Next time my Mom’s over the house, I should take her for a ride through the old neighborhood and see if I can grab a dog from Eddie… red onions and all. I’ll probably have to wait for the weather to warm up a bit! I loved growing up in this neighborhood and was very sad to move away to Laurelton when I was 9. While I enjoyed living in Laurelton through my teen and college years and would meet my oldest freinds there, Elmhurst and Corona occupy a very special place in my heart. I lived on 41st Ave between Junction and Warren in Elmhurst in a crowded 2 family house (plus 2 illegal apartments – though I didn’t know that at the time) along with my Grandparents, Great Grandparents, a pair of Aunts and cousin. My Uncle and Aunt and 4 cousins lived in a 2 family over on 98th Place off Alstyne in Corona, which was a quick 2 minute drive or even a nice casual stroll away. It all felt very homey and most of my warmest and fondest memories of family spring from this time.
Great page, Christina… I really enjoyed reading it. One quibble: you talked about the Lemon Ice King and Spaghetti Park, but you forgot to mention the great Parkside Restaurant and I didn’t see any mention of some of the great (and, sadly, gone) Italian bakeries like Stassi’s and Baldi’s. Anyway… thanks for the stroll down memory lane.
Hmmmm. Is the view of the screen through the doors completely blocked or just partially? I can clearly remember being able to see the screen (or part of it) through those windows back in the late ‘70’s and '80’s. I recall the incident I described previously where I frightened my younger brother with a glimpse of the original “Dawn of the Dead” and on other occasions waiting patiently for the end of the previous showing of a particular movie to end – trying very hard to resist the temptation to peak a glimpse at the film’s ending.
I’ve heard about this Atlas Park project. Some kind of huge mall and park in Glendale off Cooper Avenue. I remember reading about it and trying to figure out the exact location and what was being demolished and built over. In any event, Warren is right. If there’ll be a multiplex with plenty of free parking, it will offer fierce competition to parking-challenged cinemas like the Kew Gardens, Midway and Continental Theaters (I’m not familiar with the situations in Ridgewood). And the owners at the recently expanded and renovated Queens Center Mall on Queens Blvd and the inferior Metro Mall on Metropolitan Avenue can’t be too happy about its development either.
The IMAX screen at the Lincoln Square theater is larger and the seating comfortably configured specifically for the large format, but this is far more elegant space and the films are usually spectacular. Plus, there’s a balcony with front row seats offering the best view.
One more point… Warren’s introduction at the top of this page indicates the theater was replaced with a post office, however, the photo on forgotten-ny shows a two story building with a pizzeria on the ground floor. Do you think they’ve got the location wrong? There is a Post Office a few doors down from the Loew’s Plaza on Roosevelt Ave.
Thanks, Warren. I spent my early childhood in Elmhurst and Corona, so it was an interesting read. In the section where they discuss Corona’s Theaters, however, they did leave out the UA theater that was located within the Lefrak City apartment complex on 99th Street – ironically, a theater (and development) that never seemed to want an association with Corona in the first place.
Anyway, speculation here as to the location of the Hyperion Theater seems to be a bit off the mark according to the forgotten-ny site. They depict the theater as being located on 103rd Street and 39th Avenue. That places the theater on the north side of Roosevelt Ave, rather than south of the old Loew’s Plaza near Linden Park.
Just to jog some old memories… any locals familiar with the old Linden Park when it had a public above ground swimming pool? I used to go to that pool when I was a kid in the early ‘70’s. They had these open cubbies for shoes and stuff and I recall one day after swimming I found that my sneakers had been heisted. I had to walk barefoot from the park (apologies to Neil Simon) all the way down 41st Ave back to my house on the other side of Junction Blvd. I can still remember looking down carefully at the sidewalk and street in front of me to avoid stepping on any gum, glass or other problematic objects. What a long walk that was. After that, I stuck to the big old Ederle public pool in Flushing Meadows Park.
There was also a guy who sold hotdogs out of a truck outside of Linden Park who we all called “Eddie Hots.” For years after we left the neighborhood, my mom would drive by the park and have me run out to get her a dog from Eddie – with mustard and those red onions. I wonder if anyone here remembers him.
Saps… just curious. Are there any remnants of the theater’s original decor in its current configuration? It’s been ages since I saw a film here and I frankly don’t recall much detail about the interior other than the windows on the doors leading from the foyer into the original orchestra-level theaters.
