Sunrise Multiplex Cinemas
750 W. Sunrise Highway,
Valley Stream,
NY
11581
750 W. Sunrise Highway,
Valley Stream,
NY
11581
2 people
favorited this theater
This multiplex was built on the site of the old Sunrise Drive-In. When it opened in December of 1979, it had six screens which was quite radical back then. Each theater was enormous and very well appointed. Over the years, the owners (not sure who they were or are presently) added more theaters and divided up some of the original ones. The theaters were setup in along a long corridor.
For a while (early to mid 1980’s), this was THE place to see a movie if you lived on the western south shore of Nassau County on Long Island. The first movie I saw here was the first “Star Trek” movie. Also saw “Airplane”, “Starman”, as well as countless others. But the theater’s proximity to some less than desirable neighborhoods just over the Queens line in NYC began to have it’s effect on it.
The last movie I saw here was Scorcese’s “After Hours” in 1985. The Sunrise Multiplex had this late night movie which started at or around 12:30 or so. So that was the time we saw this. We sat through the movie and as we were leaving, the place was understandably deserted. What we did notice was that a large plate glass window was gone. For some reason, we didn’t think anything of it. Well, the next day, we found out that while we were watching “After Hours” a full scale riot had occurred involving patrons watching a movie called “Krush Groove”. In addition to guns being displayed, a patron was thrown through the plate glass window. I never saw a movie there again.
In 1990, at least one person was killed during a gun battle which occurred during a showing of “The Godfather, Part III”. I was not surprised.
Not sure how this theater is holding up these days but I don’t think it can be good.
Contributed by
Chris Connolly
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Recent comments (view all 44 comments)
I was an Usher (and then Head Usher – no jokes) who also did many other jobs there in the early to mid 80s, including security detail, popping popcorn, managing the lines and changing the marquee.
At first it was a great High School and College job – but the pay was dismal. In fact, most of my best friends come from working there.
I had left before the metal detectors and the later problems, but with such a large influx of people every weekend, there were always serious issues at hand. On a high traffic Saturday night we could have several blockbuster movies selling out and the only place to
put people while they waited was that big box of a lobby.
If you were there in the early 80’s then you were sure to have heard myself and couple of others yelling “Please move up! Please step up!” until eventually someone in the line would start mooing, then some joker in the front would drop a rope and the whole mass of
people would crowd forward with nowhere to go.
The worst large event I remember there was a semi-riot for a “Friday the 13th” evening show, where the drop the rope trick occurred after people got impatient waiting for us to clean up the trashed theatre. The ushers taking tickets had to jump into the telephone alcove to save themselves and mayhem ensued. Once done, there were almost no
pictures left on the wall and people were trying to stand in the back of the theatre since so many people snuck in during the melee.
The “sneak in” problem got so bad that we ended up using walkie talkies to do counter-surveillance on guys passing off ticket stubs and opening the back doors. We had also developed a long list of nicknames for the regular sneak ins.
There were also many fights, between ushers and people sneaking in or between patrons – and a few of those I was a part of ended up with us finding a dropped weapon. That’s when I decided to move on.
I did love going to movies at Sunrise – believe the first thing I saw there was either “Raiders of the Lost Ark” or “Arthur.” When I worked there, “ET” came and went back THREE TIMES and was almost always a packed show – and a pain to work with the high kid ratio. (I used to get stuck with Saturday and Sunday openings since I was only 16 at the time.)
The most annoying film to work may have been “Reds” which was more than 3 hours long, so the midnight show got out way after 2AM. Also, the high senior citizen contingent for that one led the “Candy Girls” (yes, not politically correct, but what they were called then) to follow many orders with “Yes, I know – EXTRA butter, NO ice.”
While as others relate in these comments there were some serious race issues going on in the area at the time, the people that worked together at Sunrise there were a completely mixed group and for the most part got along very well. Any problems were personality based as far as I know. Plenty of parties, weekend clubbing and meetups at the Cinemas summer mornings where people would jump in cars and head to the beach.
