I took some exterior snapshots of the Fair a couple of weekends ago with my digital camera. I started with a few long shots and then moved in to focus on the marquee and entrance. As I was about to snap a photo of the 1970’s vintage poster for “The Klansman” that is still displayed in the outer foyer (as br91975 mentioned in his post in June) , an employee of the theater came to the door and advised that I should stop taking any further photos of the building. I tried to explain that I was merely a movie-theater enthusiast who was snapping some shots of theaters in Queens for my own personal use and was very careful not to intrude on the privacy of their patrons. I then showed the man (and the “security” guard who by this time had joined him) all of the photos I had taken during the day of this and other theaters in the borough.
Unfortunately, he was having none of it and insisted that I leave. I asked if I could just take one last shot – the “Klansman” poster. He refused. I certainly didn’t want to rankle him any further so I asked if I could speak with the manager and obtain his permission. He advised the manager was not there at the time (it was Sunday, after all) but that I could return during the week to seek him out.
I plan on returning to the Fair as soon as my schedule permits. Perhaps one evening after work so I can get a shot of the marquee all lit up (that is, if they bother to light the signs at all). Naturally, I’ll look for the manager’s permission to do so, but in the meanwhile… here are the photos I took before the order to cease and desist.
Just a personal post script… The last time I spent time inside the Keith’s was for a double feature in the big upstairs theater around 1985 or ‘86 when I was still a student at Queens College. The movies were “Hells Angels Forever” – a documentary on the infamous motorcycle club that I wanted to see mostly because of Jerry Garcia’s involvement (long time Dead head here) – and a re-release of the offbeat 1975 sci-fi flick “A Boy and His Dog” starring Don Johnson and Jason Robards. I remember the place was as cold as an ice-box. There were, perhaps, 15 or 20 people taking in the show – a weekday matinee, by the way.
A week later, I saw my Uncle at a family gathering and he asked if I had seen that very double feature at the Keith’s a few days earlier… Turns out, he had been among the small crowd in attendance that afternoon, but was maybe 20 or 25 rows behind me. He thought he spotted me coming back to my seat from a visit to the candy counter downstairs and tried to get my attention, but the lights went down for the second feature and he decided not to bother me in case he was mistaken. I guess I ran out of the theater so quickly at the film’s end that he never had a chance to catch up with me (the place was enormous, so it was very easy to get a jump on the folks in the back rows if you sat down front in the old balcony, close to the exit)!
Anyway… I do remember taking a long look around at the old place as if I somehow knew that she might not be around for much longer. I spent almost the entire intermission walking around the lobby and taking in the view as I ascended the magnificent curved staircase back up to the balcony auditorium. Then I hung out between two of the columns on the landing upstairs that overlooked the lower lobby… just drinking it all in. Trying to imagine the crowds streaming past the old fountain (long gone by that time) or up the stairs for a bird’s eye view on a Friday or Saturday night.
Warren… I agree with you. Anything less than a full restoration has to be considered some kind of defeat. As for the plans to restore the lobby, if they plan on installing a glass curtain through which passersby on the streets and sidewalks can peer into the old lobby, wouldn’t that mean the necessary destruction of the interior front wall – which has some marvelous detailing above the entrance from the outer lobby? How can that be considered a restoration of the landmarked portion of the structure if the entire lobby was so designated? Still, I’ll begrudgingly accept this very bittersweet compromise when faced with the total destruction of the building.
And much belated thanks to Ed Baxter for his well written post detailing his “guided tour” of the Keith’s ruins back in February. It was so richly detailed, I almost feel as if I was given that tour myself (the description of the torn and frayed screen from the upstairs theater hanging from the ceiling like an “old pirate ship sail” was most evocative). My impulse is to say that if the Keith’s were located in Times Square rather than in Flushing (the outer boroughs always play second fiddle to Manhattan) this story might have a different ending… but, of course, history has shown that the popcorn palaces of Broadway didn’t fare any better themselves for the most part (see Roxy, Rivoli, Capitol, etc). Still… for all the talk of how dilapidated the auditorium is, could it be any worse than that of the New Amsterdam before Disney came to the rescue? I mean, that place was a complete wreck with portions exposed to the elements via gaping holes in the roof!!!
