Way demolished! But you can’t demolish the memories, no matter how many Verizon and Cingular stores you build on our graves! I have so many memories from the Commack Drive In. The first movie I ever saw there was “Beneath The Planet of the Apes”…in 1970! What really killed drive ins was when they stopped showing double bills! I remember seeing crap like “Back To The Future”, “Never Say Never Again”, “Gremlins”, “HellRaiser” or “The Twilight Zone Movie”,on SINGLE bills in the mid 1980’s before Commack closed. The concession stand had poorly painted Disney and Warner Brothers characters on the walls, inside (which really gave this the old world Drive In theater flavor!). LOL. One last vestige of hope was when they re-released “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” in the early 1980’s and I caught it at the Commack D.I.
Also: are we gonna have to wait till the next century to get a Commack Drive-In page on Cinema Treasures . com !? I submitted it to be listed 3 weeks ago or more. Meanwhile; back to the Commack RKO: would love to see a Lobby shot! Also, I remember one night coming out of there and seeing a “coming soon” poster for “Straw Dogs”. The disturbing poster made me think “OK, this movie is NOT for kids”. LOL. I saw “Reanimator” there…and I think “From Beyond” as well. Still not certain, but I think the last movie I saw there was “Spinal Tap” (maybe a midnight showing?). I wish I had saved one of the cobalt blue tiles from when they demolished this place…
The 1980’s ruined MOST things…just look at this site! Drive Ins and Movie Palaces all DIED within the 1980’s…this is no coincidence. But what I miss the most was looking in the paper and seeing some ad for a movie of double-bill that you NEVER heard of (because it was a cheap-o grindhouse type), taking a chance and actually going to see it; and laughing your ass of because it was soooo bad. Also: DOUBLE-FEATURES died in the 1980’s. I loved going to the drive in, and when they would show something like “Halloween”—the second feature was some cheap 8 year old movie you MAY have never seen. I saw the gruesome CLASSIC “grind house” movie “I Drink Your Blood” (1971) in just that way at the Smithtown Drive – In. P.S. Quentin Tarantino should go back and do some research….as his current “GrindHouse” does NOT resemble anything I used to see at REAL drive ins!
I saw “Curtains” at the Mayfair in (1985?), and remember when “Americathon” was there in 1979. Did the Mayfair specialize in BOMB movies ? I also saw Grease there in 1978. Hardees was across the way and my favorite haunt, Bargain Books was in the Mayfair shopping center! I loved all the dated (even by 1975 standards) posters in the window (Marvel comic characters, day glo posters, etc)and always got my fix of old back issues of Mad, Creepy, Famous Monsters, etc. It was large with an “adult” section. 441 Bargain Books was in Huntington, and was connected to it somehow. The Huntington branch eventually got overwhelmed by it’s “adult” section by the 1980’s. Does anyone know when the Commack Bargain Books closed ? 1978? 1979?
I remember the Kings Plaza movies / mall back in 1970’s when it was a lot better. I though it opened in 1972/73? It was quite the big deal at the time. Mike81869: don’t be surprised if NOBODY has any vintage pictures. Frustrating; I know. There would be no reason to take a picture of a mall movie theater I suppose…
The Commack Drive In (like MOST drive ins) had a picket fence surrounding it —that was perpetually abused by local teens. Friday and Saturday nights there became it’s own little “behind the drive-in” party with local teens all through the 1970’s. (This actually sounds like fun—at this point in time!)….Fairfield Village, a large apartment complex was right there—so lots of foot traffic to the drive in. Now teenagers must loiter (and annoy people) in brightly lit multiplexes. Isn’t that that awful! Back to the Commack RKO: One more memory: they always had LOTS of promotional materials in the lobby (lobby cards, stand up displays, etc.) Even in the 1970’s, theaters were getting skimpy with promotional items (UNLESS it was on 42nd Street where even movies like Legend of the Wolf Woman woud get the royal treatment).
Thanks L.M. ! $3.50 per person in 1957 was a LOT of money for one ticket! I submitted all the info on Commack D.I. already—waiting to here if they will accept it or not as an entry on here. I’m still surprised at how lesser, smaller Long Island theaters got on here and Commack slipped past the radar. Wish I had more pictures, especially of the old marquee from the 1960’s. The 1970’s version was pretty generic—actually, the Commack Drive-In was pretty generic, but I still cherish the memories. One night in high school, me & my girlfrind had no car and no money—so we WALKED into the Commack Drive-In and sat next to the speakers and watched “Meatballs” (1979). This story would have been better—if the MOVIE was something actually worthwhile.
