I was born in 1939 and lived about 5 blocks from the Victory Theater.On Saturday’s my mother would give my brother and I a quarter which got us both in (12cent each and left a penny to get a strip of button candy for the show – which by the way lasted from noon till 4-5PM.You’d see two movies, 4-5 serials, a ton of cartoons, and on some days get an ice cream – all for 12cents!!! The theater was never high end. It was lovingly called the “Itch” and the local comment was “you go to the itch and you come home with the scratch”
The theater had a balcony and a nice marble staircase leading up to it. The rest rooms were upstairs off the balcony and we would climb out the bathroom windows onto the marquis. There were two opera boxes along side the balcony which I never recall being used. I think it was originally part of the RKO chain along with the Keiths and Roosevelt (both in Flushing NY) and the Bayside Theater on Bell Blvd also in Bayside. Movies would spend about a week in each theater with the “Itch” getting the movie at the end of the chain.
I was born in 1939 and lived about 5 blocks from the Victory Theater.On Saturday’s my mother would give my brother and I a quarter which got us both in (12cent each and left a penny to get a strip of button candy for the show – which by the way lasted from noon till 4-5PM.You’d see two movies, 4-5 serials, a ton of cartoons, and on some days get an ice cream – all for 12cents!!! The theater was never high end. It was lovingly called the “Itch” and the local comment was “you go to the itch and you come home with the scratch” The theater had a balcony and a nice marble staircase leading up to it. The rest rooms were upstairs off the balcony and we would climb out the bathroom windows onto the marquis. There were two opera boxes along side the balcony which I never recall being used. I think it was originally part of the RKO chain along with the Keiths and Roosevelt (both in Flushing NY) and the Bayside Theater on Bell Blvd also in Bayside. Movies would spend about a week in each theater with the “Itch” getting the movie at the end of the chain.