SAVE THE RKO KEITH'S THEATER! You know how everyone bemoans the loss of the beautiful old Penn Station, and how Grand Central Terminal was "saved" because of the lessons learned? The same standards apply to the endangered movie palaces of New York. If you lose those precious sites, you lose a sense of how special it once was to go to a grand movie house and see big-screen projection (perhaps with live entertainment). If only the city's rep houses, museums, and educational institutions could figure out ways to preserve and restore those places of wonder, where old (and new) movies can be projected large, as their creators envisioned.

Currently in danger is the RKO Keith's Theater in Flushing, Queens. To get a sense of what this theater means to people, check out its page at Cinema Treasures.

Thomas Stathes has launched an online petition to save the theater. I'm not sure how effective such petitions are, so if you can think of better ways to make the case, go right ahead! Queens has long been interested in boosting its reputation as a cultural destination, so there might be an angle there. Perhaps the Queens Council on the Arts can do something. A listing for the Flushing Council on Culture & the Arts can be found here. Here's the website of Queens Borough President Helen Marshall. And here's a contact page for reaching the city's Department of Cultural Affairs, headed by Commissioner Kate D. Levin. Contact information for Queens Community Board 7 can be found here.

Oh yes: Here's the website for The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission.