That is nuts! I had no idea porn ever played there. I seem to recall the Soundview theater had a brief adult run (so I heard – this was many years prior to the Soundview Shopping Ctr’s remodeling – it was a ghost well through the mid-“80s), and there were at least two very seedy strip clubs in P.W. that survived until "81 or so (one of which went down in a prostitution sting!) I can’t help thinking the rundown "70s PW was a lot more interesting than the glossy, materialistic megaburb it is today.
Be glad to hear from anyone else who knew the town in those days.
That ad notes that the Beacon was owned or operated by GG (?) – not the late GG Allin, I assume, but the business name of the owner? In the mid-“80s I remember my friends who worked for the video store next door bitching about "Mr. GG”, the cranky and stingy owner of the building (this was the time of the senseless expansion detailed above.) Yeah, it’s all coming together…..
The seats are a little lumpy but otherwise this is still a great place to see a movie for $3, plus refreshments are cheap and the A/C’s cold! Lets hope they resist the gentrification mania creeping all around the Logan Square area.
There wasn’t a lot to do growing up in P.W. in the late “70s. Even when it was triplexed this was a pretty good place to see movies if one was young and undiscriminating. I remember seeing Star Wars, Tom Sawyer, Heaven Can Wait, Flash Gordon, and others here. The fact that most of the original ornamentation & fixtures remained definitely inspired my ideas of what a movie theater should "look like”. Then in the early “80s the luncheonette next door put in a game room and overnight the scene was all burnouts, denim jackets, Defender, and other stoner-rock accoutrements from J&G Records up the street. (Anyone else remember any of this period?) Regardless, at 14 or 15 I definitely knew the "Triplex” was not doing right by us when they started subdividing, but at that point the whole town was getting hypersuburbanized and overpopulated so nobody really noticed. I do remember a few other excellent movie nights there, “Day of the Dead” on opening night and a double feature of “Nightmare on Elm St 1 & 2”. By then it was pretty seedy, but on L.I. in the “80s, seedy was what you expected.
That is nuts! I had no idea porn ever played there. I seem to recall the Soundview theater had a brief adult run (so I heard – this was many years prior to the Soundview Shopping Ctr’s remodeling – it was a ghost well through the mid-“80s), and there were at least two very seedy strip clubs in P.W. that survived until "81 or so (one of which went down in a prostitution sting!) I can’t help thinking the rundown "70s PW was a lot more interesting than the glossy, materialistic megaburb it is today.
Be glad to hear from anyone else who knew the town in those days.
That ad notes that the Beacon was owned or operated by GG (?) – not the late GG Allin, I assume, but the business name of the owner? In the mid-“80s I remember my friends who worked for the video store next door bitching about "Mr. GG”, the cranky and stingy owner of the building (this was the time of the senseless expansion detailed above.) Yeah, it’s all coming together…..
I saw “The Untouchables” and “Rivers Edge” there in 1987 with my first girlfriend. Sorry to hear it didn’t make it.
The seats are a little lumpy but otherwise this is still a great place to see a movie for $3, plus refreshments are cheap and the A/C’s cold! Lets hope they resist the gentrification mania creeping all around the Logan Square area.
There wasn’t a lot to do growing up in P.W. in the late “70s. Even when it was triplexed this was a pretty good place to see movies if one was young and undiscriminating. I remember seeing Star Wars, Tom Sawyer, Heaven Can Wait, Flash Gordon, and others here. The fact that most of the original ornamentation & fixtures remained definitely inspired my ideas of what a movie theater should "look like”. Then in the early “80s the luncheonette next door put in a game room and overnight the scene was all burnouts, denim jackets, Defender, and other stoner-rock accoutrements from J&G Records up the street. (Anyone else remember any of this period?) Regardless, at 14 or 15 I definitely knew the "Triplex” was not doing right by us when they started subdividing, but at that point the whole town was getting hypersuburbanized and overpopulated so nobody really noticed. I do remember a few other excellent movie nights there, “Day of the Dead” on opening night and a double feature of “Nightmare on Elm St 1 & 2”. By then it was pretty seedy, but on L.I. in the “80s, seedy was what you expected.