Levittown Theater

This theatre sucked so bad but it was always fun to go
anyway and see bombs and goof around, cause at least
the popcorn was passable and you could see budget movies.
My favorite memories of this place are: my dad almost killing
the manager when we went to see Caddyshack and the projectionist
never made it to the theatre! We got a full refund and went
elsewhere that day. Whewww was my dad pissed! So was I.
The projectionist must've had too much acid the night before.
Also, seeing double feature with some funny company in
1985 or so of Gotcha(anthony edwards..i LIKE VEERGINS!) and
Day of the Dead. With a theatre-full of trolls and miscreants.
Ahhh, those were the days. This was an essentially creepy
theatre and gross (and the sound was awful and bled thru walls),
but I also saw 2001: A Space Odyssey for the first time in 1974 with my parents, so it was not a total loss.

wow.. did not think i would see this theater listed, the worst dump you ever saw played low budget crap always fun to go to

The address for the Levittown Theatre was 3080 Hempstead Turnpike, Levittown, NY.

This theatre was once owned by two partners who also had The Malverne, Roslyn and Main St. My friend was a manager for them and their personal and business lives could fill a book.

this was the worst even UA did better than this...........

ha indeed, a really scary theater but fun somehow,
and the price was right with the double features on
Saturday. I even saw Hunt for Red October and
A Soldier's Story here later on in the 80s for peanuts.
I can't recall now if I actually saw 2001 here..I'm now thinking it was at the Syosset Cinema 150 or a Westbury movie theater
rather than the Levittown Twin...I'll try to find out for
sure on 2001. I don't think the Twin was really equipped
for something like 2001, at least in 70mm Cinerama.
If I find out where 2001 was reissued in the 70s when I saw
it I'll repost here and give the information to all.

was there a theater very close to the twin on the same side of the street

The partners who owned it - was it Justin and Nick?

Jay and Murray were the partners. Jay still has Main St, Center and I think the Elwood.

i think the closest theater to the Levittown was/is
the UA Meadowbrook/East Meadow just up Hempstead Turnpike and across
the street, a multiplex and it's still there...I think one of
UA's local NY offices is right in the building next door to
that theater, or used to be at one time.

Scott, the UA Meadowbrook has been demolished (over a year ago) for a bank. Like the projectionist you mentioned above, the acid must have made you see the theatre as still there.

oh no! it's demolished? I have no idea I barely get out
that way anymore, last time I drove down Hempstead Tpke.
it was still there, but this was like 2 years ago or so.
That sucks, that was actually a good theatre...
oh meant to mention highlights of that UA theater
were, for me: Return of the Jedi the day it opened even
though I found it not as great as the first two films;
midnight movies there including Rocky Horror, Pink Floyd:
The Wall and even Blue Velvet later on briefly(!).
I remember looking through the main auditorium door window
at JAWS when it was first out and not being allowed to go see it,
my parents only let me look at it quick through the door window
in that lobby there right off the ticket booth/entrance etc.

it is now a carpet store

that's really hideous. oh well.
UA wasn't really the best-run theater chain
in the area, I think Loews is probably the
better company all around (the big Levittown
multiplex over near Nassau Mall was always a good
theater, a bit crazy when something like Close
Encounters was there but always fun, you would see
everyone from school and your neighborhood there for
various big movies, Star Wars was certainly one of those),
or was at one time. I guess Cineplex Odeon has
replaced Loews in this regard but those places are a bit
too sterile, cookie-cutter and antiseptic for my taste.
I used to see a TON of movies in the 70s to late 80s
and most of the major Long Island Nassau County theaters
we would frequent, and the Meadowbrook UA was a major one.
The diner across the street I know is still there, cause
I ate in it not three years ago or less....

NOW I remember this theater! It reminded me a LOT of the Oceanside Theater. The marquees outside looked almost identical! This was near the old Mays shopping center. I know I saw something there but it was a long time ago. I had a hard time figuring out this one. I can still picture the marquee with the neon colors around it like the Oceanside. I always wondered if they were designed by the same people.

got love this one

At one point, this theater was owned by the same gentleman who owned the Deer Park, North Babylon, Old Bethpage, Franklin Square Twin / Quad as well as many others. The theaters were operated under different corporations, GSW Theaters, Southland Theaters even 110 Theater Management. My father was GM for the owner and at some point I worked at each. I remember one time we ran a double feature of Saturday Night Fever and Grease. Yes "Vinny Barbarino" fans ... two for the price of one ... ouch. Still it was a nice local movie house.

