Thanks. I’m sorry, but I really did search for this theater before I “readded it”. I think what threw me was that I searched for “Fox Star” when I was looking for it, and I didn’t have the exact address when I originally added it.
Thank you for saving the messages from my addition though. At least they were saved.
Is this the Orpheum Theater that is used currently in some car commercial that has this excited person thinking that they are a big “star” as they run into the theater, but then to their disappointment all their screaming “fans” were really screaming because of the car that pulled up in front of the Orpheum. If it is, it’s an amazingly beautiful neon marquee.
I checked IMDb and the Friday the 13th I saw at the Ridgewood was “Jason Lives Part IV”. That was the last regular movie I saw at the Ridgewood, and that is listed as coming out in 1986. That was the last time I used the Ridgewood as my “regular” theater. As a teenager, it was more fun to go on the subway, and take that to Forest Hills. That was part of the fun of going to the movie (even though my mother thought we were safely walking to the Ridgewood Theater the first times we did that as teenagers.
After that, a few years later I returned for “Problem Child” with John Ritter, and that was in 1990, so that’s the last time I set foot in the Ridgewood.
Friday the 13th was in the balcony theater on the right, and we sat all the way on the right in that theater. I remember clearly where we sat. We sat in the first row in back of the stairway that you enter that theater in. I remember very clearly the fancy ballastraudes of the original railing right in front of us. (That we actually used as a footrest). The whole theater was painted a dark brown (as well as the ballastraudes). The ceiling, walls, floor, everything. You could still see the right hand curve of the ornamental plaster in the ceiling that abrubtly ended where the wall dividing the center theater from the right theater was.
Problem Child, I saw in the center balcony theater. I remember looking up and seeing the center of that plaster circle, with it’s left and right sides abrubtly cut off with the walls on either side.
I believe I saw Beverly Hills Cop in the left had balcony theater. That is where I had one of my fondest memories in the Ridgewood, where it was bright outside, and the person I was with and I tripped up the aisle “steps” in what we though was a dark theater, and trying to find seats and “sitting on people”, and to our horror a about 15 minutes later looking in what seemed to be a “well lit” aisle, and the fools we must have looked like to the people that witnessed our spectacle.
I seemed to always get one of the balcony theaters when I went. I only remember being in the orchestra level theater once since it was cut up, and that was for a double feature the Ridgewood offered with “The Fly” and “Aliens”. That was in the left orchestra theater. I remember sitting right next to the wall dividing the orchestra level in two.
I don’t think I ever sat in the right orchestra side of the Ridgewood since it was one theater.
And yes, who knows, we may have passed each other many times and may not even know it.
Peter, I also saw “A View to a Kill” in the Ridgewood! In 1985, I still used the Ridgewood regularly, shortly after though, I abandoned it for the Forest Hills theaters, only to return once for one of the Friday the 13th Movies (Whatever one was the one where he is at the bottom of Crystal Lake, and revives at the beginning of the movie, I think Part 6), and the last movie I saw there being “Problem Child” whenever that was out in the early 90’s.
Actually, yes, fire was a big thing in Patchogue’s Main St’s past. I have a book on Patchogue’s history, and there is one photo of a fire after another. The one you mention on the Southeast corner of the four corners was a huge one. Dept store fires, store fires, and of course the famous fire at Swezey’s. So much of Patchogue’s Main St went up in flames. And of course, to keep on topic, Patchogue’s Rialto Theater on South Ocean Ave also burned to the ground.
Ahh, thank you. I didn’t realize there were 3 floors. Funny, the building across the street also had a fire that knocked the 3rd floor off the building. They then added a new third floor on some years later, and it doesn’t at all match the brickwork of the original building. The third floor is done in a “modern” 60’s style.
Currently the buildings still do have a second floor though. The buildings don’t look “that” old though. They probably date to the early 60’s, so they may have replaced the buildings where the fire was.
The Film Daily Yearbook is wrong. Railroad Ave and West Ave intersects Main Street at West Main Street. The theater was on the block between Railroad Ave and West Ave.
….and now that the bad movie trailers have been played in this thread in the Jamaica Multiplex, maybe the movie can finally begin, and we can get back to the real reason we all visit this site.
I know I said I wasn’t saying anymore on this, but just this one thing. I certainly wouldn’t want to see him gone, as he has posted plenty of valuable infomation, and is informative. However, at the same time, so does Robert post interesting and valuable information, and he didn’t deserve to be attacked like that. Again, I welcome accurate information, but it should be posted in such away that it isn’t putting people down.