Anyway… here are some photos I took of the Keith’s exterior a couple of weekends back. In the last photo you can still make out the advertisement painted on the side of the building heralding the “RKO Flushing” as the “Finest Theater on the North Shore”…
I’d love to get my camera inside the place, but I doubt my luck would ever run as hot as Ed Baxter’s did and – alas – the days for that would seem to be numbered.
While out touring the borough with my handy digital a couple of weekends back, I snapped these two shots of the former Roosevelt/UA Quartet. As you can tell from the first photo, the Eckerd drug store that took over the site has recently closed as has the Macy’s Bed showroom that shared the space. In the 2nd photo, you’ll notice that the building(s) adjacent to the theater’s left were razed to make way for a parking lot. As a result, a full profile of the former theater was exposed for the first time I that can recollect.
I don’t recall ever catching a flick here, under either the Roosevelt or Quartet marquee. Do you guys know for sure that the old Roosevelt marquee was dismantled when the site converted to retail space? The facsimile marquee that is currently at the site looks a lot like the one from it’s UA days.
Also grabbed a shot or two of the former Boulevard Theater on Northern Blvd in Jackson Heights on my way in to the city this same day. The following weekend I decided to take the camera out for a real tour of some cinema sites in Astoria, Sunnyside, Jackson Heights, Flushing and even a stop in Fresh Meadows. I’ll be posting those pics as well in the coming days.
I recall seeing a few movies here when I was a kid growing up in nearby Elmhurst. My memories are dim, but I believe I caught a few re-released Disney features here (like Pinocchio or Lady and the Tramp) in the ‘70’s. I was on my way into Manhattan with my son a few weekends back and had the digital camera on hand when I found myself stopped at the traffic light at the corner where the theater sits. So, I snapped a couple of quick shots.
The following weekend I was inspired to take the camera out for a spin around Astoria, Sunnyside and Jackson Heights to snap a few more shots of other theaters (or sites of former theaters) that I plan on posting on this site as well.
PaulLD1… The tag line “A sexual Keystonecomedy” belongs to a different advertisement (apparently cut off in the image) that was below the one for “Animal Crackers”. I “yahoo’d” the phrase and found it was a quote from Pauline Kael’s review of the movie “Going Places” — a French film of some controversy that was released here in 1974 concurrent with the Sutton engagement of the restored Marx Brothers classic. It starred Gerard Depardieu, Jeanne Morreau and Isabelle Huppert.
Couldn’t tell you the theaters in which “Going Places” was booked. I can tell you that during this time, my Mother worked for Rugoff Theaters and scored some passes for my Grandfather and I to see “Animal Crackers” during this run.
A couple of years later, I caught “Animal Crackers” on the big screen one last time at Century’s Green Acres Theater on a double bill with the bio-pic “W.C. Fields and Me” starring Rod Steiger and Valerie Perine.
RobertR… I know with great certainty that the last feature to play at the Valencia was the Muhammed Ali film “The Greatest” which opened in the late Spring of 1977 at the Criterion in Times Square and other theaters around town. It’s reasonable to assume that this movie opened fairly wide and the Valencia might even have been included in its first run bookings, but I don’t know the dates it played there.
By the way… I love the scans of those newspaper ads. I could sit up online all night and devour page after page of that sort of stuff. Thanks for sharing!
RobertR… I know with great certainty that the last feature to play at the Valencia was the Muhammed Ali film “The Greatest” which opened in the late Spring of 1977 at the Criterion in Times Square and other theaters around town. It’s reasonable to assume that this movie opened fairly wide and the Valencia might even have been included in its first run bookings, but I don’t know the dates it played there.
By the way… I love the scans of those newspaper ads. I could sit up online all night and devour page after page of that sort of stuff. Thanks for sharing!
