Queens Theatre
219-36 Jamaica Avenue,
Queens Village,
NY
11428
219-36 Jamaica Avenue,
Queens Village,
NY
11428
15 people
favorited this theater
Showing 126 - 150 of 164 comments
Yes, I am sure of the #s,they still live there and the mail gets to them….Do you recall Hughes family, John Lydon,Armstrongs, Patty Kelly, Ann Sullivan,Dan Casey…all in the area…hard to remember names :)…You say you have siblings who went to St Greg’s..What are their names and when did they graduate?
KFP,
I knew quite a few people on 250th Street; and the Magera name is vaguely familiar, but I can’t place the faces. There were a lot of cops living in Bellerose – on virtually every street! In those days you couldn’t work for the NYPD if you didn’t live within NYC limits.
At the age of 12 (1949), I delivered the Long Island Press to the entire area, from Commonwealth Blvd. to 250th Street (251st didn’t then exist south of the track), and Jamaica Avenue to 88th Road, inclusive.
Are you sure of that house number? I thought 250th Street was all in the 88-XX series, since 89th Avenue ends at 249th Street.
I lived there from May, 1944 until I got married in September, 1960. My mother was there until she died in November, 2002.
Re, “St. Greg’s,” if you mean the church, yes – and I was very active there. But the school was not yet built. See my post of 2/7/05 (above) for more details.
Greg,I see you lived at 89-09 249th street….Did you know the Magera family @ 89-27 250th?Pat, Mickey…Dad was a cop but I don’t know where…house right next to Bellerose Bowl(now gone)..What years did you live there….did you go to St.Greg’s?
The right photo shows one of the oddest features of the Queens — the fire-door-to-nowhere, which can be seen just under the water towers. I discovered this unnerving nook on a self-conducted off-duty tour of backstage. Pushing open a fire-door, I found myself eight stories up, on a tiny, distinctly rusty iron slat platform rather tentatively bolted to the wall and connected to nothing else. I discovered the true meaning of ‘acrophobia,’ and hightailed it back inside. I’m amazed it’s still there after 40 years.
Hi Everyone,
I grew up on 249th Street and 81st Avenue in Bellerose. In the 50’s my mother, Sylvia Fein, worked in various Century Theatres as manager of the candy counter. Her longest tenure was at the Queens Theatre. I loved that place. Often, on Saturdays I would go with her, and spend the afternoon exploring the lodge and the balcony areas. I saw the first Cinemascope movie there over 20 times, The Robe!! To this day I cannot look at that film.
I had many other experiences at that theatre which I will reserve for another posting. :–)
Michael
Good Memory Annie.. better than mine! Thanks for posting it!
Ken F… I sent the photo to the email on this site and I realize the photo section is closed but I did it anyway. (hmmm.. it is possible too that it could be the candy stand of the Community as opposed to the Queens).. but had to be either of the two that’s for sure.
I attended P.S. 34.
As I wrote my earlier response, I had a somewhat opposite thought:
I wondered if he got dour because I dumped his stepdaughter…
He probably got dour after I went to work there. I have that effect on employers.
Ken, most likely, the same guy! Tall and slim – yes! But dour-looking? He didn’t strike me as such.
Anyway, Bud was a very good, efficient, manager; and as Century’s HQ was in the Community building, I viewed his eventual promotion to a larger, high profile, theater – such as the Queens, the Meadows, or the Kingsway – as a given.
When I knew him (and later, his stepdaughter Linda), he was living in Brooklyn (Carroll Gardens) on Butler Street – directly across the street from St. Francis College (which I attended from ‘55 to '57, before transferring to Pace at night).
Greg, could that have been the same Mr. Hansen who managed the Queens (and hired me) in ‘63? Tall slim dour-looking fellow. Smiled when he was unhappy.
Annie,
By chance, do you remember the name of the Community’s manager when you were there?
About the time I left Century (Summer ‘57), I was also breaking up with the stepdaughter of Bud Hansen, the Community’s manager. I’ve often wondered whatever happened to him (and her).
Hey, everyone! I’m Dorothy’s friend, Annie, from Queens Village, and I still live there! However, from 1971-73,I worked as a candy girl at the Community Theater on Jamaica and 215th. I now live on 215th Place, right down the block from the theater. We had an awful matron, Mrs. Bossert, at the Community. Poor thing was hard of hearing and I remember one patron complaining that when he asked her where the bathroom was, Mrs. B replied, “last nine rows!” Of course, that was the smoking section. We had a lot of laughs over that one. I still hear about some of the people who worked at the Community, like Judy Burns, whose husband Tom was assistant manager at the Queens. There’s also Larry O'Gara, a Nassau County cop, and Lindi (I can’t remember her last name). One of our other matrons was a nice lady named Mrs. Jorgenson, I think. And, of course, our favorite candy lady was my old next door neighbor, Eleanor Schwarz, who passed away several years ago. I do remember hanging out at the Queens Theater, after hours, with some of the gang. We had so much fun, and it was great getting the free movie passes, to any of the Century theaters! Now both the Queens and Community theaters are churches, which I pass almost everyday. QV isn’t what it used to be, but it’s certainly home for me.
Ken,
Wagnerian? Hammersteinian? More likely Frankensteinian!!
I didn’t remember her name, but you’ve accurately described her. Immortal? Naah! Formaldehyde ran in her veins, which accounts for the grey skin (think of the corpses at Stutzmann’s). She had been resuscitated by Dr. Josef Mengele.
You might possibly have known my brother George; although (I think) he graduated in ‘59. Steve and Tim followed a few years later.
My wife and I were married there September 3rd, 1960. I literally married “the girl next door (89-11)!”
