UA The Movies at Sunrise Mall

Opening Engagements:
1: The Reincarnation Of Peter Proud
2: Young Frankenstein
3: A Brief Vacation (dubbed version)
4: Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore
5: can’t seem to find it in the New York Times archives, I may need some help here

There was a body shop on the corner of sunrise an carmen..Futher down carmen was a oil dist called duncan petroleum Then a large laundry plant and then a gulf station This was in the 50’s and earley 60’s

having worked at the Sunrise Mall theatres and still alive to talk about it, I would have to say it was the biggest shithole I have ever seen. Roaches, unbelievably filthy floors, some of the strangest coke head weirdos I have ever encountered who were the managers, etc… But what really sticks out in my mind was what had taken root to the bottom of the punch/lemonade machine. It was like a mutant form of sea monkeys that we were afraid to clean without hazmat suits on for fear if we ever had children, they would have three eyes and a triangle shaped head.

Maybe off topic for the mall theatre, but I did sell the last tickets for the Drive-in. The last car admitted came a bit late, after the show had been running for a while, I let them in free.

The Amity Theatre was on Carmans Road in South Farmingdale. It was a single screen that burned down in 1968. It was rebuilt and opened with “Planet of the Apes” a few months later.

The Massapequa Drive-in was on Sunrise Highway where Lucille Roberts is now. Was a Prudential, then UA. Spent hundreds of evenings there.

Does anybody remember the theatre that used to be in a shopping center on Carmans Road about a mile or so north of the Sunrise Mall. I think it was still considered Massapequa. If my memory is correct, I believe the exterior was blue. I believe it was a twin. I just can’t remember the name.

The Movies at Sunrise Mall introduced me to a new concept
in theater design, no slope/pitch in the auditoriums, this added a nice
touch, your movie going experience now included having to look through the heads in front to see the film.

The manager had to count the cups because once you were sent a box of cups, it was valued as if it was sold at the overpriced candystand rate. The manager was held responsible for this, so if you lost a box of let’s say 1,000 cups that could have been used to hold drinks that might have sold for $1.50, you owed UA $1,500 of your candy commission. You were “carrying a shortage.” The same held true for all the other concessions items. Theater employees usually were instructed to bring in their own cups and did not use the ones that were sold. Movie patrons did not understand why they couldn’t ever get an extra cup.
Sometimes, maintenance workers or a relief projectionist would unawarely take some cups. Nothing could ruin you more than a few pennies worth of missing cups. You were compensated for your labors in the same manner as a donkey with a carrot on a stick dangling in front.

Employees were required to periodically sloicit donations from movie patrons. When it came donation time, the chain got the recognition
for such a charitable effort when it was movie patrons who paid, and the theater staff who took on the added tasks of begging and then processing.
Yes, It is quite possible that some of the collected money was taken,
but that might happen with all organized charities.

As for being one of the worst run, besides the design, in those
days going to the shopping mall was exploding into being a huge part of youth culture and recreation. Those youths in the mall went to the Movies at Sunrise Mall. One can only control kids so much when they are out
on their own having fun. Too much life force.

It was just UA Farmingdale

Yes UA had it on the same dollor track as Lindenhurst and Smithtown.

lostmemory: yep, that’s the one. It was a big one, too. I remember it later on (late 70’s) was a discount house that charged for admission whatever the last two digits of the year were (79 cents, 80 cents, etc.) Closed around 1982 or so. I only saw one or two movies there (“Comes a Horseman” in 1979 was one) so I don’t know enough about it.

A friend of mine in college worked as a concession stand salesperson at this theatre in the 1970s. She said that the manager counted the soda cups, so they would enjoy a soda and simply put it back in the stack. EW! Also, she said that she and her coworkers regularly split up the take from the Will Rogers Institute cups that workers would collect money with before the movies. So, while I still get soda at the movies at my own peril, I never, ever give money to charities in the theatres themselves.

Yes, I think Farmingdale is far enough away for Massapequa to support its own theatre again. So who knows about the Jerry lewis twin, let’s get it posted.