Kent Theater
1170 Coney Island Avenue,
Brooklyn,
NY
11230
1170 Coney Island Avenue,
Brooklyn,
NY
11230
4 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 52 comments
Trailer for “The Purple Rose Of Cairo” below, with interior shots of the Kent Theatre. The theatre facade in the film was built in a vacant lot in Piermont NY, per Lou Lumenick of the New York Post in 2009.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bp6YDZVVbj0
In the early 1980s it was a 2nd run theatre. Became first run sometime in 1985 and was twin around 1986 and in 1990 it became a triplex.
Love the new photos but none of the theaters looks like it can hold 240 seats…
Theatre seats in Theatre 1 240 Theatre 2 130 Theatre 3 75 They all run REALD 3D and usually show them all day compared to the big chains Limiting the showtimes.
They have a Dolby Digital sign next to Theatre 1. Lastly, theatre still uses the old tickets from the days of the 70’s but you could purchase tickets online at Fandango
Uploaded a b&w photo from 1967 from the Forgotten New York site as well as an evening photo with the old marquee.
I went here for the first time with a friend. Wednesday’s are Bargain Day (All Seats $5.) all day. School was out and the inner lobby was full of young folks for “SpongeBob”. The theatre lobby retains the poste cases (6) and seats for people awaiting entrance (Nice touch as most don’t). Some details remain intact, but the lobby resembles an arcade with a table to play air hockey which is annoying to people in the small 75 seat theatre (where we sat watching “50 Shades Of Grey”. On the way out I viewed the other two screens which were a bit larger but away from the noise of the lobby. The bathrooms were clean for such a busy matinee. The popcorn was good and I bought a can of soda at the stand. The staff was cordial and polite. This theatre is an excellent bargain as Brooklyn is at a loss for neighborhood theatres. For a 76 year old building it serves its' purpose. Digital projection and seats were fine. I suggest late afternoon shows when schools are out. For $5. there are no complaints as today’s movies are not worth more than $5. The theatre is not to far from my home and I will visit it again. You can keep your modern multiplexes. Remember, It’s a good time for a “Kent” on a Wednesday. (Forgive the cigarette pun!)
I didn’t know that about “Purple Rose of Cairo”. Thanks for the info. The Kent was one of 2 I went to as a kid growing up in the neighborhood. It’s good to see it’s still open unlike the Midwood Theater. Too bad about that one.
From the wnet.org website concernig the new Woody Allen documentary:
Mia Farrow plays a Depression-era waitress who’s mad about the movies in The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985). While the film takes place in New Jersey, the theater where Cecilia (Farrow) sees the madcap comedy The Purple Rose of Comedy over and over again is named after The Jewel movie house in Brooklyn — one of the first movie houses in Allen’s Brooklyn neighborhood to show foreign films. The theater scenes were actually filmed in the Kent Theatre on Coney Island Avenue in Flatbush, still operating today.
LIVE FROM THE KENT:
View link
And in those days most theatres had smokeing sections like in the last 5 rows so the aroma of a lit spliff always filled the air at the kent.Nothing like a good spliff and an bud while watching those b films back then.
If you were drinking beer, it didn’t make any difference if the snack bar was open or not, since they didn’t sell beer at the Kent, or any other theater that I’ve gone to. You sound like a terrific date, LMAO!
i lived and worked in the area back in the 70s and early 80s. it was a good cheap date to take the girlfriend on a weeknite to see 2 movies. as i recall the snack bar was only open on the weekends so we had to sneak in our snacks and 6 pack in her pocketbook. they had vending machines that always ripped you off. the soda machine had a cup that came down and the syrup and carbination would pour down into it. sometime you would just get the syrup or just the cup with nothing.my next trip to ny i must visit this place. i cant believe this place survives with all the other brooklyn theatres that have closed over the years. i also cant believe how this could be a triplex now when it was so small in the first place.
I need to get “PURPLE ROSE” out and watch it again.So glad to find the Theatre.What a great film.Love the Theatre manager part in the flim.
I lived in the area in the late 70s and early 80s, and saw a couple of movies at the Kent, “The Main Event” on Labor Day weekend in 1979, and “Fame” in 1980. I can’t believe my eyes when I read that it has been “multied,” because it was tiny, even as a single-screen venue. It was also a jewel of Art Moderne, both inside and out, and when I was there the late Deco period decor was very much intact. At least it’s still open!
I think the name of the bar was the KNIGHT CAP, at least that’s what my husband said.
Tsk:
http://tinyurl.com/ya6gzmy
Okay, it hasn’t been that long.
I cannot believe how long it’s been since anyone has commented on this theater. Is it that bad?
LM, thanks as always for your vintage views of this theater. It might have been during the 1973 run of “Play It Again Sam” that I viewed this film that I noted in my May 3, 2008 comment. Thanks for the not so lost memories!
Warren provides this link to the Forgotten NY website page featuring a photo of the Kent near the bottom right hand column:
View link
Don’t wait too long ! I don’t know how the Kent survives. You may be pleasantly surprised like I was. But hurry up & get there before it goes the way of the Midwood.
i may go to the kent soon
i went to the pavillion to see the new woody allen movie the other night. Vicky, christina, barcelona
it was actually quite good
i enjoyed it
Love the pix of the kent. There use to be a bar next to it and we’d go see a movie at the Kent then go have a drink. You couldnt beat it 25 years ago. Closeby and you only had to park say 2-3 blocks away-good for brooklyn. I mean for a last minute nite out that was fine. forgot the name of the bar night something i think. sometimes you just od on hbo you need to go see a movie. but with todays prices forget it. pay per view here i come.
My most memorable moment here was seeing “The Chosen”. It was probably still a single then. What a beautiful movie !
When The Kent became one of the first $1 movie theaters in the 1970’s, I frequently went there, even though I had to travel all the way from Greenpoint. When my friends told me that I was crazy to waste all that time only to see a movie, I politely replied that I spent the travel time well reading by book or doing the crossword puzzle and that the cheap movie price was just an added plus.
Perhaps my most memorable moment at the Kent was viewing one of the early Woody Allen films – I forget which, though it could have been “Play It Again Sam”. In one one scene, the Woody character talked about some embarrassing situation that had been inflicted upon himself when he was a student at Midwood HS. The reaction of the attendees at this Midwood theater was, as the credit commercial says, “priceless”.
Long live the Kent!