Lost… It must have been for a very brief period of time. I lived in the neighborhood from ‘73 – '84 and I can’t really recall it as a porn theater, though one of my childhood buddies seems to recall it as such. I know I saw some legit films there as late as 1976 and that by 1978, alteration permits were already filed to convert to house of worship.
Here’s a passage from the full article you posted:
“The owner of the theater was told by federation officials that the block associations and their captains, who meet every month, were unhappy about the pornography. The theater owner said he had no choice. He had to play the pornographic films because he had to make a living.
The federations’s representatives, who prefer conciliation to confrontation, said they understood. They persuaded him to change his bill and got a bank to buy tickets for children for Saturday matinee movies. Another bank agreed to make available a bus for elderly people during the week.
The federation said that, if pornogrpahic movies were shown, one or more residents would be outside the box office with cameras all the time, photographing anyone who bought a ticket. So the profit went out of pornography."
Well… Obviously the bank couldn’t buy enough children’s matinee tickets to keep the theater afloat for very long.
I love how a G-rated main feature was paired with an R-rated supporting film. As I recall, this was quite customary in the ‘70’s – particularly at Drive-In theaters. At least at the Drive-Ins you might reasonably expect the kiddies to fall asleep in the backseat before the 2nd feature got too risque!
Thanks for that, RobertR… Per imdb, this was a 1966 Russian production that Childhood Productions started distributing in the U.S. in the fall of ‘68 – so that “never before shown anywhere” notice in the ad is a bit misleading. I also wonder whose brainchild it was to re-dub the 2.35:1 process Sovscope as “Storybook Scope?”
Ugh. I was at the Gotham Comedy Club last week and could see both of the Clearview Theater buildings down the street and thought about how I had to come in one night for a Chelsea Classics showing. Finding out that the presentations are of store-bought DVD’s would certainly take the bloom off the rose for me.
Ha… You know… For the past 5 minutes I’ve been trying to place that lyric, since it read so familiar to me! Then it dawned on me… the musical “Hair!” Thanks, Meerskiowa, for that appropriate reference and the memories it’s starting to jog within me!
And while the Roxy’s interior was certainly more heavily ornamented than the streamlined RCMH, I wouldn’t want to confuse it’s rococco design with the atmospheric style popularized by John Eberson in the late ‘20’s and early '30’s. The Paradise is a true atmospheric theater. I’m not entirely sure I’d categorize the Roxy (nor its smaller relation, the Beacon on B'way and 74th) as such.
Anyway… I posted a recent photo that I took of the TGI Friday’s that now occupies the space that once served as the Roxy’s entrance foyer on that theater’s listing here sometime back in January of last year.
I would also throw in that this theater might appeal to those who are partial to the “atmospheric” design. There aren’t many of those left in NYC. The former Loew’s Valencia in Jamaica is still open as a church and remains in fine condition, although the original color scheme has been obliterated and the atmospheric effect ruined with the inclusion of a large chandelier hanging from the auditorium ceiling. I haven’t been in the fomer Queensboro/Elmwood Theater in Elmhurst long enough to determine if the original atmospheric sky is being restored by the church that now occupies the site. The RKO Keith’s in Flushing has been completely violated and stands only as rubble-strewn ruin awaiting redevelopment. That leaves only the Paradise and (if one crosses the Hudson) the former Stanley in Jersey City (beautifully preserved by the Jehovah’s Witnesses) as examples of this particular style.
Does anyone know if the “Loew’s” signage remains on the facade of the Paradise? Is it protected by landmark designation even though the brand is now owned by AMC Theaters? I’m curious if there is anything going on in that regard by way of litigation between BX Entertainment and AMC.
And just to follow up on rlvjr’s last comment… An excellent suggestion, provided the programme appeals to one’s tastes. I would remind everyone, however, that a tour of the theater would be considerably less expensive, if all one wants is to see the facility itself. The website also contains contact information regarding guided tours. I haven’t taken advantage of this offering yet, but I think I might do so in the Spring.
Some more info… This was not a standalone house, but part of a large strip mall known as the Mayfair Shopping Center. Apparently, the current owners renovated the entire complex back in 2000 and have since leased large anchor units to the Gap, Waldbaums Supermarket and Genovese Drugs. This would explain the completely new look of the facade. Ciao Baby is on the eastern end of the complex, which sits back on the north side of Jericho behind a large parking lot and several curbfront standalone units (an Outback Restaurant and a couple of bank branches). I suspect that the mall (and therefore the theater itself) dates back no farther than to the early 1960’s.