The problem with that last sentiment, TheaterBuff1, is that “Hollywood” doesn’t own any of those buildings! In many cases (probably the overwhelming majority, but I’m not sure) the church is not a tenant but the actual owner of the former theater. So, should the industry miraculously decide to radically switch gears on the manner of theatrical presentation – moving away from mega-plexes and the concept of “universal release” and back towards the single screen first-run palaces and neighborhood showcases – they’d have to either build from scratch or launch a massive reclamation project and start negotiating with these churches to purchase the old theaters back. And it wouldn’t be the “industry” per se (since anti-trust legislation divested the studios from theater ownership) but the theater owners who would have to mount the effort. And where would all these congregations go for services?
The way things seem to be going with the film industry, I seriously doubt that we’ll see a widespread movement towards a single screen paradigm, TheaterBuff1. The fight for movie palace restoration and preservation will continue to be played out one theater at a time and will focus on those edifices facing the most immediate threats of demolition. Those that are currently being preserved to varying degrees as houses of worship are safe from immediate danger and – better still – can be still be appreciated by anyone willing to pay the small price of attending a Sunday morning service. And some of those churches even run the occasional movie, from time to time (see the Loew’s 175th Street).
I’d love to wake up one morning in a world where spacious first-run Broadway palaces and smaller neighborhood gems proliferate. I don’t think it’s particularly cynical to consider that little more than a pleasant fantasy.
I think I saw “Frances” here in 1982 or so. This was the bio-pic starring Jessica Lange as troubled 1930’s film actress Frances Farmer. I’d been here more than once, but “Frances” is all that specifically leaps to mind. Nothing I can really add to the conversation here. What a shame. The subterranean New York Twin across the street is a dreary and unworthy successor to the “Beekman” name. I think I’d rather have that moniker retired than have its memory besmirched by association with the Twin.
I was in the neighborhood yesterday for a christmas party at my brother’s fire house on 67th Street between 3rd and Lex. I was surprised to see the New York Twin sign with the name “Beekman” which is what prompted me to post my 2 cents here.
My Dad took me here (the only time I’ve been) in June of ‘77 to see “Star Wars” during its initial run. I remember we were shut out of one screening and purchased tickets for the following show a couple of hours later. To kill time, we went across the street to a diner/restaurant which had big windows that looked directly across to the theater marquee. I can’t recall the details too vividly. I think the marquee was on 3rd Ave and I recall after eating that my dad and I rushed back across the street to get a decent spot on the rapidly growing ticket-holder’s line.
As there was so much time before they would start letting us in, my Dad agreed to let me take a stroll around the neighborhood while he held our place on line – I was 12 years old and this was the first time I would be taking a stroll in the City all by myself. So, I headed east on 86th Street with a goal of making it all the way to the East River. Ultimately, I found a park stood in my way of getting to the water’s edge (Carl Schurz Park where the mayor’s residence at Gracie Mansion is located, I would later learn) and had to make a retreat back towards the theater. When I got back to 3rd Ave and could see the line was moving into the theater, I got a bit nervous. When I made my way to the entrance, I found my Dad waiting there and a bit peeved that he had to let a lot of people in ahead of him as he waited for me. I remember accepting his anger and being thankful that he was more upset that I mosied around oblivious to time then he was nervously wondering whether I had gone missing somewhere in the big bad City (he may well have fretted over that prospect, but if so, he certainly didn’t let on to me about it).
Once inside, I recall the theater was quite large with a center orchestra section and two narrower sections on either side. I don’t recall the decor, but the hues were dark and I seem to recall a red curtain in front of the screen. The seats were plush and we wound up sitting on the right aisle in the center section about ¾ of the way back. There may have been a break in the sections with a cross-aisle closer to the screen, but I can’t recall exactly as we sat more to the rear. I thought there was a balcony, but I realize now this might have just been the lower ceiling former by the former loge/mezzanine that had been converted to the separate Loew’s Cine auditorium.
Anyway… it was nice to stroll down memory lane here. Thanks for the indulgence.
The introductory description is in error, I believe, about the closing date of this theater. I never attended a movie here, but during the period in the early ‘80’s when I would frequently take in screenings all over town I can recall being aware of the New Yorker’s exsitence on Broadway and 88th Street for revival fare. It was a theater I wanted to visit, but never had the opportunity.
