Casino Theater
Shelter Island,
NY
11964
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Additional Info
Previous Names: Casino-Open Air Theater
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The Casino Theater was located on Shelter Island, which is part of Suffolk County, N.Y. The Casino Theater was an open air theater. I don’t have a timeline for this theater but I read that, movies were being shown here around 1939. If you have any aditional information about this theater, please post it here.
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Lost Memory
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Recent comments (view all 18 comments)
But that still doesn’t address the matter of the Casino which is what the subject of this specific site is supposed to be about. Shelter Island has the Heights, Dering Harbor and Ram Island in addition to the rest of the island. It would be nice to try and pinpoint a location on this good sized island. And where did Lost Memory read about this theatre. That might be a good place to start doing some detective work. The local paper on the Island wasn’t around before WWII; the historical society had no information other than a nightclub or something like that destroyed in a hurricane. Was the theatre adjacent to the Casino or is the name a coincidence?
i will be there on a bike trip. i’ll try to check the city directory.
It’s rare that a community, particularly one which was mostly seasonal, would have any old directories. The thing would be to find any writeups about the nightclub and see if there is any mention of an adjacent theatre space. It just seems unlikely that there would be two business with the name Casino.
Will do.
Well in Milford, CT, see my posts on the Colonial theaters. There were 2 Colonials.
Shelter Island in the 1930s didn’t support a lot of business. There were several seasonal hotels. The locals usually had to go off the island for shopping. The Greenport Theatre was only steps from the ferry. This leads me to believe that a Casino outdoor theatre was associated with some touristy place. What more logical one than the Casino.
Did not have time to go to the Library, as I was having way too much fun to remember!
I recently stumbled over a historical book about Shelter Island. (No, I didn’t hurt myself!) The only reference to anything named “Casino” concernned a resort hotel that functioned in the 1910’s and closed after America’s entry into the First World War in 1917. So, this offers no real connection to a Casino cinema that operated a generation later.
My guess is that the Casino, if it existed at all, had a short run during several Summers and was totally aimed at the tourist crowd. Even without the hurricane, I just don’t think such a venture could have lasted for more than a brief time, especially considering the fact that the Greenport movie house was – and is – situated just a hop, skip and a jump from the North Ferry terminal. So I definitely agree with rvb on this point.
speculate all we want…call the historical society.
Did. They were no help when asked about a theatre. The key is going to be to examine anything about the Casino Hotel/Resort with the hope that there may be a slight reference. It’s a shame that Lost Memory is no longer a part of CT to find out what triggered the posting. Perhaps it was only something in the Directory of American Theatres or the like.