International Coalition of Art Deco Societies has designated April 28th as World Art Deco Day.

Driving For Deco is celebrating World Art Deco Day with a look at the St. George Playhouse. This theatre was not a huge movie palace in Times Square. Located in Brooklyn Heights, it was an intimate theatre, seating one thousand. And most importantly was the first movie theatre in New York City decorated in the modern style that is now known as Art Deco.

THE LITTLE FILM THEATRE MOVEMENT

By the mid-1920s the major Hollywood studios were vertically integrated. They not only produced films, but also distributed them to theatre chains they owned. In a reaction to this, a new type of movie theatre emerged. With seating of no more than 1,000 these theaters were much smaller than the big city movie palaces. Their programming consisted of less commercially viable movies, like foreign films or American pictures of high artistic quality. This was the birth of the Little Film Theatre movement. The term “art house” best describes this type of theatre today.

Cameo Theatre, 1923. Photograph from cinematreasures.org

The Cameo Theatre on New York’s 42nd Street is arguably the city’s first art house. Switching from mainstream programming to mostly foreign films by 1924. Following closely on this came the 5th Avenue Playhouse, at 66 Fifth Avenue. Opening in 1925, the tiny, 273 seat theatre occupied the ground floor of a building near 13th Street in Greenwich Village. The theatre eventually found success and within a couple years the 5th Avenue Playhouse Group opened the 55th Street Playhouse in mid-town Manhattan.

1940 tax photo of the 55th Street Playhouse. Image from cinematreasures.com

Then in the summer of 1927 the newspapers began reporting about a new theatre being built coming under the management of the 5th Avenue Playhouse Group. But instead of being in Manhattan, this new theatre’s home would be in the charming and elite neighborhood of Brooklyn Heights.

A THEATRE OF UNUSUAL AND MODERN DESIGN

Aside from being a charming, quiet residential section, in the 1920s Brooklyn Heights was also the hotel district of the borough. But an amenity lacking in the area was theatres. That would change with the opening of the St. George Playhouse at 100 Pineapple Street. By the end of July, 1927 the Brooklyn papers were running articles on the construction of this new theatre.

Martin Dickstein in his “Slow Motion” column in The Brooklyn Daily Eagle had this to say:

With the continued progress in the construction of the St. George Playhouse on Pineapple St., it appears that Brooklyn is not to be denied participation in the increasingly popular little film theatre movement. It is understood that the house will be ready by October, that it will have an approximate capacity of 1,000 and that its policy will be similar to the Fifth Avenue Playhouse where the best pictures are available and the so-called elaborate surrounding program of stage incidents is not tolerated. It would appear that the St. George Playhouse will do much to supply the demand of intelligent Heights residents for amusement of the , let us say, better order.                                        The Brooklyn Daily Eagle – July 31, 1927 Pg. 49.

As with many constructions projects, delays forced the opening back to November and then December. Finally opening to the public on Christmas Day, 1927, with its official inauguration on the 28th of December. By far this was the largest and most ornate theatre in the Little Film Theatre Movement. Architects Schlanger and Ehrenrich created the perfect space for the enjoyment of motion pictures with the St. George Playhouse, because they were building from the ground up and not retrofitting a theatre into an existing building.

THE EXTERIOR

Schlanger & Ehrenrich’s St. George Playhouse. Image from Motion Picture News, March 3, 1928, Pg. 697.

The stucco exterior of the St. George Playhouse featured a brightly colored, terra-cotta, modernistic frieze. Bringing the frieze down a section of the front wall integrated it into the marquee canopy. An embedded, undulating neon tube enlivened the canopy.

THE LOBBY

The ticket booth inside the outer lobby. Image from Motion Picture News, March 3, 1928, Pg. 698.

By using corner space in the lobby, under the sloping ceiling of the loge stairs, the ticket booth takes up less space and becomes architectural interesting. Adjacent to the lobby, the lounge exemplified late 1920s interior design. Dull orange paint with black, triangular spots covered the lounge walls. A nook for coffee service featured modernist furniture and bold fabrics designed by the prominent husband and wife team of Wolfgang and Pola Hoffmann. A stepped wall covered with black tile separates the nook from the loge stairs.

A portion of the lounge where patrons could relax and enjoy coffee. Fabrics and furniture designed by Wolfgang and Pola Hoffmann. Image from the Motion Picture News, March 3, 1928, Pg. 698.

THE AUDITORIUM

St. George Playhouse a view from the balcony towards the screen. Image from Motion Picture News, March 3, 1928, Pg. 699.

The modern idea of form following function, used throughout the St. George Playhouse is particularly evident in the auditorium. Here Schlanger & Ehrenrich drew inspiration from French architect Auguest Perret’s Exhibition Theatre at the 1925 Exposition International Des Arts Decoratifs in Paris. Perret abolished superfluous decoration intending to hide the structural form of the Exhibition Theatre. Here the structure became the decoration and is so minimalist it almost presages  Brutalist architecture that would begin in the 1950s.

Auguste Perret’s Exhibition Theatre, 1925. Image from the book Arts Decoratifs 1925 A Personal Recollection of the Paris Exhibition.

