Franklin Square Cinemas

Hey!
I had no idea! Thanks sooo much for the tip, Ligg!

I practically lived in this theater when I was 17 and my best friend worked at the concession stand. I remember thinking it was an oddly laid-out place until I realized that it had been a single screen house long before that. We came of age in the multi- and megaplex era, when the neighborhood theaters were either shuttered and in ruins, or being turned into offices, condos(!), churches(!!), and the like. Some had undergone sub-subdivisions, like the Franklin Quad, as it was known then. I remember going to a lot of these places as a kid when they were simply halved and called “twins”, but by the mid-eighties, twins were on their way out around here. That’s what I loved about the Franklin, that it managed to survive its subdivisions and remain a neighborhood hangout. I have fond memories of the upstairs balcony theaters, which on slow nights, were like private screening rooms. Bad weather was a super bonus, as far as “privacy” was concerned when the boyfriends were around and the upstairs became neckers' paradise. Even though the balcony theaters were tiny, they were great. I haven’t been back since they added 2 screens; God knows how small the screens must be now. I’ll have to go check it out.

I covered for this theatre one day in mid ‘79 when working for Century Theatres. This place was a small ONE screen operation. How did they get it to multi-screens?

I remember as a 12 year old, they close for renovations to make it a quad. I remember it was close for quite a while to make the twin a quad. Like most of those kind of neighborhood theaters, they built the giant wall down the middle the theater to twin it. So they had two theaters each with a balcony. After smoking came out of failure in the smoking balcony as (well not just for young lovers to make out hot and heavy causing smoke) but the smoking area. It was very disappointing when it finally opened. Calling this a quad was an overstatement. The balcony was always small even as single theater so it fit 100 people tops, with quading they just close off the entire balcony on both sits and put in two screens. I always thought it would have been better as a triple because how much money can you make from 50 people sitting there for two hours unless, they really pushed the concession stand. 100 would have seen better and took the entire balcony to one theater. But anyway, since Clearview took it over, those small balcony theaters are stll there but now the all theaters have been halved. Mr. K is right the Franklin Square is a good neighborhood so that why theater stays in Business. As an MBA though, I agree with strong community, but I think the biggest issue is access. The next closest theaters are in Lynbrook, Herrick, Roosevelt Fld, or Rockville Center. The studios and distributors do have a 7 mile rule they try to stick with for theater owners that a movies unless huge like the new store wars will only play in theaters 7 miles apart. But for movies for West Hempstead, Western Garden City, Stewart Manor, Floral Park, it really is the “only came in town” for first run Hollywood Movies, a lot which is by default. A lot of problems with these local theaters was parking. Franklin Square has municipal parking lots all around the Franklin, so even though I grew up around the theater, I still believe it was saved the multiplex boom by multiplexing, granted kind of poorly, but also having he parking that could accomodate people as local downtown are main drags no longer were pedestrian zones, but care zones. The nearby Floral, long gone, so beautiful, like a great movie house, with beautiful inside archetecture that made it look like an old movie palace you would see in the city. But unfortunately, they had one small town parking lot across the street. So though I spent many my teenage years at the Franklin and have fond memories, I wish there was a way to make it bigger. Being the only game in town really this side of Nassau Boulevard and its, “quading” of the balcony and now the retail store taken over next store. It may have six theaters, but you are almost forced to go to Roosevelt Raceway on the first Friday and Saturday of a big movie, because it is all sold out. A limitation caused by a theater with 50 seats.

In the early ‘80’s the Franklin Square Theater was purchased by the same gentleman who owned the Deer Park and North Babylon Theaters (see my posts for those theaters). He had sold the Old Bethpage and Levittown Twins and quickly twinned this theater. My father was GM for this gentleman’s theaters and I, as well as my entire family, worked many of the theaters. Eventually he turned it into a quad by splitting the balcony. The two small screens upstairs sat approximately 50 patrons at best (very, very small). At one point, around 1986, he picked up the store next door at made it a video store, Cinema 5 Video. I worked there as well for a spell in college. From what I’ve heard, the gentleman who owned it now has about two or three theaters way out in LI. For a while, in the early '80’s, he was huge with theaters throughout LI, Queens, Upstate, the Bronx and even Florida. There is nothing like the feel of these neighborhood theaters. Loyal patrons week after week and the local kids that worked there, what a way to grow up.

This is one Nassau County theatre I have never been to.