Brandon Cinemas 2
70-20 Austin Street,
Forest Hills,
NY
11375
70-20 Austin Street,
Forest Hills,
NY
11375
6 people
favorited this theater
Located in the Forest Hills section of Queens. Developer Heskel Elias, in tandem with United Artists Theatres, gave the former Continental I / II a $1 million refurbishment in 1999.
The theater reopened with stadium seating, a new look, and a new name — the United Artists Brandon Cinema Center. The theater is named for Elias' son, Brandon.
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Recent comments (view all 38 comments)
This is a March 1963 advertisement for the Continental Theater.
Hi! Thank you for posting the advertisement I came across!
This is my Continental Theatre, UA Brandon Cinemas, 70-20 Austin St, Forest Hills, NY flickr photoset, courtesy of Rego-Forest Preservation Council, which I founded and chair:
View link
You can click the thumbnails to enlarge the photos, and view them in a low, medium, high resolution, or original (maximum) resolution, as well as download them for future reference.
If anyone can contribute any vintage photos or ads to this photoset, I will be happy to give you credit. All images help preserve the spirit of “NY’s 1st split level theater,” and may contribute to other great preservation projects. The marquee, original terrazzo floor out front, and the reverse channel neon sign reading “Continental,” are some of the features that should be retained and appreciated. Let’s be proactive!
As a Walter Reade single screen theater, the Continental showed a lot of indie/arty fare. I was only there once, to see the French “La Cage Aux Folles,” with subtitles. All I remember about the interior is that it had an air of subdued “class”. There was, if I remember correctly, an outdoor parking lot that ran up the embankment of the LIRR tracks and partially behind the theater, but don’t quote me.
Ed Miller
Although I have made Forest Hills my home for over nine years, I just visited the Brandon for the first time since it was twinned earlier today to see The Town. (I highly recommend this film.) The movie house is very well maintained and the twinning was nicely done. I think I will be visiting this place again very soon.
Wasn’t it already “twinned” when it was the Continental? I used to go to this movie theater a lot in the late 80’s and early 90’s, and it was always extremely well maintained even when it was the Continental. But I thought it had two theaters and was twined then already. There as a “Contental III” across the street, but that one I was never in.
Great 1963 Ad.
Bway, good to hear from you. You are absolutely correct about all of your memories of the Brandon and the Continental. This only indicates how long it was since I saw a movie at this theater, eventhough I live right next to the place! Anyhow, I am sure we should all be glad that the place remains very well maintained. Talk soon.
Heh….funny, because I lived in Ridgewood at the time….and as a teenager, as soon as we were able to take the subway “on our own”, we soon stopped going to the Ridgewood Theater, and took the subway to the Forest Hills Theaters like the Continental, the Midway, and the Elmwood in Elmhurst….yet the Ridgewood was “just down the street”…. But as a teenager, “getting there” was half the fun, and much more fun that simply walking to the Ridgewood. And unfortunately, the Continental and the Midway were WAY better maintained than the Ridgewood…even back then already.
Although today….I only wish I could walk into the Ridgewood with a movie flickering inside…. sigh….
Bway, my experience was very much like yours. I first got to know the community in which I now call home when, in the mid-1970’s, I frequently took the G train from my native Greenpoint to catch a first run film in Forest Hills. At the time, the Meserole was on its last legs and would soon close its doors and the Chopin, when it was open, was not really an option – though I did visit it occasionally. Forest Hills, on the other hand, hosted four theaters, and many more screens, in the immediate Continental Ave./Queens Blvd. vicinity. Just about all of the non-art house cinematic fare that was playing in Manhattan could be seen here, for a slightly lower price. And Austin St. was a really great place to visit. Given these options, Forest Hills clearly trumped Manhattan. As the 70’s turned into the 80’s, my cinematic preferences, for some reason, shifted west to Manhattan and I lost contact with this neighborhood.
While I did catch a few films at the Branden – then the Continental – and did see Full Metal Jacket at the long lost Continental 3, now a health club, it was the Forest Hills Theater that I enjoyed the most. It was, thus, very disappointing when, after a many years absence, I visited the neighborhood in 2001, in the course of buying my coop apartment, and learned that the Forest Hills was now a drug store. However, all is not lost and the Brandon and the Midway continue to serve this terrific neighborhood – and there is always the trusty old Cinemart on Metropolitan Ave! So the bottle is still at least half full, for now.
I didn’t see many movies in the Forest Hills Theater. It never seemed to be playing “the movie” I wanted to see. The Continental or the Midway usually had the movies I wanted to see.
The Midway was also well maintained in the 80’s and early 90’s, even before the Midway’s transformation. I remember the two story balcony, with it’s ornate iron railing up to the balcony. They used to have an area upstairs in the lobby with video games you could play while waiting for the movie to start. Great times.
I haven’t been to the Cinemart often either, as it also never seemed to have the movies I wantec to see. Also, I liked the subway better than the bus to get places, and it was much easier to get to the Austin St area by subway.
The Ceinemart seems to be one of those old workhorse theaters that you always expect will be there….like the Ridgewood. But then the Ridgewood was taken away very suddenly.