[On the CBS News New York (WCBS; Channel 2 in New York City) evening broadcast on 7 May, I watched a story that piqued my curiosity. It was slugged “Hidden Treasures found during reconstruction of century-old theater.” It was teased several times before the report aired, which only whetted my interest.
[When I was a grad student
at New York University, one of my professors was the late Brooks McNamara
(1937-2009), a theater historian whose special interests were American popular
entertainments and early American theater architecture (see my
post on Rick On Theater in his
memory).
[Sometime around 1985, while I was still taking classes at NYU, Brooks brought up in class that the long-abandoned theaters on Union Square were going to be opened up so they could be inspected to determine if they could be modernized and repurposed.
[In the 1870s and ’80s, Union Square was the entertainment center of New York City. When that district moved uptown (eventually ending up in what’s now the Times Square Theatre District), many of the theater buildings were sealed up. If one bothered to look up and over the false fronts with the stores in them, you could still see the stage houses—the structures that housed the fly spaces and lighting grids—rising above the low-rise buildings around them.
[The theater buildings weren’t demolished, just boarded up and commercial establishments were inserted in what had been their lobbies. The rest of the theater space was just home for ghosts and vermin. And there they remained from the 1910s and ’20s until the 1980s.
[Once they were opened for the inspection, a select and invited few would be allowed to have a look, and Brooks was one of the select few. The theaters were all mostly still intact—visually, at least. Building and fire inspectors poked around, finding in more than one old theater interior caches of wallets and purses, many with ID’s intact, stashed there by pickpockets who’d managed to get in over the years to look at their haul and remove the cash and credit cards, and burrow away the rest to avoid being caught with the looted detritus.
[But aside from the crumbling architecture, the buildings were too deteriorated to be salvaged—and the cost of remaking a theater, a somewhat unique structure that’s hard to remake for any other purpose, would be prohibitive. So they were all eventually demolished and replaced by higher-rise building that became NYU residence halls and apartment buildings with commercial spaces on the lower levels.
[So, that was the enticement of hearing what the rebuilders of the Beacon Theatre in Port Washington in Nassau County had found and what they planned to do with the 100-year-old movie palace. (My dad was in the movie-theater business in Washington, D.C., when I was a boy, and in the late 1950s, some of the company’s houses were no longer viable structurally. The problem was that no one could figure out what to do with them aside from tearing them gown; the only idea anyone came up with was to turn them into trampoline centers—that was a fad at the time—but how may of those could a small city support?)
[But the new owners of the Long
Island Beacon found the old theater “had a treasure inside, discovered when [the
developer] started demolishing the walls.”
Among other finds, there was gold hidden above a drop ceiling, century-old
hand carvings, plaster work, intricate molding details from the 1920s, a grand
stage flanked by gold-leafed columns topped with a crest, arches with original drapes,
hand-painted silk wall coverings, and bronze patina railings.]
“THE SHOWS WILL GO
ON:
PLANS ARE UNDERWAY
TO TRANSFORM CLOSED
LANDMARK THEATER
INTO A $15M ENTERTAINMENT VENUE”
by Joshua Needelman
[Below are reposted two reports from Newsday (Nassau edition; Melville, Long Island, NY), both by Joshua Needelman. The first was posted on 17 January 2025.]
Plans underway to restore, transform closed Beacon Theater in Port Washington
Moviegoers mourned the Bow Tie Cinema on Main Street in Port Washington [Nassau County, on western Long Island] when it closed its doors in 2018. It has sat dormant ever since, another symbol of the nationwide decline of the movie theater industry – and a reminder of the loss of one of the peninsula’s most treasured venues.
[Bow Tie Cinemas was founded in 1900 as the B. S. Moss Motion Picture Company, venues for nickelodeons and then venues for Vaudeville and a film production company. In the 1930s, the vaudeville program was phased out in favor or the movie business. It’s the oldest surviving film-exhibition company and, as of 2013, the eighth-largest movie theater chain in the United States.
[In 2004, the company changed its name to Bow Tie Cinemas, referring to the intersection of Broadway and 45th Street in Manhattan, known as the “Bow Tie” of Times Square because of its shape. (See my remarks on Times Square in “Rick's Guide to New York, Part 1,” 29 November 2024.) In October 2023, the company renamed its remaining seven theaters BTM Cinemas (for “Big Time Movies”).]
But before it was a multiplex, the building, which opened in 1927, was known as the Beacon Theater: A glitzy, multiuse entertainment hub with red velvet seats, an orchestra pit, a single screen and a stage that hosted live shows.
[Port Washington’s Beacon Theatre should not be confused with the Beacon Theatre on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, which opened in 1929. Note, too, that though this newspaper, as well as others, have spelled the venue’s name “Theater,” my research indicates that, at least in its earlier days, it was spelled “Theatre.”]
Now, Lou B. Branchinelli [New York-based promoter, artist manager, and event producer; b. 1977] is channeling the space’s past – and literally uncovering it bit by bit – as he maps out its future. After a developer purchased the building, Branchinelli leased the space and created Beacon LLC with plans of launching the Beacon Theater of Long Island in 2026 as a dinner theater.