Wayyy back in 2003 – when I first discovered this wonderful web-site – I posted about this theater and the sad state of those murals just over the exits at the side of the stage. I wonder if anyone has information as to what it is they are supposed to depict. I read in these posts that they were painted by a Danish artist named Valdemar Kjoldgaard… but I can find nothing on their content. The images rendered upon them are murky at best. A proper cleaning and restoration is in order. And as for rumors of this theater’s impending demise, I can’t invest much stock in those. The upcoming concert calendar is as full as it’s ever been, including the annual stretch of shows performed each spring by The Allman Brothers Band.
This is a duplicate entry of Theater in the Park. This one should be deleted and a reference made under the Theater in the Park listing to it being “formerly known as Theaterama.”
It might have already been mentioned in one of the very many comments that have been made here about this theater, but I thought it worth repeating that there is a wonderfully detailed cut-away scale model of the Roxy (outer and inner lobbies as well as the auditorium and mezzanine foyers) on display at the American Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria Queens (located in the old Kaufman-Astoria Studios complex off Steinway Street on 35th Ave). Aside from the fact that the lighting around the exhibit produces an annoying reflection on the glass partition behind which it sits, if you lean in close, the level of detail in the model is quite breathtaking and well worth the visit to the museum. Not to mention that the museum itself, though rather small, is a very informative and enjoyable place to learn about the history of the moving picture.
The Laurelton theater was a small neighborhood cinema on Merrick Blvd (it doesn’t become Merrick Road until it crosses East over the Nassau County border and out of New York City Limits) on the South side of the block between 227th and 228th Streets. This being Queens, the address would have been 227-something as the first set of numbers before the dash always represented the cross street in Queens. I lived in the area in the 1970’s and early 80’s. The building is still there and a friend of mine said recently that it is used as a church. I recall that this theater showed double features for a time in the mid-late ‘70’s and would often show vintage cartoon or live action short features before the features. The double bill would often feature a recent hit film on it’s 2nd or third run backed up by a action flick (often one of the so-called “blaxploitation” films of the early '70’s, I suppose to cater to the largely African-American population in the neighborhood). I recall seeing “Jaws” in the summer of '75 along with a Woody Woodpecker cartoon and the Fred Williamson actioner “That Man Bolt”. I also saw a reissue of “The Taking of Pelham 123” a year or so later along with a Three Stooges short and a B-flick called “Framed” starring Joe Don Baker. You walked in to a small and rather dark narrow lobby with a candy counter against the left wall and the doors leading you in to the back of the auditorium were along the right wall. There was a balcony, if I recall, though I never sat up there.
Casper… The original Selwyn Building — with theater marquee, entrance and front lobby on the ground floor and offices above — collapsed completely. I suppose the auditorium itself was not structurally attached to this building in any significant way as there was little if any damage to the theater itself. The building that now serves as entrance, lobby and offices, is entirely new construction built in 2000 – 2001.
I love reading the recollections on this site… particularly of how most of these theaters (save the New Amsterdam and Lyric) did not advertise in newspapers nor did their attractions appear in the “movie times” listings. Ads for individual films would list the theaters — that is, if the main attraction was still in wide release and running ads. Also, the New York Post had an odd feature called “Movie Clock”, if memory serves, that ran separately from their more comprehensive “movie timetable” listings. Most of the theaters listed in this column were Porn houses (the Mayfair and Austin Theaters in Queens, The Globe in the Bronx, etc.), but the 42nd Street grind houses found a home here as well.
But as AndyT accurately portrayed in his post, we’d just hit 42nd and check out the movie titles and those lurid cardboard advertising placards that festooned the area beneath the Marquees as well as the publicity stills and lobby cards displayed behind the glass of the outer foyers looking for something that piqued our interests or fit our moods on a particular day. Didn’t matter if you walked in half-way through one of the films… you’d just stay until you caught up to where you came in. On an island void of drive-ins, this is where you’d come to see “The Corpse Grinders” and “Count Dracula and His Vampire Brides” or “That Man Bolt” and “Shaft in Africa” or “The Five Deadly Venoms” and “The Streets of Hong Kong”.
