Belle Harbor Twin
150 Beach 116th Street,
Rockaway Park,
NY
11694
150 Beach 116th Street,
Rockaway Park,
NY
11694
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Located on the east side of Beach 116th Street in Rockaway Park, Long Island. This theater was located just off the Boardwalk fronting the Atlantic Ocean.
It was about 900 seats divided between the orchestra and a 250 seat elevated section at the rear. The inner lobby featured a staircase to the non existent balcony. The elevated rear section was gained from the orchestra.
It operated from about 1929 to 1961. It was an RKO house for a while in the early to mid-1940’s. By 1947 Movietone News had replaced RKO Pathe News. In 1947 the inner lobby was redone in red plush and the new “sliding seat” was installed so patrons could shift rearwood to allow someone to pass without standing up from their seat.
There was a portable box office used under the marquee in summertime and after the season the box office in the south wall of the entrance lobby was used.
It was later twinned and was renamed Belle Harbor Twin.
Contributed by
J.F. Lundy
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Recent comments (view all 47 comments)
This photo shows a Rockaway Park theater that has not yet been listed, as far as I know.
http://tinyurl.com/d9nv3a
Compare that photo to this photo that Bway previously posted. They look like the same building to me.
Here is the Park Theater in 1966. It is the same theater as the Belle Harbor. This theater should be listed as the Belle Harbor since that was it’s later name. And screens should be two.
In 1986 the building looked like this.
Wow! When I was a teenager in the mid 80’s, we often would stop for lunch at that pizza place….I had NO idea that used to be a theater when we ate there! It finally clicked when Lost Memory posted that link….
Here is a large photo, viewing Beach 116th Street, taken from the air above the surf, over the boardwalk and up to the Boulevard. The Park Theater is on the right of B.116th St., fourth building up the block. The roof and swiveling windows are clearing shown.
The date is 4 July 1946. Curley’s Hotel, Restaurant and Bar is shown fronting the Boardwalk on the Left. The third building up the street on the left side, with the flat roof, is the new Grand Union Store which introduced the automatic can dispensing shelving system to the Rockaways.
Here is the link to the photo promised above:
View link
There is also an image of this theatre on the So. Ozone Park, Park theatre site dated 12/14/2007 and an image of the Belle Harbor Theatre, which is obviously the Park at a later date, incorrectly linked at the New Theatre site. Anybody here with the expertise to replicate these images on this site?
Clearly no movement to do anything with this property in the past 3 three years or more. A very old hand-painted sign on the facade reads “Hall for hire” and lists a phone number.
As a kid, I spent my summers in Rockaway, with my family renting a series of bungalows on 107th St, until everything up to 108th Street was torn down for Robert Moses' urban renewal/destruction. I remember going to see The Wizard of Oz at the Park Theater with my grandmother…..but remember climbing up a series of steps outside to an upper theater, that was rarely used, and the seats weren’t cushioned.this was in 1955. Anyone else have a recollection of this? Could this have been just a staircase to the little used balcony?