Lost only toys with me because he loves me so much. And he knows I have a fondness for talking to myself (at great length I might add) on these theater pages. Go to the page for the Argo Theater in Elmont, NY to see a perfect example. That one spanned over several months! And no OT bilge on any of them!!! Actually, it is quite comical, isn’t it?
Thanks for the ground level shot, Warren. The aerial view was a bit deceptive.
Last week I enjoyed a 4 day vacation up in Bar Harbor and had a chance to take a number of photographs of the beautiful Criterion Theater. I posted them all to my photobucket account here.
I know that seems fairly exhaustive, but there are some 46 images in total in my photobucket album. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to watch a movie in the theater. The films run twice nightly (around 7 or 7:30 and again around 9 or 10) and the program changes every couple of days. The night I arrived and first found the theater, it was too late to catch that evening’s 10pm show of “Pirates of the Caribbean” and by the following night, the show was changed to the animated “Ant Bully” – which I really didn’t want to sit through.
The folks that run the place were exceedingly laid back and really nice and allowed me to enter the building and take as many photos as I wanted without charging me for admission (as I was doing so, patrons were entering the theater for that evening’s 1st screening). As you might be able to see from the exterior rear shot, the lot on which the theater was built slopes up to the street entrance. This creates a rather unorthodox ticket lobby floor that slopes DOWN from the entrance to the foyer. The small foyer features a candy counter against the rear auditroium wall and a twin set of stairs leading up to the mezzanine at either side. Up the right stairway, there is a small beverage counter tucked into the corner and a couple of vintage posters (see the photo above). The right stair case is kept closed until the end of the movie, when it is used as an exit for balcony patrons.
The odd looking “floating” balcony is divided into 9 sections, each with 3 or 4 rows of seating (and some with tables in the front row). The art deco characteristics are wonderfully preserved (despite the odd missing fixture here and there) right down to the stenciling on the lobby cloak-room door. I hope that next time I get up there (and I do plan on returning) I’m able to enjoy a good movie at the Criterion. A true cinema treasure if ever there was one.
The fly space seems pretty narrow from that view, doesn’t it? It doesn’t seem to be much wider than what the width of the proscenium would be. I was going to ask if that was common for a lesser vaudeville/movie house, but Warren commented early on this page that the Willard was considered a luxurious first-run house when it first opened.
As I suspected, the link isn’t perfect. When it opens, the theater is at the top of the image near center. Just use the mouse to click and drag the image down and get it more centered. Then double click on the theater itself to zoom in.
It only works on Windows PCs, unfornuately, not Macs. You might have to enlarge the window once it opens to see the theater – the links to that site don’t always bring up the exact image and framing you anticipate. Also close out the Welcome window on the left and you might have to zoom in by clicking on the larger building icon in the tool palette. You can also use the directional tool to rotate the view.
It only works on Windows PCs, unfornuately, not Macs. You might have to enlarge the window once it opens to see the theater – the links to that site don’t always bring up the exact image and framing you anticipate. Also close out the Welcome window on the left and you might have to zoom in by clicking on the larger building icon in the tool palette. You can also use the directional tool to rotate the view.
The “Little Tough Guys” in Warren’s ad from 1938 were a comedic Universal Studios knock off of Warner Brothers' Dead End Kids during a time before the latter bunch would morph into the low brow Bowery Boys. At this point, the Dead End Kids were still playing it fairly serious, having been featured in not only the original “Dead End” but in the drama “Crime School” as well, both along side Humphrey Bogart. Still to come was the classic “Angels with Dirty Faces” and several other dramatic (or at least semi-dramatic) features for Warners before Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall would settle into the broad caricatures of Slip Mahoney and Satch Jones and lead the Bowery Boys into dozens of low budget programmers for Universal and Monogram.
You might say that the “Little Tough Guy” series was the prototype for the Bowery Boys formula. No need to thank me for the OT bilge.
