Loew's Valencia Theatre

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Thanks PKoch for the info on The Bushwick. I had a feeling that it was a broadway movie house…robbie

It was here at the broadway
/theaters/3987/

Yes, I remember “The Wild Bunch” opening at the RKO Madison Theatre in Ridgewood, Queens ( # 4621 on this site) in June or July of 1969.

Robbie… “The Wild Bunch” was released in June of 1969. Not sure how that film rolled out, but if you saw it on first run at the Valencia, it was probably sometime that Summer. The theater held on for another 8 years – though they surely were not the best of times for this magnificent show place.

I lived on Crescent St. in Brooklyn, right under the BMT Jamaica line. Most times I went to more local theatres like The Embassy, The Haven or The Earl but as reached driving age I went to The Valencia on dates. It was that kind of theatre, like nothing I had ever seen. I don’t remember the exact date but the last movie I saw there was The Wild Bunch. There weren’t 50 people in the theatre and I could feel the end was in sight. I was so happy to find this site and read all these wonderful stories and facts. Does anyone know when The Wild Bunch played ? RobbieDupree

Here’s a 1993 look at the marquee and facade of the former Valencia that I snapped on my old Canon EOS. I finally scanned the print (as well as a number of others I took that fall in Queens and on 42nd Street) and uploaded the image to my Photobucket account.

Tabernacle of Prayer

Tynan was one of many authors. John Lennon was another.

PKoch—

The 1965 policing of Michael McClure’s “The Beard” took place in California, not NYC. The play depicts an encounter in the afterlife between Jean Harlow and BoxOfficeBillâ€"oops, I mean Billy the Kidâ€"and it includes profanity and a simulated sex act.
After the police closed down four performances at different venues in San Francisco and Berkeley and arrested cast members upon each of fourteen consecutive performances in LA, the ACLU successfully defended its right to be staged. The California legislature then introduced an anti-obscenity bill, but the proposal was quickly defeated. There’s an account of these events in the Preface to the play’s printed edition (San Francisco: City Lights, 1967).
On 24 Oct. ’67 the play opened uneventfully in NYC in an off-Broadway production at the Evergreen Theater on W 11 Street, directed by the estimable Rip Torn, and it won two Village Voice Obie Awards. Walter Kerr wrote that it was “a children’s play that children ought not to see,” or words to that effect. A London production was hailed by the mighty Kenneth Tynan as “a heterosexual milestone.”

It’s good that they had that mono surround channel as backup.

It would have been nice to have that on my first stereo phonograph, when I’d start losing the right channel of sound because of my cartridge wearing out ….

Yeah, yeah, I know, spend $ 10.95 on a new cartridge !

I saw a screening of the 1939 “Wizard Of Oz” in Yonkers in November 1998 which purported to be stereo, but was mostly mono sound.

Thanks, Warner, for mentioning that, specifically, that the Broadway stage wasn’t subject to the Hollywood Production Code.

What code, if any, WAS the Broadway stage subject to ? I’m thinking specifically now of the arrest of the cast and crew of the Michael McClure play, “The Beard”, in the late 1950’s or early 1960’s. Please elaborate and enlighten us, if you can.

Thanks, Warren, that’s probably correct. I’ll check it out on the IMDb.