RKO Madison Theatre

Thanks for correcting me, EdSolero. I looked up “French Connection II” on the IMDb, saw the release date of 1975, then knew I couldn’t have seen it summer 1973, but I couldn’t think of the film’s correct name. Yes, it WAS “Badge 373”, and its connection to “French Connection” now makes sense to me. Thanks.

That’s a very interesting thought about that 1/25/1978 NY Daily News movie clock listing of a Ridgewood, Queens theater. If it WAS the Madison, it was definitely closed, and a designated eyesore, etc. exactly a month later, as I had posted earlier.

Hey PKoch! Your memory is playing slight tricks on you regarding that trip to the Madison in 1973. The film you’re thinking of is not “French Connection II” (which came out in ‘75 and takes place entirely in Marseilles, France), but “Badge 373,” which starred Robert Duvall and featured the real-life “French Connection” cop (Eddie Egan) portraying a fictional cop. In fact, Egan co-wrote the story with NY newspaper columnist and novelist Pete Hamill.

Anyway, although it’s buried under a multitude of posts since then, on September 18th last year, I reported the same thing as Warren regarding the movie-listing trail for the Madison going cold after 9/23/77. I even posted this image from the NY Times movie clock of that date.

Interestingly, the movie clock in the NY Daily News for 1/25/78 lists a mysterious theater in Ridgewood under the Queens listings in addition to listing the Oasis and Ridgewood Theaters under Brooklyn. Here’s the image of that clipping that I posted back in August of last year. Could the Madison have been briefly re-opened as an independent or perhaps could it have hung on beyond 9/23/77 with only the Daily News listing it in its movie clock? Warren – had you checked microfilm of the Daily News for listings from around this time?

Panzer65, you’re welcome, and thank YOU for your compliment. “Up From The Flames”, an exhibit at the Brooklyn Historical Society, on Pierpont St., about Bushwick and the July 1977 blackout, and its recovery therefrom, began on August 7th, and might still be there. Some images from it are posted on the Bushwick Buddies website :

http://www.bushwickbuddies.com

Yes, NYC’s darkest hour. In fall 1975 the Ford Administration had refused NYC financial aid, so it was about to go into default on its municipal bonds.

I think you are correct about the Madison’s demise. Yet the question still remains : why did the Ridgewood survive, when the Madison did not ?

Panzer65, I was just wondering that myself. The July 13 1977 blackout, and the crime, arson, and looting in Bushwick that resulted from it, must have had some impact on the RKO Madison as well as the rest of Ridgewood.

I don’t think the Madison sustained any major damage in the blackout that could have affected revenue. It didn’t burn during the blackout, rather, I recall it having burned in late 1978 or early 1979, by early April 1979, in any case, perhaps deliberately, for insurance money.

By the last Saturday of February 1978 the Madison was a designated neighborhood eyesore, with a sign out front that read :

THIS IS HOW YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD STARTS TO DECAY !!!!
IF THIS BOTHERS YOU, CALL (phone # of local action group)

Warren mentioned the date of 23 September 1977. Halloween 1977 was mentioned by someone else earlier on this page.

The devastation that resulted in Bushwick from the July 1977 blackout greatly accelerated the Hispanic influx to Ridgewood. I’m not exactly sure how this affected the Madison. Four years before the blackout, in summer 1973, I remember seeing “French Connection II” at the Madison with my parents, and when a Hispanic character in the film, Sweet William, I believe it was, towards the end of the film, shouted out something about “peace, love, justice, and all that white Anglo-Saxon bullshit !”, there was a tremendous ground-swell cheer from the heavily Hispanic audience.

So, perhaps more so, post-blackout summer 1977. I can’t be sure. The last movie I saw at the Madison was “Lipstick” in June or July of 1976. There was a pretty young Hispanic gal sitting across the left aisle from me, to my right. In the scene in that film when we see Chris Sarandon in the nude, in weird colored lights, crank-calling Margaux Hemingway with those equally weird electronic sounds, we looked at each other as if to say, “What the #$%^@ is this weird shit ?” After Margaux Hemingway blew him with a rifle away near the end, I think I said to her, “He’s not gonna make any weird phone calls any more !” She smiled.

It was a Saturday evening, May 20 +, 1978, the last or next-to-last Saturday of that month.

No, Panzer65, I’ve never been to the RKO Keith’s Richmond Hill as an operating theater. I was last there Saturday, July 8th, 2006. I posted my “trip report” on the page for RKO Keith’s Richmond Hill on this site. I think it showed its last film around 1970. Bway may have more details.

Bushwick Buddies is a great site, Panzer65. Hope to see you there soon. Bway (Chris) is there already, and has contributed many amazing and worthwhile images.

Thanks, Eleanor. I’ll mention it to BrooklynJim the next time I speak with him, probably next Monday, August 20th.

I’m sorry you’ve missed me, but feel complimented by it just the same. You might be surprised at what I can believe, given what I’ve already seen of Chris' contributions. I’ll try and get back soon.

Here’s something : on the Colonial Theater page ( # 7929 ) I found out from “Peter L” that Schmearman’s Jewish deli bakery was right across Bway from this theatre, on the northeast side of Bway, between Cooper and Moffat Sts.

I’m hoping that “BrooklynJim”, a relative newcomer to this site, will join Bushwick Buddies, if he hasn’t already.

Thanks, Warren. You’re probably right about Elaine Zuckerman.

Panzer65, I think you will enjoy RKO Keith’s Richmond Hill, because, unlike the RKO Madison, it still so obviously looks like a movie theater inside. So much so, that it looked and felt so odd to me, when I was there Saturday July 8 2006 last year, to walk around the orchestra, where once were movie seats, and see bare floor, aisles, and tables of goods instead, and to be able to walk around where once I wouldn’t have been able to, because of all the seats.

Thank you Lost Memory and Pkoch for your reply s concerning the air conditioning systems at the RKO Madison and Ridgewood.
On my next journey to the RKO Madison (which will be my second), I may take a look at the air conditioning and heating system, to see if its been upgraded. I will soon be exploring the RKO Keith’s Richmond Hill, to either play Bingo or shop at the Flea Market, and of course Jahn’s.