Anyway, for Independence Day 1986, low brow comedy found its way back to the Rivoli – by now stripped of even its great name and advertised as the seemingly generic UA Twin:
Well… naturally it doesn’t open precisely as it should have. When you open the link (it doesn’t work on Macs, unfortunately) close out the Welcome window on the left and zoom in by clicking on the larger building icon on the tool palette. Then you’ll have to use your mouse to click and drag the image to the right in order to bring the theater into view. Sigh. Local.live is a great little site, but it can be damn frustrating post as a link!
Sheesh! I come back from a week’s vacation and find that Warren wants me exterminated! If I know what’s good for me I better stick to statistical facts and historically significant data germane to this theater…
Well… here’s a local.live view of the old Willard (which looks perfectly intact from the exterior despite the interior gut job we know took place in the ‘50’s for conversion to catering space):
Hopefully, this opens properly. You may have to open the window to full size and zoom in, but the structure should be easily identifiable as an old theater, sitting along side the elevated J train tracks on Jamaica Ave. You can use the directional palette to rotate the view in any direction.
Nice photo, Warren. The “Kill the movie tax” sign hanging under the canopy reminds me of the “Stop Pay TV” notices that I’ve seen spelled out on 42n Street grind houses in photos from the early 1970’s. I’ve never heard of a the movie tax. I suspect it was a movement in Congress that was defeated…? Any illumination on that topic?
I’m trying to figure out where this was. Where exactly was this theater in relationship to Tri County flea market and the Nassau Mall? It was on the same side (the north) of Hempstead Tpke, wasn’t it? And was it a free standing twin? So what exactly occupies the site now? And did the new tenants move into to the old theater building or did they raze it and build new? Someone mentioned a carpet store, but I’m not sure if that referred to this theater or the UA Meadowbrook that was also referenced in the thread above.
Lots of questions, I know, but I was just in the area yesterday to visit my cousins who live off of Wantagh Avenue and I think this theater was still around when they first moved into the area about 13 or 14 years ago. There’s a Loew’s Mutliplex now in the Nassau Mall which I’m pretty sure was built within the last decade.
At some point, the theater space must have been refurbished into a simple unadorned box. As I wrote previously, there was no obvious sign of any ornamentation or detail work in the auditorium or small lobby. It looked like it could have been carved out of retail space sometime in the ‘70’s.
Before setting the World Theater back on the path of righteousness, Embassy ran the former Trans Lux West/Trans Lux 49th Street on Broadway (which also did some XXX time as the Pussycat and Grand Pussycat) under the name Embassy 49th Street. I think for some reason discussion of the Frisco can be found on the Rivoli Theater page.
Oh no you don’t. Don’t blame this on me. Warren will hunt me down and beat me with his fists or personally arrange it so I am banned from the Lincoln Center branch of the NY Public Library.
I doubt it too, Jeffrey. The assassination was on Friday 11/22/63. The Hootenanny ad ran in the Saturday 11/23 papers and the shows were to run that entire day alternating with the main feature. On Sunday, the supporting feature resumed its rotation in the schedule. And on Monday, 11/25/63, a day of National mourning was declared in respect for the state funeral and most cinemas did not open until 6pm that evening (as evidenced in the RKO block ad that ran 11/25 in the Daily News).
LOL, Jeffrey! I made note of that very odd juxtaposition myself when I posted a cropped version of those ads on the Adonis' CT page. Something for everyone there, eh? All that’s missing is an ad and coupon for a liquor store!
I was going to comment that these were certainly happier times for the RKO but they were certainly NOT happy days for the Country as it was mourning the assassination of JFK the preceding day. I wonder if the live shows went on as scheduled that day.
I haven’t found an ad for it yet, but “Karate Kid, Part II” was the third feature the Keith’s was running at the time. The theater would close sometime that summer and I’ve read more than once on this page where folks commented “Running Scared” was still playing on its final day before being shuttered. “Karate Kid” might have also made it to the end, but I doubt that the expensive egg Prince laid with “Cherry Moon” had any legs. I saw “Running Scared” at the Bay Terrace twin, by the way.
