110% positive…it’s the Morton Village Theater. When I took the picture, my back was to Old Country Road. And no, the auditorium ran perpendicular to Old Country Road. The building that is still there now utilizes the same original footprint as the movie theater, which was on the extreme left (west) side of the Morton Village Shopping Center property.
Just as an FYI, the Century’s Plainview Theater was actually located on South Oyster Bay Road in Hicksville. In this area, South Oyster Bay Road was a dividing line between the towns of Plainview & Hicksville…east of South Oyster Bay Road was Plainview, west was Hicksville.
I grew up in Plainview…I know it well. When they first made the foundation for that theater, around ‘73 or so, the developers ran into some sort of problems (zoning maybe) and called off the project for a couple years, filling in the raised concrete foundation with dirt and turning it into a sort of strange, raised park. When they were able to continue building, the theater took shape and replaced the park. The theater was actually behind the main shopping center, accessible by walking down a plaza in the middle of the shopping center from the front. When the supermarket took over that location, it kept the same basic location, and no main shopping center stores in front of it were torn down. The picture I posted of Shop Rite was taken from the store’s south side, behind the main shopping center. I’m also posting another picture, taken from the front, showing the plaza leading to the theater/supermarket building.
Thanks, Rob…I’m gonna try to ride past there tomorrow to take a picture to post & get the correct address. I still can’t believe I can’t remember there being a movie theater there!
Wow…now I know just where it was…I’ve lived in this general area my whole life and I never realized there was a theater on that spot! Any idea on the time window it opened & closed? The next time I pass by there, I’ll stop and take a picture and post it here.
I remember seeing Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds” at this theater, and that scared the hell outta me. Now my dentist is located in this building and THAT scares the hell outta me.
(What year did the theater close?)
I’m having a hard time trying to figure out just exactly where this theater was. The map certainly doesn’t help, and appears way off. What is now where the theater was?
Yes, the address is a bit misleading, and the theater was torn down to make way for the impending highway project. This Drive-In theater was located where the entrance ramp is now to the northbound Seaford-Oyster Bay Expressway/Rt.135 from eastbound Hempstead Turnpike. This theater is my earliest theater memory I have. My parents went to see a movie there, and they opted out from getting a babysitter for me (I was around 4 or 5), so they took me with them and I slept in the backseat of their big old maroon Packard. The Drive-In was across the street from Zorn’s and a little to the east.
I agree with Marie…the map location shown is way off…I also remember it to be adjacent to Carle Road, just west of Fortunoffs. I never went to this theater, or even noticed it when it was open. I only have vague memories of it being boarded up for quite some time.
I saw “A Hard Day’s Night” here in 1964…the girls were screaming so loudly, the manager went over the PA to try to quiet everyone down, threatening to turn off the movie! I’ll never forget both the greatness of the movie, as well as the pandemonium!
110% positive…it’s the Morton Village Theater. When I took the picture, my back was to Old Country Road. And no, the auditorium ran perpendicular to Old Country Road. The building that is still there now utilizes the same original footprint as the movie theater, which was on the extreme left (west) side of the Morton Village Shopping Center property.
Just as an FYI, the Century’s Plainview Theater was actually located on South Oyster Bay Road in Hicksville. In this area, South Oyster Bay Road was a dividing line between the towns of Plainview & Hicksville…east of South Oyster Bay Road was Plainview, west was Hicksville.
I grew up in Plainview…I know it well. When they first made the foundation for that theater, around ‘73 or so, the developers ran into some sort of problems (zoning maybe) and called off the project for a couple years, filling in the raised concrete foundation with dirt and turning it into a sort of strange, raised park. When they were able to continue building, the theater took shape and replaced the park. The theater was actually behind the main shopping center, accessible by walking down a plaza in the middle of the shopping center from the front. When the supermarket took over that location, it kept the same basic location, and no main shopping center stores in front of it were torn down. The picture I posted of Shop Rite was taken from the store’s south side, behind the main shopping center. I’m also posting another picture, taken from the front, showing the plaza leading to the theater/supermarket building.
Thanks, Rob…I’m gonna try to ride past there tomorrow to take a picture to post & get the correct address. I still can’t believe I can’t remember there being a movie theater there!
Yep…it still lives!
Wow…now I know just where it was…I’ve lived in this general area my whole life and I never realized there was a theater on that spot! Any idea on the time window it opened & closed? The next time I pass by there, I’ll stop and take a picture and post it here.
Anybody know what year the theater closed?
I remember taking pictures of Batman & Robin there, as they showed up to promote their new Batman movie playing there, in ‘66 or '67.
I remember seeing Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds” at this theater, and that scared the hell outta me. Now my dentist is located in this building and THAT scares the hell outta me. (What year did the theater close?)
I’m having a hard time trying to figure out just exactly where this theater was. The map certainly doesn’t help, and appears way off. What is now where the theater was?
Yes, the address is a bit misleading, and the theater was torn down to make way for the impending highway project. This Drive-In theater was located where the entrance ramp is now to the northbound Seaford-Oyster Bay Expressway/Rt.135 from eastbound Hempstead Turnpike. This theater is my earliest theater memory I have. My parents went to see a movie there, and they opted out from getting a babysitter for me (I was around 4 or 5), so they took me with them and I slept in the backseat of their big old maroon Packard. The Drive-In was across the street from Zorn’s and a little to the east.
I agree with Marie…the map location shown is way off…I also remember it to be adjacent to Carle Road, just west of Fortunoffs. I never went to this theater, or even noticed it when it was open. I only have vague memories of it being boarded up for quite some time.
I only went there once…OMG, I was so naive…I took a date there to see the animated “Fritz The Cat”…I had NO idea!
I saw “A Hard Day’s Night” here in 1964…the girls were screaming so loudly, the manager went over the PA to try to quiet everyone down, threatening to turn off the movie! I’ll never forget both the greatness of the movie, as well as the pandemonium!
This building started out as a Kleins dept. store and then a Korvettes dept. store before the theaters came in.