Manhasset Cinemas

430 Plandome Road,
Manhasset, NY 11030

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DARCYDT
DARCYDT on July 5, 2008 at 9:20 pm

According to both the listings in the News and Post this picture currently has the following films, Get Smart, Kit Kittredge:All American Girl, Love Guru, Kung Fu Panda and You Don’t Mess with the Zohan. First don’t they always play more arty fare and second even with Love Guru listed at 1 show a day this works out to four screens when they have 3. I could see one paper printing the wrong listings but both. Has this theater gone commercial?

wally 75
wally 75 on September 23, 2007 at 9:02 pm

even in the 70’s when ua was…ua eastern theatres..m s skorus..
was still on the face plate of marque..

it had to do with history of the skorus family and salah hassanein going back to the rivoli nyc…

Ed Solero
Ed Solero on September 23, 2007 at 9:04 am

I think an AKA is in order here for “Manhasset Theatre,” since surely this was not called “Cinemas” when it was a single screen.

Ed Solero
Ed Solero on September 22, 2007 at 9:19 pm

Forgot to mention that I had my camera on me and snapped some more shots of the Manhasset:

Start here with this exterior shot and click “next” until you hit the evening shots I took last November. There are about 19 shots.

Just to note a couple of things… In the first couple of shots, you’ll notice that the “Clearview Cinemas” signage that was at the apex of the marquee canopy has gone missing and the old “United Artists” logo that had been under it can be made out. Also, I grabbed some shots of the theatre’s old cieling. Looks like the basic streamline deco design is intact, but it has been completely painted in a flat coat of coal-black paint – completely obscuring any design from the naked eye.

Ed Solero
Ed Solero on September 22, 2007 at 9:12 pm

Well, I attended the 11am showing today of “It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World” at the Manhasset with my two kids. To my delight, the movie played in the former balcony theater and not one of the downstairs theaters as was the case when saps saw “Singing in the Rain” with his daughter. To my great disappointment, however, when we got upstairs to our seats, we found a blue DVD player standby image being projected on the screen – and I knew we were in for what amounts to giant-projection-TV. I wanted to leave right then and there and ask for a refund of my tickets and the unopened water and candy bars we just purchased, but the kids implored me to stay – my daughter in particular keen to see the image of the movie (whatever the source) projected on a theatre-sized screen. I caved-in and we remained for the show – even though I had sworn to myself that I would not pay for a DVD presentation.

I should probably back up to the night before the showing when I called the theatre to confirm the showing. Someone advised me that Clearview had elimated the Saturday and Sunday screenings from the Hollywood Classics schedule and that there would be no further showing of this title. I was miffed and asked if the presentation had been film or video projection – and was told that it had been FILM! This made me even angrier, so I went to Clearview’s site and submitted a complaint. Our old buddy (from the Ziegfeld page) Craig O'Connor responded (as did another Clearview rep) to let me know that there must have been a misunderstanding and that the show was to go on precisely as scheduled (and still advertised on the Clearview site, by the way).

I am greatful for the efforts Craig and the rest of the Clearview staff made in getting back to me at a pretty late hour on Friday to clear this whole thing up, but I was only in for further disappointment at the prospect of what was basically a glorified DVD viewing. After all, I already own the damned DVD of “IAMMMMW!” I took some solace when I won the pre-screening raffle for a free Clearview movie pass (a definite rigged affair as I had purchased three of the five tickets sold for this morning’s screening)!

In any event, the charms of the movie and shared experience with my kids worked their magic and we find ourselves immersed in the film. Well, at least the kids were. The too-dark and grainy (and somewhat distorted) image from the DVD projector and the non-surround sound would frequently jolt me from my complete enjoyment of the movie – but I put those feelings aside for the sake of the kids and we had ourselves a good time despite it all.

And as always, Clearview staff is very freindly and the theatre immaculate. I was chatting with one of the workers there and he indicated that 95% of the classics are DVD presentations. I guess I might have known that. Sure makes availability of titles a whole lot wider. The staffer also told me that at the beginning of the series they were getting films – but due to the length of some of the older classics they had been screening, there’d be 12 or more reels to be assembled for the platter (opposed to the usual 8 reels for the average modern movie they play at the Manhasset). So the switch to DVD was also a function of too much damn work to assemble and breakdown reels for a print that would only be screened a few times before being shipped back.