I was the one who posted (erroneously) that the theater was between 42nd and 43rd. I meant to say 41st street where I say “43rd street” in that post. My apologies. Anyway, as mentioned in my post and in later posts, the auditorium of The Liberty remains largely intact, hidden behind the 42nd Street Applebees Restaurant and under the Hilton Times Square tower. It appears that it is currently undergoing renovations to suit some sort of catering or event purpose. Hopefully, the room will retain as much of it’s original beauty and architectural detail as the new use will allow. I’m just grateful that the theater was wholly plowed under to make way for the Hotel and other retail concerns. I’m just as grateful and hopeful with regards to the Times Square Theater, which is currently under renovation and conversion to retail use across the street.
This was on Rockaway Avenue between Merrick Road and Sunrise Hwy, which is a pretty busy commercial strip in this well populated suburban area. I remember seeing a few films here in the late ‘70’s and early '80’s and then visiting the used record shop Slipped Disc across the street. This DID become the concert hall known as Rio in the 80’s. The building was demolished some years back and replaced with a new retail facility. At least Slipped Disc is still in business.
The name “Paramount Theater” has had a transient history in Manhattan since the mid ‘60’s demolition of this grand old auditorium — the Brooklyn Paramount notwithstanding. During the '70’s and '80’s there was a subterranean theater in the Gulf and Western building on Columbus Circle that was called The Paramount. I’m not sure if it opened concurrently with the G&W building nor am I sure if it was always known as The Paramount (I assume it was so dubbed when G&W became the parent company of Paramount Pictures). Regardless, the building has since been converted by Donald Trump to residential/hotel usage and the theater was demolished/converted to other use in the '80’s. Sometime after this, the old Felt Forum inside Madison Square Garden was briefly known as The Paramount during a period when both Paramount Pictures and the Garden were subsidiaries of the same parent corporation. This last Paramount, however, was never intended for the exhibition of motion pictures.
I mention this only as a footnote to history of The Paramount.
The Parsons was actually a block north of Union Turnpike on the west side of Parsons Blvd. The last movie I saw here was “Tootsie” in ‘82. Then I went to Buddy’s Bicycle shop down the street and purchased a 10 speed. Buddy’s is still there.
I recently discovered that the auditorium of this theater is still very much intact cocooned by the new sky-scraping Hilton Hotel that rose above it on 42nd street. In fact, if you were to enter the lobby of the hotel (which stretches from 42nd clear back to 43rd street), you would find several large framed photographs of the theater’s interior (in it’s current state) hanging on the walls. If you were to walk the length of the lobby towards the 43rd street side, there is a double door on the left that leads directly into the old house. The original rear exterior facade is clearly identifiable on 43rd street. Someone had the foresight to prevent demolition when the Hotel was built, so I can only presume that some restoration or re-use of it’s facilities might be forthcoming.
This place was a barn when it was a single screen theater. Nothing fancy, a plain unadorned big box of a theater on Sunrise Hwy in the parking lot of the Green Acres Mall. But it had the widest screen I can remember and was fitted with Sensurround in the mid ‘70’s for films like Earthquake, Rollercoaster and Midway. All the James Bond movies would play here through the '70’s and early '80’s until it was triplexed. I remember seeing epic movies like Ghandi, Tess and Lion of the Desert on it’s massive wide screen. Last time I drove by, it was a sixplex. The Sunrise Cinemas, about a half mile to the west, opened in December of '79 on the site of the old Sunrise Drive-In, as a sixplex but has since been expanded and cut-up so many times that there are now 25 screens! It’s amazing that a suburban area like this can support over 30 screens in such close proximity.
