During the summer of 1949 or 1950, I was an usher in the Rivoli, across from Jack Dempsey’s Restaurant. (He sat in the window signing autogrtaphs.) I had gotten the job through pull with the owner Spyros Skouras (I was a relative of William Bendix) and “Come to the Stable” played all summer: I saw it 125 times. The audience changed with the type of movie so mostly we got priests and nuns instead of hoods that you’d get with the noir movies. In the lobby, they had a photo contest so I clued my girlfriend of the week in to the answers and she won. The summer was hot but the Rivoli was cool.
The Sheepshead Theater was built by A.H. Schwartz in the late 1920s, became a Century property and, on May 15, 1977, opened as Roll-A-Palace. Prior to the Sheepshead, the Shelton Theater at 1648 Sheepshead Bay Road, built in the 1920s, was a vaudeville house owned by a Mr. Brown. The name may have been changed to the Sommer Theater late in the decade.
During the summer of 1949 or 1950, I was an usher in the Rivoli, across from Jack Dempsey’s Restaurant. (He sat in the window signing autogrtaphs.) I had gotten the job through pull with the owner Spyros Skouras (I was a relative of William Bendix) and “Come to the Stable” played all summer: I saw it 125 times. The audience changed with the type of movie so mostly we got priests and nuns instead of hoods that you’d get with the noir movies. In the lobby, they had a photo contest so I clued my girlfriend of the week in to the answers and she won. The summer was hot but the Rivoli was cool.
Foxmoor is open and doing regular business except there’s no sign of a classics/art screen.
Yetter closed it again for “good” on May 1, 2008.
The Sheepshead Theater was built by A.H. Schwartz in the late 1920s, became a Century property and, on May 15, 1977, opened as Roll-A-Palace. Prior to the Sheepshead, the Shelton Theater at 1648 Sheepshead Bay Road, built in the 1920s, was a vaudeville house owned by a Mr. Brown. The name may have been changed to the Sommer Theater late in the decade.