I think the windows were sealed with cinderblock and all glass removed sometime around 1990 to prevent vandals from causing a pedestrian hazard by shattering the window panes. Or perhaps I should say “causing further hazard” as I’m sure there must have been plenty of broken glass in the months and years following the theater’s closure in 1986. I don’t think that mortar work is airtight. In fact, if you look at a few of the close-up photos I took of some of the window bays (in June and earlier today) you’ll note some fairly loose grout between those blocks and plenty of gaps. In fact, in the upper window area behind the scaffolding, it appears that at least one cinderblock is missing entirely.
Anyway… the asbestos being removed might be anywhere in the building – including, perhaps, the old fire curtain. I also think that asbestos removal is probably mandatory prior to demolition work. They might only encapsulate the asbestos if the work were to be minor, but removal would probably be required in the event of demolition so that particles aren’t released into the air.
As mike69 informed us, they ripped out the cast iron window framing and spandrel from the third bay of windows counting from the left (western) edge of the facade. I didn’t take a good head on shot of this bay when I was last to the theater in early June, but it surely didn’t appear to be the most precarious of facade ornamentation to the naked eye. There must have been some safety concern there. You can see the Work Permit I snapped was issued back in January to allow for the removal of asbestos in the building. The other notices posted in that cluster all seem to concern sidewalk shedding and restrictions on work during the school year. I drove around the block and there were no signs of any other work or scaffolding around the old auditorium.
Perhaps they’ll start removing all the ornamentation at some point, but if so, why start here and why not erect scaffolding along the entire facade? I’ll have to try and pass by more frequently to monitor the situation.
Meanwhile, I had not previously noted the decorative pattern on the cast iron that frames the entrances to the former storefronts. I snapped a pair of shots showing some rusting detail.
Mike, I’ll have to get back there and try to photograph what’s going on… Perhaps there were safety concerns. Check out some of the recent photos I took here in my photobucket album. The facade isn’t exactly in the greatest of shape.
Just looking at this one image it sure looks like that those old casement frames and spandrel ornamentation is pulling away from the building. And I’m sure that patchwork brick job that replaced the glass windows was never intended to stay in place as long as it has.
Oh, Lost… I snuck away hours ago! Slipped out the side entrance at the lunch bell and have been eating penny candies at the soda counter ever since.That egg cream sure was good!
Thanks, Ken. I was also perusing the comments here and found Warren’s posting of Sept 2nd, 2004, noting an opening in August of 1903, which seemed to add to the confusion. However, cjdv’s posting seems the most authoritative – and perhaps Warren simply mistyped a “3” instead of an “8”.
This building certainly looks to have weathered its nearly 100 years with only a bare minimum of maintenance. It looks like an old Tex-Mex mission, but for the lack of red clay roofing tiles! I wonder what survives of the interior ornamentation.
Ken… I can only wonder when this incredible stream of images from your trip here in May and June will finally run its full course. Every time I think it’s completely dried up, you find a few more photos to splash onto the site! Wonderful work. Thanks again for sharing.
In December of 1980, the Beverly Twin was showing straight first run films such as “Private Benjamin” and “The Idolmaker”:
I see no listings for the Beverly in the March ‘82 newspapers I have (neither the Movie Clock or in individual film ads). Of course, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the theater was closed.
Wow… you’re really jogging my memory, blkdog! Would that be House of Chang? I think that was the place. I don’t recall going to that restaurant (the taste for good Chinese food developed much later in life for me). Usually, a trip to either the Green Acres Theater or the Sunrise Cinemas multiplex down the road involved a stop at Columbia Corner’s Pizzaria on Francis Lewis and Brookville Blvd near the Cross Island Pkwy (we lived in Laurelton).
I also remember going to the Red Lobster a few times. And remember the Cookie’s Steakhouse that was in a building that looked like a castle? Around 1980 or ‘81 my buddies and I used to go to the Bowling Alley after a flick for a few illicit beverages (illicit only because we were not yet 18 and the bartender at Green Acres Bowling never never proofed us) at the bar. We never bowled much, but would play video games in the arcade downstairs. I loved that place. It was huge. I remember the signs on the building… with the name of the place in large dark green letters and below in smaller red letters “48 Lanes” “Cocktail Lounge”. We were there the night the old place closed – in 1982 I think. My three buddies and I really tied one on that night and went back in the wee hours and hoisted each other onto the canopy over the entrance to wrench free from the facade the letters in those signs that represented each of our intials. I also stole – for reasons I’ll never fully understand – the traffic sign on the service road for the mall that passed behind the bowling alley. It read “All traffic use right lane”. The cops showed up at some point and gave us a scare, but in the end it all worked out harmlessly enough.
