This picture of the RKO Keith’s is from 1978 and in the center of the marquee (in theater #2) is Grease. My family and I saw the film here several times during it’s initial run. I wish the picture was a bit clearer.
If anyone has any pictures of the theater, inside or out, from the mid 70’s up until the time the theater closed in 1986, it would be awesome if they could e posted.
My father worked in the Bronx and in 1977 he would bring my brother and to see the original Star Wars there on Wednesday’s when our Catholic grammar school would let out early to allow for religious instruction for public school students. I was only seven years old, but I remember the theater being huge and beautiful.
Michael Hochstein, I remember you were the manager in 1988-1989 when I worked at Cinema City. Alan Perkins was the assistant manager. I remember you both being good guys to work for. Alan actually gave me an original 1978 one sheet for the movie Halloween that I still have to this day. He had so many movie poster’s in his collection that he told me he had an insurance policy on them.
I also remember when we’d be on alert the Brenner’s were coming to visit and that we all needed to be on our best behavior. I remember Mrs. Brenner being overly decked out in clothing that looked like she walking the strip in Las Vegas. She was very gaudy and wore fur coats, costume jewelry, and a ton a makeup. She’d enter the theater like she was royalty.
I can remember a lot of people that worked there at the same time, Andrew, Carrie, Mike (there were a few Mike’s), Keith, Spencer, Darlene, and Joanne, and Don. I did have a great time working there. I was 18 at the time.
WOW, I remember seeing Halloween II at the QUARTET back in 1981 when I was only 11 years old. My friends parents took us to see it. The QUARTET was one of the “trilogy” of theaters in Flushing, NY that I’d go to see movies when I was young. The other two being the RKO KEITH’S and the CENTURY’S PROSPECT THEATER.
I worked at this dump of a place for about a year starting in 1988 thru 1989. While I was there we got the worst of the worst as far as movies were concerned. I remember the movie Beaches played almost the whole time I worked there. I did have a great time while I worked there.
This isn’t the Prospect Theater in Flushing,Queens. This Prospect theater that was featured in the movie “The New York Ripper” was actually in Brooklyn, NY.
I saw quite a few movies here. Superman (78), Tootsie, Ghostbusters, Police Academy, Sharon Stone’s god-aweful debut, a low budget horror film Deadly Blessing just to name a few. I loved this place. It was a far cry from the Keith’s, but a lot of good memories. I was working in Flushing in the late 90’s up until 2003 for Verizon. I worked on Main Street pretty often. Because the block the Prospect was on was so radically changed, I couldn’t place the exact location of where the theater used to stand. That’s how diffent the block accross the street from the Public Library had become. Everything on that block was converted into various Asian shops. One day I had a job on that block and when I went into the basement of the buisiness I was working in I found stacks of the old metal theater chairs from the Prospect. I wasn’t sure what they were there for. I had thought the building had been demolished so I would have figured all of that stuff would have been dumped. Not an exciting find, but I knew then I was in the former site of the theater. There wasn’t a single thing in the building that would have tipped me off that was where I was. Had I not seen the chairs, I never would have known. Talk about erasing the past. That is what Tommy Huang would have loved to have done to the Keiths. Bastard.
If anyone has any pictures of the theater from the 70s-80s, inside or out, please post them. As hard as it is to find pictures of the Keiths from this period, they seem almost non-existant for the Prospect. Where the hell were all of our cameras back then. God if we only knew then what we know now.
Warren thanks for the 1970 pic, that brought back a lot of memories of how the place looked.
Warren back in September you had posted images from the NY Daily News Queens Section that had a article on the Keiths. The picutre was from around 1981. Do you happen to still have the photos? I would love to see them if you do. The link to photobucket is no longer good. If anyone else has it and can either post it or send it to me at , I would greatly appreciate it.
Wow!! You snooze and you lose around here. I haven’t been back here since August and wow has a lot happened. First and foremost I have to commend asphoto on the pictures submitted via flickr. Gorgeous. As if Mike69’s photos weren’t cool enough (awesome by the way Mike), to have someone with your talent get inside and take pictures, you couldn’t ask for better. I checked out the rest of your photos on flickr and they are outstanding. Mike69, you rock man. You started this rolling with your photos. Thanks so much to both of you for that. What a trip down memory lane.
