ABOVE: TWO MORE GREAT COMMACK ADS from the 1970’s. I suspect they owned a stock “Night of the Living Dead” print, and slapped it on, in order to pad out a triple bill—even when the other two movies were non-horror! (I’m certainly not complaining; I would have LOVED to have seen “N.O.T.L.D.” at the Commack Drive In !) By the late 1970’s the triple bills were trimmed down to mere doubles. Correction from above “Dawn of the Dead” ad: the double bill was “Dawn…” and “The Kentucky Fried Movie”.
I think I may have seen the “Out of Towners” there as well, but with another movie on the bill as I have no memory of “Cold Turkey” at all. I believe I have the ad for the “Chainsaw” & “Mad Mad Movie Makers” somewhere. What the hell was “Mad Mad Movie Makers”?! It doesn’t even sound like a real movie. We may have been warned about the “Chainsaw” print as well, can’t remember (I may have been hiding in the TRUNK at the time). I just found all my old movie ticket stubs in a scrapbook. Here are some Commack ones, and a triple bill; (see if you can spot which movie does NOT include Dustin Hoffman), and an ambiguous Commack horror double bill from the late 1960’s that makes it so hard to believe that movies like “Cobra” actually wound up there. By 1983. View link
Attention Souvenir Hunters: the Whitman Theater sign is STILL STANDING in front of Citi Bank on Route 110 (as of today: June 25th, 2007). If this was an important theater to you, go steal a piece of the sign if it’s possible. You’ll need a small step ladder to reach it. If the cops stop you, what are they gonna say? “You’re vandalizing property that has been vacant for YEARS”.
The Disney re-release double features during the long hot (sometimes dull) summers of the 1970’s were always here. I remember “Dumbo” & “The Legend of Lobo”. Also, grade “Z” kiddie movies; like “Zebra in the Kitchen”, “Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm”, and other movies that looked way old to a kid in 1973! I saw “The Big Bus” (a pre-“Airplane” disaster movie spoof)here in 1976.
The most mentioned movies on this site: 1)Star Wars. 2) Jaws. 3) E.T. 4) The Sound of Music. 5)Howard The Duck. _______ When there’s no more room in HELL; the dead with walk to Commack: View link
My grandparents lived off of 86th street (around the corner from the Benson). My grandfather only took us to the Oriental once in 1972. We saw a peculiar kids adventure movie called “Flight of the Doves”. It was a British movie about orphans finding there real parents, and a menacing uncle with a hawk tattooed on his hand was after them. The theater seemed gigantic to me! I love reading all these posts/stories/folk lore. Really haunting and sad… P.S. the above poster who was there when the seats were being tossed in a dumpster—did you take one??????? I would have!
I saw “Airport 1975” on a snowy winter afternoon here with some friends. Me and my friends could not get in to see “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” (the main “PG” rated feature)because the co-feature was (and we could care less!),“The Heartbreak Kid” and that was rated “R”. I also remember seeing the 1974 “Three Musketeers” there one summer afternoon. I think my parents took me here to see “Cabaret” and “Throughly Modern Millie” when they were new. I think the last movie I saw here was “The Addams Family”. When the original “Dawn of the Dead” played here, a girl in my high school class was horrified that the audience was laughing at it. Lots of memories from this theater. One of the first 99 cent theaters in our area—which is actually a great idea!
CLICK ^^^^The Whitman “Grind House” Ad ABOVE:^^^^^^^^
I worked at Pergaments in high school, and the H.A.R.T. bus stop was in front of The Whitman so I remember lots of movies playing there.
