Ronkonkoma Theatre
260 Portion Road,
Lake Ronkonkoma,
NY
11779
260 Portion Road,
Lake Ronkonkoma,
NY
11779
1 person
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Picketed in March 1971 for showing adult movies.
adult cinema picket 27 Mar 1971, Sat Newsday (Suffolk Edition) (Melville, New York) Newspapers.com
This one opened on July 2, 1960 with 550 seats.
Still operational as an adult venue in May 18, 1983 per ad in the Newsday Vault classic edition of that date shared with the Rocky Point Cinema and the Regent in Bay Shore.
Something is wrong here. Top says see all 20 comments. When you go to review them it show there are 18. I know I made a later comment that the theatre was located at the left end of the shopping center. You can see that from the picture. The exterior wall is such a tell tale with that stepped feature. The space now houses a gym.
Lake Shore Commons shopping center.
http://www.topix.net/city/farmingville-ny
I think I may have answered my own question. While killing time I was looking through all the NY theatres on the American Classic Images site, I came upon a 1983 photo of the Lakeside Cinema. Classic Jerry Lewis box. Now the next thing for me to do is drive along Portion Road and find the building (location described by a previous posting) get the address and eventually get it set up on the site. I’ll also try and pin point the address of this theatre. That’s what happens when you have an obsessed person on the case.
I am not sure. it is possible.
Was this ever the Lakeside? For a time there was a movie times listing for the Lakeside Cinema. Or was that the Jerry Lewis? Or is it one not listed?
In 1970 the Ronkonkoma was operated by A.I.T. Theaters, a company based in Oceanside, NY. Conrad Baker was the president. AIT also operated theaters in Bellmore, Bethpage, Levittown, Massapequam Oceanside, Plainview, Farmingdale, Commack, Deer Park, Hauppage, Kings Park and Setaucket at that time.
Or a snapshot from the 80’s?? I remember driving by this theater, I think it was still open by 1989 (!). Can anyone confirm this? I remember it looking very generic, with light colored brick work (very 1960’s).
ad from 1975: does anyone have a picture of the theater from the 1970’s? View link
Theatre closed around 1985
Where was the ROnkonkoma Theater, there’s no address listed.
I never went to the Ronkonkoma Theater because it was a porno house. However, I loved the marquis. The frame was two toned green with red neon lettering. The letteboard was yellow, and the usually used black letters. I don’t think they got another use out of the theater, and the marquis has been replaced by a Checkers Hamburger Stand. The bowling alley is gone from that basement.
Actually, the Ronkonkoma Theater was open from the early 1960s until the early-1980’s (though I’m not so sure about the closing date). I know this because I grew up in Lake Ronkonkoma and attended many matinees at that theater as a kid. This was NOT the Jerry Lewis theater RobertR mentioned (more about that in a minute).
The theater was located at the end of a shopping center on Portion Road. The center bordered on Foster Road, and the movie house was in the corner of the shopping center on the Foster Road side. The town’s bowling alley was right alongside the theater. For a number of years, the theater was managed by a women who’s family lived my neighborhood – her daughter and I were the same age.
The first movie I ever saw there was “The Music Man” in 1962 with my Mom and my late kid brother. I usually went on Saturday’s with kids from the neighborhood, and the matinee fare was Jerry Lewis and Three Stooges flicks and Commander Cody serials.
The theater changed to an adult house in the late 1960s when they began showing a Danish film called “I, A Woman”:
http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0059324/
By today’s standards, the film was totally lame for sex, but it was a big thing in quiet little Lake Ronkonkoma in 1967-8. The film ran nightly for what seemed like months, and there was a bit to-do about it among the locals, since showing this “porn” movie kept regular fare out of the theater. The owners continued to show kids' matinees on Saturdays, but my folks wouldn’t let me go, as the didn’t want us going anyplace sullied by dirty movies.
After about a year, the owners decided to just go full adult, and spent the next years showing “Three Big Adult Hits” nightly.
In the early 1970’s (again, I may be fudgy on the dates), a Jerry Lewis theater franchise opened. This house was in a new building also on Portion Road, about a mile up the road from the old theater. The JL Theater was located between Hawkins and Ronkonkoma Avenues, right along side a bank building (it’s a Bank of new York today). After a few years, it became a second-run house that showed dollar movies. At that point, most first-run shows were available at the theater in the SmithHaven Mall a few miles away in Nesconset.
The old Ronkonkoma Theater has been closed for many years (and the old bowling alley, too). I don’t know if the location was ever used for anything else (the rest of the center is still active). The Jerry Lewis site is now a Suffolk OTB location.
I just found out this used to be a Jerry Lewis Theatre.
This ad is from the eighties and it has that same name. I think you are correct that it went XXX and was not tracked anymore. Is the address there?
When a short operating date is listed it could mean that the theatre changed names.
The Ronkonkoma was definately open into the eighties. That’s a short time only 6 years that it played legit films.
The Ronkonkoma theatre is listed as opening in 1969 and closing in 1975. If you believe this theatre closed at a later date the explanation is as follows; many XXX theatres are not listed so the closing in 1975 would be the end of its legit movie run.
I don’t have the address, only an ad from when it was showing porno, unfortunately the bottom where the address is was torn off.
Where in Ronkonkoma was this?