RKO Keith's Theatre
135-35 Northern Boulevard,
Flushing,
NY
11354
135-35 Northern Boulevard,
Flushing,
NY
11354
41 people
favorited this theater
Once one of the most celebrated movie palaces of New York City, the RKO Keith’s Theatre in the Flushing section of Queens, is only a ghost of its former self.
Opened on December 25, 1928, by the 1970’s, the theatre had been tripled, and as legend has it, in 1986, after almost sixty years of showing movies, the theater was closed and sold. Soon after, its owner attempted to demolish it before a hearing could be held to decide its fate.
Having already removed its famous facade and with part of the theater already gutted, the demolition was halted by the city. The owner soon forfeited the property, and the damaged and stripped RKO Keith’s Theatre has sat and waited for its final demolition for almost 30 years.
No one has ever decided what to do with the building and it sits to this day.
Contributed by
Ross Melnick, William Gabel
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Recent comments (view all 1,307 comments)
The photos should also be posted in the photo section, so that when the comment links are inevitably broken, we will still have the hard copy in the photo section.
These photos can be uploaded to the site, unfortunately there are no zoom options, they have to be done 1 at a time and they have to be re-captioned. I did copy 1. Getting back to the theatre, here is an interesting item:
Incredibly still in business as Tapecon, Inc. in Buffalo. The original family business was the Davis Bulletin Co. founded in Buffalo, NY by Albert Davis in 1919. The Davis annunciator was used to display vaudeville acts as they appeared on stage. These annunciator instructions are still located on either side of the stage.
Personally, I like the way these photos are presented in the messages, they are very vivid, and striking.
Amazing!!! The Cadillac Palace (once the RKO Palace) in Chicago still have their annunciator displays located on sides of the stage. I bet they also have instructions on the upkeep as well. SWC, you are a treasure yourself!!
Here is another interesting one: In the basement alone there were over 50 rooms with everything needed to support large scale theatrical productions: musicians room, band leaders room, stage manager’s room, electricians,carpenters room, porters,vaults, library, laundry, engineers room, doorman’s room, store rooms and an animal room (number 62 to be exact). This room was sealed off and I shot this through a hole in the wall just large enough to fit my camera through, in the background there is a bath; the show animals were led up an adjacent 4/1 ramp under to the stage.
Can it survive or will the NYC Board of Standards & Appeals grant yet another waiver to allow the developer more time on 1/31/12?
The RKO in the year of the Dragon
Another lost cause here!
lfreimauer – Maybe you should check out this page on
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/220242754654213/223364514342037/
They intend to restore this great movie palace. I only wish I could live to see it. In the early 1950’s, its spendor could match ANY theatre in NYC. Of course also in Queens, Loews Valencia came pretty damn close.
It’s gutted I tell you