Deer Park Theater
Deer Park,
NY
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I think this theater closed in September 1984. The September 17, 1984 issue of New York Magazine lists the Deer Park as showing Bachelor Party. The theater is not listed in the September 24 issue or any subsequent issues that I have checked.
Based on earlier issues it seems that Ghostbusters played there for most of the summer and then the theater finished up with Bachelor Party.
Hey Robert R
Thanks for posting that picture…it gave me chills and flood of memories…I probably was the one who did that marquee…love the way I left the “A” in -DANCE- … those letters were alway so hard to get to stick on the marquee…can’t tell you how many cars got hit from falling letters, too funny! Do you see the orange pipe that “acted” as security to hold onto when up there…trust me, not to sturdy, hand built by an assistant manager. I wonder if there are any other images of the theater online…if you have more, please post. I used to love sitting on the edge of the marquee planks with some of the other ushers on Friday and Saturday nights. We’d have a case of beer (cheap of course) and watch all the “hot rods” pull into the parking lot…actually it was the “hot bods” that came with the “hot rods” we were checking out. There was an old homeless guy, “John”, we used to let sleep in the theater, mostly in the winter. He used to stand out front where that bike is in the photo and share his life’s wisdom along with a few off-color jokes…nice guy and harmless, so we’d let him stay overnight.
Does anyone remember some of the people who worked there? If you went to Deer Park High in the late ‘70’s / early '80’s you might…Theo and Mel, the Palmer boys, Kessler…Donna, Denise, Mario…a great bunch of kids I got to grow up with…we were like family. My sisters and I still discuss some of the great stories that came from working there…like the day Mario changed the marquee…it was supposed to be “The Fish that Saved Pittsburgh” but his read “The Fish that Killed Cincinnati”…too much! I always tell my wife how one day I would love to write a screen play about my days and nights at the Deer Park Theater…one of these days I’ll get to it. Until then, please all keep posting your memories and pictures of this great little local movie theater. Thanks.
This pic is dated August 1983
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This pic is dated August 1983
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More about the new multiplex can be found here: View link
The grand opening of the Regal Cinemas Deer Park Stadium 16 & IMAX will take place this coming Friday (10/24/08). The new multiplex is located at Commack Rd. and Grand Blvd., in the Tanger Outlet Center at The Arches. More information can be found at View link
Did the Mayfair also have the nice curtain?
I must say that even though the Deer Park was small theatre, it did have character. The little stage with the floor lights was a nice touch as well. They used to serve REAL popcorn too back in the day.
I didn’t know the Deer Park theatre had a sister theatre. I guess the Mayfair suffered the same fate as the Deer Park if it was in a shopping center. Most of these shopping center theatres just got ‘absorbed’ into a retail store.
The Deer Park and Mayfair were identical even down to the marquee on the roof, built into a shopping center. I’m sure they were built by the same company. “Willard” played the North Babylon (just up the road on Deer Park Ave) with “Night Of The Living Dead” as a co-feature and “Ben” was a single at Deer Park a few years later. NOTLD never really got a proper Long Island release and NB was the first time I was aware of it playing in the area. Newsday had ads for it as a midnight out in the Hamptons for while but that was it. Horror movies I saw here included the double features of “Don’t Go In The Basement” with “The Last House On The Left”, “War Of The Gargantuas” with “Monster Zero” and “The Bird With the Crystal Plumage”. Still dying to know what the opening feature was. I’ve looked up on the IMDB the features in RobertR’s ad but still haven’t figured it out.
BobT; I have lots of OLD Newsday ads, wherein they advertise a “scary” midnight show…. I suspected that it would be nothing but old product ; either good (“Night of the Living Dead”) or bad ( left-over A.I.P. and Hammer minor titles). Somehow, I saw “Ben” in the (Deer Park)theater and not “Willard”. LOL. I saw the (crappy) 1976 “King Kong” at the RKO Commack at a matinee. Was I correct about the Deer Park being big and box-y like the Commack Mayfair ?
Hello Bob,
I don’t think I saw King Kong opening weekend, I was too young at the time. I know my father just gathered the family up and we went to go see it one night. Yes, I do remember the Deer Park theatre having windows on the auditorium door. The first pair of doors (near the concession stand) were tinted because there would have been too much light coming in. But the doors down the corridor were sheilded from the light and you could peek in.
The North Babylon theatre was a bit of a wierd layout. They used a different set of doors to enter and exit. You had to enter way in the back by the restrooms. The doors on the other side, facing the shopping center, were the exit doors. In addition, when you walked in there was another corridor with a half wall and pillars, so you could stand behind this half wall and watch the movie from there. I think the North Babylon theatre was one of the few that I went to that had such a standing area. They eventually closed this area off to expand the lobby. When I saw Close Encounters of the 3rd kind, the standing area was still there. By the time I saw Empire Strikes back this section was gone. The North Babylon theatre did go through a few changes. In the beginning it was a nice theatre, but I grew to like it less and less. I all but stopped going there when they butchered the place. The Loews SSM theatre I went to quite often as well. It was one of the larger twin theatres near me. But when the NB went twin I went to the Deer Park Theatre more and also the Babylon theatre. That became my next favorite movie theatre. HUGE and also it had a balcony. Note I used the word HAD, they neutered this theatre too. BUT not before I saw E.T. there. The Babylon Theatre WAS a really nice place. I believe the theatre is still open…but barely.