We all make mistakes in some things we post. A simple “I think this is incorrect, and it should be….” is all that’s needed.
We can all live together, as most of the people here have valuable information to share.
Thanks for that information. I passed by the Pantages Theater about two weeks ago, and it really looked great. I didn’t realize that the old marquee had been covered, and then uncovered. Disney has done a lot for a few old theaters. In Manhattan, of course the most famous example is the old glorious New Amsterdam theater, which now houses the Lion King (but I think had Aida for a while, but could be mistaken). The meticulously restored it to it’s former glory.
Of course, also in Hollywood, Disney restored the El Capitan Theater. It looks beautiful all lit up outside at night. That marquee, while it does have an look old look, is sort of interesting. They installed one of those modern digital signs on the three sides, and had sort of poster pictures of the film that is playing. When I was there, they were showing a rerelease of “Pirates of the Caribean”, and that was in the digital display on the marquee. Very attractive.
I agree, a simple “I believe the above information is incorrect, the correct information is…..” is all that’s, not belittling remarks. This is supposed to be a community of people who want to talk about theaters, not a contest on who knows the most.
That is all I will say about this matter.
What is interesting about the restoration of the RKO Keith’s Richmond Hill’s marquee was that they didn’t realize it was all still back there when they were going to “recreate” it. When they ripped the covering from the marquee (that must have been installed in the 1950’s over the original), there was the old marquee in it’s former diamond in the rough glory. They then restored the old original marquee instead of recreating it. Thankfully, it now remains as such today.
I believe I read about this in a Richmond Hill website.
What is interesting about the restoration of the RKO Keith’s Richmond Hill’s marquee was that they didn’t realize it was all still back there when they were going to “recreate” it. When they ripped the covering from the marquee (that must have been installed in the 1950’s over the original), there was the old marquee in it’s former diamond in the rough glory. They then restored the old original marquee instead of recreating it. Thankfully, it now remains as such today.
Tom Scott. Yes it is speculation that the Madison and the Ridgewood could not have survived together, and yes it is speculation that the RKO Ridgewood Theatre could not have survived, or that the only thing that could have saved the RKO Madison was multiplexing.
However, this is not entirely not based on facts. History shows us that most of the neighborhood theaters in the city could not survive as single screen theaters once the 1980’s came around, and especially two so close together, only a block or two apart, and while the neighborhood never fell completely like Bushwick, the area right around the RKO Madison and the Ridgewood to a lesser extent was in decline in the 1970’s.
I stand by my statement that the Ridgewood Theater and the Madison could not survive together into the 1980’s, and especially as single screen theaters. And if both had been multiplexed, even then only one would have prevailed (or both might be gone as neither would probably have been lucrative pulling for the same customers if both were multiplexed). It was either the Madison or the Ridgewood, it couldn’t be both, and whichever survived had to be multiplexed, and in this case the Ridgewood prevailed.
I don’t know anything about the proper name for this theater, as I have never even set foot in it, however, in tradition, National Amusements used to always call their multiplexes, in the past anyway:
“……..Multiplex Cinemas” as in Brookhaven Multiplex Cinemas (now closed), and Commack Multiplex Cinemas (soon closing). Currently NA has other ways of of naming them as they build the “de lux” theaters, but “Jamaica Multiplex Cinemas” probably should at least be the second name above, as that seems fitting to many of NA’s multiplexes, and the official National Amusements website lists it as “Jamaica Multiplex Cinemas”: View link
National Amusements Jamaica Center could be the former name or another name that had been used at one time, so maybe it sould become the “secondary” name above.
Yup. I do remmeber you telling me that. And I wonder if the “Ridgewood Theater Corp” that owned/owns the surrounding stores next to the RKO Madison is in fact the same company that owned the Ridgewood Theater in the 70’s. (or is it just some company that bought the RKO Madison that was called “Ridgewood (as in the town of) Theater Corp”.
However, if “The Ridgewood Theater Corp” did have something to do with the Ridgewood Theater itself, I then also speculate that it might be possible that owners of the Ridgewood Theater (in the 70’s which is different than the owners today) may have actually bought the RKO Madison theater site (and it’s surrounding stores) when it came up for sale, so that some other theater company could not come in and be competition to them. It seems that the RKO Madison was quickly made unusable as a theater. Now I am not saying that the Ridgewood Theater owners of the 70’s (which are not the current owners of the Ridgewood Theater by the way) bought the Madison Theater and then mysterously the “fire” at the Madison happened, but a building just doesn’t go on fire by itself; something had to cause it (although of course it could have been electrical too, or vandals as the theater was vacant at the time).