I just submitted it, LIM. I hope I was correct as to the approx. opening of the theater—I said “early to mid 1960’s” as I did not think Commack DI went back to the 1950’s. Now I need to find the plastic marquee fragment that I had saved from there so I can take a picture. ——————One important Commack RKO TWIN movie I had seen: “Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory” when it was NEW. How could I forget!?
I forgot this one/ add it to the middle list : the 1976 version of King Kong (that I saw at the RKO Twin in Commack !). I thought that movie sucked…even as a 14 year old. ———————– P.S. Add to my Commack RKO Twin list: 1986 or so, we saw an ad for a really horrible movie, called “Something Special” (look it up on IMDB). It starred Patty Duke as the mother to a teenaged girl—who wishes she was a boy—and overnight, her dream comes TRUE. We saw this “What the F—k?” ad in Newsday. As a JOKE, we went to the Commack Twin, to see this. The place was nearly PACKED too. Why? I have no idea. It was so bad; almost on the level of an ABC Afterschool Special or something. Half way through the movie, we got up and yelled “This sucks” and ran out of the theather laughing…….
The movies that get mentioned the MOST on here are:
1) STAR WARS. 2) The Sound of Music. 3) (The 1970’s re-release of) Gone With The Wind. 4) Star Trek: The Boring Motion Picture. 5) JAWS. 6)E.T. .7) Close Encounters of the Third Kind. 8) The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
These big hit movies only get mentioned occasionally (but should get MORE mentions as to how popular they were): Grease, Saturday Night Fever, The Exorcist, The Omen, Logun’s Run, Rosemary’s Baby.
These movies NEVER get mentioned, BUT were HUGE hits in their day: Love Story, Airport, American Graffiti, The Stepford Wives.
I too saw the original 1977 “Star Wars” here. Must have been a limited release, because we were from Commack, and my friends Mom drove us all the way to Hicksville wich seemed so far away.
Correction above title: The theater was built in the late 1950’s.
Way demolished! But you can’t demolish the memories, no matter how many Verizon and Cingular stores you build on our graves! I have so many memories from the Commack Drive In. The first movie I ever saw there was “Beneath The Planet of the Apes”…in 1970! What really killed drive ins was when they stopped showing double bills! I remember seeing crap like “Back To The Future”, “Never Say Never Again”, “Gremlins”, “HellRaiser” or “The Twilight Zone Movie”,on SINGLE bills in the mid 1980’s before Commack closed. The concession stand had poorly painted Disney and Warner Brothers characters on the walls, inside (which really gave this the old world Drive In theater flavor!). LOL. One last vestige of hope was when they re-released “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” in the early 1980’s and I caught it at the Commack D.I.
SEE A PHOTO !
View link
Also: are we gonna have to wait till the next century to get a Commack Drive-In page on Cinema Treasures . com !? I submitted it to be listed 3 weeks ago or more. Meanwhile; back to the Commack RKO: would love to see a Lobby shot! Also, I remember one night coming out of there and seeing a “coming soon” poster for “Straw Dogs”. The disturbing poster made me think “OK, this movie is NOT for kids”. LOL. I saw “Reanimator” there…and I think “From Beyond” as well. Still not certain, but I think the last movie I saw there was “Spinal Tap” (maybe a midnight showing?). I wish I had saved one of the cobalt blue tiles from when they demolished this place…
The 1980’s ruined MOST things…just look at this site! Drive Ins and Movie Palaces all DIED within the 1980’s…this is no coincidence. But what I miss the most was looking in the paper and seeing some ad for a movie of double-bill that you NEVER heard of (because it was a cheap-o grindhouse type), taking a chance and actually going to see it; and laughing your ass of because it was soooo bad. Also: DOUBLE-FEATURES died in the 1980’s. I loved going to the drive in, and when they would show something like “Halloween”—the second feature was some cheap 8 year old movie you MAY have never seen. I saw the gruesome CLASSIC “grind house” movie “I Drink Your Blood” (1971) in just that way at the Smithtown Drive – In. P.S. Quentin Tarantino should go back and do some research….as his current “GrindHouse” does NOT resemble anything I used to see at REAL drive ins!
No pictures of it? How close to 86th street was this theater?
I saw “Curtains” at the Mayfair in (1985?), and remember when “Americathon” was there in 1979. Did the Mayfair specialize in BOMB movies ? I also saw Grease there in 1978. Hardees was across the way and my favorite haunt, Bargain Books was in the Mayfair shopping center! I loved all the dated (even by 1975 standards) posters in the window (Marvel comic characters, day glo posters, etc)and always got my fix of old back issues of Mad, Creepy, Famous Monsters, etc. It was large with an “adult” section. 441 Bargain Books was in Huntington, and was connected to it somehow. The Huntington branch eventually got overwhelmed by it’s “adult” section by the 1980’s. Does anyone know when the Commack Bargain Books closed ? 1978? 1979?
