Hobart Theatre
51-06 31st Avenue,
Woodside,
NY
11377
51-06 31st Avenue,
Woodside,
NY
11377
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The Hobart Theatre was part of a group of small, modern theatres that were built near the end of the Depression in Queens neighborhoods that had new houses or apartment developments.
The Hobart Theatre was opened in 1938, on the borderline between Astoria and Woodside sections of Queens, an area that already had numerous theatres, so it had to settle for never being more than a late-run house. Closed in the 1960’s, the building was converted to retail use.
Contributed by
Warren G. Harris
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Recent comments (view all 42 comments)
As Ed wrote above: “Warren… Do you even read the posts that you attack so viciously”. The address is on the deed to this property. Read it!
This is a very simple problem to solve. We will use the new and improved Warren G. Harris method of addressing. The Hobart theater was located SOMEWHERE on 31st Avenue. If that method of addressing is good enough for the RKO Keith’s Theater in Flushing, it is good enough for the Hobart. The correct address has been given for this theater. If the people operating this site choose not to use that address, that is their prerogative. Have a nice day.
It does seem that the majority of evidence suggests that 51-06 is correct, so I’ve updated the address. Should the balance sway towards 51-05, we can always change it back.
Thanks to Ed, Lost Memory, and Warren for putting some serious effort into getting the correct address.
Next time, though, please remember that the right answer can sometimes be fuzzy, and it’s ok to have a difference of opinion about something. ;)
Here are new links to previously posted press coverage of the Hobart Theatre’s grand opening:
View link
View link
Here is an item from Boxoffice magazine, January 1963:
NEW YORK-Arthur Marks, assistant manager of the Plaza Theater, Manhattan art house playing “David and Lisa”, has leased the 600-seat Hobart Theater, Woodside, L.I. (sic) starting January 6. The theater will continue a policy of playing art and foreign films.
Not being from Queens I never visited the theatre . But my cousin did all the time and that is where he contracted ringworm.
I went to PS 151 just down the block from the Hobart Theater. I lived on 48th St between Northern Blvd and Broadway. To get to the theater I went past my high school, Wm. C. Bryant HS (“Out the door in ‘54”), then past 151.
Cardboard posters were in almost every store window in the area with logos and stars names and movie titles and dates adorning them, along with the Hobart Theater’s summertime motto, “Beat the heat in a Hobart seat” because it was one of the first to have air-conditioning. We tough kids used to parody the motto as, “Beat your meat in a Hobart seat.”
Continued—
I remember when “Stagecoach” was playing at the Hobart and my mother MADE me take my two much younger brothers with me (Oh, the humiliation!) I needed another nickle for admission, so I had to agree. Unfortunately, both my brothers got so antsy and noisy the theater’s matron (white dress, gloves, cap and a flashlight) made me take them out. I didn’t get to see the end of “Stagecoach” until several years later.
We use to see 2 features, a action serial, one or sometimes 2 shorts, Movietone News and a couple of cartoons. All for 15 cents admission.
1963?
jack the giant killer and dr. no
wow, the movie-going experience of my young life!
i am seven years-old and my dear sister, mary shea took me to see this double-feature and i was stunned by the colors that were dripping off the screen~gorgeous hues of red,purple and blue,ect.. when the flying witc attacked the viking ship,i remember the daylight sky turning black as night, not like the reddish color seen on the
laser disk or dvd printsas
cont…laser disc and dvd prints and i rode that fear out by grasping onto the arms of the seat and dug my heels into the floor!
i know now that this was a ripp-off of ray harryhausen’s “7th voyage of sinbad with some of the same lead actors and inferior stop-motion animation models but it holds a special place in my heart to this day!
another great day at the hobart theatre!
I lived in the Woodside Houses 1954-1986. Hobart was a great little theatre. Frances ran the candy counter and a mother/daughter duo were the matrons. I remember the rest rooms upstairs had a big wide hallway. Films I remember there were ‘The Last Voyage’ and ‘Peyton Place.’ People walked up the avenue to the pizza place opposite Bryant High School…juke box was cool. They even gave out free dishes! There was a luncheonette on one corner and a bar on the other..also a jewerly store and vegetable store. Charlotte Pollock dance studio shared a space on an upper level of the bldg…a dentist too.