Bway… if you look at the aerial local.live view you posted, you can clearly make out those large arched windows prior to their being bricked in to create smaller windows. Apparently, that work was done quite recently.
Warren… it appears that the Frisco on 7th Ave played the XXX twin bill as early as 1973 or ‘74 and my newspaper clippings show the pair still going strong in 1980 and 1982. Have you information that shows the Frisco run was not continuous?
Hope never left NYC, rlvjr… not even when people were leaving by the 100’s of thousands. The City was already coming back from the brink during the Koch administration and the drop in crime started following the national trend during the last years of Dinkin’s largely ineffectual mayoralty. Lionizing Rudy Giuliani for all that has gone “right” in NYC is as misguided an oversimplification as blaming all the ills of society today on liberalism. No doubt the man accomplished much in his tenure here, but it did not come without a price and many New Yorkers had grown weary of his egomania by the end of his 2nd term… His exemplary leadership during the tragedy of 9/11 managed to erase a lot of ill will between hizzoner and the good citizenry of New York.
Anyway… I recommend we leave the political discourse on this site to those news and poll items that call for such debate. Let’s leave the theater pages to less rancorous subjects. I hereby surrender my soap box.
There is a Movie Clock listing from December 1980 for that double feature at the Frisco. The same listing (with the exact same showtimes) appears in March of ‘82. AlAlvarez and I had been pondering just exactly what/where/when the Frisco was, but it looks like that might be the theater you’re thinking of veyoung. Here are the listings:
At first I thought it was a Chicago photo (since it’s an Ebert interview) but then I noted the Avon 7 in the background and pretty much knew it had to be Times Square. It’s a small photo and the background is pretty dim and washed out, but I think you make out a sliver of the Mayfair Theater and billboard on the left edge of the image and beyond that the old RKO Palace building and marquee.
The Paramount Building was designated a landmark in 1988, long after all interior and exterior traces of the theater were eliminated. The current marquee, arched window and attendant ornamentation are recreations of the original Paramount Theater marquee and required LPC approval before they began work in 1999 or so. I imagine that a permit to remove the marquee and restore the facade to its 1988 configuration would be quickly approved by the LPC.
Here is a photo of the Paramount facade more or less as it would have appeared at the time of Landmark designation:
This image doesn’t show street level, but you can see the portion of the lower facade where the arched window and Paramount logo were initially located (and later recreated) in the lower left side of the image near the corner of the building. It is the portion just at the top of the lower facade where there appear to be a couple of missing windows in the fenestration.
I was thinking the same thing while looking at your photos, Ken. The marquee probably appeared abnormally higher than most on the Utica Ave frontage due to the way the street slopes up towards the corner. I can’t imagine the underside of the canopy lining up any lower than about where the sills of those new windows above the current entrance are located. I also assume that the original entryway was partially bricked over and replaced by the set of five gated doors we now see. I would think that, as a theater, there’d have been a much wider point of entry perhaps with a recessed vestibule. But, I’m just guessing. The introductory comments do mention that the marquee was “unusual”.
Anyway… Now that we’ve identified the theater, I moved the images around in my photobucket album (to a Carroll Theater folder – where I also poached your pair of shots, Ken, if you don’t mind) and so the links I posted above will no longer work. Here are updated links for the photos:
If you’re a projection enthusiast, you should check out the site from which these photos come: Steve’s Vacant Lot.
Some nice information and images on this page and elsewhere on the site. According to Steve (who apparently works in the filmmaking industry) while theater managers were instructed to use the D150 projection lenses (and therefore the full profile of the screen) ONLY for D150 films. Since there were only a couple of films shot in the process, most theaters started to ignore that edict and project standard scope films (2.35:1) using the lens and using the full open matted screen to draw audiences – even on 70mm blow ups – into the ‘70’s and '80’s.
Ken… to post a link from local.live, you have to click “permalink” from the “Share” menu on the site and then copy the permalink to your clipboard to paste into your message. Unfortunately, you can’t just cut and paste the url from the Explorer address bar. The link you posted shows us an aerial shot of the Regent Theater (which must have been the first address you searched when you opened local.live).
