“This was a top rate house in it’s single days when it used to play exclusives, I have a load of great movie memories there.”
Oh, are YOU kidding me? Of all the theaters I remember going to as a kid, the Green Acres is the one I have the best memories of. The most distinctive is seeing “Jaws” there in the summer of 1975. The entire PACKED audience screaming our collective heads off when the guys head rolls toward the audience. I remember the deep red brick on the front of the theater and that huge marquee.
Obviously this is a discussion more for that theater’s posting than the multiplex but it does relate to it. Do you know what year the original Century’s Green Acres opened? Do you remember that marquee they had on the BACK of the theater that faced the mall? That always got to me as a kid…
Mikeoaklandpark: perhaps he is…somethingis going on there at the Embassy 2,3,4 as there’s a scaffolding directly under the marquee. I noticed it on Friday…
Hope someone can help me figure this out. If you are in Rockefeller Center inside, downstairs on the lower concourse, right across the hallway from the GNC (Vitamin) Store, there is what looks like a box office of sorts with a set of stairs wrapping around it on either side. Like an idiot, one day I actually walked up thoses stairs and went up and came down the other side (I felt really stupid…). I though maybe this was the box office for The Guild but I don’t think so because it’s so far away from it. It’s obviously some kind of box office or ticket selling window but can anyone tell me what it was for? Radio City?
AndyT: I lived on LI when this opened and I strongly believe that for LI, the Sunrise Multiplex WAS the first BIG one to come along on the island. OK…maybe not in the nation but in our small part of the world, it was the first. And fow awhile, the best place to see movies. As you mention, 1990 was almost 15 years ago and a lot may have changed. I have not been back to that theater since 1985 so it might be better now.
RobertR: You have GOT to be kidding me that the Green Acres Cinemas is falling apart! When that opened (or reopened as a six screener) in 1988 or so, it was a REALLY nice place. The theaters were small but it was beautiful. The last time I saw a movie there was “The Crying Game” in 1992 and it was still really nice. What a shame to let it go down hill. But with the megaplexes now taking over, this place’s days are numbered. If this was located in a more accesible place, like on a neighborhood street, it might have a chance. What I mean is, there’s dumpy theater located in Teaneck, NJ that’s a four plex made from an old single screener. Now this place is nothing special but it’s got two things going for it: it’s located in a neighborhood that enjoys the type of movies it shows (independent/art films) and it’s in a very accessible neighborhood street. Hope this made sense.
Landmark Theater Held Over! 6th Big Broadway Run!
By DAVID W. DUNLAP
After closing and reopening and closing again over the last two years, to the accompaniment of rumors that it would be replaced by a Gristede’s, the Metro Theater on upper Broadway is getting ready to debut once more, on Dec. 3, this time as an independent cinema.
With 292 new seats in the upstairs auditorium, 188 new seats downstairs and rolls of new red carpeting that arrived on Friday, the Metro – an exuberant Art Deco landmark between 99th and 100th Streets – is approaching its sixth incarnation in 71 years.
Under the name Embassy’s New Metro Twin, it will be a showcase for foreign and independent films, with some first-run features thrown in, beginning next month with the Italian movie “After Midnight” (“Dopo Mezzanotte”) and “The Incredibles.”
The reopening is not only a reprieve for the Upper West Side, which has been hemorrhaging small theaters in recent decades, but a welcome change for Peter H. Elson, a second-generation theater operator who has usually had to close the houses that his father, Norman W. Elson, acquired: the Embassy 72nd Street Twin on Broadway in 1988, the Embassy 1 in Times Square in 1997 and the Guild at Rockefeller Center in 1999.
“I intend to take as many chances on foreign and independent films here as I did at 72nd Street,” Mr. Elson said Friday as he toured the Metro. “Ten years ago, I would have said that I didn’t think this area could support an art theater. But this area has changed and improved and continues to improve.”
Mr. Elson holds a 20-year lease on the theater from its owner, Albert Bialek. He said he had put about $240,000 into the renovation. There will be new sound systems, larger screens and curtains that will ceremoniously open before each show.
