ACT Theatre

The Rivoli was situated at 145 Main Street and had 1,855 seats, according to the 1954 Film Daily Year Book. The theatre first opened on April 3, 1926, and was built by Salvatore Calderone with profits that he made from his Hempstead Theatre, which opened in April, 1922. At the same time as the Rialto, Calderone also built the Valley Stream Theatre in Valley Stream, which opened three weeks after the Rivoli, according to Miriam Tulin's "The Calderone Theatres on Long Island," published by the Long Island Studies Instiute of Hofstra University.

The first date I ever had with my future wife was at the Rivoli......It was in 1959 and the film was "The Mysterians.....The Toho production that received a lavish build-up by MGM for its theatrical release here in the USA......We went there many times after that as my wife came from Uiondale, L.I.-----BTW, when I started collecting films in the late 60s, one of the first titles I got for my Collection was "The Mysterians AKA: Chikyu Boeigun-1957-Japan.......any one who would like info on this film( as its very interesting indeed. drop me an e-mail)----Joe From Florida---sasheegm---

LOL. I saw "The Mysterians" at Calderone's Mineola Theatre!
Just purchased the DVD from "Deep Discount DVD".
Great progressive Sci Fi flick from the studio that did the original "Godzilla".
Thx for the memories!

Glad I could bring back some memories for you RichardC.........I remember the Mineola Theater as well.......I believe it was a block from the old LIRR station...........Joe From Florida

Yup. Mineola Theatre was on Mineola Blvd @ First Street.
About a one-block walk from the LIRR station.
They tried doing live theater there in the 60's but eventually reverted back to movies for its remaining years.
It was destroyed to make room for a non-descript office "box" bldg.
What a waste!
Got any trivia re "The Mysterians" ?

The Mysterians was originally supposed to be released theatrically by RKO-----Toho had leased them the rights to show the film in the USA..........But at that time, in 1958, RKO had lost most of its booking houses, so RKO turned over the theatrical rights to MGM with Toho's approval, and the results were terrific.........However RKO retained the rights to the TV distribution which is about all it had left-------MGM re-dubbed the film, and re-colorized the negatives with their Metro Color process which turned pink within a year.........So for many years, all you could see on TV were B&W prints........When RKO-TV finally released a color version of the film, it was washed out ,looking with very warbely sound track.....................Toho released it on Pal video first in Japan then on Laser disc in the 90s.......Finally about 3 years ago they released it on dvd in Japan, and reached an agreement last year with Media-Blasters to release it here-------A new English Dubbed track was used on the dvd....and of course you have the option to see it in original Japanese with English subtitles..........As far as I know, all of the original MGM 70mm prints are gone with the wind----turned to dust-------I only knew one collector who had a 16mm MGM print.....and that was back in the 1960s.......but even the Original Toho negative was damaged some=-------if you take a close look at the first combat scene between the Jet Planes and the Dome's laser beam, you will see heavy lines for about 5 to 10 seconds------That was a flaw in the original negative, that was never fixed.........Good talking with you Richard-----By the way; for about 5 years, when i lived in Levittown, in the early 70s, I would take out my 16mm projector and show the entire neighborhood The Mysterians on the back of my house which was white--------My Daughters were small then and they grew up watching The Mysterians on the 4th of July for about 5 years with about 50 kids------My poor wife had to clean up the mess the morning after----but what fun we had, as I made my own fireworks showing The Mysterians on the back of my house....Joe

I remember the Rivoli very well as I grew up nearby. Mostly I remember my dad us off in thr late forties & early fifties... $.50 for 2 movies, new reel, shorts etc. Had many dates up in the balcony. Calderone opened around 1949-1950. Rivole, as the Hemp, were old vaudaville threatres

I TRAINED AT THE CALDERONE FOR UA 1969 AND FOUND MYSELF HELPING OUT
AT THE RIVOLI HEMPSTEAD FROM TOME TO TIME..
IT HAD A FLYING SCREEN AND A NICE STAGE..WE HAD LIVE SOUL SHOWS
THERE SUNDAY NIGHTS..
WALLY 1975

Here's an ad for Calderone's Theatres from December, 1927. The Rivoli supported its movies with vaudeville every day, with a full program change twice a week:
www.i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/caldfive.jpg

A Midmer-Losh theater organ was installed in the Rivoli Theater in 1926.

Warren: Nothing came through except Photobucket saying that the page was not found------Joe From Florida

I lived in Hempstead when I was a kid and I remember seeing a kid's mantinee at the Rivoli of "Mad Monster Pary?" in either late 1967 or 1968. I also remember back in the late sixties this kid telling me about how he had seen "Planet of the Apes" with "this movie about cavemen being chased by dinosaurs." I had no idea what he was talking about, but years later I looked up ads from the period in Newsday on microfilm at the Levittown library and discovered that what he had seen was a double feature of "Planet of the Apes" and "One Million Years B.C." that had played at the Rivoli the last week of June 1968. I also remember that my father took me in 1969 to the Rivoli to see a double feature of "The Sand Pebbles" and "Che!" I never recalled much of "Che!" but "The Sand Pebbles" became one of my favorite movies. I can't recall the Rivoli in any vivid detail but I'll never forget the movies I saw there.

A 1986 photo of when the Rivoli was the Adelphi Calderone Theatre and
was presenting live shows.

http://www.americanclassicimages.com/Default.aspx?tabid=141&txtSearch=adelphi+calderone&ProductID=30825p

Let's try that again - 1986 photo of the Rivoli as the Adelphi Calderone



http://www.americanclassicimages.com/Default.aspx?tabid=141&txtSearch=adelphi+calderone&ProductID=30825

Exterior view of the auditorium.


http://www.americanclassicimages.com/Default.aspx?tabid=141&txtSearch=adelphi+calderone&ProductID=30826

Presumably named after the Rivoli Theatre on Broadway in midtown Manhattan, which opened in 1917 and had become one of the most prestigious cinemas in the USA.