Passed by this theatre today and the snapped a couple of pics. The blue paint on the “COMMUNITY” sign atop the marquee has just about peeled entirely away. The building’s facade doesn’t appear to have had any maintenance performed since the last pics I took back in 2005.
Drove past on my way home from the office this on Friday, April 19th, and snapped 5 quick shots with my cell camera. The place looks ready for business. There was an older, well-dressed gentleman and a much younger woman who accompanied him, walking the perimeter of the theater as I approached the block. I saw them turn the corner from Post Ave onto the northern side street, where the man checked that the two doors located just off Post were locked. Not sure what that was about.
Also struck me that there are no display cases along the main facade – though, I suppose, those could be easily anchored onto the wall at a later date, easily enough. However, there are two rectangular recesses in the wall at new side entrance on the southern facade, that appear to be intended for poster displays. Through those doors, one can also make out a mural depicting what seems to be a man on stage playing to a house of empty seats! Hopefully, not a prophetic image!
As MissVicki noted, the marquee lights are in – and I’m happy that they appear to be the old fashioned screw-in bulbs, rather than some modern LED type of affair. I’m sure the display panels will include some sort of modern animated signage, but at least the framing and undercarriage are to be lit incandescently!
Hopefully, the next time I snap some pics, there’ll be an attraction listed up on those boards!
No sure those are water-tight, Tinseltoes. I can tell you from experience, excessive amounts of “buttery topping” are apt to leak through right on to your trousers!
Harris Theatre, last of the originals still in business on the block. Titles on the marquee would date this sometime after April 29th, 1994, when “No Escape” opened in the U.S.
I have been up to the left balcony auditorium twice in the last 6 months or so, most recently for “Django Unchained,” and I noticed that there is some sort of housing in front of the screen that noticeably cuts a small notch a few inches deep and several feet wide along the bottom edge of the image – dead center, too! Wonder what this is and why it was so poorly placed with respect to the audiences sight lines towards the screen?!
I forget which movie attraction it was (maybe “Tom Sawyer?” or Disney’s “Robin Hood?”) but I can recall seeing the trailer for “Mame” at the Hall, and it was so long, that I remember my aunt rhetorically asking, “why come to see the movie, they’re practically showing the whole thing right now?!”
Ironically, we did go back and see “Mame” at the Hall, anyway!
Paktype, I think “Return of the Jedi” played the Sunrise Cinemas multiplex down the road. In 70mm, too, if I recall. Trying to remember what summer flick I may have seen at Green Acres that year… Maybe “Wargames?” That played here for sure that year. And I recall seeing “The Right Stuff” here, too, but I’m not sure when exactly that came out.
Amazing! I never really stopped to consider the elaborate mechanical and electrical engineering that went into the installation of these remarkable – and now, sadly, rare – instruments. Somehow the word instrument seems woefully inadequate! I am really appreciative to all involved in assembling this video – and keeping these magnificent organs in tune and in shape!
Doesn’t seem as if there even IS a picture, Peter… This is as much a theater of the mind as it is a cinema. In fact, I’m not entirely sure it qualifies as cinema at all. An interesting idea, but I still think it’s more a conceptual work of abstract art.
You know, when I was a kid, before we had VCR decks, I used to make cassette audio recordings of my favorite movies when they aired on TV, simply by holding my mic up to the TV speaker. I would listen back and replay the movie’s visuals in my mind’s eye. Does that qualify my childhood bedroom for a CT listing? I jest, but, surely, it is a debatable point.
And don’t get me wrong… I don’t object to this listing, I’m just raising the question for possible discussion.
I passed by on the LIE last night and it seemed to me that the big marquee was being redone. It looked like it was completely stripped down to its metal frame.
While the construction fencing is still there along Horace Harding, one can clearly see that a series of attached townhomes have been built on the site. The homes face the side and back streets of the parcel, making backyards out of the former parking lot. The structures look pretty well complete. I imagine that with the weather warming up around here, they will probably finish off the details and landscaping in the coming weeks and months.
This pic and this one were posted to the photos page for the Martin Cinerama in New Orleans, LA. They look like images taken from pre-show reels from OTHER theaters, advertising the Martin in Atlanta. Is it possible these were exhibited as far away as New Orleans? I imagine they’d have been from theaters a bit closer to Atlanta than that. Did the Martin chain ever run any non-Cinerama neighborhood theaters? I’ve only ever seen the name associated with Cinerama exhibition.
Both “Gunga Din” and “Stagecoach” are bona fide all-time greats. Two bright and shiny jewels in the magnificent crown that was 1939 for the motion picture industry. “Made For Each Other,” its legendary stars notwithstanding, perhaps not so much.
