Fair Theatre

What’s the best way to get here by subway (from Manhattan)? Is a bus a better bet? Sad – I lived in Astoria for 6 years (just making it in time to enjoy the last couple of years of the old Steinway street Astoria Theater that is now a Duane Reade) – and I could have been riding my bike to the Fair all the time.. I didn’t know…

Ed, that’s no scarecrow – that’s one of the drag queens from inside coming up for a bit of air LOL…

Took some photos earlier this month of the freshly painted marquee:

Marquee and entrance
Profile marquee
Marquee close-up
Fair Scarecrow?
Freshly coated canopy

Compare that last shot with the following close-up view at the peeling paint under the canopy from just a few months ago:

Feb. 2006 under canopy

I’ll have to run by there one evening to see what the new neon looks like when fired up! And they certainly haven’t switched from porn, Mikeoaklandpark… In the main auditorium (the original theater) they had been running ‘70’s and '80’s grind house fare via video projection, while maintaining porn in the smaller separate screening rooms that had been carved from adjacent retail space. According to Alto, they have been mixing in the latest home video releases with the grind house fodder in the main auditorium.

I’m not sure what the deal is with that. Why bother? Was it in response to the Guiliani zoning laws that restricted businesses from operating 100% porn within a certain distance from schools, churches and residential areas? I can’t imagine any other reason. Who’d shell out the $15 admission just to sit in a musty old theater watching kung fu flicks on a video projector? No insult intended if that’s your gig!

The marquee just received an “upgrade” of sorts – workers recently repaired and replaced cracked frost glass and missing letters. The biggest change though is the new multi-color neon lighting installed around the face (it matches the pastel-colored tubes underneath that lead to the entry doors). Although not historically “true” to the original, it does add a bit of “punch” to the somewhat spartan and tired-looking old signage.

The owner’s “zest” for color lately has also resulted in some rather tacky interior redecoration of the lobby area as well (a god-awful amateurish hand-painted “rainbow” mural whose theme or concept eludes me, along with the existing hodge-podge of both modern and traditional furnishings, lamps, fake palms, Egyptian statuary, fish tanks, Christmas lights and fiber-optic “objets d’art”). Before, the walls were painted a relaxed, low-key basic black and dotted with small black & white framed photos of Hollywood stars (such as Laurel & Hardy, The Marx Brothers, Charlie Chaplin, Mae West and Lana Turner) – this made sense given the theatre’s “old-time” style and history and lent the place a bit of “vintage” charm and aesthetic as well.

Incidentally, the programming has also changed a little – in the main auditorium, they are breaking up the non-stop horror, action/adventure and martial arts films with the occassional latest home video new release – they were not getting the response to these films that they wanted, and quite frankly the regular patrons (who literally spend hours at a time in this place) were probably getting bored with it all (I know I was).

The Times Square area grindhouse distributors operated in a definite sub-culture environment. It’s not surprising that available information about Levene and his colleagues is sketchy.

Many of the movies recently shown at the Fair are owned by Aquarius Releasing, a company that has been in operation since the late 1960s and was for many years the major “exchange office” in the N.Y.C./tri-state area for most of the exploitation movie distributors, including Roger Corman. Most notoriously, Aquarius handled the controversial N.Y.C. release of DEEP THROAT.

Terry Levene, the president of Aquarius, specialized in acquiring foreign films, dubbing them, and then releasing them to drive-ins and grindhouses around the U.S. Some of his biggest hits were THE BODYGUARD (with Sonny Chiba), MAKE THEM DIE SLOWLY, FACES OF DEATH, THE SEVEN DOORS OF DEATH (a re-titling of Lucio Fulci’s THE BEYOND), BURIED ALIVE, and THE TONGFATHER. Aquarius originally had its offices in the heart of 42nd Street, in the Selwyn Theater building, but moved further west (9th Avenue, I think) in the late ‘80s.

“NOW SHOWING AT THESE AQUARIUS SHOWCASE THEATERS!” would appear under the newspaper ads for the movies Levene released — and as the old movie houses in Manhattan and the outer boroughs (and Westchester County and New Jersey) closed down one by one, Aquarius' films would mysteriously be advertised as playing in theaters that were no longer open for business! Or, in the case of Corman’s SATURDAY THE 14TH STRIKES BACK, the movie was advertised as playing in several theaters — but phone calls to those theaters revealed that it was actually playing in NONE of the theaters! Another common practice was to open a film at the Roxy III, a triplex video theater adjacent to the New Amsterdam Theater on 42nd Street. So a 35mm print of LORDS OF THE DEEP or TRANSYLVANIA TWIST would play around the corner at the Criterion Center on Broadway (in one of their basement theaters, dubbed “The Dungeon” by anyone who ever ventured down there) while a videotape of the same movie would show at the Roxy III in 24-hour rotation with stuff like THE HUMAN TORNADO and SUPERFLY, and both of these theaters would be listed in the newspaper as “AQUARIUS SHOWCASE THEATERS.” These shady practices nonetheless would help the indie distributors who needed to claim a certain number of theatrical playdates to satisfy their video deals.

