Curtain Set To Rise
For Museum Of Sound Recording

By ANGELA MONTEFINISE

Every Sunday for the past 30 years, hundreds of Queens shoppers have poured into the historic RKO Keith’s Theater in Richmond Hill , searching through tables of merchandise looking for bargains at the building’s weekly flea market.

The fluorescent lights above the market floor keep the huge, empty room bright for shoppers, who seem oblivious to the ornately decorated walls and chandelier-filled lobby of the 74-year-old theater. The loud sounds of haggling echo throughout the room, while shoppers munch on pretzels and pizza, running around examining merchandise.

But deep in the heart of the backstage area, where the theater’s rich history clings to the walls and past performances haunt the hallways, seven staff members from the Museum of Sound Recording (MOSR) are standing around a soundboard, listening to a scratchy blues record, and discussing how to hook up a piece of old audio equipment.

The staff members have been working in the theater for weeks now, preparing to transform about 60 percent of it into a sound museum, featuring exhibits, live performances, and a recording studio among other things.

The museum should start holding events in the spring, but MOSR President Dan Gaydos promised one thing – the theater’s charm and mystique will not be changed.

MOSR was founded 12 years ago by Gaydos, who called the museum an “approach to celebrating sound,” and said, “It’s an approach to discovering and exploring sound . . . It’s about people and what sound has done over the past century to bring people together.”

Dan Gaydos hopes to preserve the historic feel of the RKO Keith’s as he prepares to transform parts of the building into the Museum of Sound Recording . Tribune Photo by Angela Montefinise

The focus of the museum, which was officially registered as a non-profit in 1995, is to preserve history as well as educate and conduct research, and Gaydos said, “It’s about demonstrating sound, demonstrating how recording can happen, and teaching all of those concepts. It very, very quickly departs from the idea of a museum, with everything behind glass and little cards explaining what everything is . . . It’s about recording in motion, recording in action and recording in operation. It’s very touchy-feely. It’s fun.”

The museum had been holding exhibits, live recording sessions and public concerts using the historic equipment at a location in downtown Brooklyn , but Gaydos said, “We lost the lease, and we had to find a new home . . . Someone told us about this theater, and it was perfect. The acoustics are incredible and it reeks with history . . . We partnered with the owner [Robert Wooldridge], and he’s really excited about the possibilities. For the past 30 years, 40 percent of the theater has been used for BINGO nights and Sunday flea markets. The rest was left unused. Now it’s time to see the possibilities for what this theater can be as a cultural center for Queens .”

The museum’s employees have been working to clean up the theater’s backstage area and move equipment into the site since October of 2002, and Gaydos said, “Everything was preserved almost exactly as it was in 1929. It needed to painted and cleaned up, but it was all here already.”

The Museum’s employees and interns – including Bernard Fox, Chris Herles, Gary Heidt and John Chester – are all either professors or students at the Institute of Audio Research in Manhattan where Gaydos teaches, and he said, “All of us love to educate and teach, and there will be a lot of that here.”

Gaydos said he is “truly thrilled,” about being located in Queens , and said, “The multicultural aspect of Queens is amazing . . . We want students to come here and learn hands on. We also want to set up programs at schools and work with institutions of higher learning. There is a huge body of people in this community that we can touch with records and with media arts education “

Gaydos said the museum’s plan is to transform several sections of the RKO Keith’s into exhibit and office space, and said, “We don’t have a definite timeline of when we’ll be completely finished, but we’re moving along well.”

Sound equipment like these audio cassette players is an example of the types of machinery being restored for the museum collection. Tribune Photo by Ira Cohen

The theater’s old dressing rooms will become offices, a back room will become a control room, and an old concession room complete with bar and fireplace will be turned into an exhibit space. Gaydos said, “We’ll rotate the exhibits there. We’ll show different parts of our collection based on a theme, explaining how each piece was invented and how it worked.”

He added that the museum has acquired two additional sites in Camden and Yonkers , and said, “Most of our collection will be displayed there, but at this site, we have a unique opportunity to reach out to museum-goers in an amazing atmosphere.”

The flea market and BINGO nights will still be held at the theater, but Gaydos thinks they will eventually be “phased out,” to make the theater into a full cultural center.

The museum has “hundreds of thousands” of historic recording pieces, from NBC turntables to old-fashioned microphones, most of which were donated to them. Gaydos explained, “People kind of think of us as the de facto preserver of the audio industry . . . In the recording industry, you need to replace older formats with the new, sexy format, so the people who know us who can’t keep the older machinery give it to us.”

Gaydos said, “We know the pedigree of each piece we get. We know who recorded on them.” He said the museum has pieces that famous artists such as U2, Nat King Cole, Barbara Streisand, The Talking Heads, Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, BB King, The Kinks, the O’Jays and dozens of others recorded on.

Besides historic preservation, Gaydos said MOSR often loans the equipment to recording studios.

He said that the museum recently lent a “three track, half-inch” player to the music studio putting together the now best-selling compilation of Elvis’ number one hits. Gaydos said, “A three track, half-inch was a contemporary format in Elvis’ time, so when the studio wanted to compile his hits, they wanted to use the original, and needed a player. So we lent it to them.”

The theater, which was built in 1926 and opened in 1929, was one of almost 35 theaters in the Northeast opened for vaudeville acts by Benjamin Franklin Keiths, the father of vaudeville. Another one of these theaters, also named the RKO Keith’s, is located in Flushing , and has been the subject of controversy since it closed in the 1980s.

Although the Richmond Hill theater on Hillside Avenue and 117th Street eventually became a movie house and then, 30 years ago, a space for flea markets, Gaydos said “everything is intact,” and that, “it could and should be restored.” He said, “You can still hear echoes of people yelling, ’10 minutes to curtain.’ That feeling must be preserved.”

Although there is no official timeline for when the museum will be completed in its entirety, Gaydos said, “We’ll start with events in the spring, and hopefully, we’ll be done shortly after that.”

MOSR employees will continue working on the building every Sunday and at select times during the week, and anyone interested in helping them get settled, either by donating funds, volunteering, or setting up programs, should contact Gaydos at 794-1183 or 441-6767.

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