Regal UA Midway

I believe a current view of The Midway was seened in this week’s episode of “King of Queens.”

This is really not a bad neighborhood theatre. In fact, both projection and sound can be excellent if someone puts their mind to it. It’s clean and pretty well kept. The screens aren’t even that small.
Minor complaints: sometimes they need a volume boost (a common complaint), the masking in theatre 2 hasn’t been working lately and the masking in theatre 4 has been out of order going on 2 years now – but even when the masking did work, the screen in #4 isn’t proportioned properly for scope – quite a bit of the picture ends up on the wall.

1-4 seat about 180 each

5 and 9 about 225
6, 7 and 8 average about 90 (but the screens are not as small as you’d expect!)

This Universal feature “The Killers” was originally filmed for television and then deemed too violent. It lists Angie Dickinson and Lee Marvin as it’s stars, however it’s most famous as being the last movie of Ronald Reagan right before he became Governor of California. It’s also one of the few times Reagan played a bad guy. Check out the great co-feature Mamie Van Doren and Mickey Rooney in “The Private Lives of Adam & Eve”.

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I saw many, many movies at the Midway in the 80’s. I remember liking the upstairs theaters best because the slope of the balcony gave the audience “stadium style” seating some 15 years before the phrase entered into common usage! Also, the balcony railing was still in place in front of the 1st row of seats and the screens were set back from the railing about 20-25 feet or so making for some very comfortable 1st row viewing.

In the early 80’s, the Midway would often play double-bill horror films much like those that played on The Duece in Times Sqaure, making it a pleasant alternative to the often menacing grind houses in Manhattan. Not to mention that the Midway always listed its attractions in the newspaper movie timetables (unlike the theaters on 42nd Street, where one had to just show up hoping to find something that suited one’s mood). Some of these titles I recall from the Midway include Black Magic, Friday the 13th:The Orphan (not to be confused with the neverending saga of Jason Voorhees), Beyond the Door 2, The Brood, The Dark, Without Warning and Humanoids from the Deep (which recently played on IFC to my great amusement).

This was also a fairly easy quartet to sneak in from one auditorium to the next (particularly if you used the back staircase that was located on the right side of the lobby). Hey… I was 15 or 16 years old. I had to get the biggest bang out of my $3.50 admission that I could. Of course, perish the thought today…

I remember the Midway in the 80’s. It was always beautifully maintained. However, I agree, during the process of quading it, because it is so “well” maintained, much of the original features were lost to “modernization”. Other theaters, like the Ridgewood were minimally maintained, but since it was also sort of hap-hazardly cut up, much of the original interior was still there to be seen.
A lot was covered at the Midway, because it was so nicely maintained.

By the way folks, throughout this website you will read posts where people mention that a particular theater had or was having the “Midway Treatment.” The phrase comes from this theater. This is the theater that gave reference to completely gutting and rebuilding without leaving anything that resembles the original decor.

Thanks so much for posting these photos of the Midway Warren. I always enjoyed that theater as a teenager, unfortunately, it was already cut up by then. I have seen movies in all of the 4 theaters it was cut up into, and can actually visualize them from your old photos in their respective spots.
In the 80’s, I always found the Midway very well kept, and always enjoyed going there. I remember the lobby like it was yesterday.

I have not been back to the Midway since they redid it into the stadium theater it is now.
I also can’t believe that out of all the time I was on this site, I never visted the Midway’s section until today!

You enter the inner lobby through the doors under the attraction screen and walk straight ahead into the auditorium (to the right in the photo)

Thanks, Warren, for the photos. From my first visit to the Midway in its first year (“Arabian Nights” with Maria Montez, Jon Hall, Sabu) to my last, reopening night as 9-plex (Woody Allen’s “Celebrity”), it was a pleasure to visit. Today, it’s an example of preservation and renewal in the best sense. How many 60+ year-old theaters are fortunate enough to have owners and managers willing to invest in and maintain such important community resources and keep them functioning beautifully despite all the changes in technology, demographics, shifting values, and bottom-line mentality?

I have fond memories of Charlie Manfre, he hired me and my first job was with the Midway theater from 1970-1974. Charlie was the “Chief of Staff” and an icon in the theater. He was a wonderful man who truly loved his family and I am very sorry to learn of his passing. Every Christmas season I would go with Charlie to help him pick out a Christmas gift for his wife. I remember his son Joey worked at the theater for a while as well. Dave Ginsburg was the manager at the time and he was a wonderful gentleman. I went to high school with Rob Berkowitz and I believe I introduced him to Charlie Manfre. I remember when Rob and his wife got engaged. We had some great times with some very wonderful people at the Midway and it was quite an enriching experience.

My family moved to Forest Hills in 1956. The movie theaters back then were The Forest Hills on Austin Street, The Midway on Queens Boulevard and a bit later, The Cinemart on Metropolitan Avenue. The Continental opened in the early sixties on Continental Avenue and eventually had a second screen across the street from itself.

The Midway was my favorite theater and was the one at which I fell in love with the movies. I well remember the theater in its single screen glory. The pseudo-deco, black, red and gold lobby, the graceful staircases, the wide auditorium with its sweeping, curved screen. The way the curtains parted as the film began…I also recall the coming attractions screen above the main exit door in the lobby. And popcorn. Hot, fresh popcorn with real butter. And lots of it. Snocaps. Goobers, Raisinettes. And you got change back.

I also recall the box office which was outside, under the front of the marquee in it’s own little enclosure. I remember the elderly woman who worked the box office and the friendly, talkitive doorman who treated kids as real people.

Among Midway movies, I recall West Side Story (1961), The Music Man (1962) and many assorted Disney features.

We remained in Forest Hills unti, the late eighties. I sometimes went to The Midway but it was a bit dispiriting to see the once splendid theater divided in quarters and less than well maintained.

I’m glad to read that The Midway, even as a nine-plex, is alive and well.

Jp

I went to the Midway in the fall of 1974, because that was the closest theatre to me that was showing the “Universal Fun Festival”, an umbrella title for the revivals of their comedy library, in this case W.C. Fields in “Never Give A Sucker An Even Break”. And as I entered the great portals, I was impressed by the beautiful lobby and stairway leading to the balcony. I tried to settle back to enjoy the picture, but unfourtunately, the print had cuts and splices every fifth frame. But I did enjoy the magnificent theatre, and vowed I would return there again! The years went by, and one day I was leafing through the paper, and found a listing for the Midway 4…I never went back.

This is my neighborhood thatre and although it has been “plexed” it is well maintained. This is because the theatre is owned by the Heskel Group and operated by UA Regal. Elijah Heskel comes in often and I’m sure that’s the only reason they don’t destroy this like all their other houses.