Seeing Titanic at the D-150 was awesome, especially in the front row of the balcony, when the boat made it’s final plunge into the ocean, you felt like you were on board for the ride. I worked the theatre in 1977 during the “Coma” engagement. An ice storm which knocked out power on Long Island for several days left me snowbound at the nearby Syosset Theatre. When checking up on the Cinema 150 property, I entered the lobby and remember the promotinal cardboard corpse’s that were suspended from the ceiling. It was ice cold due to no heat and it was an eriee feeling to the place. I also saw the place being totally gutted except for the exterior walls which were punched with holes for the office building that will be occupying the theatre site. In this case, it is possible that the landlord did not want to extend the lease because of his developement plans for his property. I understand businesses in the industrial park where also asked to vacate. However, any chance of seeing Cinerama movies now that “How The West Was Won” was re-issued is completely lost in all New York. What a shame and tragedy this is.
The Carthay Circle can be seen in the 1967 movie “Caprice” with Doris Day when she is spying on Michael J. Pollard and Irene Tsu in the balcony of the theatre. After a ruckus ensues, Doris is shown dangling from the balcony and falling into the lap of an orchestrra patron. The theatre’s exterior and marquee are also shown and the movie playing is “Caprice”, after all, it was a spoof. There were drapes hiding the original balcony walls and a quick shot shows some of the ceiling. The scenes are noticeable in the letterbox version shown on Fox Movie Channel and not so much in the pan and scan version.
When JAWS opened here in its' initial release, this was still a single screen. Living in Flatbush JAWS, was playing a lot closer at Century’s Rialto but they were sold out virtually the first four weeks straight, I traveled to my old Junior High School neighborhood to see Jaws at the Marboro by bus and train.
The Cinema 150 which took on the Syosset name after that fine RoadShow and Cinerama Theatre was triplexed and then closed and demolished. The Broadway Multiplex led to its' demise. The National Amusements Theatre chain (Redstone Theatres) have descimated the Main Street moviehouses in towns and villages on Long Island that were our neighborhood theatres. The seem to rule the Island now with their bland and non-descript multiplexes. Even their Cinema-du-Lux in Holbrook is a joke, Who goes to the movies where the focal point is the food court incorporated into the lobby concession stands. The director’s seat theatres are a little more money for what you should be getting for the regular admission price in the first place. I was glad to see their Brookhaven Multiplex fail and close. Brookhaven lost a few theatres when they opened that multiplex. Fighting crowds for movies playing in 250 seat theatres or less, parking delays and quickly sold out popular movies is not my idea of a night out at the movies.
The theatre was not completely gutted, the balcony without seats and some ornate plasterwork still exist above the Banana Republic ceiling. The upper portion of the proscenium is also partially intact. The original theatre safe is also on display. I believe the rake on the orchestra floor is still there even though it has been leveled to street level. It could be put together again if it needed to be a theatre again.
P.S. on the above, I remember in the mid 1960’s during a period of civil unrest in the area, that someone started a fire in the balcony of the theatre that smoke was seen billowing from the upper portions of the building on Seventh Avenue. This didn’t close the theatre but it was closed some time after in 1967.
It was last used or is in use as a Motor Vehicles office. When they did the same with thing to the Calderone/RKO Hempstead in Nassau County, the beautiful dome of the theatre was incorporated into the design but most ot the theatre was lost. The backstage rooms served as seperate offices with a rear entrance. I don’t know if that was the case with this one. The 126th Street entrance of the rentals or apartments/ballroom retain some terra-cotta above the entrance door way and some features are noticeable on the facade. The rear wall of the Loew’s Victoria is just a few steps from the Alhambra’s back wall.
I must have erred, the fire was in 1934 or therabouts when your Film Daily Year Book was published. The Capitol was renamed the Babylon before it burned to the ground. I will check on the fire date from the historical society. This Babylon was built on the site of the original theatre, I can swear to that, I have photos of both buildings. The renamed Babylon had a “Capitol dome” in its' facade decoration that was not removed when it went from Capitol to Babylon. Before the Film Year Book was published, Babylon also had the Alahambra Theatre on Deer Park Avenue on a site now occupied by the L.I.R.R. supports for the train overpass.
