Belle Harbor Twin

150 Beach 116th Street,
Rockaway Park, NY 11694

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Showing 1 - 25 of 41 comments

Comfortably Cool
Comfortably Cool on January 24, 2022 at 9:37 pm

This might have a partial history for presenting “legit” plays during the summer months. Newspaper ad from July 1948 posted in the photos section.

tkmonaghan
tkmonaghan on October 2, 2021 at 7:51 am

I seem to recall this location operated as a beer distributor in the late 1980s or early 1990s but can’t recall exactly.

robboehm
robboehm on June 9, 2019 at 3:47 am

Saw an ad for the Park in 1928. Most of the Playco Theaters in the ad I uploaded opened in the period 1926-1927.

robboehm
robboehm on April 15, 2019 at 4:38 pm

Texas2step uploaded the ad you posted on Century’s Floral indicating the Park, together with the Floral, Bellerose, Hollis and Bellaire were part of the Playco circuit. Never heard of them. However, you indicated the ad was from January 12, 1933 which would be after the time of the RKO ads you have on this site. ?????

TJHinNYC
TJHinNYC on August 17, 2015 at 6:05 pm

I remember spending the day at the beach and then catching the great film “Hud” (which opened in May 1963) at The Park.

robboehm
robboehm on March 27, 2015 at 12:58 am

Photos as both Park and Belle Harbor added.

robboehm
robboehm on February 6, 2014 at 4:39 pm

In the pre air conditioning days the Park screened films in it’s roof garden per references in the Rockaway Beach Wave.

RobertEndres
RobertEndres on October 22, 2013 at 8:25 pm

There’s a comment by rjcambell in 2006 that clarifies this discussion. The second screen was a roof top theatre. When I first came to New York I went to a lot of the $1.00 sub-run houses and ths was one. A friend of mine who was head of service for RKO theatres and then an independent contractor told me that this house “bicycled” the print when the roof top theatre was open, pulling the reels from the lower booth to the upper booth with a rope. He also mentioned a time when the two operators didn’t get along and one of them deliberately waited until the last minute to lower or raise the reels to the other booth. I came here in 1974, so never got to attend a screening in the upper theatre, but thought it looked pretty neat with the big windows that caught the air off the ocean for cooling. While someone on this site does mention an outside staircase, I would think the inner staircase at one point did lead to the roof theatre.

thedawnedition
thedawnedition on October 22, 2013 at 6:20 pm

Does anyone know who owns this gem? I love the history, and would love to invest in restoring something for the community here.

FormerNYCJim
FormerNYCJim on March 11, 2013 at 9:46 pm

As a kid, I spent my summers in Rockaway, with my family renting a series of bungalows on 107th St, until everything up to 108th Street was torn down for Robert Moses' urban renewal/destruction. I remember going to see The Wizard of Oz at the Park Theater with my grandmother…..but remember climbing up a series of steps outside to an upper theater, that was rarely used, and the seats weren’t cushioned.this was in 1955. Anyone else have a recollection of this? Could this have been just a staircase to the little used balcony?

jordanlage
jordanlage on July 18, 2012 at 12:38 am

Clearly no movement to do anything with this property in the past 3 three years or more. A very old hand-painted sign on the facade reads “Hall for hire” and lists a phone number.

robboehm
robboehm on January 25, 2010 at 3:56 am

There is also an image of this theatre on the So. Ozone Park, Park theatre site dated 12/14/2007 and an image of the Belle Harbor Theatre, which is obviously the Park at a later date, incorrectly linked at the New Theatre site. Anybody here with the expertise to replicate these images on this site?

jflundy
jflundy on May 28, 2009 at 1:00 am

Here is the link to the photo promised above:
View link

jflundy
jflundy on May 28, 2009 at 12:59 am

Here is a large photo, viewing Beach 116th Street, taken from the air above the surf, over the boardwalk and up to the Boulevard. The Park Theater is on the right of B.116th St., fourth building up the block. The roof and swiveling windows are clearing shown.

