Vernon Theatre
10-10 50th Avenue,
Long Island City,
NY
11101
10-10 50th Avenue,
Long Island City,
NY
11101
2 people
favorited this theater
The Vernon Theatre was a small, late-run movie house that operated in Long Island City, Queens from 1922, but finally succumbed to competion from home televsion in around 1957.
The building still stands and by 2017 was in use as a cafe.
Contributed by
Warren G. Harris
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Recent comments (view all 7 comments)
I lived about one block away from the Vernon Theater. If I recall correctly, the Vernon Theater closed in 1957 and the last feature playing was The Incredible Shrinking Man. I still have not gotten over the shock of its closing. I spent most of my youth in that theater, it was truly a neighborhood theater with most of the residents of Hunter Point attending everyday.
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this is the building that once housed the Vernon Theater. the brick work w=still shows scars from the old entry arches along the 50th Ave facade
The goggle map shows the north side of 50th Ave., while the old theater was situated on the south side. I tried to re-set it to include the old theater, but it will probably not hold. So, adjust the picture from north to south and you will see the old theater.
While I agree with TT was the Vernon was, in no way, situated in Sunnyside, I have not picked up the reference noting that it was.
John, at the top of the page is a series of arrow-like tabs that appear to be drilling down geographically to the location of the theater: “Movie Theaters, United States, New York, Long Island City, SUNNYSIDE, Vernon Theatre.” These are on every theater page and they often contain, for NYC theaters (and Queens in particular) that one neighborhood sub-category that seems completely out of left field. I’ve stopped trying to figure out the logic, and basically ignore those tabs and stick to what’s on the page itself and using the zip-code finder to locate nearby theaters.
Thanks Ed for pointing this out. I am still learning the new system and havn’t bothered much with the tabs at the top.
If the Vernon were still extant, it would be situated in the up and coming Hunters Point community, which features new high-rise luxury housing along the East River and a thriving high-end commercial strip along Vernon Blvd. During the theater’s hayday, however, Hunters Point was only the name of the geographic point at which the East River meets the northern mouth of Newtown Creek. This gritty. mostly Italian, working class comunity was known simply as Long Island City. It was, in fact, the earliest part of this community to be developed.
During the Vernon’s life as a theater, it was situated near the Queens base of the Vernon Blvd. Bridge, which spanned Newtown Creek and connected Long Island City to Greenpoint’s main thoroughfare, Manhattan Avenue. It must have been a very busy place. And I can imaging more than a few Greenpointers crossing the bridge to catch a flick – possibly on dish night – at the Vernon and Long Island City residents going into Greenpoint to take in a movie at the Midway.
The Vernon Theatre was in operation by 1914, at which time 50th Avenue was still called Fourth Street. The following advertisement appeared in the classified section of The Moving Picture World, July 4, 1914:
In the January 23, 1925, issue of the Queens Borough Daily Star, the Vernon and New Idle Hour Theatres shared an ad, and were running the same program. The locations given were Court House Square (the Idle Hour) and a partly unreadable number in the 100 block of Fourth Street.It’s now Cafe Henri. https://www.yelp.com/biz/café-henri-long-island-city-2