Fox Plaza North and South

I did some more research on this theatre and found it was Town & Country who made it a six-plex. At that time it was known as Mid Plaza Cinema 6. The last operators after T&C were an independant.

The site of the old Hicksville cinemas is where IKEA now stands, and the remodelled mall has a new multiplex inside.

This was an awesome theater. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is the one that was right on Routes 106/107 in Hicksville, right?

I saw "Star Wars" here in the South Theater. First time there and it became an instant favorite. The theaters were large and the screen size was amazing. Saw "E.T." here in 82 and lot of others.

I went back to them in the late 80's and found that they had carved them up considerably. It looked terrible.

Yes this is the one. It was a great twin because it was constructed that way. The multi-plexing of this theatre was one of the most bizarre of any theatre. It had weird hallways that zig zagged all over. Another theatre not listed yet is the old UA Hicksville Twin.

ua hicksville is listed i saw it the other day / not sure it had ua

town and country, century ran this for a while always big big box office #s as a twin

the top info is not all correct , this theater was long closed before Redstone announced that it was opening in the mall.

Stood in line opening day for "Star Wars" and returned many times. In those days they had exclusive engagements and they were one of the only ones playing it. Other highlights were the Rock & Roll documetary "Let The Good Times Roll", and the remake of "Invasion Of The Body Snatchers".

This was my local theater growing up - some of my earliest filmgoing memories are of seeing "Fiddler on the Roof," "Scrooge," and Disney's "Island at the Top of the World" here in the early 70's. Total mayhem when "Star Wars" played - loooooong lines entertained by jugglers and other performers. I think "Rocky Horror" even ran here at midnight at the height of the fad in 1982-1983. Not sure when it was carved up into a six-plex - I'm guessing around 1984 - but that was the death knell. One of the theaters had a screen smaller than our family television! Closed around 1990 and torn down to make way for IKEA. The marquee on Route 106/107 (aka Broadway) was reused by the all-new Nantional Amusements multiplex.

In it's proud 70mm days
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a13/ChmnofBrd/StarWars1977.jpg

As one can tell by looking closely at the newspaper ad linked in the post above (or by visiting the "70mm in New York" listing, http://www.fromscripttodvd.com/70mm_in_new_york_main_page.htm) this theater was operated by Mann for a period of time. Also, RKO Century in the early '80s.

The South screen was a Cinerama house (70mm version, not 3-strip). They ran "Grand Prix" and "2001: A Space Odyssey" promoted in Cinerama. Theater also ran 70mm presentations of "Cleopatra" and "Sweet Charity" and perhaps some others.

Did this become the Mid Plaza Cinema 6 by chopping up and/or adding screens, or was the Mid Plaza a different theater?

This was the same theatre. They hacked it up in a way that can't be described. It made no sense.

In January of 1987 the Twin North and South became the Mid Plaza Cinema 6, it was quite an abortion. Originally two large houses, North and South, each house was divided into three auditoriums. A wall was built down the middle of each house and one of the two houses was then cut in half making three auditoriums each for a total of six. The original two projection rooms were used and an additional two booths were built downstairs for the two small auditoriums. (Are ya with me so far?) 70mm was kept in what was the South side in two of the new auditoriums, I recall "Silverado" and a "Star Trek" among others played in 70mm. The smaller auditoriums
#3 and #6 had just 75 seats each. It was an independent theatre, the owner, who had a theatre or two in Manhattan,would enjoy stopping by on weekend nights to greet patrons (when was the last time you saw that). It did not last too long and eventually became a retail store, followed by a Multiplex which was built behind it by National Amusements.

Vito,
Are you sure about that year? The 1984 and '85 newspaper ads I have for "Dune" and "Silverado" show them playing at "Mid Plaza Cinema 6." And could it have been "Starman" that played there in 70mm rather than a "Star Trek"?

