Westbury Theater
250 Post Avenue,
Westbury,
NY
11590
250 Post Avenue,
Westbury,
NY
11590
5 people
favorited this theater
Showing 76 - 100 of 149 comments found
Another sad day in Westbury: Tear and Gershon, a staionery/candy store that stood across the street from the Westbury Theatre for over 50 years, and where a reporter in the audience of the infamous cough drop caper went to phone the story in (they didn’t have cells back then) has shuttered and closed.
“Orca” played the Westbury the summer of 1977
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I go by there every day on the N 35 bus. Nothing has changed since my March 7th post.
Anybody drive by here lately?
There are pictures here of the marquee with the infamous “C-note” donors and the ceiling coming down.
www.antonnews.com/westburytimes/2003/08/08/news/
Here is a picture of the marquee advertising the bankruptcy sale.
www.antonnews.com/westburytimes/2004/09/24/news/
To Bob T: Thanks for reminding me that the “Pirates…” played there in ‘83. I remember the marquee read MAJOR STUDIO WORLD PREMIERE, and I had wanted to go very much. Now I remember why I didn’t: it WAS raining VERY HARD that night!
I only went there once. In ‘83 Universal had an experiment where they were going to open “The Pirates Of Penzance” starring Kevin Kline and Linda Ronstadt both theatrically and on Pay Per Veiw at the same time. I worked for UA at the time and of course none of the chains would touch it. Well, the Westbury was the only theatre showing it and I had never been there before and I had seen the Broadway show with the same cast so what the hell. I only have one thing to say about the experience, it was raining that night.
From the Village of Westbury Newsletter:
After several years of litigarion, the Village won the
right to forclose on the (theatre) property and the
courts finally sold the building through a bankruptcy
auction. Although (the) new owners have not completed
plans, they have met with Mayor Strada and agreed to use
their best efforts to fulfill the wishes of the Village
and re-energize the theatre in at least some portion of
the building. The Village will keep this as a goal and
continue to work with these new owners.
Let’s hope so. In the past few years, a pair of stadium sized condos have been going up near Post Avenue, dwarfing everything in site!
Went by there yesterday. The new owners have soaped the windows so it is no longer as easy to see through. However, I noticed that the concession stand, where the popcorn was still popped right before your eyes (see previous post) has been removed, while around the corner, the trees by the building have been chopped down. The whole place looks very gloomy.
I went today to buy tickets at Westbury Music Fair (actually it’s new corporate name is Northfork Music fair)so I swung by the Westbury. The roof is covered with tarps nailed down to keep them from blowing away. I peeked in the lobby and nothing seems different except a lot of plaster and drop ceiling have fallen from the water leaking. The sides of the marquee have had the letters saying “Support the Westbury Performing Arts Center” removed, but the front still says “God Bless America”. All of the stores are empty, as is the apartments upstairs. It looked very sad and forgotten.
I was born in Westbury and brought up in Old Westbury. I have not been back there since 1961. I have many fond memories as a child of going to the Westbury Theater on Saturday afternoons to see a movie. Sundays were spent going to St. Brigid’s Church, buying rolls at the bakery and a Sunday paper at the Drugstore and then heading home. In the 1940’s and 1950’s I spent many many hours at Annie McCarthy’s candy and grocery store/house which was located on the left across from the gas station as you headed into town on Post Avenue. She was my grandmother. It is heart breaking to read what has been happening to Post Avenue and the theater.
ShirleyA
Anything going on here?
Honestly, it was a shock to see it playing there and it was first run in the summer of 1990! I remember taking my wife there and she said “oh my God, isn’t this the place with the weird owners?” Now keep in mind, she was from Brooklyn. She had even heard of the stories. We actually had a fine time. The theater was packed and my wife loved the fresh popcorn. She said how nice an experience it was. That was what was so paradoxical about the place. It could be nice or not so nice. Like you said before, depended upon what meds they were taking.
CConnolly
No amusing stories about seeing Ghost at the Westbury? Back then they still used to get people into the theatre at least.
Look where Garden City is. One of the most bizarre aspects of LI is that drive up from Baldwin through Hempstead. Going north along Henry St.in Hempstead, you hit the remains of the old trolley line and the street became Clinton St in Garden City. You literally go bump and one second you’re in slummy Hempstead and the next, beautiful Garden City with mansions all around.
Not to beat Nassau into the ground, but even Garden City isn’t what it used to be. Bloomingdales is now a SEARS!!!!!!!!!! The famed N. Franklin Street is NOTHING like it used to be. People who live there now brag about how nice it is. Huh? You didn’t see it back in the 70’s when it got and deserved it’s name as the “Fifth Ave. of LI”.
As for Roosevelt Field, this is not the place to discuss it but what the hell…as I’ve said before, it’s a shadow of it’s former self. Even back in 1998, it was still a great mall. But in a very short time, it’s become a disgrace…dirty, lack of maintenance, you name it. I have heard (from a couple of friends of mine who still live on LI) that the reason for the mall’s turnaround is a re-routing of several bus lines. I shall not elaborate. But I don’t think it’s just that.
