On this day in 1945, the RKO Greenpoint Theater was making way for a double feature of The Very Thought of You and Alaska, according to an advertisement in The Brooklyn Daily Eagle.
From a date night at the movies with your gal to a gold-rush-era tale on film, the two movies boasted something for whatever Friday-night vibe Greenpointers had in mind. And in case a night at the cinema wasn’t enough, moviegoers also had the opportunity to partake in another time-honored movie theater activity: buying war bonds.
Yes, the RKO Theater joined the nationwide theater efforts to support the U.S. Treasury Department during World War II by purchasing war bonds and stamps, which were then sold to patrons (hold the extra butter).
The ornate, opera-house-esque RKO Theater sat on the corner of Manhattan Ave and Calyer St. and seated over 1,600 people. First erected as a vaudeville palace in 1908, it then became B.F. Keith’s before its transformation into the RKO movie house.
In the decades since, RKO Greenpoint Theater has been demolished, but there are still ample opportunities to catch a film in the area at Film Noir Cinema on Meserole Ave., Stuart Cinema and Cafe on West St., Nitehawk on Metropolitan Ave, and Williamsburg Cinemas on Grand St. And while you can no longer catch a movie or buy a bond at 825 Manhattan Ave, you can instead get your reps in at the Crunch gym now standing in its place.