Loew's Valencia Theatre
165-11 Jamaica Avenue,
Jamaica,
NY
11432
165-11 Jamaica Avenue,
Jamaica,
NY
11432
30 people
favorited this theater
Showing 76 - 100 of 674 comments found
The chandelier in the auditorium ceiling was only added for decoration, to compensate for the removal of the atmospheric effects. The Valencia’s “house lights” were quite satisfactory in intervals between movies. You could read a programme by them, and I’m sure a bible or hymn book.
I don’t know the reason why the status of a church is considered as closed on this site. A church can have as much “theatrics” as any other live theater.
I don’t understand that, but I guess that is the way it is done. As mentioned though, this building is very much open, and almost fully intact inside from it’s theater days. Of course, it’s been modified for the church use, which includes the chandelier to bring in light (as while a theater needs darkness, a church needs light), but if someone said tomorrow that they wanted to make the Valencia a theater again, it wouldn’t be all that hard to do, as most of it is intact.
I can understand a theater gone retail being listed as “closed”, such as let’s say the RKO Madison which is still very much the building standing, yet the interior gutted….that makes sense to say “closed”. However, the Valencia, although only used as a church, is very much open to the public, and still looks like a theater.
I also feel that a church should have its status listed as Open, but this site only lists a building currently used as a theater (motion pictures or live) as Open.
I think that the introductory “status” needs to be changed to “open.” “Closed” creates a false impression that the Valencia is inaccessible, which is hardly the case. It’s very much “open” to the public whenever church services are being held.
New direct links to 1935 ads showing the last program of the Valencia’s original stage/screen policy and the first booking of movies exclusively: View link
View link
While Jamaica has declined from its heydey (up to the 1960’s), there is a lot of hope for the future. At least 3 big hotels from Sheraton and Marriott are due to be built within two blocks of the Jamaica Air Train Station followed by several office buildings which are expected to serve as an “Airport Village” of sorts. There is even hope that JetBlue, the hometown Queens airliner will move their HQ to one of these new buildings. No hope, though, that The Valencia or The Alden will be returned to screening films anytime soon!
For whatever reason, the address in the introduction neglects to mention that the building is situated in Jamaica. At the time of the Valencia’s opening in 1929, Jamaica was considered the #1 shopping/business district in the borough of Queens. While Jamaica has declined in importance, it still ranks as one of the most important districts in Queens. Jamaica certainly should be mentioned in the address. If there’s not enough room, “Queens” should be dropped. “Jamaica, NY” is sufficient. Unlike other boroughs, addresses in Queens usually use just the neighborhood name, and don’t follow it with the borough. “Forest Hills, NY,” for example.
This is a 2008 close-up view that shows more detail.
Here is a recent photo of the Tabernacle of Prayer.
Thanks for your answer, Warren.
… although, that might explain the compartively paltry collection taken up at the Malboe!
Or that the cannisters would come back empty! Not to imply that the young Warren would have been so mischievous!
Many such collections were made during the WWII years, but I never gave unless one of my parents handed me something to drop in the cannisters which ushers passed down the rows of seats. They never circulated the cannisters through the sections reserved exclusively for unaccompanied children. I guess they were afraid that they wouldn’t get the cannisters back.
Thanks, Warren. I asked you how much you donated that week on the Madison Theater page.
During the “United Nations Week” that ran from January 14-20, 1943, all movie theatres in the New York area took up audience collections to raise funds for UN War Relief Agencies. Here are the totals collected at some of the Jamaica theatres. Having lived in that era, I would guess that most of the donations were in pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters, not in bills:
Loew’s Valencia, $2,211.71
Skouras Merrick, $1,625.15
RKO Alden, $1,167.38
Loew’s Hillside, $914.37
Savoy, $853.34
Skouras Jamaica, $836.09
Malboe, $3.27
Thanks for this information, Warren.
This ad for the Labor Day weekend of 1942 lists every Loew’s theatre in the Greater New York area at that time, including three in New Jersey. “Mrs. Miniver” had already enjoyed a record-breaking run at Radio City Music Hall. In anticipation of crowds, the Valencia opened its doors at 10:00 AM, more than an hour earlier than the usual 11:15: www.i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/loews9342.jpg
Don’t worry about Warren, Ed. Thanks for your story.
There was also a small above-ground public pool within walking distance from my families 3-family house on 41st Avenue. It was located in what used to be known as Linden Park just behind the former Loew’s Plaza Theatre. The park is now called “Park of the Americas” – I presume in celebration of the neighborhood’s predominantly South American ethnic makeup. I remember swimming at that pool once and finding that my sneakers had been stolen from their cubby (being an outdoor pool, there were no indoor lockers). I had to make the 6 or 7 block walk home in my bare feet – carefully studying the sidewalk and pavement ahead of me for any broken glass, bottle caps, soda-can rings or any other potential sources of pain and discomfort! I think back on those days – an 8 year old boy allowed to walk himself to the local park – and wonder how many parents would feel safe permitting the same these days! I thought nothing of it back then. My father used to ride the subways on his own at that age back in the ‘40’s as did my grandfather when he was 11 or 12 in the very early '30’s. And the City is quite a safe place nowadays! I think a very definite “suburban” mind-set has ingrained itself in the minds of many urban parents in recent years. Kids are babied and over-supervised as they grow into pre-adolescence to a degree that never existed even just 20 years ago. But I digress. I don’t want to continue to summon Warren to this page for something not directly related to the Valencia. Here endeth my social commentary!
I’m just turning on the email notification for this theater. For some reason I don’t receive any notices for this theater.
Thanks, Ed.
I moved to Laurelton in ‘74, aged 9. Prior to that, I was an Elmhurst/Corona boy living on 41st Avenue just a couple of doors from Junction Blvd.
Thanks, Ed Solero.
I thought you grew up in Laurelton, Queens, though.
Thanks, Warren. The supporting short HELPMATES is one of Laurel & Hardy’s very best two-reelers – right up there with their Oscar-winning THE MUSIC BOX. As a young boy growing up in Corona, Queens, I used to swim at the Ederle Public Pool in Flushing Meadows. The pool used the original Ampitheater from the ‘39 Fair that housed the Aquacade. Regrettably, it was allowed to fall into a sad state of disrepair after years of disuse; and despite some efforts to save the crumbling ediface, it finally fell to the wrecker’s ball in the late 1990’s. A freind and I were able to gain entry to the decaying structure a couple of years before it was demolished and managed a couple of photos of the vandalized stands. I have to go dig those out one of these days.
There were plans to relocate the ice-skating rink that occupies part of the old City of New York Pavillion (also from the ‘39 Fair) to the site of the Ampitheatre – on the northern edge of the large, man-made Meadow Lake – but nothing thus far has come of it. And, this has nothing to do with the Valencia, but I hope I’ll be forgiven this minor tangent!