I just looked up that book on Amazon, and it appears there’s a volume 1 and a volume 2…did you get both?
Does it have interior photos also? I am thinking about buying it.
The interior is in pretty bad shape. I have seen photos that were taken over 6-10 years ago, and back then it was already in pretty dire shape. Part of the plaster ceiling collapsed on one side of the proscenium for sure, and who knows how much more. Also, I am sure it hasn’t gotten better in the last 10 years either.
Yes, an operating theater only two years ago is now “too far gone”. Uh HUH. It’s a scandal in the making at this point.
Obviously, people saying this don’t want to miss their chance at making a buck destroying the place. And others don’t want to have to spend the money carefully saving some of the features. Disgusting.
I hope we are wrong here, but all signs point to the sad fact.
The Bushwick Twins? Wow, wouldn’t that be a good news that a “Bushwick Twin Theater” was moving in there…..but of course, the supermarket deal sound solid. Perhaps a “Bushwick Twin” theater in the balcony!
How about a Cypress Ave entrance to the orchestra level supermarket, and a Myrtle Ave entrance through the original lobby to a balcony Bushwick Twin Theater!
The reason there are two Rite Aides have something to do with the fact that there Genovese became Eckerds which became Rite Aid. I think Genovese is what originally went into the Meserole. The other Rite Aid may have been a Rite Aid or a Duane Reade which switched over to RIte Aid also. Through the mergers/acquisitions, you wound up with two of them.
It was an Eckard still, when I took this photo some years ago:
David, there were photos of the current interior posted in the past above, but I didn’t check to see if the links still work. In the meantime, here’s a link to one photo, the top photo is the Valencia as a church: View link
The theater is completely intact, and well maintained. The colors they have chosen to paint the interior is a little garish, but it’s better than the alternative, which would be not maintained. It still looks good.
While at this point, I will hope that the theater’s plaster walls, ceiling and other architectural features be retained as perhaps like the Meserole was, it’s still a sad day that the theater will be passing from cinema/theater to retail, there is no way to he “happy” about that. The only hope could be to preserve the architectural features.
Perhaps the balcony could be restored into a theater space at some point, but that looks dim too, with the main entrance, the beautiful lobby, being used for an entrance to a supermarket.
As for the “parking garage”, I find that just like any scare tactic, such as for example the MTA uses when it proposes major fare hikes or servuice cuts, and then when they do “less” than that people go, “oh, that isn’t so bad”, as they “scared you with the alternative.
In any event, lets hope for the best, but to say this isn’t a time to be negative, that is wrong.
This news is devastating to say the least. What a sad day this is.
Thank you Native Forest Hiller for all your work at trying to preserve the theater. It is hard to believe that this will be the final result, the theater going the way of all the other theaters in Ridgewood. A sad day.
Let’s hope that the conversion will be kinder than that of the Madison Theater, or the Oasis, and that instead the architectual elements inside will be preserved.
It’s hard to believe this conversion is going to happen.
It’s good to hear some of the trees will be replaced with more appropriate trees. While I love trees, whoever was the brainiac that decided to plant trees right under and in front of a theater marquee really should have been fired.
What are some of you people smoking? “Bad Neighborhood”? THis is far from a “bad neighborhood”. Sure it’s not “Forest Hills”, but it’s not a “bad neighborhood” either. It has always been a working class blue collar neighborhood, and it still is. It never got “bad” on Myrtle Ave here like it did in other parts of the city in the 70’s and 80’s.
I have to laugh when I see someone say it’s a “bad neighborhood”, or a “questionable neighborhood”. The neighborhood the Kings is in got exponentially worse than this stretch of Myrtle Ave every got close to becoming. And while obviously, the “Ridgewood Theater isn’t the Kings”, the “neighborhood”, is not what the problem is.
I have been in the Burger King when it was there, and remember there was a side entrance, as well as the one under the marquee. It was also decorated sort of “film” which was neat. I have not been in there since it became Starbucks.
Have you been in the old Meserole across the street which is now a drug store? That place is really neat, and is very intact. When I was there some years ago, they were even projecting slides of sales on the old screen area!
So if the disco isn’t in the old theater, what takes up the old theater space location? The Starbucks and burger king only took up the lobbies if I am not mistaken.
