Prospect Theatre

The 2,200-seat Prospect was the first big theatre built in downtown Flushing, Queens, and opened in January, 1927 showing vaudeville and a feature movie. Its instant success encouraged Keith-Albee to proceed with plans for an even larger theatre at the other end of Main Street on Northern Boulevard, which opened nearly two years later on December 25, 1928...The Prospect was built and owned by A.H. Schwartz's Century Circuit, with Thomas Short as architect and William Rau as interior decorator. After Keith-Albee began building in Flushing, the Loew's circuit decided to enter the area as well, and arrived first by taking over the lease of the Prospect effective August 23, 1928. In order to do so, Loew's traded two of its lesser Brooklyn theatres, the Avalon and the Manor, to Century. In the early 1950s, when Loew's started to "divest" some of its theatres to comply with the federal anti-trust judgment against it, the Prospect was one of the first to go and returned to Century management, with the latter also keeping the Avalon and Manor (by then re-named the Vogue)...For those too young to remember, the Prospect was directly opposite the Flushing branch of the Queens Public Library on Main Street and the intersection with Kissena Boulevard. The theatre was totally demolished to make way for new office and retail buildings.

A good theatre, surrounded by a lot of great little shops known
in old Flushing-Blue Star Market, Gloria Pizza, Shelley's Bakery.
Seem to remember this in the Skouras theatre chain, also. Saw JAWS there. Unfortunately, this is where the tragic Wendy's robbery-murder case recently took place.

This was never part of the Skouras chain. The nearest Skouras theatre to downtown Flushing was the Roosevelt, further out on Northern Boulevard and later known as the UA Quartet. The Wendy's massacre took place in downtown Flushing, but several blocks away from the site of the Prospect, which had also been demolished by that time.

I remember this theater. I saw a bad Charles Bronson movie called "Ten to Midnight" there in 1983. I think the marquee still exists and the theater is now a furniture store.

Nothing exists of the Prospect Theatre except the underlying ground. It was totally demolished and replaced by several ugly commercial buildings. The site on Main Street is directly opposite the new Flushing branch of the Queens Public Library. The furniture store on Main Street was never more than a furniture store. In "the old days," stores often had plain, unadorned marquees to attract attention and to protect customers from inclement weather.

I thought the theater was north of Roosevelt Avenue. Your location of the theater opposite the library branch suggests that it was south of Roosevelt.

Flushing is on the North Shore, and Main Street starts at Northern Boulevard and runs south across Queens towards Jamaica. The Prospect was south of Roosevelt Avenue. The RKO Keith's was (and still is) north of Roosevelt Avenue.

In 1952 or '53 Al Jolson made a personal appearance at the Prospect to promote his movie "Jolson Sings Again". He sang for 20 minutes refusing to use a mike. It was memorable.

I'm sure you saw Al Jolson perform. However, Al died on October 23, 1950 based on a google search I did. You must have seen him in 1950 or before.
Tom Halstead

I'm sure you saw Al Jolson perform. However, Al died on October 23, 1950 based on a google search I did. You must have seen him in 1950 or before.
Tom Halstead

Allen & Tom, \"Jolson Sings Again\" was released in 1949, so it must've been sometime that year he appeared in person at the Prospect.

Al Jolson made a tour of Loew's theatres when "Jolson Sings Again" had its circuit release. It extended over several days, with three or four theatres each day. I think it was towards the end of January, 1950. I doubt if the movie was actually playing at the Prospect at the time, because its programs were two weeks behind the Valencia in Jamaica in those days.

Thanks Warren for that information about when Al Jolson performed. Doing three or four theaters per day may account for him not making it to 1952. Tom Halstead

Thanks Warren & Tom about the Jolson dates. Dates & times seem to blur after 50+ years.

The Prospect Theatre can be seen in the following image :

http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?31213

I think the film titles on the marquee date the photo at 1948, but check, if you wish, at :

www.imdb.com/

The second feature at the Prospect with "Up In Central Park" was "Another Part of the Forest." Curiously, both were based on Broadway plays and had titles that made a good match. Both were also Universal boxoffice bombs, and it was Loew's bad luck to get both of them in its 50-50 split with the RKO Circuit on Universal product.

