Kimball Theatre

This theater is burning down as I write this...my husband just got off the train to see this old theater engulfed in flames. There are 5 ladder trucks there. It's a shame.

Jeeez --- that was the Kimball? Saw the fire on the news --- they just referred to it as a "business block".

The radio is saying it burned to the ground...

Here is a photo of the Kimball Theatre when it was a furniture store:
http://www.cinematour.com/tour.php?db=us&id=22998

waaaaaahhhhh! I remember seeing Jaws for my 8th birthday there!:( Also recall seeing Fantasia..I grew up directly behind it, On Sherwood Ave. Our Backyard had the back wall of the theatre... so I will miss it very much!!!:(

Anyone want to talk about the Kimball Theatre?
My name is Ken Valenti and I am a reporter at The Journal News. I am writing about the fire in the former theater, but I want to do a little more than that. I'd love to talk to people who attended movies at the former theater. Can anyone help?
You can reach me at 914-637-2243 or kvalenti@thejournalnews.com
Thanks so much.
-Ken.

What a shame to see this childhood icon go up in smoke!!
Hopefully the marquee will survive the fire.

Tom Rossi
Yonkers

Wow, this is pretty sad, I just heard about this fire, and figured I'd check out the theater's site. Talk about on the scene reporting. Thanks to sals, cinematreasures has an "on the scene" account of this as it was hapening!

And, man, the cinematreausre guys are quick, the intro is already updated with this information!

My ex-landlord, Mike Percoco, was the last operator to run the Kimball as a movie house. He closed it after competition came to town in the form of the Cross County Multiplex, located nearby.

I worked there as a projectionist one summer, during one of those Disney fests, back, around 1974, my heart sank that another 'Cinema Treasure' is gone. When are we going to learn old is not bad, that the ruination of this industry that 'we' let all thease movie showplaces (I know the Kimball was far from that) go by the wayside to the multiplex. I love this site, I worked as a projectionist in westchester county for over 20 years and in long Island for many years after that, I now one my own theaters in Queens, Main street and Center cinemas, the stories I could tell......you know what maybe I will.......keep looking when I have more time I will post again...later ..............the movieman007

The Closed/Demolished designation may be premature, as the owners are said to be consulting an engineer to see if the building can be saved: http://www.thejournalnews.com/newsroom/111804/b0118theaterfire.html

Cool! They plugged the site here too in that article! I guess the Journal googled the Kimball and found this page.
Does anyone know of any photos of the theater either before or after the fire online somewhere?

movieman007,

What ever happened to the projectionist union based in Mount Vernon?
I worked as an usher in the mid-1970's at Hartsdale Cinema 2.
Bobbie Dente ran the union back then. How did the local lose control over the theaters? I thought there was a countywide fire code requiring licensed projectionists ???

Please email me at: optimist008@yahoo.com

Thank You

TR

I remember seeing either "Easy Rider" or a movie about Kent State there. There used to be a theatre on McLean Ave. too if I'm not mistaken...but I do remember going to the Park Hill, Brandt's and RKO Proctors on many occassions...There is still some talk about reviving Proctor's (which is supposed to be still in tact under the present office building it occupies).

The one on McLean Ave. was the "Kent" theatre.

I was just there i wish I could have seen it last week.

To Tom,
Where do I begin, 1) projectionist licences were not county wide, For example...White Plaines, New Rochelle , Yonkers, all had their own. 2) Bobbie Dente, was the runation of the union in westchester co.(I do not know if I want ot further comment on that at this time). The local was taken over by the NYC local 306. I worked in many opf the theaters in westchester over the years, and I will try to comment on them when I can...

Joe, I think I met you through Mike Percoco. He told me about that theater, showed it to me one day. We have an apartment right around the corner from it now.

The marquee is still there and the walls still stand but it looks like the roof may be gone.

Sally

What ever became of this building after the fire?

In response to the last comment, I saw what remains of the theater two days ago. The front entrance, which would have been the lobby, is still standing. The auditorium is completely gone. Given that this is Yonkers, I wouldn't be surprised if it stays this way for some time to come.

The furniture store is still operating out of the former lobby. The marquee is still there. The auditorium has been torn down.

If you go to http://maps.live.com/and type in this theater's address try going to "Bird's Eye View" switching the views around. There is no view from the south, but if you use the other views there are two views where the theater is still intact from before the fire, but on the third view the theater has been gutted by fire.

...in fact, you can get the East view both ways if you cycle back through it: pre-fire and post-fire. Weird.

Thanks Roger.

Yes, if you look at the theater with North on top, it shows the theater completely gutted after the fire, although the outside brick walls still stand:=. The lobby roof seems to remain:
http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&cp=qtk70p8vc521&style=o&lvl=2&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&scene=18632253&encType=1


However, if you switch to east or west, it shows the theater still intact before the fire:
http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&cp=qtk70p8vc521&style=o&lvl=2&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&scene=1499499&encType=1

Roger, yes, for anyone looking, sometimes the East view has the old version, and sometimes it shows the new version. So if you keep flicking back and forth from north to east, you will get two seperate east views.

Here is a March 2008 photo.

Hey Christine Bernard. I grew up on Villa Ave. down the street from SHerwood. ANd also went to P.S. 14. I lived next door. I am also a Yonkers FIrefighter. The two movies I remember seeing there was Deer Hunter and Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla.

Does anybody else remember riding the No. 7 trolley car down the Yonkers Avenue curve here, in order to go to the movies? Probably not The trolley car was red and yellow, but the movies were mostly B&W.

Thanks for the picture Lost Memory! What a loss! Just like it, gone are the days of smoking in the theatre (can you imagine), staying and watching a movie over and over..AND more than anything paying less than $1.00 to do them all! Wonder what popcorn cost then compared to the almost $10 for a large now?!?!?! Those were the days...

Have they ever rebuilt on the site as of yet?
The google street view shows it before the fire:

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=1219+Yonkers+Avenue,+Yonkers,+NY+United+States&hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=40.914907,-73.851106&spn=0.008043,0.019312&t=h&z=16&iwloc=A&layer=c&cbll=40.914843,-73.851016&panoid=cfTXwR-RlTrVJd47-QKXPw&cbp=12,87.668937879313,,0,-8.000000000000005

Here is another photo of the Kimball:
http://tinyurl.com/ku3p93

Just an update...

I live two blocks away from the old Kimball. We watched it burn that night in 2004, and although I never went to it during it's heyday as a movie theater, It still broke my heart to see what happened. I used to go into the used furniture store and try to imagine what it looked like in its original life.

In any event, it still stands burnt and empty. The owner of the furniture store relocated his business to across from the Mt. Vernon West train station. He told us a couple of years ago that a contractor was buying it from him with the intention of building an apartment complex there. Thus far, nothing doing. As someone mentioned above, this is pretty typical of what happens in Yonkers.

I hate, hate, seeing that abandoned place with the marquis still out front. So sad...