The Paris Theatre appears in two movies with Walter Matthau, in “Cactus Flower” (1969) when he and Goldie Hawn exit the theatre lobby after a showing of “Romeo and Juliet” (1968) and in “Plaza Suite” (1971) after the last trilogy ends when his daughter and newly married spouse take off on a motorcycle past the Paris' facade and Walter states “She was better off in the bathroom, better off in the bathroom!” The movie on the Paris marquee was “Something For Everyone” (1970) with Angela Lansbury which was playing at the time of the film shoot.
I’m surprised with all the knowledgeable theatre people that have made their comments on the Mayfair that no one has stated that the Mayfair opened as the Columbia Theatre, a one time burlesque house in Times Square. RKO never opened this house. They operated it and when they opened the Radio City Music Hall and RKO Roxy they let this one go. Check Variety during this time frame and you will see that this is the sequence of events regarding this theatre.
The Westbury Twin, whose interior is in deplorable condition want grants to turn the crumbling building to a performing arts center. As owners, they are responsible for the condition of their theatre. The Westbury Music Fair handles this (the performing arts, etc.) very well and I doubt the patrons of the Music Fair will go to Post Avenue for events now handled by them. In the case of the Lindenhurst Theatre, the village and surrounding towns are crying for this. We don’t have this on the south shore which would make this unique.
The upper facade was removed during the “twinning” when people thought it was getting a cleaning, it was actually being removed so that building wouldn’t be granted “landmark status” on the facade. The eddict came from the Naifys on the east coast. This would enable them to sell, tear down the building, which they did in 1988. I believe the frieze was unaltered until that time it was removed in 1980. In 1988, The Rivoli, State and the Strand were razed one right after the other.
I believe the original building which had the ARION name engarved on it was demolished for the current store front now. I couldn’t find the actual building 4 years ago.
I don’t know about Staten Island location but the three on Long Island in East Meadow (later the East Meadow Fliks) is now retail,
the Massapequa Park is now a Harrow’s (on Sunrise Highway) and the Lake Ronkonkoma was just recently gutted (in later years a X rated film house) but the turnstyle and lobby hadn’t been demolished yet. All 3 were part of shopping centers and exterior walls show where the exits were for all three locations.
For a large theatre this had a very small foyer and virtually 8 feet of lobby space before the start of the last row of the orchestra. The 8 feet however rise the rake of the top of the balcony last rows. The rake is so steep that lounge area on the second level overlooks the 8 foot lobby. When you walk through the foyer, you have to look straight up or else your right in the auditorium. The upstairs space afforded the restrooms. On the Sunday I was there the congregation was having a breakfast or lunch in the large promenade under th lower balcony. The last movie that played here was in early 1969 and then was closed. The marquee and vertical survived on the building another ten years. The building is huge when viewed from Eastern Parkway and Bedford Avenue. The Lincoln was located accross the street.
The Avenue Theatre never existed in Brooklyn. The header of this theatre should be changed to the Flatbush Theatre. We did have an Avenue D and Avenue U Theatres. The theatre was showing triple features changing three times a week in the 1950’s. The triple always included a western. The Desi Arnaz Orchestra Band played in the late ‘40’s at the Flatbush and Lucille Ball was in attendance. Brandt’s also tried “Baagels And Yox” (I hope I have it right) and other Yiddish stage shows til the end. The Flatbush opened under B.S. Moss in 1914, in the beginning it housed stock companies. As a policy at the time, the house was closed during the summer months. They had vaudeville and Yiddish Stage shows. The Kenmore had Keith-Albee Vaudeville considered the best. The house supported an orchestra. Two weeks before the Loew’s Kings opened, Mae West brought her “Diamond L'il to the Flatbush Theatre on Sept. 15, 1929. (I wondered if she toured the Loew’s Kings two weeks before the opening or if she even cared.) The final film screened in 1953. It’s funny when I attended Erasmus Hall and ate at Jahn’s often (right , across the street) I never knew at the time '70-'74 that this was a theatre. We had so many that I never gave it a thought.