Warren, once again, thanks for all the details and background !

The Prospect was situated at 41-10 Main Street. Loew's dropped the Prospect, as well as the Plaza in Corona, in December, 1952, as part of its compliance with the Federal anti-trust action against the circuit. The Century circuit, which owned the Prospect but had leased it to Loew's in 1928, took over both theatres. The Plaza had been a Loew's from its start.

Al Jolson's tour of the Loew's Greater New York circuit took place in August, 1949, a week prior to the premiere of "Jolson Sings Again" at Loew's State. On the evening of August 10, Jolson visited Loew's Yonkers, 175th Street, Paradise, Fairmount, National, and Victoria (125th Street). On August 11, Loew's Coney Island, Oriental, Kings, Metropolitan, Commodore, and Orpheum. On August 12, Loew's Triboro, Prospect, Valencia, Gates, Premier, and Pitkin. The tour must have helped, because "Jolson Sings Again" ran a record 15 weeks at Loew's State, where it was finally replaced by "Holiday Affair" on November 23rd. "Jolson Sings Again" did not reach the Loew's neighborhood circuit until January 25, 1950, when it opened exclusively for a week at the Paradise and Valencia, followed by the usual play-off of the rest of the circuit. The Paradise and Valencia showed "Jolson Sings Again" as a single feature with "selected short subjects," but after that, a Columbia second feature, "Blondie's Big Deal," was added to the bill.

Those certainly were the great years of movie theatres. Try to get a star of Jolsons calibar to even come to one theatre, none the less 6 a day.

One question was that the Loews Commodore in the village or the Commodore in Brooklyn? I am guessing Manhattan.

Loew's Commodore on Second Avenue in the East Village in Manhattan. As far as I know, Loew's never had any connection with the Brooklyn Commodore.

"Jolson Sings Again" is a good example of the slow playoffs that many major movies received prior to the current system of mass saturation release. Nearly six months elapsed between its Broadway premiere and first neighborhood release. After 15 weeks at Loew's State that ended around Thanksgiving, the movie went into mothballs until early January, when it opened exclusively in downtown Brooklyn at the Fox prior to its Loew's circuit run. The reason was that Columbia had to wait its turn in a pecking order where Loew's gave preference to MGM and Paramount product. Of course, I'm speaking only of the Greater New York area here, but the same system applied to other sections of the USA.

In the "Jolson Sings Again" clippings file at the NYPL, I found a 1949 article from Life Magazine that included two photographs taken during Jolson's tour of the Loew's circuit. Unfortunately, neither caption identifies the theatre, but one is definitely of the sidewalk outside the Valencia, in Jamaica, Queens, where a huge crowd of people was being held behind police barricades to watch Jolson's arrival. The other caption says "on the stage of a Brooklyn theater," but might have also been snapped at the Valencia since the photographer might not have known the difference between Brooklyn and Queens. In the photo, Jolson is shown without a jacket or tie and with his shirt sleeves rolled up, belting out "California, Here I Come." An accordionist can be seen in the background, but Jolson probably brought other musicians with him as well.

Two views of the theatre's marquee and vertical sign as Loew's Prospect can be seen at www.queenspix.com The photos are numbered FLUS103 and FLUS160.

I'm not sure what year this Christmas re-issue was from?
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a13/ChmnofBrd/HardDaysNight.jpg

Judys last film opened here on Premiere Showcase
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a13/ChmnofBrd/ICouldGoOnSinging.jpg

It's really a shame that there's nothing left of the theater, no indication that a theater was once there. Because many people have a lot of fond memories of the Prospect. Not just movies, but also graduations - I graduated from JHS 189 at the Prospect in 1970. I recall seeing those dumb Disney movies on Saturday matinees in the '60s - 75 cents for kids to get in. I saw Jaws there for the first time in 1975, the theater packed and people screaming! A treat after a movie was going for ice cream at Jahn's or a slice of pizza at Gloria's. A big part of my childhood was seeing films at the Prospect and the RKO Keith's down the street, and now both are history. Ah well, time marches on!

