Sunrise Drive-In
750 W. Sunrise Highway,
Valley Stream,
NY
11581
750 W. Sunrise Highway,
Valley Stream,
NY
11581
4 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 72 comments found
enjoyed some of the great stories,especially the one about car-speakers.
Introductory comments up top might be updated to reflect exact opening date of August 10, 1938, and correct time of closure and demolition to 1979, sometime after the run of “The Exorcist” re-release as detailed above by KingBiscuits on January 16, 2010.
Back to the nominal topic, found these photos/images on a Facebook group called “I grew up in Valley Stream 1970-2000” and purloined them for use on this site. Some of these images may have already been submitted here, but I don’t believe any of those links are still working, so here they are anew:
Daytime shot
‘Gaudy Neon’ at night
1950’s mailer?
Opening Ad
That last image of the opening day ad is most likely the same one from the Long Island Press that Warren posted back on November 14, 2007. I find that little mailer from the 1950’s to be interesting. I suppose with the competition from television, the folks at Sunrise took their advertising campaign door to door via the USPS. I wonder if the Sunrise ever really ran a true VistaVision presentation?
I’ll keep my eyes peeled, Al. Thanks for the heads-up.
Ed, I do miss Lost Memory. He was a true loss.
I suspect Warren is posting under an alias you will soon recognize.
Hey Al… So, it seems that both Lost Memory and Warren G Harris are no longer contributing to Cinema Treasures. That’s almost unthinkable. I don’t see Warren posting anything after June of 2009 (save for a brief return as W. G. Harris in September of 2009) and looks like Lost Memory slammed the door shut on CT rather angrily in November of 2009 on the Columbia Drive In page. Losing the two of them must have slowed posting activity on the site to a veritable crawl! I was at least relieved to read on the Ridgewood Theater page that Lost Memory had made contact with another CT member in July 2010 to let them know that he was alive and well. Anyone else wander off since then?
Sorry to go off-topic… but then, actually seems rather fitting to do so, considering some of the acrimonious history between these two former CT confributors. I’ll miss Lost’s contributions and great sense of humor in these pages. And while I often found myself at odds with Warren’s rather imperious nature, I’ll miss his significant contributions as well. I wish them both well and hope that we haven’t heard the last from either one!
Welcome back, Ed. We missed you.
Seriously? I was going to try and contact him… lost his email a while back. Hope he’s doing well. I think that guy has made a comment (or 2 or 100) on just about every theater listed on this site!
Thanks for the clarification. You’re not the only one to go on hiatus. We’ve “lost” Lost Memory among others.
No, rvb. I haven’t been very active on this site for a few years and somewhere along the line (not too long after I went on hiatus, here) CT made some technological changes that stopped the email notifications from going out to inform members of new comments on the theater pages. So, now that I’m getting back into the swing of things on CT, I have to make some sort of comment (and click the “notify me” box below) in any given thread for which I’d like to be notified when a new comment is posted. Usually, I try to add something to the conversation to renew my notification, but in the case of this theater (and wherever else you’ve found my generic “re-linking” comment), I had nothing to add.
Ed, I don’t understand the “relinking”. I see you have this on more than one site. Does this have to do with accessing your photos? And if so is this something we all have to do after time?
Re-linking, forgive the intrusion.
Although I grew up not far from Valley Stream, we didn’t do the drive-in much…but how I remember the few times we did!
“King Kong” (the 1976 version); a double bill of “Grizzly” and “Day of the Animals”, and best of all, a double-bill of “Star Wars” (the 1977 original, which was still in its original release at this time) and the 1953 version of “War of the Worlds”! I never did find out how they came up with that combo, but who cares! Seeing the Martian War Machines on that big, big screen was awesome!
(And, yes, I do have plenty of fond memories of the Tuesday and Thursday flea markets, too!)
Robert R,Loved your Double feature “TRUE GRIT” and “THE LAWYER"another crazy Double feature.Great Stories to read guys.thanks for putting them on.
On this night in 1947, the Sunrise Drive-In closed its gates for the year following the screenings of two re-issued comedies: “Jimmy Steps Out,” the James Stewart-Paulette Goddard starrer originally known as “Pot O' Gold,” and Laurel & Hardy’s “The Flying Deuces.” The outdoor cinema was scheduled to re-open on or about April 15th, 1948.