Also of interest is that, prior to the construction of the local Roman Catholic Church (Christ the King), church services were held both in the Mayfair’s auditorium as well as the basement of Gimbel’s Department Store (also a tenant in the shopping center).
An acquaintance of mine who grew up in the area, tells me that the Mayfair Theater is now a Ciao Baby restaurant. They have three locations on Long Island. The address for Commack is listed as 1000-1003 Jericho Turnpike. I’m not sure if the former theater space is wholly occupied by the restaurant or split among Ciao Baby and other retailers.
Their website has a photo gallery which includes an image of the exterior, which appears to have undergone considerable alterations when compared to the marquee shot that Lost Memory linked to back on October 21, 2004.
While it may be true that anyone can order photos from the Municipal Archives, I for am quite appreciative of youngnyer1’s efforts to share them with the rest of us here at CT. Thanks a bunch, friend! Looks like you’re saving fellow members a lot of time and money by sharing your collection.
Well, assuming that any plans for redevelopment will have to include restoration and preservation of the landmark designated lobby and grand foyer, the fountain should remain. And to be clear for those who were not familiar with the Keith’s, this is not the large center fountain that bobosan, Tom S. and myself were just discussing above. That fountain was carted out of the foyer back in 1976 when the theater was triplexed. Someone posted way back when that they heard that he fountain had been installed in a Greenwich Village restaurant! I wonder if anyone can confirm that! I’d love to try and locate it, but I’m daunted by the sheer volume of restaurants in that area of Manhattan!
That’s exactly what they did, bobosan. And it is likely that due to the refreshment stand taking up so much space against the back wall, the entrance doors into the downstairs auditoriums from the grand foyer were moved to the outer edges of the back wall, cutting into some of the tile work of ornamentation that existed in those corners. See my post and photo of December 14th, 2006, above for illustration.
This wouldn’t be the first time National Amusements added on to an existing multiplex; they did the same after the success of their originally six-screened multiplex on the site of the old Sunrise Drive-In Theater in Valley Stream, NY. Of course, even after they added on to that building, they later proceeded to carve up existing rooms to create even more screens over the years. The same pattern might have been followed here.
Warren… maybe now you can post those interior images of the Ridgewood Theater from 1913 and 1930 you vowed not to share on this page due to all the bilge? One good turn deserves another, after all. That might do well to put the conversation back on track here. It certainly would serve that purpose better than any attempts to bait mikemovies with sarcasm.
Mikemovies… Here’s a suggestion: Write a blog regarding your thoughts on the moviegoing experience and post it as a news item here. Include comments on your interest in purchasing genre movies at discount prices and invite feedback. I’m sure all the regulars here at the Ridgewood page would join in and check off the notification box so that the off-topic conversation can continue unfettered and ad-infinitum and wihout the stigma of OT Bilge! I’d defintely join in on the fun, should you decide to do so.
Hey Ed Baxter… welcome back and thanks for your kind remarks on my posts here. Nope… I haven’t been able to get inside the Keith’s since that day I stumbled on the open storefront. Like davebazooka, I fear I’ll never get the chance – and frankly, I’m not sure my heart could bear it. Looking at asphoto’s images, the destruction looks wholesale.
This theater appears to be in far worse condition than the New Amsterdam on 42nd Street was before Disney restored it and appears to be even worse than the Loews Kings. If the Kings is a $75 million project, a full restoration of the Keith’s would probably require a $100 million budget. The plaster in the auditorium shots that asphoto provided appears to have been smashed away completely in some areas, exposing large stretches of bare brick and block. I believe the area depicted would be the right wall of the auditorium (what would have been theater #2 after the triplexing) and the two short sets of stairs leading to the exit doors at the front of the auditorium. I think these were sort of hidden behind the screen after the lower level was split – the screens in each of the downstairs theaters were moved in a bit so as to orient themselves squarely with the new projection booths at the rear and obscured much of the original proscenium detailing. The bit of screen left hanging in the shot of the proscenium and bare stage walls was for the upstairs theater which kept much of the sidewall and proscenium detail intact (as well as the “sky” ceiling, albeit with none of the twinking stars or other lighting effects). Amazing how well preserved and untouched the drapery appears to be!