The Prospect was situated at the turn-around point for the trolley line that ran between Flushing and Ridgewood. Here's an image from early 1949 with the Prospect's marquee and vertical sign in the background:
www.i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/139-3943_IMG.jpg

Thanks for the pic, Warren. I know both that block, and the trolley's successor, the Flushing-Ridgewood bus, very well.

I used to regularly eat at the Wendy's a few blocks north of there, near the southwest corner of Main and Roosevelt, as recently as fall 1999. Fortunately, I was no longer eating there when it was shot up and terrorized by criminals in May 2000.

Bobosan, which Jahn's are you referring to ? I think the one in Richmond Hill, next door to the former RKO Keith's Richmond Hill, is the only one left in NYC. I was last there April 4, 2004. It was so dark, quiet and empty there, I've been in brighter and livelier funeral parlors !

Eddie's Sweet Shop across the street from the Cinemart Cinemas on Metropolitan Avenue in Forest Hills was, fortunately, still much busier and livelier. I was last there Saturday August 6 2005.

Any chance of anyone having a view from the front of the Prospect? How about an interior shot?

The Prospect was quite similar to the Queens in Queens Village. Both were built by the Century circuit with R. Thomas Short as architect and William Rau as interior decorator. The Prospect opened in January, 1927, and the Queens in December of that year.

Does anyone have more information on William Rau? I grew up in the house he lived in (on the border of Richmond Hill and Kew Gardens, in Queens, NY). The house has been in my family for over 30 years. I am preparing to take over the house, and would like to learn more about his work.

My neighbor, who has lived next to the Rau house for amost 50 years, mentioned that he was an artist, and painted many of the murals in theaters around Brooklyn and Queens.

It seems that I'm on the right website, considering what I see posted. Hopefully, I can go to some of these theaters, if they still exist, and take some photos of his work.

Thanks so much for your help.

-Kris
krismnyc@yahoo.com

Kris... The Queens Theater is still standing and in use as a church. I've never been inside, but you might want to stop by for a service one Sunday and see if you can't find any of those murals to photograph. Many would advise that to just start snapping pictures unless and until told to stop is the best way to photograph the interior of a theater/church conversion, but you might be able to get permission to do so if you were to speak to a church official and tell your story.

I'd love to see those photos posted here if you ever get a chance to do so.

William Rau worked closely with architect R. Thomas Short on many of the Century theatres in Brooklyn and Queens. Their masterwork was probably the Patio Theatre in Flatbush (see the Patio's listing here for interior photos). The team's Prospect and Queens were very similar in design, but quite plain in comparison to the Patio.

Thanks so much, guys. I plan on visiting the Queens Theater as soon as I move back. I'll share whatever photos I can get.

Boy talk about memories! I went the Prospect several times as a teen! Don't remember any of the movies but it was such a cool place. I would always go to Glorias for the best Pizza ever in NYC and when I worked at McDonalds a block away I would always park my car on the side of the Prospect! Does anyone remember the little restaraunt that sold either hotdogs or chinese food right next to or even in the lobby of the theatre? Maybe I'm crazy but this was in the early 80's late 70's?

I went here a few times in the early to mid '80's myself, bobby. I can't remember the fast food joint you're talking about. The only movie I can remember distinctly seeing here (upstairs) was the Stephen King adaptation "Christine". It was playing on the top of a double bill with some awful horror film that I wanted to stay and watch, but my date didn't. I worked in the area at Greenpoint Bank a few blocks to the south at the corner of Main and Sanford from 1991 to 1995 and the theater was already demolished by the time I started. Gloria's was still there, but under different management and a pale shadow of its former glory. I wound up preferring Barone's Pizzeria on the other side of Main. Remember Tony Avena's little shoe-shine stand and key-cutting place under the LIRR trestle a block away from the Prospect? The railroad almost ran Avena out of his spot (which had been leased by his family for over 70 years) but he waged a public battle and won a below-market lease extension. He died, however, shortly thereafter, and the family eventually lost the location to a Chinese fast food joint.

