Boulton Center for the Performing Arts

The theatre was bought by the Boulton family, renovated it, replaced the marquee and is now an intimate space for live theatre events.

The marquee suffered damage during a wind storm yesterday. Portions fell to the ground but no one was injured. The age of the structure was also a factor. The fire marshals will inspect the building to see if it is sound. The Boulton has been closed since the beginning of the pandemic. Will this be the end for the venue?

In the 1980’s the then Regent showed X rated films and shared ads in Newsday with the Ronkonkoma and Rocky Point Art Cinemas.

Are theaters where you are listed on CT? If not, they’re easy to establish. If you’ve been to one or more, look them up on CT and make comments which would be informational.

alyxzandra have you contributed info on your current theaters to CT?

I remember the doorman being very intimidating looking, but he was lovely and protective of my mother and I. I remember being fascinated with the lovely interior, which contrasted with the type of movies being shown. But, you may be right about the combination of people working there.

I have fond memories of this theater. My mother, Judy, was a single parent and worked as a ticket seller when this was a XXX theater. She used to bring a little portable TV to watch while selling them and I used to sit just outside the ticket booth next to her and we would watch TV together. The foot police were always stopping in and the bouncer ensured there were no problems.

One day, my aunt and mother decided to go to the upstairs balcony, which was closed to the public, and watch a movie. They laughed so hard that the punters started to leave. Both of them had identical, loud laughter.

Some people would say it was very seedy to have a young, teen daughter with her, but I always understood we needed the extra money and this worked well around my mother’s day job. Before it became a XXX theater, we saw several films there as well as at Bay Shore theater.

My mother is now deceased (as well as my aunt), but I will always have funny and fond memories of this place.

Additional Boulton photo uploaded.

Added 1914 image of Main Street showing the vertical of the New Regent.

I don’t know. I know there are quite a few small theatre outfits on the island as well such as the Arena Players, The Airport Theatres. I do gather that they must be hurting now big time with the recession. Gateway, one of the more well known theatre groups seems to still be doing OK. I have seen a few of their shows at the Patchogue. That is a nice place BTW. Too bad that more theatres like that didn’t survive on LI. After I saw pictures of the Bayshore theatre, that would have been a nice candidate for restoration. But in the case of the Regent, the place was a hole so I did welcome the idea that Hollyrock presented. It certainly did breathe some life into the place. It was a good idea while it lasted. It was just poorly managed. It’s a shame as the place nicely lit up main street too as it had quite a bit of neon on the facade.

Echoing Robboehm, I clearly remember the Regent being Hollyrock in the early 90’s. At the time I was a DJ / Sound system installer and I did clubs in that area. While I never did any work, nor DJ'ed at Hollyrock, I was inside there twice. The place was done up very nicely in an art deco style. They nicely restored the outside and marquee and even had the name “Hollyrock” on the vertical. Inside, the orchestra section had all the seats removed and in the day time they operated the place as a luncheonette complete with 50’s style car’s as seats that faced the movie screen that played old movies, trailers and cartoons. At night they removed the “car” seats and that area became the dance floor. They had railings around the dance floor area with tall tables and stools to sit at. The balcony was semi converted and still had some theatre seats in place towards the front. The extreme front/center of the balcony is where the DJ booth was. The back of the balcony is where the bar was along with a few more tables to sit at. Food was prepared downstairs behind where the ticket booths were. All in all, they didn’t do a bad job at making something of the place, considering the porn hole it was prior. However, the business was poorly run and was pretty expensive compared to other clubs in the area. The owners made people wait outside to make the line long so the place looked packed…even though it was nearly empty inside. This tactic pissed many people off. Overall, Hollyrock didn’t last very long. I think it was only open for about 4 years and then shut down. A couple of friends and myself tried to get a hold of the place in receivership, but as it turned out, the owners owed so much money on the place that everything inside was liquidated and sold off. So in the end, the building was once again an empty shell. I don’t know what it looks like now as the Boulton Center For The Performing Arts, but I must say the whole repurposing the theatre as a nightclub was interesting in the least and I really did think Hollyrock was going to be around for a long time. I was sadly mistaken…but I think it could have worked with the right management.

I took a look at some pictures of the Bay Shore Theatre (a couple blocks down from Boulton) and THAT place really looked nice. It SHOULD have been restored as a performing arts venue.

Oh yes, David. The bane of every photographer interested in documenting street-level architecture! I have hundreds of photos ruined by those lines. Same can sometimes be said of trees in full bloom, when you’re out there between April and October! Thankfully, Manhattan is at least one area where above ground lines are virtually non-existant.

Wow, the theater really looked crapy by that point.