Michael I stand corrected, thanks for pointing that out. I checked back, and since I had spent a great deal of time at the Mid Plaza in early 1987 I remembered it as having just opened. However it was the summer of 1985 when the theatre first opened as a sixplex, "Silverado" played in June. I remember because we had a studio preview of "Silverado" in 70mm at the Sunrise Cinemas on
6/29/85. As for "Dune" and "Star Trek", I was bouncing around between the D-150, Mid Plaza and Sunrise so much at that time I honestly can't be sure which was in 70mm. Sunrise did play all three in 70mm of that I am sure. During the 80s it was not uncommon to have as many as three 70mm prints running at the same time at Sunrise.

Vito,
I'm not trying to be difficult here, but I still think you're misremembering when the expansion took place.

As I stated earlier, "Dune" played in 70mm at this theater during December 1984, and the newspaper ads had it listed as the Mid Plaza Cinema 6. "Starman" opened the same day and it too was being advertised as the Mid Plaza Cinema 6.

"The Right Stuff" appears to have been the last 70mm presentation at the theater while under the Twin North & South name. "Dune" and "Starman" look like they were the first to play under the new name. So from that, one can conclude that the changeover to six screens, a new owner and new name occured between October 1983 and December 1984.

Well Mike you have me scratching my head on this one. The last time I worked the original Hicksville Twin South was 9/83, which agrees with your thinking about 10/83 and 12/84. My next recollection is going there around 4/85 to work on the new booth for the six-plex. So what happened between 9/83 and 4/85 is the question I am trying to answer.I just can't seem to get it out of my head that it was converted in 1985. I also remember when we converted the Syosset to a triplex in January 84 discussions were also going on about Mid Plaza Six which was a competative theatre. But then I remeber palying "Platoon" at Mid Plaza Six in Dec 86 and seem to remeber the theatre had not been open as a six-plex for very long. The Mid Island Six was the last theatre I worked on Long Island in Nov 87, I shared that last week working there and Cinema 150 before transfering to Westchester New York to work for National Amusements. I will continue to research this and if I come up with any more info I will post it. Hang in there Mike we will solve this mystery.

Here's an update regarding the last few postings. I recently had an opportunity to sort this out via microfilm copies of Newsday, one of the Long Island newspapers.

This theater indeed re-opened as the Mid-Plaza 6 in December 1984.

The theater was closed for several weeks during the fall of '84 for the renovation. The debut attractions for the re-opening were "Starman" and "Dune," on Dec. 14, both presented in 70mm. The remaining four screens were filled over the course of the following two weeks.

Mid-Island Plaza is now known as the Broadway Mall. The address for Ikea is:
1100 Broadway Mall
Hicksville, NY 11801

My dad was the matinace manager at the "Twin theaters" We used to go in for free to any movie as kids. We also looked for money that was dropped on the floor before the janitors cleaned the theaters. The Twin Theaters took the place of the Hicksville theater in old down town Hicksville. That is where I seen the first movie of my life. The ten commandments".

Hi Vito.. If you remember me I worked with you at Mid-Plaza Sixplex. If you recall, theatre #6 and theatre #4 opened up first after the "cutting" up the south theatre just before Christmas 1984 with STARMAN in theatre #4 approx 280 seats and Dune 70MM in theatre #6 with 596 seats. After Christmas 1984 the other theatres opened up with the theatre #2 and #5 opening last approx March 1985. Theatre#5 was 160 seats and theatre #2 was the smallest with 98 seats. The other theatres I recall were theatre #3 was 303 seats and theatre #1 with 598 seats.
Also if you remember, Sid and Sy (the owners of Town&Country) owned the actual building, and leased the land. They actually owned it even when RKO sub-leased it from them previous to 1984; but a contractual problem develop everything reverted back to Town & Country. When that happened in November 1984, the owners of the Babylon Southbay theatre (called the Miller Brothers) who were also builders became the silent partners of the Mid-Plaza Sixplex. The Miller Brothers did the chop-shop construction at the Six-plex. As you know Sid and Sy renewed their 30 year lease a second time in 1986, so when the Broadyway Mall came into existence, the owners of the Mall (the Udell brothers at the time)wanted IKEA to come into the Mall, so in order the "buy-out" that lease in the summer of 1989 they had to pay Town & Country 30 million dollars for that lease (which bankrupt the mall six months later and the Mall corporation was no longer controlled by the Udells). Now when you walked around IKEA you are actually standing on theatre grounds
-- Peter

