RKO Keith's Theatre

There were definite back-room deals made between Huang and Manes, bobosan. I remember reading about them in the papers or seeing reportson the news about the implication of Manes' involvement in the Board of Estimate reversal on the landmark designation.

Now that the NY Times allows you to search their archives for free going back to 1981, I found these interesting paragraph about the RKO Keith’s in a 1990 story:

‘In 1984, the Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the interior, calling it ’‘one of the few surviving examples … of the movie palace.’'

But the Board of Estimate eliminated the triplex auditorium from the designation and only the ticket lobby and Grand Foyer were protected.

The Board of Estimate no longer exists in New York City. It was the real political power in the city for decades, much more important than the City Council. It was abolished, I believe sometime in the 1980s, by the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that it violated the one-man, one-vote principle.

If my memory serves, the Board of Estimate was made up of the Mayor, City Controller, and Borough Presidents. For the Board of Estimate to have struck down the landmarks designation for th

e RKO’s interior, it seems certain that the Borough President of Queens must have taken action. After all, who else on the Board would have cared?

The Borough President of Queens in 1984 was Donald Manes, a notorious crook who later killed himself when his corruption was revealed. Has all this ever been investigated? Is it likely that Manes killed the landmark designation in return for some payoff? And if so, who made the payoff? It’s all very fascinating, no?

Nice job, Ed. I hadn’t seen those details in such close-up before. It all helps document this great building before it disappears.

To help recall the changing face of the closed building, you might want to look at my pics, taken in 1990 and 94. The theater closed in ‘86, I believe.

http://bobby19850.tripod.com/

PKoch… I was at the theater just the other day and all looks status quo. It seems that the property is once again stuck in a political and economic quagmire. Last year, the developer submitted revised plans that were rejected by the community board and the prevailing thought is that they are looking to abandon plans and ditch the site due to the softening real estate market. At least that puts off the horrific “glass curtain” proposal for the site – however, if the theater is allowed to rot too much longer, all hope of a restoration of any kind (landmarked areas or otherwise) might be lost. At some point, some politician will have had enough and will push through a plan to level the site just to rid the area of the “eyesore.” Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.

Meanwhile, I snapped some more photos. Start with this one and – if you have patience for my self-indulgence – continue by clicking “Next” for the other 15 or so new pics.

It is ineresting to note that in 1975, when the pre-triplexed RKO was functioning Town Hall looked like this:
View link
Now except for Town Hall Flushing landmarks are in utter disrepair, notably the New York State Pavilion, the Bowne House and the RKO. The distinction being that the RKO has a prime location and is the one enclosed structure big enough to generate revenue. Once Boymelgreen takes the tax write off and divests the RKO there are plenty of theatre restoration precedents. I recently visited Shea’s Theatre, in Buffalo, at about the same size as the RKO, is City owned and maintained by a preservation guild; see:
View link

I was in the area yesterday and saw the sign in front of the Keith’s (as well as one in front of Town Hall). I’m happy that someone (or some group) was able to get these markers installed – and not just for the theater, but for the other historic sites that dot this strip along Norhtern Blvd and might otherwise be obscured in the avalanche of Chinese-language signs that seem to fall on top of one another everywhere you look.

Like anything associated with Boymelgreen, that last page seems to have contained a virus!

Those ‘73 shots are from a bygone era, SWC. The Keith’s was still in operation as a single-screener, Shea Stadium still had its original concrete beige color (remember those blue and orange pastel shingles on the rampways?), and all the signage is in English! Thanks for sharing.

In one of your more recent photos, it looks as if there’s some sort of rather expensive-looking marker in front of the building pointing out the former theater’s historic significance. When was this taken? Is this something that is there now?

Consider the absurdity fully justified, Jeffrey:

Butterfly 3/10/82

And now – thankfully – we can put this baby to bed!

True, bobosan… But the fringe benefits of being with the lovely (if talentless) Miss Zadora might have been well worth the investment for Riklis!

Aha! My memory was sort of accurate, but I combined some things. According to an April 5, 1968 TIME article, “Wall Street whiz-bang Meshulam Riklis” at the time was attempting to “take over Schenley Industries, Inc., one of the nation’s biggest distillers (1967 sales: $518 million), through a merger with Glen Alden Corp., part of the $1.4 billion sales complex that Riklis, 44, has shuffled together.”

“Should it succeed, the Schenley takeover would cap a comeback for Riklis, a Palestinian immigrant whose seesawing fortunes have fascinated observers on Wall Street for years. Riklis came to the U.S. in 1947, taught Hebrew and sold stock in Minneapolis until the mid-1950s, when he was struck with what he now calls "the effective nonuse of cash"â€"or the technique of using borrowed money to buy undervalued companies, whose assets could provide the leverage for still larger takeovers.

Backed initially by a group of Minneapolis investors, in less than a decade Riklis spun together a retailing empire under the Rapid-American Corp., which controlled McCrory Corp. whose 1,500 stores (McCrory-McLellan-Green, National Shirt, Lerner) racked up $554 million in sales in 1962. By then he was vastly overextended. When grandly predicted earnings failed to materialize, McCrory’s stock tumbled and Riklis' entire colossus seemed headed for collapse. “God,” wailed Riklis at one point, “has added to our agonies.”

Scrambling for survival capital, Riklis sold off Rapid-American’s businesses (paint, printing and clothing), leaving it a mere shell. McCrory, too, came in for a paring. Riklis then bought control of Glen Alden Corp., a conglomerate with interests in coal and leather goods (which he sold) and textiles and R.K.O. theaters (which he retained). By 1965, such shufflings yielded some $50 million, which Riklis soon put to work. Since early 1966, Glen Alden has bought into building materials, B.V.D. clothing, and only three months ago, the diversified Stanley Warner Corp., whose interests include Playtex bras, movie theaters and throat lozenges."

How ironic! Sounds like the RKO Keith’s went from the frying pan (Riklis) to the fire (Boymelgren).

I hope you win!
Paging Donald Trump!!

With the number of posts on this page over the past 6+ years, it’s no wonder things have become so repetitive — who can keep track? But I’m sure we’ve had links to those Boymelgreen renderings before. Note that their description of the project says it will be completed in early 2008 — highly unlikely if they haven’t even started. Whatever happened to the rumors that Boymelgreen was trying to unload the property? Has anybody heard anything new? Is there anything at all going on there? News and speculation about this theater seems to have died since that flurry of activity in December and January.