Amity Theatre

Carmans Road,
South Farmingdale, NY 11735

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Showing 1 - 25 of 38 comments

robboehm
robboehm on May 31, 2017 at 9:38 am

Blazing Saddles and Support Your Local Sheriff for me.

paul baar
paul baar on May 31, 2017 at 6:42 am

In this wonderful strip mall I saw"Mr.Majestic",“Billy Jack”,“Deliverance”,“Death Race 2000”,and"Taxi Driver"not too many laughs,and many more….

robboehm
robboehm on May 30, 2017 at 4:24 pm

Paul, it would have been possible for you to reenter your comment correctly and then delete the erroneous one.

robboehm
robboehm on October 21, 2012 at 6:58 pm

As you can see from the “in course of demo” picture the theatre was fairly large; very long. I don’t recall a balcony. That wasn’t common place in an AIT venue.

gfm8959
gfm8959 on October 21, 2012 at 4:30 pm

Updated pics/info added.

robboehm
robboehm on June 4, 2011 at 10:42 pm

After the fire it was called, I believe, Studio 78

ironkitten12
ironkitten12 on January 13, 2011 at 7:01 pm

Does anyone remember when the Amity movies at Intercounty Shopping Center would run cartoons all day for free on every December 24th. This was paid for buy the Intercounty stores so the parents could shop all day. Don’t see that anymore.

Monie
Monie on October 18, 2010 at 9:38 pm

Bands played in the lobby before the 1968 fire…local bands played before the show, and on occasion, they would take the stage after the show. It had to be 1965 1966. Not a regular thing but the place would be packed when they were there. The manager was very cool Mr. Switzler. I remember the song “On Broadway” being played. Does anyone else remember the bands? Only those over 50 would.

robboehm
robboehm on October 17, 2010 at 7:08 pm

Bands playing in the lobby? When was that? I was there a few time- Support Your Local Sheriff and Blazing Saddles. No band.

gfm8959
gfm8959 on October 17, 2010 at 12:46 pm

Monie
Monie on October 17, 2010 at 12:40 pm

sure, please give me your e-mail address

gfm8959
gfm8959 on October 17, 2010 at 11:17 am

Monie, can you email me- we HAVE to talk!!

Monie
Monie on October 17, 2010 at 10:38 am

OOPS – I messed up a bit…I can’t believe I found this site…the bands played before the movie in the lobby, and sometimes after the movie on stage. Great memories.

Monie
Monie on October 17, 2010 at 10:34 am

Yes, the name of the Matron at the Movie theater was Yetta Schrubnick…she wore that white uniform, black pointy shoes, and had her blue cardigan sweater draped over her shoulders buttoned only at the neck… let’s not forget the flash light…she threw out all the kids who were blowing jaw breakers through straws…I once beaned her in the head w/ a caramel from the back row to the front row…great shot – how she KNEW it was me I’ll never know…we were not allowed to clap or cheer at the good parts of ANY movie! “Shut up shut up” she would scream running up and down the aisle. Anyone remember the Bands that played in the lobby??

play in th e

gfm8959
gfm8959 on October 8, 2010 at 7:26 pm

Here is a link to a small b&w pic of the interior of the theater after the fire. You have to click on page 3 and it is the bottom right with a caption below. You will have to copy and paste this link into your browser:
View link

gfm8959
gfm8959 on July 13, 2010 at 7:49 pm

Updated info: The Amity theater opened on Friday, October 30, 1959. The opening feature was Alfred Hitchcock’s “North By Northwest”. It also featured Kiddie matinees every Saturday and all school holidays.

gfm8959
gfm8959 on November 3, 2009 at 6:02 pm

I would like to know more about the “tough cookie” matron that was at the matinees in the 1960’s if anyone has any stories to share. I attempted to contact Don Rosen who wrote the original post and he acknowledged my email but never wrote back with anymore info about her. I love the description of her outfit— classic!!

robboehm
robboehm on October 5, 2009 at 9:48 pm

To gfm8959. The Amity was in the on the right hand side of the strip mall. I believe it was at the end of the building. If my mind serves me correctly, the shopping center was levelled and all was built anew. The left hand side with the Pathmark had a Grand Union, which was about the last tenent in the center. The Apple Bank, if that’s still there, was an add on to the center and was all that remained during the many years when Breslin never got his act together and built the new center. That was a big issue. It dragged on for years.

gfm8959
gfm8959 on October 5, 2009 at 9:10 pm

One last bit of trivia- they were showing a double feature that week but I only remember the 2nd feature which was “The Bobo”. I should have taken notes and jotted down the other!

gfm8959
gfm8959 on October 5, 2009 at 9:07 pm

I was actually able to locate the exact date of the fire which was Jan 23, 1968. At the time the estimated damage was 250,000 dollars. The Newsday story said that the fire was luckily confined to the theater and did not spread to the 10 adjacent stores. Apparently the fire started in the rear of the lobby in the pre dawn hours and spread across the ceiling and into the auditorium destroying the screen and “backstage equipment”. The fire was spotted by a patrolman at approx 7:00 AM. According to the article, the theater had closed at approx 3AM that morning (kind of odd time for a weeknight closing). I did notice in searching the Newsday movie ads that at some point in 1967, AIT stopped including the Amity as well as Kings Park and one other theater in their regular ad. At one point, these 3 theatres were grouped together as 1.00 admission houses. Perhaps AIT sold them off??? or just didn’t want the cheaper admission prices shown with their other theaters. I have a copy of the picture taken of the front of the theater but it is kind of hard to see too much detail.

gfm8959
gfm8959 on October 3, 2009 at 11:20 am

There are currently 2 side by side strip malls with a driveway in between them(there is a Pathmark on the left and a Dots on the right- the right side looks physically older than the left). Which side housed the Amity theater? Was the building actually demolished or does it house another store?

DonRosen
DonRosen on February 19, 2009 at 8:10 am

I believe it was “76” to match the 76 cent ticket price.

robboehm
robboehm on February 19, 2009 at 7:11 am

Yes the Amity, located on Carmans Road in South Farmingdale, although some sources list this area as North Massapequa, had another name when it reopened after the fire. I believe it was Studio 78 (not 76 as another posting would suggest). Why 78? Because that’s when it reopened. This was a long narrow space.

DixonSteele
DixonSteele on September 6, 2007 at 1:11 pm

Wow, bringing back memories. The only movies I saw at the Big A was EYE OF THE CAT and MAROONED. A really big theater, to be sure.

I went more often to the Amity where I saw many incl. THE CONVERSATION and CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG…which I fell asleep through!