Anyone have specific information regarding the approximate date of its closing?
The only film I saw here was the original “Ghostbusters” in 1984. I recall it played both auditoriums with the schedule made up so that there was no more than an hour or so wait between screenings. I also recall that one theater played a 70mm print while the other a 35mm print. The line stretched around the corner and up the side street to for a weekend afternoon showing and this was a couple of weeks into its first run. I seem to recall we stood out there in the rain and were sold out of the 70mm showing I wanted to see and had to settle for the 35mm presentation the following hour.
Thanks for lending a likely explanation, dave-bronx… I’m sure no one has been up there to fix-up whatever the winds have done to those letters in ages!
I just picked up a trio of Rockettes while shopping for Christmas ornaments the other evening… Actually, the Rockettes were ornaments, in miniature, to go along with my little Department 56 set of “Christmas in the City” decorative models. I bought them to compliment the Radio City Music Hall piece from that series.
Somewhere buried in my belongings is a souvenir booklet from the 1978 RCMH presentation of the movie “Crossed Swords” (which was to have been the Hall’s final show ever – until a stay of execution was issued). The booklet, as I recall, featured a history of the theater including an item (with illustration) about the stage elevators and other RCMH technical innovations. If I ever get a chance to dig it out, I might spring to have it digitized – perhaps in a PDF document – and see if I can upload it for view here. I also have a wonderful original hardocver souvenir booklet my Mom saved for “How the West Was Won” that features an explanation of the 3-strip Cinerama process as well as a vintage souvenir program for “It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World.” None of these are in particularly good condition, but I’d love to share them with everyone here if I can figure out how.
I wonder if they have any plans to install a replica of the original flat marquee above the entrance? And given that the word “Loew’s” was maintained in the restoration of the big sign on the facade, would it also be used in the marquee?
I love the spacing of letters on the marquee (and the two R’s in “THURR”). I’m also curious as to how long the advertising has read “First Run in Queens”??? Is this a legitimate claim? I supposed if the Fair and the Polk are the only two adult cinemas left in Queens it should be relatively easy to verify. Aren’t they both just projecting DVD’s or Video on to their screens anyhow?!? That these “theaters” are still in operation is fascinating to me.
I also grabbed some pics of the Polk Theater this same night.
Comparing these two the vintage shots Warren posted back on July 15th, I wonder if the original “Polk Ave” neon is still there, concealed under the metal flashing that now bands the marquee behind the new and larger “POLK” lettering?
And my mistake, Warren… I don’t think I had read your September 7th post carefully and did not realize you were talking about the blonde cashier in the red tank top you had photographed incidentally! The cashier I saw at the theater the last two times I visited was a much older woman with blonde hair who sat almost motionless in the booth stirring only to take long drags on her cigarette.
As with so many “surviving” marquees, the light fixtures under the canopy have been concealed and placed out of commission. Sorry for that blurry last shot, but it was the only image I captured on that side of the marquee.
That cashier is still on duty, Warren. She sat behind that glass window, enjoying her smokes and completely unfazed as I snapped these shots. Also grabbed a few pics of the Fair Theater on Astoria Blvd this same night.
Given that the owners of this theater will likely have an uphill financial battle to keep this theater afloat, I doubt there’ll be a lot of attention spent on attempting to re-paint the exterior sunburst to appease our sensibilities. It is a shame, however, that after dedicating so much time and money towards renovating this great palace (an effort that I enthusiastically applaud), it seems as if they spent all of about $35 bucks on this particular element of the original design! This is what folks traveling up and down the Concourse will notice first and foremost as they look at the theater. Hideous is the perfect word, Warren. Embarrassing comes in a close 2nd.
As Bway points out, the both sides of the road are now Jericho Turnpike from the Cross Island Pkwy to all points east. However, there is no variation I can come up with to get the Google map service to pinpoint the location properly. If you drop the “Queens” (which should be done anyway) it points you to Floral Park (closer to the Floral Theater location). If you keep it in Queens it won’t plot you anywhere… and changing from Jamaica Ave to Jericho Turnpike is no help either. In any event, the proper address should be changed ot “Jericho Turnpike, Bellerose, NY.”
I drove by the theater with camera in hand yesterday morning and snapped some shots. The Martial Arts store is still not open (you can see unopened boxes piled high against the storefront windows and doors from the sidewalk), but the restoration job on the facade is very impressive – as can be seen in the detail photos below. By the way, they list an address of 245-14 on their signage.
