Amityville Twin
221 Broadway,
Amityville,
NY
11701
221 Broadway,
Amityville,
NY
11701
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As per RKO Century, the address is 221 Broadway and it closed under RKO Century
The Amityville theatre was opened by Prudential theatres on May 4th, 1960.
Amityville theatre opening 03 May 1960, Tue Newsday (Nassau Edition) (Hempstead, New York) Newspapers.com
Paul, when there was no balcony in a Prudential Theatre, such as the Pequa or the Mid-Island, they usually had a special area in the middle with a railing around it and different sized seats as the smoking section. I was never in the Big A so I don’t know if there was a balcony.
When Century only had a one level theatre a certain number of the rear rows were designated as the smoking section.
The “BIG A"had two different size seats ground level toward the screen.Look a the Pequa Theater photo page for examples of seating.
Timing is right since the theatre was constructed 1960-61.
This house is probably the theater at Amityville that was designed by architect Maurice D. Sornik in 1960, as listed in his entry in the 1962 edition of the AIA’s American Architects Directory.
As it turns out there were THREE Amityville theatres on the same site. The first started out as the Star and was renamed when taken over by Prudential. Prudential then built a new, larger theatre on the same site taking over neighboring retail space. Then when Broadway was widened the second theatre was “in the way”. A new, ever larger Amityville was built by Prudential. Then twinned. Then closed.
yes —siblings.lol
Thanks for the update- I assume, of course, that they were siblings and not “sisters” as in nuns!!
They were from AIT…Cathy and I cant remember the other sisters name. When the theater closed they both went to work in the dm office for Almi century. (might have been RKO CENTURY WARNER BY THEN) There reputation as managers of this theater was stella. I have never been in this theater.
To longislandmovies, can you tell me more about the sisters who ran the Amity theater. Were they employed by AIT? How did you know they took very good care of the theater etc. etc.
Thanks,
Jerry
What year? I was going to the Bg “A” since 1960.
There were two Amityville theatres on the same site. When Broadway was widened the first, and smaller one, fell. A new theatre, double the size was erected in its place. In ads it was referred to as
The Big A.
There is an Amityville Theatre listed in the 1930 edition of Film Daily Yearbook with a seating capacity given as 515. The 1941 edition of F.D.Y. lists it as a 480 seat theatre, while in the 1943 edition it has a seating capacity listed as 734, which is the same as in 1950 edition of F.D.Y.
When this was a “blaxploitation” theatre in the mid 1970’s, they showed “Abby”, a black version of The Exorcist! I believe this was the only theater on Long Island that showed it. This film was sued and yanked by Warner Brothers for being too close to The Exorcist as well, and was a rare movie for some 20 years! Does anyone know if this theater played “The Amityville Horror” (1979)? LOL!
In the early 1980’s, I saw some art/revival movies: Andy Warhol’s Frankenstein, Christiane “F”, and some others….does anyone remember this?
The area went bad at that time a fact that has hurt many theaters….
Two sisters ran this theater very well cared like it was there own but the #s were not there.
RobertR:
I posted the other “Amity” theatre awhile ago. It was actually in South Farmingdale. The Big “A” Amityville was the only theatre in that town.
Oh boy Bob, now you have me scraching my head trying to recall
“Sound 360”. I remember it was a 35mm four track magnetic print,but the tracks were re-directed mostly to the surrounds. We had four huge speakers installed on the side walls, and at least 2 or possible 3 of the 4 tracks were used to create stereo surround sound In that way the sound would travel around the theatre giving you the effect of 360 degree sound. “Damnation Alley” was the first and only movie presented in this format.It was 1977, the year in which “Star Wars”, with Dolby optical stereo format, began the beginning of the end for magnetic sound in theatres.
The other Amityville still needs to be posted, that’s one I don’t know anything about.
I saw THE MUSIC MAN, MAJOR DUNDEE, THE UGLY AMERICAN, POCKETFUL OF MIRACLES, STAR!, and countless other films at this wonderful theatre.
The other Amity Theatre was an A.I.T. run theatre in the Inter-County shopping Center.
I dont know anything about the other Amityville Theatre, maybe somebody can post that one.
I worked the “Big A” for several years in the late 60s early 70s
when it was operated by Prudential which became UA. Once UA took over things began to go downhill with the exception of the projection. The man in charge of UA projection, Joe Kelly, would visit the theatres and keep the sound and projection in top form.
We presented many 35mm 4 track magnetic stereo movies including a reissue of “Gone With The Wind”, as well as “Hello Dolly” and “2001"
Sitting in the Lodge costs an additional $.50 and as Orlando mentioned had very comfortable rocking chair seats. There was a huge curved screen and a powerful (for it’s day) sound system. We had a daily matinee at 2pm Monday thru Friday followed by two evening shows starting at 7pm. Saturday and Sunday were continuous from 2PM
Due to it’s length, "Gone With The Wind” played continuous every day from 12 noon with three showings a day for the 4 week run.
It was a great place to see a movie.
P.S. The seating is also incorrect as the theatre seated slightly over a thousand seats. This was the second Amityville Theatre to operate and the seating capacity listed is for the other Amityville Theatre.