I now know that this was the first film I ever saw at this theater. I always wondered. It was confusing to me because I remembered it was a silent film clip compilation. I remember we sat in the balcony.
I saw it at the Fox Twin in Hicksville, but I think it was called Mann’s North and South, anyway, it was May 25, 1977, and I came for the early evening show, I think it was 7ish, and the Time and Newsweek reviews were beyond amazing, so I had to see it. There was a line, but I managed to be early enough. I was 21 years old. I was a big science fiction fan, too, and had been disappointed in Hollywood’s attempts at making a serious sci-fi movie, so I came in very cynical, and even as the film started I was noticing things that I liked, and things I didn’t. That didn’t last long. It happened the moment the TIE fighters started to attack the Millennium Falcon. Something about this sequence, with John Williams music, turned me into a drooling idiot. I could not believe the excitement of the scene! I really think it was the very first time a space battle of that kind had ever been put on film that didn’t look like Flash Gordon or Star Trek. As the movie progressed I could feel the audiencebegin to be taken in as well, with hoots, and applause. By the end ofthe movie, even though there were problems with the sound (the channels were not properly mixed, the middle channel was drowned out when the rears were full blast) I was so knocked out! The editing was frantic, and the throne room music was awesome, and the credits suddenly popped up—-thunderous applause! Like I had never heard before! I sat there thinking, this is going to be BIG, and as a film music fan I knew John Williams had conceived music that would be adored by young people for decades. I walked out of the theater high as a kite, unable to believe what I had just seen, and hoped to see it again soon and take as many as I could. I was hooked. I can rightly say, I never have again felt that particular high again after seeing a movie.
There will be a public hearing on the future of the Islip Theater on Sept 18th. The announcement should be in the newspaper. I was told by someone who would know that the theater will not be demolished, but be converted to a “multi-use” facility. I won’t make it to the hearing, I hope someone will and report here.
Let me comment on the Ziegfeld! I’ve seen many films there fron the 70’s to just last year, 2006. It has lost a little of the lustre it once had, but it still has a quality to it. I had great enjoyment in seeing the original run of the all-digital, re-recorded track, “Fantasia,” and seeing “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” on its first matinee for the public in November 1977, and seeing “Hair!,” and “Apocalypse Now,” and “The Last Waltz,” and more recently “Star Wars Episode VI” in its stunning hi-def image and sound. My enjoyment of the theater was not only the fine projection, but also the wonderful sound that always was blasted at the very level I loved to hear it played. “Close Encounters” and “The Last Waltz” were so loud that I would not be surprised if they had to tighten the screws on all the speakers every night! “Close Encounters” sounded so amazing, especially John Williams' gigantic score, matching the huge alien mothership in size. “The Last Waltz” was so loud I felt as though I had attended the concert. “Apocalypse Now” was all-enveloping, sound effects acted as an accompaniment to the music of the Doors. The screen always seemed large back then, but now it seems to have dwindled in ratio as compared with the larger screens at the newer multiplexes. The image clarity at the HD “Star Wars VI” was excellent. Last year, however, I saw a showing of “North By Northwest,” and the print quality was only fair, and not nearly as stunning as the recent DVD image.
I saw a few films there. It had small screens that were raised high on the wall in front of you. I saw a bad dupe of “Magical Mystery Tour” there, and “That’s Entertainment!” in 1974. I may be wrong, but I think a Blockbuster video store is presently at the location where the theater stood, but I would guess the original building was vastly altered.
I saw a few movies there, but always remember seeing the first showing of “E.T.” there, and the sound was hard to hear, then too loud. I also saw “Hair!” there, just as the ad link in a previous post shows!
I HATED this theater! It was long, and if you had to sit in the back, you needed a telescope to see the screen! I’m not kidding! the screen always looked dark, like they were projecting the film with a 30 watt bulb. I wasn’t sorry to see it go. It was one of the worst.
I loved this theater when it was a one-screen, but after it was chopped up, it completly lost its attraction. Originally, It wasn’t a very old type of theater, it seemed modern and a fair screen size, and nice seats. It also had a good, deep, multi-channel sound system, which was highlighted when 2001: A Space Odyssey ran there, which I saw a few times at the theater. It was chopped into halves, and we were left with the choice of two shoeboxes. It closed and the lobby turned into a budget clothing shop, I don’t know what it’s function is presently.
