Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Loew's Kings Theatre in Brooklyn being restored

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Posted by Paul Mayer (Member # 355) on 08-21-2014, 03:30 PM:

Loew's Kings Theatre in Brooklyn Will Reopen Next Year

Last year, it was announced that the Loew's Kings Theatre in Flatbush, one of the five grand "Wonder Theatres" in New York and New Jersey, was going to be restored to its former circa-1929 glory. A look inside at the time showed the current state of beautiful decay and abandonment, and all that potential. Now after being shuttered for nearly four decades, it will reopen in January 2015, restored to its original grandeur and "with sumptuous interiors inspired by the Palace of Versailles and the Paris Opera House." From yesterday's announcement:

quote:
"The Kings Theatre will serve as both a cultural and economic cornerstone for the Brooklyn community, presenting more than 200 performances annually—including music, dance, theatre, and comedy—providing a resource to foster and support creativity in the area, creating jobs and attracting thousands of visitors to the neighborhood."

The space will become "the largest theatre in Brooklyn with over 3,000 seats."

Meanwhile, at the other old Loew's, there's hope the New Jersey one will also be restored, but the one on Canal Street still is still just deteriorating.

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 08-22-2014, 12:10 PM:

As much as I LOVE the Kings and have been involved with trying to get the city to prevent it from being sold and turned into a bowling ally or a half-dozen other atrocious ideas, there is the RKO Keith's in Flushing, one of the most beautiful "atmospheric" theatres in NY and it has been languishing just like the Kings. It certainly is worthy of restoration, but it looks like it has deteriorated to the point of no return. I can remember seeing films there as a boy and marveling at the "midnight sky" with clouds slowly moving across the sky as stars twinkled. And then there was the huge waterfall statue in the grand lobby. How the city can't reserve these historical, magical movie palaces is a mystery. The city has acted like a whore, allowing any developer who flashes money, to degrade and demolish portions of it with each transfer -- it is now on its forth developer who has none nothing but cause more damage.

People on the city planning commission need to be tarred and feathered.

Posted by Mitchell Dvoskin (Member # 751) on 08-22-2014, 12:45 PM:

From the pictures I have seen, ACE is doing a rather good job of restoring The Loews Kings with the tens of millions of dollars New York City is giving them.

The problem I see is, once it is restored, what do you do with it? There is no parking, and a less than great neighborhood, too many seats for small intimate events, and too few seats for major concerts. And let's face it, there is already an abundance of theatres in New York City. What keeps many of these former movie palaces now arts centers alive is touring Broadway shows, which they will not be able to do at The Kings, as there is a 50 mile exclusion zone around Manhattan for this type of programming.

As to The Landmark Loews Jersey, where as some of you know I am a volunteer projectionist, the theatre is currently open and being very slowly restored by the non-profit Friends Of The Loews. The mayor of Jersey City has a vision for the facility that will require the city to break the lease with Friends Of The Loews. This is currently in court via a lawsuit that FOL brought against the city. As best as I can tell, the city's argument is that the lease is void because FOL did not meet the written restoration goals. FOL's argument is that the only goals they have not met were the ones that the city agreed to fund (in writing), but did not do so. Eventually, a judge will sort it out. Regardless of who wins, the theatre will survive and eventually be restored.

Posted by Jeff Taylor (Member # 443) on 08-22-2014, 01:54 PM:

Not mentioned frequently, there's also the Loew's Delancey where the lobby has been turned into crummy retail typical of the neighborhood and the marquee is gone, but the magnificent auditorium is still amazingly relatively complete. Given the fate of most of the really grand NY theaters like the Roxy, Loew's State, and the Paramount, I guess we should be grateful that at least we still have Radio City Music Hall. My company used to own one of the Rock Center office buildings and I was best friends with the majority of the Rock Center senior management, so I had complete access to the Music Hall back in the day. Although some of it was pretty ancient you couldn't help but marvel at the mechanical installations from the polished brass twin Carrier chillers to the Otis stage lifts and the original vacuum tube dimmer system where every light was driven by a vacuum tube. Although long gone, it originally had a "state of the 1930's art" RCA sound system with a total of 80 watts output for 6,000 seats (my home screening room has 900 watts!) with the then-usual storage battery tube filament supply and field coil horns. One day I got up my nerve and actually turned on the blower and sat at the left Wurlitzer organ console. I'm not Dick Liebert and I can't pretend to be an organ player, but just to stomp the pedal and step on one of the bass fundamentals on that organ is heady stuff.

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 08-22-2014, 11:50 PM:

quote: Mitchell Dvoskin
The problem I see is, once it is restored, what do you do with it? There is no parking, and a less than great neighborhood...

That really is a huge challenge, especially if combined with public transportation that isn't too good, either. If you're running a venue where a large number of people are supposed to congregate at the same time, you need to have a way of getting them to and from it, easily and safely. I've seen so many places struggle not because they were poorly run, unappreciated by their target audience or for want of trying by the workforce, but simply because they are too difficult, unsafe late at night and/or expensive to get to and from.

Chatting to some friends of my wife's a few weeks ago, they described my current workplace (Grauman's Egyptian) as a wonderful theater that they wished they could get to more often, "...but parking anywhere near there is just soooooooo horrible, and we don't want to get stabbed or shot on the subway."

I don't think that impression is fair now, even if it ever was: it's almost always possible to park within a couple of blocks, and I've taken the Metro Red Line between Hollywood and Union Station into the middle of the evening several times, and never felt in any way unsafe. But a reputation for inaccessibility is something that is easy for a theater to acquire and very, very difficult to cast off.