When I was reading Ed Solero’s post about the day he ventured inside the building through one of the side entrances, it brought me right back to April of 1999 when I was lucky enough to get a guided tour of the building. I know the adrenaline rush he must have been experiencing because I felt the same way the day I got in. If memory serves me correctly, the late 70’s early 80’s the first store on the left of the theater was M&K Electronics. Their big thing was selling all of the newest games for the Atari 2600. You could play them before you bought them.
I’ve spent the last three hours catching up on all of the posts and looking at all of the new, incredible photos. What a thrill. Everyone has become so spirited in their writing. I had a lot of fun reading everyone’s comments. A book about the Keith’s could be made out of Ed Solero’s posts alone. You possess great writing skill man. I also enjoyed the energy of posts from davebazooka, Mike69, Tom S., and Jeffrey 1955. I am moving back to College Point in the summer so I am getting jazzed to be back near the big hulk of a mess that is the Keith’s. I look forward to seeing the rest of the photos from Mike69 and asphoto. Congrats on the baby Mike.
I hope that Ed Solero and davebazooka get an opportunity to get inside the theater. You both deserve to. I know that I plan to start casing the joint again when I move back to Queens. I must say that I was laughing at some of the posts about breaking an entering, especially from davebazooka. If I was to break in there with someone, I think I would want it to be you. Your guerilla methods are a riot. I haven’t noticed this kind of spirited insanity on any of the other theater pages I’ve seen on Cinema Treasures. The desire to get inside that place drives some of us to do things we normally wouldn’t. Just proves how much it meant to all of us. I can’t wait to see what the plans of the next shit-head who buys it will be.
Happy to be back and happy to see everyone is such good form. It’s 2:45AM and I have work in the morning, so I am signing out. I was just so psyched to see all of the new pictures and to read all of the new posts that I just had to write something.
On February 27, 2005 I wrote a pretty detailed description of what the inside of the theater looked like in 1999. I can’t believe that was seven years ago. I can’t imagine that anyone would be allowed in to take pictures. I am sure the last seven years weren’t kind to the already devastated inside. I am pretty sure that Tommy H. did as much damage as he could to the theater when he bought the theater hoping that anyone looking to landmark it would deem it a lost cause and just let it go. I’m pretty sure he didn’t realize the hell that would come his way for what he did.
When I went into the theater I have to admit I felt very unsafe. There were pieces of the ceiling on the floor, even just past the lobby. The wall opposite the entrance shown in the New York Times photo behind the famous stairs was ripped out. Not strategically removed, but ripped out. The doors that used to exist for the two downstairs theaters were just gone. It was actually tough to remember where some things used to be because so much had been removed. It was heart-breaking. There was no longer a ceiling separating where the downstairs theaters were from the upstairs theater. Just the balcony which was accessible from the stairs. The balcony had huge holes in it. I was pretty sure I was going to fall through it. Nobody knew I was in there so I was thinking that God-forbid anything happened to me, no one would have known I was there in the first place.
Unless there has been some work done in there in the last seven years to stabilize the things that were severely damaged, I can’t imagine anyone other than those doing construction would be granted entrance. The way people use lawyers these days to sue at the drop of a dime, I can’t say I would blame them. I can however ensure you that if you got inside you would be very disappointed.
I almost wish they would have demolished the Keith’s in 1986 when it originally closed. Having it sit around for 20 years is like having a loved one who is brain-dead, but being kept alive by a machine. Obviously that is a dramatic comparison but it just feels like the inevitable fate of the theater has been dragging on forever. I would have been crushed if they tore it down back in ‘86, but at least it would have offered some sense of closure. The glass curtain around the lobby will just serve as a permanent reminder of the gross mistreatment this once majestic theater has received. The whole thing is a real shame and unfortunately something that happens all too often to landmarks all over the country. The best thing that we can do is just keep all of the great memories we have of this place that meant so much to each of us. As deeply saddened I am about the destruction of the Keith’s, I am thankful for having had it around for me to enjoy when I was a kid. It was such a huge part of my young life and for that I am grateful. No wrecking ball can take that from me. Unless of course I am stuck in the head by it. (Sorry couldn’t resist).
