Cinemart Cinemas
106-03 Metropolitan Avenue,
Forest Hills,
NY
11375
106-03 Metropolitan Avenue,
Forest Hills,
NY
11375
8 people
favorited this theater
Showing 151 - 156 of 156 comments
I worked as an usher at the Cinemart during the late seventies for about four years, when it was still a one screen palace. Before vhs rentals hit, this was the inexpensive route to catching a hit film the second time around. When Dudley Moore’s TEN hit our theater, it stayed with us for about a month. The line went down the block and around the corner every Saturday night. Often I would be out on the street with my royal blue jacket with gold trim, walking down the line, asking people to have their money ready for when they reached the turnstile (yes, turnstile!). I knew every part of that house. Even climbed on a small decaying ladder which lead above the ceiling to a large crank that lowered the enormous chandelier way back when they used to clean it (probably the 40’s).
I have some shots of the Cinemart from the outside, before it was split and will try to dig them up.
J.Azzara
June 5, 2004
I’m surprised he would treat suck classy people with such low regard. But then again I’m sure your language was as proper as it is in the above post. The Midway is fine, the Cinemart gets a totally different upscale crowd.
The Cinemart might have gotten a lot of people as a low price place but my memories of it when I was in Ozone Park in the 80s are bad.
It was dirty and a dump. The bathrooms were disgusting and dirty. A true craphole. But the real thing which made my family and I stop going there forever was one Sunday going to see Little Mermaid my wife had a rat run over her freaking foot when the movie started. Yes rat! God damn rat!She was too shocked to scream, She and me ran out to complain and we met this nasty faggot jack ass manager who treated us like we were criminals not customers. Pieces of sh*t.
Screw that. Goodbye Cinemart forever and I still havent gone back. I’m in Elmhurst
now and go to the Midway alot. Its a cool place.
In the 1950s for a time it ran silent films as the Inwood Art Theatre. I have an ad clipping of a run of Chaplin’s THE GOLD RUSH which had a very long play in 1959. PHANTOM OF THE OPERA and CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI, with live piano accompaniment, were listed as the upcoming program.
There was a time when The Cinemart was the most popular discount house in Queens. It was not unusual for the lines to be around the corner.
An added bonus is Eddie’s — an old fashioned ice-cream and soda fountain shop right across the street on the corner of 72nd and Metropolitan. After the movie, go get a malted… or better yet, a real old fashioned New York Egg Cream!!!
A rare treat. Personally, I find the theater itself a bit disappointing in it’s current 5 screen configuration. But, Eddie’s makes up for a lot.