Warren, RobertR, Lost and BklynJim… Check out the page for the Carroll Theater in Brooklyn and ALSO on Utica Avenue. It seems that KenRoe has solved our mystery marquee riddle via a new post of some recent photos he took of the former Carroll (now a church) just this past May. I think we have a definite match.
RobertR… you missed the mark on the theater, but not by much… same street, just a few blocks to the north on the corner of Crown Street!
I have a pair of photos that I know are of a Brooklyn theater taken some time in the late 1980’s. The photos are tightly cropped marquee shots that reveal very little of the facade. The photographer is Matt Weber, who has a website chock full of B&W NYC street scene images – including a few shots in decaying Times Square and other bits of “crumbling New York”, as he calls it.
Be that as it may, a number of us here on CT have been trying to identify the theater depicted in the photos. I’d ask Matt for the location, but it seems he just lost himself in Brooklyn the day he snapped these photos and has no specific recollection about where exactly he was. The little that can be seen of the facade looks very much like the former Carroll Theater depicted in your photos… Here they are:
Lost….? Warren…? What do you guys think? I didn’t figure the marquee for a corner entrance, but now that I look at the images again, I do believe that there is the indication of the canopy angling around a corner in both shots! Initially, I just thought the marquee was badly battered (which it is, of course, but just not to the extent I first assumed). I think we have a winner, folks.
Every time I saw those two flicks I remember thinking how the U.S. distributor must have sloppily botched the title job on each movie and switched them completely around! I mean, the title “Chinese Connection” is obviously a play on the film “French Connection” yet it is “Fists of Fury” that is about a drug lord (I’ve also seen it titled “The Big Boss”). Meanwhile, in the movie “Chinese Connection”, the camera focuses on Lee’s “fists of fury” in several optical shots. I wonder if they ever corrected those titles when they came out on DVD… I haven’t seen them since that 1980 re-release.
In any event, I remember thinking that the one where he avenges the death of his teacher and fights the burly Russian guy at the end was the superior film. What fun going to the movies was in those days!
Passed by the theater last night on my way home and had my camera with me. Unfortunately, it was getting too dark for me to capture any decent images of the state of the Elmwood’s facade. I’ll have to get back there in daylight soon! Meanwhile, here are two shots showing the extensive scaffolding that surrounds the facade as well as the rooftop sign:
The light wasn’t sufficient for me to make out the window lintels NativeForestHiller mentioned in his post of June 27th. All that scaffolding didn’t help matters. It was just about 9pm when I took these photos and a door down on 57th Ave (just where the construction shedding ends under the fire escapes) and people seemed to be straggling in with bibles in tow for an evening service. I might have popped in had not been pressed for time. I know that taking interior photos is prohibited by the church, but I am curious to see for myself how things are going on the inside. I also now see that I might have been able to snap a detail of the windows above the marquee that are not obscured by scaffolding to investigate Native’s concerns, but again, I was a bit pressed for time.
Native… I think we might just have to be patient regarding the nature of the restoration efforts. Could it be that the lintels were in poor shape or posed a falling threat and were removed for safe keeping and/or restoration? I’ll try to get better images in proper daylight this week or weekend.
If you check out the “Movie Directory” section in the lower center portion of the follwing page from a December 1980 newspaper, you’ll see the Ridgewood is listed under Brooklyn with a single screen playing a “classic” kung-fu/horror double feature:
“Humanoids from the Deep”!!! Ha… for the Doug McClure fans out there. Plus you got the ulta-violence of “Shogun Assassin”! The program had just changed on Friday 12/12/80. The week before the twin bill consisted of Bruce Lee’s “Enter the Dragon” and the boring Egyptian-tomb-desecrating Charlton Heston horror flick “The Awakening”.
Anyway… I’m guessing that the films played in the balcony theater while the orchestra was being divided, since PKoch has a memory of the theater being a twin already in June of 1980. I’m surprised the split wasn’t completed in time for the Holiday season, though it’s possible that the downstairs theaters were ready for business by the following weekend (December 19th).