By the way, theatre #4 and #6 were the only 70MM theatres

Peter, nice reading your post, I enjoyed working the theatre with you. I also remember the owners quite well. I don’t recall which owner, perhaps it was Sid, who would spend every Saturday night in the lobby and would always come up to the booth to say “hello, how are you, do you need anything”
Even after the theatre was carved up, we who worked the booth still called it North and South. In the beginning we had two projectionists on duty at all times, one on the North side 1-2-3 and the other on the South side 4-5-6, I always worked the south side, and yes we did run a lot of 70mm. Later the owners negotiated a new contract and during the winter months, when the theatre was not on a continuous schedule, we had one man running all six cinemas for the single matinee shows. That last summer you may recall saying to me “your always here”, That was because in 1987, which was the last time I worked there, I did 7 days a week working the whole day from noon to midnight. During July and August I had only ONE day off.
Who could ever forget those tiny little cinemas (screening rooms) on the lower level. The booths were like a closet, barley enough room to move around in. I would always wait till just a few minutes to show time to go down there and thread the booth, then I could just thread up, start the show, check the screen and get the heck out of there. We could only run films with a running time of 125 minutes or less in those two cinemas because regular size platters would not fit in those two booths and so smaller than usual platters had to be installed.
I also worked the theatres when it was Twin North and South, I worked the road show of “Grand Prix” on the South side with Bill Herd, I am sure you remember Bill. That is why when the theatre was carved up only the South side (#4 and #6 had 70mm, because in the days of Twin North and South only the South side had 70mm (Cinerama) the North side was 35mm only.

I remember the film Grand Prix. I took my 35mm camera placed it on a tripod and got the fastest film at the time (400 asa black and white) took 36 picture's. about half came out real good. Got an A on my class project.

Here's a [UEL=http://www.fromscripttodvd.com/70mm_in_new_york_hicksville.htm]link to a page[/url] from the "70mm in NY" photo gallery that showcases a few newspaper ads from the HICKSVILLE NORTH & SOUTH/MID-PLAZA CINEMA 6. Sorry, we don't have any photographs of the place, just ads.

[Sorry, I meant to select "Preview" to check the link (for obvious reasons) and accidentally hit "Submit"]

Here's a link to a page from the "70mm in NY" photo gallery that showcases a few newspaper ads from the HICKSVILLE NORTH & SOUTH/MID-PLAZA CINEMA 6. Sorry, we don't have any photographs of the place, just ads.

Michael, When I wrote that only the south side had 70mm, I was referring to the time when the Mid Plaza Six was built. As I recall, Hicksville North and South both had 70mm, with Cinerama on the South side. However, the last time I worked the Hicksville North and South was the fall of 1983, about a year before it became Mid Plaza six, and by that time the 70mm on the North side had been removed and replaced with 35mm projectors with optical(mono)sound. I wonder if anyone knows when and why the equipment was removed. Perhaps the theate owners moved the 70mm projectors from the north side to another theatre.

Vito,
Thanks for clarifying. This supports the belief that at least during the 1960s both sides could run 70mm. ("Cleopatra" played a reserved-seat run in the NORTH house.)

I never came here when it was North and South, but I was sure here a lot when it was the Mid-Island Cinema 6. My friends and I once spent literally all day--nearly 14 hours--taking in EVERY movie (changing shirt tops, wearing hats, etc. aided our scheme). I also remember the one screen that I don't think was much bigger than my living room. I also seem to remember my knees being up to my chin because the rows were so close together. Saw "Ferris Bueller's Day Off", "Jumping Jack Flash", "Coming to America", "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home", "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier", "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids", "Pet Cemetary" (where my buddy Dave scared the bejeezus out of these girls in the front with his cat impersonation during a tense moment in the film)...good times.

I too saw the original 1977 "Star Wars" here. Must have been a limited release, because we were from Commack, and my friends Mom drove us all the way to Hicksville wich seemed so far away.

Yes, "Star Wars" began as a limited-market release. And as hard as it may be to believe, "Star Wars" at the TWIN SOUTH for the first ten weeks of its run was a Long Island exclusive. "Star Wars" didn't go "wide" in the greater New York City area until the first week of August of '77 (it opened initially in May).

