Ridgewood Theatre

You’re welcome, Mike. I must confess I have no idea whatsoever as to what’s going on inside the Ridgewood Theatre.

I passed by the Ridgewood Theatre 11 a.m. this morning Friday November 5 2010, on my way to work, after buying pants at Carl’s Army and Navy Store next door, as I have been doing for at least the past forty years.

No change in the theatre since I last passed by. No phone number or message on the marquee. There are five or six mannequin heads with made-up faces and wigs on them in the box office. Between the outer open mesh gate and the doors into the inner lobby is a boom box on a table and four or five desk chairs on wheels.

Last time I passed by (last month), the gate was up, the boom box was playing, and there were four or five loud Hispanic-sounding guys sitting in those chairs and arguing loudly and profanely, about what, I cared not to listen to.

Not that I will ever get back on here,but i had to see what was so great about this Theatre.Seems like it could be ANY theatre and a lot of off topic stuff That i get jumped on doing myself.Next time, i am telling them to get on this theatre and see a bunch of off topic things.Still this must be the greatest theatre in the World.Have a nice day,guys.

I look forward to your assessment. Thank you, Peter!

Any update?

Nothinh happening in the last month?

I am not really pessimistic but am discouraged by the reasoning that there is more talk about restoring the theater on CT then there is by people who can really do something about it by coming up with the fianances.

Larry 2 sounds somewhat pessimistic, which makes one a defeatist. Let’s have some creativity and originality here, so it can fuel our efforts as preservationists and theater buffs.

With the economy in such bad shape, no one id going to spend the money to put this old theater back. That’s the reality of the situation.

Case closed!

Until Peter’s update arrived yesterday, Luis' comments – to which I totally concur – pretty much stopped the previous discussion in its tracks – as it should have. I would now like to provide a few additional comments regarding this matter – and a few others.

While gaining the exterior landmarks designation was a huge accomplishment – and one for which Michael Perlman’s ceaseless activities deserve prime, although not exclusive, credit – this achievement pales in difficulty from the task of turning the old theater into a positive – and hopefully cinema friendly – use.

Besides the fact that this action had no price tag, gaining designation basically required supporters to convince one constituency – the Landmarks Commission itself. While a demonstration of community support can certainly help, it is hardly decisive in this context. This was clearly seen in the Ridgewood’s case, where the amount of active support from CURRENT neighborhood residents and civic leaders was meager at best. This was vividly illustrated to me when I contacted local Community Board 5 during the landmarks review and asked if the Board was taking a stand on this issue. The response I received was essentially: “We are aware of this issue, but we have more important items on our agenda” – which they certainly have. (Fortunately, no community leader opposed the designation, which could have been lethal, but this only underlines the fact that “saving the Ridgewood” was on very few of the local’s radar screen.)

Now, when it comes to making an economic go of this new landmark, the calculus changes radically. As the supporters of the Loews King realized all through their long – and hardly complete – campaign to rescue this gem, support from the local political, civic and economic leadership is absolutely essential to attract willing developers and the private and public funding needed to make this work. And, through literally decades of hard work, they were able to develop a critical mass of support – from the Borough President to the local economic develop organization – who not only joined the campaign but put their money where their mouth is. (Given the nearly heroic extent of these efforts – and the theater’s clear architectural superiority, asking the Lowes King crowd to share some of its “wealth” with the Ridgewood is, to put it mildly, wildly inappropriate.)

In stark contrast, the campaign to revive the Ridgewood is hardly off the ground and has been essentially dependent upon the current owner who, despite sincere efforts, has apparently failed in attracting the needed financing. Thus, if this effort is to go anywhere, a critical mass of active support must be developed from a local leadership whose level of enthusiasm has been, at best, mild. These are the groups supporters of the Ridgewood, who are simply not
part of this power structure, need to engage. This will not be an easy thing to pull off, to put it mildly, but it represents the only realistic alternative.

Furthermore,given the need to attract other developers, supporters of the Ridgewood will do their cause no service by supporting measures that might deter potential investers from committing cash to this project. To this end, I would like to propose a moratorium on any additional comments supporting the landmarking of any portion of the Ridgewood’s interior. On the other hand, commitments to voluntarily preserve the lobby and staircase should certainly be encouraged. (This is the worst possible time to support compulsory actions.)

I know some of you will not like what I have said here. I did not like writing this piece myself. But I believe it is far more important for all supporters of the Ridgewood to, looking ahead, take a clear eyed view of the very real hurdles that must be surmounted if something positive is ever to occur here. One of the most painful pages on this site concerns the former Commodore Theater in Williamsburg. What made this page so difficult to read were the pure pipedream solutions to “save the Commodore”, most of which bore no rational relationship to economic reality, that were being confidently asserted almost until the day the wrecking ball began to do its damage. I don’t want this type of discussion to occur were. Yes, let us be optimists, but let us also, at all times, have our feet firmly set on the ground.

I totally disagree. The Kings has nothing to do with the Ridgewood nor should it. The Ridgewood needs to stand on its own and raise its own independent money just like those who fought for so many years to come up with a viable plan with the city to rescue and restore the Kings.

How would you like it if the Ridgewood received a grant for restoration and then other lesser theaters decided they wanted some of that money for themselves. You wouldn’t. I reiterate, leave the Loew’s Kings out of this mess.

With all due respect to people who love the Ridgewood (and there are many) contacting the EDC to use some of the money allocated to the restoration of the Loew’s Kings is ridiculous! The Kings is one of the most spectacular movie palaces ever built and certainly among the most beautiful. The $70MM was allocated for a reason. It will cost that much to restore it to its original beauty and NONE of its dedicated funds should be reallocated; especially after the theater sat empty for over 30 years while people worked extremely hard to save it.

The Ridgewood, though historic as one of the nation’s oldest movie theaters, doesn’t begin to compare to the Kings on almost any level. It is a rather plain neighborhood theater with great sentimental value to people who grew up there. The facade, which is distinctive, has been landmarked and rightly so, but not the interior. Please leave the Kings alone.

If new money were to be allocated by the city to restore another movie palace, my vote would be to assist the Brooklyn Paramount, Loew’s Canal or the RKO Keiths Flushing before allocating any money to the Ridgewood.