Meadowbrook Theatre
2549 Hempstead Turnpike,
East Meadow,
NY
11554
2549 Hempstead Turnpike,
East Meadow,
NY
11554
7 people
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This is Jean Starace it was very interasting reading about the
Meadowbrook Theatre it brought back a lot of good memories.
this is Jean Starace the manager of the Meadowbrook Theatre
I miss this theater. The last movie I saw there was when they re-releasee Star Wars in 97. It was a great theater – one of the only places around that still did midnight showings – but towards the end was too dirty and run down to even bother with.
Yes, plus you must have been that cool manager I mentioned got me into the theater occasionally! So thanks for that! Small world, huh? I worked at the Meadowbrook around 84-85… Any idea whatever happened to the various Staraces? (Jean, Tim, Debbie Spugna, etc…?)
Hey Bob — Which theater did you manage, and when? I never made a penny more than minimum wage in my year-plus working at the Meadowbrook, so the free tickets were the only real perk (other than all the popcorn you could eat). But it probably was my favorite crappy high-school job — met a lot of cool people, saw some great movies, and learned to deal with the public working every position — usher, concessions, ticket booth, ticket taker — even took the calls from all the regional UA theaters with their nightly box-office figures! Lots of late nights riding my bike home from work in the dark, but at least I had a friend who worked at the diner across the street who would hook me up with free fries occasionally!
The Meadowbrook went from a quad to a 6-plex by splitting the two largest auditoriums down the middle. Following the conversion, the former balcony space in the original main theatre was sealed off and never used again.
Jean did run a tight ship as manager at the Meadowbrook, and doing things like creating a giant x-wing fighter for the lobby for Star Wars made going to the movies special.
Meadowbrook was a quad for many years — the big, original screen 1 in front, plus a later addition that included another large house in back (screen 2) and two smaller rooms (3 and 4). I never went there when it was a “six” but I suspect they either converted the balcony of screen 1 to a separate theater or cut up some of the bigger rooms. What a shame that would have been. Or did they add on two more?
In my mind the best theater on LI was not the Meadowbrook but the Cinema 150 in Syosset — a huge place with an enormous screen and another dedicated manager — whose name I don’t recall but who was always nice about letting poor teenage ushers into the movies for free. ;–)
“They did boffo business with ‘E.T.’ & ‘Jedi’ and they looked and sounded amazing.” (BobT)
That’s because they were shown in 70mm!
Question for those familiar with this theater…. I’m confused about the statement in the intro about this being a sixplex. The newspaper ads during the ‘80s called this the “Meadowbrook Quad,” implying four screens, not six. Unless the “Quad” notation is referring to just the newer portion of the complex…but wouldn’t the big event films still have been shown, in their initial weeks anyway, on either half of the original screen?
That picture of the beatles fans lines up all day makes you wonder why someone did not think to add matinee shows.
I remember going to this theater with family back in the 1980s. It was still in good shape back then yet. I really don’t remember the layout too well.
Hard to believe it’s gone.
I suppose every area had that theater that would run “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” every Friday at midnight during the 80s. This was ours. Back in the 50s, a bunch of rock ‘n roll shows were held here … my grandfather ran a few for Police Athletic League benefits. They also would mix independent films with blockbusters pretty often. I remember they ran “Pulp Fiction” for nearly six months.
This was still a fairly decent theater in the 80’s when I went to the movies a lot. I saw a late night showing of “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” here in 1988 and the place was immaculate. And packed. It was a great location too.
I remember the Meadowbrook in those days. This was a time when UA was still keeping up the theatres. They also were very running these midnight shows in the Midway and did well with them.
I worked at the Meadowbrook as an usher and at the concession stand for a few years in the mid-80s … It was your typical mimimum wage job but a cool one, nonetheless. A job like that definitely teaches you some people skills, from dealing with customers complaining that you shortchanged them on their popcorn butter to easing belligerent drunks out of the lobby.
The balcony in theater one was still operational when I was there — for movies like Return of the Jedi and ET we would open it, but usually was closed, although you would sometimes find the ushers up there watching a movie or having a drink or smoke. The best times were always the midnight movies, when the really interesting crowds came out to watch Eraserhead, Rocky Horror, The Song Remains the Same, etc. For many years we adopted the former Mini Cinema Rocky Horror crowd, who would come in costume equipped with all the standard props — toilet paper, water guns, playing cards, etc. Always left quite a mess, but we didn’t have to clean up after the midnight shows. ;–)
Jean Starace was the manager there for many years, and she ran the place like her own fiefdom. Her son would make the models and lobby props to promote the shows, including a great X-wing fighter for Star Wars. He also did the memorable United Artists movie promos for Midnight Madness and designed the mascot and T-shirts.
Good times …
The theatre was demolished and is now a Commerce Bank.
After the Uniondale Mini Cinema closed, this was definitely the coolest theater in Nassau County. Granted, that’s not much of an achievement. Saw several midnight showings of “Pink Floyd’s The Wall” here in 1983-1984. There was always some rock movie playing at midnight. The place seemed pretty rundown from the start – I wonder exactly when it closed?
UA ran this down until it looked like a 42nd St. grind house and then sold it. The floors were filthy, and the seats and bathrooms falling apart. It has since been torn down and a new building built. This could still be a viable theatre, it had ample parking. The nearest competition was the Loews Levittown which is one town over. This theatre did respectable grosses through the 80’s when it was being maintained.
Is this theater still open? In the description it says that it is 6 screens, but it sounds like it was only cut in half down the middle?
Does the balcony still sit empty?
The Meadowbrook’s balcony wasn’t turned into office space, but rather sat as a never opened auditorium. The UA East Coast office was located in a brand new office building behind the theatre.
The ADA prevented the opening of the balcony theatre because no provision was made for handicap accessibility. When I was a projectionist I had the chance to run this theatre in the late 90’s. The balcony theatre was basically ready to go except for a screen, but instead of patrons, it was occupied by cases of straws and napkins, various discarded lobby adornments, and a chandelier (not from the Meadowbrook, as I understand).
An interesting – and sad- story comes to mind about the Meadowbrook Theatre. One winter afternoon, while matinees were suspended, a manager and a security guard decided to try a bit of target practice in theatre 1 (or 2 – I can’t remember), shooting at balloons they had hung from the bottom of the screen. After a lot of rounds had been spent, they decided to clean up, only to discover that behind the masking curtain was an old Wurlitzer console, now shot to pieces! It wasn’t clear if the old organ came from the Meadowbrook, or from some other theatre that had been renovated (I should point out that this happened long before I had a chance to run the booth at this theatre, and the console had been removed by the time I was there).
The saddest thing about the Meadowbrook, though, was that the marquee, a rather boxy art-deco piece, had been covered over (and/or painted gray) and then trimmed in poorly fabricated blue neon. A rather dilapidated pylon marquee stood out by the road to list the titles.
Sad that this theatre didn’t get the attention it needed, but that’s the Long Island way of things….
When the Meadowbrook was a single screen theatre it seated 1200 people.