Here’s a March of 1982 listing showing three auditoriums(far right column):
I drove passed the former theater’s site just a few hours ago and had my camera in the car. While stopped in traffic waiting for the light to change, I pointed over my shoulder (and through my moon roof for the 2nd shot) and captured the uninspired glass tower that has risen on the lot:
I posted another pair of Matt’s photos on the New York/Big Apple Theater’s page that reveal a connection between the Anco and the Big Apple Theaters in the 1980’s. In the photos above you’ll see a sign that reads “Sweetheart’s Anco 42nd Street Theater” just under the canopy. One of the Big Apple photos I posted reveals a similar banner. Anyone know who “Sweetheart” was and if he/she/they operated any other local houses?
Here are two great late 1980’s shots by photographer Matt Weber (urbanphotos.com) depicting some of our boys from the military cruising Times Square looking for the fun in Fun City’s good old bad old days:
Both shots feature the former New York theater’s turnstile entrance & outer vestibule as a back drop. This is when the theater was known as the Big Apple. If you look just above the “Best Porn in N.Y.C.” sign in the 2nd photo, you can just make out the sign “Sweetheart’s Big Apple Theater”. It seems “Sweetheart” also ran the 42nd Street Anco, according to another couple of Matt’s photos that I posted on the Anco’s page. It also seems like the word “Cine” is still stenciled on one of the theater’s glass doors (the one furthest right past the turnstile).
Thanks to Matt Weber for allowing me to share these photos with the CT community.
Don Rosen… not sure when exactly it happened, but I believe the old Wallack’s facade ornamentation was stripped away very early on the Anco’s life as a grind house. According to Bryan’s introduction above, the facade was “hacked off” sometime in the 1940’s – in addition to other architectural indignities this once beautiful playhouse endured.
Warren… the shot of the fire escapes is of the Mt. Morris Theater in Harlem on 116th Street and 5th Ave. I posted the image on the CT page for that theater.
Nice discovery there, Lost, with that building on E. 53rd St. Sure looks like it could be a theater building. The only odd thing is that, assuming that any theater in this building ran straight back and perpendicular to 53rd Street, the screen wall would have been at the rear of the property, which is where the fire escapes are located. I looked it up on oasisnyc.net and the address is 289 E. 53rd. It is listed as a place of assembly and might be home to a Jewish congregation. The only listing I could come up with for that address is for a senior citizens nutrition club. The NYC building records I have access to seem to have some erroneous certificates of occupancy in this property’s bin. Lost, can you access better records?
One more note… if you look at the aerial view of the theater (particularly if you swing it around to a view to the north) you can see an indication of the old roof garden. At the northern end of the building is a projection that looks from profile like a really skinny stage loft (but far too skinny to be such). With that southern view you can see that the structure is a hollowed out sort of alcove facing the rest of the roof… perhaps where a small stage or screen might have been installed?
It is possible that the former entrance to the theater was at the far left end of the building through that part of the facade that is only one story and has no windows above. If so, it might be possible to inspect the facade in person and determine that under all that white paint there exists some detail (the vertical columns, for instance, if not the medallions) that might help confirm that the Matt Weber images I posted are in fact of the Rugby.
OK… I stand corrected. I’ve turned the aerial image around to face in the opposite direction (East) and I find that the large white building is infact the former Rugby. As Warren indicated on the Cumberland Theater page, the theater is now occupied by “Bobby’s Department Store”, which seems to be how the signage indicates above the red awning on the white building. The former Woolworth’s storefront I was using to get my bearings (from Peter K’s vintage photo) has been altered beyond all recognition… it is the facade several doors to the right of the theater building with the alternating black and white vertical stripes:
Apologies. Still – back to the matter at hand – the current facade doesn’t resemble anything shown in the marquee photos I posted, so the mystery continues until someone can confirm or rebuke Robert R’s suspicions that they show the old Rugby.
