Savoy Theatre
1515 Bedford Avenue,
Brooklyn,
NY
11216
1515 Bedford Avenue,
Brooklyn,
NY
11216
8 people
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Looks different from the 40’s, 50.s as I remember it. There was a ladder that was the length of the building, from the floor t the roof. That is how we used to sneak in in. Come across the adjoining roofs and down that ladder. Believe me it was high if you remember the theater. Great air conditioning during summer months.
What an ugly new building! They at lease could have kept the lobby like the RKO 81st St & Filmore East, but that’s progress I suppose.
This will replace the theatre.
http://ny.curbed.com/tags/fox-savoy-theate
Sadly, this theater (The Fox Savoy) is being demolished as I type this. I have taken a photographs, to come.
This link has a photo of the facade: http://news.buzzbuzzhome.com/2013/11/1515-bedford-crown-heights.html
I am sorry to announce that the theater is indeed slated to be demolished and replaced by a religious structure (a Synagogue and a 114 unit apartment tower). Very sad. Usually, a church saves these obsolete beauties but here it is destroying it. The facade looked worthy of landmarking but alas it never was. Farewell! http://news.buzzbuzzhome.com/2013/11/1515-bedford-crown-heights.html
its still not demolished i pass there every sunday to go to church i dint even see trucks.
Hi, Sorry to say this, but there is a NYC department of buildings permit posted in window to left of theater entrance. The permit allows all interior partitions to be removed. I visited for a friend who has an architectural ornaments business. Whole interior has been gutted out. Ceiling, walls, seats all gone. Just large piles of plaster and bricks. Shortly additional permits will be issued allowing the demolition of rest of building. I had visited savoy in 80’s 90’s and again after 2000 when Rev. Armstrong was the pastor. Each time I was there it always looked like it needed major work which they could not afford. I use to do repair work in projection rooms of the small independent theaters, these old theaters were a good source of cheap parts. For the record NYC in 1943 had over 570 theaters in operation. Today only a hand full are still in operation and some of them are only part time. Also in Brooklyn the old Regent theater (aka Slave) may have been sold. It may be next on hit list of developers. John D.
Ed – I’m working on it.
Matt, I know it’s not necessarily your thing to photograph adapted-use theaters, but were you ever inside the Savoy with your camera?
It’s currently being demolished.
I went by the theater today. The Church is gone, store fronts boarded up and there is an “ X ” painted on the front of the building, apparently to signal fire-fighters not to go inside…
Also a construction worker with a hard hat and harness walked out. Plus it appears the fire-escapes on the north side have been torn out recently.
Anyone have any information as to what is happening to the building ???
Click here for an exterior view of the Savoy Theatre in 1929.
Street ad seen in this 1946 Life photo:
http://tinyurl.com/5k3nqa
The color picture of the interior is excellent.
Warren’s introductory header above states that the interior had been re-painted in whitewash in most areas. I recall that in the late 1950s when I attended the Savoy a few times, the color scheme was largely pale green with dark-green trim and dark-green stage curtain, house drapes, etc. That color scheme might not have been the original one. A neighborhood theater that I’d spent much more time in, the RKO Dyker, switched in the early 1950s from a cream-tan-and-ivory scheme that I remember through the 1940s to a pale-green/dark-green scheme introduced as part of a general remodeling.
I also recall that the Savoy seemed more dimly lit than most, with a cavernous glare bouncing off the screen onto the far reaches of the ceiling and rear seating areas. The large balcony overhang might have accounted for some of the darkness in the rear orchestra.
Thanks Warren
Warren, Could you re-post the operating pictures? The ones above are not working. Thanks very much.
Here are a couple of recent exterior photographs I took of the Fox Savoy Theatre in May 2006:
http://flickr.com/photos/kencta/183529587/
http://flickr.com/photos/kencta/183530562/
brevoort is not considered an actual neighborhood. the theater is located in crown heights, just south of bed-stuy.
Warren: Thanks for this information as I was aware of this being the case. I plan to join THSA in the near future and receive Marquee issues.
This theatre being a church now would certainly give one a different perspective and certainly a different theatre experience.
I am so happy to at last learn about the theatre of my childhood. I was six years old in 1962 when we moved to nearby Franklin ave in Bklyn. The Savoy theatre on Bedford ave was only a couple of blocks away. I’m sure I caught “Jason & the Argonauts” there as well as possibly a Cartoon? There were double features there but indeed the neiborhood had slowly began to change and the Apt. buildings nearby hit rock bottom so quickly -and we’re talking “1963”! As the Savoy mysteriously closed my brother & I had to venture down Eastern Parkway to that other theatre on “Nostrand ave” which picked up the lost revenue of the late great “Savoy” theatre. R. Clinton
I often visited the Savoy. They had a large Cinemascope screen. I saw “The Robe”, “The Egyptian”, “Desiree”, “There’s No Business Like Show Business”, “Bus Stop ” and most other 20th Century-Fox films there. They also showed “Godzilla” with Raymond Burr and “House On Haunted Hill” with Vincent Price. I’m glad the building was not demolished as I had great times there.
For a large theatre this had a very small foyer and virtually 8 feet of lobby space before the start of the last row of the orchestra. The 8 feet however rise the rake of the top of the balcony last rows. The rake is so steep that lounge area on the second level overlooks the 8 foot lobby. When you walk through the foyer, you have to look straight up or else your right in the auditorium. The upstairs space afforded the restrooms. On the Sunday I was there the congregation was having a breakfast or lunch in the large promenade under th lower balcony. The last movie that played here was in early 1969 and then was closed. The marquee and vertical survived on the building another ten years. The building is huge when viewed from Eastern Parkway and Bedford Avenue. The Lincoln was located accross the street.
During the 40’s the seating capacity was lisited at 2468 people.