Who knows what really happened, but it is quite interesting that the stores that front on Myrtle Ave, that used to be part of the RKO Madison Theater site, are owned by the “Ridgewood Theater Corp”. But again, that could be a corporation, “[The Town of] Ridgewood Theater Corp”, and may have been a corporation that was formed when the RKO Madison Theater was bought, and not have had anything to do with the Ridgewood Theater itself.
It’s quite interesting though. If you ever find anything else out about it, please let me know. I always enjoy the interesting info you come up with.
It also depends on when the 2nd and 3rd floor was rented. I don’t think they were still used by the 60’s or 70’s, and up to that point, the movie theater business wasn’t in trouble.
Also don’t forget that some other theaters had extra income also. IINM, the RKO Madison theater owned a few of the storefronts on Myrtle Ave that they rented out. I know they rented the stores on either side of the entrance, but they may have owned some of the other stores along front of the theater building, like where the Carvel used to be nearby, and some of the others.
While upper floor rentals of the Ridgewood may have helped in the early years, I don’t think they were still rented by the 60’s or 70’s. at really saved the Ridgewood was the fact that it was cut up into multiple auditoriums. It could never have survived if it remained intact. The RKO Madison was the better of the two theaters, but that one also would have had to be cut up if it was to remain a movie theater, and both the Ridgewood AND the Madison could not have survived together past 1980, even if both were cut up. I would have hated to see the Madison cut up, but what actually happened is probably worse. There is no way though that the Madison would have made it through the 1980’s intact. We are lucky to even have the Ridgewood, even if it is cut up. The real thing that probably makes it still lucrative to remain open is the fact that there is no nearby theater to the Ridgewood, and that has been the case for 20 years. With Atlas terminal building a multiplex in Glendale, I hope the Ridgewood will be able to hold on after that opens.
Thanks. I’m sorry, but I really did search for this theater before I “readded it”. I think what threw me was that I searched for “Fox Star” when I was looking for it, and I didn’t have the exact address when I originally added it.
Thank you for saving the messages from my addition though. At least they were saved.
Is this the Orpheum Theater that is used currently in some car commercial that has this excited person thinking that they are a big “star” as they run into the theater, but then to their disappointment all their screaming “fans” were really screaming because of the car that pulled up in front of the Orpheum. If it is, it’s an amazingly beautiful neon marquee.
I checked IMDb and the Friday the 13th I saw at the Ridgewood was “Jason Lives Part IV”. That was the last regular movie I saw at the Ridgewood, and that is listed as coming out in 1986. That was the last time I used the Ridgewood as my “regular” theater. As a teenager, it was more fun to go on the subway, and take that to Forest Hills. That was part of the fun of going to the movie (even though my mother thought we were safely walking to the Ridgewood Theater the first times we did that as teenagers.
After that, a few years later I returned for “Problem Child” with John Ritter, and that was in 1990, so that’s the last time I set foot in the Ridgewood.
Friday the 13th was in the balcony theater on the right, and we sat all the way on the right in that theater. I remember clearly where we sat. We sat in the first row in back of the stairway that you enter that theater in. I remember very clearly the fancy ballastraudes of the original railing right in front of us. (That we actually used as a footrest). The whole theater was painted a dark brown (as well as the ballastraudes). The ceiling, walls, floor, everything. You could still see the right hand curve of the ornamental plaster in the ceiling that abrubtly ended where the wall dividing the center theater from the right theater was.
Problem Child, I saw in the center balcony theater. I remember looking up and seeing the center of that plaster circle, with it’s left and right sides abrubtly cut off with the walls on either side.
I believe I saw Beverly Hills Cop in the left had balcony theater. That is where I had one of my fondest memories in the Ridgewood, where it was bright outside, and the person I was with and I tripped up the aisle “steps” in what we though was a dark theater, and trying to find seats and “sitting on people”, and to our horror a about 15 minutes later looking in what seemed to be a “well lit” aisle, and the fools we must have looked like to the people that witnessed our spectacle.
I seemed to always get one of the balcony theaters when I went. I only remember being in the orchestra level theater once since it was cut up, and that was for a double feature the Ridgewood offered with “The Fly” and “Aliens”. That was in the left orchestra theater. I remember sitting right next to the wall dividing the orchestra level in two.
I don’t think I ever sat in the right orchestra side of the Ridgewood since it was one theater.
And yes, who knows, we may have passed each other many times and may not even know it.