Yup, saw “Ben” here too and “Willard” at North Babylon. Did you guys see “King King” on opening weekend? It might have been a moveover, because I went opening night and we went to The Lowes South Shore Mall, and I would imagine only because it wasn’t there yet. I remember there was an entrance door to the theater right past the concession stand or you could turn left down a hall across the back wall of the auditorium with a door with a window and you could watch the end of the picture playing if you were early. I remember a Halloween show with ads in Newsday promising a scary show, but did not mention the name of the picture. They were playing it a Midnight on Sat and a Sunday matinée. Too young for the midnight show we got dropped off eager with anticipation to be really scared and it turned out to be an old AIP flick called “The Comedy Of Terrors” starring Vincent Price and Peter Lorre and it was anything but scary. Boy were we pissed.
Yep, saw the ‘76 King Kong there myself. THAT was a fun experience. For one during the scene where one of the tribesmen dressed up like an animal pops up into the screen, everyone (and I really mean everyone) in the theatre jumped a few inches up and back from their seats. Many of the James Bond movies came to this theatre as well. A couple of them I saw there…Moonraker, Octopussy. It was a surprisingly nice little theatre. Decor wise it was superior to the North Babylon theatre, but the NB theatre had a huge curved screen, so I mostly went there to see movies until they twined (and potentially ruined) it. I believe Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back was the last movie I saw at the NB theatre prior to the hacking.
I was only here once, to see the 1976 “King Kong.”
I saw “Ben” (sequel to “Willard” !) here in 1973. I was not back there till the early 1980’s for a midnight / revival of “Dawn of the Dead”. Yes, this looked a lot like the Mayfair in Commack. I think “Ha Cha” (stationary, cards, gifts, etc.) was a chain…there was one in Northport next to the McDonalds on 25-A in the 1970’s.
Way, way after the fact, I’d love to chime in. I grew up in Deer Park. Bob, you mentioned Ha Cha stationery store. My mom bought me many comic books there, partially as compensation for forcing me to tag along with her to the cream puff bakery two doors down. But oh yeah, i remember the theater. I saw ,in no particular chronological order, “Island at the top of the world”, godzilla Vs. Megalon – double featured with some kung fu flick called “the Killing Machine”, “Poltergeist (huge lines!), "Raiders of the lost ark”, “Ghost Busters(4 times)”, and “Heavy Metal” to name a few. If anyone ever checks back in to this column, I believe that the last movie that ever ran there was, “The man with one red shoe”. I remeber that the name of the movie slowly disintegrated on the Marquee for many months after the door s had closed for the final time. Can anyone confirm?
Hello All,
I remember this theatre growing up as I didn’t live too far from it or the North Babylon theatre on Deer Park Ave. I remember when the North Babylon was a single movie theatre. After it closed it was THIS theatre that became the Pier 1 Imports and then a Blockbuster video.
Anyway Back to the Deer Park. In some ways I prefered this movie theatre to the North Babylon because it was more elegant. It did have a very nice stage area with an awesome curtain that raised before each show and then lowered at the end of the show. The lighting was fantastic as well. Being a small theatre from the get go, I knew they would not twin it like the North Babylon theatre. The North Babylon Theatre was a shoebox for a theatre and distasted that very much. Also you could hear the other movie through the walls easily. So I tried as much as possible to go to the Deer Park theatre after the North Babylon went Twin.
I remembered when they closed the Deer Park theatre and for a long time it closed. I did hope they would reopen it, but that never happened. There was a large home improvement store called Builders Emporium in the end unit. When they went out of buisness, Sears Hardware took over and expanded into the movie theatre’s location permantly altering it forever. The marquee finally came down and unless you go to the back of the building, you would never see any evidence that there was a movie theatre in this shopping center. Before I moved out I think the store changed hands again and it is now a Marshalls. If one does visit this area and goes around to the back of the left side of Marshalls (would be facing right from the back), you can see the extended back and raised ceiling that was once the Deer Park movie theatre.
It was a nice movie theatre and I recall seeing many great movies there, such as Moonraker, Heavy Metal, Ghostbusters, Sasquatch, and a slew of others I cannot recall at the moment.
While it wasn’t a picture palace it was a nice little theatre and it was sad to see it go.
JG
Very cool RobertR, thanks! I wonder what one the “finest and boldest pictures of the year was?
