# 97: The Bellmore Playhouse

Since Sunday night, Feb. 27, marks the 83rd Academy Awards ceremony, it only seems fitting to highlight the Bellmore Playhouse this week.

With seven screens usually boasting the most popular of first-run films, it’s very likely that many a Bellmorite has seen an Oscar pick here over the years (this year, for example, perhaps "Black Swan" or "True Grit," which are still running as of this writing).

Today, Bellmore’s own “in our village” multiplex is a popular place to take both th kids and dates alike. Like most local movie houses, the Bellmore Playhouse began its life as a typical small-town single-screen theater. Nothing much made it stand out from so many others, it seems, with the possible exception of the rumor that, during the 1950s, popcorn was not allowed or sold on the premises, and that an early projectionist there was a towering man known as “Tiny.”

Later, the place became a twin theater, and then closed during the 1980s to sit abandoned for close to two decades until remodeled into its current multiplex state. It reopened in the early 2000s. 

Unlike its cinematic cousin the Bellmore Movies (last week’s choice #98) a few blocks away, the Bellmore Playhouse features a variety of films sufficient to compete with the best of Long Island’s larger multiplex chains. The movies now showing, for example, run the gamut, from appealing to young children (“Gnomeo & Juliet”), tweens (“Justin Bieber Never Say Never”) and teens (“Just Go With It"), to nearly anyone else of varied interests and tastes (“Black Swan” and “True Grit”). 

Nicely priced at $10 for adults, $7 for children and seniors, this neighborhood feature film house offers a variety of snacks and beverages in addition to traditional popcorn and candy. Also, special arrangements can be made to hold children’s parties and fundraisers there.

The historic Hollywood Kodak Theatre this is not, but the Bellmore Playhouse surely earns Oscar status as a destination of choice in our community  -- a very popular “thing to do!" 

Be sure to come back here next Tuesday for idea #96! Click here if you missed the previous posts.