Thanks for your in-depth and detailed answer to my question. Lincoln reads like a fun, safe place to grow up. So was Ridgewood, for the most part, when I grew up there. I played on its streets until called in by my parents for dinner, too.
Yes, Ridgewood, Queens NY was, and is, a very urban area, yet, to me, at least, idyllic in its own way.
You’re welcome to my excellent recollection, Panzer65.
I remember the popcorn being good at the Madison when I saw “Dracula Has Risen From The Grave” there in January 1969. Maybe it was also partly seeing a Hammer horror film in a theatre with a friend who was also into horror movies. I remember more strongly how ornate and crowded the concession counter was, and seeing my reflection in the mirror on the wall behind it.
Thank you mrbillyc for your excellent, poetic reminiscence about the reflection of the Madison marquee on Woodbine Street on a rainy night. I myself once lived not far away at 1668 Cornelia Street.
Again, sorry I was a no-show at the Madison on Sunday 5 October 2008.
John D., you’re welcome to my telling you about that sign on the Madison. The lack of interest by the powers-that-be that you recall is consistent with the continued deterioration of the Madison, and the subsequent fire within.
By early April 1979 the front of the Madison was blocked from the sidewalk by boards with peepholes. I remember looking through one peephole one night into the charred ruins within. I couldn’t see much but was very sad about it all. An older man came up to me and spoke softly to me about “what a beautiful show house” that the Madison once was.
Yes, the result of the current landmarking campaign of the Ridgewood Theatre will indeed be interesting. Hopefully, not in the sense of the ancient Chinese curse, “May you live in interesting times.” Yes, let’s follow it in the [former Ridgewood] Times Newsweekly, the Queens Chronicle, and whatever newspapers / websites are tracking and documenting it.
Mpol, you’re welcome to all the Ridgewood info. I’m glad you enjoyed reading all the Ridgewood posts. Perhaps you would like to tell me sometimes about growing up in Lincoln, Mass.
What would you say is the essential difference between Lincoln, Mass. and Ridgewood and communities like it ?
How did you become interested in Ridgewood-like communities back in the ‘70’s ?
Yes, I’m a city guy transplantes to the near ‘burbs. I’m “a man of peace in a savage land” : “The Burbs” : to quote the 1989 Tom Hanks film. Haven’t seen it, though.
As well you should, Panzer65. I remember that bright, well-lit marquee very well, the “movie theater smell” that came out of the RKO Madison, especially in the summer, along with the cooled air, and the magic of seeing a film there, especially as a child and young teenager.
You’re welcome, Mpol. Thanks for the info on Lincoln, your old home town.
Back to MY old hometown (Ridgewood), and the subject at hand. I agree completely with you about the Ridgewood. I only wish there was more I could do for it.
I have posted much here on this Ridgewood Theatre page which you may enjoy reading, and which may convey to you much of the flavor of Ridegwood as a community, starting about fifty or so years ago, and continuing right on up to the present.
Warren, thanks for all the additional info. In the last few years I sometimes kept a sweater at work during the summer in case my office and the Chinese restaurants I went to for lunch were too cold due to air conditioning.
Lost Memory, thanks for posting the link to that photo. The sign hanging from the bottom of the marquee reads :
MPol, you wrote, “I presently reside in an artists' community in Somerville, MA., just outside Boston, and like it a lot.”
More power to you for that, MPol ! I’m happy for you ! Please keep up all your fine work.
Yes, I can well believe you’ve come to NYC (Manhattan) for screenings, and even a stage production of West Side Story. I hope you enjoyed those visits.
Boston, eh ? You’re in good company with Leonard Nimoy and many others. The closest I’ve come to seeing a movie in Boston is as follows :
1) Easter break, early April 1977, took Amtrak to Boston with a friend from school to spend the holiday with him at his home in Boxford. “Yellow Submarine”, screened by Todd Glickman, who’s been on this site, was the feature film then at M.I.T., but my friend and I never went. I have, however, made contact with Todd on this site ! I don’t remember on what theater’s page, though.
Todd posted about some of the movies he remembered screening at M.I.T.
2) Next month, late May 1977, on my way to start a summer job, being trained in Waltham, some of us went into downtown Boston to see the newly debuted “Star Wars”, but I was not among them.
Currently my wife and I have a friend living in Lincoln, Mass.
Thank you again, Mpol, for your interest in Ridgewood and Bushwick movie theatres !
Thanks for your trip report, LuisV. I can relate : it reads pretty ugly. The only bright note for me is that the Hofbrau is once again serving food, albeit not German cuisine as it once did.
If you don’t mind my asking, MPol, where DO you live, and where are you from ? Where did you grow up ? Your interest in the Ridgewood, and in other theatres in the Ridgewood-Bushwick-Maspeth area, is most welcome and appreciated.
Thanks for all the details, Vinmeister and East Coast Rocker.
No need to grease the store owner / manager with $$$. Bway and MrBill went there Sunday October 5th 2008 and, by prior arrangement from, and with the manager / owner’s help, were taken on a tour to see and photograph what’s left of the RKO Madison Theatre above the Liberty Dept. Store. You can read all about it above in posts later than Oct. 5 2008. I was welcome to go there that day, but declined for personal reasons. I have a standing invitation from the manager / owner to return there on my own and “take the tour”.
