Islip Theater

If anyone feels the way I do, come down to the meeting at Islip Town Hall on June 18th at 7:30 PM.

Thank you.

I think its a sin to make it a child care center…the YMCA is right up the street and they offer many children programs. Not to mention the place is loaded with asbestos….

I am going to the town hearing to fight against it. It is a complete waste of an historic theater.

:)

All the best of luck. Here’s hoping the Islip Theatre gets restored and running movies again. People should not be deprived.

You’re welcome, MPol. I’ve never lived in the area either. In fact I’ve only been to Long Island three times: a Queen concert in 1975, a Bruce Springsteen concert on May 4th of this year (both at Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale), and a pilgrimage to visit the grave of Bernard Herrmann, the greatest film music composer ever, in Elmont.

START WITH C OF C…

Could the Islip Theater have presented the most hilariously mismatched double feature of all time back in December 1964? See what you think:

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The ‘60s sure were a wacky time.

Hi,

I performed at this theater many times with many different bands (Spoonful-O-Blues many times, also with Kenny Baum and JoshuaLittleSteam and others), and everyone loved the place. The lobby has beautiful old time charm, the upstairs stage (where we played) sits around 300, and all the feedback we received from the audience was that they loved the venue as well. In fact, if anyone is interested, visit http://www.spoonful-o-blues.com/Islip_Pavilion.htm to see us on that stage (from near and far from the stage), and even a few pics from outside. Someone needs to jump in with the knowhow and make this place come alive again….. we would love to play there again (management tolds us we brought in a nice profit everytime we played there, in case anyone does get this charming place going again!) :–)

mrg83

[good for you], wasn’t a cut, if you read the last line
of your post “ i grew up in islip ”….and would hate
theater turned into something else etc.
it was the strong feelings you have for the islip theater and your town…as do i..see posts from feb 10th 2007…

good for you..but i don’t either…i wish clearview would take it over..they only have babylon in this county..has anyone heard whats going on…

If its Cinema Treasures page is correct, James Poro’s East Islip Theatre had already been open for a decade when he is supposed to have begun building the mystery theater in Islip itself. I can’t find any evidence that Poro’s theater on Main Street ever opened.

Here’s a puzzle for Islipers (Islipians? Islipites?) The January 19, 1946, issue of Boxoffice Magazine ran an article about a contretemps in Islip. Prudential Playhouses, a regional theater circuit, had broken ground for a movie theater on Main Street at Smith Avenue (which is the location of the Islip Theater.) A group of citizens protested the location, saying it was too close to churches and a school, and would generate too much traffic.

William Egelman, President of the Chamber of Commerce and spokesman for the theater’s opponents, denied that the opposition was motivated by the fact that James Poro, operator of the East Islip Theatre, was already building an 800 seat theater on Main Street a couple of blocks from the site of the proposed Prudential house, and it was scheduled to open in April.

Prudential said that they’d already gotten to go-ahead from the town authorities, that the town had originally approached them asking them to build in Islip, and that they had heard of no opposition from residents before breaking ground. Their spokesman added that they had been planning to build in Islip for four years, and that there was no ordinance prohibiting the construction of theaters near schools or churches.

So here’s the puzzle: As the Islip Theater is in the location Prudential wanted to build at (so they must have gone ahead with their project), what became of James Poro’s theater on Main Street? Did Islip support two theaters for a while? Did Poro decide to pull out of his theater project before Prudential’s house opened, and convert his building to some other use? Is the building he had under construction in 1946 still there, and can anybody identify its exact location?

The Google Maps satellite view of Islip shows only one building on Main Street about two blocks from this theater that looks large enough to have held an 800 seat theater, on the south side of the street opposite the end of Locust Avenue. Unfortunately, Google has no street view available for this location so I can’t check to see if the facade looks at all theater-like.

looks like our old friend marcalan glassberg has popped up again. it appears he has started a new life for himself as a teacher out in los angeles.

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