My earliest memory of this theater (early-60’s) is that you could park across the street when the parking lot was full. I saw “My Fair Lady” there, and it was really elegant. The lobby was mirrored, there were curtains and old-style glass doors. There was a chandelier above, and the seats were plush. The sound was good, and sometimes you enjoyed the sound in what may have been six-track stereo. I remember seeing really great films there like “You Only Live Twice,” “Patton,” “Planet of the Apes,” “The Odd Couple,” and many others. I recall “Patton” was in multi-track sound, and the planes seemed to fly past and above you, which was novel in those days. I also saw the “Battlestar Galactica” movie, but the Sensuround wasn’t that impressive. One of the last films I saw there was “Star Wars” in a re-release in 1979 or 1980. I still miss going to that theater. It should have been saved and renovated. Does anyone have a picture of it? Why didn’t I take one years ago??
The Regent Theater! I loved this theater. It was small, but it always seemed to have good movies. I first went there in the early 60’s, and last went there (as the Regent) when it was showing an awful soft core, X-rated film called “Alice in Wonderland” somewhere in the late 70’s, I think. To start off, I saw A LOT of matinees at this theater. Mom or Dad would drop me and my brother off to see some Don Knotts movie, and pick us up after the movie was over. Much later, they started showing a lot of horror movies at night, so as a teenager, I was always going with my friends to see some Hammer film or another cheap horror extravaganza from another studio, then we would go next door to eat some pizza. Does anyone remember the music store that was just east of the Regent in the 60’s? We used to go in there to look at the latest 45’s and LP’s!
In 1964, I saw the Beatles in “A Hard Day’s Night” there, and later, “Yellow Submarine.” When it was the Hollyrock in the 1990’s, I saw a band called RTZ there. It wasn’t until 2005 that I returned to see at the Boulton Center, ironically, The Pete Best Band, led by the guy who was kicked out of the Beatles in 1962. In 2006, I saw another British classic act, Chad & Jeremy.
Well, I though I would add my memories of the Bay Shore Sunrise Drive-in. I went there as a youth in the early Sixties, right up to its closing. I remember coming as a small child and seeing movies like “North By Northwest,” “The Time Machine,” some of the ones shown around 1960. I recall the playground in back of the concession stand. I remember walking over to the east to play minuature golf a few times. I vividly recall the inside of the concession stand, especially the large movie posters on the southern wall that I had to ogle every time we came in, and it was that stand where I developed my love for Yoo-Hoo – had to have it, or the other
chocolate drink they had (was it Bordens?).
I remember the speakers that had to be driven up to, and their tinny sound! AND, the switch to the radio broadcast sound. In the early Sixties, before the movie, they played soft top 40 hits, and I still think of watching the sun set whenever I hear this music.
I don’t recall any “inside theater” within the grounds of the Bay Shore Drive-in. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t there, but I don’t remember it. I do remember the near-by Bay Shore Cinema, and seeing a film there right after it opened (early 60’s, one of the Robert Youngman silent film comedy clip movies), and seeing “Rocky Horror Picture Show” there within months of its closing around 1990.
My memories of the Bay Shore Drive-In include sneaking into it a few times on-foot in the early 70’s to see a showing of all the Planet of the Apes movies. Another time, I was picked up by a cop and removed.
I went to this theater as a child back in the 1960’s. My most vivid memory was when they were running the film “Goodbye Columbus,” which was rated R, but since then that has been changed to PG. It was 1969, so I was 13. My mother took me and an older brother to see the movie, and as we were entering the lobby, an usher or ticket-taker strongly informed my mother it was rated R, and you shouldn’t be taking your son in to see it, and she strongly told them that she knew, and she alone would be responsible for what her children would see. All I saw was Ali McGraw jump in a pool naked, which corrupted me for life.
I remember this theater when it was one screen. We would go to it as children in the 60’s. One time, on a Saturday, they played the old Batman serials, either in order, or as an edited package.
I hated it when it was broken up into three screens, but liked the screen in the balcony theater for its larger size.
I now know that this was the first film I ever saw at this theater. I always wondered. It was confusing to me because I remembered it was a silent film clip compilation. I remember we sat in the balcony.
