Still puzzles me how the auditorium space could have been converted to residential. There are no windows at all that have been punched through any of the auditorium walls, as you can see from the photos I posted. Not to mention that the upper floor or two doesn’t even connect to the original apartment building that fronts Middle Neck Road. Still wondering exactly what was converted to what, aside from the garage that obviously exists on the ground floor where the foyer and rear orchestra were situated.
Thanks for sharing, Ed. That was my impression as well, without any details coming to memory. Would you say that was a result of a remodeling or did the room appear to be more or less original in its appointments – however non-descript they may have been? A lot of theaters concealed or stripped away old decor in favor of easier to clean and maintain drapery or upholstery. To me the Studio 1 just felt like a more modern cinema – a drab and unadorned box indistinguishable from the rooms at the Belair Twin, say, or the RKO twin in Rockville Centre. Whereas, when I sat in the old Fantasy or the RKO on Rockaway Ave, I knew I was in an old and decorous movie theater.
If anyone remembers the exact location of the movie theater within the mall, this seems to be one of the rare cases where the google street view allows you to “enter” the mall’s parking lot. The view is currently set across the street from the mall, looking north.
The Merrick Mall Cinema is now predominantly occupied by a restaurant called Thai Station, with an address of 2161 Merrick Avenue. There is also a bridal shop and hair salon in storefronts along the former lobby portion of the building. The bridal shop has an address of 2165 Merrick Ave, while the hair salon, which occupies what would have been the actual entrance to the cinema, is listed at the old address of 44 North Merrick Avenue. Seems that the village has been re-numbering addresses along both Merrick Avenue and Merrick Road – see comments in the listing for the Gables Theatre.
My guess is the hair salon was allowed to grandfather the old address for business purposes and that 44 N. Merrick Ave may have been the theater’s address.
This theater should be listed as “demolished.” The address also no longer exists, which is why it won’t map properly or offer a correct street view. The numbering along Merrick Rd in the village of Merrick seems to have changed since the Gables' existence – at least on the south side of the street where the theater stood. Across the street on the north side, 172 and 174 Merrick Rd still stand (a law office and a plumbing & heating supply company, respectively). On the south side stands an animal hospital with an address of 1798 Merrick Rd that seems fairly recently constructed, a parking lot and two smaller and older looking one-story commerical buildings with the addresses 1800 and 1808. Not to mention that the addresses run in opposite directions on either side of the street! I think the law office and plumbing company probably had their old addresses grandfathered in for business purposes.
In any event, any trace of the theater is gone today. My best guess is that it stood where the parking lot and animal hospital sit today.
Tinseltoes, those white walls were common in a lot of multiplex jobs during the late ‘70’s and early '80’s. I remember when the multiplex opened on the site of the old Sunrise Drive-In in Valley Stream, I had the same complaint. Movie theater interior walls should be dark, to absorb the light, not painted in such a manner that they reflect light almost as brightly as the screen does!
Forgot to add, however, that I do agree with you about the quality (not to mention comfort) at the Westbury Stadium 12. It is my movie theater of choice on Long Island.
It’s been a while since I frequented theaters in Manhattan, but as recent as 4 or 5 years ago, the projection and sound quality at the Loews Lincoln Square was top notch. And a good print at the Ziegfeld, with full curtain work by a union projectionist who gives a damn, is always a special treat.
Hi miclup… Just to refresh your memory, that sound process was called “Sensurround.” It was probably most effectively used in the movie “Earthquake,” but it was also employed in the movies “Midway” and “Rollercoaster” and tacked on to the theatrical release of a made-for-TV “Battlestar Galactica” movie. Unfortunately, coming from Queens, I didn’t discover the Cinema 150 until the late 1980’s. Saw “Earthquake” at the Ziegfeld in Manhattan and the other sensurround movies at Century’s Green Acres Theatre in Valley Stream.
Calling Wally 75! If you still have some photos of the Playhouse that you’d like to share, please try my email again (see post above) or try your hand at uploading them yourself – it’s quite easy, as long as you have the photos in a folder that’s easy to browse to in your computer!
I wish we could find some vintage interior photographs. I recall nothing about the theater’s interior from its days as the Studio 1. I always presumed it was a more modern cinema from the 1960’s, whereas I always knew that the UA Lynbrook around the corner was at one time a classic old movie house with stage and balcony. I had no idea, at the time (1979-1984), about this theater’s history, let alone that it dated back to 1913!
