Loew's Valencia Theatre
165-11 Jamaica Avenue,
Jamaica,
NY
11432
165-11 Jamaica Avenue,
Jamaica,
NY
11432
36 people
favorited this theater
Showing 151 - 175 of 480 comments
Jack Tomai, I’m glad I brought back some great memories of yours when I mentioned A & S in downtown Bklyn. Please go on with your movie memories. You won’t bore me at all. I used to like the drum set at A & S in downtown Bklyn. One of my aunts, who was like a second mother to me, used to work there in the 1960’s.
I know about those downtown Bklyn movie palaces, but never saw a film there until a year and a day ago : Saturday, July 15, 2006, when I saw the original “Psycho” at the BAM Rose Cinema. Great !
My dad is more familiar with the downtown Bklyn movie palaces than I, having seen burlesque and Eddie Cantor at Loew’s Metropolitan.
What rock n roll performers did you see at the Bklyn Paramount, and in what way were rock n roll shows thought to be dangerous back then ? I can guess, but would like to read your own answer, in your own words.
Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones used to collect posters from the Deep South that were heavy against black music :
DON’T LET YOUR KID BUY NEGRO RECORDS ! SAVAGE STUFF ! IT WILL TWIST THEIR MINDS !
Little did they know …
Cue opening riff of “Johnny B. Goode” and the rest is history.
THE DAY THE WORLD ENDED and I MARRIED A MONSTER FROM OUTER SPACE are classic 50’s B movies right up my alley, though I’ve mostly seen them many years after their original release at Film Forum and Thalia Soho and Cinema Village in lower Manhattan.
Can someone help me with photobucket? Every time I copy I can’t get in. If someone can give me a step by step procedure would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
PKoch…oh man – you just brought back some great memories when you mentioned the A&S dept store in Bklyn. When I was a kid, my grandmother used to take me there all the time. She would go shopping and deposit me on the 8th floor of A&S which was the record, book and games dept. My favorite floor! They used to have a great selection of movie soundtracks. After shopping, my grandmother and I would go to one of the restaurants for a bite to eat. Very often we would then go to see a movie at one of the fantastic movie theatres in that area: Loew’s Metropolitan, RKO Albee, Bklyn Paramount, the Fox. We saw BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S at the Paramount (also as a teenager I saw a number of rock n roll shows there and at the Fox although I never told my parents cause it was thought to be dangerous to go to r n r shows at that time. Murray the K or Alan Freed hosted)and THE SEVEN LITTLE FOYS at the Albee and a double feature of THE DAY THE WORLD ENDED and I MARRIED A MONSTER FROM OUTER SPACE at the Met. I could go on and on but I won’t bore you. However if you remember A&S you must remember these incredible movie palaces downtown Brooklyn.
I know Baisley Pond Park, HeMan, but know nothing of the anti-aircraft weapons there. Makes sense, though.
I realize that is site is for movies only. But, I met a dude, who also went to the Valencia, who stated that during WWII there were anti-aircraft weapons in Baisley Park, Queens…intersection of Rockaway Blvd. and Sutphin Blvd.
Can anyone confirm this? Thanks. [Sorry for the interruption].
HeMan
“It came only in vanilla flavor, but you could have some chocolate or strawberry syrup drizzled into it at no extra charge.”
Thanks, Warren. That reminds me of “For Two Cents Plain” by Harry Golden, about getting a flavored soda for the two cent price of a plain seltzer.
Thanks, Warren and Jack Tomai.
I remember A & S in downtown Brooklyn on Fulton Street having a small, squarish, plain, inexpensive cafeteria in its basement, with yellowish walls, where I remember having a breaded veal patty with tomato sauce when I was eleven, in 1966, and a fancy restaurant on its fourth floor, where I had shrimp creole, which at the time (1962 or 63 when I was seven) tasted like heaven on a plate !
I remember a Chock Full O' Nuts on Jamaica Avenue (north side, I think)under the end of the el, the 168th Street station, from spring 1968, when I went there with my dad.
Warren, thank you so much for your post…I have been racking my brains for years trying to think of the name of Teddy’s and not one person I mentioned it to could remember the place!!! What a relief to finally hear it! So often we would go there for a burger after a movie. And you are probably right about Junior’s. I remembered their great hot dogs and just assumed it was Nedick’s. Unfortunately,I don’t recall the Concord Cafeteria. Was it on the same side of Jamaica Avenue as the Alden?
Anyway, thanks so much for the Teddy’s reference.
Does anyone recall a Nedick’s tucked into the corner of Jamaica Ave. directly next door to the Valencia? I remember my Dad stopping there with me for a hot dog and orange drink before or after we would see a movie at the Valencia. I’m talking late 50s/early 60s.
By the way, I remember Gertz clearly as my future sister-in-law used to work there as a waitress in their coffee shop. Does anyone remember when department stores used to have their own restaurants? Speaking of coffee shops, does anyone remember Louie’s Coffee Shop on, I believe 164th St off Jamaica Ave? I went to Delehanty High School in the 60s and our crowd always hung out at Louie’s before class, at lunchtime and after school every day. Paula was the waitress back then – red bee-hive hairdo and a great gal.
