RKO Keith's Theatre
135-35 Northern Boulevard,
Flushing,
NY
11354
135-35 Northern Boulevard,
Flushing,
NY
11354
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No if you search for Northern Blvd. & Main Street in Flushing. It comes up with 11354 zip code and the map pictures the theatre from the air. That address was used from the David Naylor book “Great American Movie Theaters”.
Jeffrey: As fresh air is to human beings, debate is to the non-human automaton known as Warren. It’s just who he is. He goes ballistic if he sees the word “the” before a theater. Me, I’d rather just go to the Loew’s Jersey and watch Norma Desmond rather than nit-pick on this site. Just ask Peter K. and Lost Broadway !
Warren, that introduction has been there for over seven years, and you’ve been posting here just as long — why the sudden need to debate?
(And yes, Google puts the address in the wrong spot; if you click on Street View that’s obvious. But if you move the Street View icon to the Main St. intersection, you can see the theater clear as day.)
I came upon this extraordinary photo from the Summer of 1928, showing the RKO Keith’s Albee theatre still under construction (it opened on Christmas day of that year). Fortunately I was able to restore this from a scan of the original negative. I took the roof top pictures posted here, from the building in the background center, in 2007.
Note the details on the fountain in the foreground. I think the sign in the center is “Market” and you can just make out Keith’s Albee Flushing,
“presenting … North?” over the marquee steel, that remained covered for another 60 years.
Nice find Warren; good to see it as a recent article from a great resource. I remember seeing North to Alaska at the RKO, although released in 1960 it may have been fortuitously showing around this time. Coming out of the theatre after, it felt like you were ‘in Alaska’ with a lot of ‘King of the snowpile hill’ going on.
At almost 100' x 25' that was/is one large Promenade of a large theatre. An usher’s room and check room are along the back on either side of a space called the “palm room”, where I think the vending machines were. Again thanks to thanks to davebazooka for posting those prints.
I recall where that bench appears in above link (and on the landmark sign), to the left of the recessed wall fountain, is where the candy stand was during the ‘60s. The balcony area at the top of the stairs had candy and soda machines.
If there is one good side of the current economic crisis, let’s hope the Keith’s can remain untouched for a bit longer. Real estate is slowing down and we as preservationists can always afford more time.
True but I read here once “Portions of the lobby and grand foyer will be preserved and surrounded by a "curtain of glass” and this excerpt from the New York Sun 9/29/05 interview, posted here before, “a principal of the V Studio, Jay Valgora, testified that preserving it while trying to build on top of and around it presented him with the "most complex job of sequencing” he had ever faced as an architect. It also presented him with very high construction costs of $238 a square foot.“ still applies. It almost gives a defacto landmark status to the building as a whole. Development around that block since ‘05 has not made it any easier, nor has the emploded condo market.
Thank the Queens Historical Society for putting up these signs, which serve notice to developers, just how unfeasible building up and over the Grand Foyer, on an already dense occupancy block will be. They effectively landmarked the whole building. Thanks also to Dave Bazooka for hosting this photo that gives an idea of just how large the foyer is
[url]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b254/davebazooka/RKOfoyer2.jpg[/url]
The Flushing Freedom Mile is a proper slap-in-the-face to those who let the Keith’s rot…imagine what it could be now had it been preserved.
And DEBORAH is not DEBORAH anymore (same front painted white), although the supports for the BINGO sign are still there:
The NECCHI sign was still partly visible in this 1990 photo I took:
View link
That should be “Necchi” as
If you look closely you can see the discoloration around where that sign was. Necci (Italian) and Elna (Swiss) were some of the best metal case portable sewing machines around. I wonder if they stock these window frames at Home Depot?
Thanks, Lost Memory…thats how I recall it sitting for most of my early years, note the NECCI ELNA sign backing is still there, sans the lettering. I could make out what it was supposed to say but wondered what the heck that meant :–)
SWC, I’ve been out of the loop here for many months (previously posting as Tom S.) and have been on a Cinema Treasures hiatus for a good year or more. Just now have I been looking at some of your photographs and wonder if we can compare notes…feel free to get in touch with me at cartoonsonfilm (at) gmail.com when you like.
Best, Tom
That was a knee jerk reaction to the mention of a fountain. Arcadia Publishing put out a a Flushing 1880-1935 Post Card History Series Book by James Driscoll (Historical Society) with an 1890’s picture of that fountain and the caption that says it was destroyed with the widening of Northern Blvd. (I picked up a copy at the Queens Museum in FMCP). The Historical Aerials web site [url]http://www.historicaerials.com/default.aspx[/url] has a 1954 view oblique enough to identify the front of the RKO, with what appears to be a square with a path to a round area in the center. They also have views from 2006, 2004 (the best), ‘80, '74 and '66 .
I’d still like to know what happened to the RKO fountain, its mentioned here it was replaced with a candy stand when it was triplexed.
I believe Harris was referring to the fountain that was in the Keith lobby, not the one in the arcade on Northern Blvd/ RT 25A
From right here on this board:
“The fountain was once reported to be installed in a restaurant in Greenwich Vlllage. That narrows the field down to about 5,000 restuarants, though it would have to be a fairly large one to accommodate the Keith’s fountain.
posted by Warren G. Harris on Jul 1, 2006 at 10:34am”
The Streetscapes reporter for the NY Times Real Estate section is Christopher Gray, who can be reached at Hope this helps!
If no one has an answer to that question, you should submit it to the New York Times reporter who has the weekly column in the real estate section called “Streetscapes” (I think). People are always asking about the history of certain builidngs an streets and this is would be a great question. When was the fountain removed, where did it go and are there plans for a restoration.
Here’s a photo of the plaza in front of the RKO Keith’s during the 1930’s. When did they remove that nice fountain?
View link
The front of the RKO with address group 11/8/2008:
The back of the RKO 11/9/2008:
Has an old spike top 8' fence, that this pre-triplex tree grew around, encasing one of the bars and bending over the top. Some razor wire was added in the last decade. There is an 8' drop on the other side where there is a below grade drive way (now sealed off from Farrington Street) that leads to the basement, with a lot of scrap wood piled up. You can just make the rear roof top access (door completely gone) in the center. The entrance to the loading area, at the end of the driveway, is also open.
Actually, by doing a Find On This Page search, I located the reference above — posts on Sept. 9 & 10, 2006, mostly by Francesca, indicating that Abel met his espionage contact in the RKO Keith’s in 1954. Scroll up and you’ll find more.