Loews Lefrak City Triplex
59-16 99th Street,
Corona,
NY
11368
59-16 99th Street,
Corona,
NY
11368
7 people
favorited this theater
Showing 51 - 75 of 93 comments
I meant the original page you linked to, not the second one, which is up near Utopia Parkway — a completely different area.
Bway, the page that opens at that link shows not the UA Lefrak, but the former Bowl-A-Way bowling alley along the LIE, which was also for a time in the mid- to late-70s an annex for Newtown High School. To see the former UA Lefrak, scroll over to the left a few blocks along the LIE — you’ll see the Lefrak City sign over the roof of the 99th street shopping center, right where the pedestrian bridge crosses the LIE. The former theater is the raised portion of the building.
Peter, here’s what I think is that theater we are thinking of with the murals. I have no idea if it’s still open or not, or what it is/was called though. Anyone know?
View link
Wow, Lost, that rendering doesn’t look like anything I remember! The appearance must have changed by the 80’s, as I certainly would have remembered that passing by on the LIE.
Peter, I must be confused then. I am thinking of the theater with the painted murals on the side, of Superman, Star Trek, etc. Hmmm, what theater are we thinking of then.
That being said, I still recognize the theater in passing that I linked the aerial photo of to. You are right, the one with the murals is not this one.
Bway, I, too, remember a theater on the north side of the LIE with painted murals facing the LIE, of Spock, the Enterprise, Superman flying, but I just checked with a friend of mine, and that theater would have been at about 180th Street, or Utopia Parkway, just north of the LIE, in Fresh Meadows, but not at 108th Street in Forest Hills, as shown in the photo that you provided the link to.
What did the murals of the theater at the LIE and 108th Street show ?
Re: Lost Memory’s comment 10/27/06…
From the look of the building in the aerial photo, it doesn’t look like any store occupies it. I can’t even find a sign for a store no matter which direction I position the aerial photo. Of course, it may look different from the ground, but usually you even get a glimpse of a sign or something.
Has the theater been gutted?
Here’s the account of my sole movie-going experience at Loew’s Lefrak. Thanks, Bway, for directing me to this page.
Didn’t know there WAS a 1984 version of Gojira. On Labor Day Weekend 1985, I DID see “Godzilla 1985” with a silver-haired Raymond Burr, at a Lefrak City, Queens theater which is no longer there. It was Loew’s Lefrak. I took the Q-58 “Corona” bus from Ridgewood to Junction Blvd. and Corona Avenue, and walked to the theater, which was in a mini-mall, at 99th Street and some numbered avenue, in Lefrak City, of course, north of the LIE.
After the movie, I walked home to Ridgewood through Glendale past the home of my friends Rich and Kathy Dittus. Rich expressed some amazement then that there was a new Godzilla movie, He’s posted on this site about seeing “E.T.” at the Cinemart in Forest Hills in. Feb. 1983. His younger brother is on this site alot as “Bob D.”
Anyone know of any exterior photos of the place, either current or historic?
Here’s an aerial view of the old theater: I TOTALLY forgot about this theater until it came up in another theater section. When did this close? In the 90’s? I remember they had painted murals on the building above the marquee in the 80’s.
View link
I am not sure what store is there now. However, the Cue address is completely wrong, because all the numbers in Lefrak City on the Horace Harding side begin with “90s” numbers, such as 97-, for the streets that would intersect if there were any. And even on 99th St. where the theater actually was, the number could not have been 56- anything, because it was located between 57th and 60th Avenues.
To get an idea of how far off that rendering is, go to GoogleMaps and search for Lefrak City Cleaners. If you switch to the Hybrid map format and zoom in on 99th St., you can see a very clear satellite photo showing exactly where the former theater was located. What appears like a parking lot along 99th is actually the roof of the shopping center, with rooftop parking. Where the parking stops is the wall of the theater, which rose above the rest of the roof. The auditorium can be seen raised and perpendicular to the rest of the building, but you’ll note that there is no parking on the south end of the shopping center, as was shown in the drawing; nor is the theater practically at the corner, as was shown in the drawing.
