Sayville Theater
103 Railroad Avenue,
Sayville,
NY
11782
103 Railroad Avenue,
Sayville,
NY
11782
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A new 1,000-seat theater was built adjacent the the original Sayville Theater (former Novelty Theater), designed by architects John Eberson and Drew Eberson, it opened on April 29, 1951. It is one of the surviving downtown theaters. Nicely maintained, the theater brings you back to a simpler time before the multiplexes.
I don’t know too much on the history of the Sayville Theater, however, at some point it was divided into four screens.
It’s one of the few theaters nowadays where for $12 you can get the movie ticket, a medium popcorn, and a drink all included.
Contributed by
Bway Chris
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Recent comments (view all 66 comments)
I forgot to mention the Project Index at the Wolfsonian. It’s an Excel spreadsheet program, and contains the names and locations of all their projects, including work other than theaters.
To amend my most recent comment, I should say the spreadsheet has all those of their projects that are represented in the Wolfsonian’s archive collection. You can see from the spreadsheet’s “job number” column that many of their projects didn’t make it into the archive.
This picture of the Sayville entrance appeared on the cover of the Modern Theatre section of Boxoffice magazine, March 7, 1953:
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ANYONE KNOW WHO OWNS IT NOW?
I worked at the Sayville Theatre from September of 1974 to February of 1976. At that time, it was one screen. You could see the screen from the lobby. The auditorium was large and the theatre had a balcony which, I suspect, has been converted for one of the four existing screens. Also, on the back wall of the lobby was a painting of some fish that reminded me of the “Nutcracker Suite” sequence from “Fantasia” with the fish swimming around in a kind of underwater ballet. I remember very well the time we showed a movie called “Brother of the Wind” – a G-Rated film about nature that was heavily promoted on TV the week before we showed it. It was a Saturday matinee. We didn’t know what was in store for us. A line started forming down Railroad Avenue and by the time we opened the box office it was bedlam. The cashier was selling tickets so fast that she was throwing the money on the floor. Showtime was 40 minutes late and we had a sold out audience made up entirely of kids. What a nightmare! We also showed a lot of off-beat things. I think UA, who operated the theatre at the time, used it as a kind of dumping ground for the, shall we say, less than mainstream movies. We showed both “Last House On The Left” and “the Texas Chainsaw Massacre” in their original releases – before they achieved their infamous reputation.
CBDebill..When you worked there was Dotty MGR.?
Here are three views of the Sayville Theatre in a 1951 trade ad: boxofficemagazine
Thanks for that MOM would have loved it.
“Comfortably Cool”:boxoffice
The local newspaper, Suffolk News, ads showed a larger ad for the Sayville when it opened. There was no promo ad or news article. The ad said “new” and boasted ample parking across the street. In time the format went back to the original but the term “new” reappeared possibly indicating an upgrade down the road.