RKO Fordham Theatre
215 E. Fordham Road,
Bronx,
NY
10458
215 E. Fordham Road,
Bronx,
NY
10458
10 people
favorited this theater
The Fordham Theatre was always considered one of the top Bronx theatres due to its location in the shopping hub around the Grand Concourse and Fordham Road. With William McElfatrick as architect, it was primarily designed for vaudeville and built by Keith-Albee. As Keith’s Fordham Theatre, it first opened on April 14, 1921, with six acts of “Best Keith Vaudeville” plus the feature movie, “Black Roses”.
In 1929, the Keith theatres were merged into the RKO circuit. In that year, the Fordham Theatre also got a major rival in the larger and more sumptuous Loew’s Paradise Theatre on the Grand Concourse. For several decades, the two theatres were the area leaders, although the Paradise Theatre had the advantage of showing movies that were exclusive for the Bronx. The RKO Fordham Theatre showed the same programs as six other Bronx RKO theatres, as well as some Skouras houses in areas without RKO outlets.
The Fordham Theatre survived into the era of mass distribution and was triplexed in 1976. A fourth screen was added in 1980, but a decline in the neighborhood’s business district finally forced the Fordham Theatre to close. It was demolished in March, 1987, and replaced by retail buildings.
Contributed by
Warren G. Harris
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Recent comments (view all 58 comments)
To rko11: Would you have known Mr. Richard/Dick Clark who was the theater manager? Mr. Clark was my grandfather.
I do not know the exact dates he was the manager at Fordham. He was also the theater manager at several other RKO theaters in the Westchester Co./Bronx area. I would have to check with my mother to know which ones for certain.
But I have about 50 – 60 original promotional photos of all the events listed in these postings. I have many pictures of him with the stars making appearances. There are several of my mother with the Dave Clark 5, Joey Heatherington and some other young stars. Jerry Lewis, Bette Davis, Jayne Mansfield, Marilyn Monroe… the list goes on!! Most are in front of the theater or from across the street showing all the fanfare. Some really amazing pics!
RKO11 … I too remember both Davis and Crawford appearing together on stage during the “Baby Jane” run. I’m only about 95 percent sure of that, becasue I was 9 years old. I usually went to the movies on Saturday kiddie matinees, but that night my father took me first to where he was voting (November … Election Day!), then to the RKO Coliseum in Washington Heights. I also remember that it was a double bill with “Count of Monte Cristo,” which they interrupted when the stars appeared. No Baby Jane doll for me either.
The link I posted on 9/26/07 no longer works; use this one instead:
Bus in front of the RKO Forham, circa 1956
The RKO Fordham can also be seen in this photo.
I’m a geezer, age 75, now exiled to the Midwest, who remembers the RKO Fordham, the Valentine, and the Concourse theaters. I wasted much of my youth at them all. But, even after examining their photos and map sites in this terrific CinemaTreasures Website, I can’t recollect their relative locations, in respect to one another, along Fordham Road. I’m sure only that the Valentine Theatre was east of the Concourse Theatre, on the north side of Fordham Road between the Concourse and Valentine Avenue. Could anybody clarify a codger’s dim memories? [i also frittered away time in the Lido, the Paradise, and Loew’s Grand, but I remember where they were!]
On Friday January 26, 1962, the Three Stooges (Moe Howard, Larry Fine and Curly-Joe DeRita) embarked on a three day promotional tour for their latest feature film, THE THREE STOOGES MEET HERCULES. They were accompanied by “The Herculean Giant” (almost 8 foot tall Dave Ballard) and popular DJ Clay Cole, who was one of the stars of the co-feature, TWIST AROUND THE CLOCK.
On Friday January 26, they appeared at the RKO Fordham at 8:20 PM.
Here is the Fordham in 1968.
The very first post about this theater mentions it’s placement in “The Wanderers” opening credits. Now available on YouTube, which probably wasn’t around in 2004.
An interesting observation I made is, the films advertised on the RKO Fordham marquee in “The Wanderers” are “Battle Cry” & “War Is Hell”. This was obviously supposed to be an establishing shot that it was set in 1963. JFK’s assassination plays a part later in the film.
In reality though, the two films playing at the Texas Theater when Oswald was caught were “Cry Of Battle” & War Is Hell". Oddly “Battle Cry”-1955 & “Cry Of Battle”-1963 both starred Van Heflin. Was “The Wanderes” director just going from memory, or did “Battle Cry” ring with more resonance given the films gang theme? Guess we’ll hve to rent the director’s cut.
This photograph of The RKO Fordham Theatre was taken in 1931 by George Mann of the comedy dance team, Barto and Mann.
Hey Joe, I remember that well. What great times I had working at the RKO Fordham from 1961 to 1969 as an usher, Assistant Chief Usher, then Chief Usher and then was transferred to the newly renovated RKO Stanley Warner Cinerama, Penthouse and Orleans on 47th & Broadway as the Manager of the Cinerama.
But the RKO Fordham will never be forgotten. My first Chief Usher was Martin Schwabb, then Carl, then Roy and then I became the Chief Usher. I remember the uniform with the braids and I had the ushers wear white gloves and I used to check there shoes in the ushers dressing room under the stage to make sure their shoes were polished before they took the floor. Then I became the Assistant Manager under Jack Reis who was the Manager then became the District/Division Manager and I became the manager. I had great ushers Terry, Andre, Sydney, Mike, Danny and many others, the cashiers I remember was Martha, Olivia, Sylvia and Estelle, the porter Monte, the matrons Mrs Ackerman, Mrs Sharky and a mrs hudak, concession Hanna, my doorman was fabulous we called him ‘pop’ he was in his eighties and was so on top of everything. He drove to work everyday in his white car and would keep the rough necks out from sneaking by him to get into the theatre, the projection people Al, Cy and I remember they had a lounge chair on the roof and during the summer I would at times go up there to get a tan, Eddie was the electrician who changed the marquee on Tuesday evenings, Mr Gallagher and another gentleman who ran the air conditioning/heating systems they were the engineers, the two guys selling newspapers under the marquee at night and Sunday mornings, the ladies shop next door. What fun… I could go on and on and on…. I made so many friends back then. I remember as an usher carrying those heavy cans of film up to the projection booth for the projectionists. I remember the loads of and one large handle that controlled the lights backstage for intermission and we had to close the curtain manually. We had a little office in the lobby that was hidden with mirrors where we controlled the marquee lights and the concession stock room was inside there also. The managers office was on the mezzanine floor near the alcove where the telephone booths were.
I also helped out at the Colisseum a couple of times when they needed it, because Mr Reis was the DM of all the Bronx RKO’s.
Those were the days my friend… I could go on and on….