Must have been hot that summer since the 2nd and 3rd floor windows are open to let the hot air out.
So anyone out there know what the sign reads after
Keith Albee
FLUSHING?
I came upon this extraordinary photo from the Summer of 1928, showing the RKO Keith’s Albee theatre still under construction (it opened on Christmas day of that year). Fortunately I was able to restore this from a scan of the original negative. I took the roof top pictures posted here, from the building in the background center, in 2007.
Note the details on the fountain in the foreground. I think the sign in the center is “Market” and you can just make out Keith’s Albee Flushing,
“presenting … North?” over the marquee steel, that remained covered for another 60 years.
Nice find Warren; good to see it as a recent article from a great resource. I remember seeing North to Alaska at the RKO, although released in 1960 it may have been fortuitously showing around this time. Coming out of the theatre after, it felt like you were ‘in Alaska’ with a lot of ‘King of the snowpile hill’ going on.
At almost 100' x 25' that was/is one large Promenade of a large theatre. An usher’s room and check room are along the back on either side of a space called the “palm room”, where I think the vending machines were. Again thanks to thanks to davebazooka for posting those prints.
I recall where that bench appears in above link (and on the landmark sign), to the left of the recessed wall fountain, is where the candy stand was during the ‘60s. The balcony area at the top of the stairs had candy and soda machines.
True but I read here once “Portions of the lobby and grand foyer will be preserved and surrounded by a "curtain of glass” and this excerpt from the New York Sun 9/29/05 interview, posted here before, “a principal of the V Studio, Jay Valgora, testified that preserving it while trying to build on top of and around it presented him with the "most complex job of sequencing” he had ever faced as an architect. It also presented him with very high construction costs of $238 a square foot.“ still applies. It almost gives a defacto landmark status to the building as a whole. Development around that block since ‘05 has not made it any easier, nor has the emploded condo market.
Thank the Queens Historical Society for putting up these signs, which serve notice to developers, just how unfeasible building up and over the Grand Foyer, on an already dense occupancy block will be. They effectively landmarked the whole building. Thanks also to Dave Bazooka for hosting this photo that gives an idea of just how large the foyer is [url]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b254/davebazooka/RKOfoyer2.jpg[/url]
If you look closely you can see the discoloration around where that sign was. Necci (Italian) and Elna (Swiss) were some of the best metal case portable sewing machines around. I wonder if they stock these window frames at Home Depot?
That was a knee jerk reaction to the mention of a fountain. Arcadia Publishing put out a a Flushing 1880-1935 Post Card History Series Book by James Driscoll (Historical Society) with an 1890’s picture of that fountain and the caption that says it was destroyed with the widening of Northern Blvd. (I picked up a copy at the Queens Museum in FMCP). The Historical Aerials web site [url]http://www.historicaerials.com/default.aspx[/url] has a 1954 view oblique enough to identify the front of the RKO, with what appears to be a square with a path to a round area in the center. They also have views from 2006, 2004 (the best), ‘80, '74 and '66 .
I’d still like to know what happened to the RKO fountain, its mentioned here it was replaced with a candy stand when it was triplexed.
From right here on this board:
“The fountain was once reported to be installed in a restaurant in Greenwich Vlllage. That narrows the field down to about 5,000 restuarants, though it would have to be a fairly large one to accommodate the Keith’s fountain.
posted by Warren G. Harris on Jul 1, 2006 at 10:34am”
The front of the RKO with address group 11/8/2008:
The back of the RKO 11/9/2008:
Has an old spike top 8' fence, that this pre-triplex tree grew around, encasing one of the bars and bending over the top. Some razor wire was added in the last decade. There is an 8' drop on the other side where there is a below grade drive way (now sealed off from Farrington Street) that leads to the basement, with a lot of scrap wood piled up. You can just make the rear roof top access (door completely gone) in the center. The entrance to the loading area, at the end of the driveway, is also open.
As for interior damage I found this info on the Meyer Theatre web site (Green Bay – pop. 102,000 Flushing – pop. 655,000) one of many similar stories on theatre restoration/revival:
The Meyer Theatre’s story began on Valentine’s Day 1930 when it opened as one of the many Fox Theatres blossoming around the country. Fox Theatres Inc. spared no expense creating the lavishly-equipped vaudeville house and movie palace. The company was forced into bankruptcy in 1933, but the theatre survived and was operated as the Bay Theatre until 1998.