I grew up in College Point and now I am a 34 year old man living in Connecticut. Throughout the 70’s and 80’s I attended quite a few movies at the RKO. Like many others have stated, this theater was an amazing place. Beautiful. As a very little kid, I was a little intimidated by the size of it. I remember seeing Star Wars about 50 times, usually on Wednesday afternoons with my father and brother. St. Fidelis School would have half days every Wednesday to give religious instruction to kids from the local public school. I remember seeing Grease a whole lot of times there as well. I saw the first six Friday the 13th films there as well as a bunch of other horror films like Halloween, The Fog, and Scanners. On a Friday night, opening night, of big horror films the upstairs theater would be packed.
My brother and I went the theater in 1986 right before it closed. We stayed for two movies because we knew that they were going to close it down. I remember going into the men’s room and the toilets were free standing without the stall walls or doors. It was pretty creepy. The manager at the time, Adele, actually let me and my brother in for free. She recognized us both because we were there so often. I remember the two movies that we saw were “Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2” and “Night of the Creeps”. Oddly enough both of these movies were R rated horror films and I was only sixteen and my brother thirteen. At this point the theater was really let go. I remember sitting in the upstairs theater watching Texas Chainsaw and my brother and I could hear mice or rats scurrying around under the seats. Then at one point my brother picked up his box of candy and there were roaches on it. We were really grossed out and left the theater pretty bummed out at the state of it and at the fact that it was the last time that we would ever go there to see a movie.
With every passing year my heart would break a little more watching the theater rot away. Then in 1999 I was working in Flushing for the phone company. I think at that time we were still Bell Atlantic. Anyway I passed the front of the theater as I did several hundred times before hoping to sneak and peek. I saw that the front wooden construction door was open. I walked up and tried to take a look. When I got there I saw a guy with a hard hat coming out. I asked him what he was doing. He told me that he was there removing the oil tank from the basement. It was about noon and I noticed that he was the only one there. I asked him if he could let me run in for just a second so that I could take a look. I told him that I used to frequent the theater quite a bit when I was younger. He told me that since his boss was out for lunch he would take me for a quick tour if I put on a hard hat. I felt my heart race. I was so excited.
There was just a sting of work lights set up so that the guys working could see what they were doing. First we stopped in the lobby. I was really shocked at how messed up it was. Paint falling from the ceiling and most of the things I remembered being there were gone. The fountain and big brass doors were gone. The doorways to the left and right of the candy stand, under the stair cases that were the entrance ways for the two downstairs theaters had been torn down. We walked behind where the candy stand used to be and into the auditorium. From this vantage point I could see the whole theater, balcony and all. Since I was very young when the theater was converted into a triplex I had never seen it like this. Looking up from the main floor I could see what was left of the screen from the big upstairs theater. I just hung from the top left hand corner, suspended in the air, most of it torn away. It was really scary looking; it looked like an old pirate ship sail. I was wishing that I had a camera at that time but I knew that if I didn’t take immediate advantage of the guys offer to tour the place that I might never again get the chance to.
The guy asked me if I wanted to see the rest of the place. I said sure. He told me that the tour would be with flashlight only. Because the building looked so unsafe and dark I have to admit that I was pretty nervous. The fact that I was getting married the following weekend didn’t help either. We walked back out into the lobby and then up the staircase on the left hand side, near the women’s bathroom. The stairs were messed up and felt unsafe to climb, but that didn’t stop me. We then entered what used to be the upstairs theater. Scary stuff. There was no longer a floor to separate the upstairs theater from the downstairs theaters. What was probably the balcony in the olden days now was littered with broken chairs and tons of unrolled movie film. The balcony floor had quite a few huge holes in it. They looked like they had been punched into floor by some big destruction equipment. Yikes. I was really scared that I was going to fall through a hole in the floor to my death. The only light that we had was coming from the flashlight my guide was holding and he was leading the way. When we got to the top of the stairs near the projection booth we turned around and he gave me the flash light to look around. The left and right walls were actually in pretty decent shape. The architecture of the theater was much easier to appreciate at 29 then it was at 16. I really thought that if someone cared enough they could restore the key elements of the building. What a shame. I noticed that behind where the screens used to stand were a stage and mural painted back wall. These were things I had never seen before, probably covered up in the 70’s and the 80’s when I used to attend the theater. Both were in pretty good shape from what I could see.
