RKO Madison Theatre

No, oodygdin, I don’t know anything about this theater, on Wyckoff, at either Weirfield or Centre St. I would like to know more about your Putnam trolley rides. I assume you mean the No. 26 trolley, the predecessor of the B-26 bus between Ridgewood and downtown Brooklyn, which runs on Halsey Street between either Bedford and Nostrand Avenue in Bed-Stuy, and Wyckoff Avenue in Ridgewood.

Are you sure you don’t mean the Alhambra Theater, which used to be at the eastern corner of Halsey Street and Knickerbocker Avenue ? The 26 trolley would have gone past it. There IS a page for this theater on this site. I don’t recall the number offhand right now.

Well, again, they can stagger them every hour or 45 minutes apart, thus getting anyone that wants to see the movie, and not loosing them to other theaters… In a normal 2000 set-up, they could only show let’s say a 2:45 hour movie every 3 hours or so (depending of course on the length). People that want to see in between that would go to a different theater (if available). This way, they get them all. Still way more flexible having 4 500 seat theaters (for example) than one 2000 seat theater.

I am not sure, I have never been to the Atlas Park yet. National Amusements has a few of them, they call them “Cinema de Lux”.

As for “still accomodating” 10,000, that may be true, but most theaters are not going to have 10,000 people coming to see the same movie. And even if they would, the movie would be staggered at half hour or hourly intervals, something they couldn’t do as one screen. Furthermore, obviously, they aren’t going to be cutting it up into 4 screens and then showing not only the same movie in every theater, but certainly wouldn’t be showing them all at the same time even if they were. While often they may show a popular movie in two, perhaps three auditoriums (in a large multiplex), the real point of multiple screens is to show multiple movies, or at least one or two at staggered times.

That’s one of the benefits of a multiplex as opposed to a single screen theater…. Many of the multiplexes have to keep on their toes too, as competition is fierce. Many of the older multiplexes (1980’s, early 90’s) are having a hard time competing against the newer modern ones with stadium seating, etc. Many newer ones now also offer mall like food services, and full service bars within the theater, many with outdoor patios, and a bar atmospehere, or “real” food, as opposed to concessions. Many of these delux multiplexes are trying to become a destination as an entire evening, as opposed to only one part of an evening. And these theaters are packed anytime I have gone to them…there’s still plenty of call for seeing a movie in a theater enviroment, it’s just that the demographics, and the way theaters present themselves has changed.

Oh, okay….also excuse the double post….I thought my original post didn’t post, so wound up retyping it, but then it turned out my original one did post too…..

The old emergency exit doors on the main level are still there, and they are usually open for loading and unloading of merchandise. The store takes up most of the old theater.

I agree with you, Bway. Don’t forget that certain movies that open on days other than Fridays can lure big crowds, as is the case with summer and winter movie events.

Jim, I don’t believe the movie industry has at all dried up….go to any random multiplex, and they are packed on most Friday or weekend nights. It’s far from devoid of interest.

Peter, it was a different time that allowed them to coexist. This is not a Ridgewood or NYC phenomena, it’s a nationwide phenomena. Most old theaters went out of business. It’s just not viable unfortunately anymore to have single screen large theaters. The movie theater industry survived because of the multiplexes, which at least can be profitable. it’s very hard for a 2500+ large theater to survive nowadays as a single screen theater, or be profitable.

You’re probably right, Bway, and thanks for all the details, but I wanted to bring the idea up anyway, partly because I’d never seen it discussed here, and partly to get back on topic.

Thanks also for your rebuttal of the “strange notion” that Ridgewood “went bad”, and is no longer a viable community.

Ridgewood is not at all comparable to the Bronx. There is some strange notion here that Ridgewood “got bad”. While it was always a working class neighborhood, it was never “bad” like Bushwick became in the 70’s. In Ridgewood, 99% of it’s housing stock is intact, and it was never swept with fires, arson, abandonment, and destruction that Bushwick faced. Ridgewood held strong through all of that. Again, a fancy neighborhood it’s not, but it certainly was never “the South Bronx” either, it was right from the beginning a working class neighborhood, and still is.

That being said, I don’t see it viable, as nice as it would, for the Madison to ever come back. We have to remember that it has been gutted, it’s not like it’s all still there. Some of the ceiling detail, and upper open space above the fake ceiling of the store may still be up there (may being the key words, as it even burned once in there), but all the lower portion of the theater has been ripped out, and the sloped floor even filled in to make a straight level floor for the store. All the plaster is gone. All the marble is gone, all the ornamental railings are gone. While the shell of the building remains, that’s all what remains unfortunately. The Ridgewood, which was not half as fancy as the Madison however does have a lot intact, hoever, even so, a lot was lost or damaged through the multiplexing, but you’d have more of a shot of restoring the Ridgewood than the Madison. It’s a shame what’s happened to the Madison, but i don’t see anyone ever coming up with the money need to restore the interior, as it would be from starting from scratch, and it couldn’t possible be a profitable venture, so you will not get that type of investment. There are theaters that are completely intact (like the Lowes Kings in Flatbush) where they it needs millions in repair, and the theater is intact, even if closed and empty for 30 years….and they are having trouble finding an economically viable group to renovate and use that theater. Even the Keith’s in Richmond Hill which is completely intact would be hard to have someone come in there and convert it back to a theater again, and all the old features are still there at least.
Unfortunately, if the Madison survived another decade, it may have at least been intact, but unfortunately, with the amount of damage and destruction that was done inside of the Madison, I don’t think it would even be able to come back if it was in manhattan.

Thanks, Eleanor and BklynJim. One question : homes are selling for $ 500,000 in Bushwick, but who is buying ? Who is paying $ 1700 a month for a one bedroom apt. at Wilson Avenue and Cooper Street, where my great-grandparents Koch lived, seventy to eighty years ago, probably paying $ 25 a month for rent ?