Some of the performers who have graced the stage over the years include Lawrence Welk, Liberace, Nat King Cole, Louis Armstrong and Johnny Cash. But most memorable to Green Bay residents are the life events that have taken place here. Whether it’s a stolen kiss in the balcony, sing-alongs at intermission or graduation from high school, it happened at the Meyer Theatre.
The theatre is an eclectic blend of colors and styles that can best be defined as Spanish Atmospheric. Heavily textured plaster, decorative columns with gold leaf, intricate painted designs and statues adorn the building.
Almost forgot: part of the interior shot used for the comparison is from last year and thanks to an extraordinary and extremely rare set by [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/rkokeiths/[/url] for a not so easy to get in and take pictures situation. The Thomas Lamb drawings were posted here thanks to davebazooka for taking the time to go up to Columbia, unroll and photograph those prints. The under-exposed photo was posted here by Mike69, another commendable effort to get in and take pictures.
The above should read:
[quote]
[img]http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d3/jpm55/rkokeiths0668-1.jpg[/img[/quote]
]
All you need are the items in square brackets exactly as shown, with the full path name of the photo in-between, only the closing square bracket needs to appear right after the last “/img”
Jeff,
Never underestimate what is captured on film, just about any photo can be enhanced. Case in point a couple of years ago this image of the left side of the stage was posted here. The top is the original:
Unfortunately photobucket deletes images over time so many of the links here are stale.
Your unaltered photo, on original server can be posted as:
All you need are the items in square brackets exactly as show, with the full path name of the photo in-between.
Well I’ve posted 3 pictures here: the first is 5,000 x 5,000 pixels or 15.09Mb and the last one is 720 x 583 pixels or 239Kb. so size is independant…if you host your own images. Of course you can see these on [url]http://swc-biogon.smugmug.com/[/url] (in Flushing Gallery) but posting them with comment works directly. The website does not allow for image upload so “embedding” in this case is nothing more than a displayed link. I wish there were more photos out there (and I’ve seen everything from Rodan to the Alien at this theatre and never thought to bring a camera) but other than those blue plywood entrance images on photobucket/flickr nothing much so
far. They used to have graduation ceremonies at the RKO, so there has to be something out there.
An interesting WAS – IS comparison with original drawing in the background: The size of the embedded image is up to the poster. However I was hoping to generate some interest in getting more state of affairs interior shots to compliment the almost non-existent interior pictures of the RKO in its heyday (now that the condo concept is defunct)
Great pix Warren, with that 1960 Impala parked in front!
and from last year:
“RKO FLUSHING the finest theatre on the North Shore"
The entire perimeter of that block is now store front or apartment now, so no more sneaking in by way of the fire escape on the Farrington Ave. side. But if you bought out the entire block and leveled it you could then bring in the heavy equipment to drive several hundred 100' piles, get below the adjacent water table from Flushing Bay and develop the bearing capacity to even build a 19 story condo!
CONTINUOUS 11-11! COOLEST THEATRE!
The now proven economically viable 19 story wall of glass “The Most Congested Condo on the North Shore” with continuously unavailable parking!
No mention of building over the landmark lobby? I wonder how close to the end of their 2 year appointed term the advisory community board will be when they realize their dream?
Hey PTU Bob good show unearthing those pictures. That’s the first I’ve seen of the “Finest Theatre on the North Shore” as it originally appeared. I posted this before as it appears today: View link
That far-field shot shows the beginning of the old Flushing Bay draw bridge: circa 1975 View link
Now that it’s back on the market any movement over there? Ironic that they believed you could build a 19 story building with parking, without leveling that whole block and part of Northern Blvd., to drive the hundreds of piles you would need to get below nearby Flushing Bay water table and the 70' depth support level, while the New York State Pavilion, which does have piles, rots. Even preserving just the ticket booth with that level of construction
would be a challange.
Must have been hot that summer since the 2nd and 3rd floor windows are open to let the hot air out.
So anyone out there know what the sign reads after
Keith Albee
FLUSHING?