Anyway, with all due respect to Craig and the folks at Clearview and the Manhasset – I won’t be going back for any other DVD presentations. I’ll take my classics strictly on film from here on out. At least until classic series begin to utilize true digital cinema projection – which will probably have to wait until data storage and download fees come down significantly.

Oh… and if you’re out there, Vodhin, I can’t say that I saw your ghost (which I had totally forgotten about until I came back to this page to post these comments) but there were a number of times today that I found myself looking back over my shoulder because I swore there was someone standing or moving around in the back row (which there wasn’t).

wally 75
wally 75 on September 8, 2007 at 1:47 pm

when we had mary poppins and let the good times roll…reg. patrons

were surprised to hear the great stereo sound it had..

Ed Solero
Ed Solero on August 31, 2007 at 9:30 am

Thanks, saps. I was hoping for the nice intact balcony! How is the size of that auditorium – and more importantly, the screen size? I’m happy they had a proper plate to preserve the film’s correct aspect ratio. Did they mask the screen on the left and right?

Mike (saps)
Mike (saps) on August 31, 2007 at 6:46 am

The screening of “Singin'in the Rain” at the Manhasset was on film, in a ground floor theatre, the last one on the left.

One thing I should note, as I recall the film was shown in the proper aspect ratio, Academy standard (nearly square), meaning that we saw the whole image as filmed, and the feet weren’t cut off. Unfortunately, when I saw “Singin'” again last weekend at Clearview’s Middlebrook Galleria (in Ocean Township, NJ) it was presented in today’s rectangular shape, and the feet were cut off in virtually every dance number, which was a damned shame.

Ed Solero
Ed Solero on August 30, 2007 at 9:47 pm

I see that Clearview runs a Hollywood Classics series out of one of the Manhasset auditoriums (I presume this is how you came to watch “Singing in the Rain” here with your daughter, saps). I’ve heard that many of the films at the Chelsea series are actually digital DVD projections… Does the series at the Manhasset run actual 35mm prints or is this also run via a video projection system? I’m curious because the clearview website lists “It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World” starting September 19th here and if I can anticipate a decent 35 mm print, I’d love to make it down. I’ll pass on a DVD projection, however.

Also… what auditorium is the classic series held in? Hopefully, the balcony theater?

Ed Solero
Ed Solero on August 21, 2007 at 6:11 pm

Hey saps… Those Verizon commercials were filmed a few years back – I remember them being on TV at least 4 or 5 years ago. They’ve only just come back into circulation again recently. Not sure how long Clearview has run the Manhasset – still, pretty ironic that the marquee figures so prominently in a competitor’s advertisement!

Mike (saps)
Mike (saps) on July 23, 2007 at 2:44 pm

I was here not too long ago for a screening of “Singin' in the Rain” with my 2-½ year old daughter. We’d seen the DVD many times, but we were both mesmerized by the beautiful Technicolor print and full sound up there on the big screen. She didn’t budge an inch for the entire running time, except once to climb on my lap to get more comfy.

Before the show, they had a drawing for a free pass and let her pick the winning number out of a bag — and she picked my ticket! (The fix was in?…nah!)

moviebuff82
moviebuff82 on July 23, 2007 at 2:18 pm

scary indeed. also, verizon ads dont play at clearview, but at other chains.

Mike (saps)
Mike (saps) on July 23, 2007 at 7:14 am

This theater’s marquee and outside vestibule are featured in the new Verizon cable TV commercials, which is somewhat ironic since the Manhasset is owned by Clearview, which is owned by Cablevision, which is Verizon’s main competitor.

How did something like that slip by, or is Verizon zinging it to Cablevision? Either way, it made me chuckle.

Eric Friedmann
Eric Friedmann on May 21, 2007 at 7:23 am

I was there recently to see THE NAMESAKE and a revival of CITIZEN KANE. Back when it was mainstream Hollywood films, I saw titles like THE UNTOUCHABLES, BACK TO THE FUTURE-PART III and TOTAL RECALL. I’m glad to see they haven’t closed up this theater (yet!).