AD FROM 1979 when the Whitman, for a few years, was a friggin' “grind house”. Does anyone else remember this?! I saw this double bill, and never laughed so much in a movie theater in my life (in that Plan 9 “so-bad-that-it’s-funny” way). Yeah, this will never happen again…http://bp1.blogger.com/_qleC7xLAvHg/Rnv60oYyNcI/AAAAAAAAAIE/GePm_p4SZnc/s1600-h/WHITMAnTheatre-AA.jpg
I’m pretty good with dates—except for my guess with the opening of the Commack D.I. ____ PHOTOS from my collection: a speaker, yanked from the pole at Commack D.I. in 1981, and a piece of the plastic marquee sign that I saved (part of the “E” in “Drive”!). View link
What years did you manage the RKO, L.I.M.? Sounds like “CinemaRadio” era—1982 through 1985? I remember we were at the Nesconsett/Smithtown drive in on the night they were tossing the speakers in a big pile (!) when “CinemaRadio” was just put into action(1982/83?). They told us we could have all we wanted (!), so we threw about a dozen in our trunk. The Nesconsett/Smithtown Drive In often had better double bills than Commack, especially in the late 1970’s, and it was an All-Weather. We watched “Police Academy” in the snow once! At one point the drive in selection of movies was so awful that we realized that we were going to the drive in, just to go to the drive in. LOL. not to actually see a movie. I think me and my friends talked through “Friday the 13th, Part 3” (not in 3-D at the Drive in!, like three times.
In the mid 1970’s (junior high) , a good friend of mine lived in the Fairfield Village apartments that faced the Commack Drive In (screen!). So, being that there were no VCR’S available to us back then, we would time the movie, and watch the “good parts” on the next night. I specifically remember (from my ad posted above) timing the “Airport 1975” cockpit crash scene, to watch over and over. When “Frenzy” (was co-featured with Hitchcock’s last film “Family Plot”) we timed the scene where the woman’s shirt opens up. Also it was great seeing “R” rated movies that we could never get into..“Death Race 2000”, “Flesh Gordon”, “Groove Tube”, “Kentucky Fried Movie” and for some reason, the movie “Mother ,Jugs and Speed” stands out as another. Later on by high school (and with a car), I saw the original “Phantasm” there (summer 1979)..and I think the co-feature was…“Kentucky Fried Movie”! Commack was known for lop-sided double features (see my ads!).
ABOVE: TWO MORE GREAT COMMACK ADS from the 1970’s. I suspect they owned a stock “Night of the Living Dead” print, and slapped it on, in order to pad out a triple bill—even when the other two movies were non-horror! (I’m certainly not complaining; I would have LOVED to have seen “N.O.T.L.D.” at the Commack Drive In !) By the late 1970’s the triple bills were trimmed down to mere doubles. Correction from above “Dawn of the Dead” ad: the double bill was “Dawn…” and “The Kentucky Fried Movie”.
View link
I think I may have seen the “Out of Towners” there as well, but with another movie on the bill as I have no memory of “Cold Turkey” at all. I believe I have the ad for the “Chainsaw” & “Mad Mad Movie Makers” somewhere. What the hell was “Mad Mad Movie Makers”?! It doesn’t even sound like a real movie. We may have been warned about the “Chainsaw” print as well, can’t remember (I may have been hiding in the TRUNK at the time). I just found all my old movie ticket stubs in a scrapbook. Here are some Commack ones, and a triple bill; (see if you can spot which movie does NOT include Dustin Hoffman), and an ambiguous Commack horror double bill from the late 1960’s that makes it so hard to believe that movies like “Cobra” actually wound up there. By 1983.
View link
Attention Souvenir Hunters: the Whitman Theater sign is STILL STANDING in front of Citi Bank on Route 110 (as of today: June 25th, 2007). If this was an important theater to you, go steal a piece of the sign if it’s possible. You’ll need a small step ladder to reach it. If the cops stop you, what are they gonna say? “You’re vandalizing property that has been vacant for YEARS”.
How did I forget!? the summer of 1976, I saw the Karen Black classic “Burnt Offerings” here! Don’t laugh…I’m SURE a remake is on it’s way!
The Disney re-release double features during the long hot (sometimes dull) summers of the 1970’s were always here. I remember “Dumbo” & “The Legend of Lobo”. Also, grade “Z” kiddie movies; like “Zebra in the Kitchen”, “Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm”, and other movies that looked way old to a kid in 1973! I saw “The Big Bus” (a pre-“Airplane” disaster movie spoof)here in 1976.
Oh my gosh! all this and no pictures!what a shame .
I had no idea there was a “TWO GUYS” on Long Island? Are you certain about that?
The first movie I saw at the Commack Drive In on a high school date: “The Swarm”!