Posted by Paul Mayer (Member # 355) on 08-23-2014, 11:50 AM:

I understand the Kings won't be used for movies - only for stage productions. I wish them all the best with that.

And I echo Leo's comments about the Egyptian in Hollywood - used to be a Cinematheque member when I lived there, and attended many screenings there in the big Rigler house (never have been in the smaller Spielberg room).

I've always been able to park across from the theater on the north side of Hollywood, have dinner at Micelli's and then head over to the screenings. Same thing with using the Metro Red Line - never any issues (though I can't say the same for the Blue Line down to Long Beach - some nights were 'entertaining').

Sorry to say I've never been to the Cinematheque's Aero in Santa Monica - I've heard parking can be a challenge there. Someday when I'm back living there again, I want to find out for myself just how much of a poser parking at the Aero can be... [Smile]

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 08-23-2014, 01:22 PM:

It's roadside only, but ... on Sundays, all the blocks around Montana are unrestricted. However, the residential blocks between Alta and San Vicente are all unrestricted, 24/7 (apart from Thursday mornings 11-1 when they're street cleaning, but that doesn't affect theater customers). So if you go one block north of the Aero, you're always OK, even on Monday through Saturday. The gotcha is that on Monday through Saturday, the blocks immediately surrounding the Aero are two-hour until 9pm, meaning that they're no good for moviegoers. The bottom line is that if you don't mind walking 2-3 blocks in a worst case scenario, parking near the Aero is no problem.

But of course you have to have local knowledge to know this (I only do because I work at the Aero once or twice a week), and there are probably countless people who are thinking about a one-off visit to the Aero to see a movie, look us up online, find that we can't offer off-street parking and decide against it.

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 08-24-2014, 02:22 PM:

quote: Paul Mayer
I understand the Kings won't be used for movies - only for stage productions. I wish them all the best with that.

That is not accurate. They will have the capability to show movies (er,digital video), but it will not be the primary function of the venue. They will be experimenting with what mix and also still to be determined what type of shows will be booked. Good luck with that as well.

They do have parking in the Sears lot behind the theatre as well as a municipal lot half a block away. The city will make some kind of deal to use that lot with a discount. Sears will probably do the same, still neither are dedicated parking lots belonging to the theatre and so it is not where you can park and then walk directly into the theatre; both lots require a patron to maneuver the public streets to get to the theatre entrance, and that is something I don't think most people will be comfortable doing late at night when a show breaks.

As for the surrounding neighborhood, the gentrification is moving south and more and more Yuppies are moving in on the blocks surrounding the theatre, it's not there yet -- once the sun goes down, it's a pretty scary place. New upscale stores on the same block are moving in, however so that is a good sign. It won't be the same neighborhood in a year or two -- the transformation is slowly happening, just like the complete transformation around Brooklyn Academy of Music and the area around the restored Majestic Theatre to the north.

Problem with the Kings is, they are smack dab in the middle between the new Barkley Center and our place, Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts, which soon will open the spanking new Tow Center for the Arts, with Brooklyn Academy of Music five minutes away up north. These are ALL on the same Flatbush Avenue. Farther south there's the Kingborough Arts center.

These venues already fight for every seat from a limited audience pool. Every ticket is hard won. Will there be enough to go around with yet a new arts center flanked on both sides by two other arts centers? Will there be enough acts to book out of the pool of available acts that the theatre's seat count will make viable. Big name acts with drawing power are out of the question when you only have a 3000 seat cap.

Making the Kings work as a financial success is not going to be easy. Then again, the city has invested plenty of money in it so there may be lots of financial help coming from city agencies, like the dollar a year lease BAM gets. Still not sure if this will be a not-for-profit or a commercial enterprise.

Posted by Terry Lynn-Stevens (Member # 7349) on 08-25-2014, 11:38 AM:

quote: Frank Angel
These venues already fight for every seat from a limited audience pool. Every ticket is hard won.

Do you happen to know how long this theater has been abandoned?

Posted by Steve Matz (Member # 1890) on 08-25-2014, 12:16 PM:

Speaking of LOEW'S THEATERS; I was watching an old DVD of "THE BUDDY HOLLY STORY" In a Scene where Holly and the Crickets are going to appear at THE "APOLLO" in HARLEM,N.Y.; They show what appears as Stock Footage from the 50's showing a LOEW'S Theater just a few doors down from the APOLLO THEATER. Does anybody have any history on this theater and is it still going...

Posted by Bill Gabel (Member # 1105) on 08-25-2014, 04:18 PM:

quote: Terry Lynn-Stevens
Do you happen to know how long this theater has been abandoned?

The Loews Kings Theatre closed about 1977.

quote: Steve Matz
They show what appears as Stock Footage from the 50's showing a LOEW'S Theater just a few doors down from the APOLLO THEATER. Does anybody have any history on this theater and is it still going...

The Loews Theatre next to the Apollo Theatre in Harlem was the Loews Victoria Theatre. Loews operated that theatre from 1917-1978. It reopened in 1986 as a independent Movie Center 5 from 1986-1994.

Posted by Steve Matz (Member # 1890) on 08-26-2014, 12:02 PM:

Thanks for the info Bill [thumbsup]

Unrelated to Brooklyn's Loew's Theater; Here is what Brooklyn
looked like in 1904