Took my then 12-year old brother here back in the late summer of 1985 to see the decidedly R-rated “Return of the Living Dead.” Not sure what I was thinking! He seemed to perk-up when a girl in the film did a striptease number in the middle of a graveyard! Ah the classic B cinema of the 1980’s!
The article states that the Lyn Gift Shop now occupies the old theater. While that may be true of the interior – that the gift shop extends back into the wider former auditorium space – it seems to me that the former entrance to the theater was located between the Hallmark store entrance and the Gift Shop entrance, centered under the small clock tower that now exists on the current facade. Looking at the 1986 images from American Classic Images, posted above by RobertR, the gift shop’s entrance is about where the Arnee Appliances storefront was.
A nice little article about the former Arcade Theatre was published in an April edition of the Lynbrook Patch. Here’s a link to the article, which includes a wonderful vintage photo as well as a couple of modern shots.
In the vintage image, the theatre is on the right with an arched entrance and no marquee projection at all. Nice to see what the original facade looked like!
I assume the marquee that you guys are talking about, that was blown off the Green Acres Theatre, was the flat board that was on the back of the building facing the mall? I remember the old main marquee on Sunrise Highway being huge – I think it spanned the width of the entire facade!
As for the photo of the Queens, techman, looks like it is the only one that has been posted here. In fact, it was ME who posted it! Ha ha! I snapped it back in 1993 when the theater had been shuttered and recently acquired by the church. I know there are other photos out there – particularly the great set on the American Classic Images website – but I believe posting those here may infringe upon their copyrights.
Yes. 133 Third Avenue. My blunder. Site is around the corner on Third Avenue, just north of E 14th Street on the east side of the block. Now a store called Jam Paper & Envelope, which has a current address of 135 Third Ave, but spans two storefronts. I’ll get the street view fixed just for the sake of it.
Just looking at the American Classic Images photo that drew so many comments above and the website doesn’t seem to be identifying the building as a movie theater at all. The caption merely indicates a Crotona storefront. The point of the photo was probably capturing that great vintage neon sign still intact in 1988. The edifice, however, is certainly reminiscent of theater architecture.
If you pan to the right in the streetview, there is a white, 1-story building on the corner of West Street and Clarkson Street. I presume this is the site of the old Westworld cinema. If you zoom in on the signage, there is a white sign on the facade of the building for an establishment called Westworld, advertising what appears to be a 24-hour peep-show (“25 cent” signs flank the name of the business on either side of the sign) noting “1000’s of new adult videos” as well as “magazines & more.” Not sure how old the sign is or how old the street view is, but I wonder if the old Westworld carries on with books, mags and private video booths?
The same church still occupies this building, as far as I can tell from a quick internet search. Makes me wonder if anything of the original interior survives. We are looking at 85 years since it last operated as a cinema, and I find that most of these smaller churches tend to favor a bright and modern finish to their interiors.
By the way, a praiseworthy job of documenting so many older, early cinemas, Ken. As I’m catching up with many of the newer listings you’ve added in recent months, I’m struck by some of the buildings you documented just a few years back that have since been razed. Were it not for your trips abroad, with camera in hand (and at no small expense to yourself, I’m sure) many of these old theatres would have just vanished into the vacuum of history. On behalf of many on this site, thank you so much for your efforts. They are greatly appreciated!
Here’s a nice article from March, 2011, that states the theater was in its fifth month of operations – which would place its debut around September or October, 2010. The address, 124 S Third, is an apartment building, the doorway of which is clearly seen in the street view above. Is the space just a room within the building? Perhaps a rec-room? Or did it replace the little grocery store to the right of the entrance? Wouldn’t that have a different address? Mysterious little place.
And this website has a reasonable photo of the narrow space near the screen with the first few rows of seats visible. It is the first photo as you scroll down – featuring a projected image of a sunset (or rise) behind an building.
Hmmm. Tinseltoes, you remind me of another fellow that used to post here a while back and split similar hairs. Of course, you are correct that I misstated an intention that must have been obvious to anyone who read the comment, but the only place to list other names for any given theater on CT is under “previous names.” I only meant to suggest that Hillside (sans the Loew’s) should be included as an alternate name for this theater. Is that better? I know the convention on this website is to list theaters by the name under which they last operated – although there are exceptions. So, perhaps the listing should be changed to Hillside Theatre, with Loew’s Hillside as a previous name.
Wasn’t that a movie, Vito? Peter Graves? 1957 or so? Title eludes me… ;}
Still puzzles me how the auditorium space could have been converted to residential. There are no windows at all that have been punched through any of the auditorium walls, as you can see from the photos I posted. Not to mention that the upper floor or two doesn’t even connect to the original apartment building that fronts Middle Neck Road. Still wondering exactly what was converted to what, aside from the garage that obviously exists on the ground floor where the foyer and rear orchestra were situated.
