Two years ago the Shore Theater in Coney Island (formally the Loew’s Coney Island) was declared an historic landmark. Well, its exterior was. The inside of the former vaudeville and movie palace was left to fend to itself, as it has been doing since the 1970s. Despite the theater’s dominating presence in Coney Island’s amusement area, the interior has been pretty much lost to the public. Until now.
Photographer Matt Lambros of After The Final Curtain recently got into the theater and has just posted his pictures online: the Renaissance revival space is, like so many old theaters, truly stunning even in its decrepitude. The architects at Reilly & Hall knew what they were doing when they designed the space in the 1920s (the theater opened June 17, 1925 and after many iterations closed for good in March of 1973).
….more on/via gothamist
SS k trolololo
Reblogged this on THE LITERARY MAN and commented:
Constantly Risking Absurdity (#15)
By Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Constantly risking absurdity
and death
whenever he performs
above the heads
of his audience
the poet like an acrobat
climbs on rime
to a high wire of his own making
and balancing on eyebeams
above a sea of faces
paces his way
to the other side of day
performing entrechats
and sleight-of-foot tricks
and other high theatrics
and all without mistaking
any thing
for what it may not be
For he’s the super realist
who must perforce perceive
taut truth
before the taking of each stance or step
in his supposed advance
toward that still higher perch
where Beauty stands and waits
with gravity
to start her death-defying leap
And he
a little charleychaplin man
who may or may not catch
her fair eternal form
spreadeagled in the empty air
of existence
The pictures are heartbreaking.
it is stunning in its decreptitude –
The inside is wonderful. What is needed is an active group of concerned people to campaign and fundraise for restoration. It can be done – I’ve been involved in a major restoration myself – but it’s hard work.
I really do not think the exterior does the interior justice…
tell me more…tell me more…
Pingback: A Palace in Jamaica, Queens: The Loew’s Valencia | SERENDIPITY