I came upon this extraordinary photo from the Summer of 1928, showing the RKO Keith’s Albee theatre still under construction (it opened on Christmas day of that year). Fortunately I was able to restore this from a scan of the original negative. I took the roof top pictures posted here, from the building in the background center, in 2007.
Note the details on the fountain in the foreground. I think the sign in the center is “Market” and you can just make out Keith’s Albee Flushing,
“presenting … North?” over the marquee steel, that remained covered for another 60 years.
Nice find Warren; good to see it as a recent article from a great resource. I remember seeing North to Alaska at the RKO, although released in 1960 it may have been fortuitously showing around this time. Coming out of the theatre after, it felt like you were ‘in Alaska’ with a lot of ‘King of the snowpile hill’ going on.
At almost 100' x 25' that was/is one large Promenade of a large theatre. An usher’s room and check room are along the back on either side of a space called the “palm room”, where I think the vending machines were. Again thanks to thanks to davebazooka for posting those prints.
I recall where that bench appears in above link (and on the landmark sign), to the left of the recessed wall fountain, is where the candy stand was during the ‘60s. The balcony area at the top of the stairs had candy and soda machines.
True but I read here once “Portions of the lobby and grand foyer will be preserved and surrounded by a "curtain of glass” and this excerpt from the New York Sun 9/29/05 interview, posted here before, “a principal of the V Studio, Jay Valgora, testified that preserving it while trying to build on top of and around it presented him with the "most complex job of sequencing” he had ever faced as an architect. It also presented him with very high construction costs of $238 a square foot.“ still applies. It almost gives a defacto landmark status to the building as a whole. Development around that block since ‘05 has not made it any easier, nor has the emploded condo market.
Thank the Queens Historical Society for putting up these signs, which serve notice to developers, just how unfeasible building up and over the Grand Foyer, on an already dense occupancy block will be. They effectively landmarked the whole building. Thanks also to Dave Bazooka for hosting this photo that gives an idea of just how large the foyer is
[url]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b254/davebazooka/RKOfoyer2.jpg[/url]
And DEBORAH is not DEBORAH anymore (same front painted white), although the supports for the BINGO sign are still there:
That should be “Necchi” as
If you look closely you can see the discoloration around where that sign was. Necci (Italian) and Elna (Swiss) were some of the best metal case portable sewing machines around. I wonder if they stock these window frames at Home Depot?
That was a knee jerk reaction to the mention of a fountain. Arcadia Publishing put out a a Flushing 1880-1935 Post Card History Series Book by James Driscoll (Historical Society) with an 1890’s picture of that fountain and the caption that says it was destroyed with the widening of Northern Blvd. (I picked up a copy at the Queens Museum in FMCP). The Historical Aerials web site [url]http://www.historicaerials.com/default.aspx[/url] has a 1954 view oblique enough to identify the front of the RKO, with what appears to be a square with a path to a round area in the center. They also have views from 2006, 2004 (the best), ‘80, '74 and '66 .
I’d still like to know what happened to the RKO fountain, its mentioned here it was replaced with a candy stand when it was triplexed.
From right here on this board:
“The fountain was once reported to be installed in a restaurant in Greenwich Vlllage. That narrows the field down to about 5,000 restuarants, though it would have to be a fairly large one to accommodate the Keith’s fountain.
posted by Warren G. Harris on Jul 1, 2006 at 10:34am”
The front of the RKO with address group 11/8/2008:
The back of the RKO 11/9/2008:
Has an old spike top 8' fence, that this pre-triplex tree grew around, encasing one of the bars and bending over the top. Some razor wire was added in the last decade. There is an 8' drop on the other side where there is a below grade drive way (now sealed off from Farrington Street) that leads to the basement, with a lot of scrap wood piled up. You can just make the rear roof top access (door completely gone) in the center. The entrance to the loading area, at the end of the driveway, is also open.
As for interior damage I found this info on the Meyer Theatre web site (Green Bay – pop. 102,000 Flushing – pop. 655,000) one of many similar stories on theatre restoration/revival:
The Meyer Theatre’s story began on Valentine’s Day 1930 when it opened as one of the many Fox Theatres blossoming around the country. Fox Theatres Inc. spared no expense creating the lavishly-equipped vaudeville house and movie palace. The company was forced into bankruptcy in 1933, but the theatre survived and was operated as the Bay Theatre until 1998.
