Hey Wally75! Been gone from these parts a while, but I’m getting back into the swing of things. My old work email is no longer active (which is what you had), but please click on my profile name below and you will find my email address. If you’d like to send me those pics, I’ll gladly put them up in my photobucket account and post them here.
Hi Chuck. I agree with you 100% about Lost. I believe it may have been my post on the Sunrise Drive In page that noted how Lost’s post above on November 25, 2009, appeared to be his last, and that he seemed to have left in an angry manner. I never intended to suggest that the comment above encapsulated the sole reason for his departure. Clearly, he was fed up and frustrated. I’ve been away from CT for a while, though not because I’ve been deliberately avoiding it, and now that I’m back, I’m saddened that Lost is no longer posting. I hope that he will have a change of heart some day.
Jimly… I go here from time to time and will gladly snap some shots for you, but it’s pretty non-descript. The lobby now takes up about 2/3 of the full width of the building. Standard generic carpeting (I think it’s blue), concession stand is in the back right of the lobby, box office is still facing the street and takes up the right front side of the lobby as you walk in. Bathrooms are on the far right of the lobby. There are a few steps down to the left of the concession stand to get to the two (I believe) downstairs theaters, and against the far left wall is the long escalator and staircase leading up (and down) the remaining theaters on the 2nd level. If you enter through the doors just to the left of the box office, there is a half wall that runs about a ½ the way into the lobby, I suppose to separate those who enter the theater from those who would exit through the two sets of doors that are opposite the escalator and staircase. At the end of the half wall, there is a column on which a framed photo (no bigger than an 8"x10") showing the Fantasy’s original facade from 1929. In fact, it is the very same vintage view that Warren G Harris posted on April 28, 2008. And THAT is the ONLY trace of the old Fantasy Theater that remains!
Stunning set of photographs – and quite heartbreaking. Although, a number of them – starting with the first three images – seem to depict school auditoriums or other non-theatrical meeting halls, given the large windows running along the sidewalls.
Introductory comments up top might be updated to reflect exact opening date of August 10, 1938, and correct time of closure and demolition to 1979, sometime after the run of “The Exorcist” re-release as detailed above by KingBiscuits on January 16, 2010.
Back to the nominal topic, found these photos/images on a Facebook group called “I grew up in Valley Stream 1970-2000” and purloined them for use on this site. Some of these images may have already been submitted here, but I don’t believe any of those links are still working, so here they are anew:
That last image of the opening day ad is most likely the same one from the Long Island Press that Warren posted back on November 14, 2007. I find that little mailer from the 1950’s to be interesting. I suppose with the competition from television, the folks at Sunrise took their advertising campaign door to door via the USPS. I wonder if the Sunrise ever really ran a true VistaVision presentation?
Finally found a photo of the place! I found it in a group of public photos on the Facebook group called “I grew up in Valley Stream in 1970-2000.” Appears to be a newspaper clipping about The Rio – possibly the 8/6/94 article from Newsday that I posted about back on November 6, 2007.
From the bunting and pennants that adorn the marquee, one would think the photo depicts opening day festivities, but the van on the left side of the image and the attire does not appear to be vintage 1925. Perhaps the theater was decorated for some sort of Village celebration or Holiday? Unfortunately, the scan blurs the left side of the picture and the titles on the side panel of the marquee are completely illegible.
Seems like a common problem when older theaters are quickly and cheaply carved up into multiple screens. Exact problem exists for the Fresh Meadows Theater in Queens and the Fantasy Theater in Rockville Centre, Long Island. If you have to slip out from one of the upstairs cinemas to use the facilities in the middle of a flick, you need to do a sprint down to the lowest level (and back again) in each of those locations. I would always get back to my seat completely winded!
Regarding Bob Endres' post on the discussions and aborted plans to install IMAX at the Music Hall… I, for one, would love to see an IMAX presentation here! I wonder if technology will ever advance to the point where an unobtrusive mechanism for quickly deploying and then stowing the huge IMAX screen between stage shows might be feasible. It would do this heart good to see the return of cinematic engagements at the Hall – even if on a semi-regular basis. Alas, I think it would take an “event” attraction such as an IMAX presentation to fill enough of the Hall’s 5940 seats and make the enterprise financially worthwhile. Seems to me that a big part of such a program would involve negotiating exclusive rights to a particular engagement – at least in Manhattan – which would probably be nearly impossible to acheive with the big box cinema chains in play.
