UA Astoria Sixplex
2860 Steinway Street,
Astoria,
NY
11103
2860 Steinway Street,
Astoria,
NY
11103
15 people
favorited this theater
Showing 76 - 92 of 92 comments
I actually saw “Invasion of the Blood Farmers” when it was – if you can believe it – re-released around 1980 or so. I think I saw it at the RKO Keith’s in Flushing on a double bill. I had actually heard about the film before, but would have been too young to have seen it when it first came out. It was pretty horrific. There are scenes where you can see the boom mic bobbing into the top of the frame! I remember at one point I just stopped paying attention to the story and just started scanning the frame line for other intrusions by the film crew! Ed Wood would have been proud to have been a part of it!
But I gotta say… I’ve seen quite a number of films on 42nd Street that would rival “Blood Farmers” on the list of “world’s worst films”.
No, BklynJim, I have NEVER … repeat, NEVER … heard of “Invasion of the Blood Farmers”. The closest I have come to it is the original and vastly superior “Not Of This Earth”, directed by Roger Corman, and starring Paul Birch as the primo interstellar vampire from the planet Davanna.
But, now that you’ve mentioned “Blood Farmers”, I must go check it out on the IMDb and post about it on my beloved Angelique board.
Once a grand theater, loaded with history, it kind of hurts to see how it ended and what’s there now, with a complimentary nod to Bobs for the current photo he posted back in ‘05.
Was there only once with my movie-addicted fiancee. We’d never been to a midnight triple bill, so off we went to Archie Bunker country and to the Astoria Theater to see:
“Earthquake” (dumb!)
“The Towering Inferno” (dumber!)
“Invasion of the Blood Farmers” (more dumberer of ‘em all, Goober!)
I kid you not about that last one. Made in ‘72 by rank kindegartners with a couple of bucks, it must go down into history as one of the all-time stink-o wretched bombs. Victims were hooked up to blood-transfer machines and faked the violent throes of orgasm as they were drained. So laughable it was sad! We’re halfway through it when the vampire character is asked if he wanted a drink at this guy’s house. Before he answers, I say loudly in a Pottsylvanian-type accent, “I would like a Bloody Mary.” Immediately the actor on screen sez the EXACT same line in the EXACT same accent! Then a guy midway down the aisle turns around and asks me menacingly, “You have something to do with this P.O.S.? You write this crap?”
I was totally stunned. I stopped laughing long enough to counter, “Not me, pal. Just a wild and lucky guess.”
That shut him up for the moment, but not wanting any trouble over one of the world’s worst flicks, I decided not to be my usual wisecracking self and to keep my lip zipped. And we never got to see how it ended. Didn’t wanna know, it was that bad.
Although we eventually divorced in ‘91, we had to keep in touch for the sake of the kids. A year ago, I spotted a DVD of “Blood Farmers” and considered getting it for my ex for Christmas or her birthday. But then, I decided I didn’t really hate her all THAT much.
Saw “Blazing Saddles,” “Dawn of the Dead,” and “Jaws” here back in the 1970s. The last thing I saw here was “The Cable Guy” in 1996 or 97. From the 80s, I remember rowdy audiences and stuff being thrown through the projection beam to create shadows on the screen.
It must have been a pricey and exhaustive task for the management of the Astoria Theater to spill enough soda so that all 2,259 seats will have sticky floors under them. To me that was the most lasting impression of the Astoria, eternally sticky floors. LOL
Hi Warren! Thanks for sharing the recent photo. I don’t think that you would have to become a member of the sports club to find out if the original domed ceiling is still visible.
I believe the only movie I ever saw here was the dreadful remake of “King Kong” that Dino DeLaurentiis foisted upon us in 1976. I saw the film with my friend Matthew and his Dad and I seem to recall that we drove into Astoria to see the movie and remember it being a very big theater.
Ever since they converted the Astoria Theater into a multiplex during the late 1970s, it became just like any other multiplex theater. By the late 1980s it had already become run down and even seedy inside. Only if they were to return it to it’s original one-screen glory, would the theater have been worth saving. Just like most movie theaters, it became a victim of it’s time.
I was in Queens at the end of July 2005 and took this exterior shot of the former Astoria Theater. Looks like everything has been converted into retail space.
View link
Warren,
Then there wasn’t a theatre on the corner of 32nd Street & Broadway? That building, which still stands, surely looks like it was a theatre.
I live a few blocks from the cinema and caught many films here shortly after I moved to Astoria from the Village back in ‘87. The last film I caught here was “The Sidewalks of New York” by Edward Burns back on Nov. 21, 2001.
What happened to this ‘plex is that Regal Cinemas opened a massive 'plex further down Steinway Street. And then all the exhibitors ran into financial trouble because they overbuilt and UA, which ran the 6-plex, and Regal merged. It wasn’t long before the 6-plex closed.
The 6-plex was a bit of pit but when the Regal Cinemas was being built the UA folks started to spruce the place up and the employees seemed a bit more friendly.
Just out of curiousity I heard there were other theatres in Astoria? I don’t know the names of them, but there was a cinema on the north side of Broadway, just east of Crescent Street. My landlord told me it closed in ‘63. And on the northwest corner of Broadway and 31st Street there also must have been a cinema long ago. It is now a bank, but I can tell from the building that it was once a cinema. And I think there must have been a cinema on Ditmars and 31st Street, judging from the building type.
I understand there were also cinemas on 30th Avenue and on Steinway, which must be the aforementioned Triboro Theatre mentioned by Warren.
Duane Reade and Raggazine Children’s Shoes are among the tenants in the building which formerly housed the UA Astoria.
If I’m not mistaken, the Marx Brothers used to try out their comedy bits here when they were filming at the Kaufman-Astoria studios. My wife and I used to frequent this the first year we lived in Astoria. My Dad used to come here as a kid and see the Flash Gordon serials (he loves those things).
I don’t recall the URL under which I found the photos (which were taken this past spring), but the entire former UA Astoria Sixplex site has been gutted and renovated for retail/office use; the marquee, however, had yet to be removed.
This was the theatre that my mom would take me to every Saturday afternoon back in the early 1980’s, we would smuggle in our own potato chips, pretzels and soda…the red-vested clad ushers would never search my moms Associated shopping bag…we would take the subway a few stops to the Steinway Street station and then walk down Steinway Street to 30th Avenue the theatre…as a little kid it seemed like a long walk.The four blocks were very long. There was a chinese restaurant (now a gothic cabinet craft) across the way and sometimes we would go in for some lunch before beginning our personal film festival. We would buy one adult and one child ticket and sneak from movie theatre to movie theatre, at that time it was 4 theatres, 2 on the top floor and 2 on the ground floor.We would get there at 1pm and leave at around 10pm and then head back to Greenpoint on the G train.The last movies… I’ve ever seen there were End of Days and American Beauty….coincidentally they were both in the ground floor- left theatre closer to 30th avenue, when seen.R.I.P UA Astoria Sixplex.
The shell of this Theater still sits on the west side of Steinway Street just north of 30th Avenue in Astoria. The facade is recognizable with the lobby area (at least) housing a chain drug store. The large hulk of the auditorium can be seen rising behind the two story street level structure and I presume may still feature some original elements in the upper level balcony area?
The architect was Thomas Lamb