Salisbury Theatre
610 Old Country Road,
Westbury,
NY
11590
610 Old Country Road,
Westbury,
NY
11590
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Just one more thing about this theater that is an elaboration on what I wrote in the post above. It’s strange to me that this theater could not hold up as a legitimate theater showing regular films. It was on a VERY busy street (Old Country Road) in a nice neighborhood and had little competition. The closest theater to it was the Westbury which was about (I’m estimating here…) a mile or so away. The parking lot was big. Why didn’t it get doubled or multiplexed or something. Strange. That’s the thing that gets me about why some theaters closed and others manage to stay open. Why, for instance, did my favorite theater of my childhood, the admiteddly low key but charming Century’s Baldwin close in 1985 and it’s hellspawned cousins, the Grand Avenue Cinema and the Oceanside remain open and are STILL open?
I also never recall regular movies playing here. I think this may have been X since the 70’s.
Yes, that was strange, the fact that it was in a nice, middle/working class neighborhood full of stores and stuff. It stuck out like a sore thumb and you’d think as a legit theater, it could’ve done well.
My one experience in the place seeing “Feels Like Silk” along with another fine porn film of which the name escapes me, was that the theater was not huge but was fairly good size with a balcony. You came into the lobby from the parking lot and there was a concession stand but I don’t remember if they were selling anything the night I was there. You entered the theater to the left of the stand (left side of the lobby.
I never saw a film here, but drove by it on Old Country Rd a million times. I have no memory of this as a legitimate movie theater – seems like it was always an adult theater. Very unusual, because it was a non-descript brick building in a strip mall in a nice neighborhood. Nothing at all sleazy about it. The only way you could tell it was an adult theater was that 1) no one ever seemed to be entering or leaving and 2) you had never heard of the film titles on the marquee. Even the titles weren’t particularly salacious – “Feels Like Silk” sounds typical.
ps ..please dont remove a post because YOU dont think its funny!
a long island legand is a joke…….hahaha
In it’s porno days I believe this was run by the same owner as the Adult Fair in Jackson Heights.
This theatre was operated by the Brandt Circuit when it first opened and was still showing “XXX” in 1984 or so when a former manager colleague of mine was managing the place when I stopped in to see him. P.S. Didn’t watch the “X” stuff, no interest in it. Now a drugstore, what else?
A Long Island Legend? Doesn’t anyone remember this as one of LI’s porn houses? It was a porn house from the mid 70’s up until the 1980’s. In fact I saw my first porn here in 1983 (“Feels Like Silk”) The strange thing about the theater was that it was in a nice neighborhood.
A long island legand
I don’t know if it was a first-run house, but I do know that they did show mainstream films up until the mid 1970’s. During the 60’s, their Saturday matinees also featured a live rock band. I do remember attending (after they had dropped the stage show) a Sunday matinee showing of Laurel & Hardy in “Way Out West”. Indeed, I even remember the date—March 1, 1970. A few years later, I went to a regular show. Charlie Chaplin’s “City Lights” was playing with “A Man For All Seasons”. I was quite picky about getting there on time. After all, I thought, such great movies would sell out quickly. But when me and my kid brother got there—-we were the only ones
there!!! My final pilgrimage to the Salisbury came soon after, when
it was the last theatre around still showing kiddie matinees.
Granted, I was a little too old for them now, but I wanted to
witness what I knew was a passing parade, and besides I could treat
my kid brother and sister to a show. But after a few weeks of
sparse crowds, the same old James Hound and Beary Family cartoons,
and mind-numbingly boring K. Gordon Murray and Childhood Productions cheapies, we all gave up the ghost—-the audience and the theatre. A few years later, the Salisbury went mainstream briefly once more. The movie chosen for the honor? “Porky’s”. I remember the newspaper ad for that movie with SALISBURY THEATRE standing out from the rest of the theatres listed. There was no no chain name in fine print above it.