Seaview Theater

Rockaway Parkway,
Brooklyn, NY 11236

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Showing 1 - 25 of 27 comments

robboehm
robboehm on October 19, 2020 at 2:38 pm

rivest – If you can’t find an opening ad, no one can.

rivest266
rivest266 on October 18, 2020 at 10:46 pm

Opened in Early January, 1961. No grand opening ad found.

Mike (saps)
Mike (saps) on May 18, 2017 at 2:34 am

It is now a Dollar Tree, although I wish it were a dollar theater instead.

Current photo posted in the photo section

CanBook
CanBook on March 29, 2015 at 8:34 pm

When the Seaview Theatre closed, Consumer’s came in per this 1981 photo: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=897678546919559&set=gm.10153081482996187&type=1&theater. After Consumer’s was a Thriftway, then CVS, & recently a Deals opened up.

CanBook
CanBook on March 29, 2015 at 8:23 pm

I posted the 1977 photo of Star Wars playing at the Seaview Theater & some nearby stores! To the left of the theater in the picture were Splendore’s Pizza, Carvel, & Charcoal Chef (not in this photo). To the right were Taub’s Floor Covering, Loft’s Stationary, & Jack’s! Further to the right, not in this photo, were stores like Star Value City, Pasichow Jewlery, Shoreview Cards (still there today), Ro-Mar, & Manufacturer’s Hanover Trust on the far right corner. The next, adjacent shopping center to the right included names like Pantry Pride, Dial Drugs, Coney Island Joe’s, Joy Teang, Contemporary Eye Care (today at Rkwy Pkwy & Ave L), Donut Towne, & Martin Paints. This amazing photo was taken in the rain by Cindy O Cindy (Facebook name) who gave me permission to post it to my Facebook pages like “Canarsie People – Where Are They Now????”. Thanks Cindy!

Decoman36
Decoman36 on June 17, 2011 at 2:12 am

You can’t see the theater in the map above. The address is 2120 Rockaway Parkway, Brooklyn, NY. Here is link. You have to zoom in to see it. It’s now a CVS. http://www.vpike.com/?place=Store+%23+2443+2120+ROCKAWAY+PARKWAY%2C+brooklyn%2C+ny&submit=Street

Lenox
Lenox on April 30, 2011 at 9:55 pm

I went to the Seaview Theater the first time on a saturday night in 1963 with my date Arlene S.

robboehm
robboehm on April 28, 2011 at 8:30 pm

You could easily see the SeaView adaject to the eastbound lane of the Belt Parkway. You could also see the original Sheepshead a short ways away.

Decoman36
Decoman36 on April 10, 2011 at 7:04 pm

Years before it closed there was a major gas explosion that occured I believe in the Pizza store next store. It caused major damage to the theater and the whole strip of stores on that side. I’m pretty sure it blew out all the front windows, and caused a major water leak. They had to rip up the carpets in the theater, and I don’t think they ever replaced them before they closed the theater forever several years later. The Theater then became a Consumer Distributing store, and several drug stores after that.

GaryCohen
GaryCohen on December 23, 2009 at 11:49 pm

The Seaview was the newer theater in Canarsie. Yet it closed almost 20 years before the older movie theater, the Canarsie. It was actually a very nice theater. Yet it was never very crowded. The only times I can remember it being jammed were when “Star Wars” and “The Exorcist” came there after their long Broadway runs. I remember spending a frigid XMAS eve with my wife and parents seeing a Goldie Hawn flick “Seems Like Old Times.” We then went to dinner at the Seaview diner across the street. Now they are both gone. What happened with this theater was that the landlord raised the rent and since this theater never drew that well to begin with, it was decided to close it. Naturally the site stayed vacant for a long time, so I’m really not sure what the landlord got out of basically forcing them to close. Now I think this theater is a CVS pharmacy

HerbS
HerbS on February 9, 2009 at 9:18 pm

To dvcomo – I disagree with you. I lived in Bayview Houses from 1956 to 1982. See my posting above from 7/7/05 where I say the SeaView Theatre opened around 1961 . I have an ad of Ben Hur (1959) playing there a year or so after it’s debut. Philip’s posting of 6/21/05 that he saw Soldier in the Rain (1963) there is way before 1967. The theatre was built with the shopping center not years after it. I remember going to Kress’s soda fountain after seeing a movie there and that was way before Star Value took over the Kress store which was around 1966 (the same time Food Fair became Pantry Pride). Any other Canarsie people out there that agree with me?

