Avon 9th Street Theatre

289 9th Street,
Park Slope,
Brooklyn, NY 11215

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Showing 22 comments

DavidZornig
DavidZornig on September 17, 2015 at 4:15 am

The photo I posted does not look like the same building in the other 3 photos. But the current street view of 9th Street buildings is mostly the same as the 1940 photo. It’s probable the other Avon photos are of a different theatre.

DavidZornig
DavidZornig on September 17, 2015 at 4:10 am

June 14th 1940 photo added. Percy Loomis Sperr, photographer.

TommyS
TommyS on January 28, 2013 at 4:43 am

I loved this little theatre. My best friend,Victor,and I would go to the movies every Saturday – a double feature with several cartoons in the early 50s. I believe when we first went the the cost was 10 cents. It eventual went to 25. I remember seeing the the Four Horse of the Apocalypse starring Glenn Ford with my father there. It was one of the moview that shape my life-long philosophy.

Mike (saps)
Mike (saps) on September 20, 2012 at 1:06 am

I just posted three photos of this theater — one from the 1920’s, one from 1939 and one from circa 1970.

DJM78
DJM78 on January 9, 2012 at 5:29 am

My Mom and Dad were from nearby Red Hook. They told me stories about going to the Avon and The Prospect which was a block away.

Astyanax
Astyanax on April 3, 2011 at 7:17 pm

Neighborhood sub-runs, not affiliated with any of the major chains, would distribute cardboard posters among the local merchants for display in shop windows, announcing the features for the week. The posters were fairly ordinary, just print and no photos with the basic information. I don’t recall any listing of starting times as patrons were more than likely to walk-in in the middle of the feature.

IMBlessed
IMBlessed on April 3, 2011 at 3:50 pm

Yes, Tinseltoes, it was a Sunday. I’m curious as to what movie was playing. Do you have a resource for that sort of info?
Are you still in Breooklyn?

IMBlessed
IMBlessed on April 2, 2011 at 4:42 pm

Wow! I was about 10, it was December 7, 1941, the film (don’t what one) was interrupted and the manager (?) of the theatre announced the bombing of Pearl Harbor. It scared the heck out of me and I ran all the way home to my family. We were living in a brownstone near 5th Avenue and 5th Street. Anyone out there who was around in those days? I went to PS 39, at 417 6th Avenue, Brooklyn, NY. BTW PS 39 is now known as “The Henry Bristow Landmark School.” My daughters and I visited the school in May 2009. As a landmark school its exterior is just like it was when I attended. See http://www.ps39.org/ Any PS 39 alums out there?

Swive
Swive on February 26, 2010 at 5:37 am

Just discovered this site. I think my grandfather, Julius Charnow, may have owned or leased the Avon in the 1950’s. Does anyone know of a way to research this?

Thanks, in advance.

frankie
frankie on December 2, 2009 at 7:38 pm

Films I remember seeing here: “By Love Possessed”, “Pal Joey”, Return to Peyton Place", “Road to Hong Kong”.

mp775
mp775 on June 15, 2009 at 1:46 am

The Avon appears at 2:30 in this 1938 film.

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on September 15, 2007 at 2:43 am

The Endicott Circuit, operator of the Avon in 1970, was headquartered in the Avon Theater building. Endicott also ran theaters in the Bronx, Dobbs Ferry, Yonkers and Hastings-On-Hudson at the time.

jflundy
jflundy on February 18, 2007 at 11:47 am

Here is a movie shot in 1948 on 5th Ave and 9th Ave showing trolleys in last year of service. Car 1000, one of a kind PCC type of 1936 streamlined trolley, passes the Avon mid way through the film. Best guess it was shot in early January. UTUBE link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Gmxm_xboqk

Note shape of marquee at this time.

BoxOfficeBill
BoxOfficeBill on October 20, 2006 at 11:59 am

Warren—

That’s a terrific photo— It recalls the neighborhood as I knew it in the 1940s when my grandparents lived there— Thanks.

BoxOfficeBill
BoxOfficeBill on August 22, 2005 at 11:52 am

Yes, the new marquee went up in the early ‘50s. From visiting my grandparents in the neighborhood, I remember its predecessor, an very old-fashioned but quite elegant one. Despite its elegance, everyone still called the theater “The Tub o’ Blood,” as I noted in my post of 7 Aug. ‘04 above.

42ndStreetMemories
42ndStreetMemories on July 25, 2005 at 12:31 pm

Man, I didn’t know the theater but what great programming in January 1970:
SAT….Eye of the Cat, Frankenstein Created Woman, Tickle Me (Elvis)

SUN & MON…..Daddy’s Gone A-Hunting, Tarzan Goes to India, Guns of the Magnificent7

TUES-THURS Films for Adults

FRI & SAT….The Ambushers (Dino/Matt Helm), Clambake (Elvis), Once Upon in the West……(tell mom you’ll be home late for this program)

Great stuff. It seems that the Banco also listed for Park Slope. Graham & Marcy in Williamsburg/Bushwick had the same type of programming. j

RobertR
RobertR on July 8, 2005 at 1:56 am

Here is the Avon when it played X
View link

peisner27
peisner27 on June 18, 2005 at 3:40 pm

I’ve identified this theater as one of a couple of possible locations of a theater that my grandfather, Louis Eisner, opened in Park Slope in 1916. I have only a fragment of a note he wrote about it. He was a professional photographer, and said the following:
“I had just gotten another business idea with the potential for bigger money. I sold the studio, put together $2,000, moved to Brooklyn and opened a movie theater in Park Slope. I was proud of the theater. It seated 600 and we had a big opening might party, complete with a five-piece woman orchestra. The place was packed every night. And then, another disaster. New York had an outbreak of infantile paralysis. Children were dying and the only thing doctors could say was to keep children out of crowds and stay home to avoid contagion."
The Avon, along with the Deluxe or Garfield are other possible choices, based on timing, location and size of the house. All ideas on this welcomed.

BklynRob
BklynRob on April 30, 2005 at 8:09 pm

As a kid growing up in Park Slope,I often went to the Avon & the RKO Prospect. I loved the Avon because it always had a great double feature on the weekends. I can still remember seeing Jerry Lewis in “The Nutty Professor” along with Ann Margaret in “Bye Bye Birdie” at the Avon with my friends for only 50 cents.It was a smaller theatre than the Prospect but was still cozy.I have great memories of 9th street and those theatres. I even recall going to the locksmith next door to the Avon. I wonder if he is still there?

BoxOfficeBill
BoxOfficeBill on August 7, 2004 at 8:28 pm

Locals called it “The Tub o' Blood,” because rumor went that in the ‘20s a gangland-style execution related to Prohibition took place there (during a Lillian Gish feature?). When I knew it in the '50s, it was quite cozy. It showed many terrific revivals and some foreign films, arty stuff of the sort that the Plaza on Park Slope was beginning to cash in on.

philipgoldberg
philipgoldberg on May 3, 2004 at 1:08 am

Additional photo of the marquee exist in the Post Office next door.

William
William on November 15, 2003 at 12:23 am

The Avon Theatre was located at 289 9th Street, it seated 573 people.