UA Midway Stadium 9
108-22 Queens Boulevard,
Forest Hills,
NY
11375
108-22 Queens Boulevard,
Forest Hills,
NY
11375
15 people
favorited this theater
Located in the Forest Hills section of Queens. After decades as a single screen movie palace, the 1942 built; Midway Theatre (named for the famous Battle of Midway) was sold in June 1997 to the Heskel Group. The total purchase price, which included the nearby Forest Hills Theatre, was $9 million.
The theater was closed two months later and completely renovated into a nine-screen multiplex. Following a year of construction, the Midway Theatre reopened as the UA Midway 9 and is now one of Queens' best performing movie theaters.
Sadly, the theater’s original interior appearance was mostly lost during the conversion, but its exterior remains a familiar Queens Boulevard landmark.
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Recent comments (view all 137 comments)
Tonight at 7:30pm will mark the 68th anniversary of the grand opening of the RKO Midway Theatre. The ceremonies started with a short documentary about the event for which the theatre was named, “The Battle of Midway,” followed by the supporting feature, “Just Off Broadway,” and then the main “The Pied Piper.” The Midway’s double-feature programs were first-run for Queens, but shared with other borough houses including RKO’s Flushing, Richmond Hill, Alden (Jamaica), Strand (Far Rockaway), and Madison (Ridgewood), and the Skouras Astoria and Merrick (Jamaica).
I agree with joemanfre’s post about his father, Charlie. Not only should a section of the lobby be named for his father but the entire lobby should be named “The Charlie Manfre Lobby”.
Charlie was a great man who worked harder than anyone could ever imagine. His dedication to the Midway Theatre should always be remembered.
Just went here for the first time in my 13 years living in Queens, saw Bucky Larson, Born to be a Star. Big crowd, 2 people myself included. Theater was quite nice, spiral staircases to the upper theaters, concession stands and bathrooms on both floors. Could never tell theater was 69 years old. But the admission prices compare to the Atlas Mall theather in Glendale. Matinee was $9.50! Nighttime showings are $13.50 with $17.50 tops for 3D!
The original description for this theater is incorrect. The first line says “Located in the Forest Hills section of Queens. After decades as a single screen movie palace, the 1942 built; Midway Theatre (named for the famous Battle of Midway) was sold in June 1997 to the Heskel Group……The theater was closed two months later and completely renovated into a nine-screen multiplex.”
While that is true, it did NOT go from a single screen theater “after decades of being a single screen movie palace” to the 9 screens it has today. From the mid to late 80’s to 1997, it was cut up into a quad, with two movie auditoriums in the old balcony, and two movie auditoriums in the orchestra level. I saw many movies in that theater in the quad set up, particularly in the late 80’s and early 90’s.
Nice catch, Bway. I recall sneaking around to various films after seeing the film for which I paid admission. Sometimes a tricky task because there were one or two old timers on patrol in the lobby watching for such shenanigans. It was actually easiest when there were crowds queued up in the ticket lobby for popular films. My friends and I would casually exit from one auditorium into the lobby and visit the men’s room and then wait until we could filter into the crowd as it was allowed to proceed into their auditorium. This sort of thing is so much easier now, with the standard multiplex practice of ripping tickets right by the entrance to the lobby – not to mention the young minimum wage staffers who, by and large, could give a damn if you spend the whole day there migrating from one theater to the next.
Anyway, I was particularly fond of the two upstairs theaters, where we used to sit in the first row with our feet up on the railing due to the comfortable distance to the screen from that vantage point.
I also recall during midnight showings of “Rocky Horror Picture Show” that folks would run out onto the floor beyond the railing in front of the screen to participate in some of the usual audience rituals for those viewings (such as jumping up to “touch” the image of Susan Sarandon’s breasts during the “Touch Me” number). Looking back, I realize now that the floor between the seats and the screen was just a false ceiling erected to seperate the balcony theaters from the orchestra level. It’s a wonder none of the “Rocky Horror” participants ever fell through onto whatever was screening below!
Ed, you read my mind! That’s how I also remember that it was a quad, as as a kid we would do the same thing there. I remember the ornate railing on the left that used to go up to the second floor. On the second floor landing up there, there were a bunch of video games, and I remember playing them when waiting for the movie to end prior to the time we were going. We also would try and sneak into one of the other theaters afterwards. I remember the Midway to be very clean and well kept at that time (at least next to my home theater, the Ridgewood). We would make the trek from Ridgewood on the subway to the Midway or Continental over on Austin St. While both were better kept than the Ridgewood, i think half the fun was riding over to the Midway on the subway “by ourselves”. I would usually just tell my mother that we were going to a movie at the Ridgewood.
Here’s a 1980s tax photo which gives a side view of the original auditorium housing: lunaimaging
This the theater where my family and I saw “Operation Crossbow” when we came to NYC primarily for the World’s Fair in 1965.
I worked as an usher at the UA Forest Hills Twin on Continental in the early 80s….I’ve got a question: In my collection, I have a ticket on yellow stock, about the size of an index card, that says:
Skouras Air Conditioned Midway Theatre, In Person – On Stage, Sunday, August 26th at Approximately 5 P.M., Sensational Star of “5 Weeks in a Balloon” Fabian Extra Guest Star Peter Lorre, Plus! WINS’s Fabulous Disc Jockey Murray The K, – On the Screen – ‘5 Weeks in a Balloon’ plus Swingin' Along'
There’s no year, but imdb has 1962 for the release. Does anyone know if it was common then for the Midway, or the Forest Hills Theater on Continental, to host such live appearances? Appreciate it if anyone has any info. Thanks!
Fabian and company were probably part of a whirlwind promotional tour of neighborhood theatres in behalf of the movie. Practice happened often in those days, especially for shlock movies that needed all the help they could get.