If you’re going to see a movie there today, take the subway if possible. The traffic in that area is terrible and unless you want to put your car into a garage and pay $20, there is very little on-street parking available because of all of the apartment buildings in the neighborhood.
Union Turnpike was my home station for many, many years. I had no idea the “Pickman Building” and the adjacent stores were once the site of a movie theater. The above photo is quite shocking to anyone who knows how crazy that intersection is today. The Jackie Robinson Parkway runs directly beneath the intersection now.
fred1: I just did a Google Street View at that address and it seems like it is still an walled-off empty lot. My wife and I saw a movie there in the late ‘90s. It was a real dump and poorly lit outside. Scary place to go at night.
Fred1: I saw a lot of movies here when I was a kid in the 1970’s. They used to run old Disney films here in the summer. I saw “Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo” here as well as “Follow Me, Boys!”, “Gus”, “The Apple Dumpling Gang” and so on. I think I also saw “The Blues Brothers” here about five times in 1980. Haven’t been there in at least 20 years now but whenever I’m on Main Street, it seems very busy.
The space is now called the Cedarhurst Center and it is used for retail stores. It was very nice when it first opened in the late 1980s but it is a little run down now.
Just to clear up some confusion about “Flushing”. The name “Flushing” was used for many years for several different communities in Queens that bordered the famous “Flushing” community anchored by Northern Boulevard, northern Main Street and Roosevelt Avenue. Kew Gardens Hills always had its own zip code (11367) but its Post Office was always referred to as “Station C – Flushing, New York”. When I was a kid, we always used Flushing in our address even though we lived in KGH. In recent years, Queens communities have stopped using the Flushing name. Station C was renamed “Kew Gardens Hills” a few years back.
I grew up in the neighborhood where this theater is and remember when it used to be a single-screen theater with a balcony. I can’t believe its been sixplexed without having been expanded. The balcony theaters must be tiny.
If you’re going to see a movie there today, take the subway if possible. The traffic in that area is terrible and unless you want to put your car into a garage and pay $20, there is very little on-street parking available because of all of the apartment buildings in the neighborhood.
Union Turnpike was my home station for many, many years. I had no idea the “Pickman Building” and the adjacent stores were once the site of a movie theater. The above photo is quite shocking to anyone who knows how crazy that intersection is today. The Jackie Robinson Parkway runs directly beneath the intersection now.
fred1: I just did a Google Street View at that address and it seems like it is still an walled-off empty lot. My wife and I saw a movie there in the late ‘90s. It was a real dump and poorly lit outside. Scary place to go at night.
Fred1: I saw a lot of movies here when I was a kid in the 1970’s. They used to run old Disney films here in the summer. I saw “Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo” here as well as “Follow Me, Boys!”, “Gus”, “The Apple Dumpling Gang” and so on. I think I also saw “The Blues Brothers” here about five times in 1980. Haven’t been there in at least 20 years now but whenever I’m on Main Street, it seems very busy.
I think I saw “Return of the Jedi” here in 1983. I might be wrong about that, it could have been the Sunrise, though.
Can’t see much today, the facade appears to have been bricked up with cinder blocks. Its a bleak area.
The space is now called the Cedarhurst Center and it is used for retail stores. It was very nice when it first opened in the late 1980s but it is a little run down now.
The theater building was turned into a supermarket about five or six years ago. It failed and the building remains empty today.
Just to clear up some confusion about “Flushing”. The name “Flushing” was used for many years for several different communities in Queens that bordered the famous “Flushing” community anchored by Northern Boulevard, northern Main Street and Roosevelt Avenue. Kew Gardens Hills always had its own zip code (11367) but its Post Office was always referred to as “Station C – Flushing, New York”. When I was a kid, we always used Flushing in our address even though we lived in KGH. In recent years, Queens communities have stopped using the Flushing name. Station C was renamed “Kew Gardens Hills” a few years back.
I heard that this theater’s patronage suffered with the closing of the Jamaica elevated in the mid 1970’s.
The last movie I saw here was Fletch in or about 1985.
If I recall correctly, the Midway showed the Rocky Horror Picture Show at midnights on Saturday for a number of years, when it was still a quad.
I saw Blade Runner here in 1982. The biggest problem with this theater, as with the Midway, was parking.
I remember the Continental as a single-screen theater. I saw Star Wars there with my father in August of 1977.
I grew up in the neighborhood where this theater is and remember when it used to be a single-screen theater with a balcony. I can’t believe its been sixplexed without having been expanded. The balcony theaters must be tiny.