Mid-Island Triplex
4045 Hempstead Turnpike,
Bethpage,
NY
11714
4045 Hempstead Turnpike,
Bethpage,
NY
11714
4 people
favorited this theater
Additional Info
Previously operated by: Associated Prudential Theaters Inc., United Artists Theater Circuit Inc.
Previous Names: Mid-Island Theatre
Nearby Theaters
This Long Island theatre has a glass and brick lobby. The Mid-Island Theatre was opened by Associated Prudential Theatres on November 10, 1961 with Fredric March in “The Young Doctors”. United Artists booked it as a first run theatre for many years before selling it to an independent. It was tripled on March 11, 1994. It remained a first run triplex until the early-2000’s.
Last operated as a ‘Bollywood’ theatre screening East Indian films, it closed in Spring of 2006 and was demolished in Summer of 2006.
Contributed by
RobertR
Want to be emailed when a new comment is posted about this theater?
Just login to your account and subscribe to this theater.
Recent comments (view all 32 comments)
Pretty plain looking theatre.
TLSLOEWS: The front was originally all-glass, but they changed it to that ugly black when they built the strip mall attached to it on the left (there was originally a free-standing supermarket in that general area).
Joe V: I believe the triplexing was done in the late 80s, early 90’s. IIRC, they just put up 2 walls running the length of the theatre (from front to back), so you ended up with 3 skinny theatres.
(that just jogged my memory of when the left section of the original theatre was the “smoking” section…those were the days :–)
Thanks Joey.
The original auditorium was so plain that the ceiling girders were exposed. I found that odd. Although there was originally a loge area with better seats and a metal railing around it they eventually became general admission. When they split it up there were three long narrow auditoriums. If I remember correctly the beams were no longer exposed. They also supplemented their income by renting videos, which has to be unique.
This was my favorite movie theater. The original/one-screen setup had love seats in it, so couples could sit with eachother. The bathroom was also located right in the back of the theater, so if you had to go during the movie, you could just walk right into the back. They converted it to three theater’s in the early 90’s, because that was the height of the movie theater business and selling out three crappy little theaters was no problem.
I remember next to the theater was “Cheap John’s,” which sold dollar store items. They had a wall of candy, and it would be 3 candies for 1 dollar. In 1993 I saw Jurassic Park there about 7-9 times and it was 3 dollars per show. I must have been to that theater at least 100 times or more in my life. You could even rent out a theater and watch whatever movies they had in their possession, which spanned twenty years or more. It is still sad to drive past what is now a 2 floor office building that, up until last year(2011), had no tenants. I am not sure why people aren’t more nostalgic on Long Island, but some things can be repurposed…
Mike Abrahams who had the Lefferts and the Bethpage also operated this.
The first movie I saw at this theater was “Ghostbusters 2” in 1989. It was when they housed a video store. The video store was selling giant “Ghostbusters” cookies. That was a treat.
Through the years, I saw a few others here – “Sgt. Bilko,” “The Frighteners,” “Independence Day,” “Lethal Weapon 4,” “Home Alone 2,” “The X-Files Fight the Future,” – and then some indie flicks, like “Pieces of April.”
A cool little theater. It’s a shame it’s not there anymore.
I saw an early Brian Depalma movie there “Sisters"starring Margot Kidder.I remember in the "80’s"they used to show movies and rented videos to stay in bussiness.
The Mid-Island theatre opened on November 10th, 1961. Grand opening ad with Johnny Prudential posted.
3 screens on March 11th, 1994. No grand opening appeared in Newsday.