I took some exterior snapshots of the Fair a couple of weekends ago with my digital camera. I started with a few long shots and then moved in to focus on the marquee and entrance. As I was about to snap a photo of the 1970’s vintage poster for “The Klansman” that is still displayed in the outer foyer (as br91975 mentioned in his post in June) , an employee of the theater came to the door and advised that I should stop taking any further photos of the building. I tried to explain that I was merely a movie-theater enthusiast who was snapping some shots of theaters in Queens for my own personal use and was very careful not to intrude on the privacy of their patrons. I then showed the man (and the “security” guard who by this time had joined him) all of the photos I had taken during the day of this and other theaters in the borough.
Unfortunately, he was having none of it and insisted that I leave. I asked if I could just take one last shot – the “Klansman” poster. He refused. I certainly didn’t want to rankle him any further so I asked if I could speak with the manager and obtain his permission. He advised the manager was not there at the time (it was Sunday, after all) but that I could return during the week to seek him out.
I plan on returning to the Fair as soon as my schedule permits. Perhaps one evening after work so I can get a shot of the marquee all lit up (that is, if they bother to light the signs at all). Naturally, I’ll look for the manager’s permission to do so, but in the meanwhile… here are the photos I took before the order to cease and desist.
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Just a personal post script… The last time I spent time inside the Keith’s was for a double feature in the big upstairs theater around 1985 or ‘86 when I was still a student at Queens College. The movies were “Hells Angels Forever” – a documentary on the infamous motorcycle club that I wanted to see mostly because of Jerry Garcia’s involvement (long time Dead head here) – and a re-release of the offbeat 1975 sci-fi flick “A Boy and His Dog” starring Don Johnson and Jason Robards. I remember the place was as cold as an ice-box. There were, perhaps, 15 or 20 people taking in the show – a weekday matinee, by the way.
A week later, I saw my Uncle at a family gathering and he asked if I had seen that very double feature at the Keith’s a few days earlier… Turns out, he had been among the small crowd in attendance that afternoon, but was maybe 20 or 25 rows behind me. He thought he spotted me coming back to my seat from a visit to the candy counter downstairs and tried to get my attention, but the lights went down for the second feature and he decided not to bother me in case he was mistaken. I guess I ran out of the theater so quickly at the film’s end that he never had a chance to catch up with me (the place was enormous, so it was very easy to get a jump on the folks in the back rows if you sat down front in the old balcony, close to the exit)!
Anyway… I do remember taking a long look around at the old place as if I somehow knew that she might not be around for much longer. I spent almost the entire intermission walking around the lobby and taking in the view as I ascended the magnificent curved staircase back up to the balcony auditorium. Then I hung out between two of the columns on the landing upstairs that overlooked the lower lobby… just drinking it all in. Trying to imagine the crowds streaming past the old fountain (long gone by that time) or up the stairs for a bird’s eye view on a Friday or Saturday night.
I wish I were back there now… with my camera.
What a damn crying shame…
Warren… I agree with you. Anything less than a full restoration has to be considered some kind of defeat. As for the plans to restore the lobby, if they plan on installing a glass curtain through which passersby on the streets and sidewalks can peer into the old lobby, wouldn’t that mean the necessary destruction of the interior front wall – which has some marvelous detailing above the entrance from the outer lobby? How can that be considered a restoration of the landmarked portion of the structure if the entire lobby was so designated? Still, I’ll begrudgingly accept this very bittersweet compromise when faced with the total destruction of the building.
And much belated thanks to Ed Baxter for his well written post detailing his “guided tour” of the Keith’s ruins back in February. It was so richly detailed, I almost feel as if I was given that tour myself (the description of the torn and frayed screen from the upstairs theater hanging from the ceiling like an “old pirate ship sail” was most evocative). My impulse is to say that if the Keith’s were located in Times Square rather than in Flushing (the outer boroughs always play second fiddle to Manhattan) this story might have a different ending… but, of course, history has shown that the popcorn palaces of Broadway didn’t fare any better themselves for the most part (see Roxy, Rivoli, Capitol, etc). Still… for all the talk of how dilapidated the auditorium is, could it be any worse than that of the New Amsterdam before Disney came to the rescue? I mean, that place was a complete wreck with portions exposed to the elements via gaping holes in the roof!!!