Here’s a wide shot of the building where you can see the big rolldown gate installed by the would-be carpeting store down the side street near where the front of the auditorium would have been: View link
A head-on shot of the facade: View link
Never made it to this theater, but I recall it being listed along with the Five Towns and Hewlett theaters for third-run discount. Was the Herricks also in that penny-a-year scheme of the late ‘70’s and early '80’s? Anyway… Seems like a pretty tall structure not to have had a balcony. Must have been a spacious room.
And what is the deal with these retail tenants who never seem to open their doors to the public? The martial arts supply company’s website accepts orders by internet and by phone and makes no mention of any store locations. They list their main office on Horace Harding Expressway in Bayside and offer a Queens telephone number. My guess is they are currently using the former Bellerose Theater as a warehouse storage facility with plans to open a showroom – why else would they clean and re-point the facade with such care if they didn’t expect to bring customers here?
Here are some photos taken yesterday morning to accompany my post from December 7th. The address is 485 Hempstead Turnpike, Elmont, NY.
Note that there are two strips of parallel neon tubing runing around the perimeter of the old outer lobby just under the canopy soffit… were these original to the theater? View link View link View link View link
You can see the anchors for the old balcony fire escape above the Discount Store sign to the right: View link
Here you can make out where that window of Robbie’s overlooking the foyer staircase was bricked over: View link
Finally, a few distance shots one from the east and one from the west showing the building’s narrow profile: View link View link
Here are a couple of photos I took yesterday of the former Park East Theater, which now houses Charlie Brown’s Steakhouse. Again the address is 2349 Jericho Turnpike, Garden City Park, NY.
Was there a balcony here? Looks tall enough to have accommodated one. Looks like a typical mid-sized free-standing early 1960’s suburban theater. I suspect Charlie Brown’s did some serious reconstruction to the lobby portion of the building… were there always solid exterior walls here or was there a lot of glass? I imagine it had nice sized screen with a curtain and the auditorium was comfortably spacious. Could the seating have been much more than 1000? I gather it closed sometime in the mid or late 1980’s? Can anyone provide more details about the interior look and feel?
Thanks KenRoe… I was able to find the listing on imdb.com, but I’m still trying to piece together the actual theater in which I saw the film. I saw quite a number of movies along this 57th-58th street corridor of theaters during the 80’s, but memory does not serve me well. I used to have a log that I kept in a spiral graphpaper notebook wherein I noted just about every single movie I saw (along with the theater and cost of the ticket) between mid-1979 and 1983 or 84. The whole project started as a means of tracking how many movies I saw in a year (I knew it was a lot) and how much money I spent on admissions… it grew into an obsession. Once my parents sold the house in Laurelton and moved us out to Long Island, I stopped keeping track since we lived out of boxes at various relatives houses for a number of months. I haven’t seen the book in years and I know I still have it somewhere (my mom’s house? my ex-wife’s garage?)… I guess it’s high time I try and track it down.
I’ve been reading through these comments and was amazed at the references to original 3-strip Cinerama presntations at the nearby Syosset Theater (which was later triplexed before being demolished)! I never went to the Syosset, but did “discover” the Cinema 150 in the 1990’s to see “True Lies,” “Terminator 2” and “Titanic” here… where had this theater been all my life?!? I remember trying to get in to see one of the “Batman” movies in the early ‘90’s and having to be turned away because the show had sold out! There were always huge crowds for big movies here and a line would wrap around the curved of the building just to get tickets.
Anyway… I remember thinking when I first saw this theater that it would make a great place for revival of 3-strip Cinerama – without realizing that the Syosset Theater had previously presented that format in the ‘60’s. Of the two theaters, I certainly would have thought that the Cinema 150 would have been the one with a Cinerama history. I remember that I planned on speaking to the theater’s manager next time I saw a flick here about possibly running Cinerama films here in between regular bookings or on special evenings when regular business wasn’t as strong. Unfortunately, that “next time” never came around. Before I knew it, the theater was closed and converted to other use.
As far as I can tell, there is no viable location in NYC or on Long Island for proper Cinerama presentation… at least not without considerable alteration. Am I wrong?
