College Theater

The College Theatre was located at 319 13th Street, an address that no longer exists due to re-naming and re-numbering of the streets in College Point. I've been unable to find the current equivalent...The College Theatre first opened in September, 1926, with a reported seating capacity of 1,098. During the silent era, it employed a small orchestra to accompany the movies. I don't know its original ownership, but in 1946, the College was acquired by the Interboro Circuit and modestly "modernized." Due to its close proximity to Flushing, the College's double-feature programs were subsequent-run. Perhaps that improved after 1962, when the "Premiere Showcase" concept took hold.

There are two photographs of the front of the College Theatre in "College Point," issued in paperback this year by Arcadia Publishing. One shows the College as a movie house in the late 1930s. The second shows it converted to a bingo hall in the 1950s.

The bingo hall photo and a current color photo of the site converted to a chain drugstore can be seen at the new article about College Point at
www.forgotten-ny.com

The address for the Eckerd drugstore is:
1508 College Point Blvd
Queens, NY 11356

hi i worked in the college theater from 1962 til 1970. i know that
theater in side out and on the outside. it was a nice little theater
and it is to bad it is gone.

nancy flagg

i use to go to movies in 1950 and it was no bingo hall it was a
theater and i grew up going to the movies there until i worked there
when i was 16 years old. i will tell you the cashier was in the front
and the doorman took the tickets when you walked in, and after that the candystand was on your right as so was the ladies room. On your
left was the manager's office. there was about eight stairs before the office, the turn right again and make a left to the men's room.
make a right from the men's room and you had your cellar where we use to change into our uniforms to work. Just ahead from the door from where you walk in you can see the movie screen. you had your balcony on your upstairs to the right and left of you and in the middle. they projection room was upstairs to the left of you . you are right about the seats being 675 and we had standing room only.
nancy flagg

I found a more specific address of 15-08 122nd Street for the College Theatre, but I can't vouch for its current accuracy since the source was published in 1948.

Warren... that matches up exactly with the address Lost Memory posted on May 7th for the Eckerd drugstore that now occupies the site.

Its the same address. College Point Blvd and 122nd St are the same street. The function above should be drugstore.

A Wurlitzer theater organ opus 1303 style "E" was installed in the College Theater on 3/25/1926.

It was a great experience. I lived right behind the theater on 121st Street. My brother and I spend many Saturdays there. We could watch 2 movies for 35 cents. I remember the cast of McHales Navy showing up. The theater was packed with kids. I can remember seeing Rodan and The Invasion of the Saucer Men (1957) along with many other blockbusters of the 1950's to feast on Good n'Plenty's.

My father met my mother in that theater in the late 1940's. He was working there at the time. She tought that he looked like Sinatra but of course it was dark in the theater.

From Boxoffice magazine, April 1950:

Cooperative tieups do not work all one way, as demonstrated recently by Leo Raelson, manager of the College Theater, College Point, N.Y. Every year, the College Point National Bank sponsors an Easter party, a Thanksgiving party and a Christmas party for neighborhood youngsters. As a goodwill gesture and to promote interest in "The Heiress", Raelson displayed a fishbowl in the lobby, filled with pennies and dollar bills. A sign nearby was lettered with copy: ""The Heiress' has WEALTH in direction, is RICH in stars, a FORTUNE in stars, a JEWEL in a mighty love story. You too can have all this. Save your pennies, they will grow into dollars. College Point National Bank."

I remember the College Theater well and spent many happy hours there during the 1950's with my little friends. My parents were friends with the woman who sold the tickets, and her boyfriend, a nice man who managed the theater. He later committed suicide in the theater and I remember the woman crying and my mother talking with her. Of course I wasn't privy to any of that information. I saw HORROR OF DRACULA there, and years later, while attending a film festival in Cairo, Egypt, sat with Christopher Lee who portrayed Count Dracula so very well, and told him how much he frightened my friend Martin Jacobson, who ran screaming up the aisle when Count Dracula made his first appearance on screen. "But my dear boy, he said, I haven't played Dracula in many, many years!" When I returned to the States, I looked him up on the IMDb and saw to my delight, that he had indeed played Dracula recently. The College Theater, the Flushing RKO Keith's, and the Flushing Prospect, were the places where I learned to live and love the movies. Jay Newton