Over time I lost the giant “E” and “S” from the building’s facade, but I still have that traffic sign. And I only recently removed it from the iron stand it was bolted to (yup – ripped that sucker right out of the ground). I can’t bring myself to get rid of the damn thing!
I was thinking that there ought to be a new status for theaters where the interior has been completely gutted but the exterior structure remains. Say “Closed/Gutted” as opposed to “Closed/Demolished”. I’m thinking more of free standing theater buildings such as the old Roosevelt/Quartet in Flushing, NY where the interior was ripped out down to the bare brick walls and beams while the exterior (in some cases along with facade ornamentation) still exists. I suppose it could also be extended to office building theaters such as the National and the old Paramount across the street. While in both cases all traces of the old theaters have been completely erased, the structures that housed them are still standing and can be visited by CT members. This would allow further distinction between former theaters that have no interior traces of ornamentation or design and those that do retain some interior elements and have been adapted for re-use.
Maybe I’m wrong, but I think this information would be useful to the membership – particularly those like myself who like to visit and possibly photograph former theater sites.
Yup. From the gutted interior, anyway. And now that undulating mutli-tiered news ticker wraps around the facade at balcony height. Remember the big National marquee that had that sine-wave shaped string of lights rising above it? I remember Dick Clark hosted at least one of his “Rocking New Year’s Eve” TV shows from on top of that Marquee in the early ‘80’s. The National also had one of those TV monitor stands under the canopy entrance that would show a trailer for the current attraction on a seemingly endless loop. A number of theaters in the Times Square area featured the same advertising gimmick.
Francesca, not even the building remains standing on the site of the old Prospect on Flushing’s Main Street. It was cruelly torn down in the late ‘80’s or early '90’s and replaced by a horrendously ugly mixed use building.
Not that this discussion should continue to clutter this theater’s page, but since the damage is already done, let’s toss caution to the wind… Are you suggesting that someone add a single new “research” theater in order to create a single space here where folks can ask membership to help, say, identify a mystery theater? Or do you propose folks add a new “research” theater for each new mystery they wish to have solved? The latter would result in a lot of clutter with folks posting “new” mystery theaters before thoroughly searching the existing database and would result in a lot of “clean up” work for Bryan. But the former sounds like a very good stop-gap measure until a more ideal solution could be provided.
So a big “A” to our resident crank for a “great idea” and a nice shiny star as well, for good measure.
Ij has some items that are certainly appropriate to share on the individual theater pages – including some vintage photos of the Times Square area that he’s posted on a few pages. However, as far as hawking his wares, he should definitely restrain from posting on each theater page and add a link to his site using the feature provided by CT for that very purpose.
This is not the same Gaiety. The two images above show the marquee for the Gaiety on Broadway that later became known as the Victoria. However, the one photo of the Globe marquee does show the north west corner of 46th and B'way where the Orpheum Dance Palace occupied the upper floors. The Gaiety Burlesk – whose doors were down 46th Street and would have been out of frame to the left in this shot – did partially occupy the Orpheum space many years after the image was captured.
Irajoel… you should post your link on the home page of Cinema Treasures rather than hitting the individual theater pages. This way you address the entire membership at once, rather than multiple posts that may or may not be related to the specific theater page you are posting in. Just a suggestion.
A lot of nice images on this site of a number of theaters, as Lost is posting on the various CT pages. You really do need some sort of wide-angle fisheye lens to capture the scale of some of these spaces and I’m glad to see this photographer make use of such equipment. I’m not a fan of the distortion you get with the widest possible angles, but its interesting to see. I wonder what is being shown in that last photo… is this the backstage area?
I assume that at some point those painted glass fanlights seen in a few interior shots above the front doorways actually had daylight shining through them. I wonder when or why they were bricked over? And that shot at the end of the Mandees entrance… where and what is that?
Nice photos – I count 16 of them so perhaps a few were added recently. I like the use of fish eye and the shot out through the front doors to the street. I wonder if this person has shots of the auditoriums that will be added at some point…
You sure you don’t feel like Whit Bissel? Check out the Cinart page. I dropped some tawdry clippings there and verified that theater’s address as 102 Court.
I think the windows were sealed with cinderblock and all glass removed sometime around 1990 to prevent vandals from causing a pedestrian hazard by shattering the window panes. Or perhaps I should say “causing further hazard” as I’m sure there must have been plenty of broken glass in the months and years following the theater’s closure in 1986. I don’t think that mortar work is airtight. In fact, if you look at a few of the close-up photos I took of some of the window bays (in June and earlier today) you’ll note some fairly loose grout between those blocks and plenty of gaps. In fact, in the upper window area behind the scaffolding, it appears that at least one cinderblock is missing entirely.