The $15 million venue will host everything from concerts to bar mitzvahs, with a throwback interior that resembles the original design of the theater, Branchinelli said.
“The whole thing is going to look like the 1920s when you walk in,” he said. “We’re looking to do something that is going to redefine dining and entertainment and catering into one facility.”
Branchinelli, who has been producing concerts, shows, private events and more on Long Island for more than two decades, noticed during the pandemic that restaurant owners were starting to bring entertainment to their establishments more frequently. In the absence of freedom of movement because of COVID-19 restrictions, people would sit at their tables for long stretches.
“I think it retrained the customer,” he said. “You would make a whole night of it. . . . People weren’t going bar hopping or restaurant hopping, or from a restaurant to a show.”
He started brainstorming, and in March 2023, Branchinelli and Brad Thurman, a friend and developer, took a tour of the 30,000-square-foot facility. To Branchinelli’s knowledge, it had always been a movie theater. Then, he took a peek in the supply closet. Behind an opening in the wall was a large white pole, adorned with golden leaves.
He had heard of the old Beacon Theater, he said. He didn’t know he was standing in it.
“I was like ‘Oh my god,’” Branchinelli said.
‘The Beacon is under here’
He did an online search and learned the history of the building. The pole, he realized, had been part of the stage. His mind raced with possibilities.
When the building was converted into a full-time movie theater, around the 1970s, its classic infrastructure wasn’t destroyed. It was simply built over, with screens, walls and seats installed on top of the old accouterments.
“They built multiple movie theater rooms, so they put walls over the old Beacon Theater, and they divided up the rooms and they put it behind Sheetrock,” Branchinelli said. “So when we started opening up the walls, we were like ‘Oh my god, the Beacon is under here.’ “
In September 2023, Thurman purchased the building for $2.85 million. Then, last November, the Town of North Hempstead’s Board of Zoning Appeals permitted the men to move forward with the project. Around 20 residents came to the Nov. 20 meeting to express their support for it. [Port Washington is a hamlet in the Town of North Hempstead.]
“Residents really cared about revitalizing the area and getting a use that they’d enjoy,” said Nancy Shahverdi [b. 1980], the town’s commissioner of planning. “It will attract people from out of town as well, which will help the economy and other businesses in the area.”
Next on the team’s list is to begin demolition, pending a permit. Branchinelli, who plans to bring on a group of investors, expects to be granted the permit in the next few weeks.
He is eager to uncover more historical features and find creative ways to work them into the modern infrastructure, drawn up by the Huntington-based mother-daughter design duo Gail Cipriano [b. 1963; owner of Gail Cipriano Design Studios, Huntington, Long Island] and Taylor Giamanco [b. 1997; Lead Designer, GCDS].
[Huntington is in Suffolk County, the easternmost county on Long Island.]
The designers envision a “super lux” space, Cipriano said, with a maximum capacity of 468 and the Beacon’s original crest positioned on the outside of the building.
In a Facebook post, Giamanco called the building a “gem from the Gatsby era” and the restoration an “invitation to revive the glamour of the Roaring Twenties.”
Drawing from elsewhere
“There’s also going to be a big community aspect,” said Leyalanny Mata [b. ca. 1981; Major Accounts Development Manager, Worldnet International, New York], a Port Washington resident and the project’s community development consultant.
The theater, though, is about a five-minute walk from the LIRR, which Mariann Dalimonte [b. ca. 1968], the North Hempstead councilperson representing Port Washington, said could attract visitors from New York City.
“They don’t need a taxi, it’s literally right here,” she said.
Mata said she heard from numerous people eager to see the space once again become an institution. She recalled one woman who said she had seen Bette Davis [1908-89] perform there.
“People have history here,” Mata said. “People remember really amazing stuff here.”
That hint of nostalgia already is in the air: On a frigid early January afternoon, as Branchinelli, Mata, Cipriano and Giamanco conducted tours of the space, “All of Me” by Frank Sinatra [1915-98; “All of Me” was released in 1954 on Swing Easy!] blared through the speaker.
“Your goodbye . . . left me eyes that cry,” Sinatra crooned, as if taking on the community’s feelings toward the historic building. “How can I . . . get along . . . without you?”
RESTORING THE BEACON
■ The Beacon Theater opened in 1927 on Main Street in Port Washington. It was a multiuse entertainment hub with red velvet seats, an orchestra pit, a single screen and a stage that hosted live shows.
■ The landmark had become a multiplex cinema before it closed its doors in 2018.
■ After a developer purchased it in 2023, plans are underway to launch the Beacon Theater of Long Island next year as a dinner theater.
[Joshua Needelman covers the Town of North Hempstead (Nassau County) for Long Island’s Newsday. A Long Island native and University of Maryland graduate, his work has appeared in publications including the New York Times and the Washington Post.]
