RKO Bushwick Theatre
1396 Broadway,
Brooklyn,
NY
11221
1396 Broadway,
Brooklyn,
NY
11221
13 people
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Showing 201 - 225 of 418 comments
Ziggy,
Thank you for your reply regarding the RKO Bushwick’s windows. This asymmetrical design, which replicates the landmark Flatiron Building in Manhattan, must also have an asymmetrical interior. If I remember correctly, the RKO Bushwick started as a Vaudeville only house, which caused the balcony’s sight lines to be partial when sitting in the rear seats.
Does anyone have any interior photos of this beauty?
If you look at the photo at the top of this theatre’s page you can see that the windows don’t open into the auditorium portion of the building. It’s probable that the Bushwick didn’t have too large of a lobby, so I would think that the windows were there for office space.
A most beautiful exterior, I have wondered about those portals above the windows Peter, could they have been for ventilation purposes in the balcony?
That’s a good, basic question, Louis Rugani, and I thank you for asking it. I would guess that all those windows opened into the inner lobby, with the possible exception of that circular “porthole” high up on the corner, which may have opened into the outer, upper balcony.
It would be great to have a photo of the inner lobby of the RKO Bushwick, when it still functioned as a theater.
A great facade, one of my favorites. Where did all those windows open into?
Cool, LM. Thanks.
Lost Memory, I just tried the link, and it works. It shows the Bushwick inhabited by the Pilgrim Baptist Church, which now occupies Loew’s Gates Theatre. Thank you.
Thanks, Warren. I did not realize that McElfatrick designed the RKO Greenpoint, where I spent many afternoons in my youth.
The correction appears on page 2 in tomorrow’s Real Estate section.
Since the main point of the piece concerned Lanb’s EXTERIOR designs, the error was pretty egregious and certainly extremely unfair to McElfatrick.
Warren, can you provide us with a few other examples of McElfatrick’s work?
Thanks, Bway.
The RKO Bushwick is mentioned in a wonderful article from the NY Times on Thomas Lamb:
View link
Nice photo Warren,
A truly beautiful theater inside and out.
Thanks, Warren.
Here’s a current view of the side of the Bushwick theater I took yesterday when walking by. The building had amazing detail:
Click here to see photo
Thanks for your post, BrooklynJim. I’m glad you and your friends had a good time watching “The Believers”.
GMTA, cypress. I, too, got the movie “The Believers” based on Bway’s comments. Watched it with friends last night and pointed out some of the RKO Bushwick’s past greatness to them. Sad to see the results of neglect over time (late ‘60s – '87 or so), but glad to know the building itself has been restored and is used for offices.
As for the movie itself, lots of jolts from a fine director (the late John “Midnight Cowboy” Schlesinger) and quite a capable cast. We enjoyed it, despite being weirded out quite often!
I am watching the movie, THE BELIEVERS, and just saw the scenes filmed outside the RKO Bushwick. I bought the DVD specially to see the theater.
Thanks, kong1911. Glad you got out of the Palace O.K.
I did see the Three Stooges in the 60s in the Kanema (spelling?) on Pitkin Ave. in East New York. I was also inside the Lowes Pitkin in the mid 70’s when it was a church. It was still beautiful. You could have put on live shows at any time. Even the pipe organ was still there. I also, about the same time took a walk through the Palace which was just a few blocks away and it was a bombed out mess due to fire and water damage. I got out when pieces of the ceiling came down near me.
Thanks, Warren and kong1911.
kong1911, I’m glad you got out of what was left of the Bushwick, alive and unharmed, after your 1978 visit inside there.
I found it sad to read about the looters going in four days after the church had left the building.
Sorry it takes me so long to read all the posts. Re: the post on Aug 23,24. The theatre was a church for awhile and 4 days after they left the building the looters started going in. The glass on the front door was smashed in. I happened to see that so I went in with a flashlight and saw they started in the lobby to rip the copper wiring out of the walls. I went in up to the stage area and it was really nice in there with the large overhanging mez. That was the one and only time I was on the inside and that was in 1978.
You’re welcome, Panzer65, and thank you for pointing that out about The Three Stooges.
PKoch,
Thank you for your reply concerning RKO Bushwick’s vaudeville act,The Three Stooges.
Your welcome, it’s interesting to note that the Three Stooges were part of the entertainment industry’s most versatile acts, acknowledging the fact that RKO Bushwick had many live appearances, it should be noted that Moe, Larry ,Curly, Shemp ,and Joe &Joe, did Vaudeville, Television and Movies. Not many acts of today can claim that.
Thank you for posting this, Panzer65. I tend to think of The Three Stooges as being on WPIX Channel 11 rather than WABC, but in 1959 they were also on Steve Allen’s Sunday night NBC variety show.
It just occurred to me that the RKO Bushwick is on Broadway, which many people regard as the Bushwick – Bed-Stuy border, just as the Ridgewood theater still is, and the RKO Madison was, near the Ridgewood-Bushwick, Queens-Brooklyn border.
According to previous posts, The Three Stooges appeared on the stage of this beautiful theater. After the war, the new invention television, which spelled the death knell for so many of New York’s classic movies houses, recruited The Stooges and their time proven comedy acts for one of WABC TV’s proposed weekly comedy shows. An early form of Tv production, kine scope, is the format of this rare peice of footage as a proto type of the proposed show.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgVptFLC61g