Belair Twin Theatre
Merrick Road,
Valley Stream,
NY
11580
Merrick Road,
Valley Stream,
NY
11580
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I dont know much about this theatre, except in the early-1980’s it was showing second run films for $2.
Contributed by
RobertR
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Recent comments (view all 22 comments)
Here’s a follow up to the ad from 1980 that I posted yesterday… The movie clock in the NY Post from just two days later (a Thursday, by the way) lists the Belair as being “closed for repairs”:
NY Post 12/11/80
In several editions of the Post and Daily News I have from March of 1982, I can’t find the Belair listed at all in any of the ads or in the movie clocks. I’m positive it was still in operation, but perhaps it only ran ads in Newsday. The other B.S. Moss house in the ad I posted yesterday, the Central Triplex in Cedarhurst, is listed in the ‘82 papers and still showing first run films. Was the Belair a Moss house to the end? Or did it go independent and discount sometime in the early-to-mid '80’s?
Christmas 1969 Russ Myer re-released Vixen (again) to ride the popularity of Curious Yellow
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I remember the seating of the original single screen theatre as odd. The usual “legs” on each seat were absent. It was like the whole row floated.
I remember seeing William Friedkin’s “Cruising” there, and it was kind of a big deal that they were showing it because it was meeting will all sorts of protest in Manhattan. I saw a few things there, must have closed around ‘85. They turned it into an office building, since then they tore the building down, completely redid that parking lot and you’d never know a theater was there. The late Kevin Radigan, who worked at Get With It video which was right across the street, swore he saw the Dave Clark Five perform live at that theater in the early sixties, they might have been touring with their movie at the time.
There’s a lot to reply to here, but I can’t cover everything. I lived in Valley Stream for the first 25 years of my life, and I remember very well when the Belair opened in the early 60s. It was in a brand-new shopping center that housed Hills Supermarket, and it did NOT start life as a twin. It was an art house for many years, with an occasional revival, like the 1939 “Wuthering Heights” It was still arty/indie in the late 70s; I saw Bergman’s “Autumn Sonata” there, with subtitles, and it still hadn’t been twinned that late in the decade. They also had the occasional first run studio movies, like “Julia”. If anybody thinks they saw the Dave Clark Five perform there, they’re mistaken.
A more likely venue for a Dave Clark Five appearance would be the larger Valley Stream theatre on Rockaway Avenue.
You’re 100% correct, Ed. The Valley Stream had been a vaudeville venue, and if I recall correctly, it even had an orchestra pit. I’d guess that its seating capacity was twice that of the Belair.
Yep…unremarkable. But what I do remember about it was that the very few pictures I saw there were ones that did NOT appear at any of the other theaters in my town and/or surrounding areas, hence my going to such a small, plain movie house to begin with. Those films include “Godzilla vs. Megalon” and Cornell Wilde’s “Shark’s Treasure”.
There is a current photo for the CM Performing Arts Center in Oakdale, Long Island, that is very reminiscent of what the Belair Twin looked like, with it’s L-shaped shopping center location. The only thing I seem to remember is that the Belair was tucked a bit further into its corner than the CM is. Imagine the CM entrance moved a bit to the right in the photo and I think you have a very good approximation of what the Belair was like.
Street view is way off. Should be on Merrick Road.