I remember seeing The Sword and the Sorcerer there in 1982. They had a trailer for Cannibals in the Streets, and I was dying to go and see that. My memory is that the Cannibals film was set to play, was listed and all but the theater had already closed. I also saw Clash of the Titans there. I believe you had to enter the mall in order to enter the theater.
If anyone is really interested in reading about this theater, three of the projectionists who worked it where interviewed in this magazine: http://www.cinefear.com/journal.html . It was Volume 3 #1. The issue with the orange cover. That same interview was reproduced in a book called Cinema Sewer, which you can get off Amazon…
I saw Night of the Living Dead and Freaks on a double bill at midnight at the Cine Capri on the 4th of July weekend in 1978. I actually have a newspaper ad for this, I’ll also photograph this and post it in the near future. The theater was also going to be showing Hi Mom and Norman, is That You. They showed a trailer for Norman, is That You. I was blown out by the show, it really shaped my interest in cinema, a true defining moment for me!
Sorry Terry, I got hung up with holiday madness. I’ll dig it out, snap a shot and post it early next week. I’ll inform you all when it’s up!
Happy New Year
Matty’s Toy Shop was the theater. Look to the top, you can see the door that lead to the roof from the projectionists booth. I had begun my earliest projectionist training at this theater, and I lived right down Penninsula Blvd by the Woodmere Middle School. The theater closed in 89/90 if I remember right. It certainly wasn’t any earlier. The guy who owned the Polk was Walter Gusson (sp). He kept trying to turn it into an adult theater but the authorities kept closing it every time he did. I saw a matinee of 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea there in the early seventies. I also believe (or have memories of) Destroy All Monsters there as well. It had no balcony, it was a simple strip mall theater.
The Salisbury Theater was forced to censor the adult films they showed. A fellow projectionist who I used to picket the UA theaters with in the early nineties worked that theater and confirmed for me that they had to cut the hardcore out or color in the more salacious scenes with a black magic marker. And I did witness this because it was the closest adult theater to me and I saw Female Athletes there and it was cut and colored in! Talk about killing a mood! Westbury had strict rules, Pink Flamingos was banned from being shown theatrically there. Later, they went to video projection and started showing hardcore. They went out of business shortly there after.
I was helping renovate the theater in 2007. It had already been split into several small theaters. But the upstairs projection booth was old as the hills, and it had a locker that featured stickers promoting the various films shown there as well as the various rock groups that played there. Stickers for Prudence and the Pill. And then rock promotion for Ten Years Later (formally Ten Years After). They had a ton of Carbon Arcs in the basement. The theater was down again by ‘99. It’s one huge church now…
I actually have the original mini cinema poster featuring all the patrons, I will take a photograph and post it in the very near future. I knew quite a few of the guys who projected there. I also knew Joe Marzano, he acted and did voice overs for a few of my 16mm films. The cine capri in Old Bethpage I believe was run by a guy called Gee Gee, an Israeli, and I do recall he tried to turn all his art cinemas into porn houses but would run into trouble with the town boards in doing so. I saw Night of the Living Dead and Freaks at the Cine Capri around the 4th of July in 1978 (I have the ad for it, I’ll also snap that and post it in the near future). The Nassau Library system is now the strip mall, my wife is a librarian and they hold meetings there. The Uniondale mini cinema is a church that has made add on’s to the building.
The Fine Arts Theater in Hempstead was originally a burlesque house in the 1920’s. In the late 30’s, they turned the small balcony into a projection booth. It originally showed over seas films and softcore adult flicks until it turned into a full blown adult theater in the 1970’s. It closed in ‘87. I knew quite a few projectionists who worked there. They claimed it was run down, one guy even said it was haunted. The outside of the theater had cardboard cutouts of vintage adult stars from the 60’s and 70’s. It looked like many of the theaters on 42nd. St. I believe they have a mini mall in there now.
I remember seeing The Sword and the Sorcerer there in 1982. They had a trailer for Cannibals in the Streets, and I was dying to go and see that. My memory is that the Cannibals film was set to play, was listed and all but the theater had already closed. I also saw Clash of the Titans there. I believe you had to enter the mall in order to enter the theater.