I heard a while ago that Levene had retired and was living in New Jersey, but last year another veteran distributor told me that Aquarius was still very much in business and Levene was operating out of his home in Jersey. Since Aquarius provided the video grindhouses with product in the past — and many of the movies shown at the Fair recently are Aquarius releases (BRUCE LEE FIGHTS BACK FROM THE GRAVE, FIST OF FEAR – TOUCH OF DEATH, GOODBYE BRUCE LEE, PAY OR DIE, QUEEN BOXER), I’m 99% certain that Levene is behind these recent bookings.

The Montauk Theatre is located in Passaic, not Newark.
The Little Theatre and Cameo Twin are in Newark.

With the Polk closed as of Feb. 20th (Presidents Day), this is now the only remaining “adult theatre” in Queens, and one of only two (that I know of) still operating within NYC limits (Kings Highway Cinema is the other).

Hard to believe for a city of this status, size and population!
Consider: Newark, NJ has the same number of XXX theatres (on the same street, only blocks apart, in an undesirable locale…yet both are doing “respectable” business).

The fare at the Fair this week, at least according the the Voice ad, is “Kiss Daddy Goodbye” paired with “Death of a Ninja.” Then “Messenger of Death” and “Bruce Lee’s Greatest Revenge.”

Kind of reminds me of the type of fare seen on the marquees on the old 42nd Street between Seventh & Eighth Avenues.

The Fair’s original single-screen main auditorium is basically intact, including its balcony (which, by all appearances, has been declared “off-limits” for quite some time), with only minor aesthetic modifications. Expansion of the facilities to include additional smaller XXX theatres and private viewing booths was achieved by acquiring space from adjoining box stores on the west side of the building (if you look carefully, you can figure out where the walls used to exist).

The two Greek brothers who manage the theatre also run the adjacent Stella D’Argento Italian Restaurant located on the east side of the theatre (a convenient “walk-through” entry provides direct access to its “bar lounge” by theatre customers). The lounge menu offering “specials for theatre customers only” has proven popular and provides additional income for the restaurant.

The owners have provided amenities and reasonable levels of comfort and cleanliness that are unexpected in an establishment of this type. The décor, although somewhat tacky, sets a pleasant and inviting tone. The fish tanks bubbling away in the lobby are particularly unique. The relaxed, non-intimidating (even social) atmosphere will surprise adult theatre “veterans” and “novices” alike.

Ironically, the same block-long building housing the theatre and restaurant also provides storefront space to a black “church” (I use the term loosely) on its northwest corner! These are same wonderful people who have repeatedly tried (thankfully without success) to curtail or close down the theatre’s operations.

That Village Voice advert concerns me on two fronts.

First, from a customer standpoint, the advert’s seemingly intentional ambiguity (lack of exact show times which, of course, don’t exist anyway) and promotion of “R-rated” fare disguises the theatre’s true mission, which is to draw an “adult” audience to the XXX attractions. This is, in my opinion, misleading. For those “uninitiated” customers that do venture over, there will be quite a few raised eyebrows and a quick realization of where they are once they see the crowd that frequents this place (at least management banned the drag queens, who used to stomp about like mastodons in heals). Also, the movies and the “policy” are anything but “new” – they have been playing martial arts and other “clean” films on the main screen for years. The only difference is now they are limiting to one film genre.

Additionally, the theatre is actually located in East Elmhurst, on the northern outskirts of Jackson Heights (the comparatively-remote Astoria Boulevard location is actually closer to LaGuardia Airport than to the more “familiar” or “convenient” Northern Boulevard or Roosevelt Avenue locales).

Second, from a managerial perspective, I suppose the objective is to generate curiosity and steer queries to the theatre’s phone number, which IS prominently displayed. This could be used as a means of measuring response to the advert as well as answering questions about the theatre itself. Still, I can’t imagine what kind of response they expect to get for showing the same old martial arts flicks 13-16 hours per day (especially once they disclose the 15 dollar admission fee). Besides, as anyone in the porn business knows nowadays, the Internet is a great outlet for explicit advertising – maximum reach & frequency, and little regulation or censorship.

Bottom line: what is the point of spending money on advertising if you never bother mentioning the actual product or service that you want people to buy?

If there is some “unwritten” or “secret “ code in operation here, I must be missing it.

The problem with those types of grind movies are the prints would have to be all beatup to hell and faded. Having worked grind houses before the prints played many worn out theatres. There is a very small percent chance that they are running 35mm, is if they found the print or prints leftover in the theatre from years ago. This has happened many times before and the releasing company is no longer in business.