Hey LuisV… Couldn’t agree more. Something like 2800 tickets are still avaliable on StubHub for the two shows scheduled for this weekend. For the 2nd show alone, on Sunday, there are over 1600 seats available – that’s approximately 27% of the house!
Chris… Not sure what you see as the other rear facades on 41st St, but if you mean the two sets of caged fire escapes that seem to be separated by a building between them, both of those belong to the New Amseterdam. In fact, “Mary Poppins” banners fly from both sets of escapes. The wider set closest to 7th Avenue is near the back of the house (serving the balcony and mezzanine as well as the rooftop theatre and gardens) while the narrower to the west probably served the stage fly area and rooftop spaces. The site where the Harris Theatre’s 41st Street facade was located is now occupied by a tall building with an ugly and windowless green facade, sandwiched between the narrow back end of the Candler Building (where the rear entrance of the 42nd Street McDonalds is) and the back of the Hilton Hotel structure that frames the Liberty Theatre facade.
Seems to me that the introductory description at the top of the page should be changed to more specifically identify the Queens Theatre’s location as being on Jamaica Avenue at Springfield Boulevard, rather than near the Cross Island Parkway. I know we have the address listed, but the change would allow folks to orient themselves a bit better if thinking about a drive by the old place.
IMDB notes that the movie “M” was released in the US on March 31, 1933, in New York City, despite being produced and released in Germany in 1931. A date of May 11 is given for its German premiere in ‘31.
I recall this shopping center being anchored by a TSS when I used to go to the Five Towns. Also seem to remember a Garden World type of nursery over in the far right part of the mall. And to answer formerprojectionist’s post from December 12, 2009, the theater had a direct entrance from the outside. In fact, all the stores in this strip had individual entrances… there was no indoor mall aspect to this shopping center at all.
The Five Towns was a single screener. The RKO Twin was down the road heading east on Rockaway Turnpike and on the right side where Peninsula Blvd intersects.
Anyway, I also see that the address has been updated to identify the town as Rosedale, but I wonder if that’s correct. This was always listed as being in Woodmere in the newspaper ads and under Nassau County in the ads and movie clock listings. Rosedale is in Queens.
Here’s an article from a local Five Towns online news site regarding the plans for the Lynbrook. This one has a quote from a Regal Cinemas representative and seems to strongly suggest that this will be a complete knock down and build from the ground up project. Too bad. Still… no official word on any deal being finalized.
Love how the article notes the Lynbrook is the closest movie theater to Five Towns. I can remember when you had theaters in Cedarhurst, Hewlett, Woodmere and Lawrence. Never went to the Central Theater in Cedarhurst or the Hewlett Theater, but used to see late-run movies at discount prices at the Five Towns Theater in Woodmere and remember seeing several first run flicks at the RKO Twin in Lawrence.
Those were good times, Bloop. Part of the reason I love this site so much is that it brings up all these great memories when life was a lot simpler! Meanwhile, 7 years after the idea of knocking this theater down was first mentioned at the top of the page by Meredith Rhule, the Lynbrook still stands! Of course, it looks as though we may actually be getting close to seeing some sort of action on replacing or rebuilding the theater, now that the Village’s new administration seems to have reached an agreement with Regal.
Here’s another memory of the Lynbrook: I saw Speilberg’s “1941” here TWICE in December of 1979. It played in what is now theater #1, left side downstairs room. Since at the time my friends and I had to take a bus to get to the Lynbrook, we came in late for the movie – the scene where John Belushi is lost, flying his plane over the Grand Canyon and struggling with his map in the cockpit. We stayed for the next showing until the movie reached the point we had first come in. About a week or two later, we came back to see it again, once again running late and once again walking in at the EXACT SAME MOMENT! Finally saw “1941” in its proper order from opening title to closing credits in January of 1980 at the Rivoli Theater in Times Square. The funny thing there is how it parallels my initial abortive attempt to watch “Dawn of the Dead” at the Lynbrook (and getting thrown out of the theater in the process) and then finally catching that movie in its entirety at the very same Rivoli Theater a few weeks later!