Thanks for sharing, Ed. That was my impression as well, without any details coming to memory. Would you say that was a result of a remodeling or did the room appear to be more or less original in its appointments – however non-descript they may have been? A lot of theaters concealed or stripped away old decor in favor of easier to clean and maintain drapery or upholstery. To me the Studio 1 just felt like a more modern cinema – a drab and unadorned box indistinguishable from the rooms at the Belair Twin, say, or the RKO twin in Rockville Centre. Whereas, when I sat in the old Fantasy or the RKO on Rockaway Ave, I knew I was in an old and decorous movie theater.
If anyone remembers the exact location of the movie theater within the mall, this seems to be one of the rare cases where the google street view allows you to “enter” the mall’s parking lot. The view is currently set across the street from the mall, looking north.
Also corrected the street view image. We won’t be able to change the google map location without utilizing a valid address for the building.
The Merrick Mall Cinema is now predominantly occupied by a restaurant called Thai Station, with an address of 2161 Merrick Avenue. There is also a bridal shop and hair salon in storefronts along the former lobby portion of the building. The bridal shop has an address of 2165 Merrick Ave, while the hair salon, which occupies what would have been the actual entrance to the cinema, is listed at the old address of 44 North Merrick Avenue. Seems that the village has been re-numbering addresses along both Merrick Avenue and Merrick Road – see comments in the listing for the Gables Theatre.
My guess is the hair salon was allowed to grandfather the old address for business purposes and that 44 N. Merrick Ave may have been the theater’s address.
This theater should be listed as “demolished.” The address also no longer exists, which is why it won’t map properly or offer a correct street view. The numbering along Merrick Rd in the village of Merrick seems to have changed since the Gables' existence – at least on the south side of the street where the theater stood. Across the street on the north side, 172 and 174 Merrick Rd still stand (a law office and a plumbing & heating supply company, respectively). On the south side stands an animal hospital with an address of 1798 Merrick Rd that seems fairly recently constructed, a parking lot and two smaller and older looking one-story commerical buildings with the addresses 1800 and 1808. Not to mention that the addresses run in opposite directions on either side of the street! I think the law office and plumbing company probably had their old addresses grandfathered in for business purposes.
In any event, any trace of the theater is gone today. My best guess is that it stood where the parking lot and animal hospital sit today.
Tinseltoes, those white walls were common in a lot of multiplex jobs during the late ‘70’s and early '80’s. I remember when the multiplex opened on the site of the old Sunrise Drive-In in Valley Stream, I had the same complaint. Movie theater interior walls should be dark, to absorb the light, not painted in such a manner that they reflect light almost as brightly as the screen does!
Forgot to add, however, that I do agree with you about the quality (not to mention comfort) at the Westbury Stadium 12. It is my movie theater of choice on Long Island.
It’s been a while since I frequented theaters in Manhattan, but as recent as 4 or 5 years ago, the projection and sound quality at the Loews Lincoln Square was top notch. And a good print at the Ziegfeld, with full curtain work by a union projectionist who gives a damn, is always a special treat.
Hi miclup… Just to refresh your memory, that sound process was called “Sensurround.” It was probably most effectively used in the movie “Earthquake,” but it was also employed in the movies “Midway” and “Rollercoaster” and tacked on to the theatrical release of a made-for-TV “Battlestar Galactica” movie. Unfortunately, coming from Queens, I didn’t discover the Cinema 150 until the late 1980’s. Saw “Earthquake” at the Ziegfeld in Manhattan and the other sensurround movies at Century’s Green Acres Theatre in Valley Stream.
Calling Wally 75! If you still have some photos of the Playhouse that you’d like to share, please try my email again (see post above) or try your hand at uploading them yourself – it’s quite easy, as long as you have the photos in a folder that’s easy to browse to in your computer!
I wish we could find some vintage interior photographs. I recall nothing about the theater’s interior from its days as the Studio 1. I always presumed it was a more modern cinema from the 1960’s, whereas I always knew that the UA Lynbrook around the corner was at one time a classic old movie house with stage and balcony. I had no idea, at the time (1979-1984), about this theater’s history, let alone that it dated back to 1913!
Took my then 12-year old brother here back in the late summer of 1985 to see the decidedly R-rated “Return of the Living Dead.” Not sure what I was thinking! He seemed to perk-up when a girl in the film did a striptease number in the middle of a graveyard! Ah the classic B cinema of the 1980’s!