This is from Dec 1931.
I saw it at the Fox Twin in Hicksville, but I think it was called Mann’s North and South, anyway, it was May 25, 1977, and I came for the early evening show, I think it was 7ish, and the Time and Newsweek reviews were beyond amazing, so I had to see it. There was a line, but I managed to be early enough. I was 21 years old. I was a big science fiction fan, too, and had been disappointed in Hollywood’s attempts at making a serious sci-fi movie, so I came in very cynical, and even as the film started I was noticing things that I liked, and things I didn’t. That didn’t last long. It happened the moment the TIE fighters started to attack the Millennium Falcon. Something about this sequence, with John Williams music, turned me into a drooling idiot. I could not believe the excitement of the scene! I really think it was the very first time a space battle of that kind had ever been put on film that didn’t look like Flash Gordon or Star Trek. As the movie progressed I could feel the audiencebegin to be taken in as well, with hoots, and applause. By the end ofthe movie, even though there were problems with the sound (the channels were not properly mixed, the middle channel was drowned out when the rears were full blast) I was so knocked out! The editing was frantic, and the throne room music was awesome, and the credits suddenly popped up—-thunderous applause! Like I had never heard before! I sat there thinking, this is going to be BIG, and as a film music fan I knew John Williams had conceived music that would be adored by young people for decades. I walked out of the theater high as a kite, unable to believe what I had just seen, and hoped to see it again soon and take as many as I could. I was hooked. I can rightly say, I never have again felt that particular high again after seeing a movie.
From The Islip Herald section of The Bay Shore Journal.
From The Islip Herald section of The Bay Shore Journal.
Read the left side!
An article from Suffolk Life about the future of Islip Triplex Theater.
View link
There will be a public hearing on the future of the Islip Theater on Sept 18th. The announcement should be in the newspaper. I was told by someone who would know that the theater will not be demolished, but be converted to a “multi-use” facility. I won’t make it to the hearing, I hope someone will and report here.
Let me comment on the Ziegfeld! I’ve seen many films there fron the 70’s to just last year, 2006. It has lost a little of the lustre it once had, but it still has a quality to it. I had great enjoyment in seeing the original run of the all-digital, re-recorded track, “Fantasia,” and seeing “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” on its first matinee for the public in November 1977, and seeing “Hair!,” and “Apocalypse Now,” and “The Last Waltz,” and more recently “Star Wars Episode VI” in its stunning hi-def image and sound. My enjoyment of the theater was not only the fine projection, but also the wonderful sound that always was blasted at the very level I loved to hear it played. “Close Encounters” and “The Last Waltz” were so loud that I would not be surprised if they had to tighten the screws on all the speakers every night! “Close Encounters” sounded so amazing, especially John Williams' gigantic score, matching the huge alien mothership in size. “The Last Waltz” was so loud I felt as though I had attended the concert. “Apocalypse Now” was all-enveloping, sound effects acted as an accompaniment to the music of the Doors. The screen always seemed large back then, but now it seems to have dwindled in ratio as compared with the larger screens at the newer multiplexes. The image clarity at the HD “Star Wars VI” was excellent. Last year, however, I saw a showing of “North By Northwest,” and the print quality was only fair, and not nearly as stunning as the recent DVD image.
I saw a few films there. It had small screens that were raised high on the wall in front of you. I saw a bad dupe of “Magical Mystery Tour” there, and “That’s Entertainment!” in 1974. I may be wrong, but I think a Blockbuster video store is presently at the location where the theater stood, but I would guess the original building was vastly altered.
I saw a few movies there, but always remember seeing the first showing of “E.T.” there, and the sound was hard to hear, then too loud. I also saw “Hair!” there, just as the ad link in a previous post shows!
I HATED this theater! It was long, and if you had to sit in the back, you needed a telescope to see the screen! I’m not kidding! the screen always looked dark, like they were projecting the film with a 30 watt bulb. I wasn’t sorry to see it go. It was one of the worst.
I loved this theater when it was a one-screen, but after it was chopped up, it completly lost its attraction. Originally, It wasn’t a very old type of theater, it seemed modern and a fair screen size, and nice seats. It also had a good, deep, multi-channel sound system, which was highlighted when 2001: A Space Odyssey ran there, which I saw a few times at the theater. It was chopped into halves, and we were left with the choice of two shoeboxes. It closed and the lobby turned into a budget clothing shop, I don’t know what it’s function is presently.
