Salisbury Theatre

I don't know if it was a first-run house, but I do know that they did show mainstream films up until the mid 1970's. During the 60's, their Saturday matinees also featured a live rock band. I do remember attending (after they had dropped the stage show) a Sunday matinee showing of Laurel & Hardy in "Way Out West". Indeed, I even remember the date--March 1, 1970. A few years later, I went to a regular show. Charlie Chaplin's "City Lights" was playing with "A Man For All Seasons". I was quite picky about getting there on time. After all, I thought, such great movies would sell out quickly. But when me and my kid brother got there---we were the only ones
there!!! My final pilgrimage to the Salisbury came soon after, when
it was the last theatre around still showing kiddie matinees.
Granted, I was a little too old for them now, but I wanted to
witness what I knew was a passing parade, and besides I could treat
my kid brother and sister to a show. But after a few weeks of
sparse crowds, the same old James Hound and Beary Family cartoons,
and mind-numbingly boring K. Gordon Murray and Childhood Productions cheapies, we all gave up the ghost---the audience and the theatre. A few years later, the Salisbury went mainstream briefly once more. The movie chosen for the honor? "Porky's". I remember the newspaper ad for that movie with SALISBURY THEATRE standing out from the rest of the theatres listed. There was no no chain name in fine print above it.

A long island legand

A Long Island Legend? Doesn't anyone remember this as one of LI's porn houses? It was a porn house from the mid 70's up until the 1980's. In fact I saw my first porn here in 1983 ("Feels Like Silk") The strange thing about the theater was that it was in a nice neighborhood.

I believe that the address for the Salisbury theater is 610 Old Country Road.

This theatre was operated by the Brandt Circuit when it first opened and was still showing "XXX" in 1984 or so when a former manager colleague of mine was managing the place when I stopped in to see him. P.S. Didn't watch the "X" stuff, no interest in it. Now a drugstore, what else?

In it's porno days I believe this was run by the same owner as the Adult Fair in Jackson Heights.

a long island legand is a joke.......hahaha

ps ..please dont remove a post because YOU dont think its funny!

I never saw a film here, but drove by it on Old Country Rd a million times. I have no memory of this as a legitimate movie theater - seems like it was always an adult theater. Very unusual, because it was a non-descript brick building in a strip mall in a nice neighborhood. Nothing at all sleazy about it. The only way you could tell it was an adult theater was that 1) no one ever seemed to be entering or leaving and 2) you had never heard of the film titles on the marquee. Even the titles weren't particularly salacious - "Feels Like Silk" sounds typical.

Yes, that was strange, the fact that it was in a nice, middle/working class neighborhood full of stores and stuff. It stuck out like a sore thumb and you'd think as a legit theater, it could've done well.

My one experience in the place seeing "Feels Like Silk" along with another fine porn film of which the name escapes me, was that the theater was not huge but was fairly good size with a balcony. You came into the lobby from the parking lot and there was a concession stand but I don't remember if they were selling anything the night I was there. You entered the theater to the left of the stand (left side of the lobby.

I also never recall regular movies playing here. I think this may have been X since the 70's.

Just one more thing about this theater that is an elaboration on what I wrote in the post above. It's strange to me that this theater could not hold up as a legitimate theater showing regular films. It was on a VERY busy street (Old Country Road) in a nice neighborhood and had little competition. The closest theater to it was the Westbury which was about (I'm estimating here...) a mile or so away. The parking lot was big. Why didn't it get doubled or multiplexed or something. Strange. That's the thing that gets me about why some theaters closed and others manage to stay open. Why, for instance, did my favorite theater of my childhood, the admiteddly low key but charming Century's Baldwin close in 1985 and it's hellspawned cousins, the Grand Avenue Cinema and the Oceanside remain open and are STILL open?

Salisbury though is very close to Centurys Roosevelt Field. The thing is in the years before VCR's neighborhood X theatres were grossing $10,000 to $20,000 a week. Many of the X titles were flat rate rental and if they were a percentage, it was alot less then the minimum 30-40% you paid on second run. I know a few people who became millionaires from running porn.

Actually, its location may have worked against it - with the high pass-by traffic on Old Country Rd it may have been worth much more as high volume retail than as a theater.

RobertR: AH! Since I know nothing about movie rentals at theaters so the economics never occurred to me.

micohen: you're kind of right about the location. It was a busy street and the marquee was not very prominent. I guess it was/is a combination of factors that killed it and a lot of other theaters on LI.

I am curious--Being that this theater was in a shopping center, was it more prone to police raids (a common problem for porn theaters in the 1970's) than a porn theater located in a less desirable area?

