Hewlett Theatre

This was a house so poorly booked what a shame.This was the prime location for a strong art house . What is in this location now??????????

It's a store.

Was Century's the first operator of this theatre?

no it was an indi

It was a nice house for an independant. Hey longislandmovies I was curious, besides Roosevelt Field and the Route 110 Drive-In what were the other big money makers for Centurys?

The shore /huntington -Fantasy /rvc-
PRE 1990 Green acers/vally stream

The strong point of CENTURY in suffolk county had to be HUNTINGTON THE SHORE ,YORK , WHITMAN, 110 DRIVE IN . THE ALSO HAD THE HUNTINGTON THEATER AND ONE IN HUNTINGTON STATION. So at any given time they had at least 4 theaters going.

All the theaters are gone as movie theaters but the SHORE stillgoing strong , THis was the only property they owned in Huntington .A SIDE NOTE = CENTURY ASLO OWNED CENTURY LANES Huntingtons bowling alley at the same time.

Somehow I can see why it closed. The neighborhood never would have let an XXX theater open up in it's neighborhood.

it closed as a first run house

Does anyone know exactly where this theater was? I lived in on the south shore of Nassau county for years and frequented the "Five Towns" area a lot and I can't seem to remember where this was...

Also, does anyone remember a large, very nice theater in Cedarhurst? I don't see it listed here. I know it closed back in the 80's.

As far as I know, there were two theaters in Cedarhurst. One was called the Cedarhurst Playhouse located at 499 Chestnut St and the other was called the Central Theatre that has no numbered address listed. It was located on Central Ave near Cedarhurst Ave. Thats all the info that I could find on them.

I answered my own question about where this theater was by racking my brain. This was right on Broadway in Hewlett a few blocks south of E. Rockaway Ave. (or Road). What was strange was that it was the very last building in that strip mall and I don't think there was a very large marquee. You wouldn't know there was a theater there. It was in an unexpected place.

It had a small free standing marquee on the road and a flat one on the front of the building.

I remember the marquee on Broadway. What was it...five six lines tall at that? If you blinked, you'd miss the place. I never saw a movie at this place for some reason. Of the theaters in the Five Towns, I went to the one in Cedarhurst (which is not listed here) and the other one in Lawrence on that lovely stretch of LI road, Rockaway Blvd.

On Rockaway Blvd Centurys had the Five Towns which really never found success until it went discount. I was suprised because it was a modern theatre in the mall. The other was the RKO Lawrence.

I had this one completely mixed up. This one was on Penninsula (sp?) Blvd in the shopping center. Kind of large, gaudy sign on the street. It was about a mile or so south of Sunrise Highway. Kind of near Valley Stream.

I saw "The Karate Kid" and "Another Woman". "Another Woman" was an annoying experience though it wasn't the movie that annoyed me (I actually liked it..). I saw this on a sunny Sunday afternoon in the winter. But the way the auditorium was setup, everytime someone opened the auditorium doors, the place and the screen would fill with light. It got so annoying that people started yelling.

This was a decent movie theater in a good location.

It was in Hewlett, not Hewlett Harbor, in the Peninsula Shopping Center, Corner of Mill Road and Peninsula Blvd. Known local as the four corners because of the four gas stations on each corner. The same strip mall always had a supermarket. Woodrow's Deli and Carvel are still there, next door to the site.

The theater closed in 1982.

http://www.rockawave.com/news/2002/0907/Columnists/Looking_Backward0907.html

The theater closed in 1982.

http://www.rockawave.com/news/2002/0907/Columnists/Looking_Backward0907.html

Cathy....I didn't see any mention of the Hewlett Theater in that article. It did say that the Central Theater in Cedarhurst was closing. Maybe you should post that article in the Central Theater which is here.

Annette at the Hewlett in 1963.
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a13/ChmnofBrd/Movie%20Ads/AnnetteMerlin.jpg

this theater closed later than 82........my best guess is 84

Does anyone know which space in the Peninsula Mall was occupied by this theater? The mall is largely a single level strip, however, there is a two story unit that seems like the likely location of the former theater. The unit is occupied by Matty's Toy Stop and is adjacent to the Blockbuster outlet in the mall. If I'm correct about this, that would make the address 1350 Peninsula Blvd, Hewlett, NY 11557.

According to their website, they've been open since 1988 - which would fit the timeline established above. I'd never been to this theater - I used to haunt the theaters in Valley Stream, Lynbrook, Rockville Center and Lawrence in the '80's, and for discount late-run we used to go to the Five Towns Theater in Woodmere. I do recall the Hewlett being listed in the discount run advertisements, however. Anyone have an approximate size here? Was there a balcony?

Here's a local.live.com view where one can make out Matty's Toy Stop as the narrow two story space with the three blue awnings on the 2nd floor. The blue awning of the adjacent Blockbuster can be seen to the left of the site. Can anyone confirm if this is the former Hewlett Theater?

Here are a few shots I took yesterday:

Matty's Toy Shop
Long shot
Mall signage

So, can anyone confirm that this was the theater building?

In any event, movie listings show this was on Century's late-run discount circuit by 1980 (probably a few years earlier than that) and continues to pop up in movie listings I have in 1982, 1985 and as late as October of 1986. So the theater lasted at least that long.

Matty's Toy Shop was the theater. Look to the top, you can see the door that lead to the roof from the projectionists booth. I had begun my earliest projectionist training at this theater, and I lived right down Penninsula Blvd by the Woodmere Middle School. The theater closed in 89/90 if I remember right. It certainly wasn't any earlier. The guy who owned the Polk was Walter Gusson (sp). He kept trying to turn it into an adult theater but the authorities kept closing it every time he did. I saw a matinee of 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea there in the early seventies. I also believe (or have memories of) Destroy All Monsters there as well. It had no balcony, it was a simple strip mall theater.

All the comments above lead to the conclusion that the address of the theatre was 1350 Peninsula Blvd. The heading should be amended accordingly.