Bought my first house in Levittown in 1963 when my First daughter was born(have two)----and Welcome Wagon gave us two tickets to the Levittown Theater---it was small and we saw "Donovan's Reef"....Later when I started collecting 16mm, I bought a print of Donovan's Reef and showed it to my Daughter;s 5th grade class at Wisdom Lane school....I was also the Commisioner of the LMAA Softball League from 1969 until 1975.....I have fond memories of that little Move House and taking my Daughters to Sat Matinees.....Joe From Florida----sasheegm---

i used to get drunk at this theater.the double feature of American Werewolf in London and Altered States was awsome.saw that one 2 or 3 times.Saw Unforgiven with my father there, thats a good memory.what it lacled in spit and polish it made up for it with atmosphere.i loved that theater and my sister got married in the church behind the theater

I saw Blue Velvet there....the seediness of the theather actually complmented the movie! You remember....one light in the ceiling working...smelly seats (if u could even find one that was not broken), sticky as hell floors!!!!

i love to come back to read the posts///////////so bad was this house, so good .....strange

I'm trying to figure out where this was. Where exactly was this theater in relationship to Tri County flea market and the Nassau Mall? It was on the same side (the north) of Hempstead Tpke, wasn't it? And was it a free standing twin? So what exactly occupies the site now? And did the new tenants move into to the old theater building or did they raze it and build new? Someone mentioned a carpet store, but I'm not sure if that referred to this theater or the UA Meadowbrook that was also referenced in the thread above.

Lots of questions, I know, but I was just in the area yesterday to visit my cousins who live off of Wantagh Avenue and I think this theater was still around when they first moved into the area about 13 or 14 years ago. There's a Loew's Mutliplex now in the Nassau Mall which I'm pretty sure was built within the last decade.

Across the street from the old Mays dept store..Looked like Retail space..In front of the church..it was a carpet store and may well still be.

In the 1960s and early 1970s, it was across from Mays Dept Store and Key Food Stores on Hempstead Tpke......It had a very small Facade and was on the corner------A Chinese Resturant opened next to it around 1970 or so........I moved from Levittown to Florida in 1976 and it was still there, however I had not been in the old movie house since the early 1970s-----at that time it was still in pretty decent shape.....Joe From Florida

i am going to guess this closed 1987-88

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b110/GuanoReturns/Newspaper%20Ads%20and%20Clippings%20Part%20Two/IMG_2486.jpg

dont see too many levittown ads

Thanks for posting that image for me, longsislandmovies... It's a bitch trying to cover all the theaters listed in those ads I have! That clipping is from Newsday, by the way, dated 10/5/85. Looks like it also gives us a location as "a mile east from Wantagh St. Pkwy".

Jeez... just look at Demi Moore's hair in that ad for "St. Elmo's Fire"! Could it be piled any higher? And how about Rob Lowe's mullet!!! Hair styles that have gone the way of the single screen nabe!

is this place still standing? what's become of it?

Christmas 1968, this was re-issued yearly until the late 70's.
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a13/ChmnofBrd/Movie%20Ads/1968ChristmasAlmostWasnt.jpg

One of my earliest movie memories, RobertR. I can't say for sure whether I caught this on its initial release, but certainly by X-Mas of 1969 or '70. And probably at the Fair in Queens (or some nearby theater if it wasn't playing there when I caught it).

I took my Daughter to see that Matinee at the Levittown back then------I remember that there were many parents who accompanied their kids....and I recall it vividly-------Pleasant memories.....my Daughter is now 43 years old with her own kids----Too bad they do not have Matinees like that, or even better, when I was a kid with the real Saturday Matinee-----Two "B" features(usually one or both was a western) a serial chapter, 5 cartoons, and a weeks coming attractions.........Joe From Florida

The utterly filthy yet exceedingly charming Levittown was hands-down my favorite theater in my teenage years. In the 1980s, my friends and I enjoyed their liberal policy regarding patrons under 18 for R-rated movies (we also enjoyed similar experiences at the Mid-Island & Gables theatres). The admission was only $2 or $3, and we were able to see double features, which were already becoming increasingly rare by that time. We saw such critically acclaimed fare as Slumber Party Massacre/Quadrophenia, Mausoleum/Gates of Hell, My Tutor/Doctor Detroit, Screwballs/Going All the Way, etc. The worse the movie, the more loud and rowdy the
crowd became & it was a great Friday night out for a teenager.
I believe the structure is actually still standing, but has been completely re-done and is now a "Carpet Depot".