That was sad what happened to Tony Avena. You know its pretty sad what has happened not so much to the nigborhood but to all of the old places that used to be around. The Prospect was a good theatre and really there was no ned to close it! I have'nt been around there in a while but is there any other theatre around that area any more?

Bobby... the closest theater would be the College Point Multiplex on the Whitestone Expressway service road off Linden Place. From the parking lot (on the Toys R Us side) you can see the roof line of the RKO Keith's hulking shell across the Expressway. I think this is where the old Adventurer's Inn amusement park used to be. Or was that up by 20th Ave? I can't exactly recall.

Anyway, the only theater left on Main Street is the Main Street Theater (itself now a multiplex) all the way down in Kew Gardens Hills.

Wow you really took me ack with Adventures Inn. I forgot about the College Point It is exactly on the old Adventures Inn. And your right about the Main St Theater. Do you know if they still show first run movies over there or what?

Yes, I think the small cinema on Main Street in the mostly Hassidic neighborhood of Kew Gardens Hills still shows first run films. I saw the James Bond film with Timothy Dalton as Bond and Mariam Dyabo as the cellist, there, in August 1987, "Disclosure" there in January 1995 and "The Bridges Of Madison County" there in June 1995.

I, too, remember the Adventurer's Inn (combination eatery and amusement park) in College Point, with the smiling boy pirate logo, although my family and I usually went to the Adventurer's Inn on Route 110 near Amityville, Long Island, instead.

Even after Adventurer's Inn was demolished, the arcade on the corner across the street was still in operation well into the 1980's. The multiplex there is not a bad place to see a film, if you avoid the smaller auditoriums close to the center lobby area (they would be #'s 1, 6, 7 and 12). In the other rooms, the screens are nice and big in relation to the size of the room, with brightly lit images and excellent surround sound reproduction. The wait for concessions, however, is painfully long.

P.S... Wasn't the Route 110 place called Adventure Land? I went there whenever we'd visit my great-grandfather's grave in St. Charles Cemetary. Actually, the amusement park is still there, isn't it? Or was until very recently.

Thanks for the info on Whitestone Cinemas. My wife and I had discussed seeing a film there when my father lived near there in a nursing home on Union Street in Flushing, but we never did.

I've always remembered the Route 110 place as Adventurer's. Perhaps it was also known as Adventurer's Adventure Land.

The park on route 110 is "Adventure Land", took my daughter there last year and yes its still open. Judging by the looks of everyone in attendence, looks like thats where all the old residents of flushing moved off to. The college point park was "adventures inn"which wasnt across the street from the old amusment park but on an angle on the corner. I vividly remember going there and for years parts of the sidewalk was blocked off because it sank into the ground! By the way, since we are so off track here, does anyone have any pictures of the prospects interior?? There are so many of the keiths but all the shots i've seen of the prospect have been from the side or a back wall, any front shots??

The park on route 110 is "Adventure Land", took my daughter there last year and yes its still open. Judging by the looks of everyone in attendence, looks like thats where all the old residents of flushing moved off to. The college point park was "adventures inn"which wasnt across the street from the old amusment park but on an angle on the corner. I vividly remember going there and for years parts of the sidewalk was blocked off because it sank into the ground! By the way, since we are so off track here, does anyone have any pictures of the prospects interior?? There are so many of the keiths but all the shots i've seen of the prospect have been from the side or a back wall, any front shots??

As someone who lived just down the street from the Prospect in the 1960s, 70s & 80s, I have a lot of fond memories of this movie palace and it's neighborhood. I vividly remember a line around the block for American Grafitti, saw Superman (1978) here three times, and I think I remember me and my parents walking out in the middle of George Lucas' THX-1138 because we thought it was too cerebral and pretentious (George Lucas!) at this theater. Concerning the fondly remembered Gloria's Pizza, someone working at one of the Gino's Pizzaria Chain told me that when Gloria's went out of business, Gino's bought their recipe. Don't know if it's true, but I can say that whenever I have a Gino's slice, it seems to taste better than most others (maybe they switched to the same supplier?)! What with Woolworths, Gertz, Kleins, TSS, Bargain Books (for comics), a great Te-amo down Main Street at the corner of Roosevelt for loads of candy, a wonderful library (complete with a quiet courtyard in the middle of all this), and so much more, this was truly a great neighborhood!