Next time my Mom’s over the house, I should take her for a ride through the old neighborhood and see if I can grab a dog from Eddie… red onions and all. I’ll probably have to wait for the weather to warm up a bit! I loved growing up in this neighborhood and was very sad to move away to Laurelton when I was 9. While I enjoyed living in Laurelton through my teen and college years and would meet my oldest freinds there, Elmhurst and Corona occupy a very special place in my heart. I lived on 41st Ave between Junction and Warren in Elmhurst in a crowded 2 family house (plus 2 illegal apartments – though I didn’t know that at the time) along with my Grandparents, Great Grandparents, a pair of Aunts and cousin. My Uncle and Aunt and 4 cousins lived in a 2 family over on 98th Place off Alstyne in Corona, which was a quick 2 minute drive or even a nice casual stroll away. It all felt very homey and most of my warmest and fondest memories of family spring from this time.
Great page, Christina… I really enjoyed reading it. One quibble: you talked about the Lemon Ice King and Spaghetti Park, but you forgot to mention the great Parkside Restaurant and I didn’t see any mention of some of the great (and, sadly, gone) Italian bakeries like Stassi’s and Baldi’s. Anyway… thanks for the stroll down memory lane.
Hmmmm. Is the view of the screen through the doors completely blocked or just partially? I can clearly remember being able to see the screen (or part of it) through those windows back in the late ‘70’s and '80’s. I recall the incident I described previously where I frightened my younger brother with a glimpse of the original “Dawn of the Dead” and on other occasions waiting patiently for the end of the previous showing of a particular movie to end – trying very hard to resist the temptation to peak a glimpse at the film’s ending.
I’ve heard about this Atlas Park project. Some kind of huge mall and park in Glendale off Cooper Avenue. I remember reading about it and trying to figure out the exact location and what was being demolished and built over. In any event, Warren is right. If there’ll be a multiplex with plenty of free parking, it will offer fierce competition to parking-challenged cinemas like the Kew Gardens, Midway and Continental Theaters (I’m not familiar with the situations in Ridgewood). And the owners at the recently expanded and renovated Queens Center Mall on Queens Blvd and the inferior Metro Mall on Metropolitan Avenue can’t be too happy about its development either.
Here’s a link to a photo of the beautifully restored interior of this oft forgotten nugget: http://www.amnh.org/hostanevent/halls/lefrak.php
The IMAX screen at the Lincoln Square theater is larger and the seating comfortably configured specifically for the large format, but this is far more elegant space and the films are usually spectacular. Plus, there’s a balcony with front row seats offering the best view.
One more point… Warren’s introduction at the top of this page indicates the theater was replaced with a post office, however, the photo on forgotten-ny shows a two story building with a pizzeria on the ground floor. Do you think they’ve got the location wrong? There is a Post Office a few doors down from the Loew’s Plaza on Roosevelt Ave.
Thanks, Warren. I spent my early childhood in Elmhurst and Corona, so it was an interesting read. In the section where they discuss Corona’s Theaters, however, they did leave out the UA theater that was located within the Lefrak City apartment complex on 99th Street – ironically, a theater (and development) that never seemed to want an association with Corona in the first place.
Anyway, speculation here as to the location of the Hyperion Theater seems to be a bit off the mark according to the forgotten-ny site. They depict the theater as being located on 103rd Street and 39th Avenue. That places the theater on the north side of Roosevelt Ave, rather than south of the old Loew’s Plaza near Linden Park.
Just to jog some old memories… any locals familiar with the old Linden Park when it had a public above ground swimming pool? I used to go to that pool when I was a kid in the early ‘70’s. They had these open cubbies for shoes and stuff and I recall one day after swimming I found that my sneakers had been heisted. I had to walk barefoot from the park (apologies to Neil Simon) all the way down 41st Ave back to my house on the other side of Junction Blvd. I can still remember looking down carefully at the sidewalk and street in front of me to avoid stepping on any gum, glass or other problematic objects. What a long walk that was. After that, I stuck to the big old Ederle public pool in Flushing Meadows Park.
There was also a guy who sold hotdogs out of a truck outside of Linden Park who we all called “Eddie Hots.” For years after we left the neighborhood, my mom would drive by the park and have me run out to get her a dog from Eddie – with mustard and those red onions. I wonder if anyone here remembers him.
Saps… just curious. Are there any remnants of the theater’s original decor in its current configuration? It’s been ages since I saw a film here and I frankly don’t recall much detail about the interior other than the windows on the doors leading from the foyer into the original orchestra-level theaters.