We then ventured into the projectionists booth. This was a mess. The projector was gone but some other big metal equipment was still there. The plates that the film lay on while being show were still there. There was a mess of film uncoiled all over the floor. I grabbed a few pieces of it hoping I would end up with something cool. If nothing else a cool souvenir to take home. When I got back into the light I found that I ended up with a piece of count down film. Multiple frames of the numbers eight through two. The other, bigger piece had scenes from some movie that I was never able to identify. Knowing that I wasn’t even supposed to be in there, I was afraid to look for any other keepsakes.
From the projectionist booth, we proceeded to another room. The wall in the room had a mural of the New York City skyline on it. It looked very old. At this point the guy I was with seemed to notice the time and said that we would have to get back downstairs before his boss got back. On the way back down I got a look of the ceiling in the lobby and a little balcony type thing that sculpted above where the front doors were. Again, really beautiful architecture in repairable shape. I really wanted to go down into the basement and see what was down there. I told the guy I could put on my phone company helmet and tools and say that I had to do work in the basement. He told me that it was pretty foul down there and not really enough light. He also said that he wasn’t too sure how safe it was. Coming from a guy who had just given me a guided tour of what I would have deemed to be extremely unsafe, I figured it must be bad. So I thanked him for taking me around and left. On the way out I tried to take everything in as much as I could, but to be honest I was so overwhelmed that I felt almost numb from the experience.
I am very happy to hear that someone is going to preserve as much of it as can be saved and incorporate it into that building. Personally I’ve always dreamed of the whole theater being restored, but this is obviously better that the whole thing being demolished. I guess after being shut down for almost 19 years, this is probably the best anyone could have hoped for. I have to admit that when I sat down to share my comments I was figuring on writing a quick paragraph or two, and here I am almost two hours later. I guess that anyone who has ever had this theater be a part of their life gets pretty passionate when they talk about it. I hope anyone who’s made it this far in reading this has enjoyed the experience and found it somewhat informative. I can’t wait until the project to restore the RKO Keith’s is underway. I look forward to visiting it when it is finished and having the opportunity to relive some very good childhood memories, instead of seeing the shell of it that now stands and feeling sad.
This picture of the RKO Keith’s is from 1978 and in the center of the marquee (in theater #2) is Grease. My family and I saw the film here several times during it’s initial run. I wish the picture was a bit clearer.
If anyone has any pictures of the theater, inside or out, from the mid 70’s up until the time the theater closed in 1986, it would be awesome if they could e posted.
My father worked in the Bronx and in 1977 he would bring my brother and to see the original Star Wars there on Wednesday’s when our Catholic grammar school would let out early to allow for religious instruction for public school students. I was only seven years old, but I remember the theater being huge and beautiful.
Michael Hochstein, I remember you were the manager in 1988-1989 when I worked at Cinema City. Alan Perkins was the assistant manager. I remember you both being good guys to work for. Alan actually gave me an original 1978 one sheet for the movie Halloween that I still have to this day. He had so many movie poster’s in his collection that he told me he had an insurance policy on them.
I also remember when we’d be on alert the Brenner’s were coming to visit and that we all needed to be on our best behavior. I remember Mrs. Brenner being overly decked out in clothing that looked like she walking the strip in Las Vegas. She was very gaudy and wore fur coats, costume jewelry, and a ton a makeup. She’d enter the theater like she was royalty.
I can remember a lot of people that worked there at the same time, Andrew, Carrie, Mike (there were a few Mike’s), Keith, Spencer, Darlene, and Joanne, and Don. I did have a great time working there. I was 18 at the time.
Hope all is well.
WOW, I remember seeing Halloween II at the QUARTET back in 1981 when I was only 11 years old. My friends parents took us to see it. The QUARTET was one of the “trilogy” of theaters in Flushing, NY that I’d go to see movies when I was young. The other two being the RKO KEITH’S and the CENTURY’S PROSPECT THEATER.
That’s a great photo, thanks for sharing. :)
Thanks Dez. I love the neon purple-pink lettering on the marquee. Nobody uses that anymore.
I worked at this dump of a place for about a year starting in 1988 thru 1989. While I was there we got the worst of the worst as far as movies were concerned. I remember the movie Beaches played almost the whole time I worked there. I did have a great time while I worked there.
This isn’t the Prospect Theater in Flushing,Queens. This Prospect theater that was featured in the movie “The New York Ripper” was actually in Brooklyn, NY.