Even though not considered a “Wonder Theatre”, the Pitkin was advertised as such in many ads in the Brooklyn Eagle when it first opened. When I spoke to a original Loew executive, he told me the “Wonder Theatre” was an advertising tool of the then in-house publicity team that were employed at the Loew’s State building in New York. Seeing the building while it was open and many times since closed, I was able to get in two years ago, and it is now truly an atmospheric theatre now that the ceiling has collapsed into the orchestra. In addition, the auditorium looked like the “Titanic” that had risen with the water damage intense. It is beyond saving except for the original four exterior walls that still look majestic. It is safe to assume that this theatre was also “extremely vandalized” and not buy locals but people who knew the value of the treasures within. All that was left of the grand staircase was the steel frame, minus the marble steps, bannisters, light fixtures and the lions on the staircase levels leading to the balcony. It was a sad sight to see. The Parkway Theatre (aka Ronley) nearby is in much better shape.
There was never a Loew’s Prospect Theatre on DeKalb Avenue. This listing should not exist. Loew’s did operate the Loew’s DeKalb for a short while in the mid to late 1920’s but only for a year or so. The theatre had been the Casino and about six years ago, the interior of the Casino/DeKalb was gutted for offices or something like that. The facade which remained is being incorporated into the facility.
Loew’s Kameo opened as the Cameo Theatre a few years before Loew’s came in and changed the “C” to a “K”. A staircase now closed off on the left side lobby entrance led to the roof-top theatre or an elevator in the inner lobby. The roof-top theatre was operating into the late 1940’s. A patron at one of my slide lectures told me that she and her husband saw a movie on the roof-top as late as 1948. She remembered it distinctly with her husband who was also in attendance.
The other three rooftops in the borough were the Carlton, Congress and the Rugby. All these theatres have remnants of the former rooftop
movie days to this day.
Another tidbit is that when Loew’s was acquiring this theatre from Keeney’s, they were considering naming it the Loew’s Livingston and it was published in a volume of Film Daily Year Book during the change of hands, but the naming never occured.
I just found the photo of the Brooklyn Fox and Loew’s Melba showing the Livingston Street marquee of the Fox and the vertical sign of the Loew’s Melba just two blocks to the left. It is in a postcard book of Brooklyn scenes.
RKO opened the Radio City Music Hall and the RKO Roxy (Center), so that means that these two theatres should be listed with the RKO preceding the theatre name. Cinema Treasures should list theatres as they were named at opening with the first operater under the statistics. Subsequent operators should be listed in the theatre discription or biography. This should include the original name even if was changed within months of the opening just like the Piccadilly Theatre in Brooklyn whose name was changed some months after opening to the Avalon. N'est-pas?
All I know about this is that the matrons were licensed by New York City and Children’s sections had to be maintained. This was probably to protect children from child molesters. Adults were chased out childrens' sections as children were watched if they were sneaking into adult sections or the balcony. This regulation must have “gone with the wind” since multi-screen theatres were required one matron per auditorium, as was the fact at the Midway. Another regulation that “flew the coop” is that exits from a theatres were on ground level or from fire escapes leading to street level. In today’s Manhattan, with their multi-level theatre buildings, the exits are into corridors and stairwells with audiences not aware of where the outside exit from a auditorium on the fifth floor really is. Can you imagine a fire at either AMC 25 or Loew’s E-Walk with the escalators and elevators inoperative and people panicking in smoke filled stairways. This is just another disaster in the making and where are the fire laws to prevent this? As far as children in theatres, they can sit anywhere in any Long Island multiplex. Not only can they buy their tichet for a PG movie, they can see an R or NC-17 once they pass the ticket taker. 12 and 14 screen theatres don’t have a ticket taker at every auditorium entrance. I would never let my child attend any movie theatre alone today.
The audiences of the Bayshore and Patchogue were not solely from the Bayshore and Patchogue areas. In the 1920’s, both were first run exclusive presentation theatres with vaudeville and orchestras. The Bayshore had a stagehouse where the Patchogue had backstage dressing rooms. The population of nearby Brightwaters were famous stars amongst others. They both had the stage and photoplay presentations that were popular in the five Wonder Theatres in New York City. The programs changed weekly. On the north shore, Century’s Huntington held this honor. I don’t believe these theatres had organs except for the Huntington, but I may be wrong.
