I don’t believe this theater should be listed as “demolished”, it doesn’t appear to have been demolished, but just gutted and turned into the school, within the shell of the former theater, similarly to who the RKO Bushwick was made into a school, the DeKalb Theater, and currently the Loews Pitkin. See here for a historic aerial showing the theater in 1980, and the building still exists, although with windows poked into it’s sides when you look at the current aerials.
If you move along the street view to Buffalo Ave, and around to the side of the huge theater building, you can see the remnants of the old entrance to the Associated Supermarket that was there for a while. Apparently, the building is just open to the elements, and you can even see vagrants inside the building going through the open area of what was the supermarket.
Click here for this depressing view
When looking at the old photo on the Canarsie site, comparing it to the street view, it appears theat the whole right side of the theater was pulled off when they expanded Flatlands AVe! You can see the middle is still there, and the left side, but the right is all gone! Interesting.
When looking at the old photo on the Canarsie site, comparing it to the street view, it appears theat the whole right side of the theater was pulled off when they expanded Flatlands AVe! You can see the middle is still there, and the left side, but the right is all gone! Interesting.
I have to agree with both of Ed’s suggestions. It would be GREAT to be able to have an option to view comments either as “new on top”, or “new on bottom”. I know a lot of people like the new comments on bottom, but I for one liked how the new site was originally set up, with the new comments on top, as opposed to the old site’s way of new comments on bottom. I for one found it easier to view the newest comments when they showed up on top. Of course, I guess that’s personal preference.
I have to agree with Chas. I usually HATE site upgrades, as they usually are inferior to the original. This is one of those rare cases where the upgrade actually lives up to the hype….it’s GREAT. The old site was nice, but it was outdated, and a lot of things were missing. The new site has addressed a lot of the “suggestions” people have asked for over the years, and made a good site, GREAT. And of course the photo section is a winner hands down.
I am a bit confused on theater page’s comments. Sometimes it seems to be newest message on top, and other times it seems to be newest message on bottom. I don’t think it was like that the other day, but it is getting a bit confusing, I dont know if it’s intentional or a glitch. For example, I was reading the RKO Keith’s page in Flushing, and it seems like the newest messages are on bottom, but it randomly picks some spot for an old message on top. The other day, I think the newest messages were on the top. Furthermore, when you click “View all messages”, it seems to reverse, newest messages on top.
It is a bit confusing. I think it would be a matter of getting used to for new messages on top, as the old site had them on bottom, but I can see why that would be done in the new format. I think it causes mass confusion when it’s not consistent though….sometimes on top, sometimes on bottom depending on if you are viewing all the messages or new messages. Just a thought.
Hahaha, the “Challenge of NYC” is actually a post office “problem” or phenomena, not a site problem. The post office lumps all of Brooklyn, Manhattan, Bronx into borough, and has Queens broken by town/zip code. For example, you will never see “Bushwick, NY 11223” on an envelope, you will always see “Brooklyn, NY 11223”. That, as opposed to nearby Ridgewood, which is in Queens will be the opposite, “Ridgewood, NY 11385” as opposed to “Queens, NY 11385”. Don’t know why the post office divides Queens up by town/zip code, but not the neighborhoods of Brooklyn, Manhattan and the Bronx, but it’s the way it’s done. Similarly, you will never see “Greenwich Village, NY 10XXX”, it will be “New York, NY 100XX”…. Just the way the post office and mapping does it.
The photo section REALLY has breathed new life into the site! All the new photos really make you revisit theaters probably not looked at in years. It makes every theater come to life on an ongoing basis!
Let me just add, that the new search feature BLOWS away the old one. I LOVE the fact that when you are searching for a theater (often by it’s most known name, not necessarily it’s current name), the theater comes up anyway! That saves an extra step, and also makes it so much easier to find theaters! Great!
I do agree with someone’s suggestion above that the default amount of finds on a page be raised from 30, it does make it hard to browse when a very common theater name is searched. The only thing I liked about the old search vs the new one was the fact that you could click “view all”, as you could quickly scan the whole list, as opposed to page after page of results. Again, ESPECIALLY when it’s a common name.
While I don’t know the exact address for this theater, the street should be Austin St, this theater was right across from the Continental 1 2, now Brandon.
Wow, Great photos of the Commodore! It was nice to see those “urn” things again….I used to pass them every day for a decade on the J/M trains through there on the el. STILL can’t believe that beautiful building was senselessly torn down. What a shame.
Notice in the street view of the theater, the words in the cement/tiles on the sidewalk under where the marquee used to be still say “Eagle” right up until the point when the building was partially demolished. The side walls of the theater still remain to this day…someone should do a walk by and see if you can still see “Eagle” on the ground in front of the barricade they put around the building when they tore the front part of the building down….
While talking about all the great things the site is now (and I love the changes), one other thing on the negative side is the fact that links are no longer a different color than the actual text of posts, so when people post links in their comments, they are quite hard to find now, as they don’t show up as a different color. Just a thought.
The theater appears to now be a church.
The theater is now a Kingdom Hall of Jehovah Witness.
Judging by the street view, and Ken’s older photos, the building is now vacant and for sale.
I don’t believe this theater should be listed as “demolished”, it doesn’t appear to have been demolished, but just gutted and turned into the school, within the shell of the former theater, similarly to who the RKO Bushwick was made into a school, the DeKalb Theater, and currently the Loews Pitkin. See here for a historic aerial showing the theater in 1980, and the building still exists, although with windows poked into it’s sides when you look at the current aerials.
