ACT Theatre
145 Main Street,
Hempstead,
NY
11550
145 Main Street,
Hempstead,
NY
11550
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It turns out that the 1921 project for the Rivoli Theatre Corporation was not the Rivoli Theatre, but the Hempstead Theatre. An ad for a stock offering by the Rivoli Corporation in the February 10, 1921, issue of The Hempstead Sentinel (PDF here) gave the location of their project as Fulton Street, almost opposite the Long Island Railroad depot. The Hempstead opened on April 29, 1922, so there was no significant delay in the company’s 1921 project.
Joe, it would probably take a visit to a Nassau County library and a perusal of local papers from that period to see if any advertisements for the Rivoli are to be found.
Although the text of the pages about this theater in the Hofstra collection (the last two links in Ed Solero’s previous comment) gives the opening date of the house as April 3, 1926, a notice that plans were being drawn for the project was published in the April 28, 1921, issue of Engineering News-Record:
As both sources name Reilly & Hall as the architects, one of two things must be true; either it took the Rivoli Theater Corporation five years to get this house built, or Hofstra got the year it opened wrong. Items in other trade journals from 1921 indicate that contracts for the Rivoli were let in July, and that construction was set to begin in August, but I can’t find anything later.The architectural rendering Ed Solero linked in the previous comment to shows that the Rivoli was designed by the firm Reilly & Hall.
According to the info provided for this image from the Hofstra collection, Frank Calderone addresses the audience at the former Rivoli at the occasion of his donating the theatre to Adelphi University on May 10, 1978.
Click “Next” at the upper right side of the page header and you will be able to view several other images associated with the Rivoli, including a closer view of the alternate W. Columbia St entrance for the theatre (also dated May 10, 1978) as well as an image of the theatre’s ground-breaking and an artist’s architectural rendering of the theatre’s exterior.
Oh and Robert… Could the film you described in the introductory comments above be “Kronos?” I seem to recall that sci-fi flick has some rather cheaply rendered alien machines that sort of “marched” around on four legs that looked like firing pistons! Can’t remember much else about the movie except for that!
Here’s a 1971 photo that reveals the theatre was known for a time as Calderone 2, no doubt due to its proximity to the Calderone Theatre, just one block away on N. Franklin Avenue, at the end of W. Columbia Street – which is shown here being re-christened in honor of the Calderones. And here is another shot showing the full Main Street facade as well as the alternate marquee and entrance around the corner on W. Columbia. It was actually this entrance which was used, as the big Main St marquee announces (“Entranc Around Corner”). You can also see the fly tower rising over the top of the facade to the left.
These pics come from Hofstra University’s excellent Calderone Theatre Collection. If you click on the photos, you may zoom in on the image. You may also click on the thumbnail to move the “red box” around to change the area of detail you are viewing in the bigger image.
By the way, the building that replaced this theatre is called Rivoli House. Oh, and there is no evidence of W. Columbia Street still being known as “Calderone Way!”
Exterior view of the auditorium.
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Let’s try that again – 1986 photo of the Rivoli as the Adelphi Calderone
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I lived in Hempstead when I was a kid and I remember seeing a kid’s mantinee at the Rivoli of “Mad Monster Pary?” in either late 1967 or 1968. I also remember back in the late sixties this kid telling me about how he had seen “Planet of the Apes” with “this movie about cavemen being chased by dinosaurs.” I had no idea what he was talking about, but years later I looked up ads from the period in Newsday on microfilm at the Levittown library and discovered that what he had seen was a double feature of “Planet of the Apes” and “One Million Years B.C.” that had played at the Rivoli the last week of June 1968. I also remember that my father took me in 1969 to the Rivoli to see a double feature of “The Sand Pebbles” and “Che!” I never recalled much of “Che!” but “The Sand Pebbles” became one of my favorite movies. I can’t recall the Rivoli in any vivid detail but I’ll never forget the movies I saw there.
Warren: Nothing came through except Photobucket saying that the page was not found———Joe From Florida
I TRAINED AT THE CALDERONE FOR UA 1969 AND FOUND MYSELF HELPING OUT
AT THE RIVOLI HEMPSTEAD FROM TOME TO TIME..
IT HAD A FLYING SCREEN AND A NICE STAGE..WE HAD LIVE SOUL SHOWS
THERE SUNDAY NIGHTS..
WALLY 1975
I remember the Rivoli very well as I grew up nearby. Mostly I remember my dad us off in thr late forties & early fifties… $.50 for 2 movies, new reel, shorts etc. Had many dates up in the balcony. Calderone opened around 1949-1950. Rivole, as the Hemp, were old vaudaville threatres
The Mysterians was originally supposed to be released theatrically by RKO——-Toho had leased them the rights to show the film in the USA……….But at that time, in 1958, RKO had lost most of its booking houses, so RKO turned over the theatrical rights to MGM with Toho’s approval, and the results were terrific………However RKO retained the rights to the TV distribution which is about all it had left———-MGM re-dubbed the film, and re-colorized the negatives with their Metro Color process which turned pink within a year………So for many years, all you could see on TV were B&W prints……..When RKO-TV finally released a color version of the film, it was washed out ,looking with very warbely sound track…………………Toho released it on Pal video first in Japan then on Laser disc in the 90s…….Finally about 3 years ago they released it on dvd in Japan, and reached an agreement last year with Media-Blasters to release it here———-A new English Dubbed track was used on the dvd….and of course you have the option to see it in original Japanese with English subtitles……….As far as I know, all of the original MGM 70mm prints are gone with the wind——turned to dust———-I only knew one collector who had a 16mm MGM print…..and that was back in the 1960s…….but even the Original Toho negative was damaged some=———-if you take a close look at the first combat scene between the Jet Planes and the Dome’s laser beam, you will see heavy lines for about 5 to 10 seconds———That was a flaw in the original negative, that was never fixed………Good talking with you Richard——-By the way; for about 5 years, when i lived in Levittown, in the early 70s, I would take out my 16mm projector and show the entire neighborhood The Mysterians on the back of my house which was white————My Daughters were small then and they grew up watching The Mysterians on the 4th of July for about 5 years with about 50 kids———My poor wife had to clean up the mess the morning after——but what fun we had, as I made my own fireworks showing The Mysterians on the back of my house….Joe
Yup. Mineola Theatre was on Mineola Blvd @ First Street.
About a one-block walk from the LIRR station.
They tried doing live theater there in the 60’s but eventually reverted back to movies for its remaining years.
It was destroyed to make room for a non-descript office “box” bldg.
What a waste!
Got any trivia re “The Mysterians” ?
Glad I could bring back some memories for you RichardC………I remember the Mineola Theater as well…….I believe it was a block from the old LIRR station………..Joe From Florida
LOL. I saw “The Mysterians” at Calderone’s Mineola Theatre!
Just purchased the DVD from “Deep Discount DVD”.
Great progressive Sci Fi flick from the studio that did the original “Godzilla”.
Thx for the memories!
The first date I ever had with my future wife was at the Rivoli……It was in 1959 and the film was “The Mysterians…..The Toho production that received a lavish build-up by MGM for its theatrical release here in the USA……We went there many times after that as my wife came from Uiondale, L.I.——-BTW, when I started collecting films in the late 60s, one of the first titles I got for my Collection was "The Mysterians AKA: Chikyu Boeigun-1957-Japan…….any one who would like info on this film( as its very interesting indeed. drop me an e-mail)——Joe From Florida—-sasheegm—–