Anyway… here are some photos I took of the Keith’s exterior a couple of weekends back. In the last photo you can still make out the advertisement painted on the side of the building heralding the “RKO Flushing” as the “Finest Theater on the North Shore”…
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I’d love to get my camera inside the place, but I doubt my luck would ever run as hot as Ed Baxter’s did and – alas – the days for that would seem to be numbered.
So then the Roosevelt marquee is still hidden underneath as you posted back in February of last year, RobertR?
While out touring the borough with my handy digital a couple of weekends back, I snapped these two shots of the former Roosevelt/UA Quartet. As you can tell from the first photo, the Eckerd drug store that took over the site has recently closed as has the Macy’s Bed showroom that shared the space. In the 2nd photo, you’ll notice that the building(s) adjacent to the theater’s left were razed to make way for a parking lot. As a result, a full profile of the former theater was exposed for the first time I that can recollect.
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I don’t recall ever catching a flick here, under either the Roosevelt or Quartet marquee. Do you guys know for sure that the old Roosevelt marquee was dismantled when the site converted to retail space? The facsimile marquee that is currently at the site looks a lot like the one from it’s UA days.
Snapped this photo on the way back from Manhattan with my son a few weekends ago…
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Also grabbed a shot or two of the former Boulevard Theater on Northern Blvd in Jackson Heights on my way in to the city this same day. The following weekend I decided to take the camera out for a real tour of some cinema sites in Astoria, Sunnyside, Jackson Heights, Flushing and even a stop in Fresh Meadows. I’ll be posting those pics as well in the coming days.
I recall seeing a few movies here when I was a kid growing up in nearby Elmhurst. My memories are dim, but I believe I caught a few re-released Disney features here (like Pinocchio or Lady and the Tramp) in the ‘70’s. I was on my way into Manhattan with my son a few weekends back and had the digital camera on hand when I found myself stopped at the traffic light at the corner where the theater sits. So, I snapped a couple of quick shots.
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The following weekend I was inspired to take the camera out for a spin around Astoria, Sunnyside and Jackson Heights to snap a few more shots of other theaters (or sites of former theaters) that I plan on posting on this site as well.
PaulLD1… The tag line “A sexual Keystonecomedy” belongs to a different advertisement (apparently cut off in the image) that was below the one for “Animal Crackers”. I “yahoo’d” the phrase and found it was a quote from Pauline Kael’s review of the movie “Going Places” — a French film of some controversy that was released here in 1974 concurrent with the Sutton engagement of the restored Marx Brothers classic. It starred Gerard Depardieu, Jeanne Morreau and Isabelle Huppert.
Couldn’t tell you the theaters in which “Going Places” was booked. I can tell you that during this time, my Mother worked for Rugoff Theaters and scored some passes for my Grandfather and I to see “Animal Crackers” during this run.
A couple of years later, I caught “Animal Crackers” on the big screen one last time at Century’s Green Acres Theater on a double bill with the bio-pic “W.C. Fields and Me” starring Rod Steiger and Valerie Perine.
RobertR… I know with great certainty that the last feature to play at the Valencia was the Muhammed Ali film “The Greatest” which opened in the late Spring of 1977 at the Criterion in Times Square and other theaters around town. It’s reasonable to assume that this movie opened fairly wide and the Valencia might even have been included in its first run bookings, but I don’t know the dates it played there.
By the way… I love the scans of those newspaper ads. I could sit up online all night and devour page after page of that sort of stuff. Thanks for sharing!
RobertR… I know with great certainty that the last feature to play at the Valencia was the Muhammed Ali film “The Greatest” which opened in the late Spring of 1977 at the Criterion in Times Square and other theaters around town. It’s reasonable to assume that this movie opened fairly wide and the Valencia might even have been included in its first run bookings, but I don’t know the dates it played there.
By the way… I love the scans of those newspaper ads. I could sit up online all night and devour page after page of that sort of stuff. Thanks for sharing!
