Content area
Full Text
THE GOLDFISH in the lobby fountain at RKO Keith's are gone, and so is the fountain. Some of the seats provide a better view of the wall than of the screen. But when the assistant manager says, "This theater still has got that presence of something big here years back," you know she isn't talking about the car that crashed into the lobby of the Flushing movie house one night.
The spindly ornamental-plaster columns of the lobby make Keith's a city landmark. And echoes of vaudevillians past give the 58-year-old theater the ambience missing from other three-screen movie houses, where you don't find glazed tiles, cherubs and terra-cotta details. Where they don't remember the likes of Al Jolson, Bob Hope and Jerry Lewis on the stage, or Dom DeLuise and Chuck Norris - really! - stopping by to promote pictures.
It has been a long time since Keith's was "The Finest Theater on the North Shore," but it's still got style. "This is a theater you can come to a dozen times, and you'll see something new each time," the assistant manager says. "It's not a shoebox."
Movie houses don't have to be old to be good places to see movies, but it helps. In fact, some of the most viewer-friendly theaters are among the city's newest: Electronic signs lead the way to cushy seats and Dolby sound. If you want to play it safe - at six bucks a pop, plus popcorn - stay on the East Side, or go to Forest Hills. But every good theater sells something extra in the way of history, comfort or concessions. Here's a guide to what you're buying - in addition to the show - at selected movie theaters throughout the boroughs. It's a look at the mysteries of character, if you will - from chandeliers to sticky floors - at multiplexes, revival houses, and faded film palaces in the nabes.
Times Square
Come here for the sound, the fury and the projection. Then step inside a theater. Great sound, crisp projection and excellent sight lines are the norm rather than the exception at the first-run houses.
You can't lose at the Loews Astor Plaza (Broadway at 44th Street, $6), a cavernous, 1,525-seat theater with ample...