Niantic Cinema 5

There seems to be a lot of rumors about the future of the Niantic Cinema - most people I know what it to get another chance, maybe with a new owner and some remodeling. One rumor is that the main theater itself may be restored for both movies and a live performance venue maybe with tiered table or theater seating. Another rumor is that another company is ready to come in and strip the 5 plex of all its new digital projection, sound system and screens for use elsewhere. That one really hurts I think the city needs to be behind this and make it a non profit facility owned by the city but contracted to manage it. However. it needs some serious upgrades. I wear linely bifocals so I absolutly hate these uncomfortable no head support recliners that seem to be getting installed everywhere. May be mix would be better. Bottom line the theater needs to be saved and the community needs to get involved asap.

The Niantic Theater was closed in March 1980 for renovations, reopening in May as the three-screen Niantic Cinema 1-2-3. Owner George P. Mitchell (who purchased the theater in 1979) told the New London Day (4-25-80) that the old theater seated about 630 people, while the three-screen version seated 200 people in each downstairs theater and 150 more in the balcony that had been turned into an upstairs screen (with rocking chairs). The projection booth was automated at the same time, and a new box office gate was installed with an automatic ticket machine.

The theaters ran mostly second run and foreign film thru late 1982. They added a 280 seat fourth screen in early 1983, by taking the adjoining building (which formerly housed Larson’s Carpet, the Niantic Package Store, and a bowling alley) and “jacking up the roof about 20 feet and redoing the building,” according to the New London Day (3-6-83).

I can confirm that theater seen in Boxoffice circa 1950 is indeed the same theater that was later split up and expanded for the Niantic Cinemas. There is no other Niantic moviehouse, unless you count the nearby Cameo Theatre, which only operated from 1972 to 1985. The much smaller Cameo (a porn house for all but its first two years) was just behind the Niantic Theatre, across Hope Street and occupying the far end of a strip mall.

If the Markoffs opened a third as-yet unidentified house in Niantic in late 1945, it was long gone by the 1970s. I’ve yet to find ads for a third house, but I’ll keep an eye peeled. Perhaps the Markoffs STARTED work on a theater in late ‘45, but that house later (1950) became this place, run by the Dubreulls?

The 1950 Boxoffice article mentions this theater’s owners also started a local newspaper shortly before the Niantic Theatre opened, which corresponds with the 9-27-77 article mentioning the Dubreulls running both the theater (since the early ‘50s) and the town paper, the Niantic News. So this was the Dubreull’s operation since before the day it opened, not the Markoffs’.

According to a New London Day article dated September 27, 1977, the Niantic Theater (later renamed Niantic Cinemas) was owned from around 1952 until at least 1977 by Alphonse and May Dubreull of Wild Rose Place, in nearby Waterford, who also published the Niantic News newspaper. The article was about the Dubreull’s attempting to sell the place.

So it was originally one screen then I guess.

ken mc -
found your post citing Joseph and Ted Markoff while searching for history on the Portland Drive-In Theater (CT.
My mother and I both worked for the Markoffs some 40 years apart
at East Hampton CT and Portland Drive In, CT respectively.

I am working on a project for the Boy Scouts commemorating this local landmark before it’s long forgotten – portions of the Marqee sign and refreshment stand still remain…

Do you have any other info about them or the Poprtland Location?

Here is an item in Boxoffice in October 1945. I’m not sure if there was a six year delay in opening the theater, or if this article alternatively is referring to a different house.

NIANTIC, CONN.-Plans are being drawn for a 550-seat theatre to be operated here by Joseph and Ted Markoff, operators of the Strand, Willimantic, Stuart, Lakeville, Colchester, Moodus and East Hampton theatres. Architects Curran & McGuire, New London, said construction was scheduled to start immediately.