See this story at BrooklynDaily.com.
By Shavana Abruzzo
Brooklyn Daily
A movie ticket cost 45 cents, Boeing launched America’s first jet plane, and the TV dinner made its debut when the Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts opened in 1954.
Since then, the community-based organization has introduced audiences to international performers, such as Ray Charles, Marcel Marceau, and the Joffrey Ballet, exposing them to new cultures and ideas and spiking their creativity. Around 70,000 spectators come annually — many returning season after season, and some generation after generation.
“There are specific families who have been attending performances here since the very beginning, underscoring how central a role we have played in the cultural lives of so many Brooklynites,” said director Jon Yanofsky.
Some memorable moments:
Leontyne Price was a rising soprano giving the inaugural concert the day after the center’s dedication, but she almost didn’t make it because her driver got lost and took her to the Brooklyn Academy of Music and then, of all places, the Brooklyn Public Library.
• Pete Seeger and Jane Fonda led a “Be-In” protest at the center during the height of the Vietnam War. Chanting rallyers crowded the stage with arms linked. “As the chant permeated the great hall, one could almost believe that the war could be stopped by the sheer will of the people,” states an account on the group’s website.
• President Bill Clinton chose the center to unveil his AmeriCorps initiative in 1993.
• Jimmy Carter stumped there for presidential votes.
• The legendary Yiddish Theatre was reawakened in the 1970s when center officials tracked down original stars and sets. Molly Picon, Fyvush Finkel, and other Borscht Belt greats renewed their hilarious plays, musical numbers, and skits for new audiences — with translations provided.
• The Brooklyn Center Film Festival was fittingly launched in 1969 with Stanley Kubrick’s big-screen epic “2001: A Space Odyssey.”