Greenpoint
Greenpoint on February 8, 2009 at 9:34 pm

Heres the corner of Rockaway Parkway and Seaview Avenue,in Canarsie- a corner I have no business on these days-as all of my friends have all moved away:(

http://www.seanrichards.com/canarsie2009.jpg

dvcomo
dvcomo on July 3, 2007 at 4:56 pm

I disagree with some of the previous postings. The Seaview Theater was built in the mid-sixties, approximately 1967. I remember it being built – it was added to the existing strip of stores. It was an average size neighborhood theater, not a tiny one. I saw Star wars there, like the advertisement shows. It was very clean and well maintained as compared to the older Canarsie Theater, and it had a great sound system, especially for the midnight special rock movies(Alice Cooper – Welcome to My Nightmare, for one) when they would really crank it up! It was a fun time, with all of the neighborhood teens getting together for a night out.

genahy
genahy on September 7, 2005 at 3:32 am

oh, you just made me flash back. I saw one movie here before they closed in early 80s. very, very tiny theater.

HerbS
HerbS on July 7, 2005 at 8:31 pm

Greenpoint, you are confusing the strip malls (we call them shopping centers) in this area. The SeaView Theatre was in the one closest to the Belt and opened around 1961 – the one that had Star Value City (originally Kress) in it for years. The theatre was located between Splendore’s Pizza on the left and Taub’s Foor Coverings on the right. The shopping center with Rite Aid and the now defunct King Arthur (not King David) Kosher Deli, is across Rockaway Parkway around the corner on Seaview Avenue and was built in 1955 as part of Bayview Houses. The Rite Aid store was never a theatre- it originally housed a supermerket and if my memory serves me right (I lived in Bayview from 1956-1982), started out as Sunrise, then Grand Union, Bohack, Packers, Met and Key Food before becoming a nite club in the late 70’s.

RobertR
RobertR on July 6, 2005 at 1:14 am

This must have put the Seaview on the map
View link

dave-bronx™
dave-bronx™ on June 23, 2005 at 6:15 am

As I recall, the strip mall was L-shaped – with the short leg parallel with the Belt Pkwy and the long leg parallel with Rockaway Pkwy – the theatre was in the corner of the L where the long and short legs meet.

Greenpoint
Greenpoint on June 22, 2005 at 10:42 pm

History is amazing.
I had no idea that there was ever a movie theatre at this stripmall.
I briefly hung out in Canarsie from about 1992-1995.I would be in that stripmall for knishes at “KingDavids” (now a laundromat).

Does anyone know if the Russian Banquet Hall that turned into the Rite-Aid drug store- which is in the western corner of the stripmall was the theatre?

PtheG
PtheG on June 22, 2005 at 7:56 pm

The theater was located in the corner of an L shaped strip mall on Racaway Parkway in Brooklyn just about a block from the Belt Parkway. The interior was a non-discript room surrounded by dark red acoustic curtains with an acoustic tile ceiling with recessed lighting. There was no balcony and a very small lobby with a small concession.

RobertR
RobertR on June 22, 2005 at 1:06 am

I never got to this theatre. What was the layout like, was it decent?

PtheG
PtheG on June 21, 2005 at 9:39 pm

I lived across the street from the Seaview Theater. I recall that the first film shown there was Soldier in the Rain starring Jackie Gleason.

dave-bronx™
dave-bronx™ on June 15, 2005 at 1:38 am

…National General sold out to Mann, RobertR is right…

dave-bronx™
dave-bronx™ on June 15, 2005 at 1:36 am

After it closed it was converted into a Consumers retail store.

dave-bronx™
dave-bronx™ on June 15, 2005 at 1:36 am

When it closed, it was a Cinema 5 theatre – C5 had taken over all the Manns when they left town (National, Art, Paramount/Columbus circle, Plaza Twin in Staten Island, and a few others on Long Island as I recall).

RobertR
RobertR on June 15, 2005 at 1:24 am

In 1971 it was listed as a National General Theatre.