Lawrence Theatre

ugh .This was RKO ugly

This theatre was actually twinned in 1968 and then triplexed later on.

always did good bsns for RKO

I'm suprised business fell off here, there was not really any theatres around until you drove to Rockville Center or Valley Stream.

THE talk was this theater was going to add on nothing ever came of it.. not sure why this closed.

A bit of a dump in a noisy, ugly, congested area of Rockaway Boulevard (isn't the whole roadway like that? Is this not the ugliest stretch of road in Nassau County?). Anyway...I saw a lot of movies here in the mid 80's but the place was not well maintained. The surprising thing about it was that you would think that the clientele from the affluent 5 Towns would expect/demand more. Ugh. This was in such an ugly area.

ANOTHER question: There was a really nice single screen movie theater located (I believe) on the "main drag" in Cedarhurst. It was right on the street but I don't see it listed here on this site. It closed in the mid 80's I think. I was a beautiful theater. I saw only two movies there: "The Deep" in 1977 and "Grease" in 1978. I remember the seats in the balcony were big, plush and rocked like the stadium seats do now. Does anyone remember this place?

I'm shocked to read on this site that Star Wars played the Lawrence in 70mm. I never thought this was a top house.

http://www.in70mm.com/news/2003/star_wars/star_wars_openings.htm

Just realized I forgot to include the link

What a horrible booth to work in the 90's

There's another theater from the Five Towns that I don't see listed on this site either. It was located on Peninsula Blvd in a shopping center. I'm not sure if the area was Valley Stream (south) or Hewlett. What I remember was seeing Woody Allen's "Another Woman" there on a Sunday afternoon. Everytime someone came into the auditorium, the theater would be flooded by light. It was really annoying. Not sure when it closed but I'm sure it is...anyone recall this theater? It was NOT near Rockaway Blvd but much closer to Sunrise Highway, maybe a mile or so south of it.

CCONNOLY that was the HEWLETT theater it is listed

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a13/ChmnofBrd/StarWars1977.jpg

It was still a twin when "Williard" played there.
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a13/ChmnofBrd/Williard.jpg

This was known as the RKO Lawrence when I attended in 1979 and the very early '80's. I remember seeing "Apocalypse Now" for the 3rd or 4th time here. Saw a number of movies here. I also saw the 1980's 3-D flick "Coming At Ya" here and possibly "The Elephant Man". I seem to remember this as a twin, but it might have been a triplex by the early '80's. I know CConnoly is talking about another theater when he mentions the light flooding the auditorium whenever someone would enter from the lobby, but I think that occured at several theaters. Was the RKO Lawrence the theater where you had to walk down a few steps from the lobby to the doors leading into one of the auditoriums?

Anyway, here are a few shots of the building now, which is a Duane Reade now. The entrace looks the pretty much the same and the lobby ran along the wall that faces Rockaway Boulevard (facing the camera lens in the 1st photo) with the auditoriums on the left.

RKO Lawrence
Pylon sign
Old entrance

THE LAWRENCE HAd a 2 step up from the box office to the lobby.

Thanks longislandmovies... but I was thinking of a theater where from the lobby you actually had to step down a couple of steps before pushing open the doors into the auditorium. I thought it might have been the Lawrence.

Here's an updated link to my photobucket album where those photos from February are now located. The old links no longer work.

Came across an old copy of Newsday I saved from the time just after John Lennon's murder. I also have copies of the NY Post and Daily News from this time and it seems that only in Newsday did theater chains like RKO run these sort of throwback block ads:

RKO block ad

Elsewhere in the paper, RKO also had a smaller block for its bargain-priced third run cinemas (at the time priced at "80 cents at all times") such as the Mineola, Valley Stream and Hempstead Theaters.

eveyone of those rko theaters are now closed.......

This ad for Five Card Stud advertises this as the New RKO Lawrence Twin.
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a13/ChmnofBrd/Movie%20Ads/7-31-68FiveCardStud.jpg

Burglary in 1975:
http://tinyurl.com/3bhhow

This first opened in 1967 as the RKO Twin Theatres. "Why Twins?," ads wondered. "Here are the reasons: The TWIN miracle of convenience. Each TWIN theatre will show the same feature-- with starting times staggered. Come early...come late...whenever you come, the TWIN concept eliminates the long wait to see the picture from the beginning. The identical TWIN theatres each have 750 seats." The RKO Twin boasted of free parking for 4,000 cars due to its location between "the giant Korvette Shopping Center and the mammoth "Bargain Town."
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/rocktwin.jpg