Seeing Titanic at the D-150 was awesome, especially in the front row of the balcony, when the boat made it’s final plunge into the ocean, you felt like you were on board for the ride. I worked the theatre in 1977 during the “Coma” engagement. An ice storm which knocked out power on Long Island for several days left me snowbound at the nearby Syosset Theatre. When checking up on the Cinema 150 property, I entered the lobby and remember the promotinal cardboard corpse’s that were suspended from the ceiling. It was ice cold due to no heat and it was an eriee feeling to the place. I also saw the place being totally gutted except for the exterior walls which were punched with holes for the office building that will be occupying the theatre site. In this case, it is possible that the landlord did not want to extend the lease because of his developement plans for his property. I understand businesses in the industrial park where also asked to vacate. However, any chance of seeing Cinerama movies now that “How The West Was Won” was re-issued is completely lost in all New York. What a shame and tragedy this is.
The Carthay Circle can be seen in the 1967 movie “Caprice” with Doris Day when she is spying on Michael J. Pollard and Irene Tsu in the balcony of the theatre. After a ruckus ensues, Doris is shown dangling from the balcony and falling into the lap of an orchestrra patron. The theatre’s exterior and marquee are also shown and the movie playing is “Caprice”, after all, it was a spoof. There were drapes hiding the original balcony walls and a quick shot shows some of the ceiling. The scenes are noticeable in the letterbox version shown on Fox Movie Channel and not so much in the pan and scan version.
When JAWS opened here in its' initial release, this was still a single screen. Living in Flatbush JAWS, was playing a lot closer at Century’s Rialto but they were sold out virtually the first four weeks straight, I traveled to my old Junior High School neighborhood to see Jaws at the Marboro by bus and train.
Okay, you’re right, I didn’t mean to ruffle your feathers.
The Cinema 150 which took on the Syosset name after that fine RoadShow and Cinerama Theatre was triplexed and then closed and demolished. The Broadway Multiplex led to its' demise. The National Amusements Theatre chain (Redstone Theatres) have descimated the Main Street moviehouses in towns and villages on Long Island that were our neighborhood theatres. The seem to rule the Island now with their bland and non-descript multiplexes. Even their Cinema-du-Lux in Holbrook is a joke, Who goes to the movies where the focal point is the food court incorporated into the lobby concession stands. The director’s seat theatres are a little more money for what you should be getting for the regular admission price in the first place. I was glad to see their Brookhaven Multiplex fail and close. Brookhaven lost a few theatres when they opened that multiplex. Fighting crowds for movies playing in 250 seat theatres or less, parking delays and quickly sold out popular movies is not my idea of a night out at the movies.
The theatre was not completely gutted, the balcony without seats and some ornate plasterwork still exist above the Banana Republic ceiling. The upper portion of the proscenium is also partially intact. The original theatre safe is also on display. I believe the rake on the orchestra floor is still there even though it has been leveled to street level. It could be put together again if it needed to be a theatre again.
P.S. on the above, I remember in the mid 1960’s during a period of civil unrest in the area, that someone started a fire in the balcony of the theatre that smoke was seen billowing from the upper portions of the building on Seventh Avenue. This didn’t close the theatre but it was closed some time after in 1967.
It was last used or is in use as a Motor Vehicles office. When they did the same with thing to the Calderone/RKO Hempstead in Nassau County, the beautiful dome of the theatre was incorporated into the design but most ot the theatre was lost. The backstage rooms served as seperate offices with a rear entrance. I don’t know if that was the case with this one. The 126th Street entrance of the rentals or apartments/ballroom retain some terra-cotta above the entrance door way and some features are noticeable on the facade. The rear wall of the Loew’s Victoria is just a few steps from the Alhambra’s back wall.
I must have erred, the fire was in 1934 or therabouts when your Film Daily Year Book was published. The Capitol was renamed the Babylon before it burned to the ground. I will check on the fire date from the historical society. This Babylon was built on the site of the original theatre, I can swear to that, I have photos of both buildings. The renamed Babylon had a “Capitol dome” in its' facade decoration that was not removed when it went from Capitol to Babylon. Before the Film Year Book was published, Babylon also had the Alahambra Theatre on Deer Park Avenue on a site now occupied by the L.I.R.R. supports for the train overpass.
