Fox Theatre

Now if only someone could find a picture of this theatre.

Opened 1968-1985 per NY Daily News listings

Fox also had a Blocklbuster that stood in the place where the Fox theatre stood…so Blockbuster truly did destroy the movie houses ; (

And I believe the shopping center is called Fox Plaza.

Ah, memories…I vaguely remember when GoodSkates was in the adjacent shopping center in the mid-80s (which became a Photon lazer tag place later in the decade…my parents used to take me there on their Fri night visit to the bank, so I could play the arcade games!), and if memory serves me correctly, Smurfs and the Magic Flute was one of the last pictures to play there.

I grew up in East Setauket and went to the Three Village Theater every weekend. It isn’t the Fox Theater that you think. It was located on 25A in East Setauket. It was a small movie theater that was at the end of a small shopping center. Across the street from the shopping center is the St. James Roman Catholic Church (I was confirmed and married at that church). While the church was being built, Sunday services were held at the theatre. It closed in the early 70’s and after a few changes is now (I believe) an AID Auto Store. The owner of the theatre (As kids we knew him as Mr. Bishop) eventually opened up the PJ Twins in Port Jefferson, which was one of the first multiplexes around. That is if you can call two theaters a multiplex. It is now called PJ Cinemas, which is now a small mom and pop multiplex with about 8 theatres. ( http://www.pjcinemas.com/pjcinemas ).

I think it may be the same “mall” as GoodSkates, or maybe the strip mall closer to Port Jefferson on 347 that had the Jeffrey’s department store.

I loved this theater as a kid- I saw the Raggedy Ann and Andy Movie there, and whined because i wasn’t allowed to see the Breakfast Club when my big brother went. I think I saw War Games there, too.

The Brookhaven is on this site. I think it’s the one that was “uptown” Port Jeff, (now a Blockbuster) nearer to the train station. The old theater closer to the ferry is now Theater Three.

The Fox was located on the north side of Nesconset Highway (Rt 347) just west of the intersection with Old Town Road. The Blockbuster Video that used to be here is still listed on Mapquest at 4032 Nesconset Hwy with a zip of 11733, so that is probably the theater’s old address as well. From the outside it was a big white box (like a lot of free standing suburban theaters built in the 60’s). I can’t recall much about the interior appointments, but I do seem to recall this being a large theater with a balcony.

My cousins lived on Possum Lane in East Setauket and we visited this theater on a number of occasions. I believe the 1st time was for “Battle for the Planet of the Apes” in 1973 or so. I also saw the original “Star Wars” here in ‘77. I believe this theater also hosted the somewhat infamous “Go Ape” marathon in the late '70’s where all 5 “Planet of the Apes” films were shown in order for a single admission. I seem to recall the “Go Ape” quintuple feature was booked into the Century’s chain for the most part.

Did this share the same parking lot as the strip mall where the Good Skates rink was located? The rink hosted some concerts in the early 80’s and I can remember seeing the Jerry Garcia Band around ‘81 or so.

This theatre opened in 1968 with “For Love Of Ivy” under the then National General Theatres banner, later Mann. The theatre was totally demolished this year, nothing remains except the pylon marquee if that hasn’t been removed as yet. Blockbuster gave up on this one since the one housed in the former Brookhaven Theatre on Rt. 112 does better business. The theatre closed after 15 years of operation and right before the opening of the Brookhaven Multiplex which rang the death nell for the Fox and Brookhaven Theatres then under the RKO-Century Circuit. The Brookhaven was still a reduced price theatre and profitable theatre at its' closing.