While the St. George Playhouse also used the form of the construction to dictate the interior design, the end result would be much softer than its Parisian inspiration. Accommodating 1,000, 600 seats in the orchestra and 400 loge, this was considered an intimate theatre in 1927.

Motion Picture News had this to say of the auditorium:

The complete breaking away from the use of hanging domes, elliptical shaped proscenium and the familiar columns and cornices, is undoubtedly an important and much awaited step that has has been achieved in the conception of this theatre. 

The actual beams and slabs of the ceiling construction form the architectural treatment of the St. George. These are stepped down in different planes and meet the sidewall at a very intimate height. 

The musicians are effectively place off to one side, in a recessed niche of silver coated walls. Directly opposite is the organ loft, the tone opening for which is a geometrical design of pierced glass work. 

St. George Playhouse organ loft detail, showing the pierced glass work, that seems to be inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright. Image from Motion Picture News, March 3, 1928, Pg. 699.

The decorative scheme of the auditorium is of a rich, warm gray, relieved by carefully placed ornament in a large variety of soft colors blending into a harmonious unit. The complete color scheme is given additional interest by placing silver leaf in various grooves and other places on the ornament. This not only blends with the color, but results during the time of subdued lighting, in a scintillating and shimmering play of light and color. In the effort to concentrate chief interest on the stage, all heavy architectural projections on the sidewalls are obviated, leaving a simple treatment of well proportioned panes, upon which was painted a motivating design of leading the eye to the screen.                                                                                                                                                      Motion Picture News, March 3, 1928, Pgs. 697-699.

Side wall of the St. George Playhouse auditorium, showing cubist style wall decorations, and the stepped down ceiling with vent grilles built into the second level. Image from the Motion Picture News, March 3, 1928, Pg. 698.

1930 – 1963

With the coming of talking pictures in the late 1920s, the Little Film Theatre Movement began to falter. And with the onset of the Great Depression in the early 1930s the St. George Playhouse could not afford to be artsy. The much smaller Manhattan art theatres could remain true to their mission, but the larger size of the St. George meant it had to make concessions to survive. In 1930 the St. George Playhouse Holding Corp. sold the theatre to new owners. There would be several more changes of ownership throughout the decade. Eventually the theatre became a second run movie house. And it would continue to thrive as such.

1940 New York City tax photo showing the St. George Playhouse during the run of the 20th Century-Fox film The Grapes of Wrath. Image from cinematreasures.org.

The St. George Playhouse continued through the 1950s showing double bills of better than average movies. The Hollywood studio system had basically died by the early 1960s as foreign and independent films were gaining in popularity. The art cinema came into its heyday. Then once again the St. George Playhouse changed ownership.

The Brooklyn Heights Press reported this:

Brooklyn Heights will have its first art movie theatre in the St. George Playhouse, which was sold to Daniel Talbot, owner of the New Yorker theatre, a Manhattan art movie house. Mr. Talbot’s publicity aide said Tuesday that the theatre will be closed for renovations this week. When it reopens July 20, the St. George Playhouse will show a program of foreign and American film in what has been termed the “art” category. The theatre will maintain its present name but will have a new marquee, and espresso coffee will be served.                                                                                                          Brooklyn Heights Press – July 12, 1962, Pg. 3

Apparently Daniel Talbot, the St. George Playhouse’s new owner and the reporter from the Brooklyn Heights Press had no clue of the theatre’s original policy. And even serving espresso to patrons was just a throwback to the coffee nook the theatre had when it opened in 1927.

But as changes came to the movie industry, they also came to Brooklyn Heights.

Starting in the mid-1930s the area around the entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge started undergoing big changes. A whole section of old buildings and factories were demolished for the building of Cadman Plaza Park. And by the 1960s the city began to look at the neighborhood directly west of the park for a big urban renewal project.

Aerial view of the area near the Brooklyn Bridge approach in 1936 during the demolition of the buildings that would be replaced by Cadman Plaza Park. Image from wikipedia.org

But even before the city could employ eminent domain against the St. George Playhouse, it had fallen into financial trouble. It seems its art house policy alienated the majority of customers the theatre had as a second run double feature house. And the art films they were programming had already been playing at other art houses.

Then there was the problem of an extremely high monthly rent, that the owners had more and more trouble meeting. The Cadman Plaza Title I project had already doomed the St. George Playhouse, but it could have stayed open a couple more years before meeting the wrecking ball. But instead the St. George Playhouse closed its doors either on May 23 or May 24, 1963, much to the sorrow of most Brooklyn Heights residents.

Later in 1963 plans were drawn up to reopen the theatre but the city was not interested and would not make a deal on lowering the rent to make it feasible. So this little jewel of a theatre sat empty for two years until it came down to make way for middle income apartment houses and shops. Even the section of Pineapple Street has disappeared becoming a pedestrian path called Pineapple Walk.

2017 Google Street View of Pineapple Walk, formerly Pineapple Street. Red arrow indicates the location of the St. George Playhouse.

So New York City’s first Art Deco movie theatre vanished more than 55 years ago and remains unmourned by most people today.

Anthony & Chris (The Freakin’, Tiquen’ Guys)

Sources: Arts Decoratifs 1925 A Personal Recollection of the Paris Exhibition; The Brooklyn Daily Eagle; The Brooklyn Heights Press; Motion Picture News; New York 1930.