For anyone interested in looking into to the eyes of one of Tommy Huang’s co-conspirator’s in the destuction of this true cinema treasure, here are a couple of clippings regarding the late Donald Manes: Manes Steps Aside – Post 1/29/86 More Manes – Post 1/29/86
I didn’t copy the whole article because it really has nothing to do with the Keith’s (which at this time was still in full operation). Suffice to say, Manes was in a world of crap – under investigation for all sorts of corruption and photographed in the hospital after having made his first suicide attempt in the wake of the scandal and suffering a heart attack. In the same paper, Mayor Koch called Manes “a crook”. His second attempt to take his own life a few weeks later would prove a success. His involvement in convincing the LPC to landmark only the Keith’s lobby rather than the facade and full interior – at owner Huang’s behest – would not be uncovered until after the theater was already shuttered and plundered.
Ironic, Vincent, how that sounds exactly like the sort of story Oliver Stone would typically tell! This time out, however, he’s checked his politics and decided to focus on a human story of survival amidst the most cataclysmic disaster imaginable. I’ve got no problem with that. I’m sure in due time we’ll see many filmmakers take a stab at more political ruminations on the events of and leading up to the 9/11 attacks.
To compliment William’s post, here’s a 1986 clipping showing Tom Cruise as a double threat at the Box Office that week:
Cruise X2 – Daily News 10/16/86
One hit was about to close while the other was opening the following day in 70mm at three Manhattan houses(including the Coronet).
Lost only toys with me because he loves me so much. And he knows I have a fondness for talking to myself (at great length I might add) on these theater pages. Go to the page for the Argo Theater in Elmont, NY to see a perfect example. That one spanned over several months! And no OT bilge on any of them!!! Actually, it is quite comical, isn’t it?
Thanks for the ground level shot, Warren. The aerial view was a bit deceptive.
Last week I enjoyed a 4 day vacation up in Bar Harbor and had a chance to take a number of photographs of the beautiful Criterion Theater. I posted them all to my photobucket account here.
And if you want the abridged highlights:
Exterior at night
Box office
Ticket vestibule
Entrance doors from lobby
Lobby/foyer
Left mezzanine foyer
Right mezzanine foyer
Balcony section view
2nd balcony section view
View of “floating” balcony
Auditorium ceiling chandelier
Rear of house
Proscenium view
Stage view
Front auditorium sidewall detail
Rear orchestra detail
Seat row end cap detail
Marquee detail
Rear exterior view
I know that seems fairly exhaustive, but there are some 46 images in total in my photobucket album. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to watch a movie in the theater. The films run twice nightly (around 7 or 7:30 and again around 9 or 10) and the program changes every couple of days. The night I arrived and first found the theater, it was too late to catch that evening’s 10pm show of “Pirates of the Caribbean” and by the following night, the show was changed to the animated “Ant Bully” – which I really didn’t want to sit through.
The folks that run the place were exceedingly laid back and really nice and allowed me to enter the building and take as many photos as I wanted without charging me for admission (as I was doing so, patrons were entering the theater for that evening’s 1st screening). As you might be able to see from the exterior rear shot, the lot on which the theater was built slopes up to the street entrance. This creates a rather unorthodox ticket lobby floor that slopes DOWN from the entrance to the foyer. The small foyer features a candy counter against the rear auditroium wall and a twin set of stairs leading up to the mezzanine at either side. Up the right stairway, there is a small beverage counter tucked into the corner and a couple of vintage posters (see the photo above). The right stair case is kept closed until the end of the movie, when it is used as an exit for balcony patrons.
The odd looking “floating” balcony is divided into 9 sections, each with 3 or 4 rows of seating (and some with tables in the front row). The art deco characteristics are wonderfully preserved (despite the odd missing fixture here and there) right down to the stenciling on the lobby cloak-room door. I hope that next time I get up there (and I do plan on returning) I’m able to enjoy a good movie at the Criterion. A true cinema treasure if ever there was one.
The fly space seems pretty narrow from that view, doesn’t it? It doesn’t seem to be much wider than what the width of the proscenium would be. I was going to ask if that was common for a lesser vaudeville/movie house, but Warren commented early on this page that the Willard was considered a luxurious first-run house when it first opened.
As I suspected, the link isn’t perfect. When it opens, the theater is at the top of the image near center. Just use the mouse to click and drag the image down and get it more centered. Then double click on the theater itself to zoom in.