I didn’t see many movies in the Forest Hills Theater. It never seemed to be playing “the movie” I wanted to see. The Continental or the Midway usually had the movies I wanted to see.
The Midway was also well maintained in the 80’s and early 90’s, even before the Midway’s transformation. I remember the two story balcony, with it’s ornate iron railing up to the balcony. They used to have an area upstairs in the lobby with video games you could play while waiting for the movie to start. Great times.
I haven’t been to the Cinemart often either, as it also never seemed to have the movies I wantec to see. Also, I liked the subway better than the bus to get places, and it was much easier to get to the Austin St area by subway.
The Ceinemart seems to be one of those old workhorse theaters that you always expect will be there….like the Ridgewood. But then the Ridgewood was taken away very suddenly.
Heh….funny, because I lived in Ridgewood at the time….and as a teenager, as soon as we were able to take the subway “on our own”, we soon stopped going to the Ridgewood Theater, and took the subway to the Forest Hills Theaters like the Continental, the Midway, and the Elmwood in Elmhurst….yet the Ridgewood was “just down the street”…. But as a teenager, “getting there” was half the fun, and much more fun that simply walking to the Ridgewood. And unfortunately, the Continental and the Midway were WAY better maintained than the Ridgewood…even back then already.
Although today….I only wish I could walk into the Ridgewood with a movie flickering inside…. sigh….
Wasn’t it already “twinned” when it was the Continental? I used to go to this movie theater a lot in the late 80’s and early 90’s, and it was always extremely well maintained even when it was the Continental. But I thought it had two theaters and was twined then already. There as a “Contental III” across the street, but that one I was never in.
Ahhh, I had to do it, I found Both Vol 1 and 2 together for only $25 for both, so did the plunge….sounds to interesting to pass up.
I just looked up that book on Amazon, and it appears there’s a volume 1 and a volume 2…did you get both?
Does it have interior photos also? I am thinking about buying it.
So did the building go into some other use, or did they just tear it down some years later?
That is a pretty impressive auditorium. Was that build originally as a theater, and if so what theater?
The interior is in pretty bad shape. I have seen photos that were taken over 6-10 years ago, and back then it was already in pretty dire shape. Part of the plaster ceiling collapsed on one side of the proscenium for sure, and who knows how much more. Also, I am sure it hasn’t gotten better in the last 10 years either.
Yes, an operating theater only two years ago is now “too far gone”. Uh HUH. It’s a scandal in the making at this point.
Obviously, people saying this don’t want to miss their chance at making a buck destroying the place. And others don’t want to have to spend the money carefully saving some of the features. Disgusting.
I hope we are wrong here, but all signs point to the sad fact.
View link
View link
At LONG LAST! An Interior View of the Ridgewood Theater’s Procenium…..these taken in 1977
View link
View link
The Bushwick Twins? Wow, wouldn’t that be a good news that a “Bushwick Twin Theater” was moving in there…..but of course, the supermarket deal sound solid. Perhaps a “Bushwick Twin” theater in the balcony!
How about a Cypress Ave entrance to the orchestra level supermarket, and a Myrtle Ave entrance through the original lobby to a balcony Bushwick Twin Theater!
The reason there are two Rite Aides have something to do with the fact that there Genovese became Eckerds which became Rite Aid. I think Genovese is what originally went into the Meserole. The other Rite Aid may have been a Rite Aid or a Duane Reade which switched over to RIte Aid also. Through the mergers/acquisitions, you wound up with two of them.
It was an Eckard still, when I took this photo some years ago:
Click here for photo
David, there were photos of the current interior posted in the past above, but I didn’t check to see if the links still work. In the meantime, here’s a link to one photo, the top photo is the Valencia as a church:
View link
The theater is completely intact, and well maintained. The colors they have chosen to paint the interior is a little garish, but it’s better than the alternative, which would be not maintained. It still looks good.
I have no idea what remains of the Alden, but the Valencia is fully intact, and used as a church.
It’s absurd that these people keep saying it’s “beyond repair”….it was an operating theater just two years ago!!
