Regal UA Midway
108-22 Queens Boulevard,
Forest Hills,
NY
11375
108-22 Queens Boulevard,
Forest Hills,
NY
11375
19 people
favorited this theater
Showing 76 - 100 of 154 comments
Caught an establishing shot of the Midway’s vertical sign and marquee in a 2006 rerun of the CBS show “The King Of Queens” last night. The theatre as well as the United Artists marquee played pivotal roles in the show. As the characters bounced from theatre to theatre. Interior shots of theatre seating were likely done within a studio though.
The original flourescent colors of the Midway lettering, for the record, were pink and baby blue.
To iRoNmonkey: You last posted on May 28th & said you would write me from your work e-mail. If you had written, I haven’t received it. If you are busy right now, that’s okay as well. Please let me know. My e-mail is
Thank you!
The Midway was air-conditioned from the start. I recall the “air-conditioned by Carrier” banners were hung from the marquee all summer during the war years.
Thank you for your posting! I look forward to hearing from you through your work e-mail, and hopefully we can devise a solution. – Michael
Crazy business at the moment. Lots of product and not enough seats at the Midway. Michael, I will contact you through my work email. Work on the sign slowed to a crawl as the existing front panel is dented (by I don’t know what) and needs full replacement.
On a side note, there will be no Free Family Film Festivel this year as we just didnt get enough people last year to make it cost effective. I think a lot of families have been wooed by the newness of Atlas Park. Thank you to all those that continue to frequent this treasure even though it isn’t as grand as it once was.
To Ironmonkey: My name is Michael Perlman, and I Chair a group called Rego-Forest Preservation Council, promoting the preservation, restoration, & adaptive reuse of historic sites throughout Rego Park and Forest Hills. Thank you for your report! It is very commendable that the landlord & Regal are restoring the Art Moderne facade. I have passed the theater on several instances over the course of the last 2 months, and have admired the progress.
Do you realize that this Art Moderne gem was the last theater ever designed by America’s foremost Thomas W. Lamb? It was unfortunate he passed away before seeing the Midway completely built & in operation. I began conducting preliminary research on the Midway Theatre, and I am now seeking historic photos. I would be happy to share material on the theater with you or a colleague at the Midway, as well as any advice which may assist in the facade restoration, or any future aspects. I can be reached at I look forward to hearing from you, and thank you for keeping theater enthusiasts informed!
Been a while since I have been around. I dont know if anyone has noticed but the beacon has been re-lit. I know our sign had been an issue for a while but it has been fixed up. We are working on the front facing but the blade and side facings are all clean and working. The leak has been rememdied. The landlord finally came to his senses and fixed his share. Regal has done the rest of the work and we are finally restoring the front to its former glory.
Thank you very much! Will do either tonight or tomorrow.
And an additional favor, Warren: I came across quite a few great links throughout this thread. However, they were inaccessible. Can you please resend valid links, or send the documents to my e-mail? I would be happy to give you credit as part of my research.
Thanks!
Hi Warren, I visited the Performing Arts Library, and found what I was looking for on the Midway Theatre. Thanks for your tips on that!
Please let me ask you for another favor. What publication are the 2 links you posted above from? A full-image with a decent resolution would be extremely useful for my research. Post or e-mail Thank you!
The Midway vertical sign is visible in the background of This January, 2008 photo
Thanks Warren! Do you have a direct way of reaching Curator Bob Taylor (preferrably via e-mail)?
Warren, can you please send me scans of the booklet in your spare time? It would be very useful for a good cause. Please e-mail me at
did anyone happen to work at the midway from ‘68 – 74 and knew David Caruso? He was an usher in his younger days.
Sorry I was on vacation…Yes that constitutes roughly the first row…the larger number is our Fire code max…I hope people came out for North by Northwest although I am sorry I wasn’t around to see how things ran…
Yeah, I guess you’re right. The first row at National Amusements is pretty darn close also, although some people still like to sit up there even when the showing isn’t sold out. Now that I think of it, I can recall theatre managers (or assistant managers) on a very busy night addressing the ticket purchaser’s line to inform everyone that only the first four rows were available for a certain showing. You don’t hear that much these days since “sell outs” often occur well before the auditorium is opened for seating – I guess due to most rooms being so much smaller than they were even 20 yrs ago when triplexes, quartets and even 6-screen plexes were more the norm.
Look at some of the auditoriums at AMC Empire 25 and many other around the country. That front row is not a great seat or from the sides. And those are modern stadium-style rooms.
Interesting. Meanwhile, at the Midway in auditorium 5 we’re talking about 20 odd seats! Could there be that many seats that don’t have clean sightlines in a modern stadium-style room? Or is there some other reason at the Midway?
When in most theatre computer ticketing systems you can set a cut-off point for the seats. Those odd seats account for being to close, at an angle or some other reason. Thats the way we use to sell.
I had a Cineplex in LA that had 4 seats that you could not see the screen and a Pacific house that 2 could only see ½ the screen and the other 2 none of the screen. Planning at it’s best.
iRoN… What do you mean by “sells out at 199?” Are there 219 seats or only 199? Is the larger number a fire code max capacity?
We are holding the screening of North by Northwest this week. Its for the FH Chamber of Commerce and Ronald McDonald house. A $5 donation to RmDH will get you in…630 pm festivities start and 7pm the movie starts…
The biggest theatre is 219 and sells out at 199(aud #5), aud #9 is 209 seats and sells out at 190. Those are my biggest.
The seat counts need changing…1387 seats at the Midway
I liked working at this theater back in the mid ‘90’s. I did contract work, and found out the hard way that parking is closely monitored in Forest Hills (NYC parking tickets are outrageous, but I guess they need (or really want) the money!). It really is a great location; and no, I didn’t know it was named after the Battle of Midway. I wrongly assumed it was located between 2 other UA theaters, at one time!
The best thing about my visits to this theater was speaking with the daytime doorman, Jack W. I know some of you are familiar with him: he was quite a gentleman, a real character and an excellent, if not legendary, UA district manager in his day (in the 70’s and 80’s). I guess he got sick (cancer, I believe), and had to retire from the very stressful DM position. But he loved theaters so much that he wanted to work the door at the Midway, to stay in the theater business (certainly not for the pay!). The stories he would tell, being around the theater business so long, were excellent. Speaking with him was always a pleasure. I was bothered to hear that Jack passed on some years back. You don’t find many “real” movie theater people like him around the business today. RIP Jack-