Anyway… the asbestos being removed might be anywhere in the building – including, perhaps, the old fire curtain. I also think that asbestos removal is probably mandatory prior to demolition work. They might only encapsulate the asbestos if the work were to be minor, but removal would probably be required in the event of demolition so that particles aren’t released into the air.
I did some photographic recon this morning and took the following images:
Scaffolding
Permit for minor work
Scaffolding through marquee frame
Storefront entrance frame below scaffolding
Cast iron storefront frame detail
Rust never sleeps – more detail
Alternate view of scaffolding
As mike69 informed us, they ripped out the cast iron window framing and spandrel from the third bay of windows counting from the left (western) edge of the facade. I didn’t take a good head on shot of this bay when I was last to the theater in early June, but it surely didn’t appear to be the most precarious of facade ornamentation to the naked eye. There must have been some safety concern there. You can see the Work Permit I snapped was issued back in January to allow for the removal of asbestos in the building. The other notices posted in that cluster all seem to concern sidewalk shedding and restrictions on work during the school year. I drove around the block and there were no signs of any other work or scaffolding around the old auditorium.
Perhaps they’ll start removing all the ornamentation at some point, but if so, why start here and why not erect scaffolding along the entire facade? I’ll have to try and pass by more frequently to monitor the situation.
Meanwhile, I had not previously noted the decorative pattern on the cast iron that frames the entrances to the former storefronts. I snapped a pair of shots showing some rusting detail.
For good measure, here’s another set of windows that didn’t look all that secure when I snapped the photo just this past June.
Mike, I’ll have to get back there and try to photograph what’s going on… Perhaps there were safety concerns. Check out some of the recent photos I took here in my photobucket album. The facade isn’t exactly in the greatest of shape.
Just looking at this one image it sure looks like that those old casement frames and spandrel ornamentation is pulling away from the building. And I’m sure that patchwork brick job that replaced the glass windows was never intended to stay in place as long as it has.
Oh, Lost… I snuck away hours ago! Slipped out the side entrance at the lunch bell and have been eating penny candies at the soda counter ever since.That egg cream sure was good!
Thanks, Ken. I was also perusing the comments here and found Warren’s posting of Sept 2nd, 2004, noting an opening in August of 1903, which seemed to add to the confusion. However, cjdv’s posting seems the most authoritative – and perhaps Warren simply mistyped a “3” instead of an “8”.
Sorry… Ken’s description dates the building to 1908, but the introductory comments above mention it pre-dating 1905. Any solution to the discrepancy?
This building certainly looks to have weathered its nearly 100 years with only a bare minimum of maintenance. It looks like an old Tex-Mex mission, but for the lack of red clay roofing tiles! I wonder what survives of the interior ornamentation.
Ken… I can only wonder when this incredible stream of images from your trip here in May and June will finally run its full course. Every time I think it’s completely dried up, you find a few more photos to splash onto the site! Wonderful work. Thanks again for sharing.
In December of 1980, the Beverly Twin was showing straight first run films such as “Private Benjamin” and “The Idolmaker”:
NY Post 12/11/80
Daily News 12/9/80
I see no listings for the Beverly in the March ‘82 newspapers I have (neither the Movie Clock or in individual film ads). Of course, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the theater was closed.
According to imdb.com, this is indeed the place, CHI74.
Here’s the imdb “filming locations” page for “School of Rock”.
Wow… you’re really jogging my memory, blkdog! Would that be House of Chang? I think that was the place. I don’t recall going to that restaurant (the taste for good Chinese food developed much later in life for me). Usually, a trip to either the Green Acres Theater or the Sunrise Cinemas multiplex down the road involved a stop at Columbia Corner’s Pizzaria on Francis Lewis and Brookville Blvd near the Cross Island Pkwy (we lived in Laurelton).
I also remember going to the Red Lobster a few times. And remember the Cookie’s Steakhouse that was in a building that looked like a castle? Around 1980 or ‘81 my buddies and I used to go to the Bowling Alley after a flick for a few illicit beverages (illicit only because we were not yet 18 and the bartender at Green Acres Bowling never never proofed us) at the bar. We never bowled much, but would play video games in the arcade downstairs. I loved that place. It was huge. I remember the signs on the building… with the name of the place in large dark green letters and below in smaller red letters “48 Lanes” “Cocktail Lounge”. We were there the night the old place closed – in 1982 I think. My three buddies and I really tied one on that night and went back in the wee hours and hoisted each other onto the canopy over the entrance to wrench free from the facade the letters in those signs that represented each of our intials. I also stole – for reasons I’ll never fully understand – the traffic sign on the service road for the mall that passed behind the bowling alley. It read “All traffic use right lane”. The cops showed up at some point and gave us a scare, but in the end it all worked out harmlessly enough.