You could make similar arrangements with the owner / manager.
Vinmeister, I remember seeing “Krakatoa – East Of Java” at the RKO Madison with my parents in November or December 1969. We ate at Gottlieb’s Restaurant, across Myrtle Avenue from the Madison, afterwards. I had the roast turkey dinner, and especially remember the stuffing and sweet potatoes that came with it.
MPol, I was born in Brooklyn, grew up in Brooklyn and Queens, only sold my Ridgewood, Queens home fairly recently (May 1999), am in Ridgewood once a month on business, and work in lower Manhattan.
From my windows at work I can look out to see Evergreen Cemetery, Woodhull Hospital in Bushwick, and the ENY subway yard radio transmitter tower on the horizon.
I’ve been taken out of Bklyn and Queens, but Bklyn and Queens will NEVER be taken out of me !
Thanks, Warren. It’s good to have a picture of the sign for the “Dine and Dance” Ridgewood Terrace Chinese Restaurant, as well as the RKO Madison Theatre. I vaguely remember the restaurant’s sign. I remember well when it burned shortly before Christmas 1965. I was coming home from St. Brigid School on the B-55 (now Q 55) bus at the start of Christmas vacation, and the bus was re-routed onto Wyckoff Avenue, thence northeast on Cornelia Street, my home block. I think the driver let me off at Cypress and Cornelia, by the (then) Ridgewood Times building, close to my home.
It looks like a play is about to take place within all that furniture onstage, like the Twilight Zone episode, “The After Hours”, all those dept. store mannequins whispering “Marcia !”
Then it’s my memory vs. yours, with no objective proof, which has nothing to do with the Loew’s 46th Street Theater. I’m willing to drop it if you are.
Good observation, BrooklynJim. Thanks.
Hi again, MPol.
You were very helpful. Yes, Ridgewood was fun, and mostly safe, to grow up in.
Hi, Mpol :
Thanks for your in-depth and detailed answer to my question. Lincoln reads like a fun, safe place to grow up. So was Ridgewood, for the most part, when I grew up there. I played on its streets until called in by my parents for dinner, too.
Yes, Ridgewood, Queens NY was, and is, a very urban area, yet, to me, at least, idyllic in its own way.
You’re welcome to my excellent recollection, Panzer65.
I remember the popcorn being good at the Madison when I saw “Dracula Has Risen From The Grave” there in January 1969. Maybe it was also partly seeing a Hammer horror film in a theatre with a friend who was also into horror movies. I remember more strongly how ornate and crowded the concession counter was, and seeing my reflection in the mirror on the wall behind it.
Thank you mrbillyc for your excellent, poetic reminiscence about the reflection of the Madison marquee on Woodbine Street on a rainy night. I myself once lived not far away at 1668 Cornelia Street.
Again, sorry I was a no-show at the Madison on Sunday 5 October 2008.
John D., you’re welcome to my telling you about that sign on the Madison. The lack of interest by the powers-that-be that you recall is consistent with the continued deterioration of the Madison, and the subsequent fire within.
By early April 1979 the front of the Madison was blocked from the sidewalk by boards with peepholes. I remember looking through one peephole one night into the charred ruins within. I couldn’t see much but was very sad about it all. An older man came up to me and spoke softly to me about “what a beautiful show house” that the Madison once was.
Yes, the result of the current landmarking campaign of the Ridgewood Theatre will indeed be interesting. Hopefully, not in the sense of the ancient Chinese curse, “May you live in interesting times.” Yes, let’s follow it in the [former Ridgewood] Times Newsweekly, the Queens Chronicle, and whatever newspapers / websites are tracking and documenting it.
Mpol, you’re welcome to all the Ridgewood info. I’m glad you enjoyed reading all the Ridgewood posts. Perhaps you would like to tell me sometimes about growing up in Lincoln, Mass.
What would you say is the essential difference between Lincoln, Mass. and Ridgewood and communities like it ?
How did you become interested in Ridgewood-like communities back in the ‘70’s ?
Yes, I’m a city guy transplantes to the near ‘burbs. I’m “a man of peace in a savage land” : “The Burbs” : to quote the 1989 Tom Hanks film. Haven’t seen it, though.
As well you should, Panzer65. I remember that bright, well-lit marquee very well, the “movie theater smell” that came out of the RKO Madison, especially in the summer, along with the cooled air, and the magic of seeing a film there, especially as a child and young teenager.
You’re welcome, Mpol. Thanks for the info on Lincoln, your old home town.
Back to MY old hometown (Ridgewood), and the subject at hand. I agree completely with you about the Ridgewood. I only wish there was more I could do for it.
I have posted much here on this Ridgewood Theatre page which you may enjoy reading, and which may convey to you much of the flavor of Ridegwood as a community, starting about fifty or so years ago, and continuing right on up to the present.
