RKO Commack Twin
Veterans Highway,
Commack,
NY
11725
Veterans Highway,
Commack,
NY
11725
5 people
favorited this theater
Showing 76 - 100 of 155 comments
Another “classic” thriller I saw, at the Commack RKO:
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The best time I ever had at the Commack RKO TWIN :
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OOPs, that was for the Commack D.I. ———-THIS is for the RKO!
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CLICK for a shot of the dying days of an ad for Commack’s “grind house” features
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Oops! it’s up and running now!!
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 remember seeing Meatballs and, i think, Moonraker at the Commack drive in. I miss having this theater and Modells Shopper’s World right across the street. The Candlelight Diner is still there, though. My wife and I go there every Sunday for breakfast after our son’s swimming lessons. As a teenager of the 80s, I’m not sure if they “ruined everything” (heh heh), but certain things I think were better way back when.
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!?
need to submit a new theater for the drive in
Picture of the Commack Drive In Theater :
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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 don’t enjoy sounding like an old geezer pointing his finger at an entire generation in shame, but the complexity and horrors of “today” certainly make the past, say like “The Brady Bunch” era, look so comforting (and certainly funny too!). It’s all relative: if your “wonder years” were in 1985 watching “Goonies” at a local Multiplex, that’s just what you got stuck with. I consider myself lucky to have been a kid in the “Love American Style” era when it was truly a BIG deal that a new movie called “Mark of the Devil” was in theaters that had actual vomit bags and you could see a head get cut off!
Thanks guys! I have Commack Drive-In pix to put up soon! CaptRonLI: Yes, things were better in the 1970’s. In My Humble Opinion: The 70’s were the last “innocent” generation (more or less). Really , it’s all about simplicity, like say, a drive-in theater. Nothing complicated—just FUN! Me and some of my posse have a complex theory about the “generations” (I mainly use this as my “How the 1980’s Ruined Everything” speech when I’ve had too much to drink). The reality of it was, as kids in the late 1960s to early 1970’s, we all (for the most part) had “1950’s parents” with those “old fashioned” values. A teenager of “now” would have had parents who mostly grew up in the late 1970’s/ EARLY-to-mid 1980’s…..a different set of rules and morality….. and
Bloop like the site keep it up //////////////
And God…I can still smell the popcorn…
I lived in East Northport until I was 7, and three years ago my wife and I moved to Commack. I really, really, REALLY wish this theater was still open, especially last week. Why? Because May 25th was the 30th anniversary of the release of Star Wars, which I saw at the RKO Twin. I did celebrate the anniversary, though—I rented Star Wars from the Hollywood Video that stands on the same site. I was a child during the 70s—born in 1972—but I’m convinced a lot of things were better then: movies, shopping, TV (TV was much better when you had the three networks, a handful of independent stations, a PBS station and one or two fuzzy UHF station). Man I’m only 35—far too young to sound like a grumpy old man! :–)
P.S. I have a slight lead on a photo of the closed Huntington 110 Drive In. Not sure if it includes the marquee, though. When I worked in Huntington, there was a mirror/glass store on New York Avenue. The owner had the blueprints/illustration for the 110 Drive In hanging up in his office! This was about 10 years ago. He would not sell it, but what a fool I was for not getting a photo! (Kicking self right now).
http://snackbar-confidential.blogspot.com/ My blog has some new Long Island theater posts and pix of the COMMACK RKO TWIN. In one shot you can see the Commack Drive-In screen. dsslave and longislandmovies, we should meet for drinks and chat more!
Oh, yeah…I have one of the wooden picketts from the Commack Drive-In Fence……a red plastic film reel….and a broken section of the plastic sign / marquee !
MORE on Hauppauge Theater: I remember when “The Warriors” was playing there before the “Rocky Horror” crowd was let in. I saw “Silent Scream” there.
I used to have a “Night of the Creeps” surgical (paper) mask. We went to the Huntington Shore theater and actually saw this boring movie. The movie ads said “Get your FREE Night of the Creeps mask with ticket purchase”. When me and my friends got there, nobody knew what were talking about, so they got the manager. He was like “Huh? Oh, yeah” and walked into the office and came out with a plastic bag filled with a bunch of the masks. We each got 3 or 4….I doubt anyone else asked or cared for one. I cannot remember one damn thing about this movie! It came out during the “Nightmare on Elm Street” craze…“Deadly Friend”, “House”, “Night of the Comet”, “Fright Night”. Ugh. Makes me wish I was a 21 year old in 1975 or 1965…not 1985. Certainly you guys may agree with me.?