Comments from jacktomai

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jacktomai
jacktomai commented about Embassy Theatre on May 30, 2007 at 3:36 pm

One more post, then I gotta run…but I have to ask – does anyone remember the big Hula Hoop contest in the mid 50s that took place on the parking lot of the old Hamburg Savings Bank (Fulton St. between Crescent and Hemlock). The parking lot replaced the old GEM movie theatre in or about 1955. I remember that one of the prizes in the Hamburg Savings Bank sponsored Hula Hoop contest was free admission to the Embassy to see BUS STOP starring Marilyn Monroe!!! Every time I tell people this they think I’m crazy…does anyone remember this? I remember because I came in 4th or 5th or something and that’s how I saw BUS STOP at the Embassy! I must have been 10 or 11 years old and can you imagine that the prize I got was free admission to a Marilyn Monroe movie??? Actually it was great, cause I wound up falling in love with Marilyn from that moment on!

jacktomai
jacktomai commented about Embassy Theatre on May 30, 2007 at 3:30 pm

We lived on Autumn Ave. between Fulton St. and Ridgewood Ave. We were on the side going towards Jamaica Ave. By the way, we used to know a Milly Vitale back in those days. Any relation?

jacktomai
jacktomai commented about Loew's Valencia Theatre on May 30, 2007 at 3:27 pm

I’m so glad I discovered this website! As an avid movie fan my whole life, it’s wonderful to chat with others who are as passionate about films and theatres as I am. My wife and I go to the movies often but we are so sick of the boxlike multiplexes. Leno is SO right! We are always reminiscing about the old classic theatres. So I guess that makes us old fogies. But to see a film in a Valencia or Madison or even the Embassy was wonderful. Even if the picture stunk, at least the theatre was pretty to look at.
Re SAMSON AND DELILAH – I honestly don’t remember the quality of the picture or the sound. I was just so happy to be allowed to go by myself that I would have been thrilled just to watch newsreels all afternoon!
It’s amazing how so many of us who grew up in the 50s & 60s were so incredibly influenced by moviegoing. Not just movies – but moviegoing. Going out to the movies was a treat. It was very often a family event. I recall seeing BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI with my parents and aunts and uncles and cousins in Patchogue, Long Island in 1957, I believe, and when it was over, we all marched out of the Patchogue theatre whistling the Colonel Bogie March. I remember a bunch of us going to see REAR WINDOW at the Embassy (1956?)and my grandmother yelling at Grace Kelly to get out of the murderer’s apt. cause she could see him (Raymond Burr) coming up the stairs. I’ll never forget seeing DAMN YANKEES (1958) at the RKO Keiths and my parents and I singing “Ya Gotta Have Heart” on the way to our 55 Chevy Bel Air. But I guess each generation has its own memories of movie going. I’m just happy that I got mine from magnificent theatres rather than Ipods or cell phones.

jacktomai
jacktomai commented about Haven Theatre on May 30, 2007 at 3:06 pm

When I was a kid in the 50s/60s, if we missed a movie at our local theatre, the Embassy in Cypress Hills, and we missed it at the Earl (Liberty Ave.), we could always catch it at the Haven. To this day my Dad who is 83 and I laugh about the time we went to the Haven to see THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME – a Technicolor remake starring Anthony Quinn and Gina Lollabrigida. It must have been the early 60s. The Haven was never in mint condition as I recall and when we saw the Quinn movie, there was a big gash in the middle of the screen so every time there was a close up of the actors, they all looked like they had been in combat! It was hilarious! Since the theatre was so small there was no lobby – just a candy vending machine behind the last row so every time anyone got candy you heard the coins drop in and the candy drop out! But as bad as it was, at least it provided the last opportunity to see movies we missed elsewhere. Before DVDs and home video and cable, the Haven was the last resort to catch a missed film. As bad as the theatre was, I wouldn’t trade all the movies I saw there with my parents as a kid. Every once in a while they would play reissues as a double feature. I remember vividly seeing a double feature of (GET THIS!) A PLACE IN THE SUN and ALL THE KING’S MEN! Two masterpieces together. And I also remember seeing FUNNY FACE and ON THE WATERFRONT there on a double bill! Can you imagine???