The Paris Theatre appears in two movies with Walter Matthau, in “Cactus Flower” (1969) when he and Goldie Hawn exit the theatre lobby after a showing of “Romeo and Juliet” (1968) and in “Plaza Suite” (1971) after the last trilogy ends when his daughter and newly married spouse take off on a motorcycle past the Paris' facade and Walter states “She was better off in the bathroom, better off in the bathroom!” The movie on the Paris marquee was “Something For Everyone” (1970) with Angela Lansbury which was playing at the time of the film shoot.
I’m surprised with all the knowledgeable theatre people that have made their comments on the Mayfair that no one has stated that the Mayfair opened as the Columbia Theatre, a one time burlesque house in Times Square. RKO never opened this house. They operated it and when they opened the Radio City Music Hall and RKO Roxy they let this one go. Check Variety during this time frame and you will see that this is the sequence of events regarding this theatre.
The Westbury Twin, whose interior is in deplorable condition want grants to turn the crumbling building to a performing arts center. As owners, they are responsible for the condition of their theatre. The Westbury Music Fair handles this (the performing arts, etc.) very well and I doubt the patrons of the Music Fair will go to Post Avenue for events now handled by them. In the case of the Lindenhurst Theatre, the village and surrounding towns are crying for this. We don’t have this on the south shore which would make this unique.
The upper facade was removed during the “twinning” when people thought it was getting a cleaning, it was actually being removed so that building wouldn’t be granted “landmark status” on the facade. The eddict came from the Naifys on the east coast. This would enable them to sell, tear down the building, which they did in 1988. I believe the frieze was unaltered until that time it was removed in 1980. In 1988, The Rivoli, State and the Strand were razed one right after the other.
I believe the original building which had the ARION name engarved on it was demolished for the current store front now. I couldn’t find the actual building 4 years ago.
I don’t know about Staten Island location but the three on Long Island in East Meadow (later the East Meadow Fliks) is now retail,
the Massapequa Park is now a Harrow’s (on Sunrise Highway) and the Lake Ronkonkoma was just recently gutted (in later years a X rated film house) but the turnstyle and lobby hadn’t been demolished yet. All 3 were part of shopping centers and exterior walls show where the exits were for all three locations.
For a large theatre this had a very small foyer and virtually 8 feet of lobby space before the start of the last row of the orchestra. The 8 feet however rise the rake of the top of the balcony last rows. The rake is so steep that lounge area on the second level overlooks the 8 foot lobby. When you walk through the foyer, you have to look straight up or else your right in the auditorium. The upstairs space afforded the restrooms. On the Sunday I was there the congregation was having a breakfast or lunch in the large promenade under th lower balcony. The last movie that played here was in early 1969 and then was closed. The marquee and vertical survived on the building another ten years. The building is huge when viewed from Eastern Parkway and Bedford Avenue. The Lincoln was located accross the street.
The Avenue Theatre never existed in Brooklyn. The header of this theatre should be changed to the Flatbush Theatre. We did have an Avenue D and Avenue U Theatres. The theatre was showing triple features changing three times a week in the 1950’s. The triple always included a western. The Desi Arnaz Orchestra Band played in the late ‘40’s at the Flatbush and Lucille Ball was in attendance. Brandt’s also tried “Baagels And Yox” (I hope I have it right) and other Yiddish stage shows til the end. The Flatbush opened under B.S. Moss in 1914, in the beginning it housed stock companies. As a policy at the time, the house was closed during the summer months. They had vaudeville and Yiddish Stage shows. The Kenmore had Keith-Albee Vaudeville considered the best. The house supported an orchestra. Two weeks before the Loew’s Kings opened, Mae West brought her “Diamond L'il to the Flatbush Theatre on Sept. 15, 1929. (I wondered if she toured the Loew’s Kings two weeks before the opening or if she even cared.) The final film screened in 1953. It’s funny when I attended Erasmus Hall and ate at Jahn’s often (right , across the street) I never knew at the time '70-'74 that this was a theatre. We had so many that I never gave it a thought.
