Hempstead Theatre

Late in it's life wasent this a Centurys house? I think I rmemeber seeing a horror triple bill there once?

This house made it open until the early 80's if I remember right.

I didn't live in Hempstead and never attended this theater but this one memory has always stuck with me for some reason: Around 1970, I'm passing through town, probably on the LIRR, possibly on a suburban bus, and I can see the front of the theater. The rat-horror movie "Willard" is playing, and an enormous, crude, three-dimensional rat head is affixed to the front of the theater as an advertising gimmick.

I remember seeing two stage shows at this theater in the early 70's. One show featured Virgil Fox on organ (he was big at that time) and the other show featured a band called Dire Straits (they were just starting out).

I am from Port Washington and I remember seeing Patti Smith at the Calderone and the Ramones as well in 1977. The Good Rats opened for both shows as the drawing power of punk in Long Island was a risky venture.

I had seen both Patti Smith and the Ramones in N.Y.C. at C.B.G.B's and at My Father's Place in Roslyn as well and I was struck by the fact that Hempstead was a riskier place to visit than the Bowery.

I recall that the Calderone had elaborate carvings of fern fronds adorning the stage although they were marred by many dents and stained by nicotine.

Thank you for prompting this posting. I would definitely liketo hear from anyone who similiar recollections!

Steven, I think your mixing up the calderone with the Hempstead. These were 2 different theaters even though they were only a couple blocks apart. The Calderone was on North Franklin street and only closed about 2 or 3 years ago.

At least when this first opened as a DMV, they did a really, really nice job with this. The dome was still intact with a beautiful chandelier hanging from it. This was back in 1986 or so. I don't know how it is now. You could also see where the balcony was.

My parents moved to LI in 1956 and said that Hempstead was THE place to live, shop and go for fun. They saw "Dr. No" here as well as a lot of other theaters. My Mother and Father said there were at least three great theaters in Hempstead. Decline really set in around 1970 but even in 1972, there were still very nice sections of the village. Not anymore.

The dome was still intact well into the 90's. Then when DMV closed in the late 90's I think a church bought it. What a suprise, a church bying an old theater.

They closed the DMV? Why? That was a great place to go. It was cool looking with that awesome dome, great parking and hardly any lines. Another blow to once lovely Hempstead!

I,m not sure why it closed but first they cut the DMV space in half. Then a while later they kicked them out completely. Hopefully they saved the dome.

The theatre is now owned and operated by DRC Fellowship Church. The gold dome is still there and DMV rents office space in the rear.

I worked as a relief projectionist during the theatres last days.
I would arrive at 6:30 for the 7:00 show but usually the manager would arrive about 6:45. There was always a double bill but we had no schedule. The manager, on weekdays, would just ask the few patrons who should up, which of the two movies they wanted to see, and that is when I knew which movie to put on first. There were no house lights, just a large portable light on the stage. When the manager went up to the stage and took away the light I knew it was time to start the movie. The balcony was always closed and sometimes late in the night I honestly wondered if there was anyone left in the theatre but me.

Vito
Was that still under the Century's management at that time?

Vito: fascinating info. What year was this around? I'm guessing it must've been around the late 60's, early 70's.

Hempstead's decline was/is sad indeed for Long Island. My parents told me that when they moved to the Island in 1956, Hempstead was BEAUTIFUL and they went to the theaters there all the time especially The Calderone.

Hempstead was still OK even in 1972. One of my first memories of movie going was to The Calderone seeing "A Boy Named Charley Brown". And my first dentist was there in this LUXURY(!!!!) apartment building right on Fulton in 1972. Over the course of six short years, the lobby of that grand apartment building went from opulent, to empty (all the lobby furniture was stolen) to run down. My dentist moved out in 1978. The apartment building is a HELL HOLE now.

I remember town officials made a big deal over revamping the Hempstead Theater into a DMV and it was a great place to go. If you've ever dealt with the lines at the DMV in Westbury, this place was heaven.

It's use as a public place at least assured that people could see how grand it was.

It was in 1983, which may have been the last year it ran as a movie theatre, when I worked the Hempstead. It was an independent owner who also had a security business. Century had sold it by then. I also ran relief at the Calderone and Rivoli, all of which sadly are gone.

The Hempstead was still open in 1983? Wow. I actually used to still go into Hempstead back then only to go to the long gone Abraham & Strauss department store, the only thing worth going there (thinking about it now, that beautiful department store in Hempstead was kind of anachronistic...)