“In old movie palaces, the imagination started to work from the moment you opened the door,” Mr. Elson said. “To the extent possible, that’s the way it should be.”
Boak & Paris, the original architects in 1933, infused the building with a sense of fantasy. In designating the exterior as an official landmark in 1989, the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission said that the Metro was “a rare surviving small Art Deco-style neighborhood movie theater” with “one of the finest facades of its type in New York City.”
Only four blocks away, at Broadway and 95th Street, is the Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theater, part of the renovated Symphony Space complex. Isaiah Sheffer, the artistic director of Symphony Space, said the reborn Metro would be complementary rather than competitive. He wished Mr. Elson well and even imagines the Thalia and Metro cross-promoting one another’s offerings, a prospect that interests Mr. Elson, too.
“I would say, from Symphony Space’s point of view, that it’s a wonderful thing,” Mr. Sheffer said. “It’s good for the nabe.”
It is also good for the landmarks commission, which has had to field at least 100 anxious calls about the unfounded Gristede’s supermarket rumor, said Diane Jackier, the director of community and government affairs. How the rumor started is unclear, although the Metro’s future was shaky last year and there is a Gristede’s across Broadway.
Despite its uptown location, the theater was originally called the Midtown, a name it kept through the 1970’s, when its adults-only fare included double bills like “Hooker Convention” and “Exchange Student.” In 1982, the theater operator Daniel Talbot took over the lease, renamed it the Metro, and began showing an eclectic mix of foreign, art and revival films. Cineplex Odeon took over in 1987, followed by Clearview Cinemas.
At the time of the landmark designation, the commission noted that in 1934 there were 18 cinemas on Broadway from 59th to 110th Streets.
“Only 4 of the 18 are still standing and open to the public as movie theaters,” the commission said in 1989. These were the Regency at 67th Street, the Metro at 99th, the Columbia at 103rd Street and the Olympia at 107th Street.
Today, only the Metro survives.
“Even though we don’t regulate use,” said Robert B. Tierney, the current commission chairman, “I am delighted that the Metro will continue to operate as one of the great landmark movie houses on the Upper West Side.”
“This was at one time the busyest theater in the country.”
I’ll second that. From it’s opening till around 1984 or so, it was the place to see movies in southwestern Nassau county. But with each passing year, it got worse and worse. Other nicer, SAFER multiplexes began to open in other parts of the county which drew attendence away from this one. The formerly large Century’s Green Acres multiplexed in the late 1980s into a nice movie house albeit with small but well appointed theaters (more like screening rooms). They tended to show more “upscale” fare.
I think that the Sunrise Multiplex did so well initially because it was one of the first theaters to be built AS a multiplex as opposed to an existing single screener that got mulitplexed. Technically speaking, they did a lot of things right with this theater…the parking was amazing (it was built on the old Sunrise Drive In), the layout was very good and the theaters were large.
If it had been just five or so miles east on Sunrise Highway, it might not have been as bad.
Yes, public awareness is key. Hate to say it, but the way the neighborhood is now, it will be difficult to find that much support there. It would have to come (largely) from the other side of Prospsect Park, in Park Slope and those areas. I know a lot of people in that area who for years wouldn’t dare to cross over into the area where the Kings is (I never thought it was that bad…).
I’ve just posted something on the board for the Hudson Theater on W. 44th Street in NYC. I had heard about this theater and how it is incorporated into the Millenium Hotel but got a chance to look at it today. The hotel has probably the most ridiculous LACK of security I’ve ever seen. One can walk straight through the lobby and over to the Hudson Theater space.
What an ingenius use of the space, though. Not only is it beautifully restored but it’s in amazing shape. And what’s even better is that it’s being USED. They were setting up a conference in the space and no one seemed to care that I was just looking around.
This could be a model for what developers COULD do, if they’re willing, to a space like the Kings.
What an amazing, creative and clever use of a former theater. I happened to be walking through the Millenium Hotel and I noticed a sign for the Hudson Theater in the lobby. Knowing that it had been incorporated into the hotel, I was really curious.
