Loew's Valencia Theatre
165-11 Jamaica Avenue,
Jamaica,
NY
11432
165-11 Jamaica Avenue,
Jamaica,
NY
11432
36 people
favorited this theater
Showing 251 - 275 of 480 comments
Thanks, english.
All of the old Jamaica theaters have pages at this site.
What was once the Hillside is on the east side of Sutphin Boulevard,
just north of Jamaica Avenue, as Warren said, and is now administrative offices for the Long Island Railroad. The name comes from Hillside Avenue, a few blocks to the north from Jamaica Avenue.
The Hillside has its own page on this site, with links to images of it from the nycsubway.org fan site. I do not know if the other Jamaica theaters mentioned in the post above have their own pages on this site.
The historic mansion Warren refers to re : the Savoy, is the King Mansion, in King Park.
The actual line up on jamaica ave was “THE CARLTON” “VALENCIA” “ALDEN” “MERRICK” “JAMAICA"AND THE "SAVOY AND "THE HILLSIDE” ON SUPTHIN BLVD.To HeMan,yes i did go to the Malboe a few times and like you I called it the “Marlboro”.But later found out the true name
Was this the line up along Jamaica Ave?
Valencia…across the street the RKO Alden…then the Merrick…then the Savoy…then the Jamaica…then the Hillside corner of Jamaica and Sutphin Blvd.
I remember, either at the Savoy or Jamaica, two feature films, serial, comedy movie, news…and live acts!
HeMan
P.S. Ran into two people this week…one at gym and one at garden supply business…they didn’t know each other…but they said that they had their high school graduation exercises in the Valencia…last one was Jamaica high school [1956?]
English…yes I did. What I remember most was [1] the bathroom was reached by a huge staircase at the back of the theatre. [2] There was a wide open space in front of the screen where there were no seats and one could lie down and look up at the movie. [3] The huge radiators at the side of the theatre for heat in winter.
It is now a church.
I also remember the smallest candy store right next to the PLAZA.
HeMan
p.s. Do you remember the MALBOUGH [Spelling?] on Sutphin Blvd. [near FOCH blvd.] between the PLAZA and Baisley Park?
Heman,did you ever attend THE “PLAZA THEATER”? If so,how about some comments about it at its page at CINEMA TREASURES?
Sorry, Jim.
Oooooops. Got carried away as I was intriqued by stamped Valencia message on dollar bill.
HeMan NoMore
HeMan, english, and others: Nothing is more interesting to us than ourselves, but these pages are about theatres and that is why people come here. May I suggest that off-topic Comments be made to each other privately via E-mail. If you click on a person’s name in blue at the bottom of a Comment you will be taken to their Profile page where you will find a field labeled CONTACT INFO and here should appear their E-mail address if you click on it.
What? No information? That is because the person forgot to list his E-mail. That can quickly be corrected by clicking the little Link at the extreme right top of all pages where it says PROFILE. Clicking that takes one to his own Profile page where he can make updates such as posting his E-mail address there. Such a Contact field exists there as a kindly feature by Pat Crowley, one of the honchos of this site, to keep spam computers from ‘harvesting’ someone’s E-mall address as might happen were it left plain within or at the bottom of the Comments. Won’t you gentlemen avail yourselves of this fine provision and upodate your pages for the benefit of yourselves as well as others?
English…one more item! My parents rented the house next door to the house/store that the Callajuries [sp?] owned.
One of my favorite buys in the store was taking 5 cents and picking our a pickle from the huge [4 ft. high] barrel full of pickles.
What school did you attend if not P.S. 160? Did you know of anyone who attended P.S. 160?
Were you there when the Pariettis [sp?] built a competing store right across the street?
I am 69, so our paths may have crossed.
I also played both stick-ball and softball and basketball in the same
school yard. I remember one Sunday the “older” guys [18 +] were playing a softball game and they needed a center fielder to fill in. I was about 12 or 13. If you remember, they could either play with a short left field with a very high fence with a house behind it OR play street to street with a victory garden in left field and a opening in the fence in left where you could go after a fly ball if it were hit over the fence. At any rate, two terrific shots were hit to center field and I gloved both of them over my head! A memory I will never forget.
HeMan,I did not attend PS 160 but during the peroid from 1947-1951 I played a many strike out stickball games and softball games in the school yard.That was also the home of the softball team called The Pinegroves. They had great softball pitcher named Sublocki. We use to go to Callajuris for sandwiches after the games.
Curiouser and curiouser…
Strange. Maybe someone attended church services there in the “church” it has become, and put a bunch of dollars in the collection baskets marked like that….
…then the question of “why” was it stamped in 2003 and by whom and for what reason? The mystery continues.
Oh, it’s obviously not done in 1977 when the tehater closed then of course.
No…it is 2003.
What series is the bill (I mean, is it a “1977” bill)?
EdSolero, thanks for your quick follow-up comments. I am going to try to track down “why” this dollar bill as stamped as it was and how many were so stamped. Wish me luck!
I may visit Taberncle of Prayer Church and give them the dollar bill…maybe framed.
HeMan
HeMan… your mention of the stamped dollar bill intrigues me! I wonder if the management of the Valencia had all of their singles stamped thus in order to commemorate the end of its run in some small way. If so, you have a nice little piece of historical ephemera on your hands. I hope you stashed it away someplace safe!
Wow…what memories! At age 69, it seems as if it were only yesterday that I gazed at the gold fish in the pond in the lobby…the blinking stars…the moving clouds.
I didn’t know this web-site existed…but when I received a dollar bill for change, it had the following words stamped on the back I googled “Valencia” and got the web-site.
1929 – LOEW’S – 1977
VALENCIA THEATRE
JAMAICA, NEW YORK
P.S. Did any of you attend P.S. 160 on Inwood Street in 1949?
Thanks, Warren ! To quote Ed Sullivan, it looks like a “RILLY BIG SHEW !”(or is it SHOE ?)
To get a good idea of the size of the building, go to the northwest corner of Jamaica Avenue and Merrick Blvd. and look north along the side of the building on Merrick to see how big it is !
I was a kid in the 70’s and went here with my cousins to see 2 first run movies, don’t remember the names but I was so impressed with the lobby and the theatre itself. I went several times before it was closed and then reopened as Tabernacle of Prayer church. I have been in the church and they left a lot of the ornate gold statutes in tack. It was/is the biggest single screen movie theatre I have ever been in.
When the J was still running as an elavated train you never new how big the building was unless you rode the train. The tracks blocked so much of it!
It is now on the NYC historical soceity list.
When you walk buy now, you almost dont realize the great hisory of the building and area of Jamacia Ave.
Thanks, Peter Apruzzese. I was thinking Lafayette St. near where I work in lower Manhattan. I’m glad Suffern has a decent revival cinema as well.