Here is the seating as a triplex:

Theater#1-750
Theater#2-535
Theater#3-535

Total seats-1820

Here's a shot of the Prospect (with a trolley in the way) from 1948 that I think might have been previously posted here:

Prospect 1948

Unfortunately, it's a tiny shot. I think this is the same subway.org shot that PeterK posted back on Aug. 11 2004. I'm sure the original opened much larger, but if you go to Peter's post, you'll see that the linked image has been replaced.

The infamous "Porky's" had a sneak preview at one of the three Prospect auditoriums (as well as a select number of other theaters around the Metro area) in March of 1982:

NY Post 3/6/82

According to the movie clock in that same edition, the regular film playing with the preview (back in the days when you actually got to see both movies on the same ticket) was Charles Bronson's "Death Wish II".

One of my favorite movies. When Kim Cattrall (nicknamed Lassie in Porky's) goes into the locker room with the other coach and starts to "howl", I can't stop laughing.

At the risk of "the wrath of Warren", how does Kim Cattrall look in the nude in this one ?

Peter, if I remember correctly, Kim Cattrall isn't totally nude and you don't see much. I think she has a shirt or something on. She probably showed more on tv in Sex and the City than she did in this movie. Porky's has some funny scenes, you should rent it one day.

Thanks, I just answered my own question by looking in Celebrity Movie Archives. One sees her bare butt, but not her breasts. Yes, I know she was one of the four ferocious sex kittens in "Sex and the City". Thanks for the recommendation of "Porky's". Hollywood should keep on doing what it does "breast"(best).

That movie received alot of hype back in the early eighties. Some people even thought that it was a porn flick, but Porky's is just an "R" rated comedy. It has some funny scenes and you should see it.

http://www.celebritymoviearchive.com/tour/movie.php/4538

Thanks, perhaps I will. Here's a link to those scenes.

I remember laughing my tail off when I first saw "Porky's" - probably at the Sunrise Multiplex in Valley Stream. Of course, it is unabashedly crude and lewd, taking its lead (as did all of the sex-filled gross-out comedies of the period) from "Animal House" and pushing the envelope farther than Harold Ramis and the folks at National Lampoon ever imagined. In any event, I haven't watched the movie in many years, but I will always be thankful to "Porky's" for introducing the word "tallywhacker" into my vocabulary.

Thanks, EdSolero. At the same time "Porky's" came out, there was a Moral Majority Quiz in Mad Magazine, one question being, "When you shower, do you soap the faucet so you don't accidentally see yourself nude ?"

I just came upon this site quite by accident. Reading all these entries about the Prospect, Keith's, Gloria's, Master's (bought the first beatle album there!) really takes me back. I know this site is dedicated to talking mostly about the bygone years of the great movie houses that are no more, but I can't help think what has happened to Flushing in gerneral. Growing up in College point and now residing in Bayside, I am a diehard Queens resident. I see a little of the "asian" transformation in Bayside but not to the degree it has become in Flushing. I drive to work (LIC) but occasionally take the Q27 to Flish and then the 7. My God .. the smell of old fish and garbage exiting the bus is enough to knock me to the ground. Restaurant and after restaurant after restaurant. It's astounding. Please .. don't get me wrong. I think America is great because of all the ethnic groups that are here and contribute, but Flushing has become little more than a festuring pool of eateries and cheap goods. I suppose this is progress.

