Green Acres Cinemas

robboehm, on my nights off from the Grove was when I would sub, or on a weekend, I would do 1 show at the Grove and the other at another theatre if they needed someone extra

I used to sub usher here back in 1972-73. My main house was Centurys Grove in Freeport

Having never gone inside, I didn’t realize it was all Cineplex Odeon-ey still. I would have assumed National would have Showcased it up a bit.

The theatre just closed on September 18, 2011

Too bad. This was a nice theater in its day, before the rooms were cut up – and certainly before it was gutted for multiplexing. Nothing fancy inside, but a deluxe house with a big wide screen and curtains used in the presentations.

The theatre still under neglect from National Amusements, the SONY 4K Digital is coming to the Sunrise Cinemas next door, not the Green Acres.

Here it is Markie:

/theaters/4665/

Meredith Rhule I remember the guy, he was very nice and helped out alot when needed. His booth was a sight to see he had some very cool posters and action figures from the 50’s 60’s and 70’s b-horror flicks era. I remember towards the end of my stay there they had him take some stuff down cause it was inappropriate. I wonder if he still works there.

It was still a class house even as a triplex

moviefriend73, do you remember the projectionist’s stuff in the booth about B-rated horror films? ehh, hehehe. I was the projection techinican there. His booth is like walking into a director’s louge. Nice Italian guy, but what a riot.

National Amusements didn’t do any upgrading on the theatre. They don’t have cupholders. The Fantasy has the same type seats with cupholders.

None of the houses have don’t have Dolby Digital or DTS Digital Sound.

Wow… you’re really jogging my memory, blkdog! Would that be House of Chang? I think that was the place. I don’t recall going to that restaurant (the taste for good Chinese food developed much later in life for me). Usually, a trip to either the Green Acres Theater or the Sunrise Cinemas multiplex down the road involved a stop at Columbia Corner’s Pizzaria on Francis Lewis and Brookville Blvd near the Cross Island Pkwy (we lived in Laurelton).

I also remember going to the Red Lobster a few times. And remember the Cookie’s Steakhouse that was in a building that looked like a castle? Around 1980 or ‘81 my buddies and I used to go to the Bowling Alley after a flick for a few illicit beverages (illicit only because we were not yet 18 and the bartender at Green Acres Bowling never never proofed us) at the bar. We never bowled much, but would play video games in the arcade downstairs. I loved that place. It was huge. I remember the signs on the building… with the name of the place in large dark green letters and below in smaller red letters “48 Lanes” “Cocktail Lounge”. We were there the night the old place closed – in 1982 I think. My three buddies and I really tied one on that night and went back in the wee hours and hoisted each other onto the canopy over the entrance to wrench free from the facade the letters in those signs that represented each of our intials. I also stole – for reasons I’ll never fully understand – the traffic sign on the service road for the mall that passed behind the bowling alley. It read “All traffic use right lane”. The cops showed up at some point and gave us a scare, but in the end it all worked out harmlessly enough.

Over time I lost the giant “E” and “S” from the building’s facade, but I still have that traffic sign. And I only recently removed it from the iron stand it was bolted to (yup – ripped that sucker right out of the ground). I can’t bring myself to get rid of the damn thing!

I worked there for a few years. It is a nice quiet theater that the older crowds go to. Most who go there would rather die than goto the theater next door (Sunrise). They did cut back alot to keep it running. There is a p/t projectionist who works Thursday and Sunday. A maintance person from Sunrise comes around once a week to do maintance. 2 managers that work opposite shifts. Only 15 employees. The upstairs stand was only open once on Christmas day in the 3 years I was there.

We did show silver screen movies (like someone posted above) sometimes they are in good condition and other times they are horrible. The film gets moved alot from theater to theater (NA does this with most of their theatres). The ratio is off with the older films but I use to just center it as best as possible and no one would complain (why would they, they only pay a dollar and get a small bag of popcorn, drink and 2 cookies for free).

I heard rumors while I was there that next year it will close. The lease with NA expires at the end of the year as well as the union contract with the projectionist. The only reason that theater was kept open for so long was becasue of the lease and NA was afraid another theater chain would come in and fix it up and give Sunrise competition (also an NA theater). But I heard that some retail stores are looking at the property and I don’t Green Acres Mall wouldn’t mind getting a big retail chain there. The theater did some business but 95% of the time most auds. would have between 0-10 people per show. The only time I was there and it was packed was Memorial Day weekend two years ago when Shrek 2, Day After Tomorrow were there. That theater was slow but when it was crowed it was packed. Only because we couldn’t handle large crowds.

I don’t work there anymore, threats of closing and getting married made me find a steadier job. The hours were bad and working holidays and getting phone calls from your family wishing you a happy holiday while you worked sucked.