The shot from the mezzanine level shows the ornamentation on the southern wall of the grand foyer over the main entrance doors (this same ornamentation is shown from a different angle in that recent NY Times photo that davebazooka shared with us last summer). And there is indeed also a shot of the double height ticket lobby or vestibule, revealing that just about all of that ornamentation apears to be intact.
Tom S… I very much look forward to your photos, as I do with the rest of asphoto’s images! I’ll continue to tour the ruins of the Keith’s vicariously through them…
Just to quickly follow up, I found this web site that seems to have an excellent overview of all the art installations that presided over the ghost town that was 42nd Street between 7th and 8th Avenues in 1993 and 1994. If you click on the colored circles within the text on the page, it will bring you to each installation – some of which occupied theater vestibules and marquees while others adorned the vacant retail units that filled the gaps in between the old movie houses. The page I linked to lists all the 1993 projects, while the bottom-most orange circle along the left pane of the page will lead you to a similar listing of the 1994 installations.
I’ve been searching around the internet for some time trying to find some of the art projects that were allowed installation within or upon some of the dormant grind houses on the Duece in the early ‘90’s. In addition to the “poetic” phrases that graced all the marquees along the strip around 1992, I seem to recall one or two installations in the lobby space and entry foyer space of one or two of the theaters along the north side of the block.
I came across this web site, which describes a work called “Mimesis” by Kristin Jones and Andrew Ginzel that was installed in the entrance to the Selwyn back in 1993. There is a small image of the installation when you first open the link, and several more if you click on either of the “Mimesis” links at the bottom of the page.
Does anyone recall a similar installation in the Times Square vestibule? I seem to recall an almost holographic image of an blinking eye, but my memory is fuzzy. It might have been another work by Jones and Ginzel (there are many listed on the website, but not all of them have links with images and descriptions).
I believe back on April 15th, 2005, Lost Memory linked to this 1910 photo when the theater had re-opened as the Comet. Anyway, Lost’s link is now broken, so thought I’d add it again.
Anyway… I didn’t see Lost Memory’s usual C/O research and seat counts here, so I take it upon myself to present the following:
11/28/49 (Total 2184 persons)
– 1st floor – Lobby, Foyer & Standee Space and Theater with max persons of 1632
– Mezzanine – Lounge & Toilets
– Balcony – Theater with max persons 552
4/21/81 (Total 1988 persons)
Same basic layout as above but listing Theater I and Theater II as having identical respective capacities of 729 persons in the orchestras and 265 persons in the balconies. By the way, the date of completion for the work to divide the theater, as per this C/O, is 5/7/79, which gives us a good idea as to when the theater was re-opened as a twin.
8/25/88 (Total 1950 persons)
The gut job. Toilets are now in the cellar only, with a lobby and 3 theaters at basement level, lobby and 1 theater at 1st floor level and 3 theaters on the 2nd floor:
Bsmt Theater 1 – max 420 persons
Bsmt Theater 2 – max 275 persons
Bsmt Theater 3 – max 275 persons
1st Fl Theater 4 – max 155 persons
2nd Fl Theater 5 – max 250 persons
2nd Fl Theater 6 – max 250 persons
2nd Fl Theater 7 – max 325 persons
FYI… the theater numbers given on the C of O as listed above do not correspond with the way the theater actually numbers the auditoriums. I know that the small street level theater is actually numbered Auditorium 1, and the Bsmt theaters are numbers 2, 3 and 4 (the largest of these is #4). I’m not sure how the upstairs theaters are numbered, so I don’t know which has the larger capacity.
I took my son to the Fresh Meadows this evening to see “Night at the Museum” and thought I’d report on the rather shabby upkeep and presentation under AMC. We saw the film in one of the lower level mid-sized theaters (auditorium #2 to be precise) and as soon as we sat in our seats (around 5th row center in the shallow twin-aisle room) we discovered a sticky mess of a drying soda spill that had cascaded down the slope of the floor from at least a row or two behind us (and continued ahead of us for at least as many rows). This, despite the fact that the room had already been cleared out and presumably “cleaned” after the previous screening. I walked back out to the lobby and found an employee coming down the stairs from street level. I must say that after I informed him of the spill, he came quickly with a mop to attend to the mess.
