Boulton Center for the Performing Arts

37 W. Main Street,
Bay Shore, NY 11706

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robboehm
robboehm on February 24, 2024 at 12:12 pm

The theatre was bought by the Boulton family, renovated it, replaced the marquee and is now an intimate space for live theatre events.

robboehm
robboehm on March 11, 2023 at 9:32 pm

The Boulton is still closed although the telephone is still operational.

robboehm
robboehm on September 25, 2022 at 8:28 pm

The marquee suffered damage during a wind storm yesterday. Portions fell to the ground but no one was injured. The age of the structure was also a factor. The fire marshals will inspect the building to see if it is sound. The Boulton has been closed since the beginning of the pandemic. Will this be the end for the venue?

robboehm
robboehm on October 25, 2020 at 3:58 pm

Uploaded a photo of an ad which appeared in the September 5, 1920 Paramount Week indicating that the, then Regent, would be participating in a special exhibiting event.

robboehm
robboehm on April 9, 2019 at 9:22 pm

In the 1980’s the then Regent showed X rated films and shared ads in Newsday with the Ronkonkoma and Rocky Point Art Cinemas.

paul baar
paul baar on May 31, 2017 at 8:19 am

The first movie I saw there was in the early"60’s"a matinee"Little Red Ridinghood and the Monsters"imported from Mexico and dubbed into English by K.Gordon Murry,Elvis Presley’s “Paradise Hawiian style”,“The Sound of Music”,“Deranged”,“Mark of the Devil”(with barf bags)and a French movie"Going Places"with Garrard Depardeau. The theater was okay, not as grand as the other Bayshore on main street.

robboehm
robboehm on August 30, 2016 at 1:37 pm

Are theaters where you are listed on CT? If not, they’re easy to establish. If you’ve been to one or more, look them up on CT and make comments which would be informational.

alyxzandra
alyxzandra on August 30, 2016 at 7:24 am

No. I am not sure what I can contribute.

robboehm
robboehm on August 29, 2016 at 10:00 pm

alyxzandra have you contributed info on your current theaters to CT?

alyxzandra
alyxzandra on August 29, 2016 at 7:56 pm

I want to add I now live in Europe and have not been back to Long Island for 28 years. I am sure things have changed a lot; especially Main Street, Bay Shore.

alyxzandra
alyxzandra on August 29, 2016 at 7:55 pm

I remember the doorman being very intimidating looking, but he was lovely and protective of my mother and I. I remember being fascinated with the lovely interior, which contrasted with the type of movies being shown. But, you may be right about the combination of people working there.

robboehm
robboehm on August 29, 2016 at 10:20 am

When I lived in Bellerose the cashier at the local theater was, I believe, a single parent of two sons, and a WWII widow. The doorman was an elderly gentleman. I think that was often the combination at the Century Theatres which always had continuous performances rather than just evening and, perhaps, matinees like most of the Long Island venues.

alyxzandra
alyxzandra on August 28, 2016 at 8:28 pm

I have fond memories of this theater. My mother, Judy, was a single parent and worked as a ticket seller when this was a XXX theater. She used to bring a little portable TV to watch while selling them and I used to sit just outside the ticket booth next to her and we would watch TV together. The foot police were always stopping in and the bouncer ensured there were no problems.

One day, my aunt and mother decided to go to the upstairs balcony, which was closed to the public, and watch a movie. They laughed so hard that the punters started to leave. Both of them had identical, loud laughter.

Some people would say it was very seedy to have a young, teen daughter with her, but I always understood we needed the extra money and this worked well around my mother’s day job. Before it became a XXX theater, we saw several films there as well as at Bay Shore theater.

My mother is now deceased (as well as my aunt), but I will always have funny and fond memories of this place.

robboehm
robboehm on April 8, 2015 at 9:27 pm

Night view of marquee uploaded.

robboehm
robboehm on March 31, 2015 at 8:07 pm

Additional Boulton photo uploaded.

robboehm
robboehm on March 26, 2015 at 2:27 pm

Added a 1930s image of Main Street. Note the original Regent vertical is still in place but a marquee has been added.

robboehm
robboehm on March 16, 2015 at 11:20 am

Added 1914 image of Main Street showing the vertical of the New Regent.

robboehm
robboehm on May 18, 2014 at 11:12 pm

Doing research on something else I came upon an article indicating that, in 1917, the Regent was in receivership but would be reopening under the management of Nathan Goldstein who operated the Unique and Star in Patchogue. It was subsequently operated by W.D Eccleston until it was acquired by Mike Glynne in 1926. At some point in time it became a Prudential theater.