jacktomai
jacktomai commented about Loew's Valencia Theatre on May 30, 2007 at 2:33 pm

I have a wonderful memory of seeing a return engagement of SAMSON AND DELILAH starring Hedy Lamarr and Victor Mature at the beautiful Valencia Theatre. It was 1960 and I met my friend Ray Pistone in front of the theatre for a matinee and there was a line outside! I was 12 years old and it was the first time I was allowed to travel from my Cypress Hills neighborhood to Jamaica, Queens alone on the el train. I felt very grown up and the movie was stupendous. The grandiose theatre matched the Cecil B. DeMille movie in every aspect and I think it hurt movie going for me for many years thereafter because I wanted every movie going experience to be like that! Big movie – big theatre! I feel so sorry for younger generations who have no idea what an experience it used to be to go to the movies!

jacktomai
jacktomai commented about Embassy Theatre on May 30, 2007 at 1:47 pm

I have to correct myself! The movie we saw at the Ridgewood Theatre was with Bette Davis but it wasn’t THE NANNY – it was THE ANNIVERSARY and she wore a black eye patch in it! It was 1968. PKoch, thanks for making me think about this!

jacktomai
jacktomai commented about Embassy Theatre on May 30, 2007 at 1:44 pm

Thanks for the correction on THE NANNY. My wife will kill me if she thinks I forgot the name of the movie we saw on our first date! Jahn’s Ice Cream Parlor was on Hillside Ave. next to Hillside Roller Rink and the RKO Keiths (a beautiful theatre in the 50s/60s). Can’t help out with the name of the bar on the border although my cousin Frank owned a tavern called the Autumn Cafe in the 50s located on the corner of Lincoln Ave and Atlantic Ave.

jacktomai
jacktomai commented about Embassy Theatre on May 30, 2007 at 12:00 pm

Thanks, PKoch. Speaking of businesses in the nabe, I owned JACK’S TOPS AND BOTTOMS from 71-74. Located on Fulton St. between Autumn and Lincoln. My father in law owned Frank’s Meat Market also on Fulton but was one block further down just past Lincoln. By the way, my best friend Dennis Leahy lived in Ridgewood (Madison St.). My very first date with my wife Louise was at the Ridgewood Theatre. We saw Bette Davis in THE BABYSITTER! 1968. Do you happen to remember in 1962 when Bette Davis made a special live appearance at the RKO Madison to promote WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? My buddy Eddie Rivers and I went to see her. Also in the same year, her co-star Joan Crawford made a special promotional appearance at Loew’s Valencia on Jamaica Ave to promote same film. Saw her there too. Nice memories. After we saw Crawford’s appearance we went across street to what I remember to be either a very large coffee shop or ice cream parlor – on Jamaica Ave. (somewhere between 162nd – 168th Streets). Anyone out there remember this place and its name?

jacktomai
jacktomai commented about Embassy Theatre on May 30, 2007 at 11:15 am

My 1st message here…have never done this anywhere else…hope I do this right…I lived on Autumn Ave from 55-79. My future wife, Louise, lived on Hemlock St. This message is directed primarily to Robbie Dupree. If you are the Robbie (used to be called Bobby) who recorded great song STEAL AWAY (among others), you know my brother in law John Picini. John is great guitarist still. He and his wife now live in San Diego. I married John’s sister Louise in 73 and in 79 we moved to Las Vegas. John lived in Vegas until only recently. If you are the same Bobby that John knew (I met you a few times back in old days through my brother in law), I’d love to hear from you so I can tell John who we will be visiting soon.
Also: this is for anybody – after my parents and I went to the Embassy, we would always go for dinner at a little Italian restaurant right near the Embassy. It was across the street on Fulton St. I’m thinking it was a typical Italian rest. name – something like Antonio’s or Luigi’s? Does anyone remember this little restaurant?
Thanks.