Green Acres Cinemas
610 W. Sunrise Highway,
Valley Stream,
NY
11581
610 W. Sunrise Highway,
Valley Stream,
NY
11581
4 people
favorited this theater
This was one of the Century chains premiere Long Island theaters. It always played big movies and I remember seeing “The Towering Inferno” here in 70mm. Century first cut it up to three screens.
RKO and later Cineplex had stiff competition here because National Amusements built the Sunrise Sixplex which is now up to 25 screens. National Amusements eventually aquired this theater and booked the more upscale product here.
The Green Acres Cinemas was closed on September 18, 2011.
Contributed by
RobertR
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Recent comments (view all 57 comments)
I used to sub usher here back in 1972-73. My main house was Centurys Grove in Freeport
Rivoli, from your postings it seems that you really got around the Century Circuit as a sub for one whose main house was the Grove.
robboehm, on my nights off from the Grove was when I would sub, or on a weekend, I would do 1 show at the Grove and the other at another theatre if they needed someone extra
Do you have any Century memorabilia? I had all sorts of programs, announcement of the Meadow and Shore before I moved. Never thought I’d have use for them. Who could have anticipated CT?
Funny you should ask robboehm. While going through a drawer of old stuff last month I came across 2 items from my days at the Grove. My name tag, w/ the Century logo on it,listing me as Chief-of-Staff (pretty heady for someone in high school)and an old key to one of the dressing rooms with a huge key fob saying Grove Theatre and the # of the dressing room. We went on a backstage exploration one day thru the dressing rooms. I also had one of the old 8x10 frames that hung in the lobby where the days show schedule was put up for the audience to see.
How many dressing rooms were there? Were they on the main or basement level?
Not sure how many dressing rooms there were.My key is for dressing room 11. If I recall correctly there was nothing under the stage, They were backstage(behind the screen) upstairs, 2 or 3 levels?
Many of the old theatres had downstair dressing rooms and cages for animal acts. Before they levelled and rebuilt the Southampton they used some of the downstairs area for an additional auditorium. The entrance was separate from the lobby. Stairs descending from the outside, albeit covered by a canopy.
Another great LI movie theater gone. This closing really hits home with me because after all these years, this theater is the one I remember the most and where I really fell in love with movies. When it was a single screen theater, it was not ornate like the older theaters built in the 20s but there was just something spectacular about it. The front entrance had a really long marquee that ran along the entire north side facing Sunrise Highway. There was this beautiful rich red tile at the entrance. For some reason, going to a movie here really meant something to me. I can still recall the excitement of going there and just seeing the theater made me feel good. It’s a fond memory that I suspect a lot of us here on this site can relate to. I’ve probably related the movies I saw here in other posts but the two that stand out were “Mary Poppins” during its re-release in (I think) 1974 and “Jaws” in 1975. We waited on line for both movies and I remember everyone in the theater screaming when the guys head rolls out of the boat in “Jaws”. To hear an audience that large collectively scream is something wonderful.
One last comment: when it was made into a triplex and then a six screen multiplex, it was one of the better reconstruction jobs. When the six screen facility opened, it was actually extremely nice though the theaters were small.