This 1928 ad announced Loew's takeover of the Prospect Theatre. Loew's acquired the Prospect from Century in exchange for two Loew's houses in Brooklyn, the Avalon and Manor. It was a good deal for both companies. Century extended its coverage of Brooklyn, where it had most of its theatres. Loew's was spared the expense of building a new theatre in Flushing, and also got there ahead of its major rival, Keith-Albee, which was in the process of construction at Northern Boulevard & Main Street:
www.i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/lopro.jpg

Interesting to see the old street names used for the location of the Prospect in that ad. Prospect at Jagger. I assume Prospect was the former name of Main Street and that Jagger is either 41st Ave or 41st Rd. I know that numbered streets had previously been named, but I had no idea that Main Street was ever known by any other name. At least not as relatively recent as 1928. Or, could one of these names refer to what is now known as Kissena Blvd?

I believe that Jagger Avenue was the previous name of Main Street (or at least that portion south of the LIRR), and that Prospect was a cross street to Jagger.

Prospect wasnt the name of the street, they are refering to the theater, Prospect at Jagger, like the Mets at Shea. Jagger was Main st north of the lirr. I also beleive Kissena blvd was known as Jamaica blvd back then.

If Prospect wasn't the name of a street, then I think that it meant the view of downtown Flushing from that spot, which was slightly elevated. I believe that the theatre was named Prospect because of that.

Interesting thought, Warren. Although, the grade of Main Street runs pretty steadily (if only slightly) uphill from the south THROUGH the spot where the Prospect Theater stood and on up towards its terminus at Northern Blvd. The grade is much steeper to the south of 41st than it us to the north - which is the direction of downtown Flushing. Perhaps you're right that this was once a "prospect point" where that grade sort of leveled out offering an overview of the lower lying lands to the south and east - and possibly to the west across nearby Flushing creek and towards Manhattan.

A longtime Flushing resident told me that there was a Prospect Avenue that intersected with Main/Jarrett, and that it was re-named either 41st Road or 41st Avenue. The site of the Prospect Theatre is directly across the street from the Flushing Library. The next time that I go to that library, I will bring my camera and try to photograph the street signs at what was the nearest corner to the Prospect's entrance...I have an old photo somewhere showing the slight incline of Main Street as it headed south under the LIRR bridge. When I find it, I will post it here, as the Prospect Theatre can be seen in the distant background.

Memory can play awful tricks with you, Warren. I worked on Main Street off 42nd Street for 5 years and could swear the uphill incline was from south to north, tapering off as it crossed under the LIRR trestle. No matter. If there was in fact a Prospect Avenue that intersected Main/Jarret, the mystery of that ad's location is solved.

I should say, "the mystery of the location provided in that ad is solved."

Ed, this is the photo that I spoke of, taken in 1934. The Prospect Theatre is in the background under the bridge, to the right of the trolley. It looks to me like Main Street had a gradual incline as it headed south towards Jamaica. It's very possible that Main Street has flattened out since the trolley tracks were removed and through re-pavings over the decades:
www.i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/prospect34.jpg

I don't know, Warren. I think it's impossible to tell from the photo... My perception of that photo is that I'm looking downhill almost the whole way with a slight leveling off around 41st or so. If anything, it might begin inclining upward again past the LIRR and up towards Northern. Certainly at the Flushing Post Office (the brick and limestone building on the left under the trestle), the grade becomes much steeper heading towrads Franklin Ave and beyond towards Jamaica. Tell you what, I'll get over there real soon with a bag of marbles and put this whole thing to rest!

Here's a website that has links to a number of seemingly cool resources that might be of service in trying to identify archaic street names and addresses in NYC. If one uses this particular page on Queens and looks up both Jagger and Prospect one will find that they were renamed Main Street and 41st Road, respectively.

I can't testify as to the usefulness of some of the other resources linked from the main page, but they might be worth a look.

I said pretty much the same thing in my post of September 2nd. The only difference is that I wasn't sure if Prospect Avenue became 41st Avenue or 41st Road. Thanks for proving that it was 41st Avenue.

No. 41st Road.