A pivotal moment in Hall history… I attended several of these shows and used to have a program. One of the more lamentable losses from my collection of souvenirs.
Latest pair of pics posted. Marquee still under wraps, but looking pretty damn close to completion. Still nothing on an anticipated opening date or booking?
Cagney really gave a spectacular performance in “One, Two, Three.” A wonderful swan song, his brief late-life cinematic resurrection notwithstanding. I absolutely love this movie.
Wow, Bill. Knowing what we do about Kubrick’s reticence to discuss and analyze the meaning behind his work, that is quite a remarkable synopsis he offered up!
Bill… is that Michael York in your photos? I recognize Liza Minnelli and Joel Grey easily enough, and I suppose that looks like an older (if surgically enhanced) version of Marisa Berenson… but the gentleman seated at far right on that panel bears absolutely NO resemblance to the Michael York I remember!
So, Ken, if you are patrolling the pages of CT tonight (or in the wee hours UK time), please correct the status of this theater as closed, but not demolished.
Hey Ed… You’re probably right about the two photos (which I took and posted), but at least they indicate where the theater once stood. The street view for this theater is entirely off the mark, pointing the view arbitrarily in some residential block behind Valley Stream State Park! And you are dead on about the Belair being utterly undistinguished! Nothing remarkable about the place at all, at least form a physical standpoint. Believe the last movie I saw here may have been “Doctor Detroit,” in 1983 or so.
Posted another trio of pics, taken Saturday, December 8th, 2012. Pretty much down to the finishing details on the facade, now. No way of knowing how the interior is coming along.
Tinseltoes, the only advantage I would give to the Kings over the Paradise is that of location. While the Kings isn’t exactly in the prime downtown area, seems to me that Brooklyn on the whole has a better reputation as a destination for cultural activities than the Bronx. And this is not to denigrate the Bronx, which is the borough from which my parents and grandparents hail, but I just don’t think it has the same appeal as Brooklyn. And the United Palace is first and foremost a church. I think a deal was arranged for concerts there, primarily as a temporary replacement for the Beacon, while the latter was undergoing its extensive renovations. While sporadic bookings have continued, I don’t think it was ever seriously positioned as a competitor of the Beacon’s and other downtown venues.
Passed by this theatre today and the snapped a couple of pics. The blue paint on the “COMMUNITY” sign atop the marquee has just about peeled entirely away. The building’s facade doesn’t appear to have had any maintenance performed since the last pics I took back in 2005.
Drove past on my way home from the office this on Friday, April 19th, and snapped 5 quick shots with my cell camera. The place looks ready for business. There was an older, well-dressed gentleman and a much younger woman who accompanied him, walking the perimeter of the theater as I approached the block. I saw them turn the corner from Post Ave onto the northern side street, where the man checked that the two doors located just off Post were locked. Not sure what that was about.
Also struck me that there are no display cases along the main facade – though, I suppose, those could be easily anchored onto the wall at a later date, easily enough. However, there are two rectangular recesses in the wall at new side entrance on the southern facade, that appear to be intended for poster displays. Through those doors, one can also make out a mural depicting what seems to be a man on stage playing to a house of empty seats! Hopefully, not a prophetic image!
As MissVicki noted, the marquee lights are in – and I’m happy that they appear to be the old fashioned screw-in bulbs, rather than some modern LED type of affair. I’m sure the display panels will include some sort of modern animated signage, but at least the framing and undercarriage are to be lit incandescently!
Hopefully, the next time I snap some pics, there’ll be an attraction listed up on those boards!
No sure those are water-tight, Tinseltoes. I can tell you from experience, excessive amounts of “buttery topping” are apt to leak through right on to your trousers!
Matt, I know it’s not necessarily your thing to photograph adapted-use theaters, but were you ever inside the Savoy with your camera?
Harris Theatre, last of the originals still in business on the block. Titles on the marquee would date this sometime after April 29th, 1994, when “No Escape” opened in the U.S.
Movieman… bring some clorox wipes along with you.
I have been up to the left balcony auditorium twice in the last 6 months or so, most recently for “Django Unchained,” and I noticed that there is some sort of housing in front of the screen that noticeably cuts a small notch a few inches deep and several feet wide along the bottom edge of the image – dead center, too! Wonder what this is and why it was so poorly placed with respect to the audiences sight lines towards the screen?!
I forget which movie attraction it was (maybe “Tom Sawyer?” or Disney’s “Robin Hood?”) but I can recall seeing the trailer for “Mame” at the Hall, and it was so long, that I remember my aunt rhetorically asking, “why come to see the movie, they’re practically showing the whole thing right now?!”
Ironically, we did go back and see “Mame” at the Hall, anyway!
