Arion Theatre

I very fondly remember my childhood spent in MV and the Arion movie house was a big part of my memories. I went there in the forties and fifties and remember that children’s admission was 25 cents and on weekdays it was 11 or 12 cents. Most candy was 6 cents. There were many times directly from school (PS 87) I would go to the movies to watch such films (as I remember) Sunset Blvd, Boris Karloff/Bela Lugosi horror ones, Lon Chaney Jr Wolf Man films, etc.

I’m sorry to read above that in it’s latter day it wasn’t kept up well.

Robert R. I love your JPEG’s of old Newspaper movie ads. Hab]=ve any more?

The comments above confirm my memories of the Arion having that round plaster ornamental thing on the ceiling. But as I posted under the Drake, I’m pretty sure there was also plenty of peeling paint — which, considering all the other comments here, seems quite in character.
And “JakeGittes” — great name! But I saw Chinatown at the Elmwood — at least, the second time. I can’t remember where I saw it the first time. It’s possible we went ALL THE WAY OVER to Bayside to the Bay Terrace, as my father was sometimes wont to do…

This neighborhood run ad for “2001” saluted the astronauts of Apollo 10
View link

I remember playing Saturday Night Fever with Looking for Mr Goodbar
as a double feature at the Drake late in ‘78 or early in '79. It did great business. Coupling a classic musical with a minor classic drama from '77. This is what creative exhibition used to do to generate ticket sales. This is what a film buff would look out for to see a film that they missed on general release. This was the filmgoing experience before VHS and DVD. I enjoy the pristine look of a DVD but miss the theatrical experience. For NY'ers this is what the Bleecker St., Thalia, Elgin, Cinema Village, and at times St Marks qould supply.

In 1954 when theatres were changing the bill every few days this holiday pair was making the rounds.
View link

I actually remember seeing this Topo Gigio matinee at the Arion. My mother took me and 2 of my cousins.
View link

This is a typical Arion double bill :)

View link

I lived several houses down on 74th street and could see the Arion from my stoop (YES we all had stoops back then).The Arion was a staple growing up in MV,on saturdays all the kids on 74th street went to the matinee’s which were usually cartoons or Disney movies.The 1st movie I can remember seeing was “Chitty chitty bang bang” with my grandfather. I was in the Arion with my father when the big blackout of ‘77 hit,ironically the movie that had just started was “Black Sunday”. On saturdays at midnight in the 70’s they showed XXX movies for a time. The last movie I remember seeing there was a midnight showing of “The rocky horror picture show” when it 1st came out (stupid us thought it was a horror movie…who knew? )Movies were only $1 and I think I still have a ticket stub around. We used to sit on the steps to watch parades or just to hang out until we got chased away when it opened. We lovingly referred to it as “THE ITCH”. It was a sad day when the theatre closed,multiplexes like the Midway were the new thing and single
screen theatres were no good any more. I remember the bldg sat empty for some time because the price tag at the time was so high ($600,000 …hind site is 20/20 huh?) The whole “Avenue” as it was know has changed,I miss the old neighborhood.

That’s hilarious to me that somebody else still living was at that same exact showing of the Poseidon Adventure! (unless, of course, the Arion had the reels in the wrong order during the entire week’s run, which would not have been out of character for the Arion’s crack staff). I have a vague memory of the Arion’s Festival du Apes, but I DEFINITELY remember the blue banner of the penguin on the iceberg advertising It’s Cool Inside, or something like that. Like many, my house had no AC and that banner was most attractive on some of those hot humid NYC days. Several times during the summer my friends and I would ride our bikes to the Arion and go see whatever they were showing. One thing I recall from that era is that blinding, jarring sensation you get when you leave a dark, air conditioned movie theater in the middle of the day, and emerge into bright sunshine (and, the Arion’s case, the hub-bub of Metropolitan Ave.)

I also remember people smoking at the Arion (and the Drake, where when I was a kid they allowed smoking on the left side of the theater (as if it made a difference)). To this day, I still think when I look up during a movie that I’m going to see that swirling prism of smoke you would see in the illumination from the projection. It is funny how, for moviegoers at least, you carry the images from those first theaters.

As for the movie matrons, it is strange that such a rewarding, fulfilling profession could just vanish.

Robert R… Here’s a bit of Arion trivia for you.

The entrance to the theater was framed by two showcases on the right and a single showcase on the left. The one on the left was actually a disguised door. When opened, it revealed a staircase which led to an apartment above the area over the outer and inner lobbies, the rest rooms and the boxoffice. Sporadically, one would see the tenant coming and going.

GarrettH—You’re not going to believe this, but I WAS AT THE VERY SAME SHOWING OF THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE at the Arion where they had the reels out of order. I remember everyone making fun of the fact that the Shelley Winters character was dead, and then we saw her swimming around ten minutes later!

I too grew up in Middle Village (in the 60’s and 70’s), and spent many a happy hour at the Arion. Of my many memories, my favorite is the week (usually once a year, in the summer) when the Arion would “Go Ape”—that is, they aired all 5 of the “Planet of the Apes” movies back to back over the course of a single week.

I loved the double features, and discovered some of my favorite movies quite accidentally because of them. I remember going to see a version of “The Three Musketeers,” (starring Michael York, Richard Chamberlain, etc.) and having to first sit through the B-feature, a film starring Jon Voight entitled, “Conrack.” Well, this many years later, I can’t remember a single thing about that version of “Musketeers,” but “Conrack' remains a film that changed my life forever.

Something else I remember about the Arion… in those days, most of us in Middle Village DIDN’T have air conditioning in our homes. Come summer each year, the Arion would hang out a banner with a picture of a penguin sitting on an ice block, and the advertisement to come see a movie in “air conditioned comfort.”

I remember the matrons shining the flashlight at us as kids, and telling us to be quiet. Whatever happened to matrons in movie theaters??

And I remember, as a teenager, smoking cigarettes—legally!—in the last ten rows of the Arion.

It’s funny the impact such things as a small neighborhood movie house can have on us, especially while we’re young. To this day, every time that I dream I’m in a movie theater (a frequent scenario for me), no matter where I’m “supposed to be” in that particular dream, I realize—it’s always the Arion. If I live to be a hundred, I will never forget the place.

Tom C.