Still a single auditorium in November, 1970: www.i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/prospect70.jpg

Just before Christmas, 1952, Century Theatres took over the Prospect and Plaza from Loew's, which was forced to drop them in compliance with the federal anti-trust action against the company. The Prospect had actually been owned by Century from the beginning, but was leased to Loew's in 1928. Back with Century again, the Prospect continued to show the same programs that it would have under Loew's management:
www.i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/century1952.jpg

I saw quite a few movies here. Superman (78), Tootsie, Ghostbusters, Police Academy, Sharon Stone's god-aweful debut, a low budget horror film Deadly Blessing just to name a few. I loved this place. It was a far cry from the Keith's, but a lot of good memories. I was working in Flushing in the late 90's up until 2003 for Verizon. I worked on Main Street pretty often. Because the block the Prospect was on was so radically changed, I couldn't place the exact location of where the theater used to stand. That's how diffent the block accross the street from the Public Library had become. Everything on that block was converted into various Asian shops. One day I had a job on that block and when I went into the basement of the buisiness I was working in I found stacks of the old metal theater chairs from the Prospect. I wasn't sure what they were there for. I had thought the building had been demolished so I would have figured all of that stuff would have been dumped. Not an exciting find, but I knew then I was in the former site of the theater. There wasn't a single thing in the building that would have tipped me off that was where I was. Had I not seen the chairs, I never would have known. Talk about erasing the past. That is what Tommy Huang would have loved to have done to the Keiths. Bastard.
If anyone has any pictures of the theater from the 70s-80s, inside or out, please post them. As hard as it is to find pictures of the Keiths from this period, they seem almost non-existant for the Prospect. Where the hell were all of our cameras back then. God if we only knew then what we know now.
Warren thanks for the 1970 pic, that brought back a lot of memories of how the place looked.

This image will probably raise more questions than it answers, since it shows part of the exterior of the Prospect Theatre, but not the entrance, which is at the left where the view ends. I don't know whether the three story facade next to the corner candy shop is part of the theatre building, or a separate structure. The Prospect Theatre had exit doors on the side street where a trolley car is sitting. That spot was the first/last stop for the trolley line which ran between Flushing and Ridgewood. The service is still running, but with buses instead of trolleys covering virtually the same route: www.i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/prospext.jpg

I must correct some assumptions that I made about the exterior photo that I posted above on 1/20/07, which actually shows very little of the Prospect Theatre. The Hyde Sanborn fire insurance maps of Flushing indicate a separate building on the corner of Main Street and 41st Avenue (originally known as Bradford Avenue), then two smaller buildings, and then the entrance to the Prospect Theatre. Behind the entrance was a large lobby and lounge area leading to the auditorium, which had one of its side walls on 41st Road (originally known as Prospect Avenue). In the photo, the trolley is on 41st Avenue, so the exit doors probably belong to the corner building, and not to the Prospect Theatre. Here is a portion of the Hyde Sanborn map, with the area around the Prospect Theatre colored in aqua. The areas occupied by the theatre are shaded. To complicate matters, the Hyde Sanborn maps use colors for different types of buildings, but the library where I consulted them does not have a color copier, so I had to make a B&W copy:
www.i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/prospectmap.jpg

Thanks, Warren. These details are helpful and interesting.

I think I saw "Altered States" with William Hurt here in 1980.

The side wall of the Prospect can be seen in this 1971 photo of a B58 bus on 41st Road.

Great picture, mp775. Thanks. It feels like I've got those early 1960's GM Fishbowl buses in my DNA !

I saw some movies here around 1980 when I lived in Flushing; it was already a triplex then, and I remember a summer matinee show wherein the theater was icy cold and nearly emnpty. I was sorry to see it demolished some time later.

I also saw the ad and read the comments about Porky's, which I saw at the Keith's -- it previewed at Prospect but opened at Keith's?

"Porky's" at RKO Keith's Flushing ? All those nude teenage girls on that huge screen ? Hubba hubba !

It was in the right side of the divided autditorium, but still a pretty big screen, even though the seats faced slightly to the left!

Slightly skewed nude teenage girls on that still-huge screen ! Hubba hubba !

I kinda liked ALL the nudity in that sexually-charged movie.

Yeah, saps, I'll bet.

The brick work on the side walls of the auditorium is very similar to that of the Bliss Theatre in Sunnyside, also designed by architect R. Thomas Short. In fact, when I saw the photo posted earlier today, I thought it showed the Bliss, which still stands (as a Jehovah's Witnesses church) and is virtually unchanged on the exterior.

