I just saw A PATCH OF BLUE again, and you catch a glimpse of the exterior theater in one of the scenes. The theater you see a lot of in the scenes where Gordon is teaching Salina how to navigate the streets alone is the LAKE.
Very cool Matt Lambros, I wish I would be in Springfield for your workshop. I just walked by the Hippodrome to look at it for updates a few weeks ago, love that place.
You can read more about the Renaissance Community on the other pages of this link about the sale of the Shea.
http://www.acornproductions.net/thumbnail.php?q=27&pic=./pics/articles/008-new-owners-acquire-theater.jpeg
A friend and I were cruising around Springfield today, sightseeing, and I wanted to show her the theater. When we drove up there were some young guys outside and a door open. I asked if we could go in, one said no, but another said OK and led us inside. There weren’t a lot of lights on but it looked to be in great shape. The main floor was covered with small tables and chairs for the club, which they said has been closed for about 2 years but hopes to reopen in about 8 months, after the roof is redone. The organ was up out of it’s hole on the stage. They said they believe it still works. Word came from another guy outside that we had to leave. The marquee needs some work too.
The exterior of the Prospect can be seen in the 1982 Italian slasher classic NEW YORK RIPPER. There’s a quick shot at night with the marquee lit up, and a shot in the day where a character comes down the elevated train stairs and walks by the theater and then around the corner. If I can pull a still from the DVD I’ll try to post it.
Eureka! That’s it, thank you all so much! It’s so hard to tell from most of the photos but there was one photo in particular posted by Ken Roe that has the elevated train steps coming down to the street near the theater. Exactly the shot in the movie.
Thanks Fred. I don’t see a Prospect Theater listed for the Bronx on this site. Was there one near an elevated train there that’s not here? In one of the pictures of this Flushing theater it does say that the elevated LIRR was a block away – maybe it’s that staircase?
Does anyone know if this Prospect Theater is the same one seen briefly (once at night, once in daylight) in the 1982 Italian slasher film NEW YORK RIPPER? By pausing the frame and looking at any pictures found here it doesn’t really look the same, but it definitely says PROSPECT on the marquee in the film and doesn’t look like the other PROSPECT in Brooklyn. Also, in the film it looks like there was a store across the street from the theater called LONDON HATS. And there’s a long, elevated train staircase at the end of the block – the 7 train?
SEVEN BEAUTIES opened at the Exeter for sure, I was there opening night. SWEPT AWAY may have played there too, can’t remember. Believe it or not (well Ron, I bet you may share this obsession) I have every movie ticket stub since about 1968 when I got old enough to start my own little collection of things, and later, when I have nothing to do (besides perusing this site) I might just dump them on the floor and start sorting them by city, so I can remember where things played! Before they printed the name of the film on the tickets I used to write the titles on, very small on some of those tiny old stubs! Difficult when they were long titles and double bills!
I think the Academy Twin opened around 1969 or 1970. I remember Monday and Tuesday nights were 1 dollar nights. Early films they had were BUTCH CASSIDY, and THE STERILE CUKOO – I recall these 2 especially since they were rated M and we hoped they would let us in as we were 12. Sometimes we passed, sometimes not. Later, THE SEDUCTION OF MIMI was a huge hit there. Funny to think a foreign film opened in Newton Center and not downtown or Harvard Square. Maybe it played there too but I didn’t recall hearing about it before it came to the Academy and I was really into foreign films by that time. The lobby had great mod movie posters of old stars, like Jean Harlow and Charlie Chaplin – all swirly pinks and oranges.
I remember sitting in the (mostly empty) balcony with school friends in 1970 watching the matinee double bill of IF IT’S TUESDAY, THIS MUST BE BELGIUM, and THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING, THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING. I don’t recall the films much, so I assume we were just talking a lot and fooling around. Same as I recall going to Fenway to see Red Sox games at the same age!
Does anyone remember the name of the little twin cinema that opened in Newton Center around the same time?
Here’s the passage from Jack Kerouac’s autobiographical novel DOCTOR SAX about the Royal:
We waited impatiently for 1:15 movie time, sometimes arrived 12:30 and waited all that time looking at cherubims in the ceiling, round Moorish Royal Theater pink and gilt and crystal-crazy ceiling with a Sistine Madonna around the dull knob where a chandelier should be,-long waits in rickety nervous snapping bubblegum seat-scuff scattle tatter “Shaddap!” of usher, who also had a hand missing with a hook at the hump World War 1 veteran my father knew him well fine fellow-waiting for Tim Mccoy to jump onscreen, or Hoot Gibson, or Mix, Tom Mix…..
Here’s Jack Kerouac’s description in his book DOCTOR SAX:
“Sunday afternoon at the Crown Theater with rats in the balcony and the time we threw boxes of ice cream at the miser in the movie foreclosing the widow’s mortgage and a 90 year old cop came upstairs to try to find us."
This episode in his autobiographical novel takes place around 1936 – around the time of the largest flood there.