Over time I lost the giant “E” and “S” from the building’s facade, but I still have that traffic sign. And I only recently removed it from the iron stand it was bolted to (yup – ripped that sucker right out of the ground). I can’t bring myself to get rid of the damn thing!
I was thinking that there ought to be a new status for theaters where the interior has been completely gutted but the exterior structure remains. Say “Closed/Gutted” as opposed to “Closed/Demolished”. I’m thinking more of free standing theater buildings such as the old Roosevelt/Quartet in Flushing, NY where the interior was ripped out down to the bare brick walls and beams while the exterior (in some cases along with facade ornamentation) still exists. I suppose it could also be extended to office building theaters such as the National and the old Paramount across the street. While in both cases all traces of the old theaters have been completely erased, the structures that housed them are still standing and can be visited by CT members. This would allow further distinction between former theaters that have no interior traces of ornamentation or design and those that do retain some interior elements and have been adapted for re-use.
Maybe I’m wrong, but I think this information would be useful to the membership – particularly those like myself who like to visit and possibly photograph former theater sites.
Yup. From the gutted interior, anyway. And now that undulating mutli-tiered news ticker wraps around the facade at balcony height. Remember the big National marquee that had that sine-wave shaped string of lights rising above it? I remember Dick Clark hosted at least one of his “Rocking New Year’s Eve” TV shows from on top of that Marquee in the early ‘80’s. The National also had one of those TV monitor stands under the canopy entrance that would show a trailer for the current attraction on a seemingly endless loop. A number of theaters in the Times Square area featured the same advertising gimmick.
Sorry, Lost. I misread Mike’s comments. I see the big picture now. Crank. Cranky. How’d I miss that one? I’ll go stand in the corner now, for a bit.
Francesca, not even the building remains standing on the site of the old Prospect on Flushing’s Main Street. It was cruelly torn down in the late ‘80’s or early '90’s and replaced by a horrendously ugly mixed use building.
Not that this discussion should continue to clutter this theater’s page, but since the damage is already done, let’s toss caution to the wind… Are you suggesting that someone add a single new “research” theater in order to create a single space here where folks can ask membership to help, say, identify a mystery theater? Or do you propose folks add a new “research” theater for each new mystery they wish to have solved? The latter would result in a lot of clutter with folks posting “new” mystery theaters before thoroughly searching the existing database and would result in a lot of “clean up” work for Bryan. But the former sounds like a very good stop-gap measure until a more ideal solution could be provided.
So a big “A” to our resident crank for a “great idea” and a nice shiny star as well, for good measure.
Ij has some items that are certainly appropriate to share on the individual theater pages – including some vintage photos of the Times Square area that he’s posted on a few pages. However, as far as hawking his wares, he should definitely restrain from posting on each theater page and add a link to his site using the feature provided by CT for that very purpose.
How rude of me… I did mean to say “thanks for the images” all the same, ij.
This is not the same Gaiety. The two images above show the marquee for the Gaiety on Broadway that later became known as the Victoria. However, the one photo of the Globe marquee does show the north west corner of 46th and B'way where the Orpheum Dance Palace occupied the upper floors. The Gaiety Burlesk – whose doors were down 46th Street and would have been out of frame to the left in this shot – did partially occupy the Orpheum space many years after the image was captured.
Irajoel… you should post your link on the home page of Cinema Treasures rather than hitting the individual theater pages. This way you address the entire membership at once, rather than multiple posts that may or may not be related to the specific theater page you are posting in. Just a suggestion.
I wonder… are they carting away stuff from the theater in that red truck?
A lot of nice images on this site of a number of theaters, as Lost is posting on the various CT pages. You really do need some sort of wide-angle fisheye lens to capture the scale of some of these spaces and I’m glad to see this photographer make use of such equipment. I’m not a fan of the distortion you get with the widest possible angles, but its interesting to see. I wonder what is being shown in that last photo… is this the backstage area?
I assume that at some point those painted glass fanlights seen in a few interior shots above the front doorways actually had daylight shining through them. I wonder when or why they were bricked over? And that shot at the end of the Mandees entrance… where and what is that?
Nice photos – I count 16 of them so perhaps a few were added recently. I like the use of fish eye and the shot out through the front doors to the street. I wonder if this person has shots of the auditoriums that will be added at some point…
You sure you don’t feel like Whit Bissel? Check out the Cinart page. I dropped some tawdry clippings there and verified that theater’s address as 102 Court.