And if I may induldge some further free association, there used to be a TV & appliance store called Rivoli on Merrick Rd in Valley Stream, on the corner of Central Avenue where a TD Bank now stands. It was an old fashioned store with TV’s in the display window that were left running. I remember passing it the time that my buddies and I missed the last bus from the Lynbrook back to Queens and had to walk all the way home. Tongues were dragging by the time we hit Central Ave that night!
There is some original architectural work still preserved in the ceiling of the first two interior shots and a glimpse of some sidewall decoration exposed in the last shot, just to the right of dead center where that opening in the red curtain is.
So they only run reel to reel there? Or do they have a platter that is used for 35mm? I’m glad to hear they run 70MM and have a full sized screen. I’ve been hesitant to catch any screenings here because I’ve suspected the room and screen would be undersized. How is the sound system? Has anyone here attended a screening since the renovations?
Correction to my last post, as aquarianick originally posted, the video was also filmed using the interior of the Utopia (except for the shots of the fantasy “stage production”). I’ll try to get a couple of more screen grabs that may be interesting to post here when I get to my home computer.
The video takes place in and around the theater – although, I have no way of knowing if any of the interiors were also shot here. The long shot of the marquee is the very last in the video, but there are some opening bits where you can glimpse the ticket booth, part of the entrance and an outdoor display case or two.
Sorry for the intrusion, just want to re-link to notifications on this page. The Widescreen Museum site is endlessly fascinating, by the way. I could (and have) lost myself for hours within its pages.
Hey Wally75! Been gone from these parts a while, but I’m getting back into the swing of things. My old work email is no longer active (which is what you had), but please click on my profile name below and you will find my email address. If you’d like to send me those pics, I’ll gladly put them up in my photobucket account and post them here.
Hi Chuck. I agree with you 100% about Lost. I believe it may have been my post on the Sunrise Drive In page that noted how Lost’s post above on November 25, 2009, appeared to be his last, and that he seemed to have left in an angry manner. I never intended to suggest that the comment above encapsulated the sole reason for his departure. Clearly, he was fed up and frustrated. I’ve been away from CT for a while, though not because I’ve been deliberately avoiding it, and now that I’m back, I’m saddened that Lost is no longer posting. I hope that he will have a change of heart some day.
Here is a story on the restoration and re-opening of the Pelham Picture House from WABC-TV Eyewitness News this morning.
Jimly… I go here from time to time and will gladly snap some shots for you, but it’s pretty non-descript. The lobby now takes up about 2/3 of the full width of the building. Standard generic carpeting (I think it’s blue), concession stand is in the back right of the lobby, box office is still facing the street and takes up the right front side of the lobby as you walk in. Bathrooms are on the far right of the lobby. There are a few steps down to the left of the concession stand to get to the two (I believe) downstairs theaters, and against the far left wall is the long escalator and staircase leading up (and down) the remaining theaters on the 2nd level. If you enter through the doors just to the left of the box office, there is a half wall that runs about a ½ the way into the lobby, I suppose to separate those who enter the theater from those who would exit through the two sets of doors that are opposite the escalator and staircase. At the end of the half wall, there is a column on which a framed photo (no bigger than an 8"x10") showing the Fantasy’s original facade from 1929. In fact, it is the very same vintage view that Warren G Harris posted on April 28, 2008. And THAT is the ONLY trace of the old Fantasy Theater that remains!
Stunning set of photographs – and quite heartbreaking. Although, a number of them – starting with the first three images – seem to depict school auditoriums or other non-theatrical meeting halls, given the large windows running along the sidewalls.
Introductory comments up top might be updated to reflect exact opening date of August 10, 1938, and correct time of closure and demolition to 1979, sometime after the run of “The Exorcist” re-release as detailed above by KingBiscuits on January 16, 2010.
Back to the nominal topic, found these photos/images on a Facebook group called “I grew up in Valley Stream 1970-2000” and purloined them for use on this site. Some of these images may have already been submitted here, but I don’t believe any of those links are still working, so here they are anew:
Daytime shot
‘Gaudy Neon’ at night
1950’s mailer?