I made that same observation to myself when looking at those views, Warren… but if you use Peter K’s transit photo as a guide, I think there is no mistaking that the tan building is on the same side of the street as the Rugby. Compare the roofline of the Woolworth’s in the transit image with that of the building in the aerial shot just to the left of the car lot and gas station. The trolley in the older image really obsucres the view of the theater’s building, so it’s impossible to really pinpoint where the structure stood. Perhaps the building was demolished and replaced? It sure is hard to imagine reconcile the structure indicated in the aerial view with that of a theater with balcony.
Perhaps someone who lives nearby can do some reconnaissance on the block?
Wally1975 sent me a nice image of an article about the Patchogue that appeared in Newsday recently. He would like me to post it here, so please follow the link below:
You might have to zoom in (see the small building and large building icons on the tool palette to the left of the image)… but I believe the former Rugby is the sort of tan colored building with vertical bands (which look like they might match the vertical brick columns glimpsed in the “Always Air Conditioned” photo I posted above. Those round medallions are nowhere to be found, but they could have been removed since the building was adapted for re-use. Someone posted the building now houses retail space, but the entrance and signage almost looks to me to be indicative of a church conversion. If you count 5 building lots over (next to the pair of 2 story residential buildings) you’ll see the low rising retail building that was the Woolworth’s depicted in the vintage transit photo posted by Peter K on April 11, 2004.
Bway… if you look at the aerial local.live view you posted, you can clearly make out those large arched windows prior to their being bricked in to create smaller windows. Apparently, that work was done quite recently.
Warren… it appears that the Frisco on 7th Ave played the XXX twin bill as early as 1973 or ‘74 and my newspaper clippings show the pair still going strong in 1980 and 1982. Have you information that shows the Frisco run was not continuous?
Hope never left NYC, rlvjr… not even when people were leaving by the 100’s of thousands. The City was already coming back from the brink during the Koch administration and the drop in crime started following the national trend during the last years of Dinkin’s largely ineffectual mayoralty. Lionizing Rudy Giuliani for all that has gone “right” in NYC is as misguided an oversimplification as blaming all the ills of society today on liberalism. No doubt the man accomplished much in his tenure here, but it did not come without a price and many New Yorkers had grown weary of his egomania by the end of his 2nd term… His exemplary leadership during the tragedy of 9/11 managed to erase a lot of ill will between hizzoner and the good citizenry of New York.
Anyway… I recommend we leave the political discourse on this site to those news and poll items that call for such debate. Let’s leave the theater pages to less rancorous subjects. I hereby surrender my soap box.
There is a Movie Clock listing from December 1980 for that double feature at the Frisco. The same listing (with the exact same showtimes) appears in March of ‘82. AlAlvarez and I had been pondering just exactly what/where/when the Frisco was, but it looks like that might be the theater you’re thinking of veyoung. Here are the listings:
NY Post 12/11/80 (second column about half way down)
NY Post 3/10/82 (top of the third column)
I found this photo from a link to a Roger Ebert article on the films of Gerard Damiano:
Frisco Theater circa 1973
At first I thought it was a Chicago photo (since it’s an Ebert interview) but then I noted the Avon 7 in the background and pretty much knew it had to be Times Square. It’s a small photo and the background is pretty dim and washed out, but I think you make out a sliver of the Mayfair Theater and billboard on the left edge of the image and beyond that the old RKO Palace building and marquee.
Here’s a link to the Ebert article:
Ebert Interviews Damiano
Now the question is… was the Frisco ever known as anything else? Was it merely a converted store front porn palace?
The Paramount Building was designated a landmark in 1988, long after all interior and exterior traces of the theater were eliminated. The current marquee, arched window and attendant ornamentation are recreations of the original Paramount Theater marquee and required LPC approval before they began work in 1999 or so. I imagine that a permit to remove the marquee and restore the facade to its 1988 configuration would be quickly approved by the LPC.
Here is a photo of the Paramount facade more or less as it would have appeared at the time of Landmark designation:
Before restored marquee
This image doesn’t show street level, but you can see the portion of the lower facade where the arched window and Paramount logo were initially located (and later recreated) in the lower left side of the image near the corner of the building. It is the portion just at the top of the lower facade where there appear to be a couple of missing windows in the fenestration.