I saw quite a few movies here. Superman (78), Tootsie, Ghostbusters, Police Academy, Sharon Stone’s god-aweful debut, a low budget horror film Deadly Blessing just to name a few. I loved this place. It was a far cry from the Keith’s, but a lot of good memories. I was working in Flushing in the late 90’s up until 2003 for Verizon. I worked on Main Street pretty often. Because the block the Prospect was on was so radically changed, I couldn’t place the exact location of where the theater used to stand. That’s how diffent the block accross the street from the Public Library had become. Everything on that block was converted into various Asian shops. One day I had a job on that block and when I went into the basement of the buisiness I was working in I found stacks of the old metal theater chairs from the Prospect. I wasn’t sure what they were there for. I had thought the building had been demolished so I would have figured all of that stuff would have been dumped. Not an exciting find, but I knew then I was in the former site of the theater. There wasn’t a single thing in the building that would have tipped me off that was where I was. Had I not seen the chairs, I never would have known. Talk about erasing the past. That is what Tommy Huang would have loved to have done to the Keiths. Bastard.
If anyone has any pictures of the theater from the 70s-80s, inside or out, please post them. As hard as it is to find pictures of the Keiths from this period, they seem almost non-existant for the Prospect. Where the hell were all of our cameras back then. God if we only knew then what we know now.
Warren thanks for the 1970 pic, that brought back a lot of memories of how the place looked.
Warren back in September you had posted images from the NY Daily News Queens Section that had a article on the Keiths. The picutre was from around 1981. Do you happen to still have the photos? I would love to see them if you do. The link to photobucket is no longer good. If anyone else has it and can either post it or send it to me at , I would greatly appreciate it.
Thanks
Tom S. please get your photos up man. I’d love to see them.
Tom S. please get you photos up man. I’d love to see them.
Wow!! You snooze and you lose around here. I haven’t been back here since August and wow has a lot happened. First and foremost I have to commend asphoto on the pictures submitted via flickr. Gorgeous. As if Mike69’s photos weren’t cool enough (awesome by the way Mike), to have someone with your talent get inside and take pictures, you couldn’t ask for better. I checked out the rest of your photos on flickr and they are outstanding. Mike69, you rock man. You started this rolling with your photos. Thanks so much to both of you for that. What a trip down memory lane.
When I was reading Ed Solero’s post about the day he ventured inside the building through one of the side entrances, it brought me right back to April of 1999 when I was lucky enough to get a guided tour of the building. I know the adrenaline rush he must have been experiencing because I felt the same way the day I got in. If memory serves me correctly, the late 70’s early 80’s the first store on the left of the theater was M&K Electronics. Their big thing was selling all of the newest games for the Atari 2600. You could play them before you bought them.
I’ve spent the last three hours catching up on all of the posts and looking at all of the new, incredible photos. What a thrill. Everyone has become so spirited in their writing. I had a lot of fun reading everyone’s comments. A book about the Keith’s could be made out of Ed Solero’s posts alone. You possess great writing skill man. I also enjoyed the energy of posts from davebazooka, Mike69, Tom S., and Jeffrey 1955. I am moving back to College Point in the summer so I am getting jazzed to be back near the big hulk of a mess that is the Keith’s. I look forward to seeing the rest of the photos from Mike69 and asphoto. Congrats on the baby Mike.
I hope that Ed Solero and davebazooka get an opportunity to get inside the theater. You both deserve to. I know that I plan to start casing the joint again when I move back to Queens. I must say that I was laughing at some of the posts about breaking an entering, especially from davebazooka. If I was to break in there with someone, I think I would want it to be you. Your guerilla methods are a riot. I haven’t noticed this kind of spirited insanity on any of the other theater pages I’ve seen on Cinema Treasures. The desire to get inside that place drives some of us to do things we normally wouldn’t. Just proves how much it meant to all of us. I can’t wait to see what the plans of the next shit-head who buys it will be.
Happy to be back and happy to see everyone is such good form. It’s 2:45AM and I have work in the morning, so I am signing out. I was just so psyched to see all of the new pictures and to read all of the new posts that I just had to write something.
On February 27, 2005 I wrote a pretty detailed description of what the inside of the theater looked like in 1999. I can’t believe that was seven years ago. I can’t imagine that anyone would be allowed in to take pictures. I am sure the last seven years weren’t kind to the already devastated inside. I am pretty sure that Tommy H. did as much damage as he could to the theater when he bought the theater hoping that anyone looking to landmark it would deem it a lost cause and just let it go. I’m pretty sure he didn’t realize the hell that would come his way for what he did.