These little guys spent a fortune buying TV ads for their films just to get theatres to book them. The theatres that failed to pay or paid late hurt them more than the competition from major studios. These exploitation titles kept many small theatres open during the dull months by filling empty seats, albeit with some really bad films. The ad campaigns cost more than the movies themselves so not paying them made their cash flow impossible to maintain. These deadbeat theatres were the same who complained about product shortages.
We sold out a 900 seat theatre in Miami Shores with “Beyond The Door” on opening weekend that had not been sold out since the fifties. A lady passed out during the film and had to be taken away by ambulance. That unplanned event made the film even more popular on the weekdays. By week two the place was empty.
Exactly! You know it’s an interesting thing about Davison in that Ed Montero ran Film Ventures, the company that released Beyond the Door, but it was Davison who did the publicity and created the campaigns, yet he died broke and drinking was the main cause of death. I always believed that guys like him were always swimming in deep, dangerous waters to keep up, and I honestly think that when the whole theatrical venue dried up for independents, plus the internet screwing the coffin shut, he basically just gave up. Couldn’t keep his head above water anymore, and he no longer had a desire to, the landscape had changed so drastically…
A lot of theatre operators behaved that way back in the seventies. They paid the majors but screwed the independent distributors that didn’t have another film they wanted coming up.
Sometimes even the majors didn’t see their share for six months. Since product came out during summer and Christmas, the boxoffice receipts from one season paid for the previous one. Withholding prints was one way to get paid something.
“Beyond The Door” was a BIG drive-in hit.
Alright.
A film publicist and filmmaker I knew named Donn Davison told me that Sumner was an “underhanded thief”, and he claimed he forced Sumner to pay rental fees for Beyond The Door ahead of sending Sumner the prints. He claimed that Sumner was notorious when it came to not paying up, and he had Sumner by the balls because the prints were reserved but Davison kept them locked up demanding cash up front. He didn’t release them until Sumner wired money to him the day before the film was to start. Davison said that “Sumner proves that crime pays”. Here’s a small part of the interview I did with Davison: http://www.cinefear.com/davison.html
Did any of you get to meet Sumner back when he was a mere mortal?
The biggest attendance that I know of was for “The Dirty Dozen”. We put on an extra showing and it was held over for a week. When “Night of the Living Dead” was shown, folks returning from the snack bar walked like zombies and scared the hell out of those that were stoned. Good times.
I saw a double bill of Dawn of the Dead and Meatcleaver Massacre there in 1979, most likely months before it went out of business. They were harsh about anyone under 17 years of age seeing Dawn of the Dead, and I remember hiding on the floor. The line was so long for getting into this film that they didn’t check the car. The Flea Market that ran out of the drive-in at the time was fantastic, one of the best around. It’s still there at the multiplex but it’s a poor shadow of what it had been!
Nice to see so many memories of the Sunrise Drive In. I worked there from 1967 until 1970. I started working during the day repairing the damage caused the previous evening; replacing speakers and heaters, re setting speaker poles, repairing the perimeter fencing, etc. All for $1.35 an hour! It paid the bills. The retired guys who cleaned the field burned the garbage in shopping carts they pushed around. They would find some money left in snack box trays and many other “interesting” items.
I switched to nights as a “field usher”. This position included directing cars, replacing defective speakers and heaters, and doing the charity collections. Yeah, that was me banging on your roof when you were occupied in the back seat.
Next was box office cashier, so you and I may have actually met! That was a great job as long as you didn’t mess up. Cars with one occupant were logged and the manager would visit the car in his golf cart later to see if any others had magically appeared. If so, out you go!
The folks that worked there were the roughest, toughest guys I’ve met till this day. Most worked heavy jobs on the Long Island Railroad during the day. To me, they were honest and kind and I’ll never forget them.
Mr. Scott. Lee Scott was the manager and ruled with an iron hand. The only time he smiled was when someone from Redstone Management paid a visit. He yelled, screamed, and was very arrogant. He DID run the place well and we did manage to have a good time working there.
If any of you folks have any questions, bring ‘em on or email me at
I remember seeing a double bill here in 1965 of Billie with Patty Duke, and Hush…Hush,Sweet Charlotte (which scared the living hell out of my 6 year old ass!)with Bette Davis.