Try this view from local.live.com:
View to the South
It only works on Windows PCs, unfornuately, not Macs. You might have to enlarge the window once it opens to see the theater – the links to that site don’t always bring up the exact image and framing you anticipate. Also close out the Welcome window on the left and you might have to zoom in by clicking on the larger building icon in the tool palette. You can also use the directional tool to rotate the view.
Try this view from local.live.com:
View to the South
It only works on Windows PCs, unfornuately, not Macs. You might have to enlarge the window once it opens to see the theater – the links to that site don’t always bring up the exact image and framing you anticipate. Also close out the Welcome window on the left and you might have to zoom in by clicking on the larger building icon in the tool palette. You can also use the directional tool to rotate the view.
The “Little Tough Guys” in Warren’s ad from 1938 were a comedic Universal Studios knock off of Warner Brothers' Dead End Kids during a time before the latter bunch would morph into the low brow Bowery Boys. At this point, the Dead End Kids were still playing it fairly serious, having been featured in not only the original “Dead End” but in the drama “Crime School” as well, both along side Humphrey Bogart. Still to come was the classic “Angels with Dirty Faces” and several other dramatic (or at least semi-dramatic) features for Warners before Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall would settle into the broad caricatures of Slip Mahoney and Satch Jones and lead the Bowery Boys into dozens of low budget programmers for Universal and Monogram.
You might say that the “Little Tough Guy” series was the prototype for the Bowery Boys formula. No need to thank me for the OT bilge.
Anyway, for Independence Day 1986, low brow comedy found its way back to the Rivoli – by now stripped of even its great name and advertised as the seemingly generic UA Twin:
No Respect – NY Post 7/4/86
Well… naturally it doesn’t open precisely as it should have. When you open the link (it doesn’t work on Macs, unfortunately) close out the Welcome window on the left and zoom in by clicking on the larger building icon on the tool palette. Then you’ll have to use your mouse to click and drag the image to the right in order to bring the theater into view. Sigh. Local.live is a great little site, but it can be damn frustrating post as a link!
Sheesh! I come back from a week’s vacation and find that Warren wants me exterminated! If I know what’s good for me I better stick to statistical facts and historically significant data germane to this theater…
Well… here’s a local.live view of the old Willard (which looks perfectly intact from the exterior despite the interior gut job we know took place in the ‘50’s for conversion to catering space):
View to the East
Hopefully, this opens properly. You may have to open the window to full size and zoom in, but the structure should be easily identifiable as an old theater, sitting along side the elevated J train tracks on Jamaica Ave. You can use the directional palette to rotate the view in any direction.
Nice photo, Warren. The “Kill the movie tax” sign hanging under the canopy reminds me of the “Stop Pay TV” notices that I’ve seen spelled out on 42n Street grind houses in photos from the early 1970’s. I’ve never heard of a the movie tax. I suspect it was a movement in Congress that was defeated…? Any illumination on that topic?
I wonder if that was a verified fact or just advertising hyperbole.
I’m trying to figure out where this was. Where exactly was this theater in relationship to Tri County flea market and the Nassau Mall? It was on the same side (the north) of Hempstead Tpke, wasn’t it? And was it a free standing twin? So what exactly occupies the site now? And did the new tenants move into to the old theater building or did they raze it and build new? Someone mentioned a carpet store, but I’m not sure if that referred to this theater or the UA Meadowbrook that was also referenced in the thread above.
Lots of questions, I know, but I was just in the area yesterday to visit my cousins who live off of Wantagh Avenue and I think this theater was still around when they first moved into the area about 13 or 14 years ago. There’s a Loew’s Mutliplex now in the Nassau Mall which I’m pretty sure was built within the last decade.
At some point, the theater space must have been refurbished into a simple unadorned box. As I wrote previously, there was no obvious sign of any ornamentation or detail work in the auditorium or small lobby. It looked like it could have been carved out of retail space sometime in the ‘70’s.
