View of the auditorium from the balcony.

The Queens Theatre opened on December 29, 1927 opened in the Queens Village neighborhood of Queens, NY. It was designed by architect R. Thomas Short, who also designed the nearby Prospect Theatre in Flushing, for the Century Theatre Circuit. Morris Rosenthal, who managed the Majestic Theatre in Bridgeport, CT, was brought on as the theater’s manager. The 2,500 seat theater opened with a performance by The Happiness Boys, a popular radio act, and for the first year showed a combination of vaudeville and silent pictures. 

View of the auditorium ceiling from the stage.

In January 1929 Vitaphone, an early form of talking movies, was installed. The switch from vaudeville and silent films did not go over well with the regular patrons, and they threatened to go to another theater. Rosenthal, the manager of the Queens, got a permit to hang a banner in front of the theater that said “Sound Talkies – See and hear!” along with a catchy phrase about the upcoming film to help drive traffic into the theater. On September 13, 1938 projectionist Solomon Schulman killed Nat Klein in the Queen’s projection booth during a screening of “The Devil’s Party.” Klein was a former projectionist’s assistant. Schulman claimed that Klein failed to get a job at a different theater, blamed Schulman, and attacked him with a fire extinguisher. Schulman was convicted of second degree manslaughter and sentenced to 5-10 years at Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, NY.

The main floor of the lobby was almost completely gutted during the late 2000s.

The Queens closed on March 1, 1974 after a showing of “Last Tango in Paris” starring Marlon Brando and Maria Schneider. According to Joseph Wickman of Century Theatres, the Queens had been losing money for years, and only filled 150 of the 2000 seats during the final showing.  Later that year, Louis Diaz reopened the theater as an independent house. He started showing first run films, then switched to Spanish language films, then Spanish language XXX films, and by 1976 English language XXX films. A Queens based group called the “Coalition for Decency” began to picket the theater, and eventually sat down with Diaz and asked him to stop showing XXX films. He declined, but did stop putting up posters for films outside the theater. In July 1976 Diaz was charged with promoting obscenity for showing the pornographic films “The Taking of Christina” and “Little Sisters.” He plead guilty and was fined $1,500. He was charged again the following year, and this time the films and the projector’s lenses were seized. The case was eventually dismissed, and the theater continued showing XXX films until it closed February 1989. 

The interior of the theater was very similar to the now demolished Prospect Theatre in Flushing, NY.

In July 1990, the Queens was renovated and reopened as a performing arts center. Marty Oser, who was behind the renovation, hoped that the lack of venues between Manhattan and Long Island would give the Queens a chance. Kool and the Gang, The Marshall Tucker Band, David Brenner, Waylon Jennings, Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, Ace Frehley, and Jerry Lee Lewis all performed at the theater during this time. However, it wasn’t very successful and it closed again in late December 1990.

A 3 manual 11 rank Opus 1569 Austin Theatre Organ was installed in the theater when it opened. It was later moved to Chaminade High School in Mineola, NY.

On October 2, 1993, the New York Deliverance Gospel Temple began holding services at the theater before purchasing it in January 1995. They sold it to the All Nations Apostolic Tabernacle (ANAT) in September 2006. ANAT closed the building and began to renovate it into a 2,500 seat second location for their rapidly growing congregation . They completed work on the building’s facade, but the interior work stalled out. Despite a few attempts to complete construction, the building was put on the market in early 2019.