Century's Floral Theatre

While I do agree that parking was a major issue with the Floral, which is by the way my favorite theater of all time, the major problem was that is was a single screen. You can not make it today with a single screen theater. It costs too much money to keep it going. I do agree that quading it would have kept it going (if you had the parking). The problem with quading it is that they would have destroyed the theater. As a service tech for many theater, I have seen the old singles that have been cut up. It’s digusting what they cover up or cut apart to multiplex these places. I went to the Kenmore once in Brooklyn on a call and when they split the downstairs theater into two, they just built new side walls in front of the old walls. There was about a one foot space in between the old and new wall. You could look behind it an still see the old fabric on the walls. Thank god the Floral closed before they butchered it.

Hands down, in Nassau, the Floral was one of the most beautful theaters in the county. How is was not landmarked it was a mystey to me. Supposedly, it was one of Long Island premiere movies houses, and when I say premiere, I mean, cast members, while promoting the movie in New York would come to the Floral because of the beauty and the way the theater was set up. When it closed I remember an article in Newsday, that I think are the Long Island opening of Mildred Pierce, Joan Crawford, came out on the stage when either before it started or ended. The unfortunate thing now, is that people in this area are stuck either going to the Clearview Theaters like the Herricks and Franklin Square which are pretty good, but nothing like the Floral. The Floral showed all the great movies, I remember, my 11th birthday, my parents took 10 friends of mine and me to see Return of The Jedi, which is the last movie I remember seeing there in 1983. And then it close for quading that never happened. This theater was so beautiful, that even quading it would have been a shame. It did look like it are one time was Nassau Counties, Radio City Music Hall. I do remember the balcony always being closed, except of course for movies like Jedi, when they needed the space. But they even had boxes if I remember correctly on the side like Radio City and other fancy theaters. They were never opened, but that is the kind of theater we are talking about.

The area around the Floral as I said has only three options the Herricks and the Franklin Six which both were single theaters divided so much, that on a busy first weekend Friday and Satuday night you are better going to the raceway because you will never get a ticket. But quading the Floral, really would have been the only way for it to survive, because this theater was huge, and even Jedi, once the balcony opened, was still not sold out. Imagine today, the new Star Wars plays on the six screens, the Floral could hold that capacity in its one theater.

In my opinion what killed the Floral and not quading, was parking, parking, parking. The Floral was built at a time when the movie theater was like the communnity entertainment center in the days before tv, but by the mid 1980’s, Everyone drove there. Well you can imagine a theater with 1654 seats, even quaded, where do you park the car? It still was a busy merchant street, and there was one municipal lot that with a generous estimate, 50 cars! How can you have a theater that big and so few parking spaces. I remember, the streets around it had one hour parking, so side street parking was out of the question. I hope the owners attempted to have a garge built somewhere turn the small parking lot into multi level lot. I am sure, someone with a theater like that would have done anything to keep it open if they were going to quad it. But parking is what killed the beauty, just like when live in Los Angeles, they would knocked down old homes that were almost historic, and buidlings from the old hollywood of the 30’s and 40’s to make parking. That area just had no room for parking except that small lot. And the community was not helping but now allowing sreet parking. So that is how a beauty like the Floral died and Franklin Sq and Herricks are the only game in town beside the mall area. Parking. The Herricks has its own parking lot. And across Hempstead Tpk, the Franklin Sq theaters as two huge public town lots used on Sunday mornings for the hundreds of parishoners of St Catherines around the corner and during the week and rest of the weekend, the movie theater as free parking for any one, in the village park lot with no meters. So even when the FS theater is sold out as it frequently is with small theaters, the lots are never filled to capacity.

Again, though I spent much of teens at the Herrick and the Franklin to see movies, it is just heartbreaking to see a theater like the Floral be destroyed by PARKING! To me, that is a sin, and the community should have done something save the building including landmarking it. But now it is gone, and will never return. Another case where “they took an idol and smashed it!”

The Floral was the most beatuful theatre I’ve ever been in (besides
Radio City). Does anyone remember the luncheonette on the corner that was part of the building?
Growing up in Floral Park in the ‘60s was a blessing…

Greg,
When you say “go through the passageway from the mezzanine”, as I remember, the passageway was about 6 or 7 steps up. When you got to the top, you had your choice to go up to the balcony seats or down a couple steps to the loge seats. Does that sound about right? Also, the Floral closed when I was 12. I didnt become a projectionist until about 6 years later. But you are right. We do have our own private little potty.

The restrooms were up there. I think I remember them being downstairs to the right when you walked in also.

Greg,
If you mean the upper lobby area, as I always called it, then no. That was open. When you went up there into the upper lobby, there were chains on the stairs leading up to the balcony.

Growing up in the late 70’s until it closed in the early 80’s, the balcony was closed most of the time. We always used to try to sneak up there.

I lived in Bellerose from 1945 to 1953. Saturday afternoon at the Floral was the place to be for us kids. There was a children’s section for the Saturday matinee and it was always full. The fun thing to do was try to sneak into the balcony which was off limits to us brats. There was a horrible woman who was in charge of the children’s section and it was the mark of a hero to be caught misbehaving and be thrown out by her.

The Ridgwood did this also, always sponsored by the Ridgewood Savings Bank. I remeber seeing “Santa Clause Conquers The Martians” and then Santa appeared on stage.

I have very fond memories of this theatre. It was not overly ornate but was just a real nice theatre.

Having worked as a usher at the Floral from 1953 to 1955, I strongly disagree with the “loser” comment. The theater did well and made money! Yes, it shared simultaneous billings with Century’s Queens (Queens Village) and Meadows (Fresh Meadows) theaters, but always had good crowds on Friday through Sunday evenings. And for an especially good film, SRO was the norm. Frankly, I never saw as few as six patrons in the theater, even on a weekday afternoon.

There used to be a listing for Century’s Bellrose but I cant find it?