Sunday, February 24, 2008

Meet Kew Gardens Cinema owner

It took a Brooklyn kid who fell in love with the movies to open two of the last real neighborhood theaters in Brooklyn and Queens.

In Brooklyn and Queens, a movie lover's dream comes true

Think "Cinema Paradiso," New York-style.

"I just love the movies," says Harvey Elgart, who operates the Cobble Hill Cinemas and the Kew Gardens Cinemas. "Always have, since I was a kid growing up in Sheepshead Bay. I like a place where you watch a really good film without distraction and disappear into the world of the movie. I personally choose the films that play in my theaters, and so in my own way I have a cultural impact on the community. I don't play crap."

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good for you Harvey!

Can we interest you in Flushing's RKO Keith's ?

It's for sale.

Maybe a good deal can be worked out.

Anonymous said...

Definitly the best movie theatre in Queens. It is the one of the only movie theatre's in Queens that plays artistic films and not action crap or kiddie movies, the kind you may find at say... Gelndale's theatre at Atlas Mall.
It's is also quite inexpensive as far as theatre's go.

georgetheatheist said...

I go there all the time for the intelligent movies. Plus during the week in the matinees they only charge $6!!! (Ssshh, keep it quiet.)

Anonymous said...

I work across the street from the Kew Gardens and have two friends who used to work there a few years back. They always said Harvey was a very nice, intelligent guy and enjoyed it when he stopped by to visit the theater.

There is a small park around the corner from the movie theater filled with benches which he pays to have maintained (it is technically his property). The Kew Gardens Cinemas is basically the only commercial entity keeping us on the map right now (if barely).

Anonymous said...

It is by far our favorite movie theater, impecably clean, nice staff and good movies!

Anonymous said...

To bad that the historic Trylon theater
couldn't have been wrestled away from
its devious owner Kasiev and his Bukharian boys
and put to better use.

Melinda Katz probably got plenty from that group
for her re-election campaign!

Anonymous said...

The park, on Austin Street, Kew Gardens, NY, owned by Harvey Elgart, owner of the movie theater too, is covered in garbage and is,a health hazzard and bringing down property values.