Trylon Theater
98-81 Queens Boulevard,
Rego Park,
NY
11374
98-81 Queens Boulevard,
Rego Park,
NY
11374
15 people
favorited this theater
Showing 26 - 50 of 209 comments found
Hey Life. And hello Peter. Good to be back. Actually, I never went anywhere, but just had limited time to get online due to demands at work and the demands of welcoming a newborn into the fold at home! Things are settling down, so I’m sorta back in action.
Anyway… I didn’t take the actions of the young man in front of the Trylon personally. I just found it amusing. I haven’t had a chance to try and re-upload the 3 other photos I took that morning – and they reveal in even more detail how horrifying this makeover of the Trylon’s beautiful and historic art deco entrance really is.
Thanks for the details, LuisV. Very unfortunate, indeed. Misery loves company, so let us commiserate about the Trylon, at the risk of being accused of holding a non-productive pity party.
It’s absolutely hideous! Even “renovated” it already looks like it’s falling apart. Some religious institutions take an old theater and revel in its architectural distinction and glory as at Loew’s 175th Street and Hollywood theaters in Manhattan, The Metropolitan in Brooklyn, The Elmwood and The Valencia (both in Queens) and The Stanley in Jersey City. Many other examples exist.
Others destroy what they find as these people appear to have done and what is currenty also happening to the old Prospect (Olympic) Theater in the Bronx. They might as well have been demolished.
Very unfortunate.
You’re welcome, Lost Memory.
Thanks Peter.
Good explanation, Life’s too short. Thanks.
Some Jewish people are very, very defensive. It probably has something to do with persecution they have received at various times in history. In the modern-day United States they most likely don’t have much to worry about. But it takes a long time for human beings of any type to change behavior. I definitely wouldn’t take the actions of this young man personally.
I think that’s Uzbekistan, Lost Memory.
It has something to do with people from Ubezekistan. The function should be community center.
Nor I. Good reading you again, Ed Solero. Thanks for stopping by the Trylon and taking photos.
Bukharian Jewish Community Center. I’m not sure where or what Bukharian is.
I happened to be driving by the former Trylon this soggy morning and snapped the following low res – and rather sad -image of what has become of the old theater facade since the current owners completed their renovations:
OHR NATAN
I snapped a couple of other close up images, but my photobucket acct isn’t letting me complete their uploads at the moment. I’ll get back here once I’ve been able to fix that problem.
Funny… while I stopped to grab the photos (which took me all of 3 or 4 minutes) a young man wearing a yamulka and carrying a back-pack snapped a photo of my license plate and another of me standing in the street as I was finishing up. I gave him a nice wave “hello.” He never said a word to me. Just shook his head as if in disgust and walked away. I wonder what was going through his mind…. that I was plotting some sort of nefarious scheme against the center?
I’m surprised this theatre isn’t listed as the Loews Trylon. I will remember it as such from my time at Loews. This tiny gem being managed by the incomperable Gene Thompson and Loews legend Julia Albanese of Loews Gates fame.
The Queens section of today’s NY Daily News has a photo taken in 2005 that’s similar to the one in the introduction above dated 2002. Is the Trylon’s marquee still in that same extremely damaged condition, or have repairs been made? One would think that the present tenant would not want such an ugly and probably dangerous condtion to exist.
According to the article by Ron Marzlock that accompanied the photo in Queens Chronicle: “The entire block on Queens Boulevard bounded by 66th Avenue and 66th Road was owned by the Thornton Ridge Development Company. The firm patiently held this and many other properties on the north side of Rego Park during the Depression. When the IND subway was built along Queens Boulevard, Thornton Ridge built the large apartment house development on the next block called Queens Gardens, seen in the background of this photograph. By 1940 they sold off more property to build stores for the new apartment house complex. A movie theater called the Trylon was built. The rest of the block was sold to the 99 Street Development Company, which put up stores.”
Those are some large dwellings behind the Trylon. Are they anything significant?
Here’s a 1942 view of Queens Boulevard between 66th Avenue and 66th Road that I copied from this week’s Queens Chronicle. The Trylon was showing “Panama Hattie” & “Brooklyn Orchid,” a double bill that had originated on the Loew’s circuit about a month before. The building in the lower right corner was a restaurant that later became a bank and is now back to being a restaurant. Perhaps one day the Trylon will revert to its original purpose:
www.i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/trylon42.jpg
I complained too soon. Sorry! My copy arrived this afternoon, but I haven’t had time to read it yet.
My copy of this Marquee (2nd Q 2007)arrived in today’s mail.
That issue was mailed from Elmhurst on 10/20. Bulk mail might be cheap, but it’s “expensive” in other ways. Drop me a line at and we can talk more about this.
Although I’m a member of Theatre Historical Society of America, I’ve yet to receive the issue of Marquee with the Trylon article. I hope that it didn’t get lost in the mails.
Which gives me a chance to reiterate that if anyone else is interested in a copy of the latest Marquee magazine, just go to www.historictheatres.org and order one for yourself! The issue also includes a great article on projection methods over the years and a piece on the home museum of the late Jim Foley of Syracuse NY. (Shameless THS promotion – yeah i know!)
: )
It depends on how much you care about the Trylon, but, it’s academic, now that you have your answer.
I think what you are saying is that I should have spent the time sifting through all of this for the sake of the Trylon, an assertion I disagree with. It’s a confusing stew of posts reporting that demolition had begun, but that they fight was not over. And no, the post above did not answer my question.
At any rate, the whole reason I got back on here was to mention that a great article on the Trylon appeared in the latest Marquee magazine from THS. The Marquee article answered my question very quickly:
The project was finished, the Jewish center is now open, most of the interior was destroyed, and the “Friends” group is still trying to get the exterior landmarked.
“Life’s too short” to spend half an hour reading this page, for the Trylon’s sake ? I think you’re in too much of a hurry.
Hope you got your answer.