Fair Theatre
90-18 Astoria Boulevard,
East Elmhurst,
NY
11369
90-18 Astoria Boulevard,
East Elmhurst,
NY
11369
19 people
favorited this theater
Related Websites
Fair Theatre (Official)
Additional Info
Previously operated by: Brandt Theaters
Architects: Charles A. Sandblom
Functions: Movies (Adult), Movies (Foreign)
Styles: Streamline Moderne
Phone Numbers:
Box Office:
718.429.0040
Nearby Theaters
News About This Theater
- Mar 29, 2007 — Schlock around the clock
Not too far from the Shea Stadium (now demolished and Citi Field built on the site in 2009) and LaGuardia Airport on Astoria Boulevard in the East Elmhurst section of Queens. The 599-seat Fair Theatre opened in 1939 and was named after the World Fair which was held on Flushing Meadows.
After years of being a neighborhood theatre, it went over to screening XXX adult porn movies for many years. In around 2006, these were dropped in favour of screening Bollywood film productions. By 2009, Kung Fu type movies were also being screened in the main auditorium, with adult movies screening the four small auditoriums created out of former retail spaces and other spaces in the building.
Contributed by
SteveSmith
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Recent comments (view all 364 comments)
I heard a rumor the Fair is closing. Someone read it on Reddit.
Is the Fair Theatre really closing down? I haven’t been there in 2 years.
Spotlighted at the start and again later in the “Quick Trip to Jackson Heights” article at the Forgotten New York website. Click here
I called the theater and the person who answered said there are no plans to close.
Thank you for that verification, Lord Garth!
What are the hours at the Fair?
Have I stayed too long at the Fair…?
Some of the best years of my youth were spent at this theatre. Is there another adult theatre close to NYC? There’s got to be another place like this theatre once was. Does anyone know?
Closed? No showtimes anywhere and the official webpage at https://www.fairtheatre.com/cgi-sys/suspendedpage.cgi has been suspended.
Located at 90-18 Astoria Blvd in East Elmhurst, Queens, the Fair Theatre has a complex but notable place in NYC’s LGBTQ+ history. It 1st opened on Christmas Day 1937 as a 599-seat neighborhood movie house, named for the nearby 1939–40 World’s Fair in Flushing Meadows. Like many outer-borough theaters, it initially screened mainstream films at reduced prices, weeks after their Manhattan runs. As moviegoing declined in the late 1960s & early ‘70s, the Fair transitioned into a grindhouse, eventually incorporating adult films alongside low-budget action & exploitation movies.
By the late ‘70s & ‘80s, the Fair became informally known as a queer cruising space, particularly for gay, bisexual, & curious men. Former patrons recall a divided layout: straight films in the main auditorium & gay adult films in smaller secondary screening rooms, with social & sexual interactions occurring throughout the building. This dual programming allowed the theater to function as both a regular cinema & a semi-public queer gathering space.
Unlike many former grindhouses that closed or were redeveloped, the Fair survived repeated legal & zoning challenges. A 1998 Queens court ruling determined it complied with city regulations governing adult businesses near churches & schools, allowing it to remain open. By the late 2000s, the Fair shifted again, incorporating Bollywood & action films in the main auditorium while continuing adult programming in smaller rooms.
Contemporary accounts describe the Fair as being patronized by cruising gay men & trans people. Community posts & reviews note that solo attendance is common, & that Saturdays–especially Saturday afternoons & evenings–are busiest. While technically open to the general public, multiple patrons emphasize that heterosexual couples & straight women are rare. As a result, today the Fair Theatre is often cited as the last continuously operating grindhouse-style cinema & gay porn theatre in NYC, & one of the city’s longest-running queer-coded adult spaces of its kind.
A history taken from https://www.instagram.com/p/DUiMJSyFj3g/?img_index=5
That post includes photos of inside the theatre as well as mention of a 2015 short filmed there.