Herricks Cinemas 4
3324 Hillside Avenue,
New Hyde Park,
NY
11040
3324 Hillside Avenue,
New Hyde Park,
NY
11040
3 people
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Mattituck and Long Beach just closed. Hampton Bays is still open but will become a CVS when the approvals are received.
So sad another Long Island neighborhood house gone
Please update, theatre open June 20, 1962 with Five Finger Excercise and 13 West Street Grand opeinin ads in photos section
Please update, became a twin on June 24, 1984 and a quad on February 19, 1999. No grand opening ad for a twin, but uploaded display ad and grand opening ad as quad in photos section
First listings in Newsday appeared on June 22nd, 1962. No ad found.
Please update, GG Theatres made it a twin theatre in 1984. Clearview Cinemas bought the GG Theatres chain in 1996. In 1999, it open as 4 screens.
That’s funny Sean, we probably did! It was a unique experience to be sure. I have great memories of working there and the funny characters that both worked at and frequented the theater. I also remember Steve, the projectionist, who was a great guy and a lot of laughs for us teenagers. I was there from early ‘92 till about late ‘93.
@Tom Brennan — i too worked at this venue in high school for a time, and i think we may have worked together. i remember Ruth all too well…she was a real piece of work.
Your manager sounds like a “classy lady"The theatre business does not need,but wait,she worked for GG theatres,Not GCC.
I worked at this theater as an usher when I was in high school in the early 90’s. At the time, the theater was a twin and both screens while tall in height, were rather narrow. Overall, the theater was very small and a bit run down, so I can’t imagine how they managed to squeeze in an additional two screens. For some reason, this theater always did well, at least when I was there. It was the perfect template of a neighborhood theater… loyal patrons with near sold out crowds on weekends and a respectable showing on weekdays.
At the time, it was under the control of the “GG Theaters” chain, which owned by Mr. GG (I have no idea what GG was short for), who was a bit of a character. His main hub was the Port Washington theater and also ran a theater in Baldwin. He was Israeli with a strong accent and not much of a personality. He would call for the totals on most night and occasionally pop by to grace the theater with his presence.
The theater was managed by an eccentric older woman named Ruth (or Ruthy) and she was entertaining to say the least. She had a bit of a foul mouth and would have no problem insulting patrons of the theater if they somehow pissed her off (like complaining that the sound was too low or loud). If you were nice to her, she was nicer to you… but if you pissed her off in some way… watch out! Her daughter Joanie was an on and off assistant manager and she had a real sour disposition and unpleasant to work with. The rest of the crew was rounded out by teenagers mostly. We had some fun changing around words with the marquee on random late nights and would often change the answering machine to that of a gay porn theater… but only for a couple of hours at night.
I was never in this theatre but wandered around the exterior one day shortly after it was opened. It seemed really cheaply contructed from the outside.
I knew I was missing one. LOL. Thanks Ed.
As of October, 1985, RCDTJ, GG’s Long Island empire also included the Old Country Twin in Plainview. See the ad I posted above on Aug 23rd, 2006.
Mr GG owned the Herricks, Port Washington, Grand Avenue, and I forget what else offhand. Clearview bought them from him and started buying up theaters all over. Then Cablevision bought Clearview. Thats where it stands today.
this theater is located in New Hyde Park
Clearview bought the GG theaters. Mr GG was an actual person. Everone today splits up theaters to get the most films they can in at once. Some films stay for a long period of time and get moved into the smaller 50 or 60 seats theaters. Thats all thats needed for those films at that time.
What were the GG Cinemas anyway? One owner, owner affiliation to get bookings of the first run releases, co-op etc? Though I went to both the Herricks and Franklin growing up, both GG theaters, I never felt they were coporate or even franchised, just independent theaters just by the way they were run, the management “Decisions” made. I am using the Franklin as an example, because I spent the most time there and find the most bizarre decisions, from construction to running films without audiences there!
Was GG renamed Clearview when it was bought by Cablevision? When I was growing up, it seemed like the Franklin which my friends and I used to go to at least on day a weekend, seem to be more of an independent theater. Could I be wrong about that? Was GG just a sort of “Co-op” of theaters to book movies so they can get first runs against the big chains or was it an actual corporation? The Franklin I know was never an RKO, a Century, Loews, Sony, etc. but I never remember it ever being a GG theater or even advertising any kind of chain affiliation except in the paper.
It seemed so too, it was independently operated the way it was run, and also the way it quaded. They just took the two small balconies and made theaters of them.
It was very strange how it was quaded, because first off, it looked to the naked eye about only 50 seats if that much, and then there was an area, the same size where no seats were, and then the screen. I do not know if it was structually unsound to put seats, but they did not have bars so you could not walk on them, and you could walk up and touch the screen as you sometimes did as “crazy teenagers.” It if was a corporate of theaters, I doubt they would have quaded the theater in this way, because the cost of rental against the number of seats, it really would seem, “what is the point?” if you only have 50-75 seats in the theater?
I even remember on a couple of occasions seeing a day, non matinee for another film, and walking into both the big theater and the small theater on seperate occasions and the movie was running but no one was in the theater. When I asked about that, they said, no one had come for the 3:30 showing on a summer weekday. I asked, “Why then, after a half hour, do you not just shut the film off? I was told, they keep in on just in case people come late! Well we know movies never start on time because of previews etc, and then after a half hour and no tickets sold? That does not sound like a corporate run theater.
For that reason it seems like it was some kind of independent theater that either joined the GG group for advertising and movie booking purposes or was bought and joined with Clearview when Cablevision bought it. Does someone have the history of GG, and how it evolved to Clearview and the purchase by Cablevision?
Needless to say, movies up there on the “living room theaters”, were always sold out on the weekends.
Ed, Grand Ave. is now a quad and a half….LOL
3 of the 4 theaters still open only one closed is plainview.
Here’s a mid ‘80’s block ad for the GG chain…
Newsday – 10/5/85
Are the Grand Ave and Old Country Twins still open in some form?
most of the gg houses still opened……….strange how they lasted long after most……………
Here is something you all should know. I know the theater will never live up to what it used to be. But if you still live on Long Island and have Cablevision “triple play” digital cable, internet, and voice, got to www.optimumrewards.com and apply for a rewards card. With the card, Clearview Cinemas such as the Franklin, Herricks, Manhasset, Great Neck, Port Washington etc, check under www.clearviewcinemas.com, then you are entitled to this rewards card, that gives you free movie tickets for a family of 4 on Tuesdays(EVERY TUESDAY!) and $6 adult tickets, even on Saturday evenings throughout the week. It also gives you presales, to big concerts at MSG and Radio City.
This is not an advertisement for Cablevision. I HATE THEM! The control too much and speaking of old movie houses, for old movies they have kept Turner Classics and other networks that compete with networks like the defunct American Movie Classics, now American Movie Channel, in an unfair monopoly! At least get the reward cards and make sure you go to the movies on Tuesdays whenever you can can and use the discount card whenever you go to a Clearview movie theater. If you are going anyway, at least take money out of their EVIL CORPORATE POCKETS!
The links in my December 6th post no longer work. Those photos may now be found here for those special few who care to see them.
Here are a few exterior photos taken last week of the theater and the pylon marquee on Hillside Ave.
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I wonder when the theater acquired the apostrophe in its name? Anyway… I never went here, but I work in the neighborhood so decided to take a quick tour of the New Hyde Park area cinemas (past and present).
All the screens have the correct aspect ratio. They also all have movable maskings. Someone must have forgotten to move the maskings to the right position. Since Clearview quaded it, they have kept the theater very clean.