I’d say about 40 or 50 folks were in attendance for the 4:30pm showing in a space that holds 275. While there were a few children in attendance, the majority of the audience appeared to be senior citizens, presumably from the surrounding development for which the theater is named. Curiously, we sat for about 15 minutes staring at a blank screen with only the sound of muffled conversation in accompaniement. No piped in music, and stranger still, no slide-projected advertisements. With the house lights on full power, the “show” began with one of those paper-bag-puppet Fandango spots during which the projector shut down for a few moments before springing back to life – as if someone tripped over the power supply by accident and scrambled to plug it back in. The screen remained masked at 1.85:1 throughout the commercial spots and coming attractions – including for the two trailers that were shown at scope ratio (2.35:1) reduced to fit within the side masking, but leaving an unmasked strip of blank screen along the top edge. Very poor marks for that! But I suppose, since the feature was not in scope, that elminates the need to open the side masking for just those two trailers before closing it again for the main attraction.
The lights finally went down for the movie itself, although it was clear to me that the projection overshot the screen masking by a good couple of feet along the bottom edge and at least a foot on either side (this was apparent during the trailers as well). When we exited the auditorium, the garbage cans at either end of the exit doors were overflowing, leaving folks to deposit their refuse along a small ledge that ran about half way up the wall.
Is this par for the course at AMC? I don’t really recall Loews Cineplex running the show this poorly here. It reminded me more of how UA ran many of its theaters into the ground during the ‘80’s and '90’s.
Wow… I wonder if ANY of that ornamental detail survives behind false walls that might have been erected when the theater was triplexed! Was any of that stripped away in the ‘50’s, when several deluxe houses on Broadway were “modernized” for the widescreen roadshow era? And what of the mezzanine lounge depicted in the third photo… did it survive the years? This is one of a handful of Times Square theaters that I never made it into… so I have no personal recollections to go by at all.
Mountaingent… Do you happen to have a photo of the stained glass window in your loft? Perhaps if you can post it here, one of the resident Roxy experts might be able to identify if it might have (or did, in fact) come from the late great Roxy Theatre.
And I forgot to welcome you, Lost, to yet another in the series of long conversations I’ve been having with myself in the pages of Cinema Treasures!
Lost… It must have been for a very brief period of time. I lived in the neighborhood from ‘73 – '84 and I can’t really recall it as a porn theater, though one of my childhood buddies seems to recall it as such. I know I saw some legit films there as late as 1976 and that by 1978, alteration permits were already filed to convert to house of worship.
Here’s a passage from the full article you posted:
“The owner of the theater was told by federation officials that the block associations and their captains, who meet every month, were unhappy about the pornography. The theater owner said he had no choice. He had to play the pornographic films because he had to make a living.
The federations’s representatives, who prefer conciliation to confrontation, said they understood. They persuaded him to change his bill and got a bank to buy tickets for children for Saturday matinee movies. Another bank agreed to make available a bus for elderly people during the week.
The federation said that, if pornogrpahic movies were shown, one or more residents would be outside the box office with cameras all the time, photographing anyone who bought a ticket. So the profit went out of pornography."
Well… Obviously the bank couldn’t buy enough children’s matinee tickets to keep the theater afloat for very long.
I love how a G-rated main feature was paired with an R-rated supporting film. As I recall, this was quite customary in the ‘70’s – particularly at Drive-In theaters. At least at the Drive-Ins you might reasonably expect the kiddies to fall asleep in the backseat before the 2nd feature got too risque!
Thanks for that, RobertR… Per imdb, this was a 1966 Russian production that Childhood Productions started distributing in the U.S. in the fall of ‘68 – so that “never before shown anywhere” notice in the ad is a bit misleading. I also wonder whose brainchild it was to re-dub the 2.35:1 process Sovscope as “Storybook Scope?”
Ugh. I was at the Gotham Comedy Club last week and could see both of the Clearview Theater buildings down the street and thought about how I had to come in one night for a Chelsea Classics showing. Finding out that the presentations are of store-bought DVD’s would certainly take the bloom off the rose for me.
Ha… You know… For the past 5 minutes I’ve been trying to place that lyric, since it read so familiar to me! Then it dawned on me… the musical “Hair!” Thanks, Meerskiowa, for that appropriate reference and the memories it’s starting to jog within me!