The problem with that last sentiment, TheaterBuff1, is that “Hollywood” doesn’t own any of those buildings! In many cases (probably the overwhelming majority, but I’m not sure) the church is not a tenant but the actual owner of the former theater. So, should the industry miraculously decide to radically switch gears on the manner of theatrical presentation – moving away from mega-plexes and the concept of “universal release” and back towards the single screen first-run palaces and neighborhood showcases – they’d have to either build from scratch or launch a massive reclamation project and start negotiating with these churches to purchase the old theaters back. And it wouldn’t be the “industry” per se (since anti-trust legislation divested the studios from theater ownership) but the theater owners who would have to mount the effort. And where would all these congregations go for services?
The way things seem to be going with the film industry, I seriously doubt that we’ll see a widespread movement towards a single screen paradigm, TheaterBuff1. The fight for movie palace restoration and preservation will continue to be played out one theater at a time and will focus on those edifices facing the most immediate threats of demolition. Those that are currently being preserved to varying degrees as houses of worship are safe from immediate danger and – better still – can be still be appreciated by anyone willing to pay the small price of attending a Sunday morning service. And some of those churches even run the occasional movie, from time to time (see the Loew’s 175th Street).
I’d love to wake up one morning in a world where spacious first-run Broadway palaces and smaller neighborhood gems proliferate. I don’t think it’s particularly cynical to consider that little more than a pleasant fantasy.
I think I saw “Frances” here in 1982 or so. This was the bio-pic starring Jessica Lange as troubled 1930’s film actress Frances Farmer. I’d been here more than once, but “Frances” is all that specifically leaps to mind. Nothing I can really add to the conversation here. What a shame. The subterranean New York Twin across the street is a dreary and unworthy successor to the “Beekman” name. I think I’d rather have that moniker retired than have its memory besmirched by association with the Twin.
I was in the neighborhood yesterday for a christmas party at my brother’s fire house on 67th Street between 3rd and Lex. I was surprised to see the New York Twin sign with the name “Beekman” which is what prompted me to post my 2 cents here.
My Dad took me here (the only time I’ve been) in June of ‘77 to see “Star Wars” during its initial run. I remember we were shut out of one screening and purchased tickets for the following show a couple of hours later. To kill time, we went across the street to a diner/restaurant which had big windows that looked directly across to the theater marquee. I can’t recall the details too vividly. I think the marquee was on 3rd Ave and I recall after eating that my dad and I rushed back across the street to get a decent spot on the rapidly growing ticket-holder’s line.
As there was so much time before they would start letting us in, my Dad agreed to let me take a stroll around the neighborhood while he held our place on line – I was 12 years old and this was the first time I would be taking a stroll in the City all by myself. So, I headed east on 86th Street with a goal of making it all the way to the East River. Ultimately, I found a park stood in my way of getting to the water’s edge (Carl Schurz Park where the mayor’s residence at Gracie Mansion is located, I would later learn) and had to make a retreat back towards the theater. When I got back to 3rd Ave and could see the line was moving into the theater, I got a bit nervous. When I made my way to the entrance, I found my Dad waiting there and a bit peeved that he had to let a lot of people in ahead of him as he waited for me. I remember accepting his anger and being thankful that he was more upset that I mosied around oblivious to time then he was nervously wondering whether I had gone missing somewhere in the big bad City (he may well have fretted over that prospect, but if so, he certainly didn’t let on to me about it).
Once inside, I recall the theater was quite large with a center orchestra section and two narrower sections on either side. I don’t recall the decor, but the hues were dark and I seem to recall a red curtain in front of the screen. The seats were plush and we wound up sitting on the right aisle in the center section about ¾ of the way back. There may have been a break in the sections with a cross-aisle closer to the screen, but I can’t recall exactly as we sat more to the rear. I thought there was a balcony, but I realize now this might have just been the lower ceiling former by the former loge/mezzanine that had been converted to the separate Loew’s Cine auditorium.
Anyway… it was nice to stroll down memory lane here. Thanks for the indulgence.
The introductory description is in error, I believe, about the closing date of this theater. I never attended a movie here, but during the period in the early ‘80’s when I would frequently take in screenings all over town I can recall being aware of the New Yorker’s exsitence on Broadway and 88th Street for revival fare. It was a theater I wanted to visit, but never had the opportunity.
Anyone have specific information regarding the approximate date of its closing?