Peter, I also saw “A View to a Kill” in the Ridgewood! In 1985, I still used the Ridgewood regularly, shortly after though, I abandoned it for the Forest Hills theaters, only to return once for one of the Friday the 13th Movies (Whatever one was the one where he is at the bottom of Crystal Lake, and revives at the beginning of the movie, I think Part 6), and the last movie I saw there being “Problem Child” whenever that was out in the early 90’s.
I’m not sure. That would be interesting to find out.
Here’s their official website by the way:
http://www.seafordcinemas.com
Actually, yes, fire was a big thing in Patchogue’s Main St’s past. I have a book on Patchogue’s history, and there is one photo of a fire after another. The one you mention on the Southeast corner of the four corners was a huge one. Dept store fires, store fires, and of course the famous fire at Swezey’s. So much of Patchogue’s Main St went up in flames. And of course, to keep on topic, Patchogue’s Rialto Theater on South Ocean Ave also burned to the ground.
Ahh, thank you. I didn’t realize there were 3 floors. Funny, the building across the street also had a fire that knocked the 3rd floor off the building. They then added a new third floor on some years later, and it doesn’t at all match the brickwork of the original building. The third floor is done in a “modern” 60’s style.
Currently the buildings still do have a second floor though. The buildings don’t look “that” old though. They probably date to the early 60’s, so they may have replaced the buildings where the fire was.
The Film Daily Yearbook is wrong. Railroad Ave and West Ave intersects Main Street at West Main Street. The theater was on the block between Railroad Ave and West Ave.
Thanks Warren.
For those interested, I found the article online from the Daily News.
Here it is:
View link
I don’t know how long the link will be valid, but it should work for a week or two.
….and now that the bad movie trailers have been played in this thread in the Jamaica Multiplex, maybe the movie can finally begin, and we can get back to the real reason we all visit this site.
I know I said I wasn’t saying anymore on this, but just this one thing. I certainly wouldn’t want to see him gone, as he has posted plenty of valuable infomation, and is informative. However, at the same time, so does Robert post interesting and valuable information, and he didn’t deserve to be attacked like that. Again, I welcome accurate information, but it should be posted in such away that it isn’t putting people down.
We all make mistakes in some things we post. A simple “I think this is incorrect, and it should be….” is all that’s needed.
We can all live together, as most of the people here have valuable information to share.
Thanks for that information. I passed by the Pantages Theater about two weeks ago, and it really looked great. I didn’t realize that the old marquee had been covered, and then uncovered. Disney has done a lot for a few old theaters. In Manhattan, of course the most famous example is the old glorious New Amsterdam theater, which now houses the Lion King (but I think had Aida for a while, but could be mistaken). The meticulously restored it to it’s former glory.
Of course, also in Hollywood, Disney restored the El Capitan Theater. It looks beautiful all lit up outside at night. That marquee, while it does have an look old look, is sort of interesting. They installed one of those modern digital signs on the three sides, and had sort of poster pictures of the film that is playing. When I was there, they were showing a rerelease of “Pirates of the Caribean”, and that was in the digital display on the marquee. Very attractive.
Sorry, typo, my first sentence above should have read:
I agree, a simple “I believe the above information is incorrect, the correct information is…..” is all that’s needed, not belittling remarks.
I agree, a simple “I believe the above information is incorrect, the correct information is…..” is all that’s, not belittling remarks. This is supposed to be a community of people who want to talk about theaters, not a contest on who knows the most.
That is all I will say about this matter.
Orlando, we look forward to your posts on what you mentioned above.
What is interesting about the restoration of the RKO Keith’s Richmond Hill’s marquee was that they didn’t realize it was all still back there when they were going to “recreate” it. When they ripped the covering from the marquee (that must have been installed in the 1950’s over the original), there was the old marquee in it’s former diamond in the rough glory. They then restored the old original marquee instead of recreating it. Thankfully, it now remains as such today.
I believe I read about this in a Richmond Hill website.
What is interesting about the restoration of the RKO Keith’s Richmond Hill’s marquee was that they didn’t realize it was all still back there when they were going to “recreate” it. When they ripped the covering from the marquee (that must have been installed in the 1950’s over the original), there was the old marquee in it’s former diamond in the rough glory. They then restored the old original marquee instead of recreating it. Thankfully, it now remains as such today.
Peter, please, lauging this hard can do damage!
I meant the RKO Madison in my first sentence above, not the “RKO Ridgewood” as I typed by accident.