No, PKoch, I am definitely not related to Steely Dan’s Pretzel Logic, but Sutphin Blvd is familiar to me, having grown up in the Richmond Hill/Jamaica border. I saw the martial arts movie at the Valencia when it was in full throttle decline, for sure. If it closed for good in 1977, then it must have been 1977 that I saw the movie at Valencia. I don’t remember the goldfish reflecting pool, but I do remember torn theater seats, a somewhat dangerous element in the audience, and the distinct smell of maryjane (no offense to anybody who’s into that stuff, but I’m not.) I only remember one line from the movie — some Australian martial arts character had just killed off another character by throwing a round, metal serrated disc at his head. And then he said in a thick Australian accent, “Thank God for Black & Decker.” For some reason my friends thought this was the most hilarious thing they’d ever heard and they said this sentence for weeks and weeks afterwards. The rest of the movie was forgettable but the experience stuck in my mind because I had never been inside such a gorgeous, “atmospheric” movie theater, and probably never will be again, unfortunately, now that we have these boxy multiplexes with screens smaller than a TV dinner. I really feel cheated that other than that one time, I didn’t experience a real movie palace, along with ice cream/soda fountain places, unless you consider Jahn’s Ice Cream Parlor in Queens, but that was already commercialized, not like the fanciful, castle-like ice cream parlors of old that used to exist (as described by my mother in law).
Warren, thanks for the goldfish stories! The Valenica was the only theater I ever went to that had goldfish in their fountain. I remember it so clearly. My junior high school graduation was held at The Valencia in June of 1973. Warren, were you tending the fish then?
On another note, I don’t remember there being a Gimbels either. I think that might have been mentioned in that article in error.
Thanks Lost Memory for that Jamaica link! Great info. Where was the Gimbels store? I know where Montgomery Wards, Macy’s and Mays were, but not Gimbels. I think I also remember WT Grants which I’m pretty sure was a department store that went bankrupt in the 70’s. Robert Hall (a large mens wear store) was also in Jamaica before also going bankrupt. It’s little wonder the Valencia was not able to hold on with everything falling apart around it.
Thanks, Lost Memory.
I do, very much, Lost Memory. Thanks for posting it.
I just sent the link to three friends via e-mail.
So Jamaica, as well as John Jacob Astor’s fortunes, owes its existence to beaver pelts.
Somewhat related to the coneys, or rock badgers, of Coney Island, I would think.
I won’t belabor the double entendre of “beaver hunt”.
You and me both, LuisV.
I don’t remember the Kurtz store offhand.
“Cooley High” was released in 1975.
There were also two huge furniture stores in Jamaica, Saks New York (not to be confused with high end Sak’s Fifth Avenue and a store I think was called Kurtz (and no I’m not confusing it with Gertz Department Store) :–) By the way, I just remembered Gertz’s tag line…..“Where Long Island Shops”!
As much as I loved the Valencia, I do remember thinking twice about going due to the decline of the area in the 70’s. Though Jamaica never declined to the levels of other inner city neighborhoods in the city it was definitely pretty bad for Queens. I’m happy to see that there has been a lot of improvement over the last few years. There is a lot more on the drawing boards. I wish them luck!
Thank you, Warren, for this information about the demise of the Long Island Press, and its final movie timetable.
I remember “Cooley High” being on TV in April 1977.
Thanks, Bway.
The last day of normal operation on the Jamaica El was Sept 11, 1977. However, they did hold fantrips for the last time on both Sept 11th, 1977 (which was the last day for normal service), and Sept 12, 1977 ran a fantrip, which was the last day a passenger train traversed it….
Thanks, Bway. Was the closing date at 168th Street September 11th or October 10th, 1977 ? I think I just saw the latter date on nycsubway.org.
It “has” to be 1977, as the Jamaica Ave el was closed on September 11th, 1977, and there are photos at nycsubway.org using the 168th St Station, which was right at the Valencia, and there is already a “Tabernacle of Prayer” cross on the Valencia.
See here for one example:
http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?24041
Thanks, Warren. I didn’t know that those other Queens theaters were “atmospheric”, that is, that their ceilings mimicked the evening sky.
No, Queens Logic, I don’t think that Jamaica movie theater you remember was any other than the Valencia.
BTW, are you the Queens cousin of Steely Dan’s Pretzel Logic ?
From Slougham Road to Sutphin Blvd., perhaps ?
Is everybody sure this movie theater stopped showing movies in 1977? I distinctly remember seeing a cheap martial arts movie at this theater in either the late 70’s or very early 80’s. But maybe I have the wrong movie theater in Jamaica? The movie house was Spanish mission style (I guess) and had dark clouds that moved across the ceiling. The ceiling itself mimicked an early evening sky (at dusk). I remember that on either side of the screen as well as on the right and left hand side of the auditorium, you were surrounded by these faux Spanish stucco walls (like the walls of a Spanish missionary). Can anybody verify that this was the Valencia or was it another Spanish Mission styled theater in Jamaica?
As promised, my work friend’s movie-going experience at Loew’s Valencia :
“The Ten Commandments”, with his father, late 1950’s.
“The Bridge Over The River Kwai”, with Uncle Jerry, probably also cousin Robert and Aunt Bernice, 1957
“The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” (James Stewart and John Wayne), probably 1964.
“Fantastic Voyage”, 1966.
“To Sir With Love”, 1967, with friend, Tom Krauss.
I know what you mean, Jack Tomai. My parents owned a ‘67 Chevy Biscayne, my uncle, a '64 Impala. I’m glad you’re ON this website.
Perhaps you and your wife would enjoy a trip to Loew’s Jersey or Paradise, to relive those cherished experiences of moviegoing.
I know what you mean. Even if the movie was lousy, at least the theater was pretty to look at, and it was an afternoon or a night out.
Re : your “Rear Window” experience : early January 2006 I saw the new “King Kong” at our local multiplex (Greenburgh NY) with my wife, son and then-86 yr old father, and my dad kept waving at the screem for Naomi Watts (Ann Darrow) to get down to safety from atop the Empire State Building.
Yes, magnificent theaters, real show biz architecture and interior designs, rather than ipods and cell phones, though all technology has its place.
I will ask my friend at lunch today what movies he saw at the Valencia.