Wow! What a great use of the space. They’ve not only kept the theater in tact in a pristine condition, they’ve utilized the space beautifully. There are no orchestra seats but the floor is used as meeting/party space. But the entire balcony and such is still there as well as all the ornamentation (as far as I can tell). What’s so great about the space is that it’s nice to see a theater kept up but also used. The use keeps it vital and also means it will be maintained for years to come.
I urge you are in midtown to check this out. There’s no one stopping anyone from just walking through and into the Hudson Theater for a quick look. In this age, that’s not necessarily a comforting notion but if you want to see how a theater might be preserved, check this out.
Something is going on with this theater today. There is scaffolding directly underneath the marquee. Does anyone know what’s up with this? Is it the beginnning of the end for the old DeMille?
This was a great theater from when it opened (I think) around 1977 or so. I remember a lot of people went there to see “Close Encounters”. Anyway…I saw a lot of movies here from “Aliens” to “Prizzi’s Honor” to “Pretty Woman”. Very nice.
But…I went back there in the mid 90’s and found that the layout was completely different. Someone later mentioned (and correct me if I’m wrong) that the entire theater complex was changed inside/out. It definately seemed that way to me because the whole theater layout was completely different from the time I’d been there last. It was still a nice theater complex. Nice layout and the parking was terrific.
If this theater was in a more “desirable” part of NYC, it would get more press. I never knew it was there until I stumbled upon it. Now, on those rare occasions when I drive into work in Manhattan, I make it a point to drive past this theater. I always hope that I’ll get into some kind of minor traffic jam so I can get a better look.
This neighborhood is thriving…it’s no ghost town. Like Flatbush, this neighborhood (Washington Heights) was profiled in NY Magazine as being one of NY’s best kept residential secrets. Therefore, it’s secret is out. Again, if and when this area changes, what will be the consequences of this theater? I think too many people know about it now and there would be a large uproar from the architectural community if anyone tried anything “funny” with this place.
I nearly crashed my car when I once got off I-95 after coming off the GW Bridge to get out of a traffic jam and found this grand relic. My GOD this thing is AMAZING!!!!! Is it landmarked by NYC? Quite possibly the most beautiful theater remaining in NYC, handsdown. And from outside, it looks largely intact.
Your point is well taken. As a child, my parents took us to Times Square a lot in the 70’s. I never really thought that it was too bad at all. Whenever I read, see (Taxi Driver) or hear anything about how lousy it was, I find it hard to relate. Ok…I was a child/pre-teen so my age didn’t help. Yeah, it was gritty as HELL ( I remember the Times Square station…Whoa! What a place! But it was FUN!). But you know what? There were as many crowds back then as there are now. But now it’s tourist city. The “energy” is all manufactured as opposed to it being organic or natural. That’s why I like 9th Avenue a lot now. You have these great old hardware stores, shoeshines and quirky restaurants. 10th is even better.
As for Flatbush, it’s still gritty and pleasant. But if you go on the other side of Prospect Park (toward Park Slope) the changes are all but complete. It’s only a matter of time for it to sweep across the park into Flatbush, and it’s already happening. Will the Kings have a place in the “new” Flatbush? If history tells us anything (Times Square) the Kings will not survive. That’s why the time to start actively discussing saving it has to be done NOW. I used to love driving up Flatbush Ave. and seeing the old Kings and wonder what it must’ve been like 40, 50 or 60 years ago.
Bway: nice set of photos. Regentrification is a mixed blessing. It revitalizes some neighborhoods and makes them livable. But it also pushes out the element that makes some neighborhoods unique. A good example of this is 9th Ave in midtown Manhattan. It’s still slightly gritty with a lot of non-franchise restaurants from Cuban to Vietnamese to Mom and Pop hardware stores. I find the area charming but what’s going to happen in another few years? These places will be gone to be replaced by Starbucks. The second picture you show clearly demonstrates this with a McDonald’s sign prominently displayed.
East NY…not half bad? Oye. That’s incredible. I cannot imagine East NY being livable but the way the city is rapidly changing, one never knows. Bed-Stuy…ABSOLUTELY! Block after block of those great old brownstones.
