Long Island's Hidden Past: Jones Beach Theater
Chances are that summer means a Jones Beach Theater concert in your life! But what do you know about the theater's creation? In today's Long Island's Hidden Past, Danielle Campbell looks at the story
News 12 Staff
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Jul 1, 2015, 2:46 PM
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Updated 3,220 days ago
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Chances are that summer means a Jones Beach Theater concert in your life! But what do you know about the theater's creation?
In today's Long Island's Hidden Past, Danielle Campbell looks at the story of the theater's architect.
It was the 1930s and Robert Moses, perhaps the most powerful man in New York State, was moving ahead with his public parks project.
His crown jewel, Jones Beach State Park, was near completion. And Charles Salvatore Amoreno, an architect from Babylon, was helping Moses make it happen.
Amoreno was part of the team of architects who did the Jones Beach Water Town in the 1930s.
In 1950, Moses made Amoreno the senior architect for one of Long Island's most beloved and unique venues - the Jones Beach Marine Theater.
Amoreno's grandson says that his grandmother tells the story of how they went to Radio City Music Hall to look at the seating there and figure out how he was going to do it.
The floating theater, considered an architectural feat, was equipped with a revolving center stage and an underwater tunnel.
Amoreno died four years after the theater opened, but before that, he spent many nights dining and dancing under the stars with the stars.