“Dawn of the Dead” was filmed at the Monroeville Mall—I wonder if this theater was opened long enough to show it!?
what was the XXX Theater that was in Hicksville?
LOL. yeah, I know! Oh, was there a porn theater in Hicksville? I recall driving by it in the very very early 1980’s….
I remember the Kings Plaza movies / mall back in 1970’s when it was a lot better. I though it opened in 1972/73? It was quite the big deal at the time. Mike81869: don’t be surprised if NOBODY has any vintage pictures. Frustrating; I know. There would be no reason to take a picture of a mall movie theater I suppose…
The Commack Drive In (like MOST drive ins) had a picket fence surrounding it —that was perpetually abused by local teens. Friday and Saturday nights there became it’s own little “behind the drive-in” party with local teens all through the 1970’s. (This actually sounds like fun—at this point in time!)….Fairfield Village, a large apartment complex was right there—so lots of foot traffic to the drive in. Now teenagers must loiter (and annoy people) in brightly lit multiplexes. Isn’t that that awful! Back to the Commack RKO: One more memory: they always had LOTS of promotional materials in the lobby (lobby cards, stand up displays, etc.) Even in the 1970’s, theaters were getting skimpy with promotional items (UNLESS it was on 42nd Street where even movies like Legend of the Wolf Woman woud get the royal treatment).
Thanks L.M. ! $3.50 per person in 1957 was a LOT of money for one ticket! I submitted all the info on Commack D.I. already—waiting to here if they will accept it or not as an entry on here. I’m still surprised at how lesser, smaller Long Island theaters got on here and Commack slipped past the radar. Wish I had more pictures, especially of the old marquee from the 1960’s. The 1970’s version was pretty generic—actually, the Commack Drive-In was pretty generic, but I still cherish the memories. One night in high school, me & my girlfrind had no car and no money—so we WALKED into the Commack Drive-In and sat next to the speakers and watched “Meatballs” (1979). This story would have been better—if the MOVIE was something actually worthwhile.
No problem. I’m just sorry that we can’t find any shots of the Route 110 drive in.
I just submitted it, LIM. I hope I was correct as to the approx. opening of the theater—I said “early to mid 1960’s” as I did not think Commack DI went back to the 1950’s. Now I need to find the plastic marquee fragment that I had saved from there so I can take a picture. ——————One important Commack RKO TWIN movie I had seen: “Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory” when it was NEW. How could I forget!?
I think this is where they filmed exterior shots for “Conquest of the Planet of the Apes” ?
A Commack Drive In Photo
View link
ad from 1975: does anyone have a picture of the theater from the 1970’s? View link
and a photo of the Commack Drive In while still opened:
View link
Picture of the Commack Drive In Theater :
View link
I forgot this one/ add it to the middle list : the 1976 version of King Kong (that I saw at the RKO Twin in Commack !). I thought that movie sucked…even as a 14 year old. ———————– P.S. Add to my Commack RKO Twin list: 1986 or so, we saw an ad for a really horrible movie, called “Something Special” (look it up on IMDB). It starred Patty Duke as the mother to a teenaged girl—who wishes she was a boy—and overnight, her dream comes TRUE. We saw this “What the F—k?” ad in Newsday. As a JOKE, we went to the Commack Twin, to see this. The place was nearly PACKED too. Why? I have no idea. It was so bad; almost on the level of an ABC Afterschool Special or something. Half way through the movie, we got up and yelled “This sucks” and ran out of the theather laughing…….
The movies that get mentioned the MOST on here are:
1) STAR WARS. 2) The Sound of Music. 3) (The 1970’s re-release of) Gone With The Wind. 4) Star Trek: The Boring Motion Picture. 5) JAWS. 6)E.T. .7) Close Encounters of the Third Kind. 8) The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
These big hit movies only get mentioned occasionally (but should get MORE mentions as to how popular they were): Grease, Saturday Night Fever, The Exorcist, The Omen, Logun’s Run, Rosemary’s Baby.
These movies NEVER get mentioned, BUT were HUGE hits in their day: Love Story, Airport, American Graffiti, The Stepford Wives.
I too saw the original 1977 “Star Wars” here. Must have been a limited release, because we were from Commack, and my friends Mom drove us all the way to Hicksville wich seemed so far away.
Ad for Drive In on Sunrise Highway in 1964:
http://snackbar-confidential.blogspot.com/
Willard Ad at the 110 ! “Tear ‘em UP!” http://snackbar-confidential.blogspot.com/