Fox Plaza North and South

It probably would be more accurate to say that this theater was one of the earliest built at the beginning of the multiplex boom of the 1960s. There’s a chapter in the Cinema Treasures book about the evolution of purpose-built, multi-auditorium movie theaters. The Duplex, in Detroit, which had two side-by-side auditoriums, opened in 1919, and there are other early examples cited.

Long Island’s Cinerama exhibition history posted here.

My Dad Was the main maintenance person at the time he was about 52 years old Ed was his name. I was about 15 at the time. The manager of the twin was Mr. Lowery? All I remember Mr Lowery had my dad build him a dog house for his dog on company time. This was when the Twin was brand new. I also remember at the Mid Island plaza there was a radio station under a large “star”. That is going back a long time ago. I also remember when there was a farm there. Any one reading this can go back that far?

Ikea is only on part of what was the Twin N/S, The downtown theatre lasted longer than the Twin N/S, so N/S did not replace it.

drednour, forgive an old man for not getting your dad’s name right. It was a long time ago in a ….well you know.
Your dad was a terific guy and an excellent projectionist.
I first worked with him at Twin South on the roadshow engagement of “Grand Prix”, in those days there were two projectionists on duty for 70mm roadshows. We worked together again after the theatre became a sixplex.
I also worked with his brother (your uncle)Gus, I believe it may have been was at the Commack Multiplex.
Gus also served on Local 640’s pension commitee until he passsed away. I also seem to recall Gus had a son in the business as well,
possibly a projectionist or manager.

LOL. yeah, I know! Oh, was there a porn theater in Hicksville? I recall driving by it in the very very early 1980’s….

Yes, “Star Wars” began as a limited-market release. And as hard as it may be to believe, “Star Wars” at the TWIN SOUTH for the first ten weeks of its run was a Long Island exclusive. “Star Wars” didn’t go “wide” in the greater New York City area until the first week of August of ‘77 (it opened initially in May).

Link to a Cinema Treasures 30th anniversary discussion regarding first impressions of seeing “Star Wars.”

I never came here when it was North and South, but I was sure here a lot when it was the Mid-Island Cinema 6. My friends and I once spent literally all day—nearly 14 hours—taking in EVERY movie (changing shirt tops, wearing hats, etc. aided our scheme). I also remember the one screen that I don’t think was much bigger than my living room. I also seem to remember my knees being up to my chin because the rows were so close together. Saw “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”, “Jumping Jack Flash”, “Coming to America”, “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home”, “Star Trek V: The Final Frontier”, “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids”, “Pet Cemetary” (where my buddy Dave scared the bejeezus out of these girls in the front with his cat impersonation during a tense moment in the film)…good times.

Michael, When I wrote that only the south side had 70mm, I was referring to the time when the Mid Plaza Six was built. As I recall, Hicksville North and South both had 70mm, with Cinerama on the South side. However, the last time I worked the Hicksville North and South was the fall of 1983, about a year before it became Mid Plaza six, and by that time the 70mm on the North side had been removed and replaced with 35mm projectors with optical(mono)sound. I wonder if anyone knows when and why the equipment was removed. Perhaps the theate owners moved the 70mm projectors from the north side to another theatre.

Here’s a [uEL=http://www.fromscripttodvd.com/70mm_in_new_york_hicksville.htm]link to a page[/url] from the “70mm in NY” photo gallery that showcases a few newspaper ads from the HICKSVILLE NORTH & SOUTH/MID-PLAZA CINEMA 6. Sorry, we don’t have any photographs of the place, just ads.

Peter, nice reading your post, I enjoyed working the theatre with you. I also remember the owners quite well. I don’t recall which owner, perhaps it was Sid, who would spend every Saturday night in the lobby and would always come up to the booth to say “hello, how are you, do you need anything”
Even after the theatre was carved up, we who worked the booth still called it North and South. In the beginning we had two projectionists on duty at all times, one on the North side 1-2-3 and the other on the South side 4-5-6, I always worked the south side, and yes we did run a lot of 70mm. Later the owners negotiated a new contract and during the winter months, when the theatre was not on a continuous schedule, we had one man running all six cinemas for the single matinee shows. That last summer you may recall saying to me “your always here”, That was because in 1987, which was the last time I worked there, I did 7 days a week working the whole day from noon to midnight. During July and August I had only ONE day off.
Who could ever forget those tiny little cinemas (screening rooms) on the lower level. The booths were like a closet, barley enough room to move around in. I would always wait till just a few minutes to show time to go down there and thread the booth, then I could just thread up, start the show, check the screen and get the heck out of there. We could only run films with a running time of 125 minutes or less in those two cinemas because regular size platters would not fit in those two booths and so smaller than usual platters had to be installed.
I also worked the theatres when it was Twin North and South, I worked the road show of “Grand Prix” on the South side with Bill Herd, I am sure you remember Bill. That is why when the theatre was carved up only the South side (#4 and #6 had 70mm, because in the days of Twin North and South only the South side had 70mm (Cinerama) the North side was 35mm only.

Hi Vito.. If you remember me I worked with you at Mid-Plaza Sixplex. If you recall, theatre #6 and theatre #4 opened up first after the “cutting” up the south theatre just before Christmas 1984 with STARMAN in theatre #4 approx 280 seats and Dune 70MM in theatre #6 with 596 seats. After Christmas 1984 the other theatres opened up with the theatre #2 and #5 opening last approx March 1985. Theatre#5 was 160 seats and theatre #2 was the smallest with 98 seats. The other theatres I recall were theatre #3 was 303 seats and theatre #1 with 598 seats.
Also if you remember, Sid and Sy (the owners of Town&Country) owned the actual building, and leased the land. They actually owned it even when RKO sub-leased it from them previous to 1984; but a contractual problem develop everything reverted back to Town & Country. When that happened in November 1984, the owners of the Babylon Southbay theatre (called the Miller Brothers) who were also builders became the silent partners of the Mid-Plaza Sixplex. The Miller Brothers did the chop-shop construction at the Six-plex. As you know Sid and Sy renewed their 30 year lease a second time in 1986, so when the Broadyway Mall came into existence, the owners of the Mall (the Udell brothers at the time)wanted IKEA to come into the Mall, so in order the “buy-out” that lease in the summer of 1989 they had to pay Town & Country 30 million dollars for that lease (which bankrupt the mall six months later and the Mall corporation was no longer controlled by the Udells). Now when you walked around IKEA you are actually standing on theatre grounds
— Peter