Some of the performers who have graced the stage over the years include Lawrence Welk, Liberace, Nat King Cole, Louis Armstrong and Johnny Cash. But most memorable to Green Bay residents are the life events that have taken place here. Whether it’s a stolen kiss in the balcony, sing-alongs at intermission or graduation from high school, it happened at the Meyer Theatre.
The theatre is an eclectic blend of colors and styles that can best be defined as Spanish Atmospheric. Heavily textured plaster, decorative columns with gold leaf, intricate painted designs and statues adorn the building.
In it’s conversion to a triplex cinema, much of the décor of the theatre was hidden or lost. The restoration meant uncovering what was originally there and carefully recreating those things destroyed. A major task was returning the midnight blue sky and installing the fiber optic lighting to give the illusion of stars overhead.
Your welcome Dave, thanks for posting those Thomas Lamb prints!
This one locates a detail from one of the cast iron store front windows.
Almost forgot: part of the interior shot used for the comparison is from last year and thanks to an extraordinary and extremely rare set by [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/rkokeiths/[/url] for a not so easy to get in and take pictures situation. The Thomas Lamb drawings were posted here thanks to davebazooka for taking the time to go up to Columbia, unroll and photograph those prints. The under-exposed photo was posted here by Mike69, another commendable effort to get in and take pictures.
The above should read:
[quote]
[img]http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d3/jpm55/rkokeiths0668-1.jpg[/img[/quote]
All you need are the items in square brackets exactly as shown, with the full path name of the photo in-between, only the closing square bracket needs to appear right after the last “/img”
Jeff,
Never underestimate what is captured on film, just about any photo can be enhanced. Case in point a couple of years ago this image of the left side of the stage was posted here. The top is the original:
Unfortunately photobucket deletes images over time so many of the links here are stale.
Your unaltered photo, on original server can be posted as:
All you need are the items in square brackets exactly as show, with the full path name of the photo in-between.
Well I’ve posted 3 pictures here: the first is 5,000 x 5,000 pixels or 15.09Mb and the last one is 720 x 583 pixels or 239Kb. so size is independant…if you host your own images. Of course you can see these on [url]http://swc-biogon.smugmug.com/[/url] (in Flushing Gallery) but posting them with comment works directly. The website does not allow for image upload so “embedding” in this case is nothing more than a displayed link. I wish there were more photos out there (and I’ve seen everything from Rodan to the Alien at this theatre and never thought to bring a camera) but other than those blue plywood entrance images on photobucket/flickr nothing much so
far. They used to have graduation ceremonies at the RKO, so there has to be something out there.
An interesting WAS – IS comparison with original drawing in the background: The size of the embedded image is up to the poster. However I was hoping to generate some interest in getting more state of affairs interior shots to compliment the almost non-existent interior pictures of the RKO in its heyday (now that the condo concept is defunct)
An intresting WAS – IS comparison with the original drawing
Great pix Warren, with that 1960 Impala parked in front!
and from last year:
“RKO FLUSHING the finest theatre on the North Shore"
The entire perimeter of that block is now store front or apartment now, so no more sneaking in by way of the fire escape on the Farrington Ave. side. But if you bought out the entire block and leveled it you could then bring in the heavy equipment to drive several hundred 100' piles, get below the adjacent water table from Flushing Bay and develop the bearing capacity to even build a 19 story condo!
CONTINUOUS 11-11! COOLEST THEATRE!
The now proven economically viable 19 story wall of glass “The Most Congested Condo on the North Shore” with continuously unavailable parking!
No mention of building over the landmark lobby? I wonder how close to the end of their 2 year appointed term the advisory community board will be when they realize their dream?
Hey PTU Bob good show unearthing those pictures. That’s the first I’ve seen of the “Finest Theatre on the North Shore” as it originally appeared. I posted this before as it appears today:
View link
That far-field shot shows the beginning of the old Flushing Bay draw bridge: circa 1975 View link
Now that it’s back on the market any movement over there? Ironic that they believed you could build a 19 story building with parking, without leveling that whole block and part of Northern Blvd., to drive the hundreds of piles you would need to get below nearby Flushing Bay water table and the 70' depth support level, while the New York State Pavilion, which does have piles, rots. Even preserving just the ticket booth with that level of construction
would be a challange.