But Flatbush is very special because it has a mix of brownstones and some of the most incredbile, beautiful and astonishing homes in the NY area. Just ride up Flatbush Ave and hang a left or right near the Kings. Your jaw will drop when you get a load of those stately Victorians. I used to spend hours driving around those neighborhoods.
New York Magazine already ran an article about the neighborhood and how couples from Manhattan are snatching up these homes and turning them back into single family dwellings. Think about it: you have a HUGE beautiful home within minutes of Manhattan.
As for the Kings, someone has to get in there and protect it. How does one get Landmark status for something like this?
As for Streisand…are you kidding me? There’s no WAY that she’s going to schlep from her protective LA environment to come all the way to Brooklyn to protect the Kings. I’ll believe it when I see it.
In my opinion, the area this theater is located (Flatbush) is just at the beginning of a major regentrification (sorry if I didn’t spell that right…). Anyway, it’s a prime area that is being discovered by New Yorkers who cannot affort Manhattan. In ten years time, it’s going to be all new again. If anyone is going to start a restoration of the Kings, they’d better do it quick. I’m telling you, this area is going to be HOT, HOT, HOT. I lived in Brooklyn in the early 90’s. Park Slope was established as a nice area by then. But I’ve been back recently and I’m shocked at how many areas that were once really nasty and slummy are beautiful now. Flatbush is next.
This was an awesome theater. Correct me if I’m wrong, but this is the one that was right on Routes 106/107 in Hicksville, right?
I saw “Star Wars” here in the South Theater. First time there and it became an instant favorite. The theaters were large and the screen size was amazing. Saw “E.T.” here in 82 and lot of others.
I went back to them in the late 80’s and found that they had carved them up considerably. It looked terrible.
Nice theater. Saw “Full Metal Jacket” here in 1988 and the theater was packed. I was surprised to see it closed. When I was younger I saw “True Grit” here.
Orlando: I stand corrected at to the opening. Yes, I saw the first “Star Trek” movie there and it was quite a theater when it opened. Clean and big. Felt very “state-of-the-art”. There always seemed a “bad” element coming to the theater but the place was so big it never felt threatening. Until the riot of “Krush Groove” and all that followed. Like I said in my initial posting, everyone who lived in southwestern Nassau County as I did went to this theater in the early to mid 80’s. After that, if you told someone you went there, they’d look at you like you were nuts.
longislandmovies wrote:
I CANT BELIEVE THIS IS JUST BEING LISTED??? Could this be right???
Well, I thought exactly the same thing. How could this infamous institution not be listed but I looked and looked and could not find it.
Quite a place, eh? Does anyone know how it’s doing these days? I heard that a few years ago, the installted metal detectors and such. Unbelievable. That must’ve happened after “The Godfather, Part III” incident. As I wrote above, I stopped going there after the “Krush Groove” riot. It just got worse and worse in their and I knew no one who went there from my area.
It’s a pity because when it opened, it was actually a very nice place. Maybe not ornate like some of the old palaces but the theaters were very nice and big.
This was (I think) somewhat of a milestone on LI. It was one of the first, if not THE first, multiplex theaters to open on LI.
It opened around 1970 or so in the “new” Massapequa or Sunrise Mall (people I knew used either name to designate it).
I only saw one movie there (Bad News Bears in 1976) at my insistance. My parents were born and raised in Manhattan and grew up in the movie palaces of NY. To them, these tiny theaters (and they were tiny) were awful. I thought the concept (back then) was pretty cool. Wow! Five movies under one roof! In a Mall!! (That’s how many were there when I lived on LI).
And yes, I believe the entire mall was built on the site of the old Massapequa Drive In.
“This was a top rate house in it’s single days when it used to play exclusives, I have a load of great movie memories there.”
Oh, are YOU kidding me? Of all the theaters I remember going to as a kid, the Green Acres is the one I have the best memories of. The most distinctive is seeing “Jaws” there in the summer of 1975. The entire PACKED audience screaming our collective heads off when the guys head rolls toward the audience. I remember the deep red brick on the front of the theater and that huge marquee.
