Hempstead Turnpike Drive-In
4400 Hempstead Turnpike,
Bethpage,
NY
11714
4400 Hempstead Turnpike,
Bethpage,
NY
11714
1 person favorited this theater
Showing 11 comments
Not so David. Never known as Bethpage Drive-In. Always a question, however, whether it was in Bethpage or Plainedge.
Also known as Bethpage Drive-in.
Opened on 27/4/1950 with “The Babe Ruth story” and “Blonde dynamite”. Closed in 1963. Demolished to make way for the Hempstead Turnpike/Sea-Ford Oyster Bay Expressway Interchange.
A more accurate address for this theater/racetrack would be 4400 Hempstead Turnpike, Bethpage, NY 11714. This points to the entrance road. This also points to the freeway interchange at the southwest quadrant.
Please update.
Advertised as Prudential’s Hempstead Drive-In in a 1958 newspaper ad displayed here
Yes, the address is a bit misleading, and the theater was torn down to make way for the impending highway project. This Drive-In theater was located where the entrance ramp is now to the northbound Seaford-Oyster Bay Expressway/Rt.135 from eastbound Hempstead Turnpike. This theater is my earliest theater memory I have. My parents went to see a movie there, and they opted out from getting a babysitter for me (I was around 4 or 5), so they took me with them and I slept in the backseat of their big old maroon Packard. The Drive-In was across the street from Zorn’s and a little to the east.
The address is a bit misleading. The Seaford-Oyster Bay Expressway did not exist when the Drive-In was operationaly. I believe that the Drive-In was demolished as part of the Seaford-Oyster Bay construction project, if anyone has access to that data.
It was owned by Hempstead Theatre Op. Corp. in 1956.
The actual name of the theatre was the Hempstead Turnpike Drive In. I always thought that the actual town was Plainedge but I prefer to quibble about the name which is what really counts.
BETHPAGE DI OPEN TUES NIGHTS THIS SUMMER…
BLOW UP SCREEN. SOUND SYSTEM..AND FM CAR RADIO SOUND..
MORE TO FOLLOW…OR CHECK WITH VILLAGE AND OR TOWN OF
BETHPAGE…
I show an opening date of 1946. There is no listing for this theatre after 1957.