Maspeth Theatre
69-20 Grand Avenue,
Maspeth,
NY
11378
69-20 Grand Avenue,
Maspeth,
NY
11378
5 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 69 comments
Early photo uploaded.
Just FYI, a large painted reproduction of the “He Walked By Night” photo is on the wall of the new TD Bank that opened on 74th & Grand Avenue. Maybe I’ll take a photo of it the next time I’m there.
My pleasure Bway. By the way ct I like the new web design. Good job.
Hahaha! Thanks for getting of the Expressway and fixing it! I have up after some minutes on the expressway where the view originally left us!
After being a reader of ct for years I decided to officially sign up after 30 minutes of searching the google map, getting off the expressway, and finding the Maspeth. Left NY 33 years ago but I still remember taking my mom to the Maspeth 3 times a week for bingo.
Yes, I tried to fix it too, but it doesn’t let you get off the Long Island Expressway and onto Grand Ave where the street view belongs. This one will have to require an administrative “fix”, as the link to the street view is WAY off
Well, I guess it has now been displayed three times!
I did a little research and found that the photo was almost certainly shot in the spring or summer of 1949. While both films on the double bill were released in 1948, “He Walked by Night” opened on November 24th of that year. Since the Maspeth was decidedly not a first run theater – and since I clearly doubt that summer arrived in December, 1948 – the films most probably came to Maspeth about six months after being released.
A bit more trivia about these films: (1) the Bob Cummings film – “Let’s Live a Little” – also starred Hedy Lamarr, who played a shrink, and (2) it has been alleged that one of the the other film’s supporting players, Jack Webb, used “He Walked by Night’s” story line as a prototype for a project he was developing – called Dragnet. Well, those are the facts maam!
Thanks for the terrific picture. It not only evokes the time, which I guess was late 40’s/early 50’s, but provides a picture of Grand Avenue in Maspeth before it was rudely cut in two by the LIE.
Thanks again.
Here is a photo I picked up on Ebay
View link
I lived on 69th Steet (formerly Juniper Avenue) about half-way brtwwen Grand Avenue to the North & Metropolitan Avenue to the South for almost 30 years. I often ate in the Junpier Diner as a teen-ager. They made the best Salisbury steak! I also worked in the Maspeth Theatre in 1948-49.
Mario the Dinerguy
DonT -
Yes – I am a Diner-holic and love to hear about diners.
Mario the Dinerguy
Mariothedinerguy, are you the person that asked about the Juniper Diner?
The Crescent Theater was there, too.
Make a new listing with your memories
Anyone remember the Meriden Theater on Astoria Square in Astoria, Queens, NYC?
Of course, I meant – pix.
TWO GREAT PIX !!!
I can’t count the number of times I walked under the Maspeth Movie marquee. I lived on 69th Street for 30 years and worked in the theatre in 1948-49. The trolley car is part of the Flushing-Ridgerwood Trolley Line.
The 2nd pix is the corner of Austin Street & Continental Avenue in Forest Hills, Queens. I lived on Ascan Avenue near Austin Street for 4 years in the late 1990s.
What memories these pox bring!
I think so.
Thanx.
Mario
I think so.
Thanx.
Mario
There is the Brandon Cinemas on Austin St which used to be the Continental? is that the one you mean?
Can anyone name a small movie house on Austin Street, Forest Hills, Queens, NYC?
Mario the Dinerguy
Well, Warren, you have shut down the communication valves with your Jan.23, 2009 message. Maybe we should open up this “page” to more far-reaching subjects and still keep it within Maspeth. I suggest the trolley car-barns that were located at 69th Street, Brown Place, and Grand Avenue, only a block away from the theatre. Anyone care to respond?
Mario the Dinerguy
MPol, I was born in Brooklyn, grew up in Brooklyn and Queens, only sold my Ridgewood, Queens home fairly recently (May 1999), am in Ridgewood once a month on business, and work in lower Manhattan.
From my windows at work I can look out to see Evergreen Cemetery, Woodhull Hospital in Bushwick, and the ENY subway yard radio transmitter tower on the horizon.
I’ve been taken out of Bklyn and Queens, but Bklyn and Queens will NEVER be taken out of me !
A bit off topic, but here’s a question:
Did most of the posters here on CinemaTreasures grow up in New York? Just curious, because there seem to be lots and lots of posters on this site with memories of New York movie palaces, along with the communities they served, and the various movies they saw in those palaces.