Queen Theater
3588 Waialae Avenue,
Honolulu,
HI
96816
3588 Waialae Avenue,
Honolulu,
HI
96816
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Sadly abandoned and destine to demolition or conversion into retail.
June 29th, 1936 grand opening ad in the photo section and below
Found on Newspapers.com powered by Newspapers.com
Punk rock in the `80’s at the Queen photo added. Photo credit George FLee.
1947 & Now photo added courtesy of Patrick Frost.
Viewable in a couple of scene establishing shots in the Season 12/1980 Hawaii Five-0 episode, “For Old Time’s Sake.” The place must have already descended to its itch-house period; I don’t have access to expensive zoom software, but based on the word length and letter formations on the marquee, my guess is the Queen was showing at the time of filming two films from 1975: the cabin-crisis XXX-er WINTER HEAT, and director Wes Craven’s sole erotic venture, FIREWORKS WOMAN.
Friends of the Queen Theatre provides this web page with a brief history of the house. It says that the Queen was built by Franklin Theatrical Enterprises, operators of the King Theatre in downtown Honolulu, and was opened on June 29, 1936. It was designed by local architect Lyman Bigelow.
Plan to restore historic Queen Theater set in motion. Nothing is happening yet but it’s the biggest news the Queen has had in 30 years.
http://www.bizjournals.com/pacific/blog/morning_call/2015/03/plan-to-restore-historic-queen-theater-in-honolulu.html
I remember “Sleeping Beauty” there too. The line of kids went several blocks up Center Street. They must’ve been letting them in for a nickel apiece because Disney didn’t make too much money from that movie the first time around. Something like “Frozen” was way beyond anybody’s imagination.
When I was a high school student in the mid fifties, the Queen used to be a art house and I remember seeing a lot of them at that theatre. In the late fifties, the theatre was made into a first run venue by Royal Theatres. A 70mm-Six stereo system was installed for the showing of Disney’s SLEEPING BEAUTY and I saw it and it was fantastic. The theatre was also Royal’s only road show venue and THE LION IN WINTER and PAINT YOUR WAGON played there as reserved seat engagements.
thanks Jim for the update.
The Kaimuki’s owners (Consolidated, I think) tried making it an art house in the early 1960s. I saw my first Bergman film, The Virgin Spring, there. Times were already tough for free-standing, single-auditorum movie theaters by then. I left Hawaii a couple of years later and don’t know what the Kaimuki was like in the years before it closed.
I was going by what was said above Jucee,Hope it gets saved.This was a Yulcan Theatre along with the CAMEO gave up on X rated movies in the ninties and started showing mainstream films.Sadly they closed the Rex Twin Cinemas.
What “bad part of town”??? Obviously, none of you have been to Kaimuki Town recently. There has NEVER been a “bad part of town” in this area. I was born and raised in Kaimuki, patronized the old Queen Theatre (before it went porno), saw my first Rocky Horror Picture Show there, and if anyone still remembers, Kaimuki Theatre, located a block away from the Queen (well, it was a block away, now torn down and a new commercial building in it’s place. I also remember the old Kress/Ben Franklin store, Thrifty Drugs, National Dollar Store and my favorite eating place, Aotani Okazu. Now all long gone. I also worked in Kaimuki Town for nine years from the mid 70’s to the mid 80’s…and BTW, I still live in Kaimuki. There has never been a “bad part of town” in the Kaimuki district. Yeah, the building is really sad looking now, but that is the owner’s (Narciso Yu)fault. When you don’t take pride in your property and let it go undeveloped for 25 years, this is the result. There have been many groups that have wanted to restore the theater to it’s former glory, but he (Mr. Yu) has been resistant to any discussions (or answering phone calls) regarding this.
Thanks CWalczak.Good article hope it can be saved,but if it is in a bad part of town as mentioned above it might be useless to try and open it.
A local group has formed in an effort to preserve this theater: View link
I remember back in 1954 when I was seven, coming to the Queen with my parents to see a movie, and being shocked by the poster for “The Creature from the Black Lagoon”. I was so scared that they were going to show a preview that I pleaded with my folks to take me home immediately. It wasn’t until many years later that I saw the film, and now I root for the monster!
I also recall the 1959 premiere of “Sleeping Beauty” and how the line went several hundred feet up Center Street.
Here are some December 2007 photos:
http://tinyurl.com/37vxag
http://tinyurl.com/2uwoud
http://tinyurl.com/2k5al9
http://tinyurl.com/378728
http://tinyurl.com/384cv9
http://tinyurl.com/2uvrre
http://tinyurl.com/2vbk3x
http://tinyurl.com/25cggg
http://tinyurl.com/yslhr5
I took some pictures today. Lots of graffiti, dicey neighborhood. I don’t see much of a future for this building.
Sad picture, I wish some of those old theatres could been saved.
The Queen had a huge wall to wall curved screen and was was equiped to run 70mm.
Thanks Chuck, I haven’t been back to Hawaii since 1982, but I still have a lot of friends I keep in touch with. I was chief projectionist for Royal theates for a while and then head of the sight and sound department for Consolidated theatres. Sadly, all the great theatres are gone. I was there to close the Royal theatre, I’m glad I did not see the end of so many more.
Who operated the theatre when “Rocky Horror” played, and when did it close?
I remember working the Queen in the early 70s when it was owned by Royal theatres, It had 70mm capabilities thu rarely used it. Later Royal sold the theatre to a man named Mr.Yu who turned it into a hardcore porno theatre. In the mid 80s, during a porno crackdown, the police held a raid and everyone including a friend of mine who was the projectionist got arrested. That was pretty much the end of the theatres life as a movie house.