Winthrop Theater

Well another year has passed as I now start my sixth season as a member of this site.

I am still hoping that someone will come up with a picture of this old movie house. Perhaps this will occur this year – and hopefully more people will add comments to this page – and the other pages of the old north Brooklyn movie theaters in 2013. I noted a sharp decline of such comments in 2012, but perhaps this will change.

A picture recently posted on the Eagle Theatre’s (in Bushwick) page features a sign saying “closed for the summer”. A commentator then plausibly speculated that the Eagle was closed because it lacked air conditioning. Whether this may have been true for the Eagle, the Winnie was also not air conditioned but, instead, stayed open during the summers with the help of two huge – and very loud – fans. They were positioned to the immediate left and right of the screen. While they probably did little more than circulate hot air and frequently drowned out the dialogue, they at least allowed the show to go on. At the prices charged by this “nabe' none of us complained.

I really hope someone will find sn old picture of the Winnie and post it here.

Hi John- I can probably help with a picture of the Winnie. We are embarking on a Greenpoint book project and can welcome your local experience with the theatres and the area. Drop me a line Rick

Here’s a 1940’s image of the Winthrop:

http://nycma.lunaimaging.com/luna/servlet/detail/NYCMA~7~7~848335~745297?sort=borough%2Cblock%2Clot%2Czip_code

I just was able to peruse the movie listings appearing in the photo section that were posted by Texas2step last year. They are very interesting. These three weekly listings appeared during the mid to late 50’s, when the theater was referred to as the “New Winthrop”. (Whether this reflected a change of ownership, presentation policy or just a new way of branding I do not know.)

One interesting aspect of the listings was the fact that the Winnie at least occasionally featured showings of older movies, such as “Yankee Doodle Dandy”, “White Heat” and “They Died With Their Boots On”. I do not believe that it was the practice of “nabe” movie houses to do this, at least during the 1950’s; but this appeared to be the case here. (I have absolutely no memory of this policy, but then I was only six or seven years old!) Perhaps the management was attempting to provide some alternate programming to what was then appearing on TV – heavily cut and commercial broken versions of old movies. For example, Million Dollar Movies was only programmed to last 90 minutes, which required very heavy cutting to such classics as Gunga Din. (When I first viewed a complete version of that film, I was shocked that so much had been cut out.) By providing complete and uninterrupted versions of these oldies, perhaps the Winnie management was attempting to draw in a new crowd.

I was also surprised to learn that the Winnie was still holding “dish nights” at that time. The only local house that I remember doing this was the American (Chopin). But I guess the practice lasted longer here as well.

Thanks again for this valuable information.