Boulton Center for the Performing Arts

Does the Regent show movies again now, or is it now a performing arts house or something?

Here's a current photo of the Regent (Bolton Center) Theater taken this evening:

Click here for Link to Photo

whats the story on this theater ???

I don't know. It was open, but there was so much traffic, and no place to park, so I just drove by. I'm not sure if it plays new movies, old movies, or is a performing arts center.

I do realize though that it is mispelled above.
It should be the "BOULTON CENTER".

I never saw this theatre listed in the newspapers. Another theatre I dont think is on this site is Montauk Movies, I remember it was a single screen that closed in the deadest winter months. I dont see it in the papers anymore, it must have dides.

I think the montauk was open this year i will check.

The Boulton Center is not a movie theater anymore. Although I am pretty sure they are capable of still showing movies, it is now a Performing Arts and concert venue.
The full name is actually the Boulton Center of the Performing Arts.

Here's the official website for the Boulton Center for the Performing Arts:

http://www.boultoncenter.com/

Actually, they do still show movies there.
For example, this coming October 30th, they are showing a double feature, Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" and "Psycho".

So here's your chance to see these old classics on the big screen once again. Check their website for oter movies in the "film" section.

In the 60s, when owned by Prudential, the Regent used to day & date with the Rialto, while the Bay Shore and Patchogue day & dated.

As the Regent it was always second run compared to the grand Bayshore up the street. In The 70's they played B picture double features like "Walking Tall" and "Big Bad Mama". Then it went XXX and lasted well past other theaters that closed when video cassettes took over porn.

The Film Daily Yearbook,1930 gives a seating capacity of 770 for the Regent Theatre.

As the Regent they were part of this 1965 showcase run.
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a13/ChmnofBrd/DieDieMyDarling.jpg

BTW, parking is in the back.

Interestingly, while the Boulton Center is mostly a live theater now, they do still show film, and it pays to check their film list every so often. For example, they sometimes do Alfred Hitchcock movies, and here's their current list, which includes mostly Disney films in this case, but also stuff like ET if anyone wants to see it on the big screen again....

http://www.boultoncenter.com/eventsGenre.asp?idGenre=4

The Regent Theater! I loved this theater. It was small, but it always seemed to have good movies. I first went there in the early 60's, and last went there (as the Regent) when it was showing an awful soft core, X-rated film called "Alice in Wonderland" somewhere in the late 70's, I think. To start off, I saw A LOT of matinees at this theater. Mom or Dad would drop me and my brother off to see some Don Knotts movie, and pick us up after the movie was over. Much later, they started showing a lot of horror movies at night, so as a teenager, I was always going with my friends to see some Hammer film or another cheap horror extravaganza from another studio, then we would go next door to eat some pizza. Does anyone remember the music store that was just east of the Regent in the 60's? We used to go in there to look at the latest 45's and LP's!

In 1964, I saw the Beatles in "A Hard Day's Night" there, and later, "Yellow Submarine." When it was the Hollyrock in the 1990's, I saw a band called RTZ there. It wasn't until 2005 that I returned to see at the Boulton Center, ironically, The Pete Best Band, led by the guy who was kicked out of the Beatles in 1962. In 2006, I saw another British classic act, Chad & Jeremy.

I just visited the Boulton Center last Friday night. Kenny Rankin performed an intimate concert there to a full house. I also saw Livingston Taylor on March 31st, 2007 and he was spectacular and also packed full. Janis Ian came by last year and graced her sold out audience with her thoughtful and moving talent. It is a GREAT venue!

I work across from the theatre and I want all to know that Bay Shore is coming back! At one time, there was a silent movie studio in this town...so it has a history. The town by the Great South Bay on Long Island will rise again and be gloious. It's all being restored!

Regarding the recent posts...great to hear Bay Shore pulling itself up by its bootstraps again...Funny storys about the Regent....Made my first all day trek to "another town" on my bicycle, riding all the way from East Islip at 12 yrs. to see "Blood On Satan's Claw"... Took me all day to get there, then realized...
a.) It was an R rated film and as such I would not get in ( I did, no questions asked!) and
b.) It would take me well into the night to get back...Had some explaining to do, but it was an adventure and the movie scared the crap outa me...

I watched that theatre crumble almost in timelapse as I would take a bus to school and pass it every day...First run films....2nd run double bills...Softcore films...Porno chic(Devil in Miss Jones)...hardcore porn...closed....

BTW... the record store you might be thinking about may have been The Cucumber Castle...
We would pass that place every time we drove to Robert Moses, my brother and I would beg my folks to stop and let us go in....never happened....years later older cousins let us in on the fact that it was a head shop....

The Regent Theater is listed as open in the 1926 edition of Film Daily Yearbook with a seating capacity of 700.

In April, 1934, New York State Exhibitor reported that Prudential's Regent Theatre in Bayshore was temporarily closed for "modernization" by John Eberson's architectural firm.

The Regent can be seen briefly in the movie "Last Summer". Directed by Frank Perry, the film was about four teens spending the summer on Fire Island. Starring Bruce Davidson, Barbra Hershey, Richard Thomas before John Boy Walton and Cathy Burns who received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. There's a scene where the four are running out of the theater to catch the ferry.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064573/

Somewhere between being the Regent and Boulton Center it was the Hollyrock. There was a cafe infront and a screen showing movies. Bizarre - a little like the current Studio One in NYC that has stage plays in a setting like that.

Here is the Regent in 1986.

Wow, the theater really looked crapy by that point.