Laurelton Theatre

I think that some degree of upward slope in theatre vestibules and ticket lobbies was a rather common feature. The terrain around the Laurelton Theatre is pretty flat. It was probably necessary to raise the floor of the foyer and rear orchestra for the slope down to the screen. This way, fire exits behind the screen would let out right at ground level. If there were no slope up on the way in, the slope down towards the screen would put the screen end of the auditorium several feet below grade.

Glad you enjoyed, PKoch. Those Castle Films, by the way, had no connection at all to William Castle. I used to think they did, but after looking it up on the internet a few years back I learned otherwise.

I remember those Castle films came in both 8mm and Super 8 and some had sound! I never had a sound projector, so that latter option was never a consideration. They also came in varying lenghts – the small reels that ran about 4 minutes and the larger reels that ran about 8 or 10 minutes. Whenever I passed a camera store with my folks or grandparents (or in a department store with a film or camera department) I’d beg them to let me go pick out a new film! The covers were great because they used the original poster art for the films. I had a bunch of the old Universal horror flicks in varying lenghts. “The Invisible Man,” “Frankenstien,” “Bride of Frankenstein,” “Son of Frankenstien,” “Frankenstien Meets the Wolfman,” “House of Frankenstien” and “Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstien.” Also had “Dr. Cyclops” with Albert Dekker (and in color), “Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” and the 1950’s sci-fi flick “Tarantula” with Leo G. Carroll. Because they were so condensed, we could run through our entire catalogue at the block parties in just over an hour! What fun that was! I’m sure I still have some of those films in their original boxes stashed away somewhere in my basement.

If I could only find my old Monster Times newspapers and Famous Monsters of Filmland magazines!!!

Just to correct an error from my post above. It was not the “Neighborhood Association” that picketed the Laurelton Theatre for showing porn, but a “Federation” of some 180 block associations from the community!

The Laurelton that my family moved to in 1973 was a quiet tree-lined neighborhood of tidy mostly detached Spanish-inspired stucco two-story homes. My understanding is that this section of homes (south of Merrick Blvd and east of 230th) was built in the 1930’s on the site of a former golf course. North of Merrick Blvd, the homes were mainly capes and colonials built of brick and on the western edge near 225th Street were the larger (and older) frame-construction colonials that dated to the early 20th century when the former farmland was first developed.

The area had a large African-American population (probably 50% or better by ‘73) but still had a reasonable mix of other ethnicities – including those of German, Irish, Italian and Jewish descent that had dominated the neighborhood in earlier decades. I remember the Jewish Synagogue on 228th Street was still a very active facility when I attended grade school across the street at PS 156. Today it is a Church. There was a very strong and active PTA at 156, with many parents also involved in the Neighborhood Association (the very same organization that had picketed in protest when the Laurelton Theater briefly switched to a XXX porn program). Block parties were an annual summer tradition throughout the nabe. My mom would run a cord from the stoop-light outlet of our home to power our 8mm home movie projector at the curb, where she’d run my collection of Castle Films titles (remember them before home video?) for all the kids on the block. Great times.

Merrick Blvd was the main commercial strip – with plenty of shops and services within easy walking distance of our house (which was three blocks from the strip on 231st Street near Francis Lewis Blvd). Not only could I walk to the Laurelton Theatre near 228th Street, but there was an awesome German deli on 230th, the Public Library on 225th, Stan’s Hardware on 229th, Martin Paints on the next block, the great Twin Ponds Bakery off 234th, the Bike shop on the corner of 233rd and – best of all – Gail & Larry’s Candy Store across 233rd from the bike shop, which had an old fashioned counter where one could order real fountain sodas, ice cream floats and egg creams (Yum)!

I remember before Merrick Blvd was completely re-paved and the traffic islands were added, one could still spot the old trolley car tracks and ancient paving stones peaking through spots were the road had been worn down.

The community had always been well-kept because most of the folks living there were property owners. Laurelton had been subject to the nefarious real estate scheme known as “blockbusting” that had been perpetrated by unscrupulous brokers who would exploit racial fear among the white homeowners in the area, convincing them that the influx of blacks to southeast Queens (which had begun after WWII but really picked up in the early ‘60’s) was bringing land values down. The whites were scared into selling and fleeing to more remote suburbs while the brokers themselves would steer prospective black homeowners to the area. I feel that the real problems began when investors starting buying up a number of homes in the neighborhood and started renting them out (often illegally letting individual rooms to low-income tenants and welfare recipients). As pride of ownership went by the boards, the remaining white families moved out and a number of concerned black families followed suit.

Hi, Ed. Here I am, here’s a “bro” hug for you, haven’t had a chance to read this page yet, carefully and in depth, but I will, on the way home this evening. As a Ridgewood boy, fresh from near the centroid of Brooklyn + Queens, “spoiled” by having lived in a “packing crate” over a major mass transit hub, it will be interesting to take a trip to a small neighborhood movie house (there’s that term “nabe” again, rearing its ugly head !)in deepest, darkest southeast Queens.

I’ve passed by Laurelton many times by car and on the LIRR but have never walked its streets.

The build date for this theatre is listed as 1932 on oasisnyc.org (a site maintained by CUNY Center for Urban Research with data drawn from various agencies and City departments), but those are usually just estimates. The only C/O I can find for this building was a temp issued in 1978 when the theatre was converted to a church. The architecture – at least in my mind – would seem to date the theater at least a few years earlier. Unless, the designers were simply not enthusiasts of the art deco movement. The interior looks more like a restrained Greek revival perhaps? There are exposed ceiling beams with decorative molding and carving in the lobby/foyer space. It is now painted a thick coat of white – I can’t recall how these were painted when I attended. The auditorium walls are now mostly stucco with a drop ceiling installed after the original plaster started to fall. Luckily, the forward walls around the proscenium are original (albeit thickly painted in white with gold trim) and notable for four fluted Corinthian columns and decorative medalions.

Lost Memory… Would you happen to know if and when a theatre organ was ever installed here? There are decorative arches between the columns on either side of the proscenium that might have once housed organ grills – but I’m not entirely convinced of that.

Lost… It must have been for a very brief period of time. I lived in the neighborhood from ‘73 – '84 and I can’t really recall it as a porn theater, though one of my childhood buddies seems to recall it as such. I know I saw some legit films there as late as 1976 and that by 1978, alteration permits were already filed to convert to house of worship.

Here’s a passage from the full article you posted:

“The owner of the theater was told by federation officials that the block associations and their captains, who meet every month, were unhappy about the pornography. The theater owner said he had no choice. He had to play the pornographic films because he had to make a living.

The federations’s representatives, who prefer conciliation to confrontation, said they understood. They persuaded him to change his bill and got a bank to buy tickets for children for Saturday matinee movies. Another bank agreed to make available a bus for elderly people during the week.

The federation said that, if pornogrpahic movies were shown, one or more residents would be outside the box office with cameras all the time, photographing anyone who bought a ticket. So the profit went out of pornography."

Well… Obviously the bank couldn’t buy enough children’s matinee tickets to keep the theater afloat for very long.

Correction – obviously, the church took over in the late 1970’s (based on the C of O for altered use issued in ‘78). I also should have noted that all of the chandeliers hung throughout the auditorium were done so by the church and were not a part of the original decor.

Passed by the other night, but didn’t have my camera. The address should be corrected to 227-10 Merrick Blvd, Laurelton, NY 11413. The marquee is gone, but the building is still there and in use as a church. A large illuminated white cross hangs perpendicular to the facade above where the marquee used to be – I believe the lettering reads “Evangelical Temple.”