Summer 2012 Preview: Dan’s Favorites—Westhampton Beach

I have been asked, using my vast experience for the past 52 years with Dan’s Papers, to give you the very favorite things I enjoy out here. Don’t tell anybody about any of them. This is just for you.

Right on Main Street in the center of downtown Westhampton Beach sits a gem of a movie theatre, kept up as it was originally built in 1932, with faithful restorations made when necessary—of the brightly lit marquee, the ticket booth with the brass bars, the chandelier, the lobby, the red silk wallpaper and the fabric upholstered seats. Films by Fritz Lang were premiered here. You could watch the Wizard of Oz and North by Northwest here in their time.

About 15 years ago, the theatre was taken over in a coup engineered by some wild artists, actors, producers and playwrights to become the Westhampton Beach Performing Art Center or WBPAC. The movie people ran off. It has been in these rebel hands since. And very few movies now get shown there.