Bellaire Theatre

Texas2step uploaded the ad you posted on the Century’s Floral site which indicated that the Bellaire, together with the Floral, Bellerose, Hollis and Park (Rockaway Park) were part of the Playco circuit in 1933. Never heard of them. Where did you find that?

The mystery is solved. Fixer3 lived in the neighborhood when the Bellaire was in operation, and attended the theater, and says that it was in the building “…on the northeast corner of the first block east of Francis Lewis Boulevard” (which would make it the northeast corner of 207th Street.) That building, now housing the Merrick Charter School, is next door to the building Labadee Manoir is in. The Google street view is now set to the correct location.

Fixer3 must be right, which means we have the wrong address for this theater. The building at 207-13, housing the Labadee Manoir restaurant and bar catering business, is not configured like a theater. At the back, seen from 208th Street, it has a low ceiling on the ground floor and apartments above, and that looks original to the building, not a retrofit of an old theater. The building is a bit too small for an 825 seat theater, in any case.

The current Merrick Charter School has to be where the Bellaire was. The school uses a 207th Street address, and its main entrance is there, but a secondary entrance on Jamaica Avenue has the address 207-01 over the door.

A real estate web site says the building was built in 1961, but the structure looks older than that to me, so I would guess that’s the year when it was gutted and rebuilt into a bowling alley.

Also, I don’t think Google Maps will find the correct location while we use the name Bellaire in the address. It fetches Bellaire Place, at some distance south of the theater’s location. The real estate web site says the area is now called Queens Village, and at Google Maps, using the address 207-01 Jamaica Ave., Queens Village, NY 11428 does put the pin icon at exactly the right spot.

Joe, shame Film Daily didn’t have a photo since no images of the Bellaire in the day seem to be available.

I remember someone telling me that there was a water issue with the space. So I was surprised when it became a bowling alley.

Re the comment above, the entrance was at the far west side of the building on Jamaica Avenue. I was never inside so have no idea of the layout. When it became a bowling alley the lanes were at the front of the building parallel to Jamaica Avenue. You could see them from the street or, in my case, from the Long Island Rail Road.

A slight correction to my post of October 11, 2007. The correct name of the catering hall across the street from the Bellaire Theater was: “The Bellaire Castle”. The Italian restaurant just west of the Bellaire Castle (again on the south side of Jamaica Avenue) was “Collasacco’s”. It was the only source of pizza in the area…no slices, whole pies only…lots of “Jimmy Roselli” and “Jerry Valle” on the juke box….Just east of the Bellaire Castle, again backed up to the Long Island Railroad, was the King Kullen super market which is now the site of the Queens Village Poat Office 11428.

We lived at 99-52 211th Place, Bellaire, 29 New York. I remember seeing “A Night To Remember” there as a kid…. It was Hollis Lanes for about 30 years and then became The Hollis Pistol and Rifle Club for awhile. It was right across the street from the old “Castle Gardens” a catering hall with parapit walls…. I waa bowling there in the mid 60’s when the Great East Coast Blackout happened…..Was that 1965?

i.n 1944 or 45 i followed lauren bacall down jamaica ave.the movie was to have and have not i saw it first at the alden then the carlton,bellaire and the bellrose . isaw that movie at least 16 times in a span of six months