Greg — your Wagnerian [or Hammersteinian] nightmare of a matron sounds just like barrel-shaped old Mrs. Frey with grey skin and a Bloody Mary bun atop her head, who was Commandant of Kiddies during my tenure. Perhaps she’s immortal. I hear her speaking (barking, really) with a German accent, though this may be an unreliable traumatized memory.
I graduated from St Greg’s in 1960. Might I have known any of your siblings? Check out queenspix.com for interesting shots of the old nabe, including PS 133 standing alone like a monolith amid many empty lots and unpaved streets.
During matinees, the right third was the Children’s section; complete, of course, with the ugliest matrons in the world, with dispositions to match!! One was a spitting – excuse me, barfing – image of Bloody Mary in South Pacific.
If you qualified for a children’s ticket, and was unaccompanied by an adult, you had to sit in that section, and be out of the theater by 7:00 PM! Maybe the rules, or the age limit, changed when you were there.
If the cops later migrated to the balcony, perhaps it was to watch Dorothy “make out…”
Where on 249th? 89-09, second house behind the frozen custard stand on Jamaica Avenue. As my deceased mother’s executor, I sold the house just 18 months ago. It’s been completely rebuilt by the new owners.
I spent my first 3 ½ school years (K-3A) in PS 133. Living south of the Creedmoor track, we were then “zoned out” of 133, and had to travel to 33. By September, 1950, the east wing of PS 133 was open. With but one year to go (i.e., 8th grade), I was allowed to choose between 33 and 133. I chose to stay at 33. Two of my brothers were forced to return to 133. My youngest siblings all went to St. Greg’s.
My wife still has a cousin living around the corner from where you had lived: 85-40 247th!
It most likely was. Tall redheaded guy. In my day the gendarmie preferred the back of the balcony. We’d give them a swing of our Century flashlight if some sergeant came snooping.
Do I remember correctly that the right third of the house, by the mgr’s office, was the Young Adult section? Always wise to have NYPD blue on hand.
Where on 249 St? I lived on 85 Ave off 246 St. Spent a year at PS 133 before St Greg’s opened.
Are the 105 and PS 33 still across the street? I’ll bet the staff of most schools these days wish they had a hundred cops nearby'
Ken,
So it was YOUR dad who would occasionally sack out in the last row of the orchestra, outside the manager’s office (chuckle).
Seriously, the cop on the beat was always quite welcome; especially with the explosion of Rock-n-Roll and “Beach” movies in the mid-‘50’s. The teenagers would sometimes get out-of-hand; and then we’d put the cop to work (as only he’d know how…, heh, heh)!
BTW, although I lived in Bellerose (249th Street), I spent 5 ½ years at PS 33 – across the street from the 105th Precinct.
Dorothy, thanks for the tip about the QV website.
When you sent the photo to Cinema Treasures, what response did you get? For as long as I’ve been a member here, photo submissions have been closed. Did you have better luck?
BTW, my dad worked at the 105th Precinct, so some of the folks at the website may have known him as the cop-on-the-beat. (That’s how I got the job at the Queens, heh heh.)
Ken F.. I have forgotten a lot of names. I can picture so well the doorman with a black mustache… and the tickets sales lady.. who was a fixture there for years. They would not let us youngins do the ticket sales.. altho at one point they let me after I got “bonded”.
I already sent one photo to this site email that I found so far. A pic of my friend Lynn, a candy girl, behind the inside candy stand circa early 1970’s.
I have also since located a very old friend of mine Annie from my Queens Village days and she pointed me to this QV MSN group. Besides those who lived in QV many years ago it also contains photos of very early QV.
View link
I think you can view the pix without joining. I am going to point that group to this site. Surely there are others out there with some great photos!
Enjoy!
I will continue searching for more photos.
Dorothy… have you located your Queens snapshots? We’re waiting breathlessly. Was one of your doormen a fellow named Schaeffer or Wilkins? They’re the only two I can recall who were young enough to have spanned our two eras. Maybe.
I just found a photo of the Queens/Chaminade Austin at:
http://www.nytos.org/chaminade.htm
As you say, Robbie, rather plain-looking. But Jayne Meadows v. Ruth Buzzy? Egad. A nightmarish choice.
Chaminade lists the Queens Austin as 13 ranks, but the Austin opus list says 42, so maybe they only found part of it. The rest of Chaminade’s instrument was rummaged up from the RKO Richmond. As far as glitz and glitter, the Valencia’s Morton could run circles around the Queens' Austin. The Valencia’s console flew out of the pit as a cream and gold, gessoed, silver and gold leafed four manual confection complete with an elaborately decorated fence around the top. One could easily hide a volkswagen in it. The Austin, on the other hand, looked more like a walnut, roll-top desk that housed a typewriter. Sort of Jayne Meadows vs Ruth Buzzy,
Ken, according to a good friend (the organist in my own parish, who first told me of this website), the organ went to Chaminade High School in Mineola.
Robbie, my organist-friend also confirms what you said about the “churchy” tone of the Austins.
Dorothy, I’m glad I didn’t ask… (“Dorothy, those are NOT mouse droppings; that’s the new peppercorn-flavored popcorn!”)
Greg W – don’t ask!
We had to inventory – count EVERYTHING..even the cups for soda.. and to my recollection the candy stayed in place and was locked by sliding doors.. I’ll have to locate my Queens Theater pix.. I have one of my ex (the usher) as well in his usher uniform plus my friend Lynn the candy girl behind the counter
A few times I even got to sell tickets in the front booth… had to be “bonded” for the job as well. and there was an older gentlemen who was the ticket taker whose name escapes me.
And as to the phantom,,, I heard him
Holy bass pedal, Batman! Are you telling me the Queens had a bigger organ than the fancy-schmancy Valencia? Take that, Loewe’s! Go Century! Is it still there?