God, I remember the mall and the theater back in the 80’s. It really was like a small city…with all the stores and that great WELL maintained theater. EVERYONE went there. Then I went there in 2002 and it was sooooooooooooooooooooooo depressing. I could not believe how bad the place was.
As for Westbury, I remember taking my future wife for dinner in a restaurant a couple of doors down from the theater (forgot the name) and then catching “Ghost” at the theater. Lovely time. Now? I shudder to think of what the area looks like now.
I live in Forest Hills in Queens and although my area has stayed nice many other areas have gotten so bad. I looked at houses in Nassau but all the areas I would live in have taxes of 8 to 10,000 a year. Great Neck, Manhasset and Garden City are still top areas. The weird thing is the Loews Roosevelt Field is in Garden City but is drawing a rough crowd at times.
“Nassau could never look like a borough of the city of New York!”
HA! Want to make a bet? It already does and Westbury/New Cassell is quickly turning into Nassau’s version of Brownsville or East NY…especially New Cassell.
Nassau fell apart in the 80’s. Back in the 70’s, it still felt like a decent suburb. But they developed the living hell out of it in the 80’s and destroyed so much.
Now it’s even worse than it was. I’m shocked at what I see there now…the gangs, the graffiti. I know no one my age who wants to live there anymore. Maybe 30 or 40 years from now, it will begin to regentrify. Brooklyn has more potential than Nassau does. How ironic…the 5 boroughs were nearly destroyed by the post war housing boom on LI. But now Nassau’s on the decline while the 5 boroughs continue to get hotter and hotter.
Sorry…I know this is not the place to have a discussion about urban/suburban development. But in some ways, the decline of movie theaters DOES pertain to the topic.
Unfortunately, most suburbanites do not walk to shop in local commercial cooridors. As mediocre as shopping malls are, they are more appealing to the lazy who could not even bear the thought of parking along a street that isn’t near the entrance of their destination. This is a result of poor urban planning that has taken place in the past fifty years with stagnant clusters of suburban homes that bear no architectural significance and have no offical center of town. Since there is no center of town in these developments and there is nothing worth walking to, except for a neighborhood shop that residents probably drive to anyway. I think
that downtowntown shopping cooridors will be a thing of the past if people continue to plan these developments so poorly. If community residents would take pride in supporting these local shopping cooridors, they could be greatly improved.
Nassau could never look like a borough of the city of New York!
I live in the downtown Westbury area and have to agree with the previous poster about Post avenue. It has certainly been going downhill. The grafitti is all over the theater building and they even tagged my building as well. Usually the grafitti says one thing, it’s a gang symbol and all over town. I never saw any movies there at The Westbury but it’s a shame that downtown theatres like these are neglected and then often torn down.
I agree that Nassau is looking like a 6th borough of New York City. I’ve lived in Nassau all my life (grew up in Levittown) and remember how much better it was. Roosevelt Field mall’s side roads are riddled with potholes and sometimes the gangs hang out there. The movie theater there is very rowdy I never go there, I usually go to Levittown’s Nassau multiplex.
CConnolly
Maybe there meds were adjusted to the proper levels back then LOL. Seriously though they stopped doing good bookings as one of the above posts mention, they wanted the Paramount films because they were shipped free. If they had even gone second run with clean theatres and normal people working there it might have survived. How sane can someone be leaving holes in the roof while the theatre was open? Instead of playing the accordian in the lobby he could have glued some patches onto the holes in the roof.
It’s doomed. Sorry but the neighborhood is in decline and has been for years. And there’s way too much competition in the area with the new megaplexes.
I grew up in Nassau County and I go back there fairly frequently to visit friends and relatives (I’m in NJ now). Nassau is becoming like a borough of NYC now, demographic wise. I was shocked two years ago by the horrible condition of the Roosevelt Field Mall and it’s movie theater. The mall removed that great “spitting” fountain that they had for what???!!!! A kiddie train ride…to generate revenue. Ugh!
Back in the 80’s, Roosevelt Field was THE mall to go to. And the theater, though mightily multiplexed, was fantastic. It was clean as hell and just a great theater to go to. HELL, even this Westbury place was OK. It was one of the few close by places to show unusual fare such as “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown”, “My Life as a Dog”, “Jean DeFlorette”, “Murmur of the Heart” and so many others. The only other theater on LI that show stuff like this was the New Community Cinema in Huntington. And that was quite a schlep. I would never have gotten the chance to see these fine films without the Westbury. Yes, the owners were a well documented couple of nut-burgers but they booked good stuff in the mid to late 80s.
Went by there yesterday. There is now blue plastic covering on the roof. Other than that, nothing.
Has there been any activity here lately?
Yup thats the one LOL