Paktype, I think “Return of the Jedi” played the Sunrise Cinemas multiplex down the road. In 70mm, too, if I recall. Trying to remember what summer flick I may have seen at Green Acres that year… Maybe “Wargames?” That played here for sure that year. And I recall seeing “The Right Stuff” here, too, but I’m not sure when exactly that came out.
Amazing! I never really stopped to consider the elaborate mechanical and electrical engineering that went into the installation of these remarkable – and now, sadly, rare – instruments. Somehow the word instrument seems woefully inadequate! I am really appreciative to all involved in assembling this video – and keeping these magnificent organs in tune and in shape!
Doesn’t seem as if there even IS a picture, Peter… This is as much a theater of the mind as it is a cinema. In fact, I’m not entirely sure it qualifies as cinema at all. An interesting idea, but I still think it’s more a conceptual work of abstract art.
You know, when I was a kid, before we had VCR decks, I used to make cassette audio recordings of my favorite movies when they aired on TV, simply by holding my mic up to the TV speaker. I would listen back and replay the movie’s visuals in my mind’s eye. Does that qualify my childhood bedroom for a CT listing? I jest, but, surely, it is a debatable point.
And don’t get me wrong… I don’t object to this listing, I’m just raising the question for possible discussion.
I passed by on the LIE last night and it seemed to me that the big marquee was being redone. It looked like it was completely stripped down to its metal frame.
While the construction fencing is still there along Horace Harding, one can clearly see that a series of attached townhomes have been built on the site. The homes face the side and back streets of the parcel, making backyards out of the former parking lot. The structures look pretty well complete. I imagine that with the weather warming up around here, they will probably finish off the details and landscaping in the coming weeks and months.
This pic and this one were posted to the photos page for the Martin Cinerama in New Orleans, LA. They look like images taken from pre-show reels from OTHER theaters, advertising the Martin in Atlanta. Is it possible these were exhibited as far away as New Orleans? I imagine they’d have been from theaters a bit closer to Atlanta than that. Did the Martin chain ever run any non-Cinerama neighborhood theaters? I’ve only ever seen the name associated with Cinerama exhibition.
This is for a Martin Theatre in Atlanta, GA, or so the text above indicates.
Both “Gunga Din” and “Stagecoach” are bona fide all-time greats. Two bright and shiny jewels in the magnificent crown that was 1939 for the motion picture industry. “Made For Each Other,” its legendary stars notwithstanding, perhaps not so much.
A pivotal moment in Hall history… I attended several of these shows and used to have a program. One of the more lamentable losses from my collection of souvenirs.
Latest pair of pics posted. Marquee still under wraps, but looking pretty damn close to completion. Still nothing on an anticipated opening date or booking?
Cagney really gave a spectacular performance in “One, Two, Three.” A wonderful swan song, his brief late-life cinematic resurrection notwithstanding. I absolutely love this movie.
Wow, Bill. Knowing what we do about Kubrick’s reticence to discuss and analyze the meaning behind his work, that is quite a remarkable synopsis he offered up!
Bill… is that Michael York in your photos? I recognize Liza Minnelli and Joel Grey easily enough, and I suppose that looks like an older (if surgically enhanced) version of Marisa Berenson… but the gentleman seated at far right on that panel bears absolutely NO resemblance to the Michael York I remember!
So, Ken, if you are patrolling the pages of CT tonight (or in the wee hours UK time), please correct the status of this theater as closed, but not demolished.
Hey Ed… You’re probably right about the two photos (which I took and posted), but at least they indicate where the theater once stood. The street view for this theater is entirely off the mark, pointing the view arbitrarily in some residential block behind Valley Stream State Park! And you are dead on about the Belair being utterly undistinguished! Nothing remarkable about the place at all, at least form a physical standpoint. Believe the last movie I saw here may have been “Doctor Detroit,” in 1983 or so.
Posted another trio of pics, taken Saturday, December 8th, 2012. Pretty much down to the finishing details on the facade, now. No way of knowing how the interior is coming along.
Tinseltoes, the only advantage I would give to the Kings over the Paradise is that of location. While the Kings isn’t exactly in the prime downtown area, seems to me that Brooklyn on the whole has a better reputation as a destination for cultural activities than the Bronx. And this is not to denigrate the Bronx, which is the borough from which my parents and grandparents hail, but I just don’t think it has the same appeal as Brooklyn. And the United Palace is first and foremost a church. I think a deal was arranged for concerts there, primarily as a temporary replacement for the Beacon, while the latter was undergoing its extensive renovations. While sporadic bookings have continued, I don’t think it was ever seriously positioned as a competitor of the Beacon’s and other downtown venues.