Obviously this is a discussion more for that theater’s posting than the multiplex but it does relate to it. Do you know what year the original Century’s Green Acres opened? Do you remember that marquee they had on the BACK of the theater that faced the mall? That always got to me as a kid…
Mikeoaklandpark: perhaps he is…somethingis going on there at the Embassy 2,3,4 as there’s a scaffolding directly under the marquee. I noticed it on Friday…
Hope someone can help me figure this out. If you are in Rockefeller Center inside, downstairs on the lower concourse, right across the hallway from the GNC (Vitamin) Store, there is what looks like a box office of sorts with a set of stairs wrapping around it on either side. Like an idiot, one day I actually walked up thoses stairs and went up and came down the other side (I felt really stupid…). I though maybe this was the box office for The Guild but I don’t think so because it’s so far away from it. It’s obviously some kind of box office or ticket selling window but can anyone tell me what it was for? Radio City?
AndyT: I lived on LI when this opened and I strongly believe that for LI, the Sunrise Multiplex WAS the first BIG one to come along on the island. OK…maybe not in the nation but in our small part of the world, it was the first. And fow awhile, the best place to see movies. As you mention, 1990 was almost 15 years ago and a lot may have changed. I have not been back to that theater since 1985 so it might be better now.
RobertR: You have GOT to be kidding me that the Green Acres Cinemas is falling apart! When that opened (or reopened as a six screener) in 1988 or so, it was a REALLY nice place. The theaters were small but it was beautiful. The last time I saw a movie there was “The Crying Game” in 1992 and it was still really nice. What a shame to let it go down hill. But with the megaplexes now taking over, this place’s days are numbered. If this was located in a more accesible place, like on a neighborhood street, it might have a chance. What I mean is, there’s dumpy theater located in Teaneck, NJ that’s a four plex made from an old single screener. Now this place is nothing special but it’s got two things going for it: it’s located in a neighborhood that enjoys the type of movies it shows (independent/art films) and it’s in a very accessible neighborhood street. Hope this made sense.
It will open again!! From today’s NY Times:
Landmark Theater Held Over! 6th Big Broadway Run!
By DAVID W. DUNLAP
After closing and reopening and closing again over the last two years, to the accompaniment of rumors that it would be replaced by a Gristede’s, the Metro Theater on upper Broadway is getting ready to debut once more, on Dec. 3, this time as an independent cinema.
With 292 new seats in the upstairs auditorium, 188 new seats downstairs and rolls of new red carpeting that arrived on Friday, the Metro – an exuberant Art Deco landmark between 99th and 100th Streets – is approaching its sixth incarnation in 71 years.
Behind its pink and black terra-cotta facade, adorned by an enormous medallion depicting tragedy and comedy, the Metro has been a first-run movie theater, a pornographic house, an art theater and a part of two national cinema chains. Though divided, its original Deco décor is delectably intact, including vinelike grilles and vase-bearing sylphs in niches flanking the proscenium arch.
Under the name Embassy’s New Metro Twin, it will be a showcase for foreign and independent films, with some first-run features thrown in, beginning next month with the Italian movie “After Midnight” (“Dopo Mezzanotte”) and “The Incredibles.”
The reopening is not only a reprieve for the Upper West Side, which has been hemorrhaging small theaters in recent decades, but a welcome change for Peter H. Elson, a second-generation theater operator who has usually had to close the houses that his father, Norman W. Elson, acquired: the Embassy 72nd Street Twin on Broadway in 1988, the Embassy 1 in Times Square in 1997 and the Guild at Rockefeller Center in 1999.
“I intend to take as many chances on foreign and independent films here as I did at 72nd Street,” Mr. Elson said Friday as he toured the Metro. “Ten years ago, I would have said that I didn’t think this area could support an art theater. But this area has changed and improved and continues to improve.”
Mr. Elson holds a 20-year lease on the theater from its owner, Albert Bialek. He said he had put about $240,000 into the renovation. There will be new sound systems, larger screens and curtains that will ceremoniously open before each show.