Notice the parallels of movie exhibitors and banks? Always changing ownership and, sometimes, names.

jukingeo
jukingeo on December 2, 2012 at 12:04 am

I don’t know. I know there are quite a few small theatre outfits on the island as well such as the Arena Players, The Airport Theatres. I do gather that they must be hurting now big time with the recession. Gateway, one of the more well known theatre groups seems to still be doing OK. I have seen a few of their shows at the Patchogue. That is a nice place BTW. Too bad that more theatres like that didn’t survive on LI. After I saw pictures of the Bayshore theatre, that would have been a nice candidate for restoration. But in the case of the Regent, the place was a hole so I did welcome the idea that Hollyrock presented. It certainly did breathe some life into the place. It was a good idea while it lasted. It was just poorly managed. It’s a shame as the place nicely lit up main street too as it had quite a bit of neon on the facade.

robboehm
robboehm on November 30, 2012 at 10:46 pm

How many performing arts venues can LI sustain? You have the Patchogue, Westhampton Beach, Engelmann(at Northport), CM (at Oakdale), Smithtown, Paramount (at Huntington)soon to be Westbury and Suffolk (Riverhead), all former theatres PLUS Bay Street in Sag Harbor and a myriad of others.

jukingeo
jukingeo on November 30, 2012 at 10:03 pm

Echoing Robboehm, I clearly remember the Regent being Hollyrock in the early 90’s. At the time I was a DJ / Sound system installer and I did clubs in that area. While I never did any work, nor DJ'ed at Hollyrock, I was inside there twice. The place was done up very nicely in an art deco style. They nicely restored the outside and marquee and even had the name “Hollyrock” on the vertical. Inside, the orchestra section had all the seats removed and in the day time they operated the place as a luncheonette complete with 50’s style car’s as seats that faced the movie screen that played old movies, trailers and cartoons. At night they removed the “car” seats and that area became the dance floor. They had railings around the dance floor area with tall tables and stools to sit at. The balcony was semi converted and still had some theatre seats in place towards the front. The extreme front/center of the balcony is where the DJ booth was. The back of the balcony is where the bar was along with a few more tables to sit at. Food was prepared downstairs behind where the ticket booths were. All in all, they didn’t do a bad job at making something of the place, considering the porn hole it was prior. However, the business was poorly run and was pretty expensive compared to other clubs in the area. The owners made people wait outside to make the line long so the place looked packed…even though it was nearly empty inside. This tactic pissed many people off. Overall, Hollyrock didn’t last very long. I think it was only open for about 4 years and then shut down. A couple of friends and myself tried to get a hold of the place in receivership, but as it turned out, the owners owed so much money on the place that everything inside was liquidated and sold off. So in the end, the building was once again an empty shell. I don’t know what it looks like now as the Boulton Center For The Performing Arts, but I must say the whole repurposing the theatre as a nightclub was interesting in the least and I really did think Hollyrock was going to be around for a long time. I was sadly mistaken…but I think it could have worked with the right management.

I took a look at some pictures of the Bay Shore Theatre (a couple blocks down from Boulton) and THAT place really looked nice. It SHOULD have been restored as a performing arts venue.

robboehm
robboehm on September 3, 2011 at 8:25 am

But some times the results are interesting. Look at the picture of the Oasis. I thought the current use was as a church because of the way the poles are situated.

Ed Solero
Ed Solero on September 2, 2011 at 4:55 pm

Oh yes, David. The bane of every photographer interested in documenting street-level architecture! I have hundreds of photos ruined by those lines. Same can sometimes be said of trees in full bloom, when you’re out there between April and October! Thankfully, Manhattan is at least one area where above ground lines are virtually non-existant.

DavidDynamic
DavidDynamic on September 2, 2011 at 3:02 am

Since joining this site I have come to despise pole to pole utility lines. So many pictures of aesthetically pleasing theaters are ruined by those wretched wires cutting through the foreground.

Bway
Bway on April 20, 2009 at 10:34 am

Wow, the theater really looked crapy by that point.