Before setting the World Theater back on the path of righteousness, Embassy ran the former Trans Lux West/Trans Lux 49th Street on Broadway (which also did some XXX time as the Pussycat and Grand Pussycat) under the name Embassy 49th Street. I think for some reason discussion of the Frisco can be found on the Rivoli Theater page.
Oh no you don’t. Don’t blame this on me. Warren will hunt me down and beat me with his fists or personally arrange it so I am banned from the Lincoln Center branch of the NY Public Library.
I doubt it too, Jeffrey. The assassination was on Friday 11/22/63. The Hootenanny ad ran in the Saturday 11/23 papers and the shows were to run that entire day alternating with the main feature. On Sunday, the supporting feature resumed its rotation in the schedule. And on Monday, 11/25/63, a day of National mourning was declared in respect for the state funeral and most cinemas did not open until 6pm that evening (as evidenced in the RKO block ad that ran 11/25 in the Daily News).
LOL, Jeffrey! I made note of that very odd juxtaposition myself when I posted a cropped version of those ads on the Adonis' CT page. Something for everyone there, eh? All that’s missing is an ad and coupon for a liquor store!
Hootenanny at the Keith’s:
Jack Linkletter – Long Island Star Journal 11/23/63
I was going to comment that these were certainly happier times for the RKO but they were certainly NOT happy days for the Country as it was mourning the assassination of JFK the preceding day. I wonder if the live shows went on as scheduled that day.
Here are some other movie ads from around this period:
Daily News 9/21/63
Long Island Star Journal 11/25/63
Daily News 11/25/63
Long Island Star Journal 5/18/64
Interesting grouping of ads here:
My Little Porno – Post 7/4/86
Brings to mind the old Sesame Street learning song “One of these things is not like the other…”
A couple of ads showing two of the featured attractions towards the very end:
Running Scarred – Post 7/4/86
Under the Cherry Moon – Post 7/4/86
I haven’t found an ad for it yet, but “Karate Kid, Part II” was the third feature the Keith’s was running at the time. The theater would close sometime that summer and I’ve read more than once on this page where folks commented “Running Scared” was still playing on its final day before being shuttered. “Karate Kid” might have also made it to the end, but I doubt that the expensive egg Prince laid with “Cherry Moon” had any legs. I saw “Running Scared” at the Bay Terrace twin, by the way.
For anyone interested in looking into to the eyes of one of Tommy Huang’s co-conspirator’s in the destuction of this true cinema treasure, here are a couple of clippings regarding the late Donald Manes:
Manes Steps Aside – Post 1/29/86
More Manes – Post 1/29/86
I didn’t copy the whole article because it really has nothing to do with the Keith’s (which at this time was still in full operation). Suffice to say, Manes was in a world of crap – under investigation for all sorts of corruption and photographed in the hospital after having made his first suicide attempt in the wake of the scandal and suffering a heart attack. In the same paper, Mayor Koch called Manes “a crook”. His second attempt to take his own life a few weeks later would prove a success. His involvement in convincing the LPC to landmark only the Keith’s lobby rather than the facade and full interior – at owner Huang’s behest – would not be uncovered until after the theater was already shuttered and plundered.
Ironic, Vincent, how that sounds exactly like the sort of story Oliver Stone would typically tell! This time out, however, he’s checked his politics and decided to focus on a human story of survival amidst the most cataclysmic disaster imaginable. I’ve got no problem with that. I’m sure in due time we’ll see many filmmakers take a stab at more political ruminations on the events of and leading up to the 9/11 attacks.
Back in ‘63, this Paul Newman/Joanne Woodward comedy day and dated at the Coronet and Demille:
A New Kind of Love – Daily News 11/25/63
A couple of months earlier:
In The French Style/The Great Escape – Daily News 9/21/63
You can see with some of the other ads that sex and lurid violence was already creeping into some of the Times Square bijous by this time.
To compliment William’s post, here’s a 1986 clipping showing Tom Cruise as a double threat at the Box Office that week:
Cruise X2 – Daily News 10/16/86
One hit was about to close while the other was opening the following day in 70mm at three Manhattan houses(including the Coronet).
“It’s a mystery! It’s a mystery wrapped in a riddle inside an enigma!”
Just to continue the Joe Pesci thread.