Loew's Valencia Theatre

I’m so glad I discovered this website! As an avid movie fan my whole life, it’s wonderful to chat with others who are as passionate about films and theatres as I am. My wife and I go to the movies often but we are so sick of the boxlike multiplexes. Leno is SO right! We are always reminiscing about the old classic theatres. So I guess that makes us old fogies. But to see a film in a Valencia or Madison or even the Embassy was wonderful. Even if the picture stunk, at least the theatre was pretty to look at.
Re SAMSON AND DELILAH – I honestly don’t remember the quality of the picture or the sound. I was just so happy to be allowed to go by myself that I would have been thrilled just to watch newsreels all afternoon!
It’s amazing how so many of us who grew up in the 50s & 60s were so incredibly influenced by moviegoing. Not just movies – but moviegoing. Going out to the movies was a treat. It was very often a family event. I recall seeing BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI with my parents and aunts and uncles and cousins in Patchogue, Long Island in 1957, I believe, and when it was over, we all marched out of the Patchogue theatre whistling the Colonel Bogie March. I remember a bunch of us going to see REAR WINDOW at the Embassy (1956?)and my grandmother yelling at Grace Kelly to get out of the murderer’s apt. cause she could see him (Raymond Burr) coming up the stairs. I’ll never forget seeing DAMN YANKEES (1958) at the RKO Keiths and my parents and I singing “Ya Gotta Have Heart” on the way to our 55 Chevy Bel Air. But I guess each generation has its own memories of movie going. I’m just happy that I got mine from magnificent theatres rather than Ipods or cell phones.

I have a wonderful memory of seeing a return engagement of SAMSON AND DELILAH starring Hedy Lamarr and Victor Mature at the beautiful Valencia Theatre. It was 1960 and I met my friend Ray Pistone in front of the theatre for a matinee and there was a line outside! I was 12 years old and it was the first time I was allowed to travel from my Cypress Hills neighborhood to Jamaica, Queens alone on the el train. I felt very grown up and the movie was stupendous. The grandiose theatre matched the Cecil B. DeMille movie in every aspect and I think it hurt movie going for me for many years thereafter because I wanted every movie going experience to be like that! Big movie – big theatre! I feel so sorry for younger generations who have no idea what an experience it used to be to go to the movies!

Thanks, Bway ! A pleasant reminder of when I used to “live” on nycsubway.org !

Thanks, Warren, for the anecdotes, and for the link to the newspaper ad.

Thanks, balloonhedz. There are several similar photos on

www.nycsubway.org

Thanks, youngnyer1. I’d like to see more photos from those NYC archives myself.

This is pretty cool:

View link

Thanks.

It is not an attack fella. I am pointing out the obvious as you have done to many others. Perhaps you should follow your own advice instead of trying to advise other people. Why is it that you question my contributions but say nothing to the many deadbeats that come here and post no comments.

Cool ad fella. You posted the exact same comment in four theatres. haha

can anyone explain to me why there are no postings on the Embassy, Willard anymre ? robbie

But the strange thing is, it stops coming from ALL theaters when the problem comes up. I didn’t get one email from the site since Sept 8th Even theaters I posted in about a week ago. I figured it was just “slow”, but then I randomly checked ones I constantly get emails from, and sure enough, the Keiths, Valencia, Ridgewood all had recent comments, but I didn’t get the emails.
This didn’t happen to everyone even back in June when it happened to me the first time.

I posted in 5 theaters yesterday, and am getting the emails again from the ones I just posted in yesterday, like the Valencia, etc, but not all the others. Strange.
I don’t feel like commenting in every theater I want email updates from again like I did back in June, the last time it happened, but I guess I’ll have to slowly do it over time.
I wish there was a way to turn on theaters again without commenting, like a “watch this theater” box or something.

These ads have a certain aesthetic as well as a set routine. The style of the vertical ellipse on the right side with the stand-out faces has been copied in Metro-North RR posters for the current TV show, “It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia”.

The question “Is is bigger than a breadbox?” was first posed by Steve Allen, not Miss Kilgallen. Over the years, it became a running gag on “What’s My Line?”. Back on topic, I am going to make my first visit to the Valencia in a couple of weeks. I can’t wait.