Savoy Theatre

This was located at 152-04 Jamaica Avenue, and first opened around 1918 as the Rialto Theatre. A.H. Schwartz, who later incorporated as the Century Circuit, built it, with R. Thomas Short as architect. The 1,750 seats were all on the main floor, with a raised stadium section at the rear. After Schwartz built the larger and more centrally located Merrick Theatre in Jamaica, he lost interest in the Rialto and finally sold it in 1932 to an "indie" who changed the name to Savoy, after the famous ballroom in Harlem. By that time, Jamaica had a large black population, which soon adopted the Savoy as their own because they weren't always treated hospitably at the first-run Valencia, Merrick and Alden. But all races attended the Savoy for its triple features and bargain prices...The Savoy was still known as the Rialto when "talkies" arrived. I suppose it could have been the first theatre on Long Island to present them, but I wouldn't bet on it.

On a recent walk on Jamaica from 145th to the old Valencia, I noticed a building on the Southside of Jamaica whose facade looked a movie theater and was now used for retail. Was this the old Savoy? (I vaguely remember driving past it as a child and seeing it wide white plastic and neon-lit marquee.) Also diagonally across Jamaica from the Valencia is a now-covered marquee that advertizes the discount store it fronts. Was this once a theater? And if so, what was its name?

The theatre directly across the street from the Valencia is the ex-RKO Alden, originally opened in 1928 as the legit Shubert Jamaica. The other theatre you noticed was the Merrick. Both have listings at this website. The Savoy (originally Rialto) and Skouras Jamaica (ex-Fox) were demolished. The only other theatre still standing in Jamaica from that era is the ex-Loew's Hillside on Sutphin Boulevard just off Jamaica Avenue, now converted to offices and warehouse space.

Very interesting to hear comments and info about the Savoy, where I received the bulk of my early film education as a teen starting in 1960 and continuing through that decade. I did a memoir/short story centering on the Savoy in my book The Phantom of the Movies' VideoScope (Three Rivers Press/Random House, videoscopemag.com). I once ran into the indie distributor Joseph Brenner, who told me he used to supply the Savoy with films booked by the theater's very creative movie-buff manager (whose name, unfortunately, I didn't get). The Savoy also used to have elaborate coming attractions pamphlets in the lobby--extremely cool!

My dad owned the piano store next door in the 60's-70's. He was friends with the manager/owner of the Savoy, Mr. Levy, which got us free movies, popcorn, hot dogs and cokes.....and Steve Reeves in "Hercules", etc. Go ahead...beat that! ---Lee

>>>The only other theatre still standing in Jamaica from that era is the ex-Loew's Hillside on Sutphin Boulevard just off Jamaica Avenue, now converted to offices and warehouse space.

posted by Warren on Mar 21, 2004 at 10:15am<<<


The Valencia theatre is a now a church I believe, and has not been "murdered". ;o)

Excellent--seem to remember that piano store. Any idea when the Savoy closed for good?
The Valencia did become a church for sure, don't know if it's still there.
JKane

My dad closed the store sometime in the 70's. He was there for 12 years, previously with Steinway $ Sons. I still can smell the popcorn, and feel the sticky floors on the sole of my sneakers at the Savoy. I remember a huge church nearby that was set back like 300 feet from the street. Furniture store next door. Bar on the corner that the owner was shot in a robbery. Also, King's mansion across the street with those big cannons were cool. Memories are sweet but get elusive as the years go by and most folks don't seem to give a shit anyway, Very sad and probably happens with every generation. See what a Google search can do? Get me all depressed! LOL CYA!!!!

In one of the more bizarre ironies of the re-development of downtown Jamaica, that abandoned church near the now demolished Savoy is being used as a community arts center. Meanwhile, a few blocks east, the ex-Loew's Valencia, which had wonderful stage facilities, has been converted into a church. Is it too late to make a switch?

What about that other old church on the other side of the street with the graveyard out in front of it just down the street for Sutphin Blvd? Still there? ---L

Was the corner bar called Taps?
jkane

Didn't frequent bars in my pre-teen years. ;O)

Are there any projectionists out there who worked at the Savoy in the mid 50’s? Was there anything odd about the projection system at this theater?
The reason that I am asking is that I once got to the theater before the first show. The lights dimmed, the curtain opened and the picture appeared on a screen, which seemed to be at the back of the stage and then moved closer to the audience and the front of the stage. Does anyone else recall this and why it was done this way?