Even though not considered a “Wonder Theatre”, the Pitkin was advertised as such in many ads in the Brooklyn Eagle when it first opened. When I spoke to a original Loew executive, he told me the “Wonder Theatre” was an advertising tool of the then in-house publicity team that were employed at the Loew’s State building in New York. Seeing the building while it was open and many times since closed, I was able to get in two years ago, and it is now truly an atmospheric theatre now that the ceiling has collapsed into the orchestra. In addition, the auditorium looked like the “Titanic” that had risen with the water damage intense. It is beyond saving except for the original four exterior walls that still look majestic. It is safe to assume that this theatre was also “extremely vandalized” and not buy locals but people who knew the value of the treasures within. All that was left of the grand staircase was the steel frame, minus the marble steps, bannisters, light fixtures and the lions on the staircase levels leading to the balcony. It was a sad sight to see. The Parkway Theatre (aka Ronley) nearby is in much better shape.
There was never a Loew’s Prospect Theatre on DeKalb Avenue. This listing should not exist. Loew’s did operate the Loew’s DeKalb for a short while in the mid to late 1920’s but only for a year or so. The theatre had been the Casino and about six years ago, the interior of the Casino/DeKalb was gutted for offices or something like that. The facade which remained is being incorporated into the facility.
Loew’s Kameo opened as the Cameo Theatre a few years before Loew’s came in and changed the “C” to a “K”. A staircase now closed off on the left side lobby entrance led to the roof-top theatre or an elevator in the inner lobby. The roof-top theatre was operating into the late 1940’s. A patron at one of my slide lectures told me that she and her husband saw a movie on the roof-top as late as 1948. She remembered it distinctly with her husband who was also in attendance.
The other three rooftops in the borough were the Carlton, Congress and the Rugby. All these theatres have remnants of the former rooftop
movie days to this day.
Another tidbit is that when Loew’s was acquiring this theatre from Keeney’s, they were considering naming it the Loew’s Livingston and it was published in a volume of Film Daily Year Book during the change of hands, but the naming never occured.
I just found the photo of the Brooklyn Fox and Loew’s Melba showing the Livingston Street marquee of the Fox and the vertical sign of the Loew’s Melba just two blocks to the left. It is in a postcard book of Brooklyn scenes.
RKO opened the Radio City Music Hall and the RKO Roxy (Center), so that means that these two theatres should be listed with the RKO preceding the theatre name. Cinema Treasures should list theatres as they were named at opening with the first operater under the statistics. Subsequent operators should be listed in the theatre discription or biography. This should include the original name even if was changed within months of the opening just like the Piccadilly Theatre in Brooklyn whose name was changed some months after opening to the Avalon. N'est-pas?
All I know about this is that the matrons were licensed by New York City and Children’s sections had to be maintained. This was probably to protect children from child molesters. Adults were chased out childrens' sections as children were watched if they were sneaking into adult sections or the balcony. This regulation must have “gone with the wind” since multi-screen theatres were required one matron per auditorium, as was the fact at the Midway. Another regulation that “flew the coop” is that exits from a theatres were on ground level or from fire escapes leading to street level. In today’s Manhattan, with their multi-level theatre buildings, the exits are into corridors and stairwells with audiences not aware of where the outside exit from a auditorium on the fifth floor really is. Can you imagine a fire at either AMC 25 or Loew’s E-Walk with the escalators and elevators inoperative and people panicking in smoke filled stairways. This is just another disaster in the making and where are the fire laws to prevent this? As far as children in theatres, they can sit anywhere in any Long Island multiplex. Not only can they buy their tichet for a PG movie, they can see an R or NC-17 once they pass the ticket taker. 12 and 14 screen theatres don’t have a ticket taker at every auditorium entrance. I would never let my child attend any movie theatre alone today.
The audiences of the Bayshore and Patchogue were not solely from the Bayshore and Patchogue areas. In the 1920’s, both were first run exclusive presentation theatres with vaudeville and orchestras. The Bayshore had a stagehouse where the Patchogue had backstage dressing rooms. The population of nearby Brightwaters were famous stars amongst others. They both had the stage and photoplay presentations that were popular in the five Wonder Theatres in New York City. The programs changed weekly. On the north shore, Century’s Huntington held this honor. I don’t believe these theatres had organs except for the Huntington, but I may be wrong.