My earliest memory of this theater (early-60’s) is that you could park across the street when the parking lot was full. I saw “My Fair Lady” there, and it was really elegant. The lobby was mirrored, there were curtains and old-style glass doors. There was a chandelier above, and the seats were plush. The sound was good, and sometimes you enjoyed the sound in what may have been six-track stereo. I remember seeing really great films there like “You Only Live Twice,” “Patton,” “Planet of the Apes,” “The Odd Couple,” and many others. I recall “Patton” was in multi-track sound, and the planes seemed to fly past and above you, which was novel in those days. I also saw the “Battlestar Galactica” movie, but the Sensuround wasn’t that impressive. One of the last films I saw there was “Star Wars” in a re-release in 1979 or 1980. I still miss going to that theater. It should have been saved and renovated. Does anyone have a picture of it? Why didn’t I take one years ago??
The Regent Theater! I loved this theater. It was small, but it always seemed to have good movies. I first went there in the early 60’s, and last went there (as the Regent) when it was showing an awful soft core, X-rated film called “Alice in Wonderland” somewhere in the late 70’s, I think. To start off, I saw A LOT of matinees at this theater. Mom or Dad would drop me and my brother off to see some Don Knotts movie, and pick us up after the movie was over. Much later, they started showing a lot of horror movies at night, so as a teenager, I was always going with my friends to see some Hammer film or another cheap horror extravaganza from another studio, then we would go next door to eat some pizza. Does anyone remember the music store that was just east of the Regent in the 60’s? We used to go in there to look at the latest 45’s and LP’s!
In 1964, I saw the Beatles in “A Hard Day’s Night” there, and later, “Yellow Submarine.” When it was the Hollyrock in the 1990’s, I saw a band called RTZ there. It wasn’t until 2005 that I returned to see at the Boulton Center, ironically, The Pete Best Band, led by the guy who was kicked out of the Beatles in 1962. In 2006, I saw another British classic act, Chad & Jeremy.
Well, I though I would add my memories of the Bay Shore Sunrise Drive-in. I went there as a youth in the early Sixties, right up to its closing. I remember coming as a small child and seeing movies like “North By Northwest,” “The Time Machine,” some of the ones shown around 1960. I recall the playground in back of the concession stand. I remember walking over to the east to play minuature golf a few times. I vividly recall the inside of the concession stand, especially the large movie posters on the southern wall that I had to ogle every time we came in, and it was that stand where I developed my love for Yoo-Hoo – had to have it, or the other
chocolate drink they had (was it Bordens?).
I remember the speakers that had to be driven up to, and their tinny sound! AND, the switch to the radio broadcast sound. In the early Sixties, before the movie, they played soft top 40 hits, and I still think of watching the sun set whenever I hear this music.
I don’t recall any “inside theater” within the grounds of the Bay Shore Drive-in. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t there, but I don’t remember it. I do remember the near-by Bay Shore Cinema, and seeing a film there right after it opened (early 60’s, one of the Robert Youngman silent film comedy clip movies), and seeing “Rocky Horror Picture Show” there within months of its closing around 1990.
My memories of the Bay Shore Drive-In include sneaking into it a few times on-foot in the early 70’s to see a showing of all the Planet of the Apes movies. Another time, I was picked up by a cop and removed.
I went to this theater as a child back in the 1960’s. My most vivid memory was when they were running the film “Goodbye Columbus,” which was rated R, but since then that has been changed to PG. It was 1969, so I was 13. My mother took me and an older brother to see the movie, and as we were entering the lobby, an usher or ticket-taker strongly informed my mother it was rated R, and you shouldn’t be taking your son in to see it, and she strongly told them that she knew, and she alone would be responsible for what her children would see. All I saw was Ali McGraw jump in a pool naked, which corrupted me for life.
I remember this theater when it was one screen. We would go to it as children in the 60’s. One time, on a Saturday, they played the old Batman serials, either in order, or as an edited package.
I hated it when it was broken up into three screens, but liked the screen in the balcony theater for its larger size.