Colony Theatre

There’s an historic view here: nypl

Someone incorrectly clicked update street view at the Payless Shoe Source store. The theater was about two more clicks to the left, where the Duane Reade Drug Store is.

The Colony Theatre can be seen just to the left of the center of this image. Judging by a poster above the marquee for “The Citadel,” the photo was probably taken towards the end of 1938 or in early 1939: View link

Here is a photo of the Colony today, May 3, 2009.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/michaeldj/3498753416/

I had been to the Colony many times, the first time was to see the double Feature of “West Side Story” and “In The Heat Of The Night”. What i remember most of that first time was that inside the theater by the refreshment stand in the lobby was a second marquee which told us the upcoming attractions at the theater. I also the Frank Sinatra film “Dirsty Dingus Magree” there with an advance preview of Billy Wilder’s “The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes”. I also saw the third Sidney Poitier Virgil Tibbs film “The Organization” with an advance preview of the george Segal drug film, “Born To Win”. Later on on saw the second Dirty Harry film, “Magnum Force” with “The Last Of Sheila”.

Lost Memory mentioned an address of 37-27 82nd Street back in September 2006. That’s the listing for the theater in the 1959 yellow pages. It looks like the current occupant at 37-27 is a women’s clothing store.
http://tinyurl.com/5t6apc

I guess I was wrong. When I moved to Jackson Hts. in 1971 it was a funeral home. I seem to recall reading some years ago that it was a theater and it looks like a small nabe, at least when you can’t see the roof.
Eighty first St. at that location was never Shelton Ave. It was cut through around 1911 and was originally called 24th St.
Kurt M.

Warren is correct the theatre entrance was under the window. When it was first converted the store occupying the lobby area was “Parade of Shoes”, which has now apparently moved out. In the second photo, next to the ABC store is a $5 Store. The back of that store was knocked through into the former Colony auditorium. Between the ABC and $5 store is an alleyway, where the fire exits from the theatre were.

The address of the property that Kurt M references is 80-20 Roosevelt Avenue and was a funeral parlor and mortuary since as far back as 1956 when the C/O for same was issued. The C/O indicates the alteration of an existing building – and the timing is certainly right for the closure and conversion of a former nabe. The “bin” for this lot on NYC’s Building Department website also contains a C/O for a dwelling and store issued in 1931, but it seems to be referencing a Shelton Ave in the address. Was this an archaic name for 81st Street? This wouldn’t be the first time I’ve run across an errant C/O in the wrong property bin on that website. And I see no newer C/O converting from funeral home to restaurant.

I can’t get a good view of the front facade from local.live.com due to the elevated IRT tracks, but the building profile from the air does not seem to indicate that the structure was built as a cinema. While the structure may be big enough to have once contained a small theater, the two story structure features a flat roof with parapet wall, rather than the usual peaked roof seen in most purpose-built auditoriums. KurtM… how did you come to understand that this was ever a theater?

At the moment I am upstate and can’t check. The building is on the south west corner of Roosevelt Ave and Eighty First St. There is a Latino restaurnt there now, formerly called Gus' Chicken.
Kurt M.

The theater I mentioned in answer to Ed Solero was actually on eighty first Street and not Eightieth as I first wrote. I went their very recently and noted my error.
Kurt M.

The Colony first opened on August 8th, 1935, and made history by being the first cinema in Queens to have a woman as its manager. Edythe Sullivan was a five-year veteran of Brandt Theatres, and had previously been an assistant manager of its Globe Theatre on Broadway in Manhattan. Due to fierce competition from two Skouras theatres in Jackson Heights (the Jackson and Boulevard), the Colony had to settle for a late-run policy with an emphasis on the “best” releases of recent years. The opening program was a double bill of “It Happened One Night” and “The Private Life of Henry the Eighth.” Advertising described the Colony as “A New Thrill in Grand Comfort and Intimacy.” A local newspaper reported that “This intimate little theatre, in the best modern taste, is one of the most pleasing in its interior appointments that we have ever entered. The sand-colored walls are broken into well-designed horizontal planes, which provide an interesting indirect-lighting scheme. These are balanced, here and there, by vertical accents of red, repeating the color of the upholstery of the seats. The seats, incidentally, are designed for comfort, with an angle at the back which induces relaxation. Further, from back to back, the distance is 36 inches— four more than required— enough room for the longest legs to know real comfort. The elevated loge, the front of which suggests the bridge of a moder ocean liner, is reached by twin stairways, one on each side, at the rear of the auditorium. The walls of the lobby are made interesting by the restrained use of vertical mirrors, in sapphire and crystal.”