“In old movie palaces, the imagination started to work from the moment you opened the door,” Mr. Elson said. “To the extent possible, that’s the way it should be.”
Boak & Paris, the original architects in 1933, infused the building with a sense of fantasy. In designating the exterior as an official landmark in 1989, the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission said that the Metro was “a rare surviving small Art Deco-style neighborhood movie theater” with “one of the finest facades of its type in New York City.”
Only four blocks away, at Broadway and 95th Street, is the Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theater, part of the renovated Symphony Space complex. Isaiah Sheffer, the artistic director of Symphony Space, said the reborn Metro would be complementary rather than competitive. He wished Mr. Elson well and even imagines the Thalia and Metro cross-promoting one another’s offerings, a prospect that interests Mr. Elson, too.
“I would say, from Symphony Space’s point of view, that it’s a wonderful thing,” Mr. Sheffer said. “It’s good for the nabe.”
It is also good for the landmarks commission, which has had to field at least 100 anxious calls about the unfounded Gristede’s supermarket rumor, said Diane Jackier, the director of community and government affairs. How the rumor started is unclear, although the Metro’s future was shaky last year and there is a Gristede’s across Broadway.
Despite its uptown location, the theater was originally called the Midtown, a name it kept through the 1970’s, when its adults-only fare included double bills like “Hooker Convention” and “Exchange Student.” In 1982, the theater operator Daniel Talbot took over the lease, renamed it the Metro, and began showing an eclectic mix of foreign, art and revival films. Cineplex Odeon took over in 1987, followed by Clearview Cinemas.
At the time of the landmark designation, the commission noted that in 1934 there were 18 cinemas on Broadway from 59th to 110th Streets.
“Only 4 of the 18 are still standing and open to the public as movie theaters,” the commission said in 1989. These were the Regency at 67th Street, the Metro at 99th, the Columbia at 103rd Street and the Olympia at 107th Street.
Today, only the Metro survives.
“Even though we don’t regulate use,” said Robert B. Tierney, the current commission chairman, “I am delighted that the Metro will continue to operate as one of the great landmark movie houses on the Upper West Side.”
“This was at one time the busyest theater in the country.”
I’ll second that. From it’s opening till around 1984 or so, it was the place to see movies in southwestern Nassau county. But with each passing year, it got worse and worse. Other nicer, SAFER multiplexes began to open in other parts of the county which drew attendence away from this one. The formerly large Century’s Green Acres multiplexed in the late 1980s into a nice movie house albeit with small but well appointed theaters (more like screening rooms). They tended to show more “upscale” fare.
I think that the Sunrise Multiplex did so well initially because it was one of the first theaters to be built AS a multiplex as opposed to an existing single screener that got mulitplexed. Technically speaking, they did a lot of things right with this theater…the parking was amazing (it was built on the old Sunrise Drive In), the layout was very good and the theaters were large.
If it had been just five or so miles east on Sunrise Highway, it might not have been as bad.
I don’t know…it looked in fine shape to me. Even the old box office boothes were still in tact and looked immaculate. I was just there today.
How the HELL this place manages to stay open while the older, nicer Century’s Baldwin closed in the mid 80’s is beyond me.
This was a smallish theater when it was a single screener. I never went there after they multiplexed it.
Yes, public awareness is key. Hate to say it, but the way the neighborhood is now, it will be difficult to find that much support there. It would have to come (largely) from the other side of Prospsect Park, in Park Slope and those areas. I know a lot of people in that area who for years wouldn’t dare to cross over into the area where the Kings is (I never thought it was that bad…).
I’ve just posted something on the board for the Hudson Theater on W. 44th Street in NYC. I had heard about this theater and how it is incorporated into the Millenium Hotel but got a chance to look at it today. The hotel has probably the most ridiculous LACK of security I’ve ever seen. One can walk straight through the lobby and over to the Hudson Theater space.
What an ingenius use of the space, though. Not only is it beautifully restored but it’s in amazing shape. And what’s even better is that it’s being USED. They were setting up a conference in the space and no one seemed to care that I was just looking around.
This could be a model for what developers COULD do, if they’re willing, to a space like the Kings.
