HK Studio
11 Atlantic Avenue,
Lynbrook,
NY
11563
11 Atlantic Avenue,
Lynbrook,
NY
11563
1 person
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 41 comments
Please update, theatre closed October 23, 1986
Reopened as Studio 1 on April 14th, 1965. Grand opening ad posted.
This was renamed HK Studio on December 7th, 1971.
And for one of those art films was the only time I was ever in the theater. There was no balcony and the ceiling was quite low. I think it was those metallic squares from way back when.
Please update, Studio 1 closed in the summer of 1986. During the late years of operation, they started show art house films.
Just added a photo of Atlantic Ave circa 1932/33 that shows a glimpse of the Arcade Theatre marquee. This is the same pic I’ve seen in rotation on the display screens mounted inside the Lynbrook Deli.
Photo of Studio 1 from American Classic Images and a 1916 photo of the Arcade have been uploaded. Arcade was on the west side of Atlantic Avenue so this view looks south. Note the original entrance to the Arcade WAS an arcade. Now we need a later shot with the Arcade marquee referred to by Ed Solero in earlier postings.
Re your comment that perhaps the Lyric became the Strand in RVC. I doubt it. The Strand had a seating capacity well over 1,000. Highly unlikely in this time period.
Every time I’ve been in Lynbrook Bagels since then, I haven’t seen the owner or manager – just the girls out front handling the busy line. I have to get in there when it isn’t so crowded and bustling and ask about that image.
Ed, what happened to the photo you mentioned in June?
According to this ad, posted by RidgewoodKen under the Strand Theater in Hempstead, NY, the Arcade was operated by the O'Connor-Radin Circuit in 1913. They also operated the Lyric Theatre of Rockville Centre, as mentioned in the ad, which has no listing on CT. It is possible, however, that the Lyric might have later become the Strand Theatre, which does have a listing, right here. The Hempstead Strand closed in 1926 (by that time, under the Calderone brand), and the only photo we have of the RVC Strand dates to 1929, so it is a possibility.
Lynbrook Bagels, diagonally across the street from the former Studio 1, has a pair of flat screen displays in their shop that present a slide-show of images tracing the history of the shop over the years. One of these is a vintage B&W shot looking north on Atlantic Ave that clearly shows the Arcade’s marquee projecting over the sidewalk on the left. I couldn’t stick around long enough to catch the image come around again on the loop, and get a movie title or approximate date. Next time I’m in there, I have to ask the manager if he has an actual copy of that picture, or at least inquire where he found it.
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.
Ed, my recollection of the interior of the Arcade/Studio 1 is that it was very small and nondescript, very much like the interiors of the Bleeker Street Cinema and the Orpheum Thaeter in Manhatttan’s East Village. I was in this thater about a dozen times, under both of its names, and I don’t recall anything memorable whatsoever about the interior. Ed Miller
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!
It ticks me off when a theatre is called the itch, not for any sanitary reasons, but because of uncomfortable seats. I was there once, as the Arcade, to see some film not available at any of the neighbs. I only remember the ceiling being fairly low compared to my home theatre, the Bellerose, which was so high it could have accommodated a substantial balcony.
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!
Thanks for the links to those photos, RobertR… No one around here (I am a Lynbrook resident) even remembers this theater!!! And, by the way, I guess we can put the debate to rest as to the actual name of the theater. The heading above should be corrected from Studio One to Studio 1.
The Studio 1 was great for showing the unusual and offbeat. I saw “Outrageous” there in 1977:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHrlDzkerOI
I’m glad that it was confirmed the the Arcade and Studio 1 were the same theater, because that’s how I remember it. I was a Valley Stream resident, and we went to movie theaters all over the area in the 50s, 60, and 70s.
Yes, they were having midnight movies there throughout the late 70’s and early 80’s. I saw a Three Stooges/Little Rascals midnight show, plus they showed Night of the Living Dead and When The Screaming Stops there. Screaming Stops had a vomit bag that was given out. I saw Screamers, a Roger Corman released Italian horror/sci-fi flick there with my girlfriend. I saw the remake of 1984 with Richard Burton at this theater as well. I bought a Super 8mm sound projector from Arnee, a Umig (sp), real nice strong metal projector, Austrian made, still runs great!
I saw this film here
View link
Finally a pic
View link
When a theatre is nicknamed the Itch, it means that the place is so run-down and decrepit that it is probably infested with fleas and other bugs, so that when you go there you wind up itching and scratching yourself.
There used to be Itches all over the country, but with the rise of the chains and the demise of the discount houses, most Itches are now just a fond memory.
The Arcade Theartre and moive house (aka “the Itch”) (Studio One) was constructed in 1913 after the Lynbrook Lyceum burned down. It had a seating capacity of 549.
History of Lynbrook, Arthur S. Mattson
“The Itch”….that is just a weird nickname…