Bay Shore Theatre
200 W. Main Street,
Bay Shore,
NY
11706
200 W. Main Street,
Bay Shore,
NY
11706
6 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 67 comments
rivest, your comment is incorrect. AlthoughUnited Artists took over the Prudential Theatres, at the very end some of them were otherwise affiliated. The Bay Shore, together with the Amityville, Farmingdale, Brookhaven and the Plaza (Patchogue) became Almi-Century Theatres. Subsequently, Almi-Century acquired RKO-Warner with the resulting name being RKO Century Warner. I have several newspaper clippings from that era showing the Bay Shore under that banner playing Chariots of Fire which was a 1981 release.
Closed in April 1989 by United Artists
This one opened on August 12, 1926. The architect was C. A. Sandblom.
My late old friend who had been an usher used to travel on the bus between the Bay Shore theater and the Babylon theater to work. He got his brother some work helping emptying out the Bay Shore theater when it was closing down. His brother told me about all the items the theater kept in storage. Some of the contents went as far back as a large cut out display of Shirley Temple. They sold off most of it; the rest was junked. I wish I could have known of the full inventory of the theater’s contents.
I SAW" THE TEN COMMANDMENTS",DEBBY REYNOLDS&TONY CURTIS in" GOOD-BYE CHARLIE",DORIS DAY in A SPY COMEDY"CAPRICE", and “WID-WAY” with CHARLTON HESTON in SENSOR-ROUND THERE.WHEN I HAD SEEN THE THEATER HAD BEEN GUTTED I HAD TO TAKE A LOOK IN SIDE,I SAW EXPOSED SOME OLD DESIGNS ON THE WALLS and AN OLD SINGLE BOX OFFICE BOOTH WRAPPED AND MARKED SAVE.IT WAS SAD.
Jeff M.: Thanks for posting these photos!
I grew up in West Islip, but did not get to see the inside of this theater before it closed.
(Looking at the photos, I believe I may have played in the nice entrance way around the box office and golden fixtures once for a minute during a stroll through town when the theater was not open, but that’s as close as I got.)
I’d see the marquee as my parents and I would occasionally drive past on our way to McDonalds just east of Bay Shore in Islip, and I’d wonder what the inside was like.
At one point, (in maybe May 1979 according to when Wikipedia says it was released), a movie version of “Battlestar Galactica”, one of my favorite television shows, was playing there, but left before I asked my parents to take me. (I may have been waiting for school to let out for summer, not knowing it wouldn’t still be showing. I also got the impression my parents were mildly reluctant to go there…. something in the tone of my mother’s voice as she mentioned the beautiful chandeliers, like she and my father had some bittersweet memory of the theater from an earlier time when their lives were different, that they didn’t want to relive.)
I assumed there would eventually be another reason for me to visit the theater …. then on one trip through Bay Shore, it was closed. Later I was shocked when it was suddenly a YMCA with the marquee and entrance completely gone.
Decades after, there are personal computers, then something called the internet, then Cinema Treasures… and whoa — suddenly I’m getting to see what the inside looked like when I never thought I would!
Quite a grand place. I recall seeing “Earthquake” there and looking up as the sensurround shook the theater and noting I was directly under a very large chandelier. This was quite an elegant place. Sad when it was gutted.
Marquee and entrance just after closure.
Jeff, The Bay Shore Historical Society is very interested in including your photographs in our archives. Please contact us at: – or – call 631-665-1707 so that we may arrange to credit you in the correct manner. Thank you – Barry at the Bay Shore Historical Society.
George, are you the George I know from Cabaret?
My dad had a job working in the projection booth there for only three months back in the early 1940’s.
Question, PragmaticGuy. Since you are discussing the Regent and trying to post the photos from Newsday why are you doing it on the Bay Shore site rather than the Regent (Boulton Center for the Performing Arts)?
I saw that too and was wondering how to access them for a link. Going to go to the exhibit and see any other pix which Newsday didn’t print of the theatres in town. Didn’t realize the Regent had a vertical. Never did from the time I first saw it in the 1950s.
The Regent was mentioned in the caption under the picture. In Newsday Sun Feb 12, 2012 there is a picture of Main street from the 1930s showing the Regent marquis. One during the day and one at night. I’ll try to get them posted.
Hi Jeff:
You have to “take out the trash”, to have the correct email address!!
Jeana: I attempted to send BST pics to you but your email address apparently is not working. . Te return email stated there was a permanent fatal error. JEFF
This place was amazing.
I would love to see any more photos you have of this old place. Seeing the couple so far really makes me wish it could’ve been saved as a theater and the YMCA had found someplace else. You can email them to me at .
Jeff, please email me your newly scanned photos, I’d like to add them to my collection of Bay Shore/Brightwaters photos on Webshots. It’s: Take out the trash!
Thank you!!
Terrific photos, wurli3… Thanks for sharing. This theatre was a real gem! A shame it couldn’t be salvaged and restored. Of course, that probably would have been at the expense of the Regent, but if I had to choose between the two…
Hello All: I have posted recently scanned pictures of the Bay Shore Theatre that were originally taken in 1982. I have restricted these so, if you want copies for your use only, let me know and I’ll gladly email them to you. I hope you enjoy these.
To Jeana & Bway: I’ll try and get some pictures scanned this week. Probably the reason why there are no old pictures/postcards of the Bay Shore could be that it was one of those venues of entertainment that was always there and taken for granted. When it was finished the architect and builder undoubtedly photographed it for their records but those are probably long gone. The YMCA really didn’t destroy the theatre. Being closed for over 10 years with no heat in the building ruined the plaster and anything made of wood had rotted. The house was in deplorable condition when they tried to auction off what remained of it. More later.
WOW! Amazing photos! I can’t imagine that that lobby photo was taken after the theater was closed. They destroyed it I assume. Does the YMCA use the old building shell, or was it razed?
I can’t wait to see more photos of this beautiful theater, can’t figure out why there aren’t more pictures, postcards, etc. of it around as Bay Shore was a major resort.
Not sure if this has been mentioned before, but the YMCA that occupies the Bay Shore Theater building also owns the former Regent theater across and down the street, which is now called the Boulton Center.
I haven’t logged onto the site in quite some time and I see everything is brand new. Thank you Jeana for posting one of my Bay Shore pictures and for the credit. I appreciate it. Eventually I’ll scan some of the others and post them now that it is possible to do so. Thanks to all those who revamped the site. It looks great!