Lindenhurst Theatre In Danger

posted by Ross Melnick on August 8, 2002 at 3:39 pm

LINDENHURST, NY — The Lindenhurst Theatre, the last remaining single screen theater on the south shore of Long Island, may become the next victim of Walgreen’s takeover and destruction of old movie houses. According to the Suffolk Life Newspapers, the drug store chain may be eyeing the shuttered theater as its next target.

Battle lines are already being formed between preservation groups and the retailer in preparation for a fight that has been waged (and mostly lost) around the country. In one recent instance, though, the San Francisco Planning Commission rejected Walgreen’s plans to convert the old Cinema 21.

Other theaters were not so lucky as the George Burns Theater in Livonia, Michigan, the RKO Kingsway in Brooklyn, New York, and the Strand Theater in Key West, Florida, all have been taken over by the chain.

The late Deco Lindenhurst Theatre opened on December 25, 1948 under the Prudential Theatre Circuit and closed July 18, 2002. The theater has 625 seats on the main floor and 140 in the loge. According to the Suffolk Life, the theater’s ticket box and neon refreshment sign have already been removed in preparation for … ?

(Thanks to Orlando Lopes for the update.)