It says 368 Bleeker, at Charles St, for Cucina Della Fontana in the ‘97 Zagat guide. Maybe even posting a couple of fliers around the village asking if anyone ever worked there, or a posting on Craigslist. It was a big place, the kind you would go to with a group – that fountain must be in countless party snapshots! Maybe it wound up at Rescued Estates on Houston, a place like that.
I wish I could remember, I remember it was large, took up the middle of the place. Maybe we can find some wait staff who worked there somehow. Are there websites for defunct restaurants like there are for defunct cinemas? Anyway, I’ll email one of the shots posted here to an old friend who used to go there more often and I’ll write if I hear anything.
Wow, I just tried to quickly read the whole thread from the beginning. Lots of photos I wish I could see are deleted, but the reason I comment is that I noticed all the questions about the fountain that wound up in a restaurant – I remember going to Cucina Della Fontana at 368 Bleeker in the early 90’s, and there being a huge fountain in the downstairs section of the restaurant, and surrounded by kitchy murals all over the walls. It’s still listed in my ‘97 Zagat’s, however just now looking online I found it is now some other restaurant: Cititour Review: If nothing else, Hue (pronounced Whey) deserves an award for most remarkable transformation of a restaurant space. For a zillion years, this West Village corner spot was the home of the supremely kitschy Cucina Della Fontana, a rococo Italian restaurant complete with Roman fountains.
I just read on the Lowell Rialto page that someone else referred to this as B.F. Keith’s – yet also on this site the only MA B.F. listed was in Boston, and here in Lowell it’s called R.K.O. My ignorance – are they the same thing, is being called RKO or BF interchangeable?
I’m reading Kerouac’s Dr. Sax now and around page 110 he writes about going to Keith’s Theater, but he describes it as B.F., not R.K.O. so maybe he really didn’t go there too much, or his memory was confused. He writes about W.C. Fields playing there as part of the 6-Act Vod Bill. Kerouac’s descriptions of the theater, the streets, the Chinese Restaurant, all evoke Edward Hopper’s paintings of similar subjects of the same era. They are fantastic together.
I just saw A PATCH OF BLUE again, and you catch a glimpse of the exterior theater in one of the scenes. The theater you see a lot of in the scenes where Gordon is teaching Salina how to navigate the streets alone is the LAKE.
3:09 into the opening credits you can see this shot. There’s a reverse angle about 3:18
Actually I realized this photo was taken in 1997 – that’s when Always, Patsy Cline played there, June-Dec 1997, that’s the poster in the front.
Very cool Matt Lambros, I wish I would be in Springfield for your workshop. I just walked by the Hippodrome to look at it for updates a few weeks ago, love that place.
I went by there yesterday and the box office is gone now, the doors are boarded up and the building is for rent. I posted 2 photos on the tab above.
Yes Tinseltoes, it was the same Tom (Tommy) Cooper who owned the Vagabond and the Tiffany in those years and had made that record album you wrote of.
You can read more about the Renaissance Community on the other pages of this link about the sale of the Shea. http://www.acornproductions.net/thumbnail.php?q=27&pic=./pics/articles/008-new-owners-acquire-theater.jpeg
Reverend Carlos Torres is working to restore the theater:
View link
A friend and I were cruising around Springfield today, sightseeing, and I wanted to show her the theater. When we drove up there were some young guys outside and a door open. I asked if we could go in, one said no, but another said OK and led us inside. There weren’t a lot of lights on but it looked to be in great shape. The main floor was covered with small tables and chairs for the club, which they said has been closed for about 2 years but hopes to reopen in about 8 months, after the roof is redone. The organ was up out of it’s hole on the stage. They said they believe it still works. Word came from another guy outside that we had to leave. The marquee needs some work too.
The exterior of the Prospect can be seen in the 1982 Italian slasher classic NEW YORK RIPPER. There’s a quick shot at night with the marquee lit up, and a shot in the day where a character comes down the elevated train stairs and walks by the theater and then around the corner. If I can pull a still from the DVD I’ll try to post it.
Eureka! That’s it, thank you all so much! It’s so hard to tell from most of the photos but there was one photo in particular posted by Ken Roe that has the elevated train steps coming down to the street near the theater. Exactly the shot in the movie.
Thanks Fred. I don’t see a Prospect Theater listed for the Bronx on this site. Was there one near an elevated train there that’s not here? In one of the pictures of this Flushing theater it does say that the elevated LIRR was a block away – maybe it’s that staircase?
Does anyone know if this Prospect Theater is the same one seen briefly (once at night, once in daylight) in the 1982 Italian slasher film NEW YORK RIPPER? By pausing the frame and looking at any pictures found here it doesn’t really look the same, but it definitely says PROSPECT on the marquee in the film and doesn’t look like the other PROSPECT in Brooklyn. Also, in the film it looks like there was a store across the street from the theater called LONDON HATS. And there’s a long, elevated train staircase at the end of the block – the 7 train?
