Boulevard Theatre
82-22 Northern Boulevard,
Jackson Heights,
NY
11372
82-22 Northern Boulevard,
Jackson Heights,
NY
11372
2 people
favorited this theater
The Boulevard Theatre first opened in November, 1926, and was one of three theatres built in NW Queens by the Grob & Knobel circuit with Herbert J. Krapp as architect. The Boulevard Theatre in the Jackson Heights section of Queens, was the only one of the three with stage facilities large enough to handle a live play or musical. Unlike the other two, it also had a balcony; the Sunnyside Theatre had all of its seats on a steeply raked main floor, while the Jackson Theatre had a raised “stadium” section of seats at the rear of the auditorium.
The Boulevard Theatre was designed to be a playhouse, with bookings of shows that had recently closed on Broadway or were “trying out” enroute. The attractions ran from Monday through Saturday, with Sunday used for vaudeville and a feature movie.
In 1928, when William Fox acquired the Grob & Knobel theatres, he kept the Boulevard Theatre legit by sub-leasing it to Louis Werba, who also operated playhouses in Brooklyn, the Bronx and Upper Manhattan. The onset of the Depression sent both Fox and Werba into bankruptcy, so the Boulevard became a double-feature movie house under Fox’s successor, Skouras Theatres, which also took over the Jackson Theatre and Sunnyside Theatre (later sold to Century Theatres).
Due to its location in a residential area on Northern Boulevard that was a long walk from the 82nd Street shopping district around Roosevelt Avenue, the Boulevard Theatre never did as well as the Jackson Theatre, but it survived a triplexing in the early-1970s before a decline in the neighborhood caused its closure. It sat vacant for at least a decade while a battle raged over the owner’s plan for demolition, which was opposed by the community.
The Boulevard Theatre was finally sold for conversion to what has become the highly succesful Natives Restaurant-Theatre, catering to Queens' very large Hispanic community. The restaurant-bar takes up the Boulevard’s former entrance and lobby, while the three auditoriums are used for plays, concerts, and sometimes imported movies.
Contributed by
Warren G. Harris
Want to be emailed when a new comment is posted about this theater?
Just login to your account and subscribe to this theater
Recent comments (view all 23 comments)
A Wurlitzer theater organ opus 1300 style “E” was installed in the Boulevard Theater on 3/22/1926. Status: sold.
The Boulevard was a regular theater for me during the 1970’s. I first saw a double Feature of “Che” and “The Sand Pebbles” there. I also saw Mel Brooks' “The 12 Chairs there. Later in the mid ‘70’s they closed off the balcony and twined it. They constantly doubled up films that played single at other theaters. The theater that was one bus away from me showed the RObert Shaw film, "Diamonds” by itself while I instead took two buses to see it with “Rider on The Rain”. In the summer of 1976 they were the only theater showing the reissue of “The Exorcist” with a second feature which was the sean Connery starrer, “The Terrorist”. I was shocked when they let kids of all ages to see it. I sat with two 9 year olds. During the second feature one of the kid’s fathers came in to see the show and was shocked to see his son there. Plus as I was waiting to get in the manager was telling the kids to come back next week to see the R rated, “Squirm”. I did see “Squirm” there with a sneak preview of “Futureworld”. Squirm was a great experience as the packed audience there mostly for “Futureworld” was make remarks at the screen and all of us were having a good time. I became friendly with the couple next to me, they just got married and he loved horror films, she never watched them and was complaining to me that the night before he took her to see “The Food Of The Gods”, and she commented that first Giant rat now human eating worms. I always wondered how long that marriage lasted.
Other double features I saw there was “Rabbit Test” with “The Hot Rock” (which had been shown on TV many times at the time), “Mr. Billion” and “From Noon To Three”, “Smokey And The Bandit” with “The Seven Percent Solution”, and the last double feature I saw there was the 1979 reissue of “Jaws” with another film that had already been shown on TV a few times, the Charles Bronson/James Coburn film, “Hard Times”. I miss those old days.
This is a 1981 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/dkxwjl
A capsule history and vintage photo can be found here: View link
Here is a view of the lobby, circa 1930s:
http://tinyurl.com/oe3pvf
Website http://www.nativesrestaurant.com/
Ed, can you re-post the photos from your 2006 postings? I am looking for other historic photos as well, from anyone else who may have some. Thank you!
dag. none of these photos work??
Sorry to be more than a day late and a dollar short, NativeForestHiller, but here are the updated links to the photos I had posted back in 2006:
Long shot Sept 2005
Tighter shot Sept 2005
Interior restaurant from website
Interior bar area from website
Balcony theater from website
There is some original architectural work still preserved in the ceiling of the first two interior shots and a glimpse of some sidewall decoration exposed in the last shot, just to the right of dead center where that opening in the red curtain is.
Thank you for sharing these images of the facade & interior, Ed. Too bad the facade has that tacky aluminum siding. I hope the owners see our correspondence, and restore the theater. A restored facade = A greater entrance, which is better for business. I love envisioning what it would be like to peel back the layers.