* *
* *
“A BEACON INTO THE
PAST:
WORK UNCOVERS
1920S VENUE HIDDEN
UNDER FORMER MOVIE
HOUSE”
by Joshua Needelman
Hidden treasures of the 1920s-era Beacon Theater revealed during construction work
One hundred years after the publication of “The Great Gatsby” [1925], the classic F. Scott Fitzgerald [1896-1940] novel set on the North Shore of Nassau County, Lou B. Branchinelli uncovered a relic from the Roaring ’20s in Port Washington.
A demolition of the inside of the former Bow Tie Cinemas movie theater on Main Street revealed Beaux Arts-style architectural accoutrements from the old Beacon Theater that had been hiding underneath.
Carved columns. Original paintings. Brown curtains along the walls. A cartouche with a lion above the stage. A ceiling medallion. An orchestra pit. When the building was transformed into a movie theater decades ago, the owners did not destroy the previous layout – they simply built over it.
Branchinelli, owner of Beacon LLC, had planned to channel the spirit of the old Beacon, a glitzy entertainment venue that opened in 1927, in the construction of the new $15 million Beacon Theater of Long Island. The venue is expected to open in 2026 as a dinner theater that will host comedy shows, concerts, weddings, bar and bat mitzvahs and more.
But as the old walls came down, Branchinelli realized he could incorporate the historical flourishes of the original Beacon into the building’s new iteration.
“It changed the complete design,” Branchinelli said in an interview. “After you see it like this, you want to keep as much as you can. So we had to figure out, OK, how do you restore that? How do you restore that?”
Design plans reworked
The mother-daughter Huntington-based design team of Gail Cipriano and Taylor Giamanco are working on new floor plans to reflect the discoveries.
“Our initial concept kind of had this vibe, but now, the original architecture being there, we’re going to pivot our floor plan to respect it,” Cipriano said in an interview.
Demolition began in January, after the Town of North Hempstead’s Board of Zoning Appeals approved the project in November. The work should be completed by the end of May, Branchinelli said.
The next phase – restoring the old architectural elements and plastering the walls – is expected to start shortly after that.
The demolition also offered the team a better understanding of the room’s space.
The Bow Tie Cinemas closed in 2018. When the crew tore down the two movie theaters on the top floor, they revealed the original theater’s mezzanine. Branchinelli discovered a clear sight line from there to the stage.
That floor, which was supposed to include a private room and the kitchen, will now feature additional seating for guests.
“The line of sight from the top to the bottom . . . exists. We didn’t know if it existed,” Branchinelli said.
The room is also more open than the team initially expected. Leyalanny Mata, a Port Washington resident and the project’s community development consultant, said the vast space will allow the building to host more types of events, like fashion shows, yoga retreats and cooking demonstrations.
“The only way for us to honor it, and keep it as what it is, and not have another multiplex come here in 20 years to try to buy out, is to have the versatility,” Mata said.
Can’t ‘fake it’
Branchinelli, who has worked in entertainment for decades, said he’s noticed a trend in recent years of people craving entertainment reminiscent of a bygone [era] – both in terms of architecture and experience.
“The idea of going back to when times were beautiful and classy is something that I think people are longing for,” Mata said. “They’re finding it in some places, but there’s nothing like that on Long Island.”
The modern entertainment experience, Mata said, has become impersonal: Customers order meals and drinks on QR codes, and are then rushed away from their table. The new Beacon will look to channel a time when “you actually spoke to your waiter and had a conversation with them,” she said.
Part of the appeal of the new Beacon, Branchinelli hopes, will be that it won’t just feel like it’s from a different time. Much of it actually is.
“It doesn’t work when you fake it,” he said, sitting on a railing in the mezzanine. “To see a room that is really history right in front of you . . . is incredible.”
Found beneath the Bow Tie
■ When developers demolished the inside of the former Bow Tie Cinemas, historic accoutrements revealed themselves.
■ The Bow Tie Cinemas were built over the historic Beacon Theater, which opened in 1927.
■ Among the findings: Carved columns, original paintings and brown curtains along the walls. There was also an orchestra pit, a cartouche with a lion above the stage and a ceiling medallion.
[The Beacon Theatre in Port Washington, at 116 Main Street, was a long-standing movie theater and local landmark, operating at 116 Main Street. Originally constructed in 1926, it started as a 1,500-seat, single-screen theater showing both silent films and “talkies,” eventually becoming a multiplex. The Beacon Theatre opened in 1927, initially featuring stage shows, silent films, and eventually “talkies” in the 1930s.
[The Beacon was known for its grand interior, including a large stage, orchestra pit, and a pipe organ. In 1976, it was one of the first local theaters to be triplexed, with the balcony becoming one theater and two more downstairs. In 1985, the Beacon was converted into a quad (with two screens upstairs), then a five-plex (with the old stage being turned into a screening room), and finally a seven-plex in 1989, with the addition of two “theaters” that held around forty people over six rows of beat-up seats.
[What became the Bow Tie Cinemas
in 2013 was ultimately converted into a multiplex with 11 screening rooms. The Bow Tie closed in January
2018, but was sold at the end of September 2023 to Tribeca Mews Ltd., a Long
Island-based real estate company, and is undergoing an approximately $2.85
million renovation with plans for a new purpose, possibly as an entertainment
venue.]