I could be wrong but by 1983, The Calderone was long closed but still standing. When it reopened as a multiplex in the early 90's, I went there. It was amazing how intact the place was but it was a tad seedy.

CConnolly
I never got to see the Calderone as a 7-plex. What was the layout like? I was suprised that a multi-plex there did not make it. Was it a cheapo plexing job that did it in?

It wasn't a very bad job multiplexing it. I did the re-install back in 1998. The theaters were still pretty big. The two balcony theaters had 800-1000 seats each with a full stereo set up. The other theaters were all mono. Of course it was all old, used equipment. A few breakdowns but not too many. The building was just to big to maintain and heat. The owners rented the two balcony theaters to an indian guy to run indian movies. The indian movies did amazing business. The problem was the guy never paid the owner so he got kicked out. The calderone eventually was leased to another indian guy. It just didn't work out.

Can someone please tell me what Calderone theater is featured on the cover of the book shown on this website:

http://www.hofstra.edu/Libraries/WestCampus/SpecialCollections/sc_lisi_Calderone.cfm

It looks AMAZING!

That's a shot of the Mineola Theater. I think it was torn down in the 70's. If you go to the Hofstra archives they might still have some copies of the book for sale. It has a great deal of information and photos on the entire chain. Definitely worth the purchase.

The last time I worked the Calderone and Rivoli was in the late 70s, they did not last much longer. But the Hempstead was still going, or I should say limping along, until the early 80s.

was this theater a RKO theater rather a century theater

How the Hell the Hempstead kept going into the early 80's is beyond me. By that time, Hempstead had completely hit rock bottom. I cannot imagine why anyone would go there to see a movie.

I have a question for all projectionists on this site both former and current that has always interested me. Is there a law or something that requires you to show a movie that is scheduled even if the theater is empty? If this is so (I think it is...) that must be one of the saddest sites around.

This question just came up the other day. I don't know if there is a law thats states that the show must be shown. I was told that there is a law that you can not start the show earlier than the scheduled time. Again, I don't know if it is true or not but supposedly someone sued because the the feature started before the scheduled time. In all of the theaters I have worked in, we would never run the show if it was empty.

Many times if only 2 or 3 people showed up to see a fim we would ask them if they wanted passes for another night. This was mainly in the single screen houses. In the multi-screen theatres I managed we usually just ran the shows. The funny thing is sometimes people would not want to sit in such an empty house and were usally always willing to take passes. My friend Flo used to manage the Main Street Cinemas and at the time they were a twin. One side was showing this awful shlock fim (the type that goes straight to video nowadays). It had something to do with people in a hot air balloon if I recall. Well, nobody showed up for this movie all week, not a soul. One other thing, when it was real slow we would never start the feature early but we would start the trailers early so the feature hit the screen exactly at the time that was listed.

As a projectionist for over 40 years both in New York, New Jersey and Hawaii, I can tell we are under no legal obligation to show a movie if no one shows up. In addition there is no case for legal action if the movie starts early. Of course people will try and sue over the craziest things so it is quite possible someone tried.
I have heard, as RobertR stated, some theatres will start shows with the trailers a bit early, especially those late night (midnight shows), but the feature should never start before the scheuled time.

I recently went to that new DMV office . . . I was shocked at how small it was, considering how large the other DMV offices on Long Island are. The line literally went out the door and down the block.

In 1977 this was listed as Pacific's Hempstead
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a13/ChmnofBrd/Tentacles.jpg

Here's an early image of the auditorium, which had a stadium section of seats at the rear:
www.i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/128-2899_IMG.jpg

Which Hempstead theatre used to advertise itself as "Calderone 2"?

Hempstead was sweet.
On most Sundays my dad and I would walk from our apartment at 54 Greenwich St (then called the Colony House) and see a movie at the Hempstead or Calderone or Rivoli (my favorite).
This was in the late 50's and early 60's (no later than 1963).
Hempstead underwent its first round of well-intentioned but ultimately fruitless "urban renewal" in the early 60’s ...that precipitated the end of Little Main Street and Town Hall Park.
We moved from Hempstead on Halloween night 1963 and with the exception of maybe my high school graduation (West Hempstead) at the Calderone in 1972…I don’t remember ever visiting those theaters of my childhood again.