The only film I saw here was the original “Ghostbusters” in 1984. I recall it played both auditoriums with the schedule made up so that there was no more than an hour or so wait between screenings. I also recall that one theater played a 70mm print while the other a 35mm print. The line stretched around the corner and up the side street to for a weekend afternoon showing and this was a couple of weeks into its first run. I seem to recall we stood out there in the rain and were sold out of the 70mm showing I wanted to see and had to settle for the 35mm presentation the following hour.
Thanks for lending a likely explanation, dave-bronx… I’m sure no one has been up there to fix-up whatever the winds have done to those letters in ages!
I just picked up a trio of Rockettes while shopping for Christmas ornaments the other evening… Actually, the Rockettes were ornaments, in miniature, to go along with my little Department 56 set of “Christmas in the City” decorative models. I bought them to compliment the Radio City Music Hall piece from that series.
Somewhere buried in my belongings is a souvenir booklet from the 1978 RCMH presentation of the movie “Crossed Swords” (which was to have been the Hall’s final show ever – until a stay of execution was issued). The booklet, as I recall, featured a history of the theater including an item (with illustration) about the stage elevators and other RCMH technical innovations. If I ever get a chance to dig it out, I might spring to have it digitized – perhaps in a PDF document – and see if I can upload it for view here. I also have a wonderful original hardocver souvenir booklet my Mom saved for “How the West Was Won” that features an explanation of the 3-strip Cinerama process as well as a vintage souvenir program for “It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World.” None of these are in particularly good condition, but I’d love to share them with everyone here if I can figure out how.
I wonder if they have any plans to install a replica of the original flat marquee above the entrance? And given that the word “Loew’s” was maintained in the restoration of the big sign on the facade, would it also be used in the marquee?
It would actually be quite fitting to do so, Jeffrey…
Here are a few shots I took of the Fair’s illuminated marquee the other night:
View link
View link
View link
I love the spacing of letters on the marquee (and the two R’s in “THURR”). I’m also curious as to how long the advertising has read “First Run in Queens”??? Is this a legitimate claim? I supposed if the Fair and the Polk are the only two adult cinemas left in Queens it should be relatively easy to verify. Aren’t they both just projecting DVD’s or Video on to their screens anyhow?!? That these “theaters” are still in operation is fascinating to me.
I also grabbed some pics of the Polk Theater this same night.
Comparing these two the vintage shots Warren posted back on July 15th, I wonder if the original “Polk Ave” neon is still there, concealed under the metal flashing that now bands the marquee behind the new and larger “POLK” lettering?
And my mistake, Warren… I don’t think I had read your September 7th post carefully and did not realize you were talking about the blonde cashier in the red tank top you had photographed incidentally! The cashier I saw at the theater the last two times I visited was a much older woman with blonde hair who sat almost motionless in the booth stirring only to take long drags on her cigarette.
Was in the area the other night with my camera in hand and snapped these photos of the illuminated marquee:
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As with so many “surviving” marquees, the light fixtures under the canopy have been concealed and placed out of commission. Sorry for that blurry last shot, but it was the only image I captured on that side of the marquee.
That cashier is still on duty, Warren. She sat behind that glass window, enjoying her smokes and completely unfazed as I snapped these shots. Also grabbed a few pics of the Fair Theater on Astoria Blvd this same night.
Given that the owners of this theater will likely have an uphill financial battle to keep this theater afloat, I doubt there’ll be a lot of attention spent on attempting to re-paint the exterior sunburst to appease our sensibilities. It is a shame, however, that after dedicating so much time and money towards renovating this great palace (an effort that I enthusiastically applaud), it seems as if they spent all of about $35 bucks on this particular element of the original design! This is what folks traveling up and down the Concourse will notice first and foremost as they look at the theater. Hideous is the perfect word, Warren. Embarrassing comes in a close 2nd.
As Bway points out, the both sides of the road are now Jericho Turnpike from the Cross Island Pkwy to all points east. However, there is no variation I can come up with to get the Google map service to pinpoint the location properly. If you drop the “Queens” (which should be done anyway) it points you to Floral Park (closer to the Floral Theater location). If you keep it in Queens it won’t plot you anywhere… and changing from Jamaica Ave to Jericho Turnpike is no help either. In any event, the proper address should be changed ot “Jericho Turnpike, Bellerose, NY.”
