RKO Madison Theatre

Panzer65, I watched my share of movies on the 4:30 movie on CBS, NBC and ABC (“The Big Show”, starting in fall 1963. I think Tuesday was sci fi / monster day, on which I saw movies like “The Amazing Colossal Man”).

The Ridgewood was on the north side of Myrtle between Putnam Avenue and Madison Street. The Madison was on the south side of Myrtle Avenue at Woodbine Street.

Yes, Panzer65, Cinema Treasures allows you to experience indirectly what you missed, but it reads like you’ve had your own abundant fair share of moviegoing experiences as well.

I saw movies on “Chiller Theater” like “The Indestructible Man” that older posters like BrooklynJim saw in movie theaters.

Probably because it made money when it was re-opened as a store.

The proposal was to make the Madison into a multi-level parking structure, rather than a parking lot. Perhaps Warren can tell us why this was not done.

I still had fun at the Madison even, or maybe especially when, seeing not-so-great films there, like “Reptilicus” (1961), “Three Stooges In Orbit” and “Mothra”, “King Kong vs. Godzilla” (1962)“I Saw What You Did”(1965), “Whatever Happened To Aunt Alice ?”(1969), “Tales From The Crypt” (1972) and “The House That Dripped Blood” (1975, released several years earlier), to name a few.

I myself do not see why the Madison could not have been multiplexed, Panzer65, but perhaps you can research for us and post here about why this was never done.

I didn’t see “Mark Of The Devil” at the Madison in 1972, but took it for granted that free vomit bags were being given out to patrons within, as advertised.

So that nattows the closing of the Madison down to 9/23/77 to 12/03/77, with Halloween almost exactly in the middle.

Yes, Warren, I remember those fears well, because my parents and I had them, living in Ridgewood as we did, ¾ block from Bushwick. It’s understandable that the Ridgewood Times would steer away from “negative” news, such as the closing of the Madison in the fall of 1977, so soon after the July 13 1977 blackout and the consequent devastation of Bushwick. As it is, I remember an article in the Ridgewood Times in fall 1977, “The Agony Of Bushwick”, which, in retrospect, I now wish I had saved and kept a copy of. I think it’s now only to be found in the archives of either the Ridgewood Branch of the Queensboro Public Library or the central library in Jamaica, unless it was dug out and re-posted for the “Up From Flames” exhibit on Bushwick at the Brooklyn Historical Society that closed this past Sunday.

There was a division into “upper” and “lower” Ridgewood, roughly north and south of Myrtle Avenue, respectively. The fear was that at least “lower” Ridgewood would suffer Bushwick’s fate, whereas “upper” Ridgewood wanted to be associated with Glendale and Queens, rather than Bushwick and Brooklyn, in terms of community services.

There was even a program about Bushwick in the fall of 1977 on Channel 13 which I would now be very interested in viewing. I think I only watched part of it. At the time, I was a student at Cooper Union, extremely focused in an “ivory tower” way on my studies there.

The 1977 post-blackout devastation of Bushwick also greatly accelerated the influx of Hispanics into Ridgewood, which first seemed to begin in force in the fall of 1970.

Thanks, Warren. We still don’t know the exact date the Madison closed, but we’ve narrowed it down to between September 23rd and December 17th, 1977, with Halloween 1977 as a most likely near-median value.

I never knew Jimmy Durante was a native Ridgewoodite, only that he was once a singing waiter at Coney Island : “I’m Jimmy, that well-dressed man ! …”

Hy Hochberg … for ten years (1961-1970), my dentist was Dr. Sidney (Sy) Hochberg, on the south side of Myrtle Avenue, between Seneca and Weirfield. Hy and Sy, brothers ?

Reads good, Panzer65. How and where do I find it ?

Understood, Panzer65. Thanks.

Thanks for the info about Gottlieb’s, Warren. Yes, I think it had been a fixture of Ridgewood for 45 years (1930 – 1975).

Ed Solero, Thank you for explaining the meaning of “grind house”.
Your explanation really completes my curiosity about his theater that I missed out on. Warren’s August 24 posting really had me thinking, that RKO sold Madison in ‘59, and then leased it as a “grind house”. These films really set into motion Madison’s demise, slowly degrading a once proud theater prior to '59, by showing cheap b movies, thus never having a chance to exist in dignity. So it all came together for me with this posting and thanks to you Mr. Solero and every one else.I will quote myself upon exiting Madison (Liberty Store) for the first time. “A bleak ending to a once proud movie house.”

A “grind house” was a theater (typically a run-down inner-city house) that booked genre films (action, sex, blaxploitation, kung-fu, horror) on a virtual ‘round-the-clock basis and usually on double- and triple-feature bills. It wasn’t an AIP brand so much as an industry term for such theaters. While many second-run theaters operated on a grind (as opposed to the two-a-day showings at the big premier first run houses) throughout the '30’s, '40’s and '50’s, the classic exploitation grinders had their heyday in the '60’s and '70’s – falling prey to the rising popularity of VCR’s by the mid 1980’s.

Koletty’s did indeed sell chocolate candy. I remember my mom and I getting a chocolate Easter bunny for my first grade teacher at St. Brigid School, Sister Mary Joyce, for Easter 1962. When I gave it to her, she asked if she ate it, would she turn into a bunny rabbit ? I answered, no, I don’t think so.

Thanks for your recollection of Gottlieb’s, Eleanor. They did indeed re-open in Kew Gardens, a smaller place on Queens Blvd. near Union Turnpike and the courthouse, but it wasn’t the same. There, they either became, or had competition from, Pastrami King.

Madison as “grind house” : I was referring to the product rather than the schedulling.

Gottlieb’s on Myrtle Avenue in Ridgewood closed in mid to late September 1975. There was a sardonic hand-printed message in the window from the owner / manager, Ira Gottlieb, “thanking” the waiter’s union for forcing him to close his restaurant.

Thanks Bway,
I knew it was somewhere close by!!

Period streetscapes frozen for the camera. In addition to Marnettes Frocks, did you notice the store across the street with a neon sign extending from the front advertising “House Dresses”. Do you suppose that they would spend the money on neon for such an item today? Also the sign for Household Finance. Once upon a time you could find one of their loan offices almost anywhere in North America.

That should have been “You Gotta Wash Your Ass”.

I owe this thread some comments. Back tomorrow !