I was thinking the same thing while looking at your photos, Ken. The marquee probably appeared abnormally higher than most on the Utica Ave frontage due to the way the street slopes up towards the corner. I can’t imagine the underside of the canopy lining up any lower than about where the sills of those new windows above the current entrance are located. I also assume that the original entryway was partially bricked over and replaced by the set of five gated doors we now see. I would think that, as a theater, there’d have been a much wider point of entry perhaps with a recessed vestibule. But, I’m just guessing. The introductory comments do mention that the marquee was “unusual”.
Anyway… Now that we’ve identified the theater, I moved the images around in my photobucket album (to a Carroll Theater folder – where I also poached your pair of shots, Ken, if you don’t mind) and so the links I posted above will no longer work. Here are updated links for the photos:
Best In Entertainment
Always Air Conditioned
While digging down deep into a link posted elsewhere on this site, I came across these industry photos of the Lefrak’s D-150 screen:
View from orchestra
View from balcony
Matted for scope presentation
Rear view showing framework and speaker cabinets
If you’re a projection enthusiast, you should check out the site from which these photos come: Steve’s Vacant Lot.
Some nice information and images on this page and elsewhere on the site. According to Steve (who apparently works in the filmmaking industry) while theater managers were instructed to use the D150 projection lenses (and therefore the full profile of the screen) ONLY for D150 films. Since there were only a couple of films shot in the process, most theaters started to ignore that edict and project standard scope films (2.35:1) using the lens and using the full open matted screen to draw audiences – even on 70mm blow ups – into the ‘70’s and '80’s.
Ken… to post a link from local.live, you have to click “permalink” from the “Share” menu on the site and then copy the permalink to your clipboard to paste into your message. Unfortunately, you can’t just cut and paste the url from the Explorer address bar. The link you posted shows us an aerial shot of the Regent Theater (which must have been the first address you searched when you opened local.live).
I’ve made the exact same mistake on this site.
Warren, RobertR, Lost and BklynJim… Check out the page for the Carroll Theater in Brooklyn and ALSO on Utica Avenue. It seems that KenRoe has solved our mystery marquee riddle via a new post of some recent photos he took of the former Carroll (now a church) just this past May. I think we have a definite match.
RobertR… you missed the mark on the theater, but not by much… same street, just a few blocks to the north on the corner of Crown Street!
KenRoe… you may have just made my week!!!
I have a pair of photos that I know are of a Brooklyn theater taken some time in the late 1980’s. The photos are tightly cropped marquee shots that reveal very little of the facade. The photographer is Matt Weber, who has a website chock full of B&W NYC street scene images – including a few shots in decaying Times Square and other bits of “crumbling New York”, as he calls it.
Be that as it may, a number of us here on CT have been trying to identify the theater depicted in the photos. I’d ask Matt for the location, but it seems he just lost himself in Brooklyn the day he snapped these photos and has no specific recollection about where exactly he was. The little that can be seen of the facade looks very much like the former Carroll Theater depicted in your photos… Here they are:
Always Air Conditioned
The Best in Entertainment
Lost….? Warren…? What do you guys think? I didn’t figure the marquee for a corner entrance, but now that I look at the images again, I do believe that there is the indication of the canopy angling around a corner in both shots! Initially, I just thought the marquee was badly battered (which it is, of course, but just not to the extent I first assumed). I think we have a winner, folks.
Every time I saw those two flicks I remember thinking how the U.S. distributor must have sloppily botched the title job on each movie and switched them completely around! I mean, the title “Chinese Connection” is obviously a play on the film “French Connection” yet it is “Fists of Fury” that is about a drug lord (I’ve also seen it titled “The Big Boss”). Meanwhile, in the movie “Chinese Connection”, the camera focuses on Lee’s “fists of fury” in several optical shots. I wonder if they ever corrected those titles when they came out on DVD… I haven’t seen them since that 1980 re-release.