And while the Roxy’s interior was certainly more heavily ornamented than the streamlined RCMH, I wouldn’t want to confuse it’s rococco design with the atmospheric style popularized by John Eberson in the late ‘20’s and early '30’s. The Paradise is a true atmospheric theater. I’m not entirely sure I’d categorize the Roxy (nor its smaller relation, the Beacon on B'way and 74th) as such.
Anyway… I posted a recent photo that I took of the TGI Friday’s that now occupies the space that once served as the Roxy’s entrance foyer on that theater’s listing here sometime back in January of last year.
I would also throw in that this theater might appeal to those who are partial to the “atmospheric” design. There aren’t many of those left in NYC. The former Loew’s Valencia in Jamaica is still open as a church and remains in fine condition, although the original color scheme has been obliterated and the atmospheric effect ruined with the inclusion of a large chandelier hanging from the auditorium ceiling. I haven’t been in the fomer Queensboro/Elmwood Theater in Elmhurst long enough to determine if the original atmospheric sky is being restored by the church that now occupies the site. The RKO Keith’s in Flushing has been completely violated and stands only as rubble-strewn ruin awaiting redevelopment. That leaves only the Paradise and (if one crosses the Hudson) the former Stanley in Jersey City (beautifully preserved by the Jehovah’s Witnesses) as examples of this particular style.
Does anyone know if the “Loew’s” signage remains on the facade of the Paradise? Is it protected by landmark designation even though the brand is now owned by AMC Theaters? I’m curious if there is anything going on in that regard by way of litigation between BX Entertainment and AMC.
And just to follow up on rlvjr’s last comment… An excellent suggestion, provided the programme appeals to one’s tastes. I would remind everyone, however, that a tour of the theater would be considerably less expensive, if all one wants is to see the facility itself. The website also contains contact information regarding guided tours. I haven’t taken advantage of this offering yet, but I think I might do so in the Spring.
In what city and state are you looking?
Some more info… This was not a standalone house, but part of a large strip mall known as the Mayfair Shopping Center. Apparently, the current owners renovated the entire complex back in 2000 and have since leased large anchor units to the Gap, Waldbaums Supermarket and Genovese Drugs. This would explain the completely new look of the facade. Ciao Baby is on the eastern end of the complex, which sits back on the north side of Jericho behind a large parking lot and several curbfront standalone units (an Outback Restaurant and a couple of bank branches). I suspect that the mall (and therefore the theater itself) dates back no farther than to the early 1960’s.
Also of interest is that, prior to the construction of the local Roman Catholic Church (Christ the King), church services were held both in the Mayfair’s auditorium as well as the basement of Gimbel’s Department Store (also a tenant in the shopping center).
An acquaintance of mine who grew up in the area, tells me that the Mayfair Theater is now a Ciao Baby restaurant. They have three locations on Long Island. The address for Commack is listed as 1000-1003 Jericho Turnpike. I’m not sure if the former theater space is wholly occupied by the restaurant or split among Ciao Baby and other retailers.
Their website has a photo gallery which includes an image of the exterior, which appears to have undergone considerable alterations when compared to the marquee shot that Lost Memory linked to back on October 21, 2004.
While it may be true that anyone can order photos from the Municipal Archives, I for am quite appreciative of youngnyer1’s efforts to share them with the rest of us here at CT. Thanks a bunch, friend! Looks like you’re saving fellow members a lot of time and money by sharing your collection.
Well, assuming that any plans for redevelopment will have to include restoration and preservation of the landmark designated lobby and grand foyer, the fountain should remain. And to be clear for those who were not familiar with the Keith’s, this is not the large center fountain that bobosan, Tom S. and myself were just discussing above. That fountain was carted out of the foyer back in 1976 when the theater was triplexed. Someone posted way back when that they heard that he fountain had been installed in a Greenwich Village restaurant! I wonder if anyone can confirm that! I’d love to try and locate it, but I’m daunted by the sheer volume of restaurants in that area of Manhattan!
And a rare view at the marquee and rooftop signage (obscured though the latter may be) featuring the Queensboro name.
That’s exactly what they did, bobosan. And it is likely that due to the refreshment stand taking up so much space against the back wall, the entrance doors into the downstairs auditoriums from the grand foyer were moved to the outer edges of the back wall, cutting into some of the tile work of ornamentation that existed in those corners. See my post and photo of December 14th, 2006, above for illustration.