The Wyckoff Theater, at the eastern corner of Wyckoff Avenue and Bleecker Street in .... Bushwick ? Wyckoff Heights ? Ridgewood ? ... Brooklyn, postal zone 11237, became a Jehovah's Witnesses hall, before I had a chance to know it as a movie theater. My oldest aunt remembers it as a movie theater, however.

Here's a shot of the Bliss sidewall to illustrate Warren's point. Not exactly the same when viewed side by side, but they do share that motif of lighter colored brick accents along the wall. I want to say there is a somewhat similar motif on the sidewall of the Beacon Theatre in Manhattan, but I might be mistaken.

This 1939 view of Loew's Prospect was copied from a recent newspaper section "Looking Back" at Queens history. The Prospect's current attraction was a double bill of Paramount's "Zaza" (Claudette Colbert) and Universal's "Newsboys' Home" (Jackie Cooper):
www.i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/zaza39.jpg

The link I posted on 9/25/07 no longer works; use this instead:

Side wall of the Prospect in 1971

Here are new direct links to previously posted images. By the time of the second photo, the Prospect had reverted from Loew's to the Century circuit, which built and owned the theatre:
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/zaza39.jpg
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/prospect70.jpg

Here's a 1936 photo of the Prospect that I found:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/32912172@N00/536739090/

Oops, wrong link:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/32912172@N00/3103785071/

Thanks, bobosan. Horrible how that Wendy's nearby was shot up in the year 2000. I ate there quite frequently in 1999.

And then Loews tried to buy out the Century chain. The theatre chains are like banks with the buys, sells and name changes.

Warren G Harris are you out there? In a much earlier posting you said Century orginially traded the Prospect for the Avalon and Manor in Brooklyn. The name Avalon was retained. What did the Manor become since none is listed as such?

The Manor was re-named the Vogue, and is listed here as the Vogue. You can find both names via the search engine.

From bobosan's post on Dec. 13th. 2008, The movie playing at the Prospect was MGM's "Wife vs. Secretary" (1936).

Does anyone know if this Prospect Theater is the same one seen briefly (once at night, once in daylight) in the 1982 Italian slasher film NEW YORK RIPPER? By pausing the frame and looking at any pictures found here it doesn't really look the same, but it definitely says PROSPECT on the marquee in the film and doesn't look like the other PROSPECT in Brooklyn. Also, in the film it looks like there was a store across the street from the theater called LONDON HATS. And there's a long, elevated train staircase at the end of the block - the 7 train?

The 7 train goes underground at Main St. .The theater you talking abot is in Brooklen or the bronx

Thanks Fred. I don't see a Prospect Theater listed for the Bronx on this site. Was there one near an elevated train there that's not here? In one of the pictures of this Flushing theater it does say that the elevated LIRR was a block away - maybe it's that staircase?

The Prospect in the Bronx is listed here under a later name as the Olympic Theater Music Hall: http://cinematreasures.org/theater/2578/

Eureka! That's it, thank you all so much! It's so hard to tell from most of the photos but there was one photo in particular posted by Ken Roe that has the elevated train steps coming down to the street near the theater. Exactly the shot in the movie.

Sometime after the Propect returned to the Century Circuit it was twinned. However, both auditoriums opened at different times. The
ads ready "Twins, one at a time." And then, subsequently there was another divide and then . . . . . .The Oceana, Tuxedo and Sheepshead reverted to Century at the same time as the Prospect, also the Plaza in Queens, I believe.

Here is a larger version of the photo posted by Ed Solero on 5/18/06:
http://tinyurl.com/d2rl7n

It's interesting that the picture always comes up for the Deanna Durbin picture Up in Central Park. My aunt was commissioned to come up with textile designs about Central Park and was driven thru the Park in a horsedrawn carriage to get images. The final product was exhibited in Bonwit Tellers windows with a tie in to the movie. For informational purposes my aunt was Libby MacGregor who also did some spectacular batiks.