Vodhin
Vodhin on February 24, 2007 at 2:45 am

I have heard of the Playhouse Ghost, believed to be the ghost of someone who hanged himself in the rigging backstage. He supposedly haunts the appartments that are there now. True or not I don’t know.

RobertR
RobertR on February 18, 2007 at 5:06 pm

Wasn’t there also a ghost at the Great Neck Playhouse?

Vodhin
Vodhin on February 18, 2007 at 12:46 pm

I’m more skeptical of these “woo woo” type things myself (hence trying to find out what might be causing the shadow) and is why I say that there is more in this universe than we could ever know. Whatever it is, it was noticable to just about anyone who had it pointed out to. Eerie, definately… but since it is so subtle, I doubt it will be freightening anyone away. Maybe it will steal your popcorn, though… ;)

Ed Solero
Ed Solero on February 17, 2007 at 8:37 pm

Vhodin… you should have saved that story for Halloween. I am skeptical of such things as you describe, but I surely don’t doubt your recounting of the experience. In fact, I quite enjoyed reading it – very well written and more than just a little spine-tingling, if I might add. Thanks!

Vodhin
Vodhin on February 17, 2007 at 6:32 pm

Good tip on the photobucket. Usually an image tag can contain the term “width=xxx” (where xxx equals the value you want in pixel size) 512 width should be fine here and many other forums. I’m not 100% sure if it works with this site, though (and there is no option to edit a post, so experiments are out of the question lest we have a ton of usless posts).

I actually recommend that you resize your images before even uploading to an image host – make them 512 wide to start with. Then the actual file will be much smaller and load nice and fast.

I appologize to the fine folks here are Cinema Treasures if I have upset the apple cart with this info (but having images of these great old theatres available for view is a major benefit, and with external image hosts, it should save your server space and bandwidth). Everyone should read the TOS (http://cinematreasures.org/legal/) and understand that materials (e.g. images) you post, either as links or otherwise, automatically include your release of any copyright, granted to Cinema Treasures. On that note, you should not post images or other material (links or otherwise) to material that does not belong to you.

Back to Manhasset and relevant information.

Something comes back to me about the old chandelier that was in the stairwell- it should still exist in the old safe room /manager’s office in the back theatre 3 (the old balcony). I remember when UA renovated that we had it moved and installed in that little room (last door just after the door to the projection booth) because it was going to be thrown out. Last I knew, that room was used for paperwork storage.

On a ghostly note- I and several others who have worked there have experienced first hand, an eerie apparition: a disembodied shadow cast on the wall of the back of that old balcony theatre. We’ve even spotted it drifting along the back wall downstairs (when walking to the theatres, the wall on the right). How and when- Well, I first spotted it while standing outside under tha marquee, having a smoke while waiting for the last shows to let out. I thought someone was behind the candy stand, keeping an eye on it using the mirrors in the outter lobby to see all the way up and around the corner. Several nights went by and it happened again, this time to other employees.

It seems to show up more often during the summer, mostly between 11:30 pm and 1 am. As you walk down the hall downstairs past theatre 1 and 2 or if you stare at the back wall of theatre 3, you’ll notice “arches” of light from the high hat lighting in the ceiling. The shadow can be seen only in the “half light” between the bright area and the dark area, a five or five and a half foot humanoid silhouette moving with “purpose”.

It took us over two months to trace out “her” route, and follows this path: It starts on the wall behind the candy stand, about where the right soda machine is and moves toward theatre 1 where it waits for a little bit. It then moves down the hall and up the stairs to the old balcony. It cannot be seen again until it is in the balcony where it slowly drifts to the door to the projection booth (to the hall to the booth- I think it might go into the old generator room below the booth for a moment). After about a minute or so, the shadow moves to the old safe room/ manager’s office and then very quickly darts back toward the entrance of the balcony (but I think it’s heading toward the fire exit on that side).

Not a truely spectacular event other than it was a regular occurance every night all the time since it was first noticed, and it seems that everyone can see it if you point it out. To see it, don’t look directly at it, but look a few feet away from where it should be (focus on the dark area between the arches of light). The shadow moves as a slow walk (downstairs) and then at a hurried walk (upstairs). What you see is a shadow on the wall shaped like a person about five to five and a half feet tall, darker than what should be there and moving but only in that transition from light to dark- you cannot see it in the bright area of the light or the darker section between the lights – and come to think of it, when Clearview took over, they replaced the incandescant lights in the fixtures downstairs with flourescent retrofits that do not create the needed arches of light. The light in that ahlls is probably too flast to notice it. The Balcony should still be a good spot to see the “ghost”, though.

