Sayville Theater

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.

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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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.

These two have a large number of theatres to their credit. Were they exclusively LI, NY, east coast?

Am I correct that these same persons also designed the Brookhaven in Port Jefferson Station. From the exterior they looked identical.

Is this place still showing movies? Every time I go by, it never has movies on the marquee, and says “something” coming soon or by some date.
It always looks lit up, but unless they only rely on the posters, no movie is ever on the marquee.

One comment on the Patchogue theatre. That multiplex was around a lot longer than anybody anticipated. It was running on empty by the end. Speakers were broken, staff was down, the place was always a mess. I used to go there a lot, as well, in the 1990s. The last movie I saw there was “Open Range.” But I stopped going, because it was so poorly maintained. It was only a matter of time. One of the signs of it’s impending passage was that the sign out by the street still said “U/A” but the signs on the doors said “Regal.” A shame, too, because now Patchogue has no movie theater. Everybody has to go to the Island 16, which is hard to get to because of its awkward location in Holtzville and no buses go near there. It’s expensive, too. That’s why I like Sayville. They have better prices, and it’s actually been redone nicely.

That should read “all four screens”.

Why does it only show one movie on the marquee?

Does SBS (Shadow Booking Service) have other independent theatres in the area as clients or in other states as well? If so, who are the other clients? It’s interesting to know.

Here is a photo of the Sayville Theater and this is a close-up view.

As someone who follows box office carefully, I can safely say, the grosses the last few years at Patchogue were horrible.