Warren, thanks for all the additional info. In the last few years I sometimes kept a sweater at work during the summer in case my office and the Chinese restaurants I went to for lunch were too cold due to air conditioning.
Lost Memory, thanks for posting the link to that photo. The sign hanging from the bottom of the marquee reads :
THE ONLY REFRIGERATION PLANT IN RIDGEWOOD
AIR CONDITIONED (iced block capital letters)
WE MAKE OUR OWN WEATHER
Thanks for posting all your Ridgewood memories, Vinmeister. My parents and I were regulars at the Villa Maria, Corato’s Pizza also.
John Dereszewski, do you remember the sign on the front of the closed and derelict RKO Madison Theatre in late Feburary 1978 which read :
THIS IS HOW YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD STARTS TO DECAY. IF THIS BOTHERS YOU, CALL … (PHONE #)
MPol, you wrote, “I presently reside in an artists' community in Somerville, MA., just outside Boston, and like it a lot.”
More power to you for that, MPol ! I’m happy for you ! Please keep up all your fine work.
Yes, I can well believe you’ve come to NYC (Manhattan) for screenings, and even a stage production of West Side Story. I hope you enjoyed those visits.
Hi, MPol. You are most welcome to the compliment.
Boston, eh ? You’re in good company with Leonard Nimoy and many others. The closest I’ve come to seeing a movie in Boston is as follows :
1) Easter break, early April 1977, took Amtrak to Boston with a friend from school to spend the holiday with him at his home in Boxford. “Yellow Submarine”, screened by Todd Glickman, who’s been on this site, was the feature film then at M.I.T., but my friend and I never went. I have, however, made contact with Todd on this site ! I don’t remember on what theater’s page, though.
Todd posted about some of the movies he remembered screening at M.I.T.
2) Next month, late May 1977, on my way to start a summer job, being trained in Waltham, some of us went into downtown Boston to see the newly debuted “Star Wars”, but I was not among them.
Currently my wife and I have a friend living in Lincoln, Mass.
Thank you again, Mpol, for your interest in Ridgewood and Bushwick movie theatres !
Thanks for your trip report, LuisV. I can relate : it reads pretty ugly. The only bright note for me is that the Hofbrau is once again serving food, albeit not German cuisine as it once did.
If you don’t mind my asking, MPol, where DO you live, and where are you from ? Where did you grow up ? Your interest in the Ridgewood, and in other theatres in the Ridgewood-Bushwick-Maspeth area, is most welcome and appreciated.
Panzer65, I’ll let you know when I plan to go there.
Thanks for all the details, Vinmeister and East Coast Rocker.
No need to grease the store owner / manager with $$$. Bway and MrBill went there Sunday October 5th 2008 and, by prior arrangement from, and with the manager / owner’s help, were taken on a tour to see and photograph what’s left of the RKO Madison Theatre above the Liberty Dept. Store. You can read all about it above in posts later than Oct. 5 2008. I was welcome to go there that day, but declined for personal reasons. I have a standing invitation from the manager / owner to return there on my own and “take the tour”.
You could make similar arrangements with the owner / manager.
Vinmeister, I remember seeing “Krakatoa – East Of Java” at the RKO Madison with my parents in November or December 1969. We ate at Gottlieb’s Restaurant, across Myrtle Avenue from the Madison, afterwards. I had the roast turkey dinner, and especially remember the stuffing and sweet potatoes that came with it.
MPol, I was born in Brooklyn, grew up in Brooklyn and Queens, only sold my Ridgewood, Queens home fairly recently (May 1999), am in Ridgewood once a month on business, and work in lower Manhattan.
From my windows at work I can look out to see Evergreen Cemetery, Woodhull Hospital in Bushwick, and the ENY subway yard radio transmitter tower on the horizon.
I’ve been taken out of Bklyn and Queens, but Bklyn and Queens will NEVER be taken out of me !
Yup, John, purty ugly, except for the projector, which reminds me of Wall-E a bit.
I also remember that loooong staircase, from the sidewalk under the restaurant sign, up to the restaurant itself on the second floor.
Thanks, Warren. It’s good to have a picture of the sign for the “Dine and Dance” Ridgewood Terrace Chinese Restaurant, as well as the RKO Madison Theatre. I vaguely remember the restaurant’s sign. I remember well when it burned shortly before Christmas 1965. I was coming home from St. Brigid School on the B-55 (now Q 55) bus at the start of Christmas vacation, and the bus was re-routed onto Wyckoff Avenue, thence northeast on Cornelia Street, my home block. I think the driver let me off at Cypress and Cornelia, by the (then) Ridgewood Times building, close to my home.
It looks like a play is about to take place within all that furniture onstage, like the Twilight Zone episode, “The After Hours”, all those dept. store mannequins whispering “Marcia !”
Thanks !
Thanks for mentioning this, ECR. I remember Bananafish Gardens.
Indeed they do, Mpol.
Any more news about the Ridgewood Theatre ?
Then it’s my memory vs. yours, with no objective proof, which has nothing to do with the Loew’s 46th Street Theater. I’m willing to drop it if you are.
Not to mention everything else that makes up a community.
It’s quite possible, Mpol.