This wouldn’t be the first time National Amusements added on to an existing multiplex; they did the same after the success of their originally six-screened multiplex on the site of the old Sunrise Drive-In Theater in Valley Stream, NY. Of course, even after they added on to that building, they later proceeded to carve up existing rooms to create even more screens over the years. The same pattern might have been followed here.
Warren… maybe now you can post those interior images of the Ridgewood Theater from 1913 and 1930 you vowed not to share on this page due to all the bilge? One good turn deserves another, after all. That might do well to put the conversation back on track here. It certainly would serve that purpose better than any attempts to bait mikemovies with sarcasm.
Mikemovies… Here’s a suggestion: Write a blog regarding your thoughts on the moviegoing experience and post it as a news item here. Include comments on your interest in purchasing genre movies at discount prices and invite feedback. I’m sure all the regulars here at the Ridgewood page would join in and check off the notification box so that the off-topic conversation can continue unfettered and ad-infinitum and wihout the stigma of OT Bilge! I’d defintely join in on the fun, should you decide to do so.
Hey Ed Baxter… welcome back and thanks for your kind remarks on my posts here. Nope… I haven’t been able to get inside the Keith’s since that day I stumbled on the open storefront. Like davebazooka, I fear I’ll never get the chance – and frankly, I’m not sure my heart could bear it. Looking at asphoto’s images, the destruction looks wholesale.
This theater appears to be in far worse condition than the New Amsterdam on 42nd Street was before Disney restored it and appears to be even worse than the Loews Kings. If the Kings is a $75 million project, a full restoration of the Keith’s would probably require a $100 million budget. The plaster in the auditorium shots that asphoto provided appears to have been smashed away completely in some areas, exposing large stretches of bare brick and block. I believe the area depicted would be the right wall of the auditorium (what would have been theater #2 after the triplexing) and the two short sets of stairs leading to the exit doors at the front of the auditorium. I think these were sort of hidden behind the screen after the lower level was split – the screens in each of the downstairs theaters were moved in a bit so as to orient themselves squarely with the new projection booths at the rear and obscured much of the original proscenium detailing. The bit of screen left hanging in the shot of the proscenium and bare stage walls was for the upstairs theater which kept much of the sidewall and proscenium detail intact (as well as the “sky” ceiling, albeit with none of the twinking stars or other lighting effects). Amazing how well preserved and untouched the drapery appears to be!
The shot from the mezzanine level shows the ornamentation on the southern wall of the grand foyer over the main entrance doors (this same ornamentation is shown from a different angle in that recent NY Times photo that davebazooka shared with us last summer). And there is indeed also a shot of the double height ticket lobby or vestibule, revealing that just about all of that ornamentation apears to be intact.
Tom S… I very much look forward to your photos, as I do with the rest of asphoto’s images! I’ll continue to tour the ruins of the Keith’s vicariously through them…
Just to quickly follow up, I found this web site that seems to have an excellent overview of all the art installations that presided over the ghost town that was 42nd Street between 7th and 8th Avenues in 1993 and 1994. If you click on the colored circles within the text on the page, it will bring you to each installation – some of which occupied theater vestibules and marquees while others adorned the vacant retail units that filled the gaps in between the old movie houses. The page I linked to lists all the 1993 projects, while the bottom-most orange circle along the left pane of the page will lead you to a similar listing of the 1994 installations.
I’ve been searching around the internet for some time trying to find some of the art projects that were allowed installation within or upon some of the dormant grind houses on the Duece in the early ‘90’s. In addition to the “poetic” phrases that graced all the marquees along the strip around 1992, I seem to recall one or two installations in the lobby space and entry foyer space of one or two of the theaters along the north side of the block.
I came across this web site, which describes a work called “Mimesis” by Kristin Jones and Andrew Ginzel that was installed in the entrance to the Selwyn back in 1993. There is a small image of the installation when you first open the link, and several more if you click on either of the “Mimesis” links at the bottom of the page.
Does anyone recall a similar installation in the Times Square vestibule? I seem to recall an almost holographic image of an blinking eye, but my memory is fuzzy. It might have been another work by Jones and Ginzel (there are many listed on the website, but not all of them have links with images and descriptions).
I believe back on April 15th, 2005, Lost Memory linked to this 1910 photo when the theater had re-opened as the Comet. Anyway, Lost’s link is now broken, so thought I’d add it again.
