best boyhood friend, Vincent Ferro.
Here is a bit about my family and myself that I posted on the Halsey Theater page earlier today :
I was born in Evangelical Deaconess Hospital, which used to stand at the northern corner of Bway and Chauncey, in mid-November 1955. I lived in Ridgewood, on Cornelia between Cypress and Wyckoff, but my family and I knew Bushwick well.
My dad was born in October 1919, at the old Bushwick Hospital, which used to stand at Putnam and Howard Aves. His parents lived at 1044 Putnam Avenue at the time. He lived at six to a dozen addresses in Bushwick, the last one as a single man, 1454 Bushwick, between Chauncey and Pilling. My parents lived on Weirfield between Knickerbocker and Wilson, across the street from Irving Square Park, before I was born, and before they moved to Ridgewood.
My mom was born at 412 Harman St. My parents met at the Knights of Columbus at Bushwick and Hart.
Was Kelso’s Gym in “The Honeymooners” based on any real place in Bushwick ?
My dad remembers, among many places, Joe’s Barber Shop at Bway and Pilling, and Night In The Sky Chinese Restaurant, at the eastern corner of Bway and Cooper, by the stairs to the Chauncey St. el station. His boyhood church was Grace Lutheran on Covert between Bway and Bushwick.
Please respond to this e-mail. Thank you.
I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO GET IN TOUCH WITH
PETER K. WITH NO RESULTS, WILL RESPOND TO ANYONE
AT THIS SITE, IM AN OLD GUY WHO LIVED ON MOFFAT ST.
BETWEEN BUSHWICK & BROADWAY IN THE 40S. WILL BE HAPPY
TO SHARE ANYTHING I CAN REMEMBER ABOUT THIS AREA.
.com
Thanks gentlemen for your responses, I guess it explains
the 1969 baptism of my cousin Lourdes in that church.
Her godparents lived right across the street from it.
Yes, Our Lady Of Lourdes Roman Catholic Church was on Aberdeen Street between Bushwick Avenue and Broadway. The idea of it being demolished because of interfering with low flying airplanes was my father’s idea, and his memory is, to say the least, not the greatest.
I think a more likely reason was the decline of the neighborhood.
Lou Rom, you’re most welcome to my memories.