★★★★★ 5.0
Discover
Museum of the Moving Image
The year is 1920, and Rudolph Valentino is strutting across this very ground in silent film costume... Back then, this corner of Astoria was America's Hollywood, with nearly 100 silent films shooting right here before the industry packed up for California. You're standing outside what was once the legendary Astoria Studios, and those red brick walls you see? They've witnessed more movie magic than almost anywhere else on the East Coast. The building's industrial windows and steel framework were designed in 1920 to capture perfect natural light for those early film shoots. Today, this exact same structure houses something that didn't exist when Valentino walked these halls - the nation's largest collection of moving image artifacts, with over 130,000 pieces spanning from Victorian optical toys to modern digital media. Step inside and you'll discover the only museum in America dedicated exclusively to film and television history. That massive central atrium? It was carved out during a $67 million renovation that transformed cramped studio spaces into soaring exhibition halls. The museum's crown jewel is one of the world's most significant video game collections - yes, those Pac-Man machines and Nintendo consoles are now museum pieces alongside actual Jim Henson puppets. From silent film studio to digital media shrine, this building has never stopped telling stories... it's just changed how those stories get told.
Did You Know?
- The Museum of the Moving Image is housed in a historic Paramount Pictures film studio building in Astoria, Queens, which was once the East Coast home of Paramount and is now a landmarked site—making it a living piece of cinema history where visitors literally walk through the halls where early Hollywood movies were made.
- MoMI’s collection includes over 130,000 artifacts, ranging from pre-cinema optical toys to 21st-century digital technology, and features unique items like the chariot from Ben-Hur (1959), Marlon Brando’s dental device from The Godfather (1972), and the rotating-head doll used as a double for Linda Blair in The Exorcist (1973)—offering a tangible connection to iconic moments in film history.
- The museum is home to a permanent, interactive exhibition called 'Behind the Screen,' where visitors can try their hand at voice-over acting, stop-motion animation, and even play classic video games, making it a hands-on, family-friendly destination that brings the magic of movies and TV to life for all ages.