Link to a Cinema Treasures 30th anniversary discussion regarding first impressions of seeing "Star Wars."

You would not see that now adays.............

LOL. yeah, I know! Oh, was there a porn theater in Hicksville? I recall driving by it in the very very early 1980's....

My father,Bob Hurd(not Bill Herd) was the projectionist at the Twin South Theatre who ran the Star Wars film. I remember all the hoopla & excitement leading up to opening night. My father spent 6 days, 14hrs/day running it. It caused quite a stir in the local #640 because there were other projectionists that wanted to be a part of it. Those were pretty grueling days for him & he came home at night pretty exhausted. That 70MM film was not easy to haul around the booth. After rewinding the film on to the take-up reel, he took a common clothes belt & ran it through one of the holes in the reel & fastened the belt. Then he put the belt over his shoulder & walked the reel over to the projector where he hoisted it up into the magazine of the projector & threaded it. Those reels were 40 minute reels & were very heavy. He did this from opening day til the movie ran it's course in the theatre, & never once watched the movie. We all thought that was pretty funny. He was never a Scifi fan. He worked at the Twin South from the late 60's,early 70's til the late 80's. I remember going to the Twin South with him as a kid, & i thought i was some sort of a celebrity because i got to walk past all the people waiting in line for the show & go right in. He used to let me splice film & rewind it sometimes. When i got done watching the movie, i'd go over to the North side & cut through the booth & say hello to Solomon who ran the North. Bob Hurd was #2 on the seniortiy list of the local#640, when he was forced to retire because of poor health. He passed away in 2001.

drednour, forgive an old man for not getting your dad's name right. It was a long time ago in a ....well you know.
Your dad was a terific guy and an excellent projectionist.
I first worked with him at Twin South on the roadshow engagement of "Grand Prix", in those days there were two projectionists on duty for 70mm roadshows. We worked together again after the theatre became a sixplex.
I also worked with his brother (your uncle)Gus, I believe it may have been was at the Commack Multiplex.
Gus also served on Local 640's pension commitee until he passsed away. I also seem to recall Gus had a son in the business as well,
possibly a projectionist or manager.

Vito and drednor You may new my father he work at the twin theaters
during Grand Prix and Cleopatra's Days. He was in his late 50s and his initials were E.P. When I was 15 their was a projectionist that let me watch the movies from the booth. Sure made me fell important.

Ikea is only on part of what was the Twin N/S, The downtown theatre lasted longer than the Twin N/S, so N/S did not replace it.

vito, Gus who worked as a projectionist along with my dad (BOB HURD) worked several different theatres over the years, & yes he served on the pension committee until his death in early 2003. My brother Bob Hurd jr. was also a projectionist, & Gus Hurd's son, Al Hurd is still in the business in NYC @ the multiplex near Times Square. He quit the local #640 & joined the union in the city. Did anyone know George Constandikis? He moved to Fla. at one point & was commuting to N.Y. to work certain times of the year for the better money. He used to drop by & visit us when he was in town, but we lost touch with him. Hicksville memories, I can't recall anyone with the initials E.P. I'm sure if you told me his name, i'd remember having heard of him.It was probably Bob Hurd who let you watch the show from the booth. My dad, Bob, was a very generous & kind man.

My Dad Was the main maintenance person at the time he was about 52 years old Ed was his name. I was about 15 at the time. The manager of the twin was Mr. Lowery? All I remember Mr Lowery had my dad build him a dog house for his dog on company time. This was when the Twin was brand new. I also remember at the Mid Island plaza there was a radio station under a large "star". That is going back a long time ago. I also remember when there was a farm there. Any one reading this can go back that far?

drednour, I remember Bob Jr. Didn't he eventualy go into management with Natonal Amusements?

I remember your dad very well, a real gentlemen and a pleasure to work with. I think the last time I worked with him was in the mid 80s at the Hicksville six plex.
I also remember Gus, and swapping the old laser disks that were popular before DVD's, he was a collector of them especailly the classics.

Long Island's Cinerama exhibition history posted here.