Fair Theatre
90-18 Astoria Boulevard,
East Elmhurst,
NY
11369
90-18 Astoria Boulevard,
East Elmhurst,
NY
11369
18 people
favorited this theater
Showing 176 - 200 of 358 comments
Nah. XXX stores with their teeny tiny booths just don’t do it for me. I like the wider exposures of full-sized theaters, or at least a “projection room”.
‘It’s a shame that you would rather see the building torn down than stop showing porn and kung fu.’
You’re being a bore. I did not say I’d rather it be torn down. You don’t know whether it would be torn down if it continued to show porn or not, and you know nothing about whether Bollywood would have caused prosperity at higher prices. I just don’t care about it that much. The Fair was a scene to me. I’m interested in old theaters too, but not a purist like some of the ones here. Don’t exaggerate and say things like ‘it’s a shame’ what I think about something that I have absolutely no power over. I hate Bollywood, so you can put that in your pipe and smoke it. Point is, with the restaurant shut down, and a different kind of theater, I’ll never see the place again, because I don’t live out there. It might as well be an old movie palace in Milwaukee, but it won’t mean anything to me if it shows a bunch of Hindu movies. I saw what was suppposed to be one of their best ones ‘Lagaan’ and hated it.
faberfranz—I think nobody has said anything about Cinema Kings turning to Bollywood yet, although the phone answerer there did have the Hindi accent too. They have a lot of porn stores in Manhattan, there are several XXX stores in the West Village. Oh well, no way to turn those into Bollywood.
I got good dildoes at two of them…
Too late for expeditions to the Fair “as it was”? Last chance for expeditions to Cinema Kings Highway?
Tour guides?
It’s a shame that the owners thought the porn niche was strong enough that they could jack up the price so much. I guess they thought that none of their audience would be content just watching at home. I still think they’ll do better with Bollywood at any price than they did with porn at $9.
I’m not sure what you mean by “The Fair is nowhere.” The Fair will actually still be there. I’m not interested in the management’s well being, either, but theaters are businesses, not social service organizations. It’s a shame that you would rather see the building torn down than stop showing porn and kung fu.
‘I’m happy that the management is keeping the theater going and adjusting to the demand rather than eeking it out with porn for a couple more years and then selling out to a developer.’
Well, you needn’t worry about that, I am not sure I’ve ever heard of owners of any kind of movie theaters who wanted to ‘eke it out’ even if it was High Cult-cha…and if it’s then selling to a developer, I couldn’t care less. The Fair is nowhere if it’s just some piece of Curry Hill diaspora. The place actually had an identity, and, in fact, the last examples in ‘dwindling niche markets’ are always very precious, but so what? I’m about as interested in the management’s well-being as they are in mine, so just preserving the old building doesn’t mean as much to me as something parallel in Manhattan would (and those were usually razed.)
Cypress is right about the way the price hike drove people away, though.
Once management hiked the price from $9.00 to $15.00 it drove many away. On weekends the Fair was packed. But now even on a weekend the crowds aren’t what they used to be.
pmullins, I have nothing against the Fair’s current patrons or porn itself, and from the thread and articles I’ve read, I was under the impression that patronage was pretty sparse. Porn kept a lot of our theaters going because there was no demand for anything else. Now it’s a dwindling niche market. I’m happy that the management is keeping the theater going and adjusting to the demand rather than eeking it out with porn for a couple more years and then selling out to a developer.
Great pics Ed.
To the best of my knowlege that leave the King in Brooklyn showing porno. Is it the end of an era?
Yikes! Sorry.
This link should work better. Amazing what havoc a missing back-slash can wreak!
Hondo59… I know what you mean about trying to photograph the outside of the theater. I was doing just that back in 2005 when a manager came out and warned me to cease and desist. Just to punctuate his comments, a burly “security” guy poked his head out of the front door to offer a menacing scowl. I wound up going back some months later and snapping additional photos through the security gates BEFORE the theater opened – otherwise I’d have never gotten a shot of that “Klansman” poster.