Wayyy back in 2003 – when I first discovered this wonderful web-site – I posted about this theater and the sad state of those murals just over the exits at the side of the stage. I wonder if anyone has information as to what it is they are supposed to depict. I read in these posts that they were painted by a Danish artist named Valdemar Kjoldgaard… but I can find nothing on their content. The images rendered upon them are murky at best. A proper cleaning and restoration is in order. And as for rumors of this theater’s impending demise, I can’t invest much stock in those. The upcoming concert calendar is as full as it’s ever been, including the annual stretch of shows performed each spring by The Allman Brothers Band.
This is a duplicate entry of Theater in the Park. This one should be deleted and a reference made under the Theater in the Park listing to it being “formerly known as Theaterama.”
It might have already been mentioned in one of the very many comments that have been made here about this theater, but I thought it worth repeating that there is a wonderfully detailed cut-away scale model of the Roxy (outer and inner lobbies as well as the auditorium and mezzanine foyers) on display at the American Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria Queens (located in the old Kaufman-Astoria Studios complex off Steinway Street on 35th Ave). Aside from the fact that the lighting around the exhibit produces an annoying reflection on the glass partition behind which it sits, if you lean in close, the level of detail in the model is quite breathtaking and well worth the visit to the museum. Not to mention that the museum itself, though rather small, is a very informative and enjoyable place to learn about the history of the moving picture.
The Laurelton theater was a small neighborhood cinema on Merrick Blvd (it doesn’t become Merrick Road until it crosses East over the Nassau County border and out of New York City Limits) on the South side of the block between 227th and 228th Streets. This being Queens, the address would have been 227-something as the first set of numbers before the dash always represented the cross street in Queens. I lived in the area in the 1970’s and early 80’s. The building is still there and a friend of mine said recently that it is used as a church. I recall that this theater showed double features for a time in the mid-late ‘70’s and would often show vintage cartoon or live action short features before the features. The double bill would often feature a recent hit film on it’s 2nd or third run backed up by a action flick (often one of the so-called “blaxploitation” films of the early '70’s, I suppose to cater to the largely African-American population in the neighborhood). I recall seeing “Jaws” in the summer of '75 along with a Woody Woodpecker cartoon and the Fred Williamson actioner “That Man Bolt”. I also saw a reissue of “The Taking of Pelham 123” a year or so later along with a Three Stooges short and a B-flick called “Framed” starring Joe Don Baker. You walked in to a small and rather dark narrow lobby with a candy counter against the left wall and the doors leading you in to the back of the auditorium were along the right wall. There was a balcony, if I recall, though I never sat up there.
I think that New York Post feature I’m thinking of was called “Neighborhood Movie Clock”…
Casper… The original Selwyn Building — with theater marquee, entrance and front lobby on the ground floor and offices above — collapsed completely. I suppose the auditorium itself was not structurally attached to this building in any significant way as there was little if any damage to the theater itself. The building that now serves as entrance, lobby and offices, is entirely new construction built in 2000 – 2001.
I love reading the recollections on this site… particularly of how most of these theaters (save the New Amsterdam and Lyric) did not advertise in newspapers nor did their attractions appear in the “movie times” listings. Ads for individual films would list the theaters — that is, if the main attraction was still in wide release and running ads. Also, the New York Post had an odd feature called “Movie Clock”, if memory serves, that ran separately from their more comprehensive “movie timetable” listings. Most of the theaters listed in this column were Porn houses (the Mayfair and Austin Theaters in Queens, The Globe in the Bronx, etc.), but the 42nd Street grind houses found a home here as well.
But as AndyT accurately portrayed in his post, we’d just hit 42nd and check out the movie titles and those lurid cardboard advertising placards that festooned the area beneath the Marquees as well as the publicity stills and lobby cards displayed behind the glass of the outer foyers looking for something that piqued our interests or fit our moods on a particular day. Didn’t matter if you walked in half-way through one of the films… you’d just stay until you caught up to where you came in. On an island void of drive-ins, this is where you’d come to see “The Corpse Grinders” and “Count Dracula and His Vampire Brides” or “That Man Bolt” and “Shaft in Africa” or “The Five Deadly Venoms” and “The Streets of Hong Kong”.
