Midwood Tutors Come To You

In south-central Brooklyn, New York, the neighborhood of Midwood has had a close relationship to the film and television industries, doing its greatest development right alongside the advent of motion pictures and television.

Film
Midwood’s connection with film started with the founding of Vitagraph Studios in 1907, near Avenue M on East 14th. The studio’s prolific productivity in making silent films made Brooklyn the center of American film, long before Hollywood. The company made as many as eight films a week, some of which were filmed on the streets of Midwood. Whether Shakespeare adaptations or the first stop-motion cartoon made in America, Vitagraph’s creations were extremely popular.

Warner Bros. purchased the studio in 1925 and renamed it Vitaphone Studios, using it as a satellite radio to make sound shorts. Instead of adding needed soundproofing, the company decided to build new buildings on the west side of the street. Both locations were still useful; in fact, for many years, a rumor existed that there was a tunnel under 14th Street to transfer costumes, sets, and props from the costume and carpentry departments in the old building to the new buildings, where the bigger soundstages were located. The rumor was verified when, after years of fruitless searching, 1955 documents were found at the Brooklyn Department of Housing & Building Archives showing the location of the tunnel.

Warner Bros. vacated the site in the late 1960s, and Yeshiva University bought it to establish a high school, the Brooklyn Torah Academy. After that it became the home of the Shulamith School Yeshiva for Girls.

TV
Brooklyn’s television history is also immersed in the old Vitagraph Studios building. A portion of the building was purchased by NBC in 1952, becoming NBC Brooklyn. NBC used both the older Studio 1 and a newer, larger studio, called Color Studio 2, to tape the Perry Como Variety Show, the Cosby Show, Hullabaloo, and many others. In its prime, Studio 2 reportedly was “the largest color TV production studio in America,” consisting of two stages, thirty-one dressing rooms, two control rooms, one edit suite, and hair, makeup and dressing facilities. Both studios were used extensively until NBC sold the studio in 2000. For the next ten years, the new owner, JC Studios, filmed the soap opera As the World Turns, the last decade of its fifty-four-year run.

End of an Era
No doubt, Brooklyn’s long-time love affair with the film and television industry had a big impact on the social and economic development of Midwood, and it certainly was a big part of the neighborhood’s history. Despite efforts from various groups, however, the Vitagraph complex was dismantled in 2015—an end of an era.

A good way to experience the history of these studios is to take a walking tour from non-profit Jane’sWalk.org. Highly educated tour guides act like Midwood tutors who share stories about the birth of film and TV—a unique way to receive tutoring in Midwood.