Now, please understand that I don’t think that it’s an actual ghost- not the sort that you see on TV or one that jumps out at you and goes ‘boo’ (though some folks have left the balcony before the show was over citing a creepy feeling up there). Personally, I believe that there is a whole lot more in this universe than we could ever understand, but a ghost this is not. I and other’s have seen it, and have gone to lengths to try to rule out possibilities: passing car or aircraft light, moonlight, anything. We’ve stood right next to the wall when it passed. We’ve even done research to see if there was ever any kind of incident at the Manhasset that might make a “ghost” – a robbery or other foul deed. Nothing turned up. If I was to venture an opinion as to what it is: perhaps some kind of memory that’s retained in the walls of the building (it is a huge iron wirelath structure and might be able to ‘record’ someone’s strong emotional state (scorned lover?) as they moved by it. Then again, maybe not.

And that’s the only “ghost” I know that’s ever been in the Manhasset (other than the one with Demi Moore).

Ed Solero
Ed Solero on February 14, 2007 at 5:56 pm

Vodhin….Thanks so much for sharing those photos and jogging your memory for that very informative post earlier today! I’m probably a little more computer savvy than Warren, but I have yet to master php or html myself – beyond being able to bury my hyperlinks within the body of my comment text. But thanks for trying to explain it all the same!

By the way, Photobucket stores images indefinitely – as long as the user keeps their account active. No direct hits are required to keep an image active in a Photobucket album. Also… if one doesn’t reduce the size of the image they wish to post within their comments, a large photo will disrupt the way a given theater page is displayed. There have been a few instances here where users have used the [ img ] tag rather than the [ url ] tag, resulting in a page that now scrolls horizontally out of one’s browser window. Obviously, you seem to know what you’re doing.

Vodhin
Vodhin on February 14, 2007 at 4:29 pm

If you can make the link you can make the pics appear too. Just put [ img ]photo'sURL[ /img] (but without the spaces- I can’t show you exactly because it will think I’m putting in a pic…)

With sites like photo bucket and image shack, the images will get deleted if it is not active- a link here does nothing to keep the image unless someone clicks it, but the image tag will call the image, registering on the image server as active.

Vodhin
Vodhin on February 14, 2007 at 5:42 am

Well, it’s been a while since I visited here and I have to thank EdSolero for the new photos- I’m happy to see that the gray paint is gone! UA had done everything (And I mean everything) in a deathly shade of gray about 1897, and when Clearview took over in 1998 they kept the gray tones but decided to at least use several shades and accesnt the jabot/cascade trim in gold. The new paint looks great, a huge improvement all around.

Here’s some pictures of the marquee and lobby about 1998, right after Clearview took over and renovated.


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EdSolero: indeed, that section of tile marks where the old box office stood- it was a very tiny affair. I have no idea about what it looked like or how tall it was, but I do know that it didn’t connect with the ceiling. My guess would be that it was a half round if not square, and I remember Karl telling me that the cashier sat on a seat attached to the door in the rear: a perfect set-up for a pratfall gag.

The steam pipe in question ran under the center of the inner lobby floor (about where the right hand soda machine is) and was buried directly in the earth. It fed the radiators in the bathrooms, the two stores next door, and then branched off down to the box office and sidewalk.

I remember UA had required the threatre to be open as a shelter during Hurricane Gloria (no one showed up) and I was busy on the roof cleaning out the drains (I hated that tree in the front and it’s drain clogging burs). I came in and was walking around barefoot while my shoes and socks dried. That’s how I found the steam pipe- it burned my feet. My further barefoot wonderings found hot spots undea all bathroom floors and under the marquee- all the way out to the curb (but only on the south side of where the box office stood). It might be that the heated sidewalk was just a effect from the radiator in the old box office, a byproduct of the need for heat.

