RKO Keith's Richmond Hill Theatre

Oh No!!!! Jahn’s is closed??!!! I have great memories of the place. First the RKO Keiths, then The Triangle Hofbrau and now Jahns! I think I remember the sign on the marqee saying that it originally opened in 1896. I believe this was the last one remaining. At one time, I believe there were as many as 7 of them. I haven’t lived in the area in decades, but back in the 70’s, when I was in high school, this is where we came for Ice Cream. The Keith’s next door had already shut its doors for good. I remember going there after Senior Day (June 1977)at John Admas High School. On that day all seniors went to school and all classes dressed in costume (like Halloween). I wonder if that tradition still holds? Afterwards, many of us went to Jahn’s and ordered “The Kitchen Sink”. I could be wrong, but I think the price was $20 back in 1977. It was a really, really big bowl of Ice Cream with all kinds of fixins, but maybe $20 sounds like a lot. Does anyone else remember?

Thanks, Mortonman.

Thanks for all these details, Warren. Speaking of competition, what about that small theater on Jamaica Avenue at 113th Street some of us had discussed awhile ago ?

Both width and speed.

Compare the tinny sounds of a ‘70s K-Tel LP crammed to the max with 20-24 songs against the rich tones of a 12-song Cadence or Columbia LP from the late '50s. And that’s 33 RPM. Better still, compare “Don’t Be Cruel”/“Hound Dog” by Elvis on a 1956 78 against its RCA Greatest Hits LP counterpart. Not even close…

I can’t recall what theater I saw “The Exorcist” at in ‘73, but its sound system reproduced the chest-thumping bassline of Mike Oldham’s title theme far better than any Virgin record, tape or CD to date.

I could be wrong, but 1953 is generally the year attributed to the debut of the 7" 45 RPM record.

Our 1949 RCA floor console cost the family a whopping $400! The red light at its base, to indicate the set was on, burned out more often than any tube in the chassis during its 12-year lifetime.

Peter, you’ve got a 4-speed gem there. The slowest speed (16-2/3) was geared for radio transcription discs. The old radio shows on these fragile glass-based records can still be purchased, but they are expensive. 78 was the fastest speed for the shellac 10" records. Best bass reproduction ever available – and that includes the modern CD – but drop ‘em once and they were history. (Its only equal for bass was the subwoofer installed in many theaters.) The 33-1/3 long-play albums became available several years after WWII, and the 45 in '53. Cassettes and CDs made them all obsolete.

In the early days, each inventor did it his own way. Thomas Edison created a player than ran at 75 RPM. A friend inherited one and still has the yellowed instruction booklet that came with it!

Thanks, Warren. I would think TV had much to do with the closing of the smaller neighborhood movie theaters like the Wyckoff, Majestic and Parthenon, to name three in Ridgewood.

My family’s first TV was a cherry wood Motorola table model with, I think, a 16" diagonally measured screen. I’m not sure when my parents got it (it was there when I was born in November 1955) but it lasted until summer 1966, when we got our Sylvania console floor model TV (another “piece of furniture”).

That’s neat about the 45 rpm record changer which plugged into the TV’s speaker.

Enter only the url, WITHOUT THE COMMA, in one of two ways,
Mischief???? Not I.

Shalom, ciao, and excelsior

I always thought the ruling was officially only against Paramount with the others seeing the writing on the wall.

Tonino, you are correct in that the splitting of the studios from their theatres lead to the closing of many theatres in the fifties that had been artificially kept open by guaranteed product. The elimination of the theatres was a blessing in the disguise for the studios as it allowed them to minimise the losses of attendance caused by TV and drop B movies and double features made to feed the pipeline. This caused a product shortage. It also gave studios some ready cash with which to go into the TV business. It also allowed many independent exhibitors to open small theatres and compete for first run films with old palaces like the RKOs. A cinema like the Casino could hold a film for many weeks on low overhead.

I recall working in an 800 seat theatre in the summer of 1977 while a handful of customers watched A BRIDGE TO FAR while the 200 seater in the mall turned them away from STAR WARS.

Two other elements that hurt some theatres in the seventies were the elimination of product splitting and blind bidding. Theatres could no longer count on studio alignments and bids had to openly divulged AFTER the film was screened. Those studio alignments were back in evidence in Manhattan until well into the nineties as Cineplex Odeon still always played Universal product and Loews played Sony films, products from their parent companies. This was made possible by deregulation during the Reagan years.

When VCRs first became popular they actually helped theatres. People who had never seen the originals rushed the theatres for the sequels and eventually lead to the phenomenon whereby sequels could outgross the originals. VCRs and DVDs introduced stars to whole new generation who had never seen them at a cinema.

In checking movie demographics, I came across a surprising tidbit. According to Wikipedia,
<<Several movie studios achieved vertical integration by acquiring and constructing theatre chains. The so-called “Big Five” theatre chains of the 1920s and 1930s were all owned by studios: Paramount, Warner, Loews (owned by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer), Fox, and RKO. All were broken up as a result of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in the 1948 United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. anti-trust case.>>

I have always figured that TV was the main reason for the demise of movie theaters as we knew them. The advent of our changing society as manifest by the rise of the drive-in movie were nails in the coffin. I have to revise my thinking to include this anti-trust decision as a probable concurrent factor.

Shalom, ciao, and excelsior

I don’t think think day and date showcasing affected Manhattan houses by the seventies as it had been going on since 1962. It did bring first-run to the neighborhoods quicker at the expense of the Times Square theatres. Big houses like this RKO may have been counting the days on their lease as they probably had not sold out in years. The question remains, did many Manhattan leases run out in 1971 or was grind porn THAT lucrative?

Among the missing:
ACADEMY OF MUSIC
GLOBE
RIVERSIDE
DELANCEY
SYMPHONY

HEIGHTS

Remember that there was a serious product shortage in the late sixties-early seventies and that extended runs killed many subrun locations. Although many dollar houses eventually popped up in the suburbs in response, that was not an option in pricey New York and few theatres went into bargain pricing alternatives and survived.

There were two other theatres advertised as being in Richmond Hill in May 1968. A Casino and a Lefferts both advertised at the time. It would appear the Richmond Hill’s end came in mid-May with a double feature of IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT and THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING! THE RUSSIAN ARE COMING! shared with five other Queens runs. This was at a time when the Meadows and Lefrak demanded exclusive Queens runs. The RKO also seems to have been very much a “family” theatre at a time when wholesome product was failing at the box office. If it had held out a little longer may have been split up and stayed open for years.

After May 1968, I can find no other signs of it in the New York Times.

The statistics imply that many theatre’s closed in the 1950’s and again in the 1970’s. Perhap’s television was the main culprit of theatre closing’s in the 1950’s. VCR’s may have caused a similar problem in the 1970’s. Why did the RKO Keith’s Richmond Hill theatre close in the 1960’s if it survived television and was the only theatre in the area.