Park Theatre
813 Jericho Turnpike,
New Hyde Park,
NY
11040
813 Jericho Turnpike,
New Hyde Park,
NY
11040
2 people
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The Park Theatre was yet another Jericho Turnpike theater, located near Lakeville Road at the Nassau-Queens border. The building appears to be some kind of office space now.
Contributed by
SteveSmith
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Recent comments (view all 27 comments)
From all of the above it is apparent that the Park theatre at Jericho and Lakeville was around for a long time. It was so tiny I can’t believe the seating capacity shown. When Century modernized it, minimally, they also replaced the tiny marguee with shuch a huge one considering the size of the building. When Century opened the Park East further East in what I would consider Garden City Park they simultaneous closed the Park.
I think it was more like 600 seats. I know its replacement, The Park East, was larger. Maybe it’s that one that has 800 seats.
The 1948 renovation of the Park theatre included the installation of a/c, the enlargement of the refreshment concession and the oversized marquee, which I thought was impressive. At the grand re-opening, Richard Widmark appeared on stage. On the second floor along with the projection booth was a dental clinic, possibly another firm located there. I was not impressed with the sound. I seemed there was slight distortion.
While the projection equipment in all Century Theatres was always in good condition, the Park Theatre was never anything to write home about. It was just a “run of the mill” neighborhood theatre.
The oversized marquee was bigger than those on more impressive Century properties. It was really too big for the building. Remember the pathetic one it replaced?
don’t recall it being “SO LARGE”. We are talking about the Park and NOT the newer Park East right? In fact, the Park being one of Century’s smallest theatres in the area, if not THE smallest, most of the other theatres had larger Marquees. The theatres that come to mind were the Floral (on the side of the building), Bellrose, Queens, Community and Meadows.
Don’t even remember what the marquee on the Park East looked like. The Queens, Floral and Community were boxes. The Meadows was an irregular shape. Only the Bellerose had a wedge like the latter Park. Park, if we had true seating capacity and not the 800 above, was probably the smallest older Century. The Glen Oaks was probably the smallest, period.
Regarding the projection equipment, in 1949, I saw “a Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court” at the Park when one projector broke down and the operator had to stop and re-load the sole projector.
I am not familiar with the Park East, so I cannot compare the two.
The Park stage must have been narrow because when it ran scope features, the screen was not wide as it was oblong. The top masking descended to change from flat to scope.
The theater was the last chance to see current double features after which the movies would then disappear. Occasionally they ran revivals.
Park never showed 3-D, but they had scheduled “The House of Wax” only to cancel it abruptly. At least I saw it at the Floral. I would see 3D at the Floral and the Alan.
The old Park marquee was probably too ugly for even the standards of 1927.
robboehm – The original Meadows marquee wasn’t irregular. It became the way it is today when Cineplex Odeon took over and “renovated” it. Before that there was a side that you could read the name of the picture when going west on the L.I.E.
btw- The Glen Oaks had more seats than the Park (which I guess you know really wasn’t 800 as posted here).
The Meadows wasn’t “traditional”. As you were heading west there was a narrow strip that just said “Century’s Meadows”. Then you got to the massive part which had the signboard and the MEADOWS. I don’t recall what the portion was that faced the actualy Fresh Meadows complex.