Click Here for 1980 View
Click Here for Current View
Ken, will you be adding your wonderful collection of photos to the site?
If you move along the street view to Buffalo Ave, and around to the side of the huge theater building, you can see the remnants of the old entrance to the Associated Supermarket that was there for a while. Apparently, the building is just open to the elements, and you can even see vagrants inside the building going through the open area of what was the supermarket. Click here for this depressing view
Does anyone know if any of the theater ornamentation survives in this theater as the drug store, or is it all covered over/removed?
Interesting old photo.
When looking at the old photo on the Canarsie site, comparing it to the street view, it appears theat the whole right side of the theater was pulled off when they expanded Flatlands AVe! You can see the middle is still there, and the left side, but the right is all gone! Interesting.
When looking at the old photo on the Canarsie site, comparing it to the street view, it appears theat the whole right side of the theater was pulled off when they expanded Flatlands AVe! You can see the middle is still there, and the left side, but the right is all gone! Interesting.
I have to agree with both of Ed’s suggestions. It would be GREAT to be able to have an option to view comments either as “new on top”, or “new on bottom”. I know a lot of people like the new comments on bottom, but I for one liked how the new site was originally set up, with the new comments on top, as opposed to the old site’s way of new comments on bottom. I for one found it easier to view the newest comments when they showed up on top. Of course, I guess that’s personal preference.
I have to agree with Chas. I usually HATE site upgrades, as they usually are inferior to the original. This is one of those rare cases where the upgrade actually lives up to the hype….it’s GREAT. The old site was nice, but it was outdated, and a lot of things were missing. The new site has addressed a lot of the “suggestions” people have asked for over the years, and made a good site, GREAT. And of course the photo section is a winner hands down.
As far as I know, the Night Shift Theater was a separately run theater above the Hollywood Twin.
I am a bit confused on theater page’s comments. Sometimes it seems to be newest message on top, and other times it seems to be newest message on bottom. I don’t think it was like that the other day, but it is getting a bit confusing, I dont know if it’s intentional or a glitch. For example, I was reading the RKO Keith’s page in Flushing, and it seems like the newest messages are on bottom, but it randomly picks some spot for an old message on top. The other day, I think the newest messages were on the top. Furthermore, when you click “View all messages”, it seems to reverse, newest messages on top. It is a bit confusing. I think it would be a matter of getting used to for new messages on top, as the old site had them on bottom, but I can see why that would be done in the new format. I think it causes mass confusion when it’s not consistent though….sometimes on top, sometimes on bottom depending on if you are viewing all the messages or new messages. Just a thought.
Hahaha, the “Challenge of NYC” is actually a post office “problem” or phenomena, not a site problem. The post office lumps all of Brooklyn, Manhattan, Bronx into borough, and has Queens broken by town/zip code. For example, you will never see “Bushwick, NY 11223” on an envelope, you will always see “Brooklyn, NY 11223”. That, as opposed to nearby Ridgewood, which is in Queens will be the opposite, “Ridgewood, NY 11385” as opposed to “Queens, NY 11385”. Don’t know why the post office divides Queens up by town/zip code, but not the neighborhoods of Brooklyn, Manhattan and the Bronx, but it’s the way it’s done. Similarly, you will never see “Greenwich Village, NY 10XXX”, it will be “New York, NY 100XX”…. Just the way the post office and mapping does it.
The photo section REALLY has breathed new life into the site! All the new photos really make you revisit theaters probably not looked at in years. It makes every theater come to life on an ongoing basis!
Let me just add, that the new search feature BLOWS away the old one. I LOVE the fact that when you are searching for a theater (often by it’s most known name, not necessarily it’s current name), the theater comes up anyway! That saves an extra step, and also makes it so much easier to find theaters! Great! I do agree with someone’s suggestion above that the default amount of finds on a page be raised from 30, it does make it hard to browse when a very common theater name is searched. The only thing I liked about the old search vs the new one was the fact that you could click “view all”, as you could quickly scan the whole list, as opposed to page after page of results. Again, ESPECIALLY when it’s a common name.
Horrible. Not much else to say about that.
It’s amazing how many theaters were in Bushwick and Ridgewood.
While I don’t know the exact address for this theater, the street should be Austin St, this theater was right across from the Continental 1 2, now Brandon.
Can the street view be reset? Someone clicked the wrong location for the Suffolk Theater in this view, it needs to be further east on Main St….
Hahaha! Thanks for getting of the Expressway and fixing it! I have up after some minutes on the expressway where the view originally left us!
Wow, Great photos of the Commodore! It was nice to see those “urn” things again….I used to pass them every day for a decade on the J/M trains through there on the el. STILL can’t believe that beautiful building was senselessly torn down. What a shame.
Notice in the street view of the theater, the words in the cement/tiles on the sidewalk under where the marquee used to be still say “Eagle” right up until the point when the building was partially demolished. The side walls of the theater still remain to this day…someone should do a walk by and see if you can still see “Eagle” on the ground in front of the barricade they put around the building when they tore the front part of the building down….
While talking about all the great things the site is now (and I love the changes), one other thing on the negative side is the fact that links are no longer a different color than the actual text of posts, so when people post links in their comments, they are quite hard to find now, as they don’t show up as a different color. Just a thought.