Steeplechase Theatre

Lost Memory, I believe this theatre might the one I identified as the Vitagraph, and mistakenly thought was on Steeplechase property, though I was off by a few doors. I believe what you are referring to is listed on CT as Thompson’s Moving Pictures Theatre.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, while Tilyou owned the land, he leased the strip between what is now Beach 97th and Beach 98th Street, the Boardwalk and Rockaway Beach Boulevard to L.A. Thompson in 1902, and later sold that land to him in 1905. Thompson renamed his amusement area after himself, L.A. Thompson’s Amusement Park. It kept the Thompson name until the late 1920’s when it was renamed Rockaways' Playland.

The CT listing I mentioned above had a link to a mention by Cesar Del Valle that Thompson obtained the rights to a new type of screen in 1913, quoting from an article in Moving Picture World. I found a mention in the July-September 1914 issue of the same magazine that Thompson had sold his interest in this screen, so it is possible that he decided to quit operating the theatre and leased it to other parties the following season. Also, the article you posted above from 1915 does talk about the excellent mirror screen, which leads one to think these two theatres could be the same, even if it was located within Thompson’s park rather than Steeplechase.

Just to add, while looking for more info on the Steeplechase Theatre which I didn’t find, I found a mention of another unlisted Rockaway theatre in this column in the Wave concerning a small amusement park that was built by the Ferris Amusement Corporation immediately west of Steeplechase around 1906. The park included a one story airdrome theatre known as the Hippodrome, which had dimensions of 85' x 145' and was managed by a famous umpire who had retired. The article mentions that the Theatre featured vaudeville and movies. I haven’t been able to find anything more about it.

Robboehm, the Steeplechase Park you are referencing is the more famous one in Coney Island, not the one in Rockaway. The Tilyou Theatre was located across the street from the park, as a youngster I remember seeing live appearances there by the 3 Stooges (twice) and Jerry Lewis.

The Coney Island Steeplechase is by far the best known, but in addition to Rockaway, there were also 2 located along the Jersey Shore, one in Asbury Park and another in Atlantic City. The one in Asbury disappeared long ago, the one in Atlantic City lasted nearly as long as the one in Coney Island, disappearing around 1962. I am not aware of any of these other parks having theatres that featured movies.