In any event, I remember thinking that the one where he avenges the death of his teacher and fights the burly Russian guy at the end was the superior film. What fun going to the movies was in those days!
Passed by the theater last night on my way home and had my camera with me. Unfortunately, it was getting too dark for me to capture any decent images of the state of the Elmwood’s facade. I’ll have to get back there in daylight soon! Meanwhile, here are two shots showing the extensive scaffolding that surrounds the facade as well as the rooftop sign:
Corner of 57th and Hoffman
Rooftop sign
The light wasn’t sufficient for me to make out the window lintels NativeForestHiller mentioned in his post of June 27th. All that scaffolding didn’t help matters. It was just about 9pm when I took these photos and a door down on 57th Ave (just where the construction shedding ends under the fire escapes) and people seemed to be straggling in with bibles in tow for an evening service. I might have popped in had not been pressed for time. I know that taking interior photos is prohibited by the church, but I am curious to see for myself how things are going on the inside. I also now see that I might have been able to snap a detail of the windows above the marquee that are not obscured by scaffolding to investigate Native’s concerns, but again, I was a bit pressed for time.
Native… I think we might just have to be patient regarding the nature of the restoration efforts. Could it be that the lintels were in poor shape or posed a falling threat and were removed for safe keeping and/or restoration? I’ll try to get better images in proper daylight this week or weekend.
If you check out the “Movie Directory” section in the lower center portion of the follwing page from a December 1980 newspaper, you’ll see the Ridgewood is listed under Brooklyn with a single screen playing a “classic” kung-fu/horror double feature:
Daily News 12/14/80
“Humanoids from the Deep”!!! Ha… for the Doug McClure fans out there. Plus you got the ulta-violence of “Shogun Assassin”! The program had just changed on Friday 12/12/80. The week before the twin bill consisted of Bruce Lee’s “Enter the Dragon” and the boring Egyptian-tomb-desecrating Charlton Heston horror flick “The Awakening”.
Anyway… I’m guessing that the films played in the balcony theater while the orchestra was being divided, since PKoch has a memory of the theater being a twin already in June of 1980. I’m surprised the split wasn’t completed in time for the Holiday season, though it’s possible that the downstairs theaters were ready for business by the following weekend (December 19th).
Here’s a March of 1982 listing showing three auditoriums(far right column):
NY Post 3/10/82
Three theaters, but the same seedy mix of martial arts and violent exploitation – gotta love it!
I drove passed the former theater’s site just a few hours ago and had my camera in the car. While stopped in traffic waiting for the light to change, I pointed over my shoulder (and through my moon roof for the 2nd shot) and captured the uninspired glass tower that has risen on the lot:
205 East 57th at street level
Glass tower
I posted another pair of Matt’s photos on the New York/Big Apple Theater’s page that reveal a connection between the Anco and the Big Apple Theaters in the 1980’s. In the photos above you’ll see a sign that reads “Sweetheart’s Anco 42nd Street Theater” just under the canopy. One of the Big Apple photos I posted reveals a similar banner. Anyone know who “Sweetheart” was and if he/she/they operated any other local houses?
Here are two great late 1980’s shots by photographer Matt Weber (urbanphotos.com) depicting some of our boys from the military cruising Times Square looking for the fun in Fun City’s good old bad old days:
Three Gobs
The Unknown Soldier
Both shots feature the former New York theater’s turnstile entrance & outer vestibule as a back drop. This is when the theater was known as the Big Apple. If you look just above the “Best Porn in N.Y.C.” sign in the 2nd photo, you can just make out the sign “Sweetheart’s Big Apple Theater”. It seems “Sweetheart” also ran the 42nd Street Anco, according to another couple of Matt’s photos that I posted on the Anco’s page. It also seems like the word “Cine” is still stenciled on one of the theater’s glass doors (the one furthest right past the turnstile).
Thanks to Matt Weber for allowing me to share these photos with the CT community.
Don Rosen… not sure when exactly it happened, but I believe the old Wallack’s facade ornamentation was stripped away very early on the Anco’s life as a grind house. According to Bryan’s introduction above, the facade was “hacked off” sometime in the 1940’s – in addition to other architectural indignities this once beautiful playhouse endured.