Besides the flat rate rentals for X films, admission prices were usually higher than running first or second-run mainstream films. In the early 1970's, a porn theater could charge $5 a head versus $2.50 for a first-run or $1(or less) for subrun mainstream fare.

I have been looking into the bookings for the Salisbury and at one time it was very art house oriented. Here it is playing "Woodstock" after it won the Oscar for best documentry.
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a13/ChmnofBrd/WoodstockAcademyre-issue.jpg

Also played family matinees
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a13/ChmnofBrd/PhantomTollbooth.jpg

In it's arthouse days this ad mentions the Salisbury is in it's 15th week of "Tom Jones"
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a13/ChmnofBrd/VivaLasVegas.jpg

PaulLD1 talked about the cheapie K. Gordon Murray matinees playing here, so here is an ad from 1963 showing one.
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a13/ChmnofBrd/Movie%20Ads/17efdc80.jpg

saw Live and Let Die in 1973. they showed midnight movies for a while than went back to porno.a hooker propisitioned me in the parkinglot once.i live around the corner from the place which is why i was there.its better now that its a CVS.i always wished they were a regular movie theater.there is a good place to park with your girlfriend behind the theater to this very day.

I actually worked at the Salisbury Theater in the mid-70s when I was 17. I looked older than my years so I guess the owner (a cold-blooded blonde woman who dressed like a porn star) thought I'd pass for 18 if asked. She relegated me to ripping tickets at the front door - - and I can't tell you how many of my teachers - and even my girlfriend's uncle - would skulk into the joint! How weird that was! One day, the cleaning crew quit and the manager asked if I'd do the job until they could find a replacement. Biggest regret of my life. The things I found cleaning that dump would make Larry Flynt blush! Oh, the good ol' days. ;)

LOL! Great story! I think there should be a movie made about the whole "adult cinema" world...a retro-1970's thing. would be HILARIOUS.

it would be like the movie Clerks but in a porno movie insted

Nobody has pictures of this place?

In the 70's, it seems to me that this place alternated between porno,and being part of a small LI "art-house" group of 3 or 4 theaters which would show foreign films(in Nassau County - with the Malverne, and the Cinema Manhasset?). I remember seeing "The Sicilian Clan" (a good French heist movie, with Alain Delon and Jean Gabin) here in July 1970 (I was desperate to see it, and my mother told my dad to take me - the day before we were driving to Florida).
Also, in the summer of '73, I drove over with a group of friends to see Truffaut's "Such a Gorgeous Kid Like Me". I think I also saw the Zeffirelli "Romeo and Juliet" here in '68 or '69 (even though there was nudity in it, it was Shakespeare! so what could your parents do?).

The sleazy reputation of the theater lent a certain "frisson" to seeing legit movies there.

The Salisbury was apparently named after a nearby golf course. The cinema first opened on August 9th, 1961 with an "art" policy, starting with "Love and the Frenchwoman." Here's a newspaper ad: www.i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/salisbury.jpg

The Salisbury Theater was forced to censor the adult films they showed. A fellow projectionist who I used to picket the UA theaters with in the early nineties worked that theater and confirmed for me that they had to cut the hardcore out or color in the more salacious scenes with a black magic marker. And I did witness this because it was the closest adult theater to me and I saw Female Athletes there and it was cut and colored in! Talk about killing a mood! Westbury had strict rules, Pink Flamingos was banned from being shown theatrically there. Later, they went to video projection and started showing hardcore. They went out of business shortly there after.

I only went there once. I was impressed by the way they emblazoned the name of the theatre across the facade in muted blue.

I worked there spring and summer 1970. Artsy then, for sure. The movie Z, directed by Constantin Costa-Gravas, with Yves Montand and Irene Papas, played for months. Ben Hur for a couple weeks. Yes, then Sicilian Clan in the summer before I left for college.
I remember 600 seats, (no multiplex around here then!) because we kept some tabs on busy nights to warn people they'd be in the first two rows, or we were close to sold out.
Reeses Peanut Butter cups sometimes sold out, too!
General trivia: minimum wage went up from $1.50 to $1.85! But they didn't have to give our 16 year old co worker the raise.
At that point there was a management or ownership(?) tie in with the recently opened Jerry Lewis Twin Cinemas on Hempstead Tnpk. We were the expensive theatre-they were 99cents admission! (Friend rvb -previous post-says that one is listed on this site by last name used- FLICK.)
Regarding his comment-I've often said I wish I had a photo of the place. It was my first job. Anyone have one?
Is Michael my manager still out there?!
Also,