Arion Theatre
73-26 Metropolitan Avenue,
Middle Village,
NY
11379
73-26 Metropolitan Avenue,
Middle Village,
NY
11379
12 people
favorited this theater
Showing 76 - 88 of 88 comments
Erwin
I am trying to remember what decorations there were. I know the doors were set back so there was an open area outside and then the outer lobby was long and narrow. I think there were flower boxes on one side with artificial plants in them. Posters on the walls and some old sconces and an ugly chandelier which was changed sometime in the 60’s.
Meant to add to my last posting….Isn’t it odd that the image of “Arion, the Greek musician riding on a dolphin” was never visible in any part of the theater’s decor? Perhaps there was something prior to the late 40’s, when I started going there regularly, that was covered over or removed in a renovation of one kind or another.
GarrettH….Finally, another Middle Villageite has made it to this page. I too graduated from PS 49. I was in the last 8th grade graduating class. That was way back in 1953, when dinosaurs roamed Juniper Valley Park.
Yes, in its final years, the Arion left quite a bit to be desired in the cleanliness department and it got worse as time went on. Remember the men’s room with those gigantic smelly urinals? They had to date back to when the theater was built in 1921.
Thanks for the explanation of where the name “Arion” came from. I wondered about it all these years, but never tried to research it. Now I am finally in the know.
Hey Garrett
The funny thing is that even as a dump I loved this place. There was just something about it. I grew up in Forest Hills and went to Christ the King HS. I actually went after school one day and saw a Russ Meyer double bill at the Arion with some of my buddies. Catholic school taught us well :)
Rob
Wow! A website devoted to the Arion Theater! I grew up in Middle Village (went to PS 49), left for college in 1979 and have only been back a few times since. Hence in my memory the Arion lives on in all its double feature glory. I saw dozens of movies there in the 70s including Taxi Driver, Rocky, Night of the Living Dead, Looking for Mr. Goodbar and many others. I don’t mean to offend anyone else’s memory but by the 70s the theater was an unqualified dump. The joke was always that there was no need for a concession stand since you could get all the gum, popcorn and candy you could possibly eat right off the seats and floor. I can recall leaving the theater with gunk stuck to both shoes and the seat of my pants. Another memory is the not always reliable projection and sound system. Once, I went to see The Poseidon Adventure, and they had the reels in the wrong order, going direct from the opening scenes to the climax near the end (where Gene Hackman opens a valve by hanging from the wheel). Stangely, the audience, perhaps not expecting better, did not object, and we all just watched the movie with the scenes in the wrong order.
P.S. I learned many years later that “Arion” was a musician in Ancient Greece who is often depicted riding on a dolphin. It was a popular image in Elizabethean times, and is referred to in a few of Shakespeare’s plays.
In 1954 for a theatre to have no curtain was really odd wasent it? I remember years ago every theatre, even the dives had a curtain. Its funny I cant recall if there was a curtain or not in the 70’s & 80’s. One hysterical thing the footlights under the screen or curtain were fluorescent, which I have never seen before because they make an ugly light. Well the bulb all the way to the left was green and all the other ones were white. It used to cast the ugliest green hue that looked so out of place. Also when the side maskings opened the screen had a patch that only was obviouse when a Cinemascope movie was played. They did put in a new screen however about 5 years before they closed.
RobertR is right. The Arion was never dirty and they did have great double features. The theater was a Middle Village fixture since 1921.
As I recollect, from the late 40’s (and most likely earlier)through the early 60’s, a different double bill ran Sun to Tuesday and Thursday to Saturday. Wednesday’s double feature was usually revivals. When Dominant Pictures had theatrical reissue rights to the pre ‘48 Warner Bros. library, a great many played the Arion on Wednesdays. For a while, Wednesday’s were also a revival of “Dish Night”. Up until the late 50’s, they also had printed programs advertising two weeks worth of programming. These were available at the theater or could be mailed to your home, if you put your name on their mailing list.
Management always tried to run things on the cheap. I was once told that when they used carbon arcs in the projectors, they would buy half used ones. These were the ones from RCMH, the Roxy and other prestige first run Manhattan theaters that used a new carbon rod for each reel change and discarded the previous one. The Arion and probably other thaters were able to buy them at a discount.
In 1954, when they installed their CinemaScope screen, they really splurged and went for 4 channel stereo, which really sounded great.
However, as the supply of 4 track magnetic striped prints dried up over the next few years, the stereo equipment was removed and it was back to mono for the rest of the Arion’s life. Showmanship was also out the window with the advent of CinemaScope. The screen curtain, which opened and closed each show was removed and never replaced.
By the mid 80’s, the air conditioning and the heating system barely functioned and the Arion was driven into the ground. Too bad they did’t go for the triplex idea, which would have meant a complete redo of the place.
The Arion was always a run down theatre but it was never dirty. They ran the greatest double bills here. When I would miss something first run I knew it would come sooner or later to the Arion. They also ran offbeat and foreign films.
I went to this theater many times after moving from Ridgewood to Maspeth. It was not a very nice theater in the late sixties so I went more to the Oasis.
Around 66 I used to go here and it was an ok place nothing to brag about
Another renovation in the early eighties announced new seats but this time it was only about 15 rows toward the back of the theatre. They used to still fill this place even though it was so run down and clearly had seen better days. I spent a lifetime going here, so I guess I have fond memories of the place.
About 90 % of the Arion theater building is still standing. The auditorium portion remains behind the row of stores that lines Metropolitan Avenue. When the theater closed and was taken over by Jamron Drugs, at the time, the portion of the structure that held the outer and inner lobbies was demolished. The outer lobby, which held the box office and showcases, was two steps above the level of the sidewalk. The small inner lobby had more showcases, the ticket taker’s stand and the rest rooms. This was replaced with a structure that is even with street level.
The Jamron, then Genovese and now Eckerd drug store was built in the shell of roughly the back half of the auditorium. Recently, I caught a glimpse of the ceiling of the theater when some of the drop ceiling tiles were removed for some repair work. How much of the original theater exists is anybody’s guess.
The Arion was the theater of my youth in the 50’s and was where I got my weekly dose of cartoons, serials, Abbot and Costello and that lady in the white uniform who kept us confined to the children’s section. Mr. Rabinowitz, who’s daughter I went to school with, was the projectionist for many years.
Sadly to say, the owners ran the place into the ground. At one point around 1960, the theater closed for renovations. About a month later it reopened with great fanfare announcing “gallery seating – the most comfortable seating in all of Queensâ€. What a disappointment that was. What they had done is take out every other row of seats for plenty of leg room and replaced the remaining seats with seats that looked like they were discarded from a theater built in the teens â€" hard leather seats with wooden backs. The seating capacity of some 970 was reduced to about 500. Things went downhill after that until the inevitable closing.
I believe the original building which had the ARION name engarved on it was demolished for the current store front now. I couldn’t find the actual building 4 years ago.