In the late 80’s or early 90’s, there were two mishaps related to that pipe: first, there was a payphone on the wall between the bathrooms, but it had fallen off- the pipe had rotted away completely and the steam was just going where ever it could, including up the walls. The lobby was dug up and the pipe replaced, which increased the steam reaching the old box office location. I suspect that the pipe there was also rotted out, and eventually the steam caused a major flood in the store next door. That flood resulted in the old box office pipe’s perminent disconnection.

Hey Warren- The main house fan located backstage had a manufacture date of 1927 on the fan housing, and I’ve seen something else with that date on it- a service record- yes, now I remember: the old boiler in the pit backstage (long ago replaced) had a service chart dating that far back. You seem to know a lot about the old local theatres on LI, so I was wondering if you knew how to thread one of these:


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Above is a Bauer U4 at the Manhasset, a work horse of a projector. Below is a shot of the projection equipment for screen 1, taken about 1998:


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For those who don’t know, most theatres use a system similar to this, where the entire film is spliced together by the projectionist and fed to the projector in one go. Some theatres (a very few) still use the old reels which require a projectionist to switch reels during the show either every 18 to 20 minutes or so (some use 60 minute reels, still requiring a ‘changeover’). With today’s multi-screen complexes, a projectionist would be run ragged.

Film is still delivered (to my knowledge) on those old twenty minute reels, and Thursday nights can be grueling for a projectionist, who must make up new shows and load it onto this type of film transport while breaking down exiting shows to be shipped to other theatres. As a matter of fact, you can see a new show loaded on the bottom plater, made up and ready for the next feature (or it might be a matinee movie, too).

This is an interesting system, with many intircate parts to keep the show on the screen. The platters (the disks) turn as the film is fed out to the projector, with a governing control to keep everything at a steady speed. As the film feeds out on one platter, it is taken up on another, almost an endless loop. When the show is over, the projectionist removed a ring in the center and feeds the film out and back to the now empty platter. No need (or ability for that matter) to rewind. When something goes wrong and part of the show is missed, you can see that it is nearly impossible to rewind the film in this type system. It brings a whole new meaning to “The Show Must Go On.”

With Digital Projection looming on the horrizon, this type of system will be dissappearing from theatres, potentially along with projection booths and projectionists, too. Next time you visit a theatre, bring him a cup of coffee wink

shua22
shua22 on November 27, 2006 at 2:17 am

We did not see you there taking your photos… if we had, we surely would have tried to strike up a conversation. Volver was upstairs. Unlike Main Street in Port Washington, they have not split the upstairs in Manhasset so it is one curved theater with about 4 sections facing out to a large platform (covering the theaters below) and then to a decent sized screen. The sound was pretty decent, no complaints here, but I’m not that picky… I wouldnt know the difference between good sound and great sound but it certainly wasn’t bad. The place is clean. Upstairs has old style balcony seating (think stadium seeting) so you get a good view from almost every seat.

Ed Solero
Ed Solero on November 25, 2006 at 6:47 pm

NYC Josh… Did you guys actually see me taking the photos? That would be pretty coincidental, huh? I was there probably around 8:45pm on Friday evening. A showing of “Volver” had just let out and a good number of folks were exiting and discussing it with admiration. As I milled around waiting for the vestibule to get less crowded so I could snap some shots, I was comparing the crowd at the Manhasset to the usual multiplex crowd I have to endure in Queens and thinking that this is the kind of mature audience with which I’d prefer to experience a film. How was the auditorium you were in… was the screen a decent size? Which room was it? And what of the sound?

shua22
shua22 on November 25, 2006 at 3:28 pm

AMAZING. So last night mu friend Larry and I go to see Volver at Manhasset. We grew up in a neighboring town and have since moved away. It’s been quite a while since we’d been there and we were pleasently surpirsed with the general condition of the place. Since we’re both big fans of this site, we logged on to take a look at the page for this theater. To our delight and surprise, the photos above were added to this site while we were at the theater and appear to have been taken while we were there!! This site is a real treasure!

About the theater: They’ve done just about as much as they can to keep this place viable. I guess there are limitations, financial and oterwise, to modernizing a 1927 building. Taking all of that in stride the only real complaint is the stink from the air conditioning system (think urine). On a positive note, after the first five minutes, you get used to it!