When I went into the theater I have to admit I felt very unsafe. There were pieces of the ceiling on the floor, even just past the lobby. The wall opposite the entrance shown in the New York Times photo behind the famous stairs was ripped out. Not strategically removed, but ripped out. The doors that used to exist for the two downstairs theaters were just gone. It was actually tough to remember where some things used to be because so much had been removed. It was heart-breaking. There was no longer a ceiling separating where the downstairs theaters were from the upstairs theater. Just the balcony which was accessible from the stairs. The balcony had huge holes in it. I was pretty sure I was going to fall through it. Nobody knew I was in there so I was thinking that God-forbid anything happened to me, no one would have known I was there in the first place.
Unless there has been some work done in there in the last seven years to stabilize the things that were severely damaged, I can’t imagine anyone other than those doing construction would be granted entrance. The way people use lawyers these days to sue at the drop of a dime, I can’t say I would blame them. I can however ensure you that if you got inside you would be very disappointed.
“No wrecking ball can take that from me. Unless of course I am stuck in the head by it. (Sorry couldn’t resist).”
I meant “struck” in the head.
Damn it. I made a really dumb and inappropriate joke and blew it with a misspelling. What a jackass!
I almost wish they would have demolished the Keith’s in 1986 when it originally closed. Having it sit around for 20 years is like having a loved one who is brain-dead, but being kept alive by a machine. Obviously that is a dramatic comparison but it just feels like the inevitable fate of the theater has been dragging on forever. I would have been crushed if they tore it down back in ‘86, but at least it would have offered some sense of closure. The glass curtain around the lobby will just serve as a permanent reminder of the gross mistreatment this once majestic theater has received. The whole thing is a real shame and unfortunately something that happens all too often to landmarks all over the country. The best thing that we can do is just keep all of the great memories we have of this place that meant so much to each of us. As deeply saddened I am about the destruction of the Keith’s, I am thankful for having had it around for me to enjoy when I was a kid. It was such a huge part of my young life and for that I am grateful. No wrecking ball can take that from me. Unless of course I am stuck in the head by it. (Sorry couldn’t resist).
I grew up in College Point and now I am a 34 year old man living in Connecticut. Throughout the 70’s and 80’s I attended quite a few movies at the RKO. Like many others have stated, this theater was an amazing place. Beautiful. As a very little kid, I was a little intimidated by the size of it. I remember seeing Star Wars about 50 times, usually on Wednesday afternoons with my father and brother. St. Fidelis School would have half days every Wednesday to give religious instruction to kids from the local public school. I remember seeing Grease a whole lot of times there as well. I saw the first six Friday the 13th films there as well as a bunch of other horror films like Halloween, The Fog, and Scanners. On a Friday night, opening night, of big horror films the upstairs theater would be packed.
My brother and I went the theater in 1986 right before it closed. We stayed for two movies because we knew that they were going to close it down. I remember going into the men’s room and the toilets were free standing without the stall walls or doors. It was pretty creepy. The manager at the time, Adele, actually let me and my brother in for free. She recognized us both because we were there so often. I remember the two movies that we saw were “Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2” and “Night of the Creeps”. Oddly enough both of these movies were R rated horror films and I was only sixteen and my brother thirteen. At this point the theater was really let go. I remember sitting in the upstairs theater watching Texas Chainsaw and my brother and I could hear mice or rats scurrying around under the seats. Then at one point my brother picked up his box of candy and there were roaches on it. We were really grossed out and left the theater pretty bummed out at the state of it and at the fact that it was the last time that we would ever go there to see a movie.
With every passing year my heart would break a little more watching the theater rot away. Then in 1999 I was working in Flushing for the phone company. I think at that time we were still Bell Atlantic. Anyway I passed the front of the theater as I did several hundred times before hoping to sneak and peek. I saw that the front wooden construction door was open. I walked up and tried to take a look. When I got there I saw a guy with a hard hat coming out. I asked him what he was doing. He told me that he was there removing the oil tank from the basement. It was about noon and I noticed that he was the only one there. I asked him if he could let me run in for just a second so that I could take a look. I told him that I used to frequent the theater quite a bit when I was younger. He told me that since his boss was out for lunch he would take me for a quick tour if I put on a hard hat. I felt my heart race. I was so excited.