I’ve posted these photos individually before, but [url=http://s18.photobucket.com/albums/b110/GuanoReturns/Queens%20Movie%20Theaters/Fair%20Theater%20Jackson%20Heights/]here’s a link to my photo album for the Fair[url] in case anyone wants to revisit.
Old Indian farts are spicy, I hear.
I have to go back one more time and let some old fart have his way with me.
Reminds me of an ambiguous message on a marquee on a theater in what used to be a Greek neighborhood, just east of the GW bridge or maybe up near 181st street (not the theater at 181st & Broadway). It had begun to show porn movies, but still catered to remnants of the ethnic community, so the sign said:
“Only on Sundays, Greek movies”
Knowing the way different populations might interpret “Greek”, I imagined disparate people lining up at the box office, eyeing each other suspiciously. A wholesome, conservative family group alongside a furtive guy in a raincoat, each wondering what the other was doing there.
Maybe the Fair will show Indian porn. Men and women kissing each other openly, on the mouth?
I went there last week and I was puzzled by all the posters advertising Bollywood movies. I must return next week before they change over to Bollywood films. At least they’re not tearing down the theater. Perhaps now they’ll open up the balconey.
Perhaps President Guliani can find some moral loophole that will limit Bollywood to 40% of any NY venue where it does not represent community’s standards.
I am happy to see people attend the cinema to see the movie, for a change, but that many screens ALL showing Bollywood would be rare even in India.
After my recent excursion to the Fair myself, I thoroughly enjoyed the well-written and entertaining Post article. It was fun to read something that pretty much mirrored my experience! I’m glad I was able to get a look at the place before it changes. Now I’ll have to trek all the way down to the Cinema Kings Highway if I ever need another heaping helping of genuine sleaze. In a perfect world, someone could have been able to take advantage of the decor & change the Fair’s booking policy to classic or art films, like Film Forum, Anthology Film Archives, etc. Well, at least the Fair will still be open, and not torn down. Does this mean the famous “Klansmen” poster will be coming down too?
Lou, take a look over at /theaters/834/ and you’ll see there’s been a huge amount of speculation over whether there’s still any chance the theater could be preserved. Nobody seems to know what’s going on right now. (But let’s not discuss this here!)
Thanks, Lou, I’ll look here and at the Post.
That’s an excellent question, pmullins. No, management at the Fair is still not talking to The Post. But I expect our interpid correspondents here will be visiting next weekend to let us know exactly what’s going on. And The Post is going to be doing a piece on the Bollywood circuit one of these days. Jeffrey, what do you THINK is going on at the RKO Keith’s?
Lou—but does that mean the WHOLE theater is therefore being changed into a family place? Enquiring minds, I think, want especially to know that. Will the X-rated areas still be considered, in other words, profitable enough to be kept, or have they decided to bring in Indian families in the area—which would have to mean the rest was shut down, those 2 things do not survive together. Or would the Fair not tell you this part even on the new phone call?
Oh my, this is terrible news. What are we to do now? I suppose we could all travel to the Cinema Kings in Brooklyn. I am curious how much pressure was used by government agencies to force the change to Indian language films?
Thank you, Lou! Now please head over to the RKO Keith’s in Flushing and find out what the heck is going on over there!
I called the Fair last night and they are, indeed, switching to Bollywood fare next Thursday, April 6. Perhaps that’s why they didn’t want to talk with me when I visited a couple of weeks ago. Thanks to all of the contributors on this page and related pages who helped make my article possible. http://blogs.nypost.com/movies
There’s more to what’s going on inside the Fair than meets the eye. Try photographing the theater even from the outside.
‘one must learn to like one’s friends’ should have read ‘one must learn to like anyone one is thrown into the presence of as if they were exactly like one’s own friends’