Corona Theatre

While the Corona Theatre is not listed in the FDY until 1930, I suspect it was opened sooner. There is a photo of the Corona with the 1927 silent movie Let It Rain on the marquee. It was certainly possible to show an older movie in 1930, but it would have been odd for even a neighborhood house in a competitive theater market like New York to be running a silent movie as its feature film in 1930.

The Corona was originally operated by S&S Theatres, and an item in the February 3, 1926 issue of Variety said that a theater was being built for Strausberg and Small at Junction Boulevard and Roosevelt Avenue in Corona. This must have been the Corona. Architect for the project was Eugene DeRosa.

Yes. The 7 train still runs along the same elevated tracks above Roosevelt Avenue.

Meanwhile, Monika, to answer your question posted above on April 25, 2011, the theater depicted in the linked image is indeed the Corona Theatre we are discussing here. The view is from the elevated IRT train platform looking down Junction Blvd to the north. The titles listed on the marquee were released in 1953, so we also have a time frame for the image. The art deco looking clock tower on the right side of the street (corner of Junction and 38th Ave) is no longer in existence.

For those in the know, is this View link the Corona the page is about?

While staying with relatives at 41-23-95th St, Elmhurst, L.I., from March to July 1951, I often went to the Corona for Saturday morning kids shows with neighborhood boys Artie Hopkins and Tommy.
I also clearly remember seeing “The Thing” and the marquee had creepy looking things hanging from it.
Upon entering the auditorium, I stupidly sat down where a seat was missing, which caused my parents to laugh out loud during a tense moment in the film.
The greengrocers shop next door was owned by a friendly Italian gent named Sid and he always addressed me as the “Limey Kid."
I went back in 1998 to show my wife… and all was gone, but ah, such happy memories still linger on at age 68!

I was born in 1931 and from about 1935 to about 1951 I lived with my parents in Corona at 47th Ave between 102nd St and 104th. Since most of this time was long before TV most people found the primary source of their entertainment at the movies. My mother would take me to the Loew’s Plaza almost every Tuesdays and Fridays from about September to June. They had double features in those days at most movie houses. The movies during the week were B types but the Friday/weekend ones were the better grade. One of the double feature movie had the top billing with the second a lesser quality film. We would always try to get to the movie before 5 PM as the prices would increase after that and we would get our candy at the 5 & 10 Store across the street before we went in. Believe it or not prices then in the 1930s were about 15 cents a ticket. The movies would run continuously so you could just walk in any time even if were right in the middle of one of the pictures and wait until it came to that part again before you left the theater. I believe most of the movies there at the Plaza were MGM types. Often on weekends if we wanted to we would go to the Corona theater because they had different movies playing. In later years they both had airconditioning. The Plaza had a fancier interior than the Corona but the Corona was not bad. There were a number of other movies houses in the local area such as the Polk, the Granada, the Newtown, the Keiths and one or two others but they were used mostly when you were looking for a better movie that was playing.

The Movie Clock in today’s New York Posts lists “Theater Opens Dec 22” for the Corona Plaza. The auditoriums will probably be in the balcony.

Queens Theatre Management who operate(s)/(d) this theatre is partially to blame for this, in the Daily News listings which list it as “Closed for Renovations” the theatre is called Plaza Corona Theatre at the foot of the Corona Plaza station. The theatre’s front marquee neon read “Teatro” in a thin green script (where the LOEW’S name was) followed by PLAZA in the same red neon letters leftover from when LOEW’S letters were removed from the right in 1953. Has the marquee been removed or altered as of today?

I can’t find the Corona Plaza Theater at 103-14 Roosevelt Avenue in Corona, Queens, on this site, so I will post links to images showing this theater here. These images are of the 103rd Street – Corona Plaza station on the # 7 IRT Flushing elevated line. Next, I will look for images of Junction Blvd. station on this line showing the Corona Theater at 37-80 Junction Blvd.(this page) :

http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?12772
http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?8028
http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?8026

Theater appears at upper right. Look for the telltale water tower mounted on a slanted roof surmounting a brown brick wall.

Too bad the last stop on the 7 line is underground (Main Street). I’d love to be able to post a link to an image of RKO Keith’s in Flushing. Perhaps the Flushing Keith is visible from the platform of the Willetts Point – Shea Stadium station ! Perhaps it appears in an image of the nearby Flushing LIRR station !

Just this weekend I saw a sign on the Corona Plaza marquee that a Walgreens will be coming there soon. – For months now there had been signs that the theater was under renovation and that 4 modern theaters will open – The Marquee will now have a Walgreeens Pharmacy sign – If this is true it means that the developers, community leaders and the City officials have misled the community claiming that the theater would be renovated while knowing all along that the theater was being replaced with MORE retail space. – A renovated theater that maintained some of the architecture would have been a great addition to this community and would have helped to spur more legitimate activity and more commerce for the other businesses in this plaza. If the theater is being replaced by retail space it will be a great blow to the community and to the architectural heritage of the City as a whole. – The people responsible for misleading the public should be held accountable –
A restored theater with modern amenities would have been economically viable- either for showing first run mainstream movies – or as a foreign film house showing Latin American films in addition to Chinese, South Asian and Eastern European films since this is a very diverse community and it’s easily accessible by train.

The Corona Theatre’s address is 37-80 Junction Blvd., it seated 1180 people.

The Plaza Theatre’s address is 103-12 Roosevelt Ave., it seated
2151 people.

The Corona Theater is not the same as the now-Spanish language Plaza. The Corona was located on Junction Blvd just north of Roosevelt Avenue. When I was a boy growing up a just a few blocks away from this theater in the early ‘70’s, the theater was used as a bingo hall. The shell of the building is still clearly identifiable from the elevated train platform on Roosevelt, but the marquee is long gone and the former entrance converted to retail space.

The Plaza, is located on Roosevelt Avenue and 103rd street (about 10 blocks east of The Corona), and is so named because it is set back from Roosevelt on a small concrete plaza. It was twinned sometime in the ‘80’s.