The most mentioned movies on this site: 1)Star Wars. 2) Jaws. 3) E.T. 4) The Sound of Music. 5)Howard The Duck. _______ When there’s no more room in HELL; the dead with walk to Commack:
View link
My grandparents lived off of 86th street (around the corner from the Benson). My grandfather only took us to the Oriental once in 1972. We saw a peculiar kids adventure movie called “Flight of the Doves”. It was a British movie about orphans finding there real parents, and a menacing uncle with a hawk tattooed on his hand was after them. The theater seemed gigantic to me! I love reading all these posts/stories/folk lore. Really haunting and sad… P.S. the above poster who was there when the seats were being tossed in a dumpster—did you take one??????? I would have!
How come whenever an old movie theater closes—it INSTANTLY becomes a Rite Aid or CVS ? What’s with that?
I saw “Airport 1975” on a snowy winter afternoon here with some friends. Me and my friends could not get in to see “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” (the main “PG” rated feature)because the co-feature was (and we could care less!),“The Heartbreak Kid” and that was rated “R”. I also remember seeing the 1974 “Three Musketeers” there one summer afternoon. I think my parents took me here to see “Cabaret” and “Throughly Modern Millie” when they were new. I think the last movie I saw here was “The Addams Family”. When the original “Dawn of the Dead” played here, a girl in my high school class was horrified that the audience was laughing at it. Lots of memories from this theater. One of the first 99 cent theaters in our area—which is actually a great idea!
a pivotal cinema moment (for some folks—depending on your age)at the Commack Drive In : View link
DATELINE: very early 1980’s. The dying days of “grind house” at Commack Drive In:
View link
OOPs, that was for the Commack D.I. ———-THIS is for the RKO!
View link
CLICK for a shot of the dying days of an ad for Commack’s “grind house” features
View link
CLICK ^^^^The Whitman “Grind House” Ad ABOVE:^^^^^^^^
I worked at Pergaments in high school, and the H.A.R.T. bus stop was in front of The Whitman so I remember lots of movies playing there.
View link
AD FROM 1979 when the Whitman, for a few years, was a friggin' “grind house”. Does anyone else remember this?! I saw this double bill, and never laughed so much in a movie theater in my life (in that Plan 9 “so-bad-that-it’s-funny” way). Yeah, this will never happen again…http://bp1.blogger.com/_qleC7xLAvHg/Rnv60oYyNcI/AAAAAAAAAIE/GePm_p4SZnc/s1600-h/WHITMAnTheatre-AA.jpg
I’m pretty good with dates—except for my guess with the opening of the Commack D.I. ____ PHOTOS from my collection: a speaker, yanked from the pole at Commack D.I. in 1981, and a piece of the plastic marquee sign that I saved (part of the “E” in “Drive”!). View link
Oops! it’s up and running now!!
What years did you manage the RKO, L.I.M.? Sounds like “CinemaRadio” era—1982 through 1985? I remember we were at the Nesconsett/Smithtown drive in on the night they were tossing the speakers in a big pile (!) when “CinemaRadio” was just put into action(1982/83?). They told us we could have all we wanted (!), so we threw about a dozen in our trunk. The Nesconsett/Smithtown Drive In often had better double bills than Commack, especially in the late 1970’s, and it was an All-Weather. We watched “Police Academy” in the snow once! At one point the drive in selection of movies was so awful that we realized that we were going to the drive in, just to go to the drive in. LOL. not to actually see a movie. I think me and my friends talked through “Friday the 13th, Part 3” (not in 3-D at the Drive in!, like three times.
In the mid 1970’s (junior high) , a good friend of mine lived in the Fairfield Village apartments that faced the Commack Drive In (screen!). So, being that there were no VCR’S available to us back then, we would time the movie, and watch the “good parts” on the next night. I specifically remember (from my ad posted above) timing the “Airport 1975” cockpit crash scene, to watch over and over. When “Frenzy” (was co-featured with Hitchcock’s last film “Family Plot”) we timed the scene where the woman’s shirt opens up. Also it was great seeing “R” rated movies that we could never get into..“Death Race 2000”, “Flesh Gordon”, “Groove Tube”, “Kentucky Fried Movie” and for some reason, the movie “Mother ,Jugs and Speed” stands out as another. Later on by high school (and with a car), I saw the original “Phantasm” there (summer 1979)..and I think the co-feature was…“Kentucky Fried Movie”! Commack was known for lop-sided double features (see my ads!).
SEE SOME ADS FROM THE 1970’s!
View link