Those days are gone forever.
Of course, I meant to say that I was grateful the theater WASN’T plowed under…
I was the one who posted (erroneously) that the theater was between 42nd and 43rd. I meant to say 41st street where I say “43rd street” in that post. My apologies. Anyway, as mentioned in my post and in later posts, the auditorium of The Liberty remains largely intact, hidden behind the 42nd Street Applebees Restaurant and under the Hilton Times Square tower. It appears that it is currently undergoing renovations to suit some sort of catering or event purpose. Hopefully, the room will retain as much of it’s original beauty and architectural detail as the new use will allow. I’m just grateful that the theater was wholly plowed under to make way for the Hotel and other retail concerns. I’m just as grateful and hopeful with regards to the Times Square Theater, which is currently under renovation and conversion to retail use across the street.
This was on Rockaway Avenue between Merrick Road and Sunrise Hwy, which is a pretty busy commercial strip in this well populated suburban area. I remember seeing a few films here in the late ‘70’s and early '80’s and then visiting the used record shop Slipped Disc across the street. This DID become the concert hall known as Rio in the 80’s. The building was demolished some years back and replaced with a new retail facility. At least Slipped Disc is still in business.
The name “Paramount Theater” has had a transient history in Manhattan since the mid ‘60’s demolition of this grand old auditorium — the Brooklyn Paramount notwithstanding. During the '70’s and '80’s there was a subterranean theater in the Gulf and Western building on Columbus Circle that was called The Paramount. I’m not sure if it opened concurrently with the G&W building nor am I sure if it was always known as The Paramount (I assume it was so dubbed when G&W became the parent company of Paramount Pictures). Regardless, the building has since been converted by Donald Trump to residential/hotel usage and the theater was demolished/converted to other use in the '80’s. Sometime after this, the old Felt Forum inside Madison Square Garden was briefly known as The Paramount during a period when both Paramount Pictures and the Garden were subsidiaries of the same parent corporation. This last Paramount, however, was never intended for the exhibition of motion pictures.
I mention this only as a footnote to history of The Paramount.
The Parsons was actually a block north of Union Turnpike on the west side of Parsons Blvd. The last movie I saw here was “Tootsie” in ‘82. Then I went to Buddy’s Bicycle shop down the street and purchased a 10 speed. Buddy’s is still there.
I drove by the site about a week ago and, sadly, it is now a fenced in hole in the ground.
I recently discovered that the auditorium of this theater is still very much intact cocooned by the new sky-scraping Hilton Hotel that rose above it on 42nd street. In fact, if you were to enter the lobby of the hotel (which stretches from 42nd clear back to 43rd street), you would find several large framed photographs of the theater’s interior (in it’s current state) hanging on the walls. If you were to walk the length of the lobby towards the 43rd street side, there is a double door on the left that leads directly into the old house. The original rear exterior facade is clearly identifiable on 43rd street. Someone had the foresight to prevent demolition when the Hotel was built, so I can only presume that some restoration or re-use of it’s facilities might be forthcoming.
This place was a barn when it was a single screen theater. Nothing fancy, a plain unadorned big box of a theater on Sunrise Hwy in the parking lot of the Green Acres Mall. But it had the widest screen I can remember and was fitted with Sensurround in the mid ‘70’s for films like Earthquake, Rollercoaster and Midway. All the James Bond movies would play here through the '70’s and early '80’s until it was triplexed. I remember seeing epic movies like Ghandi, Tess and Lion of the Desert on it’s massive wide screen. Last time I drove by, it was a sixplex. The Sunrise Cinemas, about a half mile to the west, opened in December of '79 on the site of the old Sunrise Drive-In, as a sixplex but has since been expanded and cut-up so many times that there are now 25 screens! It’s amazing that a suburban area like this can support over 30 screens in such close proximity.
The Earle is on the south side of Astoria Blvd around 90th Street in the Jackson Heights/East Elmhurst area.