SEVEN BEAUTIES opened at the Exeter for sure, I was there opening night. SWEPT AWAY may have played there too, can’t remember. Believe it or not (well Ron, I bet you may share this obsession) I have every movie ticket stub since about 1968 when I got old enough to start my own little collection of things, and later, when I have nothing to do (besides perusing this site) I might just dump them on the floor and start sorting them by city, so I can remember where things played! Before they printed the name of the film on the tickets I used to write the titles on, very small on some of those tiny old stubs! Difficult when they were long titles and double bills!
I think the Academy Twin opened around 1969 or 1970. I remember Monday and Tuesday nights were 1 dollar nights. Early films they had were BUTCH CASSIDY, and THE STERILE CUKOO – I recall these 2 especially since they were rated M and we hoped they would let us in as we were 12. Sometimes we passed, sometimes not. Later, THE SEDUCTION OF MIMI was a huge hit there. Funny to think a foreign film opened in Newton Center and not downtown or Harvard Square. Maybe it played there too but I didn’t recall hearing about it before it came to the Academy and I was really into foreign films by that time. The lobby had great mod movie posters of old stars, like Jean Harlow and Charlie Chaplin – all swirly pinks and oranges.
Thanks Ron! I spent A LOT of time there, can’t believe I forgot the name!
I remember sitting in the (mostly empty) balcony with school friends in 1970 watching the matinee double bill of IF IT’S TUESDAY, THIS MUST BE BELGIUM, and THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING, THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING. I don’t recall the films much, so I assume we were just talking a lot and fooling around. Same as I recall going to Fenway to see Red Sox games at the same age!
Does anyone remember the name of the little twin cinema that opened in Newton Center around the same time?
Here’s the passage from Jack Kerouac’s autobiographical novel DOCTOR SAX about the Royal:
We waited impatiently for 1:15 movie time, sometimes arrived 12:30 and waited all that time looking at cherubims in the ceiling, round Moorish Royal Theater pink and gilt and crystal-crazy ceiling with a Sistine Madonna around the dull knob where a chandelier should be,-long waits in rickety nervous snapping bubblegum seat-scuff scattle tatter “Shaddap!” of usher, who also had a hand missing with a hook at the hump World War 1 veteran my father knew him well fine fellow-waiting for Tim Mccoy to jump onscreen, or Hoot Gibson, or Mix, Tom Mix…..
Here’s Jack Kerouac’s description in his book DOCTOR SAX:
“Sunday afternoon at the Crown Theater with rats in the balcony and the time we threw boxes of ice cream at the miser in the movie foreclosing the widow’s mortgage and a 90 year old cop came upstairs to try to find us."
This episode in his autobiographical novel takes place around 1936 – around the time of the largest flood there.
It says 368 Bleeker, at Charles St, for Cucina Della Fontana in the ‘97 Zagat guide. Maybe even posting a couple of fliers around the village asking if anyone ever worked there, or a posting on Craigslist. It was a big place, the kind you would go to with a group – that fountain must be in countless party snapshots! Maybe it wound up at Rescued Estates on Houston, a place like that.
I wish I could remember, I remember it was large, took up the middle of the place. Maybe we can find some wait staff who worked there somehow. Are there websites for defunct restaurants like there are for defunct cinemas? Anyway, I’ll email one of the shots posted here to an old friend who used to go there more often and I’ll write if I hear anything.
Wow, I just tried to quickly read the whole thread from the beginning. Lots of photos I wish I could see are deleted, but the reason I comment is that I noticed all the questions about the fountain that wound up in a restaurant – I remember going to Cucina Della Fontana at 368 Bleeker in the early 90’s, and there being a huge fountain in the downstairs section of the restaurant, and surrounded by kitchy murals all over the walls. It’s still listed in my ‘97 Zagat’s, however just now looking online I found it is now some other restaurant: Cititour Review: If nothing else, Hue (pronounced Whey) deserves an award for most remarkable transformation of a restaurant space. For a zillion years, this West Village corner spot was the home of the supremely kitschy Cucina Della Fontana, a rococo Italian restaurant complete with Roman fountains.
OOPS – just noticed at the top of the page that this RKO was also known as BF’s.
I just read on the Lowell Rialto page that someone else referred to this as B.F. Keith’s – yet also on this site the only MA B.F. listed was in Boston, and here in Lowell it’s called R.K.O. My ignorance – are they the same thing, is being called RKO or BF interchangeable?
I’m reading Kerouac’s Dr. Sax now and around page 110 he writes about going to Keith’s Theater, but he describes it as B.F., not R.K.O. so maybe he really didn’t go there too much, or his memory was confused. He writes about W.C. Fields playing there as part of the 6-Act Vod Bill. Kerouac’s descriptions of the theater, the streets, the Chinese Restaurant, all evoke Edward Hopper’s paintings of similar subjects of the same era. They are fantastic together.