The article states that the Lyn Gift Shop now occupies the old theater. While that may be true of the interior – that the gift shop extends back into the wider former auditorium space – it seems to me that the former entrance to the theater was located between the Hallmark store entrance and the Gift Shop entrance, centered under the small clock tower that now exists on the current facade. Looking at the 1986 images from American Classic Images, posted above by RobertR, the gift shop’s entrance is about where the Arnee Appliances storefront was.
A nice little article about the former Arcade Theatre was published in an April edition of the Lynbrook Patch. Here’s a link to the article, which includes a wonderful vintage photo as well as a couple of modern shots.
In the vintage image, the theatre is on the right with an arched entrance and no marquee projection at all. Nice to see what the original facade looked like!
I assume the marquee that you guys are talking about, that was blown off the Green Acres Theatre, was the flat board that was on the back of the building facing the mall? I remember the old main marquee on Sunrise Highway being huge – I think it spanned the width of the entire facade!
As for the photo of the Queens, techman, looks like it is the only one that has been posted here. In fact, it was ME who posted it! Ha ha! I snapped it back in 1993 when the theater had been shuttered and recently acquired by the church. I know there are other photos out there – particularly the great set on the American Classic Images website – but I believe posting those here may infringe upon their copyrights.
Yes. 133 Third Avenue. My blunder. Site is around the corner on Third Avenue, just north of E 14th Street on the east side of the block. Now a store called Jam Paper & Envelope, which has a current address of 135 Third Ave, but spans two storefronts. I’ll get the street view fixed just for the sake of it.
Just looking at the American Classic Images photo that drew so many comments above and the website doesn’t seem to be identifying the building as a movie theater at all. The caption merely indicates a Crotona storefront. The point of the photo was probably capturing that great vintage neon sign still intact in 1988. The edifice, however, is certainly reminiscent of theater architecture.
133 E. 14th Street now home to a Raymour & Flanigan furniture store.
If you pan to the right in the streetview, there is a white, 1-story building on the corner of West Street and Clarkson Street. I presume this is the site of the old Westworld cinema. If you zoom in on the signage, there is a white sign on the facade of the building for an establishment called Westworld, advertising what appears to be a 24-hour peep-show (“25 cent” signs flank the name of the business on either side of the sign) noting “1000’s of new adult videos” as well as “magazines & more.” Not sure how old the sign is or how old the street view is, but I wonder if the old Westworld carries on with books, mags and private video booths?
The same church still occupies this building, as far as I can tell from a quick internet search. Makes me wonder if anything of the original interior survives. We are looking at 85 years since it last operated as a cinema, and I find that most of these smaller churches tend to favor a bright and modern finish to their interiors.
By the way, a praiseworthy job of documenting so many older, early cinemas, Ken. As I’m catching up with many of the newer listings you’ve added in recent months, I’m struck by some of the buildings you documented just a few years back that have since been razed. Were it not for your trips abroad, with camera in hand (and at no small expense to yourself, I’m sure) many of these old theatres would have just vanished into the vacuum of history. On behalf of many on this site, thank you so much for your efforts. They are greatly appreciated!
Here’s a nice article from March, 2011, that states the theater was in its fifth month of operations – which would place its debut around September or October, 2010. The address, 124 S Third, is an apartment building, the doorway of which is clearly seen in the street view above. Is the space just a room within the building? Perhaps a rec-room? Or did it replace the little grocery store to the right of the entrance? Wouldn’t that have a different address? Mysterious little place.
Here’s the official website.
And this website has a reasonable photo of the narrow space near the screen with the first few rows of seats visible. It is the first photo as you scroll down – featuring a projected image of a sunset (or rise) behind an building.
Here’s the official website of the banquet hall that now occupies the site: Polonaise Terrace.
Includes some interior photos. Appears all the rooms have been completely remodeled. Wonder if the foyer retains any original decor. Doubtful.
Hmmm. Tinseltoes, you remind me of another fellow that used to post here a while back and split similar hairs. Of course, you are correct that I misstated an intention that must have been obvious to anyone who read the comment, but the only place to list other names for any given theater on CT is under “previous names.” I only meant to suggest that Hillside (sans the Loew’s) should be included as an alternate name for this theater. Is that better? I know the convention on this website is to list theaters by the name under which they last operated – although there are exceptions. So, perhaps the listing should be changed to Hillside Theatre, with Loew’s Hillside as a previous name.