Here’s a great photo of the Park Row theater in it’s early days. There’s another theater a few buildings now, but can’t make out the name of it. Anyone know?
That is exactly the point that doesn’t make sense in the Daily News article and why I seemingly “overreacted”. While we all know the Ridgewood was put together with bandaids near the end of it’s theater life, it still was completely operational. How does it turn into “shambles and nothing left” in just two years? THAT is what I find hard to believe. I totally understand that whatever goes into it needs to be profitable. However, to say that “it’s all gone and nothing is left” on the inside is utterly impossible, as it was still an operational theater just 2 years ago! Theaters that sat for decades still had “stuff left”, and while dire straights weren’t “in shambles”.
As I said, two things could have happened here, either the Daily News article exaggerated or took comments out of context", which is a possibility, or something underhanded is going on here. I hope it’s the former and not the latter.
Yes, I do too. My apology is only for attacking Paul Kerzner (as I don’t know what context it was taken in), however, my feeling that something is wrong here stands. I still don’t understand how a theater that was operational, just 2 years ago (although granted needing maitenance) can all of a sudden be in “shambles” and “nothing left”. SOMETHING is wrong with this whole thing.
I apologize for perhaps overreacting. I guess I was just “in shock” when I read that article and people were quoted as saying “it’s all gone”, which I found hard to believe, based on observations put for here.
It is possible that the author did perhaps put their own thought into the article, above facts, and that the people quoted were taken out of context, which is also possible.
Yes, I agree, something is fishy here. Paul Kerzner has always been very active in preservation, and now all of a sudden “all is lost”? Give me a break, something is terribly fishy here. I suspect “real estate commission” has gotten in his way in this instance. As noted, the theater was an operating theater just 2 years ago, and now it’s “too far gone”. Tell me another one.
I believe it is against the policy of the website to do that, or at least it used to be. In any event, it still has to be hosted elsewhere to be able to post through codes in the website here, such as sites like photobucket, or private sites. You can’t upload directly here.
I hope that is not the case, but I find it hard to believe the theater could be this trashed in just over a 2 years, it was an operating theater.
The Madison did have that “mysterious” fire in the late 70’s. And let’s not forget what happened deliberately to the RKO Keiths in Flushing. I am not not suggesting any of that took place here, however, I am hoping that the “shambles” that is described in that article is just an exaggeration, as I still find it very hard to believe the place could have went from an operating theater just two years ago to “everything is lost” and “shambles”. Something is either being exaggerated here, or something is wrong.
This unfortunate reality seems to mirror how Disney has let Pleasure Island itself to be destroyed. The whole area around Pleasure Island is a shadow of what it once was in the 1990’s. Sad.
Wow, I just read the article. I don’t see how the theater could have gone from an operating theater in 2008 to shambles in just two years. Something doesn’t add up here. I know it wasn’t in the greatest of maintenance when it closed, but give me a break.
Peter, from reports somewhere above, the fake walls dividing the two orchestra level theaters was removed, so downstairs is one large space again. I don’t think the fake walls dividing up the balcony were removed at this point.
As for “being in bad shape”. It’s not necessarily that the theater is in “terrible shape”, but to begin renovating to reuse it, and upgrade everything (which was extremely old even when it was operating), would take a log of money. And it would have to be profitable. That is the dilemma. I just hope that if they do retrofit the theater for other uses, that they are “kinder” to the architectural features than they were with the Madison down the street, which just seemed to have a jackhammer go through it.
In order to post a photo here, it has to be uploaded already on some photo software site like photobucket.com. Once you do that, you can put in the link to it. You can’t directly upload them here.
Yes. There were three theaters here, all right next to eachother. Actually, there were 4 at one time. The Madison Theater, a small, little known theater used to adjoin the RKO Bushwick, to it’s left at the corner of Madison and Broadway…. It’s listed here on the site under Madison (not to be confused with the RKO Madison in Ridgewood on Myrtle).
I don’t think the future of it looked good even before now, wasn’t there a scavenge sale inside the theater some months ago selling off all the theater’s fixtures?
Ahh, thanks, I am confused then. I thought it was the legit one. Sorry, my mistake.
Thanks!
Here’s a very early photo of this theater. It was called ‘Gramercy Photoplays" at the time:
View link
Here’s a great photo of the Park Row theater in it’s early days. There’s another theater a few buildings now, but can’t make out the name of it. Anyone know?