That’s correct, I took my wife to see a production of Chess there and that’s exactly how it was set up.
If anyone is really interested in reading about this theater, three of the projectionists who worked it where interviewed in this magazine: http://www.cinefear.com/journal.html . It was Volume 3 #1. The issue with the orange cover. That same interview was reproduced in a book called Cinema Sewer, which you can get off Amazon…
I saw Night of the Living Dead and Freaks on a double bill at midnight at the Cine Capri on the 4th of July weekend in 1978. I actually have a newspaper ad for this, I’ll also photograph this and post it in the near future. The theater was also going to be showing Hi Mom and Norman, is That You. They showed a trailer for Norman, is That You. I was blown out by the show, it really shaped my interest in cinema, a true defining moment for me!
Ok folks,
I took two pictures of the poster, one with flash, the other without. Here’s the links, ENJOY!
View link
View link
Sorry Terry, I got hung up with holiday madness. I’ll dig it out, snap a shot and post it early next week. I’ll inform you all when it’s up!
Happy New Year
Matty’s Toy Shop was the theater. Look to the top, you can see the door that lead to the roof from the projectionists booth. I had begun my earliest projectionist training at this theater, and I lived right down Penninsula Blvd by the Woodmere Middle School. The theater closed in 89/90 if I remember right. It certainly wasn’t any earlier. The guy who owned the Polk was Walter Gusson (sp). He kept trying to turn it into an adult theater but the authorities kept closing it every time he did. I saw a matinee of 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea there in the early seventies. I also believe (or have memories of) Destroy All Monsters there as well. It had no balcony, it was a simple strip mall theater.
That date I was doing the renovating in was 1997, not 2007, my mistake.
The Salisbury Theater was forced to censor the adult films they showed. A fellow projectionist who I used to picket the UA theaters with in the early nineties worked that theater and confirmed for me that they had to cut the hardcore out or color in the more salacious scenes with a black magic marker. And I did witness this because it was the closest adult theater to me and I saw Female Athletes there and it was cut and colored in! Talk about killing a mood! Westbury had strict rules, Pink Flamingos was banned from being shown theatrically there. Later, they went to video projection and started showing hardcore. They went out of business shortly there after.
You bet I will, I’ll try and have it posted early next week!
I was helping renovate the theater in 2007. It had already been split into several small theaters. But the upstairs projection booth was old as the hills, and it had a locker that featured stickers promoting the various films shown there as well as the various rock groups that played there. Stickers for Prudence and the Pill. And then rock promotion for Ten Years Later (formally Ten Years After). They had a ton of Carbon Arcs in the basement. The theater was down again by ‘99. It’s one huge church now…
I actually have the original mini cinema poster featuring all the patrons, I will take a photograph and post it in the very near future. I knew quite a few of the guys who projected there. I also knew Joe Marzano, he acted and did voice overs for a few of my 16mm films. The cine capri in Old Bethpage I believe was run by a guy called Gee Gee, an Israeli, and I do recall he tried to turn all his art cinemas into porn houses but would run into trouble with the town boards in doing so. I saw Night of the Living Dead and Freaks at the Cine Capri around the 4th of July in 1978 (I have the ad for it, I’ll also snap that and post it in the near future). The Nassau Library system is now the strip mall, my wife is a librarian and they hold meetings there. The Uniondale mini cinema is a church that has made add on’s to the building.
The Fine Arts Theater in Hempstead was originally a burlesque house in the 1920’s. In the late 30’s, they turned the small balcony into a projection booth. It originally showed over seas films and softcore adult flicks until it turned into a full blown adult theater in the 1970’s. It closed in ‘87. I knew quite a few projectionists who worked there. They claimed it was run down, one guy even said it was haunted. The outside of the theater had cardboard cutouts of vintage adult stars from the 60’s and 70’s. It looked like many of the theaters on 42nd. St. I believe they have a mini mall in there now.