Here is an opening ad for the Deer Park , but they seem to be keeping the opening attraction a secret
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I looked him up at The Internet Movie Database
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0873101/
Not only did he write the movie, he owned the distribution company and was New York based. He probaly went to each theatre he booked. It says he was on Wonderama. I also saw “Santa Claus Conquers The Martians” at DP, the evening show was “Blow Up”. I remember standing outside the theatre waiting to get tickets and seeing the “Blow Up” one sheet in the case. Turns out that Martians was filmed in a studio that was actualy an old airplane hangar in Roosevelt Field. I wonder if we as Long Islanders got to see these films because they were so NY oriented behind the scenes?
Bob
You are the first person besides myself who seems to remember those showings of “The Christmas That Almost Wasn’t”. I saw Paul Trip on stage with the film one year at the RKO Madison, and a few times at the Ridgewood. I also saw the film alone a few years later at the Trylon. Maybe you can remember, what was Paul Trip famous for? I think he had a kids show, but it was not Wonderama that was Sonny Fox and then Bob McAllistar.
Ahhh memories. This is where I fell in love with movies. This was my neighborhood theatre growing up. Gosh, I remember going with my family to see big musicals, “The Sound Of Music”, “Mary Poppins”, “Doctor Dolittle” or comedies like “The Odd Couple and "The Out Of Towners”. Unfortunetly, VCR’s killed the double feature but they were of course a staple. Anyone remember yearly matinee showings of “The Christmas That Almost Wasn’t” and Paul Trip, the star would make an appearance? I would go see movies that today most people wouldn’t even know existed. I saw “Madigan” with Richard Widmark, and something called “Daddy’s Gone A Hunting” or even multiple viewings of Steve McQueen in “The Reivers”, movies I haven’t seen since sitting in the Deer Park Theatre. How about a Woody Allen triple feature? “Take The Money & Run”, “Bananas”, and “What’s Up Tiger Lily?”. DP was four walled for “Billy Jack”.
In fact one of the most amazing experiences I ever had in a theatre was one Friday night during a double feature of “Godspell” and a rock and roll documetary called “Let The Good Times Roll”. A concert film featuring Chuck Berry and a whole bunch of 50' and 60’s bands. I had already seen it when it was first run at the Hicksville North & South and enjoyed but nothing prepared me for this night. The whole sold out theatre actually went wild and there was dancing in the aisles and on stage. Even the ushers got into the act. It was a wild night.
Hey Mr. K, I remember when the big store in the strip was Grants and before Meat Farms it was A&P. We bought our candy at Ha Cha Stationary Store and I bought my first one sheet at DP, when the new owner in the 70’s started selling old ones. The Deep Park Theatre didn’t have chandeliers, or gilded molding, in fact by looking at it, no one would have ever called it a show palace, except maybe the 10 year old would could walk to it on a bright sunny Saturday afternoon and come out four hours later after a trip on “The Yellow Submarine” or flying away in “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”.
The Deer Park Theater was located in the Deer Shore Shopping Center at the intersection of Deer Park Ave and Bayshore Road. In the shopping center, it was located between Channel Home Centers and Maria’s Pizza, next to that was Meat Farms followed by Stan’s Deli and a hair salon (opposite Roosevelt Bank). It was at one point a Century Theater but was purchased in the ‘70’s by an independent theater owner who went on to buy several theaters throughout Long Island, including the North Babylon Theater, which he twinned. Other theaters owned by this gentleman were the Bethpage Twin, The Levitown Twin, The Franklin Square Twin / Quad, all on Hempstead Turnpike. In the early '80’s he merged with another owner that included The Utopia, The Parsons, The Wantagh, The Yonkers Triplex, two others upstate and the Circle, Palace and Dale all in the Bronx. I know all this because my father was GM of the company. I was at first and usher at the Deer Park and eventually managed the theater. I also worked at some point at many of the other theaters including the North Babylon. The Deer Park Theater was a great local movie house. We had a loyal customer base for a long time. It sat over 600 with a “standing” allowance of 112. Many times we would have to use old broken seat bottoms for patrons to sit in the aisle. For example, if anyone saw Ghostbusters there you might have had to sit on the floor. It had a great gold curtain highlighted by multi-colored lights that would rise as the movie started. On Fridays and Saturdays we often ran special “midnight shows”, Woodstock, Led Zep: Song Remains the Same, The Stones Give Me Shelter to name a few. It was a sad day when both the Deer Park and North Babylon theaters closed. Rising rents, insurance, over extention by the owners and of course the Commack Multiplex all contributed to their demise. I don’t think we’ll ever see the days of the local movie house again. Too bad for future generations.
Deer Park had the same design and marquee as the Mayfair in Commack.
This was never a UA house, that was the North Babylon Theatre on Deer Park Avenue. The Deer Park was an A.I.T. house further up in a shopping center that sat in between Deer Park Avenue and Bayshore Road. It is now a MACE’s discount store and was put out of business in early 1984 when Commack Cinemas opened. The North Babylon similar to the Brentwood was twinned and also closed at the same time as the above. It is now a Blockbuster. The Deer Park did not face Deer Park Avenue, it faced north. I saw the Michael Caine movie “The Hand” here back in 1981.
Now a Pier one