It’s a jean store maybe Jeans USA, I will look next time I am on the LIE.
Lost Memory, that link is SO cool! What a great article, with photos that really bring me back. But I’ve got to tell you, that artist’s rendering is even further from reality than most artist’s renderings of new buildings — it looks like something dreamed up by Bruce McCall, if any of you remember him from National Lampoon. Besides the fact that it makes Lefrak City look like a collection of office buildings (there was one, built later — at the opposite end of the complex) it makes the theater look a heck of a lot larger than it really was, and makes it appear like it was right on the corner, which it wasn’t. I love the little ant-sized cars, however.
Oh, and Warren, check out the discussion of where the theater was located, especailly my second post of Dec. 2, 2005, above.
Warren, they got that address wrong. Horace Harding Expressway is the alternate name for the LIE — actually, the service road is Horace Harding Blvd. All the stores in the shopping center where the theater was located would have 99th Street addresses. It’s possible they wanted to give more exposure to the Expressway as a way of finding the theater, but the address is physically impossible, since it references 56th Avenue, which runs parallel to Horace Harding. The address was probably 56-16 99th Street. (I lived at the opposite end of Lefrak City on the west side of Junction Blvd., which is the equivalent of 95th St., and the address was 57-10 Junction Blvd., so the even number and one block south location sound about right.)
I do remember that during the showing of both Ship of Fools and Bunny Lake people in the audience were yelling “out of focus.”
The Lefrak was next to a Red Apple supermarket and you took a footbridge over the expressway to get there from where I lived on 63rd Drive. I lived at the Walden Terrace Apartments.
DavidH, if you saw Ship of Fools there, did you see it the way PaulNoble describes it in his January 2005 post above?
Was SHIP OF FOOLS the first feature that played there? I recall seeing SHIP OF FOOLS there along with a sneak preview of Bunny Lake is Missing. SHIP OF FOOLS opened in Manhattan at the Victoria and at the Sutton. I don’t know if Ship of Fools was playing at the Lefrak at the same time.
Those are fascinating photos, Ed! Now that I see them, I remember the interior of that theater very well.
While digging down deep into a link posted elsewhere on this site, I came across these industry photos of the Lefrak’s D-150 screen:
View from orchestra
View from balcony
Matted for scope presentation
Rear view showing framework and speaker cabinets
If you’re a projection enthusiast, you should check out the site from which these photos come: Steve’s Vacant Lot.
Some nice information and images on this page and elsewhere on the site. According to Steve (who apparently works in the filmmaking industry) while theater managers were instructed to use the D150 projection lenses (and therefore the full profile of the screen) ONLY for D150 films. Since there were only a couple of films shot in the process, most theaters started to ignore that edict and project standard scope films (2.35:1) using the lens and using the full open matted screen to draw audiences – even on 70mm blow ups – into the ‘70’s and '80’s.
Not me. But I find it ironic that the ad says “The computerized fight sports fans will be talking about for years!” Anybody heard anybody talk about this lately? Or ever?
Did anyone ever see this?
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jeff your right again..it was 59th street which spilled into what is now the queens center mall…it used to be a hermans back then i think..or just a huge parking lot..after all it was 40 yrs ago…
Ha! Yes, Jeffrey, it was the movie “Willard” at the UA Lefrak! The theater where I actually saw rats (well, heard the reaction of some women who had seen them, anyway) was the RKO Alden on Jamaica Ave about 6 or 7 years later!
Mark, if your building had a play area, it had to be one of the buildings that fronted on either 58th, 59th or 60th Ave. — they had play areas between them. Junction Blvd. was the main street that ran down under the LIE and to the intersection with 63rd Dr. at Queens Blvd., where Alexander’s was. But if you followed 59th Ave. it also took you to Queens Blvd., which ran through the area on the diagonal — only you wound up where the Queens Center Mall is now (built c. 1971).
Think hard, Ed — did she take you to see “Willard” or were you actually seeing rats? ;)
jeff, we lived on the street that ran down to queens blvd. by alexanders..cannot remember the street name. it was a decent building with nice size apts. i remember our building had a little play area on the side of it with swings and slides…small world!!