Got these two great 1985 shots from photographer Matt Weber, who has a great little website at www.urbanphotos.com:
Hot Alexandra
Kids playing hookey
Thanks to Matt for sharing these with me and allowing me to share them with the CT community.
Warren… the shot of the fire escapes is of the Mt. Morris Theater in Harlem on 116th Street and 5th Ave. I posted the image on the CT page for that theater.
Nice discovery there, Lost, with that building on E. 53rd St. Sure looks like it could be a theater building. The only odd thing is that, assuming that any theater in this building ran straight back and perpendicular to 53rd Street, the screen wall would have been at the rear of the property, which is where the fire escapes are located. I looked it up on oasisnyc.net and the address is 289 E. 53rd. It is listed as a place of assembly and might be home to a Jewish congregation. The only listing I could come up with for that address is for a senior citizens nutrition club. The NYC building records I have access to seem to have some erroneous certificates of occupancy in this property’s bin. Lost, can you access better records?
One more note… if you look at the aerial view of the theater (particularly if you swing it around to a view to the north) you can see an indication of the old roof garden. At the northern end of the building is a projection that looks from profile like a really skinny stage loft (but far too skinny to be such). With that southern view you can see that the structure is a hollowed out sort of alcove facing the rest of the roof… perhaps where a small stage or screen might have been installed?
It is possible that the former entrance to the theater was at the far left end of the building through that part of the facade that is only one story and has no windows above. If so, it might be possible to inspect the facade in person and determine that under all that white paint there exists some detail (the vertical columns, for instance, if not the medallions) that might help confirm that the Matt Weber images I posted are in fact of the Rugby.
OK… I stand corrected. I’ve turned the aerial image around to face in the opposite direction (East) and I find that the large white building is infact the former Rugby. As Warren indicated on the Cumberland Theater page, the theater is now occupied by “Bobby’s Department Store”, which seems to be how the signage indicates above the red awning on the white building. The former Woolworth’s storefront I was using to get my bearings (from Peter K’s vintage photo) has been altered beyond all recognition… it is the facade several doors to the right of the theater building with the alternating black and white vertical stripes:
View to the East
Apologies. Still – back to the matter at hand – the current facade doesn’t resemble anything shown in the marquee photos I posted, so the mystery continues until someone can confirm or rebuke Robert R’s suspicions that they show the old Rugby.
I made that same observation to myself when looking at those views, Warren… but if you use Peter K’s transit photo as a guide, I think there is no mistaking that the tan building is on the same side of the street as the Rugby. Compare the roofline of the Woolworth’s in the transit image with that of the building in the aerial shot just to the left of the car lot and gas station. The trolley in the older image really obsucres the view of the theater’s building, so it’s impossible to really pinpoint where the structure stood. Perhaps the building was demolished and replaced? It sure is hard to imagine reconcile the structure indicated in the aerial view with that of a theater with balcony.
Perhaps someone who lives nearby can do some reconnaissance on the block?
Wally1975 sent me a nice image of an article about the Patchogue that appeared in Newsday recently. He would like me to post it here, so please follow the link below:
It Happened on Long Island
A nice recent photo of the theater’s interior is included with the article. The place looks like a beauty.
For good measure… here is a local.live.com aerial view of the Rugby’s stretch of Utica Avenue:
View to the West
You might have to zoom in (see the small building and large building icons on the tool palette to the left of the image)… but I believe the former Rugby is the sort of tan colored building with vertical bands (which look like they might match the vertical brick columns glimpsed in the “Always Air Conditioned” photo I posted above. Those round medallions are nowhere to be found, but they could have been removed since the building was adapted for re-use. Someone posted the building now houses retail space, but the entrance and signage almost looks to me to be indicative of a church conversion. If you count 5 building lots over (next to the pair of 2 story residential buildings) you’ll see the low rising retail building that was the Woolworth’s depicted in the vintage transit photo posted by Peter K on April 11, 2004.