I drove by the theater with camera in hand yesterday morning and snapped some shots. The Martial Arts store is still not open (you can see unopened boxes piled high against the storefront windows and doors from the sidewalk), but the restoration job on the facade is very impressive – as can be seen in the detail photos below. By the way, they list an address of 245-14 on their signage.
Here’s a wide shot of the building where you can see the big rolldown gate installed by the would-be carpeting store down the side street near where the front of the auditorium would have been: View link
A head-on shot of the facade:
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Some ornamental details:
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Never made it to this theater, but I recall it being listed along with the Five Towns and Hewlett theaters for third-run discount. Was the Herricks also in that penny-a-year scheme of the late ‘70’s and early '80’s? Anyway… Seems like a pretty tall structure not to have had a balcony. Must have been a spacious room.
And what is the deal with these retail tenants who never seem to open their doors to the public? The martial arts supply company’s website accepts orders by internet and by phone and makes no mention of any store locations. They list their main office on Horace Harding Expressway in Bayside and offer a Queens telephone number. My guess is they are currently using the former Bellerose Theater as a warehouse storage facility with plans to open a showroom – why else would they clean and re-point the facade with such care if they didn’t expect to bring customers here?
Here are some photos taken yesterday morning to accompany my post from December 7th. The address is 485 Hempstead Turnpike, Elmont, NY.
Note that there are two strips of parallel neon tubing runing around the perimeter of the old outer lobby just under the canopy soffit… were these original to the theater?
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You can see the anchors for the old balcony fire escape above the Discount Store sign to the right:
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Here you can make out where that window of Robbie’s overlooking the foyer staircase was bricked over:
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Finally, a few distance shots one from the east and one from the west showing the building’s narrow profile:
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Here are a couple of photos I took yesterday of the former Park East Theater, which now houses Charlie Brown’s Steakhouse. Again the address is 2349 Jericho Turnpike, Garden City Park, NY.
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Was there a balcony here? Looks tall enough to have accommodated one. Looks like a typical mid-sized free-standing early 1960’s suburban theater. I suspect Charlie Brown’s did some serious reconstruction to the lobby portion of the building… were there always solid exterior walls here or was there a lot of glass? I imagine it had nice sized screen with a curtain and the auditorium was comfortably spacious. Could the seating have been much more than 1000? I gather it closed sometime in the mid or late 1980’s? Can anyone provide more details about the interior look and feel?
Thanks KenRoe… I was able to find the listing on imdb.com, but I’m still trying to piece together the actual theater in which I saw the film. I saw quite a number of movies along this 57th-58th street corridor of theaters during the 80’s, but memory does not serve me well. I used to have a log that I kept in a spiral graphpaper notebook wherein I noted just about every single movie I saw (along with the theater and cost of the ticket) between mid-1979 and 1983 or 84. The whole project started as a means of tracking how many movies I saw in a year (I knew it was a lot) and how much money I spent on admissions… it grew into an obsession. Once my parents sold the house in Laurelton and moved us out to Long Island, I stopped keeping track since we lived out of boxes at various relatives houses for a number of months. I haven’t seen the book in years and I know I still have it somewhere (my mom’s house? my ex-wife’s garage?)… I guess it’s high time I try and track it down.
I’ve been reading through these comments and was amazed at the references to original 3-strip Cinerama presntations at the nearby Syosset Theater (which was later triplexed before being demolished)! I never went to the Syosset, but did “discover” the Cinema 150 in the 1990’s to see “True Lies,” “Terminator 2” and “Titanic” here… where had this theater been all my life?!? I remember trying to get in to see one of the “Batman” movies in the early ‘90’s and having to be turned away because the show had sold out! There were always huge crowds for big movies here and a line would wrap around the curved of the building just to get tickets.
Anyway… I remember thinking when I first saw this theater that it would make a great place for revival of 3-strip Cinerama – without realizing that the Syosset Theater had previously presented that format in the ‘60’s. Of the two theaters, I certainly would have thought that the Cinema 150 would have been the one with a Cinerama history. I remember that I planned on speaking to the theater’s manager next time I saw a flick here about possibly running Cinerama films here in between regular bookings or on special evenings when regular business wasn’t as strong. Unfortunately, that “next time” never came around. Before I knew it, the theater was closed and converted to other use.
As far as I can tell, there is no viable location in NYC or on Long Island for proper Cinerama presentation… at least not without considerable alteration. Am I wrong?