Erwin, perhaps they were just adjusting the masking around the screen. When a screen went from a smaller to a larger image, it could create an optical illusion that it was moving towards you. And away from you when it went from large to small.

Thanks Warren for the explanation, That may be what it was because I only witnessed it once. However, I did run into a young projectionist at Fort Dix who had worked at the Savoy and he gave me an explanation, but for the life of me, I can't remember what it was.
Unfortunately, that was some 41 years ago and I don't have total recall.

On 4/28/58 the Savoy was advertising the last day for the triple feature of

1- Jack Palance in "House of Numbers" in Cinemascope
2- Victor Mature in "Chief Crazy Horse" in Cinemascope
3- "Voodoo Woman" with an all star cast

This must have been a damn fun place to go :)

Curious--did you find that 1958 listing in the Long Island Press? Saw scores of movies at the Savoy in the 60s but don't remember too many of the exact double bills. One choice one I do recall was
-Sam Fuller's HOUSE OF BAMBOO
-THE BRAIN THAT WOULDN'T DIE
-THE SAVAGE LAND (western with, I believe, Jody McCrea)
That would have been around '63.

Another, odder one:
-1931's PUBLIC ENEMY
-Same year's LITTLE CAESAR
-THE BRAIN EATERS (1958 B sci-fi)
That was in 1960

The Savoy was fun indeed!

This thread still has a life. Very cool. Those Steve Reeve's "Hercules" movies really stuck in my head for some reason. --Lee

One correction on the triple bill--the Jody McCrea western was THE BROKEN LAND, with a young Jack Nicholson.

JKane
Yes I have a few old movie pages from the Long Island Press and got the information there.

Looky heeya! I believe this is actually a photo from the 20's or 30's of the Savoy when it was still called the Rialto. Ya' think this is the one I was referring to? It was found on a site called QUEENSPIX.COM. Chime in if you can on this. Thanks! ---Lee


http://www.queenspix.com/jamthumbnails/jamaica.jpg

I was even able to read the marquee. This is what was playing at the time. A film made in 1922!!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0013433/

I lived in Jamaica from 1965 to 1978. I remember when the Valencia, Alden, Merrick and Savoy were still thriving. I actually have taken Valencia as one of my cyber names. Even in 1966 the Valencia was a beautiful theatre with most of its features still intact. It was there and the purchase of my first book, Best Remaining Seats got me interested in old theatres. I smoked my very first cigarette in the balcony at the Merrick. The Merrick was awesome even then. The ushers were still uniformed like they were at Radio City. The Alden was rather plain but serviceable. Now the Savoy at that time was in it's last gasps. I must admit I was curious to take in what was then the "adult" show. On the screen was typical grainy 42nd Street porn, more soft core variety. Once was enough for me I had to leave. However I took in the decor, walls. fixtures and knew this was once a movie palace. The Savoy is long gone making way for York College. Jamaica now has a multiplex that replaces all the dead theatres. Valencia now is indeed a well kept church.

Valencia: So the three theaters you name (Valencia, Alden and Merrick) were still thriving in 1965. But when, do you estimate, did they begin to decline and finally die out?

It seems to be that the trend for movie theaters in NYC was that until the late 60's, they still had some of their old grandeur left. But seemingly very abruptly, it all changed around 1969 or so. Do you think this is true? I'm just curious.

You can trace an area's urban decline by the way the theaters were maintained in some cases.

The decline of the Valencia, Alden, and Merrick started around 1962 with the advent of the Premiere Showcase concept. Simultanouesly, the theatres were also affected by the decline of Jamaica as a shopping center, which was due to increasing competition from Long Island malls with easy parking and the area's switch from a mixed resident population to predominantly black.

Lee Tyler....Thanks for posting the picture of the Savoy, pre 1932, when it was the Rialto. As the Savoy, I recall that the marquee was a silver and black Art Deco design. However, for the life of me I cannot recall the facade above the Savoy marquee. Certainly not the imposing one as pictured above the Rialto marquee in the old photo. Was it changed at the time that the Savoy marquee was installed? Or has my memory gone south? Does anyone recall what the facade looked like during the 1950's?
I do vividly recall the lobby which was oval or round and painted all white. They used to have great displays of the b/w stills advertising the upcoming triple features.