Opening Ad
That last image of the opening day ad is most likely the same one from the Long Island Press that Warren posted back on November 14, 2007. I find that little mailer from the 1950’s to be interesting. I suppose with the competition from television, the folks at Sunrise took their advertising campaign door to door via the USPS. I wonder if the Sunrise ever really ran a true VistaVision presentation?
Finally found a photo of the place! I found it in a group of public photos on the Facebook group called “I grew up in Valley Stream in 1970-2000.” Appears to be a newspaper clipping about The Rio – possibly the 8/6/94 article from Newsday that I posted about back on November 6, 2007.
Anyway, here is the image.
From the bunting and pennants that adorn the marquee, one would think the photo depicts opening day festivities, but the van on the left side of the image and the attire does not appear to be vintage 1925. Perhaps the theater was decorated for some sort of Village celebration or Holiday? Unfortunately, the scan blurs the left side of the picture and the titles on the side panel of the marquee are completely illegible.
Seems like a common problem when older theaters are quickly and cheaply carved up into multiple screens. Exact problem exists for the Fresh Meadows Theater in Queens and the Fantasy Theater in Rockville Centre, Long Island. If you have to slip out from one of the upstairs cinemas to use the facilities in the middle of a flick, you need to do a sprint down to the lowest level (and back again) in each of those locations. I would always get back to my seat completely winded!
Regarding Bob Endres' post on the discussions and aborted plans to install IMAX at the Music Hall… I, for one, would love to see an IMAX presentation here! I wonder if technology will ever advance to the point where an unobtrusive mechanism for quickly deploying and then stowing the huge IMAX screen between stage shows might be feasible. It would do this heart good to see the return of cinematic engagements at the Hall – even if on a semi-regular basis. Alas, I think it would take an “event” attraction such as an IMAX presentation to fill enough of the Hall’s 5940 seats and make the enterprise financially worthwhile. Seems to me that a big part of such a program would involve negotiating exclusive rights to a particular engagement – at least in Manhattan – which would probably be nearly impossible to acheive with the big box cinema chains in play.
Hey LuisV… Couldn’t agree more. Something like 2800 tickets are still avaliable on StubHub for the two shows scheduled for this weekend. For the 2nd show alone, on Sunday, there are over 1600 seats available – that’s approximately 27% of the house!
Hey formerprojectionist… How goes your Duece documentary you referenced back on Dec 28, 2009? Seems like something I’d be quite interested in seeing.
Chris… Not sure what you see as the other rear facades on 41st St, but if you mean the two sets of caged fire escapes that seem to be separated by a building between them, both of those belong to the New Amseterdam. In fact, “Mary Poppins” banners fly from both sets of escapes. The wider set closest to 7th Avenue is near the back of the house (serving the balcony and mezzanine as well as the rooftop theatre and gardens) while the narrower to the west probably served the stage fly area and rooftop spaces. The site where the Harris Theatre’s 41st Street facade was located is now occupied by a tall building with an ugly and windowless green facade, sandwiched between the narrow back end of the Candler Building (where the rear entrance of the 42nd Street McDonalds is) and the back of the Hilton Hotel structure that frames the Liberty Theatre facade.
Seems to me that the introductory description at the top of the page should be changed to more specifically identify the Queens Theatre’s location as being on Jamaica Avenue at Springfield Boulevard, rather than near the Cross Island Parkway. I know we have the address listed, but the change would allow folks to orient themselves a bit better if thinking about a drive by the old place.
IMDB notes that the movie “M” was released in the US on March 31, 1933, in New York City, despite being produced and released in Germany in 1931. A date of May 11 is given for its German premiere in ‘31.
I recall this shopping center being anchored by a TSS when I used to go to the Five Towns. Also seem to remember a Garden World type of nursery over in the far right part of the mall. And to answer formerprojectionist’s post from December 12, 2009, the theater had a direct entrance from the outside. In fact, all the stores in this strip had individual entrances… there was no indoor mall aspect to this shopping center at all.
The Five Towns was a single screener. The RKO Twin was down the road heading east on Rockaway Turnpike and on the right side where Peninsula Blvd intersects.