LOVE WHEN THIS THEATER GETS A POST ..............AS LOW AS IT GOES BUT STILL LOVED IT!

mays turned into tri-county flea market.levittown theater was right across the street from there. i saw unforgiven there in 91/92 so the theater had to have closed down sometime after that (not 87/88).the building is still standing today.the free standing twin was the ua meadowbrook up the road about a mile(across the street)....my father says the same thing Joe( about the newsreels, and all of the cartoons, the westerns and the double features)....memories are great and sad at the same time.......... sort of like this old movie theater

Hello Steve: Thanks for the up-date and memories........We moved from Levittown to Florida in 1976, so it was sad to see how the little movie house had deteriorated over the years------As I guess we all do---------I only remember it as a small quaint theater, were you could meet neighbors going to the same show, then going to Jahns Ice Cream parlor on Hempstead Tpke--------Back in the 1960s and 1970s, the Meadowbrook would show first run shows and I remember taking my wife to see The Beatles in "A Hard Days Night" there------At that time the Meadowbrook was plush, while the Levittown was more like the very small theaters in my old Brooklyn neighborhood where I grew up------There was Times Square Stores nearby-----Great Eastern Mills----Pergament----Plenty of places to shop, besides Mays---and every Sunday, The Levittown Mens Softball League would play doubleheaders in the neighborhood-----I was the Commmisoner of the league from 1969 to 1975------Joew From Florida

Saw countless movies growing up here incl MARK OF THE DEVIL, which handed out vomit bags. The highlight of the witch-hunting epic was when Herbert Lom pulled out the tongue of a suspected witch. Ugh!

I went to this theatre several times when I was a kid in the sixties on Long Island. The ones I can recall are "Planet of the Apes," "Ice Station Zebra," "Romeo and Juliet," a re-issue of "The Sound of Music" and one that my father took me to, even though it was kind of too adult for a nine-year-old, "Last Summer." I saw "Apes" there on June 29, 1968. I know that because I saved the ad from the time. It was "Apes" second run after playing the first run theatres in April. The ad said, "Welcome back, Dr. Zaius. We missed you." Anyway, the Levittown was one screen back then. I don't recall it as any kind of special theatre, but it wasn't bad. It was one of the smaller, second-run theatres on the Island. I'm surprised it operated as long as it did.

The theatre actually closed in the late 1990's apparently since the New York Times listed times as late as 1996. At that point, they were playing Indian films.

The theatre also had the Long Island exclusive of Reservoir Dogs in 1992. I believe that ran it for over a month.

Use to go there in the 50's and 60's. Saw Day the Earth Stood Still, Godzilla, Rodan, Them, Day of the Triffids, Crawling Eye, and every Hammer Horror film ever made. They even had Flash Gordon serials between shows. The place was a babysitter for the neighborhood on Saturdays. Poor ushers! It was like the premiere scene from Ed Wood, with hails of Jujube's and Good & Plenty's flying through the air at the poor schmuck unlucky enough to have the flashlight. The bathrooms were foul, but the popcorn had real butter. I also miss Jahn's ice cream parlor next door to the old Meadowbrook theatre. That was the site of everyone's first date. If you could finish the humongous "Kitchen Sink" ice cream extravaganza, you didn't have to pay the $6 it cost. It came in a cardboard sink. people ran outside in a hurry if the sink began to "back up" barf-wise. Levittown kids were blessed in all departments back then. So many things to do, and cheaply too. It was a different America in many ways. It was WAAAAAY better for kids in a lot of aspects. We all ran wild in the asphalt streets without worrying about kidnappers, molesters, gangbangers or crackheads. I used to skateboard all over the May's Mall area with my buddies from Division Avenue. Gilgo Beach surf-rats one and all.

What you say, Jojojo77, about those days is very true. I lived down Hempstead Turnpike from Levittown, in the village of Hempstead in the late 60's. I was 8, 9, 10 years old, white, and used to walk into downtown Hempstead to matinees at the Calderone, Rivoli, and Hempstead theatres -- alone, and I don't remember it ever crossing my mind that I'd be kidnapped or molested, maybe beaten up by slightly older kids, especially blacks, but that was it. Those really were the lates days in America when kids could enjoy that kind of freedom.

Don't forget the RKO Hollywood

how about the soft-core "t*tty" flicks at the "Fine Arts" in Hempstead? A true educational experience for us sheltered suburban innocents. Pretty lightweight compared to today's super-smut...

I was an usher for almost two years starting in June of '75. It was more quaint then sleazy in those days. One summer we had the Disney festival and babysat every kiddie in Levittown for six weeks. And all were wearing Fonzie t shirts. Had great runs of "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" and "Blazing Saddles". We would trade free tickets with the Chinese resturaunt down the street. We had to turn away the single patron who showed up to watch the last showing of "Benji" two nights in a row. Almost got fired for wording the marquee out front from "Three Days of the Condor" to Three Days of the Condom". Thursday night was the porters night off and the ushers would clean the theater. So we would get drunk and spend four hours doing a one hour job. Ah, those were the days.

Ahh...those Disney Summer Festivals. We had them here in Jersey too. Rainy days were the WORST. 600 kids would show up to a 400 seat theatre. But, as I have said elsewhere here on CT, and as stated above, 'those WERE the days' and I'm sorry to say they will never, ever return.