Hey Erwin. Glad you dug that pic I dug up, but I wasn't on this planet until 1957, so I cannot comment on those 1950's years. ;o) That facade was definately there in the 60's-70's according to my memory. All I really remeber is the Steve Reeve's "Hercules" movies and those Bowery Boy features.....and the free hot dogs and buttered pop corn. LOL! From what I remember of the lobby, it was fairlt ornate kinda like the Valencia and the RKO Keith in Flushing....but not quite as detailed and smaller in scale. Interesting memorabilia!

Lee...Thanks for putting the facade back into focus for me. It could have been that during my Savoy movie-going days in the 50's, the facade was sort of overpowered by and lost in the shadows of the old Jamaica Avenue el.
In any event, the Savoy was quite unique and had a personality all its own.

That sticky-ass floor in there had a personality all by itself! Some days I got up and almost lost my sneakers!! --Lee

A B&W photo of the theatre when it first opened as the Rialto can be seen at www.queenspix.com The photo is numbered JAM116.

Hey Warren, I beat you to it...and then some. Scroll up a few posts. Thanks for posting!


Lee

Here's an early image of the auditorium when the theatre was still known as the Rialto. I doubt that many changes were made in the following decades. Please note that the seating was all on one floor, with a stadium section at the rear:
www.i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/125-2552_IMG.jpg

lee tylers brother here. i remember the last time my dad tried to get us in. huge sign in lobby, "let's face it, folks. the world has gone sex crazy and we are simply meeting the demand. sorry for any inconvenience". man, did we ever want to get in then...the heck with the westerns and sci fi flix. but dad said nix to us hormone charged juveniles. i guess that's progress?!?!?!? jeffbackdoc

To Jeffbackdoc, I managed to go once to this theatre during it's final porno phase and you didn't miss much. The fare was typical 42nd street grind house "soft" porn with bad grainy scratchy prints.What I was intrigued with more was the ghostly images of the decor that indicated the former grandure of the house.

thanx, v. now i can stop seeing my shrink to resolve that feeling of a persistent sense of loss.

Yes Mr. Doc, that feeling of loss can't compare to the likely daily loss of patron's bodily fluids that ensued on the floor and the seatbacks of the Savoy in it's latter years. Tawk' about a sticky floor! DOH!!

This bold 1929 presentation was apparently part "live" and part film, and required separate performances for women and men. One can only wonder about the meaning of "Actual scenes--shows everything." And what was that frightened lady "never warned" about?
www.i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/jamrialto.jpg

A Midmer-Losh theater organ was installed in the Rialto Theater in 1920.

In January, 1935, the Savoy announced that 1934 had been a record-breaking year for the theatre, with more than 1,000,000 tickets sold (adults and children combined). If true, that meant an average weekly attendance of about 19,231, or 2,740 per day. Advertising in the LI Daily Press gave the reason: "Because we present THE GREATEST SHOW VALUE IN N.Y." To accommodate the crowds, the Savoy extended its hours, opening daily at 9:30 AM (except 11:45 on Sundays). No admission prices were cited, but I would guess a sliding scale of no more than 25 cents for adults and ten cents for children. The movies were last run for downtown Jamaica, but double bills of "A" product, such as "Kid Millions" & "Imitation of Life" and "Babes in Toyland" & "Marie Galante."

Believe it or not, in its final period as a porno theatre, the Savoy had the New York City Housing and Development Administration as its landlord. That happened in July, 1973, when the city purchased the Savoy and other buildings in the block for demolition as part of the Jamaica Center Development Project. The occupants were given until June 30th of the next year (1974) to vacate. In the interim, Savoy Amusement Corporation, which had been showing hard-core pornography at the theatre for two years and soft-core for two years before that, would pay the city a monthly rental of $1,416. In September, 1973, a fire broke out in the theatre and destroyed several rows of seats. The city refused to make repairs or replace the seats, so the management did so at its own expense. "I have a steady clientele who come every week. They're mostly male, 50-50 blacks and whites. You could say we have high class pornographic films. They're 16 millimeter," corporation owner Edward Quinn told a reporter for the New York Post. Some of the Savoy's recent attractions were "Six Easy Pieces," "Hooker's Holiday," "Sex in a Mobile Home," "Snow Job" and "The Stud Who Came to Dinner." Quinn said he had an agreement with local police to keep the outside posters low-key, with only film titles and no photographs or illustrations.

These previously posted photos have new direct links:
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/125-2552_IMG.jpg
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/jamsavoy.jpg

Don't think I have seen those pics before. Thanks, Warren!

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