What an amazing, creative and clever use of a former theater. I happened to be walking through the Millenium Hotel and I noticed a sign for the Hudson Theater in the lobby. Knowing that it had been incorporated into the hotel, I was really curious.
Wow! What a great use of the space. They’ve not only kept the theater in tact in a pristine condition, they’ve utilized the space beautifully. There are no orchestra seats but the floor is used as meeting/party space. But the entire balcony and such is still there as well as all the ornamentation (as far as I can tell). What’s so great about the space is that it’s nice to see a theater kept up but also used. The use keeps it vital and also means it will be maintained for years to come.
I urge you are in midtown to check this out. There’s no one stopping anyone from just walking through and into the Hudson Theater for a quick look. In this age, that’s not necessarily a comforting notion but if you want to see how a theater might be preserved, check this out.
Something is going on with this theater today. There is scaffolding directly underneath the marquee. Does anyone know what’s up with this? Is it the beginnning of the end for the old DeMille?
This was a great theater from when it opened (I think) around 1977 or so. I remember a lot of people went there to see “Close Encounters”. Anyway…I saw a lot of movies here from “Aliens” to “Prizzi’s Honor” to “Pretty Woman”. Very nice.
But…I went back there in the mid 90’s and found that the layout was completely different. Someone later mentioned (and correct me if I’m wrong) that the entire theater complex was changed inside/out. It definately seemed that way to me because the whole theater layout was completely different from the time I’d been there last. It was still a nice theater complex. Nice layout and the parking was terrific.
If this theater was in a more “desirable” part of NYC, it would get more press. I never knew it was there until I stumbled upon it. Now, on those rare occasions when I drive into work in Manhattan, I make it a point to drive past this theater. I always hope that I’ll get into some kind of minor traffic jam so I can get a better look.
This neighborhood is thriving…it’s no ghost town. Like Flatbush, this neighborhood (Washington Heights) was profiled in NY Magazine as being one of NY’s best kept residential secrets. Therefore, it’s secret is out. Again, if and when this area changes, what will be the consequences of this theater? I think too many people know about it now and there would be a large uproar from the architectural community if anyone tried anything “funny” with this place.
I nearly crashed my car when I once got off I-95 after coming off the GW Bridge to get out of a traffic jam and found this grand relic. My GOD this thing is AMAZING!!!!! Is it landmarked by NYC? Quite possibly the most beautiful theater remaining in NYC, handsdown. And from outside, it looks largely intact.
Your point is well taken. As a child, my parents took us to Times Square a lot in the 70’s. I never really thought that it was too bad at all. Whenever I read, see (Taxi Driver) or hear anything about how lousy it was, I find it hard to relate. Ok…I was a child/pre-teen so my age didn’t help. Yeah, it was gritty as HELL ( I remember the Times Square station…Whoa! What a place! But it was FUN!). But you know what? There were as many crowds back then as there are now. But now it’s tourist city. The “energy” is all manufactured as opposed to it being organic or natural. That’s why I like 9th Avenue a lot now. You have these great old hardware stores, shoeshines and quirky restaurants. 10th is even better.
As for Flatbush, it’s still gritty and pleasant. But if you go on the other side of Prospect Park (toward Park Slope) the changes are all but complete. It’s only a matter of time for it to sweep across the park into Flatbush, and it’s already happening. Will the Kings have a place in the “new” Flatbush? If history tells us anything (Times Square) the Kings will not survive. That’s why the time to start actively discussing saving it has to be done NOW. I used to love driving up Flatbush Ave. and seeing the old Kings and wonder what it must’ve been like 40, 50 or 60 years ago.
Bway: nice set of photos. Regentrification is a mixed blessing. It revitalizes some neighborhoods and makes them livable. But it also pushes out the element that makes some neighborhoods unique. A good example of this is 9th Ave in midtown Manhattan. It’s still slightly gritty with a lot of non-franchise restaurants from Cuban to Vietnamese to Mom and Pop hardware stores. I find the area charming but what’s going to happen in another few years? These places will be gone to be replaced by Starbucks. The second picture you show clearly demonstrates this with a McDonald’s sign prominently displayed.
