Bay Shore Theatre
200 West Main Street,
Bay Shore,
NY
11706
200 West Main Street,
Bay Shore,
NY
11706
4 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 67 comments found
George, are you the George I know from Cabaret?
My dad had a job working in the projection booth there for only three months back in the early 1940’s.
Question, PragmaticGuy. Since you are discussing the Regent and trying to post the photos from Newsday why are you doing it on the Bay Shore site rather than the Regent (Boulton Center for the Performing Arts)?
I saw that too and was wondering how to access them for a link. Going to go to the exhibit and see any other pix which Newsday didn’t print of the theatres in town. Didn’t realize the Regent had a vertical. Never did from the time I first saw it in the 1950s.
The Regent was mentioned in the caption under the picture. In Newsday Sun Feb 12, 2012 there is a picture of Main street from the 1930s showing the Regent marquis. One during the day and one at night. I’ll try to get them posted.
Hi Jeff:
You have to “take out the trash”, to have the correct email address!!
Jeana: I attempted to send BST pics to you but your email address apparently is not working. . Te return email stated there was a permanent fatal error. JEFF
This place was amazing.
I would love to see any more photos you have of this old place. Seeing the couple so far really makes me wish it could’ve been saved as a theater and the YMCA had found someplace else. You can email them to me at .
Jeff, please email me your newly scanned photos, I’d like to add them to my collection of Bay Shore/Brightwaters photos on Webshots. It’s: Take out the trash!
Thank you!!
Terrific photos, wurli3… Thanks for sharing. This theatre was a real gem! A shame it couldn’t be salvaged and restored. Of course, that probably would have been at the expense of the Regent, but if I had to choose between the two…
Hello All: I have posted recently scanned pictures of the Bay Shore Theatre that were originally taken in 1982. I have restricted these so, if you want copies for your use only, let me know and I’ll gladly email them to you. I hope you enjoy these.
To Jeana & Bway: I’ll try and get some pictures scanned this week. Probably the reason why there are no old pictures/postcards of the Bay Shore could be that it was one of those venues of entertainment that was always there and taken for granted. When it was finished the architect and builder undoubtedly photographed it for their records but those are probably long gone. The YMCA really didn’t destroy the theatre. Being closed for over 10 years with no heat in the building ruined the plaster and anything made of wood had rotted. The house was in deplorable condition when they tried to auction off what remained of it. More later.
WOW! Amazing photos! I can’t imagine that that lobby photo was taken after the theater was closed. They destroyed it I assume. Does the YMCA use the old building shell, or was it razed?
I can’t wait to see more photos of this beautiful theater, can’t figure out why there aren’t more pictures, postcards, etc. of it around as Bay Shore was a major resort.
Not sure if this has been mentioned before, but the YMCA that occupies the Bay Shore Theater building also owns the former Regent theater across and down the street, which is now called the Boulton Center.
I haven’t logged onto the site in quite some time and I see everything is brand new. Thank you Jeana for posting one of my Bay Shore pictures and for the credit. I appreciate it. Eventually I’ll scan some of the others and post them now that it is possible to do so. Thanks to all those who revamped the site. It looks great!
The Bayshore was 70mm capable with two Norlco 35/70 projectors in the booth.
I’ll second that. In fact, Jeff, now that the new photo submission system is working, it would be great if you’d upload a couple of your photos to the site.
Yes, I did get some photos from Jeff Morrell, kudos to him, and many thanks as well. Jeff, if you’re keeping up with this, I’ll take any more you might want to share.
The Bay Shore was a lovely theater, I went there many times growing up, and even though it was past its prime then, there were no other theaters close by that compared; most were boxes thrown up to keep pace with the baby boomers.
Some of the auditorium seats had little tabletops between them. There was gold leaf on all the woodwork. The ladies room had three separate areas, one with a huge velvet settee, one with mirrors and vanity tops for touching up hair and makeup, and of course the toilet area. It was easy to imagine movie stars like Jean Harlow slinking around in 1930s evening gowns, dangling cigarette holders.
Wow. Gorgeous interior! I was mistaken when I though this was a theater I had attended in the mid 1980’s to see “Return of the Living Dead.” The theater where I saw that flick was nowhere near as ornate as this one.
Apparently Jeana found some photos, because there’s one of the lobby, one of the screen and one of the building after it was closed all beginning on page 10 of her album. Link is in her 5/29/08 post. Here’s the link for the lobby photo:
http://travel.webshots.com/photo/2846794510067676325xfgTOy
I gather that posting is a no no because of space constraints. The preferred method is to load them onto your Flikr, or whatever account, and link them.
Continuing; The 1929 Film Daily Yearbook listed the Bay Shore seating at 2500! Both figures were probably inflated. The Regent became the Bolton Center. Others have posted details of that. To answer Jeana’s question I have scanned some of the Bay Shore pics into my computer. Most of what you will see in the article are the B & W versions. Are we able to post pictures on the website yet? Bye for now. Jeff
If anyone cares to read the article I had written that appeared in the June 1983 issue of The Console email me at and I will send a PDF copy to you. In so far as the confusion between Bay Shore and Bayshore I used the latter throughout my article and The Console copied it verbatim. Oh well..If you read my post from 7/22/09 I cover the pipe organs that were in the Bay Shore & the Patchogue. It is accurate info. John McNamera was the architect and contractor George Clark built it. My 1932 Film Daily Yearbook lists the Bayshore as 2000 seats, Regent 770. & town pop Windsor Theater. Patchogue
seated 15000 & town pop was 6850.
Catching up to this rather late, but Jeff, did you ever scan your pictures of the Bay Shore Theatre? If so, they are probably the only ones. The Bay Shore Historical Society only has a postcard with two small lousy pictures, one inset in the other. Neither they nor I have ever been able to find any, and we’ve both been looking for years. Jeana