Anyway… I didn’t see Lost Memory’s usual C/O research and seat counts here, so I take it upon myself to present the following:
11/28/49 (Total 2184 persons)
– 1st floor – Lobby, Foyer & Standee Space and Theater with max persons of 1632
– Mezzanine – Lounge & Toilets
– Balcony – Theater with max persons 552
4/21/81 (Total 1988 persons)
Same basic layout as above but listing Theater I and Theater II as having identical respective capacities of 729 persons in the orchestras and 265 persons in the balconies. By the way, the date of completion for the work to divide the theater, as per this C/O, is 5/7/79, which gives us a good idea as to when the theater was re-opened as a twin.
8/25/88 (Total 1950 persons)
The gut job. Toilets are now in the cellar only, with a lobby and 3 theaters at basement level, lobby and 1 theater at 1st floor level and 3 theaters on the 2nd floor:
Bsmt Theater 1 – max 420 persons
Bsmt Theater 2 – max 275 persons
Bsmt Theater 3 – max 275 persons
1st Fl Theater 4 – max 155 persons
2nd Fl Theater 5 – max 250 persons
2nd Fl Theater 6 – max 250 persons
2nd Fl Theater 7 – max 325 persons
FYI… the theater numbers given on the C of O as listed above do not correspond with the way the theater actually numbers the auditoriums. I know that the small street level theater is actually numbered Auditorium 1, and the Bsmt theaters are numbers 2, 3 and 4 (the largest of these is #4). I’m not sure how the upstairs theaters are numbered, so I don’t know which has the larger capacity.
I took my son to the Fresh Meadows this evening to see “Night at the Museum” and thought I’d report on the rather shabby upkeep and presentation under AMC. We saw the film in one of the lower level mid-sized theaters (auditorium #2 to be precise) and as soon as we sat in our seats (around 5th row center in the shallow twin-aisle room) we discovered a sticky mess of a drying soda spill that had cascaded down the slope of the floor from at least a row or two behind us (and continued ahead of us for at least as many rows). This, despite the fact that the room had already been cleared out and presumably “cleaned” after the previous screening. I walked back out to the lobby and found an employee coming down the stairs from street level. I must say that after I informed him of the spill, he came quickly with a mop to attend to the mess.
I’d say about 40 or 50 folks were in attendance for the 4:30pm showing in a space that holds 275. While there were a few children in attendance, the majority of the audience appeared to be senior citizens, presumably from the surrounding development for which the theater is named. Curiously, we sat for about 15 minutes staring at a blank screen with only the sound of muffled conversation in accompaniement. No piped in music, and stranger still, no slide-projected advertisements. With the house lights on full power, the “show” began with one of those paper-bag-puppet Fandango spots during which the projector shut down for a few moments before springing back to life – as if someone tripped over the power supply by accident and scrambled to plug it back in. The screen remained masked at 1.85:1 throughout the commercial spots and coming attractions – including for the two trailers that were shown at scope ratio (2.35:1) reduced to fit within the side masking, but leaving an unmasked strip of blank screen along the top edge. Very poor marks for that! But I suppose, since the feature was not in scope, that elminates the need to open the side masking for just those two trailers before closing it again for the main attraction.
The lights finally went down for the movie itself, although it was clear to me that the projection overshot the screen masking by a good couple of feet along the bottom edge and at least a foot on either side (this was apparent during the trailers as well). When we exited the auditorium, the garbage cans at either end of the exit doors were overflowing, leaving folks to deposit their refuse along a small ledge that ran about half way up the wall.
Is this par for the course at AMC? I don’t really recall Loews Cineplex running the show this poorly here. It reminded me more of how UA ran many of its theaters into the ground during the ‘80’s and '90’s.
Wow… I wonder if ANY of that ornamental detail survives behind false walls that might have been erected when the theater was triplexed! Was any of that stripped away in the ‘50’s, when several deluxe houses on Broadway were “modernized” for the widescreen roadshow era? And what of the mezzanine lounge depicted in the third photo… did it survive the years? This is one of a handful of Times Square theaters that I never made it into… so I have no personal recollections to go by at all.
Mountaingent… Do you happen to have a photo of the stained glass window in your loft? Perhaps if you can post it here, one of the resident Roxy experts might be able to identify if it might have (or did, in fact) come from the late great Roxy Theatre.