The date is 4 July 1946. Curley’s Hotel, Restaurant and Bar is shown fronting the Boardwalk on the Left. The third building up the street on the left side, with the flat roof, is the new Grand Union Store which introduced the automatic can dispensing shelving system to the Rockaways.

Bway
Bway on May 21, 2009 at 6:55 pm

Wow! When I was a teenager in the mid 80’s, we often would stop for lunch at that pizza place….I had NO idea that used to be a theater when we ate there! It finally clicked when Lost Memory posted that link….

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on April 11, 2009 at 7:20 pm

This photo shows a Rockaway Park theater that has not yet been listed, as far as I know.
http://tinyurl.com/d9nv3a

JMcCarthy
JMcCarthy on December 19, 2007 at 6:14 pm

Hey Warren — is/was the Park Theatre in South Ozone the one I knew as the UA Crossbay? It was where Rockaway Boulevard crossed Liberty Avenue (at Crossbay Boulevard).

Which, BTW, is no longer a movie house. It closed a year or two ago.
Its sister theater, UA Crossbay II, is still open, several blocks away.

JMcCarthy
JMcCarthy on November 8, 2006 at 5:26 pm

Hi guys,
the photo on Forgotten-ny is NOT the movie theater. The building in that shot is on the west side of 116th and down the block, on the “bay side” of Rockaway Beach Boulevard. The aerial shot from Bway is indeed, the theater. I think in the ‘70s it was called the Belle Harbor Theater. The last movie I remember seeing in there was “The Island at the Top of the Word.” It was a double-feature with a Disney release that ,for the life of me, I just can’t remember. One of the Herbie movies, maybe? I remember that the balcony was condemned and you weren’t supposed to go up there.
BTW, I was born and raised in Rockaway. I miss Playland and the old movie theaters. (There hasn’t been a movie theater in Rockaway since Surfside Cinema closed down, in the early '90s. It opened as a Jerry Lewis Theater around 1970? And when they started showing Rated R movies, lost their franchise.) Oh, and the zip code for the address? 11694

Bway
Bway on September 21, 2006 at 3:53 pm

Thank you for identifying the Park! The local.live image is the Park Theater.
But then we have another mystery….
This photo from forgotten.ny, is NOT the same building. it’s narrower, only has two stores, and the stores here are the 239 and 241 Beach 116th St address….
View link

rjcampbell
rjcampbell on September 21, 2006 at 3:43 pm

Thank You!!! that is the Park. My Uncle’s house was the one across the street on 115th. Do remember we are dealing with a facade. There was the main lobby with two wings on both sides. Maybe the picture is one of the wings. Still doesn’t explain the address numbers. Notice on the right of the park in the photo the back of the Park Inn Hotel.

Bway
Bway on September 21, 2006 at 3:33 pm

Lost, yes, I mean this building from local.live.com
I cropped it and uploaded so those that are having problems can see it. It’s obviously not the same building as the forgotten.ny. photo’s building:

Click here for photo

Bway
Bway on September 21, 2006 at 3:04 pm

Either way, the theater in the local live aerial photo at 150 is NOT the same theater as is in the forgotten NY photo.

rjcampbell
rjcampbell on September 21, 2006 at 2:59 pm

Terra server aerial shot of 116th Street shows 150 in the middle of 116th Street.
the address seems to be wrong.

rjcampbell
rjcampbell on September 21, 2006 at 2:17 pm

Dear Bway,
Sorry about the spelling.
Was excited and rushed to get you the information, The forgotten picture shows stores on the right. this would be where the alley would be. The Park Inn Hotel used this for delivery and parking. In the 40’s massive iron gates were put up to cut out foot traffic

rjcampbell
rjcampbell on September 21, 2006 at 2:09 pm

First of all I can’t get the aerial view. On second look. The fforgotten photo can’t be the theater. You have an alley running along the side of he theater. It went passed the back of the Park in hotel to 115th St. Also on second look the forgotten pictur looks more bank like.