Bellerose Theater
245-14 Jericho Turnpike,
Floral Park,
NY
11001
245-14 Jericho Turnpike,
Floral Park,
NY
11001
10 people
favorited this theater
Showing 76 - 100 of 178 comments
What I’d like to see is a photo of the original marquee, that big boxy affair with hundreds of yellow incandescent running lights and the red and orange in the front.
Of course a ‘78 photo would be nice because the new marquee would not have been trashed by that truck.
Nash, I thought the Good Humour Trucks were on Braddock Avenue. I remember going by a parking lot of them on my way to Van Buren (ugh!).
BTW, I have a picture of the profile of the theatre from around ‘78.
I was just looking at so many. Search Long Island Rail Road History, it’s full of stuff and then just keep looking at all the LIRR entries that follow. You may never get back to Cinema Treasures again.
Can you post the link to that site here or maybe e-mail the link?
There are plenty of Long Island RR photo and data online including information on when the Creedmoor Line was discontinued.
There’s alot of LIRR stuff online including a list of stations past and present and the last dates of service. There are all sorts of pictures. As a result of your earlier comment alluding to the Creedmoor spur I was looking at them last night.
The coal yard was right next to the good humor factory i think. I remember walking to school (Martin van buren) on the tracks. I could have walked those tracks for miles. I loved it.I love anything train related.I wish i had lived in one of those homes where the train went through there backyard.The last train to go through my area was around 1965 i think. If anyone has any photo’s to share i’d love to see them.
Boy Nash you’re really going back on the train. I remember crossing over the tracks as a short cut to my confirmation classes at Holy Trinity Lutheran on Commonwealth Blvd. The third rail was already disabled then and I never recall seeing any freight service to the coal yard. That was in the late 40s.
Anyone remember kent cleaners.It was right near the old A&P. How about the old american gas station where the bank is now where you get off jamaca ave to braddock blvd? And wasn’t there a train that went right through peoples backyards? I remember as a kid seeing it cross the cross island service road going to creedmoore. Any one have any photo’s of them?
Steve
I remember the one cashier very well. She was tall, attractive and had a luxurious head of dark hair worn in the Andrew Sisters' style of the day. Story was she was a single mom with two sons, a widow, or heaven forbid, a divorcee. The ticket takers all looked alike, tall and old in those heavy military looking uniforms.
I remember a promo they had geared to grammar school children at Floral Park – Bellerose School, and, probably its Queens County equivalent at the time King Solomon’s Mines was showing. We all, somehow, received long, narrow colored paper good for a free admission at some given show – if we had the right color. In restrospect these were probably ½ of an 8 ½ x 11 to keep costs down. We all lined up in front of the theatre and way around the side of the building on 246th street (odd, in the evening if there was a line it faced the other way to 245th Street). Anyway the winning “color” was white and there were darned few of those in evidence.
I believe the theatre was closed during the depression and only reopened at the end of WWII. I have a vague recollection of my father saying that during the depression he could have purchased the building for $8,000.
There were no observable structural changes since the procenium was already very wide. I remember, vaguely, that the curtains opened wider after the installation. This was a theatre where they always used the curtains, often to great theatrical effect.
The Bellerose also reopened after they did a Cinamascope installation. I believe “The Robe” was the first attraction. The Bellerose being a very wide theatre with a wide proscenium had one of the largest screens out there. In it’s last years the Bellerose was closed as the local dollar house with the honors going to the Floral. It then reopened as the local dollar house a short time later. I’m sure the reason was location. Jamaica Av/Jericho Tpk, Braddock Av and the Cross Island Parkway.
Obviously it was already closed to movies by 1987?
Boy a lot is missing since the first installation of this “new” marquee. At the point of the wedge was “a century theatre”. There were also two “arms” atop this which supported yet another wedge which had a bank of horizontal neon lights which, when first installed “chased”. Subsequently no. And the neons around the sign boards have also been covered over. When did this atrocity take place. I suspect some of it is related to when they widened Jericho Tpke / Jamaica Av and added the island in the center. This meant that the front of the marquee probably extended in “striking” range. As part of the widening the Floral lost it’s old marquee and vertical and the signboard was placed on the face of the bujilding.
Still waiting for somebody to find and post photos of the theatre when it was. It would be nice to see the original (which stylistically was similar to the Community, which for some reason is not listed in Queen Village, but Queens), and the later wedged shaped one No takers on my clock trivia question? I think it was a jewelers in Queens Village.
Nah, I’m not criticizing you guys, that’s just my opinion of the article. You’re quite safe, Greg! :> I wonder what the owners of the Floral Park Motor Lodge think of this competition. I remember when it was a senior citizens home.
As bad as you may think the article is, it’s exactly what is happening. It’s all about money today. It doesn’t matter if there is a historic place there. Same with the bowling alley. They can get more money with something else in it’s place. It’s not going to change.
Kitnoir,
Here you’ve got a newspaper about as biased and far to the left as one can go – writing about the (arguably) most conservative neighborhood in NYC. If you didn’t see the tone of the article coming, then I’ve got a bridge in Brooklyn I’d like to sell you.
And before you come gunning for me, note that I am troubled ONLY by the prospect of another hotel.
That’s a terrible article. Everyone in it is represented as being so smug and unfriendly. “I’m not a racist”….“with a grin”….“got into his black Lexus”… That just stirs up more bad feelings.
Warren,
That’s quite an article from the Times. Immediately north of the Frozen Cup (249th Street) is where my wife lived (89-11). I had lived in the second house (89-09); so the Frozen Cup was visited often on hot, summer evenings.
A correction to the Times article: Until the Fall of 1949, the lot (stretching to 250th Street) was occupied by a huge, freestanding, V-shaped double sign, erected and maintained by General Outdoor Advertising Company. I had built a playhouse in its upper beams. A hurricane flattened the whole thing.
In the spring of 1950, Frozen Cup opened on the west end, and a used car lot opened on the east. Thus, Frozen Cup is just under 60 years old, not 70.
I pray that these hotel plans don’t destroy the neighborhood, but I’m not very optimistic…
The drinking fountain was right next to the soda machine, on the right hand side (going in) at the foot of the staircase.
And the illuminated clock was to the left of the proscenium. A trivia question (for which I do not know the answer)– whose advertising did it carry? And where was the drinking fountain?
Mrs. Marsh named the town Bellerose because she thought it sounded “euphonic”. The concession stand was at the center top of the lobby and you could turn and see the screen. They had popcorn, the usual theatre candy, and lemonade and fruit punch, which you could order “half and half”. The soda machine sat to the right by the bottom of the staircase, and popped out cups.