Bellmore Movies & the Showplace
222 Petit Avenue,
Bellmore,
NY
11710
222 Petit Avenue,
Bellmore,
NY
11710
5 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 65 comments
Not sure if they are the owners, or the lessees.
The owners are the Stamfels and they are very successful and operate Malverne and North Shore. This theatre also plays and concerts.
Lost Mattituck and Long Beach this month.
Long may it prosper
Survived Covid.
Good. I wonder how many of the indies we’ll have lost due to the pandemic.
The theatre is reopening in a few weeks, recently got an email, on the stamfels mailing list.
Theatre has yet to reopen after the Covid closing although the nearby Playhouse has. I find that interesting because there was an article quite some time back how they were outfitting the space with barriers to enable social distancing.
ridethetrain it’s Bellmore Movies & the Showplace.
ridethetrain Don’t forget the jewel box Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center which always has a significant foreign and independent selection of films in its programming and the tiny Plaza Media and Arts Center in Patchogue as single screen venues.
The theater is located on Petit Ave just above the railroad symbo
I have been trying to get a more accurate opening date for this theater as I have read everything from 1908 to 1922 (as stated in the theater bio on this page). These are all recent sources from the past few decades and since they do not agree with each other … I have searched old newspapers for my information. Below is some of what I found… (I will post some old photos and newspaper clippings to the photo section soon)
A L@@k Back at this Movie House’s History…
General Contractor and Builder, Antonio (aka Anthony) Palermo – who once lived at 800 Bellmore Avenue, in Bellmore – built the first movie theater in Bellmore … the BELLMORE THEATRE in 1914-15. It was built on land that was part of what was once known as Fredericks Park, just north of the Railroad Depot on Petit Avenue.
L.W. Richards & W. Schwab of Richards & Schwab, of Manhattan, managed the theater, but before the end of the first year Richards & Schwab would be dissolved and L.W. Richards would go forward managing it himself.
Building of the two story, 40 foot by 100 foot structure, that would accommodate 500 movie paytrons commenced in 1914 and the Grand Opening Movie Show and Vaudeville Show was on Monday, July 5th, 1915 … right after the community’s Fourth of July festivities.
One Hundred and Five years ago motion picture houses played silent movies and required the services of a pianist to accompany the movies live as they were projected on the screen. The August 20th, 1915 issue of the Nassau Post announced that Bellmore resident and musician of rare ability, Mrs. Maurice Higgins, had taken the position as theatre pianist and that she had formerly worked for the Vitagraph company. Her husband, Maurice, owned an interior decorating firm in town at Bedford Avenue near Merrick Road back in the day.
That First Summer… Tuesday Nights were “Broken Coin” Night with parts of the serial playing each Tuesday. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Broken_Coin
Friday Nights were “Chaplin” Night with Charlie Chaplin movies on the bill every Friday and always a crowd and plenty of laughs.
The Nassau Post of July 23rd, 1915 was already reporting that the Jitney Bus from Wantagh to Bellmore Theatre was always filled to capacity on ‘picture nights’.
And the building is still a movie theater today some 105 years later!
Please update, only two single screen theatres in Long Island, Bellmore and North Shore Towers on border line of Queens/Nassau. Both single screens own by the same owner.
On occasional weekends and during school holidays they often present a family oriented stage show.
https://bellmoremovie.com/
The theatre is owned by Stamfel Theatres, they operate this, Malverne and North Shore Towers.
I’ve been to this theater once in the early"70’s,and saw"The Legend of Hell House".The theater was a grand old small movie house in a early 20th century kind of way.You could imagine seeing a Fairbanks or Chaplin silent.Inside I remember it had visible support rods between the two walls,that the projector would show through with out effecting the image on the screen.It would have been great if some genius would have restored it instead of remodeled.We don’t need another crappy"Art"house theater.
my wife grew up in Wantagh and used to speak fondly of “the itch” we saw Traffic there, then had some cocktails across the street at Applebee’s
Uploaded photo of an earlier marquee. Still and older one out there.
Uploaded to of the exterior pictures referred to by Chris above. This article and others I’ve seen indicates the theater actually goes back to 1917.
In an article in the NY Times for January 25, 2004 the owners, Henry and Anne Stampfel were interviewed. They’ve owned the theater since 1986 but only performed major renovations in 2002 because of the rebirth of the Playhouse just down the street as a multiplex.
When they ripped up the wood floors to put in slanted concrete they also ripped out a wall and found a stage. In addition to new seats, sound, etc. they built a new stage for use in live productions.
This was also affectionately called The Itch because of the occasional rodent that would skitter across your feet.
Contrary to the heading, not the last single screen theatre. There is the Sag Harbor, Montauk and, across the city line the North Shore Towers. Seasonally they also show movies on Ocean Beach, Fire Island, at the Community center.
Great pictures all,guys.
Thanks Chris.
According to its current signage, the theater is called the Bellmore Movies & The Showplace. This article, which discusses the theater’s programming, also includes seven photos and a video: View link.