East NY…not half bad? Oye. That’s incredible. I cannot imagine East NY being livable but the way the city is rapidly changing, one never knows. Bed-Stuy…ABSOLUTELY! Block after block of those great old brownstones.
But Flatbush is very special because it has a mix of brownstones and some of the most incredbile, beautiful and astonishing homes in the NY area. Just ride up Flatbush Ave and hang a left or right near the Kings. Your jaw will drop when you get a load of those stately Victorians. I used to spend hours driving around those neighborhoods.
New York Magazine already ran an article about the neighborhood and how couples from Manhattan are snatching up these homes and turning them back into single family dwellings. Think about it: you have a HUGE beautiful home within minutes of Manhattan.
As for the Kings, someone has to get in there and protect it. How does one get Landmark status for something like this?
As for Streisand…are you kidding me? There’s no WAY that she’s going to schlep from her protective LA environment to come all the way to Brooklyn to protect the Kings. I’ll believe it when I see it.
In my opinion, the area this theater is located (Flatbush) is just at the beginning of a major regentrification (sorry if I didn’t spell that right…). Anyway, it’s a prime area that is being discovered by New Yorkers who cannot affort Manhattan. In ten years time, it’s going to be all new again. If anyone is going to start a restoration of the Kings, they’d better do it quick. I’m telling you, this area is going to be HOT, HOT, HOT. I lived in Brooklyn in the early 90’s. Park Slope was established as a nice area by then. But I’ve been back recently and I’m shocked at how many areas that were once really nasty and slummy are beautiful now. Flatbush is next.
This was an awesome theater. Correct me if I’m wrong, but this is the one that was right on Routes 106/107 in Hicksville, right?
I saw “Star Wars” here in the South Theater. First time there and it became an instant favorite. The theaters were large and the screen size was amazing. Saw “E.T.” here in 82 and lot of others.
I went back to them in the late 80’s and found that they had carved them up considerably. It looked terrible.
Nice theater. Saw “Full Metal Jacket” here in 1988 and the theater was packed. I was surprised to see it closed. When I was younger I saw “True Grit” here.
Orlando: if you know, what was on the site where the Sunrise/Massapequa Mall is now before it? My parents always said it was the Drive In.
Orlando: I stand corrected at to the opening. Yes, I saw the first “Star Trek” movie there and it was quite a theater when it opened. Clean and big. Felt very “state-of-the-art”. There always seemed a “bad” element coming to the theater but the place was so big it never felt threatening. Until the riot of “Krush Groove” and all that followed. Like I said in my initial posting, everyone who lived in southwestern Nassau County as I did went to this theater in the early to mid 80’s. After that, if you told someone you went there, they’d look at you like you were nuts.
longislandmovies wrote:
I CANT BELIEVE THIS IS JUST BEING LISTED??? Could this be right???
Well, I thought exactly the same thing. How could this infamous institution not be listed but I looked and looked and could not find it.
Quite a place, eh? Does anyone know how it’s doing these days? I heard that a few years ago, the installted metal detectors and such. Unbelievable. That must’ve happened after “The Godfather, Part III” incident. As I wrote above, I stopped going there after the “Krush Groove” riot. It just got worse and worse in their and I knew no one who went there from my area.
It’s a pity because when it opened, it was actually a very nice place. Maybe not ornate like some of the old palaces but the theaters were very nice and big.
This was (I think) somewhat of a milestone on LI. It was one of the first, if not THE first, multiplex theaters to open on LI.
It opened around 1970 or so in the “new” Massapequa or Sunrise Mall (people I knew used either name to designate it).
I only saw one movie there (Bad News Bears in 1976) at my insistance. My parents were born and raised in Manhattan and grew up in the movie palaces of NY. To them, these tiny theaters (and they were tiny) were awful. I thought the concept (back then) was pretty cool. Wow! Five movies under one roof! In a Mall!! (That’s how many were there when I lived on LI).
And yes, I believe the entire mall was built on the site of the old Massapequa Drive In.