Tom Scott. Yes it is speculation that the Madison and the Ridgewood could not have survived together, and yes it is speculation that the RKO Ridgewood Theatre could not have survived, or that the only thing that could have saved the RKO Madison was multiplexing.
However, this is not entirely not based on facts. History shows us that most of the neighborhood theaters in the city could not survive as single screen theaters once the 1980’s came around, and especially two so close together, only a block or two apart, and while the neighborhood never fell completely like Bushwick, the area right around the RKO Madison and the Ridgewood to a lesser extent was in decline in the 1970’s.
I stand by my statement that the Ridgewood Theater and the Madison could not survive together into the 1980’s, and especially as single screen theaters. And if both had been multiplexed, even then only one would have prevailed (or both might be gone as neither would probably have been lucrative pulling for the same customers if both were multiplexed). It was either the Madison or the Ridgewood, it couldn’t be both, and whichever survived had to be multiplexed, and in this case the Ridgewood prevailed.
I don’t know anything about the proper name for this theater, as I have never even set foot in it, however, in tradition, National Amusements used to always call their multiplexes, in the past anyway:
“……..Multiplex Cinemas” as in Brookhaven Multiplex Cinemas (now closed), and Commack Multiplex Cinemas (soon closing). Currently NA has other ways of of naming them as they build the “de lux” theaters, but “Jamaica Multiplex Cinemas” probably should at least be the second name above, as that seems fitting to many of NA’s multiplexes, and the official National Amusements website lists it as “Jamaica Multiplex Cinemas”:
View link
National Amusements Jamaica Center could be the former name or another name that had been used at one time, so maybe it sould become the “secondary” name above.
Yup. I do remmeber you telling me that. And I wonder if the “Ridgewood Theater Corp” that owned/owns the surrounding stores next to the RKO Madison is in fact the same company that owned the Ridgewood Theater in the 70’s. (or is it just some company that bought the RKO Madison that was called “Ridgewood (as in the town of) Theater Corp”.
However, if “The Ridgewood Theater Corp” did have something to do with the Ridgewood Theater itself, I then also speculate that it might be possible that owners of the Ridgewood Theater (in the 70’s which is different than the owners today) may have actually bought the RKO Madison theater site (and it’s surrounding stores) when it came up for sale, so that some other theater company could not come in and be competition to them. It seems that the RKO Madison was quickly made unusable as a theater. Now I am not saying that the Ridgewood Theater owners of the 70’s (which are not the current owners of the Ridgewood Theater by the way) bought the Madison Theater and then mysterously the “fire” at the Madison happened, but a building just doesn’t go on fire by itself; something had to cause it (although of course it could have been electrical too, or vandals as the theater was vacant at the time).
Who knows what really happened, but it is quite interesting that the stores that front on Myrtle Ave, that used to be part of the RKO Madison Theater site, are owned by the “Ridgewood Theater Corp”. But again, that could be a corporation, “[The Town of] Ridgewood Theater Corp”, and may have been a corporation that was formed when the RKO Madison Theater was bought, and not have had anything to do with the Ridgewood Theater itself.
It’s quite interesting though. If you ever find anything else out about it, please let me know. I always enjoy the interesting info you come up with.
It also depends on when the 2nd and 3rd floor was rented. I don’t think they were still used by the 60’s or 70’s, and up to that point, the movie theater business wasn’t in trouble.
Also don’t forget that some other theaters had extra income also. IINM, the RKO Madison theater owned a few of the storefronts on Myrtle Ave that they rented out. I know they rented the stores on either side of the entrance, but they may have owned some of the other stores along front of the theater building, like where the Carvel used to be nearby, and some of the others.
While upper floor rentals of the Ridgewood may have helped in the early years, I don’t think they were still rented by the 60’s or 70’s. at really saved the Ridgewood was the fact that it was cut up into multiple auditoriums. It could never have survived if it remained intact. The RKO Madison was the better of the two theaters, but that one also would have had to be cut up if it was to remain a movie theater, and both the Ridgewood AND the Madison could not have survived together past 1980, even if both were cut up. I would have hated to see the Madison cut up, but what actually happened is probably worse. There is no way though that the Madison would have made it through the 1980’s intact. We are lucky to even have the Ridgewood, even if it is cut up. The real thing that probably makes it still lucrative to remain open is the fact that there is no nearby theater to the Ridgewood, and that has been the case for 20 years. With Atlas terminal building a multiplex in Glendale, I hope the Ridgewood will be able to hold on after that opens.
Nah, this time I was agreeing with you, lol.