Bayshore-Sunrise Drive-In

Okay;
It’s also on the internet the way you spell it, I guess I was wrong

My Broadway is the one in Brooklyn, not the great white way, and Bay Shore is definitely two words….. :)

The Patchogue Sunrise Drive-In is being talked about under the UA Movies at Patchogue 13 which is the megaplex that was built on the drive-in site. Interestingly, one of the Multiplex’s auditoriums (the biggest one) is still the Patchogue Sunrise Drive-in’s indoor theater. They built the multiplex onto the old indoor theater. The concession stand is even outside all cemented up.
There’s no seperate entry for the Drive In because the UA Movies at Patchogue IS the Patchogue Drive In.
See here for the Patchogue Drive-In:
/theaters/7828/

BTW, I believe that along with the Bay Shore Theatre, the Drive in should really be listed as two words, “Bay Shore”, and the town also as “Bay Shore”, which is the proper spelling. I tried to find these two theaters yesterday under “Bay Shore” and couldn’t find them.

Initially, the Drive-In and it’s Indoor Theatre played the same double bill, with the Drive-In showtimes at roughly 7 PM and 11 PM and the co-feature at 9 PM, while the Indoor screened the main feature at 9 P.M. and the co-feature at 7 PM and 11 PM. Therefore, the prints where constantly in use (Continuously between the two screens). The booth to the drive-in was incorporated into the indoor theatre with the snack bar. When buying tickets, you needed to specify indoor or outdoor so that the correct tickets were issued and there was a doorman on duty to make sure outdoor customers weren’t using the indoor theatre. Later on in the 1970’s, two seperate double bills played the Indoor and Outdoor theatres. The Cinema next door was a seperate theatre from the drive-in, even though it was next door and had it’s own staff. The staff was known to work both locations.

The Bayshore Sunrise Drive In opened in early 1962 by the Prudential Theatre Ciruit as the second Indoor/Outdoor theatre built in the U.S., the first being the Johnny All-Weather in Copaigue. In addition to the indoor screen on the drive-in property, there was also a free-standing theatre called the Cinema next door. This whole area of entertainment was called Prudential’s Cinema City. That company’s Fifth Avenue Drive In on Fifth Avenue was closed shortly after the opening of the Bayshore Sunrise Drive In. The Indoor theatre on the Drive-In property was demolished to add an additional screen to the Drive-In in 1979 by United Artists, who absorbed the Prudential Circuit empire in 1968. The Drive-In lasted until the late 1980’s and the Cinema Bayhore (as it was known as and not to be confused with the Bayshore Theatre on Main Street) closed in 1990. The Cinema hosted “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” for many years on Friday and Saturday evenings. The grosses for the two midnight shows
were more than the totals of the Cinema and Drive-In grosses for the WEEK! I am sure without “Rocky Horror”, the Cinema would have folded much sooner. When both were closed, I photographed the sites and soon after the entire “Cinema City” was reduced to rubble. The Cinema had a golden curtain which was working until the end. It also a facade of glass that enabled people to see the inside lobby of the theatre. A Pier-1 Imports occupies the Cinema site and a Waldbaum’s Supermarket sits on the Drive-In property.