View link
A great article of the renovated theater with some great photos:
View link
Here is a photo of the Hippodrome in the 1930s
View link
Here’s a photo Radio City when the El still ran in front of it:
View link
Here’s the link:
View link
Here’s a very early photo of the Colony Theater
So I assume this has nothing to do with the Shore Theater?
That is exactly the point that doesn’t make sense in the Daily News article and why I seemingly “overreacted”. While we all know the Ridgewood was put together with bandaids near the end of it’s theater life, it still was completely operational. How does it turn into “shambles and nothing left” in just two years? THAT is what I find hard to believe. I totally understand that whatever goes into it needs to be profitable. However, to say that “it’s all gone and nothing is left” on the inside is utterly impossible, as it was still an operational theater just 2 years ago! Theaters that sat for decades still had “stuff left”, and while dire straights weren’t “in shambles”.
As I said, two things could have happened here, either the Daily News article exaggerated or took comments out of context", which is a possibility, or something underhanded is going on here. I hope it’s the former and not the latter.
Yes, I do too. My apology is only for attacking Paul Kerzner (as I don’t know what context it was taken in), however, my feeling that something is wrong here stands. I still don’t understand how a theater that was operational, just 2 years ago (although granted needing maitenance) can all of a sudden be in “shambles” and “nothing left”. SOMETHING is wrong with this whole thing.
I apologize for perhaps overreacting. I guess I was just “in shock” when I read that article and people were quoted as saying “it’s all gone”, which I found hard to believe, based on observations put for here.
It is possible that the author did perhaps put their own thought into the article, above facts, and that the people quoted were taken out of context, which is also possible.
Here’s a historic photo of the Fox:
http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?112835
Yes, I agree, something is fishy here. Paul Kerzner has always been very active in preservation, and now all of a sudden “all is lost”? Give me a break, something is terribly fishy here. I suspect “real estate commission” has gotten in his way in this instance. As noted, the theater was an operating theater just 2 years ago, and now it’s “too far gone”. Tell me another one.
I believe it is against the policy of the website to do that, or at least it used to be. In any event, it still has to be hosted elsewhere to be able to post through codes in the website here, such as sites like photobucket, or private sites. You can’t upload directly here.
I hope that is not the case, but I find it hard to believe the theater could be this trashed in just over a 2 years, it was an operating theater.
The Madison did have that “mysterious” fire in the late 70’s. And let’s not forget what happened deliberately to the RKO Keiths in Flushing. I am not not suggesting any of that took place here, however, I am hoping that the “shambles” that is described in that article is just an exaggeration, as I still find it very hard to believe the place could have went from an operating theater just two years ago to “everything is lost” and “shambles”. Something is either being exaggerated here, or something is wrong.
This unfortunate reality seems to mirror how Disney has let Pleasure Island itself to be destroyed. The whole area around Pleasure Island is a shadow of what it once was in the 1990’s. Sad.
Wow, I just read the article. I don’t see how the theater could have gone from an operating theater in 2008 to shambles in just two years. Something doesn’t add up here. I know it wasn’t in the greatest of maintenance when it closed, but give me a break.
Peter, from reports somewhere above, the fake walls dividing the two orchestra level theaters was removed, so downstairs is one large space again. I don’t think the fake walls dividing up the balcony were removed at this point.
As for “being in bad shape”. It’s not necessarily that the theater is in “terrible shape”, but to begin renovating to reuse it, and upgrade everything (which was extremely old even when it was operating), would take a log of money. And it would have to be profitable. That is the dilemma. I just hope that if they do retrofit the theater for other uses, that they are “kinder” to the architectural features than they were with the Madison down the street, which just seemed to have a jackhammer go through it.
In order to post a photo here, it has to be uploaded already on some photo software site like photobucket.com. Once you do that, you can put in the link to it. You can’t directly upload them here.
I think the New Amsterdam on 42nd St was in worse shape, and they managed to recreate what was missing.
Yes. There were three theaters here, all right next to eachother. Actually, there were 4 at one time. The Madison Theater, a small, little known theater used to adjoin the RKO Bushwick, to it’s left at the corner of Madison and Broadway…. It’s listed here on the site under Madison (not to be confused with the RKO Madison in Ridgewood on Myrtle).
I don’t think the future of it looked good even before now, wasn’t there a scavenge sale inside the theater some months ago selling off all the theater’s fixtures?
Hayar, the link isn’t working.