Here’s an accompanying article too:
Click here to view excerpt
JF Lundy emailed me the photo of the Patchogue Theater and I uploaded it here:
Click here to View Photo
While at this point, I will hope that the theater’s plaster walls, ceiling and other architectural features be retained as perhaps like the Meserole was, it’s still a sad day that the theater will be passing from cinema/theater to retail, there is no way to he “happy” about that. The only hope could be to preserve the architectural features.
Perhaps the balcony could be restored into a theater space at some point, but that looks dim too, with the main entrance, the beautiful lobby, being used for an entrance to a supermarket.
As for the “parking garage”, I find that just like any scare tactic, such as for example the MTA uses when it proposes major fare hikes or servuice cuts, and then when they do “less” than that people go, “oh, that isn’t so bad”, as they “scared you with the alternative.
In any event, lets hope for the best, but to say this isn’t a time to be negative, that is wrong.
This news is devastating to say the least. What a sad day this is.
Thank you Native Forest Hiller for all your work at trying to preserve the theater. It is hard to believe that this will be the final result, the theater going the way of all the other theaters in Ridgewood. A sad day.
Let’s hope that the conversion will be kinder than that of the Madison Theater, or the Oasis, and that instead the architectual elements inside will be preserved.
It’s hard to believe this conversion is going to happen.
It’s good to hear some of the trees will be replaced with more appropriate trees. While I love trees, whoever was the brainiac that decided to plant trees right under and in front of a theater marquee really should have been fired.
What are some of you people smoking? “Bad Neighborhood”? THis is far from a “bad neighborhood”. Sure it’s not “Forest Hills”, but it’s not a “bad neighborhood” either. It has always been a working class blue collar neighborhood, and it still is. It never got “bad” on Myrtle Ave here like it did in other parts of the city in the 70’s and 80’s.
I have to laugh when I see someone say it’s a “bad neighborhood”, or a “questionable neighborhood”. The neighborhood the Kings is in got exponentially worse than this stretch of Myrtle Ave every got close to becoming. And while obviously, the “Ridgewood Theater isn’t the Kings”, the “neighborhood”, is not what the problem is.
I have been in the Burger King when it was there, and remember there was a side entrance, as well as the one under the marquee. It was also decorated sort of “film” which was neat. I have not been in there since it became Starbucks.
Have you been in the old Meserole across the street which is now a drug store? That place is really neat, and is very intact. When I was there some years ago, they were even projecting slides of sales on the old screen area!
So if the disco isn’t in the old theater, what takes up the old theater space location? The Starbucks and burger king only took up the lobbies if I am not mistaken.
I didn’t see many movies in the Forest Hills Theater. It never seemed to be playing “the movie” I wanted to see. The Continental or the Midway usually had the movies I wanted to see.
The Midway was also well maintained in the 80’s and early 90’s, even before the Midway’s transformation. I remember the two story balcony, with it’s ornate iron railing up to the balcony. They used to have an area upstairs in the lobby with video games you could play while waiting for the movie to start. Great times.
I haven’t been to the Cinemart often either, as it also never seemed to have the movies I wantec to see. Also, I liked the subway better than the bus to get places, and it was much easier to get to the Austin St area by subway.
The Ceinemart seems to be one of those old workhorse theaters that you always expect will be there….like the Ridgewood. But then the Ridgewood was taken away very suddenly.
Sounds great….it’s great to know that so much care is put into this gem of a theater.
Heh….funny, because I lived in Ridgewood at the time….and as a teenager, as soon as we were able to take the subway “on our own”, we soon stopped going to the Ridgewood Theater, and took the subway to the Forest Hills Theaters like the Continental, the Midway, and the Elmwood in Elmhurst….yet the Ridgewood was “just down the street”…. But as a teenager, “getting there” was half the fun, and much more fun that simply walking to the Ridgewood. And unfortunately, the Continental and the Midway were WAY better maintained than the Ridgewood…even back then already.
Although today….I only wish I could walk into the Ridgewood with a movie flickering inside…. sigh….
Wasn’t it already “twinned” when it was the Continental? I used to go to this movie theater a lot in the late 80’s and early 90’s, and it was always extremely well maintained even when it was the Continental. But I thought it had two theaters and was twined then already. There as a “Contental III” across the street, but that one I was never in.