I grew up in Hempstead and have seen Chubby Checker at the Hempstead Theater, in fact, my sister and her friends were called up to the stage to dance with him. Also, my friend and I used to sit up in the balcony with peashooters when, all of a sudden, you heard "OW!!!" I've grown up a lot since then.

I'm wondering if anyone who has responded to this website and went to the Hempstead theater in the 50's and 60's and lived in my neighborhood, I lived on Warren Street in Uniondale near Hofstra University.

The Hempstead is listed in this small block ad for RKO's discount houses that ran in Newsday on 12/9/80:

80 cents at all times

RKO bought Century's around this time and the brand was "RKO Century" for a few years.

I grew up in the southernmost portion of the Village of Hempstead, right by the Southern State, and the blight has slowly but surely been working its way down. The neighborhood is still quiet, and our block still has a few of the old families left on it. I remember as a kid in the late 70's and early 80's my sister and I were allowed to go on bus missions to the movies pretty much anywhere local EXCEPT to the theaters in Hempstead, our own hometown. Pity, but with good reason. So I never got to see a movie in any of the old theaters, and it's so interesting reading these posts! My only memory of the Hempstead is waiting in line at the DMV, and marvelling at the beautiful ceiling, wondering what it must've looked like in its original incarnation. I can remember driving past the theaters
knowing I'd probably never, ever see the inside of these places. Thanks for your shared memories. Just about the only thing we did in the Village after a point was go to the A&S and DMV. The DMV had moved out of the Hempstead to a teeny little office next to the office where you'd go to pay parking tickets, and that's gone now, too. Haven't seen the inside of the Hempstead as a church. Has anyone else?

Look at the size of this second run
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a13/ChmnofBrd/Movie%20Ads/SpyCameinFromCold.jpg

I saw DEVO at The Calderone Concert Hall, right BEFORE "Whip It" became a top ten hit.

Hey Bloop... this theater was the Calderone Concert Hall. The Calderone Theater you're thinking of has its own separate listing here on CT.

Sorry... meant to say "was NOT"...

A Midmer-Losh theater organ was installed in the Hempstead Theater in 1922.

Function should be church. The address is 310 Fulton Avenue. Here is a photo of the church.

I worked as an usher at them Hempstead for a couple of years a teenager in the early 70's. Many memories. It was an impressive structure, though falling apart by the time I got there. There was an old dressing room in the basement with a long row of mirrors, as if for the chorus people Upstairs, on either side of the stage, there were spiral staircases that had private dressing rooms off them, for the headliners, I suppose. During my tenure, the theatre went through several incarnations: black exploitation films, second run films, even a brief (but memorable) porn period. One summer day, the manager went out for a while and stupidly left me in charge. After a while, a patron came out from the theater to say it was smokey inside. Indeed it was: a fire in the basement! I went through the basement to explore (like I said, stupid) and only got far enough to close the fire doors on my way back out. Then I called the fire department. By this time, the smoke in the theater was thick, but the patrons stuck to their seats. I ran up to the projectionist, who had no idea what was happening (he was so old--so it seemed to me--that he probably couldn't see much anyway) and told him to tun off the film. Then I ran down to the stage and announced that if they would please follow me to the lobby, I'd give everyone a free pass. The fire department had things under control quickly: the fire was from the belts on the air conditioner compressor. No big deal, really. I'll never forget how people stayed in their seats, even though it was becoming difficult to see the screen. Must have been a porn film with a really excellent sound track.

Here's a 1932 photo of a police gathering outside the Hempstead Theatre: http://207.97.148.182/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/hpl&CISOPTR=176&CISOBOX=1&REC=7

Here's a new link to a view of the Hempstead Theatre's stadium-style auditorium: http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/128-2899_IMG.jpg

Was this theater was aka RKO holltwood ar Im thinking of 2 different theaters

Warren could you also access the photo from the Long Island Memories site that has the sign stating on this site will be constructed the Hemptead Theatre. I came upon it just a few moments ago.

Sorry, but based on your description, I couldn't find that photo. Can you provice more specific details?

When I did an advanced search on Hemstead Theatre there were only seven hits. Number 5 shows the theatre with the policemen already available, the preceeding one is entitled Fulton Avenue. The text mentions the sign on the building. This maybe too tricky to enlarge enough to actually see the sign and not worth the effort.

You're probably right. I don't think that a sign on the wall is going tell us much, if anything, that we don't know already.

This is most likely the photo that your talking about. I can't read the sign either.

True, but it adds to the picture of in the day.

True, but it adds to the picture of in the day.