Town Theatre
37-11 Main Street,
Flushing,
NY
11354
37-11 Main Street,
Flushing,
NY
11354
1 person
favorited this theater
The Town Theatre was one of the first movie theatres in downtown Flushing, Queens, and dated back to the World War One era. It was previously known as the Taft Theatre, and may have had other names before that. As the Town Theatre, it was operated by the Century circuit, and then by the Springer chain in its final years.
Changing programs twice a week, the Town Theatre played the same double bills as its nearby competition, the RKO Keith’s Theatre and the Prospect Theatre, but several weeks afterwards. In 1959, it was demolished to make way for a W.T. Grant variety store.
Contributed by
Warren G. Harris
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Recent comments (view all 18 comments)
I have a nice photo of the taft i will post on here as soon as i get the chance. Warren, sine you seem to be THE theater guy around here, maybe you can help me out. I have a book on early queens and it shows a theater called the Janice that was also on main st. Was this the location of the Taft/Town, the seem to be in the same location in the pics. Thanks
Mike69, the Janice has a listing of its own here. It was not the same theatre as this one. The Janice was just a few doors south of Northern Boulevard. I’ve posted some pix at the Janice listing.
A Robert-Morton theater organ size 3/11 was installed in the Flushing theater in 1924. In 1950, the organ was moved to the 92nd Street Young Men’s & Young Women’s Hebrew Association New York, NY.
This 1935 exterior of the Taft Theatre was published in the August 24th issue of Queens Chronicle as part of its nostalgic “I Have Often Walked Series.” The pointed top of the rival RKO Keith’s Flushing can be seen at the far left of the image:
www.i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/taft35.jpg
Curiously, the article’s text makes no mention of the theatre’s origin as the Flushing or of its later identity as the Town. The writer seems more fascinated by the naming of the theatre in honor of William Howard Taft (27th president of the USA), and points out that another Taft Theatre is still thriving in President Taft’s hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio.
By February 1950, Century had turned over the management of the Town and 43rd Street to Springer Theatres, though the former connection was still clear in the placement of advertising:
www.i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/centspring.jpg
The Taft’s marquee can be seen at the extreme right of this 1939 view of Main Street, which looks north towards guess what? On the opposite side of the street from the Taft was Abramson’s, which for many years was Flushing’s only department store. I’m not sure if it was still operating by the time of the opening of Gertz on Roosevelt Avenue in the 1950s:
www.i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/taft39.jpg
This first opened as the Taft Theatre on December 31st, 1931, described in advertising as “New and Magnifcent,” and with the “Best Talking Pictures Presented in a Refined Atmsphere— at the Lowest Thrift Prices.” The first booking was a late-run double bill of “Skyline” & “Sob-Sister,” accompanied by a newsreel and color cartoon.
Here’s a new link to a 1935 exterior image as the Taft Theatre:
View link
Here’s another image of the Taft from the 1930s:
View link
When I was a child my aunt took me to Flushing. I remember walking past the Town. Even then I was a theatre nut. Does no one have pictures of the theatre as the Town? Also, I posted similar information to this a year or so ago but it has disappeared. Anybody else experience this sort of problem?