Trylon Theater
98-81 Queens Boulevard,
Rego Park,
NY
11374
98-81 Queens Boulevard,
Rego Park,
NY
11374
15 people
favorited this theater
Located in the Rego Park section of Queens. The Trylon Theater was opened in 1939 by Interboro Circuit Inc., and was named after the famous centerpice of the 1939 World’s Fair which was held in nearby Flushing. Seating was provided in orchestra and balcony levels.
This once popular Art Deco style movie house closed on December 31, 1999 after its lease expired. It was purchased by the Bucharians, an orthodox Jewish group, for use as a cultural center. However, preservationists tried lobbying to retain the features of the building and obtain Landmark building status, but it stood empty for several years, until the new owners finally got their way and destroyed most of its historical features.
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Recent comments (view all 209 comments)
Hi Ed. I’m sure your question isn’t directed to me. Good thing, cause I don’t have an answer. I looked at the Cinema Treasures “Function” link, and barring specific criteria, I guess “Community Center” is what would apply. That’s what’s they put on the marquee anyway. “Cultural Center” is also an option, but either I think implys somehow that it’s open to the general public. Which I’m going to speculate isn’t quite the the case.
I could be wrong.
I’d also like to apologize if I implied the neighborhood around the Trylon was “crime” affected. I did not mean to imply so.
Roll down doors & gates are not as common place in Chicago, and the Trylon is sandwiched by two. There is certainly nothing wrong with business owners protecting their investments. Doing so asthetically would be something for community involvement.
Don’t get me wrong, Chicago still has some, but not in middle class areas. Every city has board-ups. It also has it’s share of unwanted graffiti. “Graffiti Busters” is a city wide program of chemical trucks that constantly cruise the city spraying off the tagging.
You’d think that if the Trylon remodeling had covered all the permit bases etc., that there would have been an end design or drawing on how the finished facade was supposed to look. One submitted & signed off on by the council person.
And one that didn’t include portions of exposed brick, broken face tiles/old adhesives, differing backrounds behind each poster box, and seemingly no attention paid to the underside of the marquee. Basically it looks as if the minimum was done just to get it sealed up.
Not in any way inviting looking, that’s for sure. And possibly something the preservationists could pressure the city about. Where was the oversight on what was ultimately built, etc. That could force them to fix the marquee, where a truck apparently hit it again.
P.S. In comparing Ed’s recent OHR NATAN photo with that of the Cinema Treasures 2002 one, it appears as if a parking meter was removed, and some type of “Loading Zone” restriction via signs was put in place. Tough to say because the CT one at the page’s top is cropped tighter than Ed’s.
Chicago has that problem big time, with restaurants “buying” up and removing metered spaces for loading zones. And the valets whisking patron’s cars around to other meters down the block that they didn’t pay for.
Chicago does not allow parking in front of any theatres, for fire evacuation purposes.
But even that loading zone action requires city involvement. So the ball really appears to have been dropped by the Trylon’s council person or reps.
Also since most of the discussions on CT about active construction, are dated 2006. So the building’s tenants surely think their work is done by now.
As stated by others before, it says something about their organization if what is there now is acceptable to them. The council person needs to be physically taken to the site, if anything is to be done to rememdy the injustice. Also a peek into the organization’s tax status, would help in determining it’s Function.
David, I agree with you. By the way, the parking meter could be removed because a lot of NYC streets have gone to paper “metered” parking, where there are no meters anymore, and you pay the fee at a box placed every so many 100 feet, and place the ticket on your dashboard proving you paid. I don’t know if that is what happened here, but it is possible.
As for your thoughts on the sad fate the front of the Trylon has come to, I agree….
I had kind of forgotten the Trylon until something on CT reminded me of it, and the great times I had there. I lived in College Point from 1996-1999 and loved exploring the older theaters of Queens. The Trylon was one of my favorites as I always loved sitting on the balcony. The LPC seems to be a joke in Queens. Councilwoman Katz should hang her head in shame.
We have a community building the 1939 World’s Fair for free to visit at www.reactiongrid.com . See here for our beginning over 1 year ago View link . You can now visit Trylon & Perishpere walking up the Helicline & visitng Democracity in detail as well as many more attractions.
The Trylon Cafe build has just been commissioned to be recreated by this team View link & we would love to include the related Theater in our recreation to spur its rescue. You can even learn to build in 3D with us and help!
Kyle G CEO ReactionGrid
Hi Kyle,
As a 1939 World’s Fair enthusiast and Chair of Rego-Forest Preservation Council (serving Rego Park & Forest Hills), this will be a commendable project. I am interested in learning more. I also left you a comment on ReactionGrid’s flickr profile.
I founded the Committee To Save The Trylon Theater in 2005. The upper streamlined Art Deco facade & glass block projection tower remains with a renovated marquee, but some of the most significant attributes are sacrificed in the name of progress (in the unideal sense). The Trylon-adorned mosaic ticket booth was jackhammered, the entrance pavilion’s mosaic floor with chevrons and a central terrazzo element of a 3D interpretation of the Trylon Monument was cemented over. There is now a faux marble wall with wooden doors out to the curb. I am confident that these alterations could be reversed in years to come. The Trylon fountain inside the lobby was either sheet rocked over or jackhammered, and the World of Tomorrow murals that graced the proscenium are rumored to be gone. This was all due to an unresponsive councilmember and the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission that claimed they waited for her advanced opinion on the issue, which isn’t required as per the Landmarks Law.
Do you hope to rebuild the Trylon Theater in 3D based upon existing photos and any historic blueprints that may exist? Please let me know your plans. You can e-mail me at as well as post here so other fans can learn and get involved in any way. Thank you!
This is a Trylon Theater photoset, courtesy of Rego-Forest Preservation Council, in affiliation with the Committee To Save The Trylon Theater, founded in 2005. The photoset below documents its historic 1939 World’s Fair-inspired Art Deco features, the theater’s closure, the unfortunate jackhammering of the Trylon-adorned ticket booth and cementing of the mosaic and terrazzo Trylon & chevron-patterned floor in the entrance pavilion, as well as the Art Deco facade and glass block projection tower, which remain intact. It also includes some interior features i.e. a “World of Tomorrow” ‘39 World’s Fair theme mural flanking the proscenium, a Trylon fountain in the standee area. Save The Trylon campaign artwork is included as well. Memorabilia includes the 1941 Theatre Catalog’s promotional piece on the Trylon Theater, and matchbook covers referencing the theater. This will consistently be updated.
Please feel free to contribute vintage photos or photos from the recent past, or any other items of interest. Please continue to support this noble cause. Hopefully, the concealed and lost features can be restored one day, so future generations can see first-hand what a significant theater this was to Queens, a unique Art Deco gem, and to the 1939 World’s Fair history and its impact upon future sites. Never abandon hope, and let’s remain proactive in every way possible. Thank you!
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After reading all these post its A.K.A. name should be LOEWS TRYLON.
It’s still hard to look at this theater after the current owners willfully destroyed so much of it, and so needlessly. It still disgusts me. It was a great place, I remember it was like walking into a timewarp. Ironically, the last movie I saw there was around 1995, and it was very ironically, “A Stranger Among Us”, a movie starring Melanie Griffith who was a cop going under cover in a Hasidic Brooklyn Neighborhood and the culture clash that ensued…. Ironic.
The last movie I saw here was Fletch in or about 1985.