There was just a sting of work lights set up so that the guys working could see what they were doing. First we stopped in the lobby. I was really shocked at how messed up it was. Paint falling from the ceiling and most of the things I remembered being there were gone. The fountain and big brass doors were gone. The doorways to the left and right of the candy stand, under the stair cases that were the entrance ways for the two downstairs theaters had been torn down. We walked behind where the candy stand used to be and into the auditorium. From this vantage point I could see the whole theater, balcony and all. Since I was very young when the theater was converted into a triplex I had never seen it like this. Looking up from the main floor I could see what was left of the screen from the big upstairs theater. I just hung from the top left hand corner, suspended in the air, most of it torn away. It was really scary looking; it looked like an old pirate ship sail. I was wishing that I had a camera at that time but I knew that if I didn’t take immediate advantage of the guys offer to tour the place that I might never again get the chance to.
The guy asked me if I wanted to see the rest of the place. I said sure. He told me that the tour would be with flashlight only. Because the building looked so unsafe and dark I have to admit that I was pretty nervous. The fact that I was getting married the following weekend didn’t help either. We walked back out into the lobby and then up the staircase on the left hand side, near the women’s bathroom. The stairs were messed up and felt unsafe to climb, but that didn’t stop me. We then entered what used to be the upstairs theater. Scary stuff. There was no longer a floor to separate the upstairs theater from the downstairs theaters. What was probably the balcony in the olden days now was littered with broken chairs and tons of unrolled movie film. The balcony floor had quite a few huge holes in it. They looked like they had been punched into floor by some big destruction equipment. Yikes. I was really scared that I was going to fall through a hole in the floor to my death. The only light that we had was coming from the flashlight my guide was holding and he was leading the way. When we got to the top of the stairs near the projection booth we turned around and he gave me the flash light to look around. The left and right walls were actually in pretty decent shape. The architecture of the theater was much easier to appreciate at 29 then it was at 16. I really thought that if someone cared enough they could restore the key elements of the building. What a shame. I noticed that behind where the screens used to stand were a stage and mural painted back wall. These were things I had never seen before, probably covered up in the 70’s and the 80’s when I used to attend the theater. Both were in pretty good shape from what I could see.
We then ventured into the projectionists booth. This was a mess. The projector was gone but some other big metal equipment was still there. The plates that the film lay on while being show were still there. There was a mess of film uncoiled all over the floor. I grabbed a few pieces of it hoping I would end up with something cool. If nothing else a cool souvenir to take home. When I got back into the light I found that I ended up with a piece of count down film. Multiple frames of the numbers eight through two. The other, bigger piece had scenes from some movie that I was never able to identify. Knowing that I wasn’t even supposed to be in there, I was afraid to look for any other keepsakes.
From the projectionist booth, we proceeded to another room. The wall in the room had a mural of the New York City skyline on it. It looked very old. At this point the guy I was with seemed to notice the time and said that we would have to get back downstairs before his boss got back. On the way back down I got a look of the ceiling in the lobby and a little balcony type thing that sculpted above where the front doors were. Again, really beautiful architecture in repairable shape. I really wanted to go down into the basement and see what was down there. I told the guy I could put on my phone company helmet and tools and say that I had to do work in the basement. He told me that it was pretty foul down there and not really enough light. He also said that he wasn’t too sure how safe it was. Coming from a guy who had just given me a guided tour of what I would have deemed to be extremely unsafe, I figured it must be bad. So I thanked him for taking me around and left. On the way out I tried to take everything in as much as I could, but to be honest I was so overwhelmed that I felt almost numb from the experience.
I am very happy to hear that someone is going to preserve as much of it as can be saved and incorporate it into that building. Personally I’ve always dreamed of the whole theater being restored, but this is obviously better that the whole thing being demolished. I guess after being shut down for almost 19 years, this is probably the best anyone could have hoped for. I have to admit that when I sat down to share my comments I was figuring on writing a quick paragraph or two, and here I am almost two hours later. I guess that anyone who has ever had this theater be a part of their life gets pretty passionate when they talk about it. I hope anyone who’s made it this far in reading this has enjoyed the experience and found it somewhat informative. I can’t wait until the project to restore the RKO Keith’s is underway. I look forward to visiting it when it is finished and having the opportunity to relive some very good childhood memories, instead of seeing the shell of it that now stands and feeling sad.