Commack Drive-In
44 Veterans Memorial Highway,
Commack,
NY
11725
44 Veterans Memorial Highway,
Commack,
NY
11725
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Showing 1 - 25 of 84 comments found
Looking at back issues of the Smithtown Messenger there were a lot of hearings on the building of a drive-in at the intersection of Jericho Turnpike and Indian Head Road during 1950. Obviously that never occurred since this one was built a bit further down the road.
I remember Angelo. Our DI (BSDI) beat their DI in a softball game back around ‘83-'84. If I remember correctly, Angelo’s Mom was the manager of the Coram Drive-In, also. Coram was a crappy Drive-In because the field always had flooding issues. The abandoned building now at that location should be sinking into the earth, at this point. A Drive In that I really liked was the Jonny All-Weather in Copaigue. What a huge theater, and Victor was a great manager.
It was some party back then between the Commack DI and the Smithtown DI
hey does anyone remember angelo and jean from back in ‘76 and 77?
The Commack Drive In was never twinned.
Sorry guys, I just went back to the historical site again and enlarged the picture. It just says Commack Drive In. Well, it is a vandalized pylon.
I was just looking at a site for the Kings Park Historical Society and on their first photo page is a color photo of the RKO Twin hardtop and a photo of a vandalized Drive In pylon which distinctly says Commack DI Twin. So, presumably it was twinned at some point toward the end.
Thanks. I think the address above should be changed to 44 Veterans Memorial Highway.
Here’s another site’s info on the Commack Drive in.
Location: 44 Veterans Memorial Hwy., Rte 454, Commack, NY 11725
Screens: 1
Capacity: Unknown
Original owner: Unknown
Opening date: 1952
Final season: 1986
All the Commack Drive In ads and the outgoing answering machine messages (I actually have a few) say the address is Veterans Hwy next door to the Long Island Arena. No address number is giving. Its definitely NOT Jericho Tpk.
I didn’t say that it had ALOT of information. What it does have is a totally different address than the one above. Which one is correct?
not THAT much information !
This site has some information.
Hey BLOOP…thanks for the BUDDY’S ad you sent me. I lost your email. Contact me at and give your address.
thanks!
I remember stopping off at the Candlelight Diner to get a breakfast special one morning prior to work. As i got back into my car (a 1971 Dodge Challenger), I noticed that the picket fence between the drive in and the diner was on fire. I used up the extinguisher in my car putting out the fire and it made me late for work. I think that the drive in was already closed by a year or so.
I also remember when they built the Commack RKO Twin theatre. And before the Candlelight, there was the Commack Diner that was located on Jericho Turnpike just to the east of the Commack Motor Inn. The diner had a large billboard on the roof showing a skating duck in a hockey uniform. This referred to the Long Island Ducks hockey team that called the Long island Arena home. The Ducks were a minor league team that broke up in 1973.
Full 1980’s shot of the Commack Drive In Sign, with the RKO Twin Behind it!
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Hmmm… I’m gonna go with the last bit of information. Wouldn’t it be a hoot if the Commack Drive-In explained it on their marque in plastic letters! “Please excuse the distributor’s title change on Revenge of the Living Dead…It’s former title was Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things…we just thought you’d like to know that before paying so there was no mistake or deception. Enjoy the show!”
The Blind Dead was my first thought, that’s why I looked up each title. This site has a different take, same film maker, different movies. How many people during the ages of movies got duped into buying tickets to a something they are already saw with a differnt title. Thanks for the ads.
http://www.scifilm.org/musings3/musing1505.html
P.S. BobT’s “Revenge of the Living Dead” comment : That series in the “Orgy” ad, was from the Spanish “…Living Dead” series (“Tomb of the Blind Dead”, etc) …just assumed they were obscure retitles from God-knows-where. If indeed one of those titles was actually “Children Shouldn’t…” we will never know for sure!? Also, this “Orgy…” was mentioned in Michael Weldon’s Psychotronic Film Guide with no mentions of “Children…” and he’s pretty dead-on about those things…but who knows, it was the willy nilly 1970’s when ANYTHING could happen!
I meant that “Day of the Locust” was not exactly a great movie choice for the typical Long Island Drive-In Family (and I do remember it being a BOMB….box office-wise). Although I would like to see it as I have a serious Karen Black fixation. Isn’t it funny how she was on the Hollywood “A List” till “Burnt Offerings” happened!? In a fairly recent interview (maybe 10 years ago), she was telling of her role as a mother of at least one teen-aged daughter. Ms. Black was telling some story about picking her daughter up from school, and the daughter was embarassed by the choice of vehicle her Mom was driving (an out-dated looking SUV?).Anyway, I just imagined being in the high school parking lot——and seeing Karen Black pulling up! LOL. That would be an image that would stay with me FOREVER!
Hey Bloop again, what year is that Living Dead ad from. You said up on July 5th “One ad I cannot find: I’m looking for ads for "Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things”…playing at ANY Long Island theater or drive in. So far, I have found nothing.“ Well if you look on The Internet Movie Database, "Revenge Of The Living Dead” is a reissue title of CSPWDT". You just might have had it the whole time, because I’m a big horror fan too getting the mags and such and I had never heard of it until I saw on Channel 9 one late night, so maybe it only played LI under that title.
Hey Bloop, the 110 was always on the Paramount Run. They had a deal to play that studios pictures first run. They also played “The Godfather”, they rarely played grindhouse or B pictures and they did very well. Have you seen “The Day Of The Locust”? It’s a behind the scenes story of Hollywood in the thirties and is really an amazing movie. Bizarre at points with a genuinely shocking ending, give it a rent. Still surprising Karen Black wasn’t nominated for an Oscar as she was for The Golden Globe. Burgess Meredith who plays her father did get a nomination.
…and a zowie ad from 1971…
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and a clunker for Commack in the late 1960’s:
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A good 1975 booking for the Commack Drive In …and a bad booking for the 110 Drive In on the same week:
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