Doc depicts legendary Melody Lanes bartender
BY JESSICA PARKS
“It’s me, but it’s an illusion.”
Peter Napolitano, an iconic
longtime bartender at Sunset
Park’s Melody Lanes bowling
alley, took his beloved euphemisms
to the silver screen —
starring in a documentary
showcasing the unique person
that neighbors have come to
love.
“If you create something
and creative people embrace it,
that’s the reason you did it for,”
the bartender of over three
decades said. “You are going
to make someone smile, you
are going to make somebody
think, you are going to maybe
give someone a new page for
themselves to be creative now.
Period. Period. Period.”
“The Magnitudinous Illuminous”
is a 12-minute fi lm by
Maya Tippett and Rachel Mills
that took the pair of fi lmmakers
fi ve years of their spare
time to create before releasing
the work on Vimeo in 2020.
The pair started the project
in 2015 as regulars of the bar
inside the Fifth Avenue bowling
alley, one of only a handful
left in Brooklyn, where Napolitano
was a mainstay.
“It took us a long time, we
both had full time jobs, so we
just did it when we could,” Tippett
told Brooklyn Paper. “Most
people become mesmerized by
him, and we were part of this
group of people that would
show up every week, and we
weren’t there to bowl, we were
there to just listen to Pete…he
was the focus of why we went.”
COURIER L 40 IFE, JAN. 21–27, 2022
The documentarians said
they were one of a number of
patrons that didn’t go to Melody
Lanes to bowl, but rather,
to drink, as the illustrious
bartender built a following
with his words of advice and
made-up jargon. His personality
is magnetic, said Tippett
and Mills.
“I never made it past the
bar essentially because I
saw this guy with coke bottle
glasses with suspenders, and
he seemed like such a throwback,”
Mills said.”I just got
mesmerized by him.”
They eventually decided
to capture the eccentric bartender
on fi lm, so everyone
could get a taste of Pete without
having to make the trip
out to Sunset Park.
“He’s just like a character
out of a movie,” Tippett said.
“We wanted people to fall in
love with Pete the way that we
did, and just sort of have this
experience with this guy.”
“We wanted to give someone
who has never been to
this bowling alley the feeling
and experience of having gone
there, like a night at the bowling
alley, that evolved into
something a little bit more than
they expected,” Mills said.
Napolitano, a former musician,
tries to inspire others
to use their creativity as he
considers himself a fellow creative,
having been a drummer
in Brooklyn bands for decades
— but now the drink-slinger
says he “doesn’t need an instrument
to perform.”
“I really think it’s about
getting in touch with one’s
creativity in whatever shape
or form it is,” Mills said. “And
that’s really what he is about
as well and really really brings
that out in people.”
“Every creative person,
this is dedicated to them, the
entire network of who you are
gets channeled to one place,”
Napolitano said. “Creative
people to me have a signature
of slowing time down which
is nothing more than a representation
of the availability of
creating something that has
resonance.”
He keeps a book of sayings
— written in what looks like
code to everyone except him —
that he’s added to throughout
his life to help others channel
their talents, and that he uses
to motivate the bar’s patrons.
“I could write a little bit
but these are soliloquies for
me, these are the equations I
have created for myself to lead
a creative life, all these signs
Maya Tippett and Rachel Mills fi lmed Napolitano for fi ve years before
releasing their documentary on him. Photo by Chris Bernabeo
and symbols have something
to do with getting to the place
of awareness,” Napolitano
said. “Myself started to relate
to other people, which I didn’t
really realize how much it was
relating to other people.”
Napolitano doesn’t have
any children but he hopes to
have left his mark on his slab
of Brooklyn by having encouraged
others to unleash their
talents to the world, and he’s
already lovingly missed by
many as he hasn’t been behind
the bar since COVID.
“When you deliver what
you have within yourself, and
someone you don’t know responds
to it and you put a smile
on their face all you have to do
is reach one person, and the
responsibility you have now to
continue what you do, should
never be a burden within,” Napolitano
said in the documentary.
“That’s the honor, that’s
the greatness, that’s the magnitudinous
illuminous — words
I made up that I can’t spell but
I really think that it means
something really good.”
BY AIDAN GRAHAM
Roll the credits!
The Court Street Regal Cinema
has permanently closed
after more than two decades,
leaving nostalgic Brooklynites
devastated at the loss of the
quasi-historic movie house.
Former Brooklyn Paper
scribe Ben Verde, who described
himself simply as
a “devastated moviegoer,”
shared on social media that he
would “physically chain himself
to the doors” of the defunct
screening emporium to
prevent its demise.
Others simply took the opportunity
of the theater’s closing
to share fond memories of
seeing fi lms at the time-honored
location.
Despite the outpouring
of support, the Regal chain
had shuttered the Downtown
Brooklyn location at the intersection
of State Street, posting
signage on the doors to alert
neighbors about the closure.
Regal Cinemas did not respond
to a request for comment,
and it is not immediately
clear what the future
of the Court Street building
holds.
Through the course of the
COVID-19 pandemic, movie
theaters have been struggling
to attract customers, as viewers
continue to fear the virus,
and movie studios have either
pushed back big box offi ce releases,
or opted to offer them
on streaming services.
Newly-inaugurated Councilmember
Lincoln Restler,
who represents Downtown
Brooklyn, shared his thoughts
on Twitter while commemorating
his past experiences at
the theater.
“Pour one out for Regal Cinemas
/ United Artists Court
Street 12. The moving van has
arrived. Today’s screenings
will be the last,” he wrote. “It
was a good 20+ year run since
they opened back when I was
in HS. For the shouting back
at action movie experience —
there was no place better!”
Tales he could tell
Downtown theater permanently closes
BROOKLYN
Last picture show
The now-closed Court Street Regal Cinema. Photo by Aidan Graham