The year given for this photo is 1986.
Wow…like jjt posted above, I too have memories of seeing one of my “first” movies in a theater which was Raiders of the Lost Ark! I recall seeing E.T. the first time here as well!
Some of my movie going memories at the Sunrise are “not so fond”. Two incidents, both HORROR movies (oddly enough):
My parents made the mistake of taking me & my sisters to see ‘Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors’ on the Saturday night of the weekend it opened…the theater was oversold (or people obviously snuck in) as people were standing in the back of the theater! A big fight broke out between a white & black women as the latter was “kicking” the others' chair..this was within a year of the “Howard Beach” incident some of you NYers might remember, so things got from bad to WORSE…when the mostly “black” crowd started yelling obscenties at the white woman & a bunch of them chanting “Howard Beach!, Howard Beach!, Howard Beach!” as the women got in each others faces & argued…I was SCARED!!!!…took about 15-20 minutes for things to calm down, but by then the crowd was “hyped” up & the mostly young crowd was pretty rowdy after that…I wanted to LEAVE!…
The 2nd time during a screening of Halloween 4…in which my father cussed 2 guys out sitting in the back of the theater that would NOT shut up through the 1st 10 minutes of the movie!!!!…they quieted down to a dull whisper for maybe 5 minutes, only to crank back up to FULL volume after that time! My father got fed up & we left & saw another movie in the multiplex despite paying to see Halloween 4!
I remember those seats being EXTRA sensitive to anyone walking by or even gently tapping the back of your seat! It was HORRIBLE! I wish my later bad experiences at Sunrise didn’t overshadow my early good ones!
Sumner Redstone! It all started right here when this place was a drive-in. Sumner Redstone is one of the most powerful media moguls of the late 20th century. In his capacity as owner and chief executive officer of Viacom, Inc., Redstone lords over Hollywood’s Paramount Pictures television and motion picture factory; a handful of cable TV networks including MTV, The Movie Channel, Showtime, Nickelodeon, VH1; and several radio and TV stations. It was tough being the technician here, so many types of old projection equipment. However, it is history, so it was worth it.
I went to this theater a lot during the 1980s. The first show price was $2.50. Sometimes I’d take a day off from work, jump on the Belt Parkway from my home in Canarsie and be there in less than 20 minutes. Among the films I saw were John Carpenter’s “The Thing,” “Conan the Barbarian,” “Best Little Whorehouse in Texas,” “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels,” etc. I took my son to see Disney’s “Oliver and Company” there.
I remember seeing “Hellraiser” there. The film was near the end of its run and it was playing in the theater on the extreme right. There were no ushers nearby since they all hung out in the lobby which was about half a block away. I was the only one in the theater seeing this horror film and being alone really unnerved me. I started thinking that someone could’ve come behind me and cut my throat. And nobody would know…Watching this rather disturbing film by myself in this rather large theater with no one else in close proximity was a rather nervewracking experience.
Around this time the surrounding area was going completely downhill and there was a well-publicised shoot-out duirng a showing of
“G-dfather III.” Metal detectors were installed in the theater.
And I haven’t been back since.
This link to this 1991 NY Times article is the most in depth I’ve read about the shootings. (apologies if it’s linked above and I missed it) I enjoy that it seems to convey that National Amusements put the metal detectors in out of public pressure than of their own choice. A lot of times I hear people talking about the metal detectors they make it seem like it was a choice when in fact it sounds as though it was necessary to allay the fears after the shooting.
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why is there no listing on this website for the old Sunrise Drive In which stood on this site?
why is there no listing on this website for the old Sunrise Drive In which stood on this site?
News story on local tv channels today about armed robberies taking place in the parking lot the past few days.
MarkieS the old drive in is listed. Do a lookup by city – Valley Stream and it’s there.