UA North Babylon Twin
1130 Deer Park Avenue,
North Babylon,
NY
11703
1130 Deer Park Avenue,
North Babylon,
NY
11703
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2 screens on May 9th, 1980. Grand opening ad posted.
According to the NY Daily News listings it was twinned in 1982 and closed in 1985 after UA dropped it in 1984.
I saw Bobby Kennedy campaigning in 1964 at this shopping center,but that’s another story.I saw “Funny Girl”,“Cabaret”,“Lenny”,and"Rollerball" there.
This was part of the Prudential chain which ruled Suffolk County whereas the Deer Park was under the banner of Associated Independent Theaters, most of which were in Nassau County.
No longer retail. Now a medical facility. See new photo.
I saw the best trible feature there in the late 1960s, “Reptilicus”, “Konga”, “Godzilla vs. the Thing” Wow, those were the days!
I saw Willard there too! The last film I saw there was Cujo.
How ironic that Blockbuster Video, which helped kills theatres, took over this space. It did the same thing in Westerly, RI.
The heading of this theatre should read “retail use” as the building was NEVER demolished.
I remember seeing Robin Hood there in 1983 with my dad on the day before Easter. I was 8 at the time. Just a very vivid memory.
In the late ‘70’s and early '80’s UA had to sell-off several theaters due to a monopoly lawsuit. The North Babylon was purchsed by an independent theater owner. The first film under new management was The Black Stallion, the theater was then twinned. The same owner owned the Deer Park Theater (see my post under Deer Park Theater). The North Babylon Theater was located in the Sunset City Shopping Palza on Deer Park Ave (exit 39 North on the Southern State). Bruinswick Lanes was next-door. I learned to master Defender there. There was a Robbins Dept Store, Breyers Ice Cream Shoppe, Woolworth’s and Sunset Bank in the shopping center as well. After being twinned the theaters seemed a bit narrow, but like the Deer Park, it was a great local movie house. Believe it or not, we did our best numbers with the Disney films. It was strange, but “family films” did better at North Babylon than Deer Park. Deer Park did great with Animal House, Ghostbuster, all the various Friday the 13th’s, Rocky’s etc. Once at the North Babylon we had Disney’s Sleeping Beauty. The line went throughout the shopping center. We had to run the film in both theaters and were sold out for days. A grandmother took a swing at me when I informed her the next three showings were all sold out … WOW. It was sad to see both theaters close. I actually got a job at Pier One when it opened in 1985. Hey, is the Pancake Cottage still open across the street? I ate there and Calucci’s Pizza many a night. Oh those Glory Days!
We moved to North Babylon from the City in 1967. Seeing “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” at the North Babylon is my earliest movie memory (I was about five or six). As the years went on, I would see “Escape From the Planet of the Apes”, “Tora! Tora! Tora!”, and “The World’s Greatest Athlete”, among others. Would pass the theater all the time going to Sunset City with my mom and vividly remember seeing the poster for the original “Rollerball” (1975) starring James Caan, which was playing at the time, hanging in the window. Beginning in the late 1970’s, I would spend almost equal time in Commack as in North Babylon so I began to frequent the Commack RKO Twin, the Mayfair, and the Elwood Cinema. In 1982 I would see my last film at the UA North Babylon, a terrible cop thriller called “Vice Squad”, shortly after I graduated from North Babylon High and left for the service. I seem to remember the theater was turned into the Pier One Imports sometime in 1983-1984 and an era had past.
I was only in this theatre one time to see a midnight showing of “Mothers Day”.