Century's Prospect Theatre
41-10 Main Street,
Flushing,
NY
11355
41-10 Main Street,
Flushing,
NY
11355
9 people
favorited this theater
Showing 76 - 100 of 100 comments
Wow you really took me ack with Adventures Inn. I forgot about the College Point It is exactly on the old Adventures Inn. And your right about the Main St Theater. Do you know if they still show first run movies over there or what?
Bobby… the closest theater would be the College Point Multiplex on the Whitestone Expressway service road off Linden Place. From the parking lot (on the Toys R Us side) you can see the roof line of the RKO Keith’s hulking shell across the Expressway. I think this is where the old Adventurer’s Inn amusement park used to be. Or was that up by 20th Ave? I can’t exactly recall.
Anyway, the only theater left on Main Street is the Main Street Theater (itself now a multiplex) all the way down in Kew Gardens Hills.
That was sad what happened to Tony Avena. You know its pretty sad what has happened not so much to the nigborhood but to all of the old places that used to be around. The Prospect was a good theatre and really there was no ned to close it! I have'nt been around there in a while but is there any other theatre around that area any more?
I went here a few times in the early to mid ‘80’s myself, bobby. I can’t remember the fast food joint you’re talking about. The only movie I can remember distinctly seeing here (upstairs) was the Stephen King adaptation “Christine”. It was playing on the top of a double bill with some awful horror film that I wanted to stay and watch, but my date didn’t. I worked in the area at Greenpoint Bank a few blocks to the south at the corner of Main and Sanford from 1991 to 1995 and the theater was already demolished by the time I started. Gloria’s was still there, but under different management and a pale shadow of its former glory. I wound up preferring Barone’s Pizzeria on the other side of Main. Remember Tony Avena’s little shoe-shine stand and key-cutting place under the LIRR trestle a block away from the Prospect? The railroad almost ran Avena out of his spot (which had been leased by his family for over 70 years) but he waged a public battle and won a below-market lease extension. He died, however, shortly thereafter, and the family eventually lost the location to a Chinese fast food joint.
Boy talk about memories! I went the Prospect several times as a teen! Don’t remember any of the movies but it was such a cool place. I would always go to Glorias for the best Pizza ever in NYC and when I worked at McDonalds a block away I would always park my car on the side of the Prospect! Does anyone remember the little restaraunt that sold either hotdogs or chinese food right next to or even in the lobby of the theatre? Maybe I’m crazy but this was in the early 80’s late 70’s?
Thanks so much, guys. I plan on visiting the Queens Theater as soon as I move back. I’ll share whatever photos I can get.
Kris… The Queens Theater is still standing and in use as a church. I’ve never been inside, but you might want to stop by for a service one Sunday and see if you can’t find any of those murals to photograph. Many would advise that to just start snapping pictures unless and until told to stop is the best way to photograph the interior of a theater/church conversion, but you might be able to get permission to do so if you were to speak to a church official and tell your story.
I’d love to see those photos posted here if you ever get a chance to do so.
Does anyone have more information on William Rau? I grew up in the house he lived in (on the border of Richmond Hill and Kew Gardens, in Queens, NY). The house has been in my family for over 30 years. I am preparing to take over the house, and would like to learn more about his work.
My neighbor, who has lived next to the Rau house for amost 50 years, mentioned that he was an artist, and painted many of the murals in theaters around Brooklyn and Queens.
It seems that I’m on the right website, considering what I see posted. Hopefully, I can go to some of these theaters, if they still exist, and take some photos of his work.
Thanks so much for your help.
-Kris
Any chance of anyone having a view from the front of the Prospect? How about an interior shot?
Thanks for the pic, Warren. I know both that block, and the trolley’s successor, the Flushing-Ridgewood bus, very well.
I used to regularly eat at the Wendy’s a few blocks north of there, near the southwest corner of Main and Roosevelt, as recently as fall 1999. Fortunately, I was no longer eating there when it was shot up and terrorized by criminals in May 2000.
Bobosan, which Jahn’s are you referring to ? I think the one in Richmond Hill, next door to the former RKO Keith’s Richmond Hill, is the only one left in NYC. I was last there April 4, 2004. It was so dark, quiet and empty there, I’ve been in brighter and livelier funeral parlors !
Eddie’s Sweet Shop across the street from the Cinemart Cinemas on Metropolitan Avenue in Forest Hills was, fortunately, still much busier and livelier. I was last there Saturday August 6 2005.
It’s really a shame that there’s nothing left of the theater, no indication that a theater was once there. Because many people have a lot of fond memories of the Prospect. Not just movies, but also graduations – I graduated from JHS 189 at the Prospect in 1970. I recall seeing those dumb Disney movies on Saturday matinees in the ‘60s – 75 cents for kids to get in. I saw Jaws there for the first time in 1975, the theater packed and people screaming! A treat after a movie was going for ice cream at Jahn’s or a slice of pizza at Gloria’s. A big part of my childhood was seeing films at the Prospect and the RKO Keith’s down the street, and now both are history. Ah well, time marches on!
Judys last film opened here on Premiere Showcase
View link
I’m not sure what year this Christmas re-issue was from?
View link
One question was that the Loews Commodore in the village or the Commodore in Brooklyn? I am guessing Manhattan.
Those certainly were the great years of movie theatres. Try to get a star of Jolsons calibar to even come to one theatre, none the less 6 a day.
Warren, once again, thanks for all the details and background !
The Prospect Theatre can be seen in the following image :
http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?31213
I think the film titles on the marquee date the photo at 1948, but check, if you wish, at :
www.imdb.com/
Thanks Warren & Tom about the Jolson dates. Dates & times seem to blur after 50+ years.
Thanks Warren for that information about when Al Jolson performed. Doing three or four theaters per day may account for him not making it to 1952. Tom Halstead
I’m sure you saw Al Jolson perform. However, Al died on October 23, 1950 based on a google search I did. You must have seen him in 1950 or before.
Tom Halstead
I’m sure you saw Al Jolson perform. However, Al died on October 23, 1950 based on a google search I did. You must have seen him in 1950 or before.
Tom Halstead
In 1952 or ‘53 Al Jolson made a personal appearance at the Prospect to promote his movie “Jolson Sings Again”. He sang for 20 minutes refusing to use a mike. It was memorable.
I thought the theater was north of Roosevelt Avenue. Your location of the theater opposite the library branch suggests that it was south of Roosevelt.
I remember this theater. I saw a bad Charles Bronson movie called “Ten to Midnight” there in 1983. I think the marquee still exists and the theater is now a furniture store.
A good theatre, surrounded by a lot of great little shops known
in old Flushing-Blue Star Market, Gloria Pizza, Shelley’s Bakery.
Seem to remember this in the Skouras theatre chain, also. Saw JAWS there. Unfortunately, this is where the tragic Wendy’s robbery-murder case recently took place.