Anyway, I also see that the address has been updated to identify the town as Rosedale, but I wonder if that’s correct. This was always listed as being in Woodmere in the newspaper ads and under Nassau County in the ads and movie clock listings. Rosedale is in Queens.
Here’s an article from a local Five Towns online news site regarding the plans for the Lynbrook. This one has a quote from a Regal Cinemas representative and seems to strongly suggest that this will be a complete knock down and build from the ground up project. Too bad. Still… no official word on any deal being finalized.
Love how the article notes the Lynbrook is the closest movie theater to Five Towns. I can remember when you had theaters in Cedarhurst, Hewlett, Woodmere and Lawrence. Never went to the Central Theater in Cedarhurst or the Hewlett Theater, but used to see late-run movies at discount prices at the Five Towns Theater in Woodmere and remember seeing several first run flicks at the RKO Twin in Lawrence.
Those were good times, Bloop. Part of the reason I love this site so much is that it brings up all these great memories when life was a lot simpler! Meanwhile, 7 years after the idea of knocking this theater down was first mentioned at the top of the page by Meredith Rhule, the Lynbrook still stands! Of course, it looks as though we may actually be getting close to seeing some sort of action on replacing or rebuilding the theater, now that the Village’s new administration seems to have reached an agreement with Regal.
Here’s another memory of the Lynbrook: I saw Speilberg’s “1941” here TWICE in December of 1979. It played in what is now theater #1, left side downstairs room. Since at the time my friends and I had to take a bus to get to the Lynbrook, we came in late for the movie – the scene where John Belushi is lost, flying his plane over the Grand Canyon and struggling with his map in the cockpit. We stayed for the next showing until the movie reached the point we had first come in. About a week or two later, we came back to see it again, once again running late and once again walking in at the EXACT SAME MOMENT! Finally saw “1941” in its proper order from opening title to closing credits in January of 1980 at the Rivoli Theater in Times Square. The funny thing there is how it parallels my initial abortive attempt to watch “Dawn of the Dead” at the Lynbrook (and getting thrown out of the theater in the process) and then finally catching that movie in its entirety at the very same Rivoli Theater a few weeks later!
And if I may induldge some further free association, there used to be a TV & appliance store called Rivoli on Merrick Rd in Valley Stream, on the corner of Central Avenue where a TD Bank now stands. It was an old fashioned store with TV’s in the display window that were left running. I remember passing it the time that my buddies and I missed the last bus from the Lynbrook back to Queens and had to walk all the way home. Tongues were dragging by the time we hit Central Ave that night!
More screen shots from that RZA video:
Ticket taker
Box Office window
Is this the Utopia projection booth?
Platter
I assume the shots in the projection booth were also done at the Utopia and not mocked up in a studio somewhere?
Sorry to be more than a day late and a dollar short, NativeForestHiller, but here are the updated links to the photos I had posted back in 2006:
Long shot Sept 2005
Tighter shot Sept 2005
Interior restaurant from website
Interior bar area from website
Balcony theater from website
There is some original architectural work still preserved in the ceiling of the first two interior shots and a glimpse of some sidewall decoration exposed in the last shot, just to the right of dead center where that opening in the red curtain is.
Re-linking.
So they only run reel to reel there? Or do they have a platter that is used for 35mm? I’m glad to hear they run 70MM and have a full sized screen. I’ve been hesitant to catch any screenings here because I’ve suspected the room and screen would be undersized. How is the sound system? Has anyone here attended a screening since the renovations?
Correction to my last post, as aquarianick originally posted, the video was also filmed using the interior of the Utopia (except for the shots of the fantasy “stage production”). I’ll try to get a couple of more screen grabs that may be interesting to post here when I get to my home computer.
Grabbed a screen shot from that video by RZA that aquarianick posted a few years back. Nice view of the old marquee just as I remember it:
Utopia Screen Shot
The video takes place in and around the theater – although, I have no way of knowing if any of the interiors were also shot here. The long shot of the marquee is the very last in the video, but there are some opening bits where you can glimpse the ticket booth, part of the entrance and an outdoor display case or two.
Sorry for the intrusion, just want to re-link to notifications on this page. The Widescreen Museum site is endlessly fascinating, by the way. I could (and have) lost myself for hours within its pages.