RKO Madison Theatre

Thanks, BklynJim. Yes, “Bone-chilling Emergo !”

“You MUST have your blood pressure taken in the lobby before seeing this film.”

No, that was “Macabre”. Or, as Stephen King and his pals called it, “McBare !” I first mispronounced it as “MACK-UH-BREE”.

I saw the 1999 remake of “The House on Haunted Hill” on TV in 2001. I liked the Vincent Price lookalike it included.

I saw something on TV about the Amin film. Forest Whitaker stars as Amin ?

Yes, mikemovies, much of the nudity was gratuitous, but at least it was real, not implied, nudity. You actually SAW adult female nipples, and buttocks and genitalia, of both sexes. I prefer that to implied nudity, which I find to be a tease, and hypocritical. I, too, would prefer that to senseless violence. At least you get to see some beautiful nude bodies, without seeing them hacked to pieces by a maniac in a hockey mask.

I agree with you about the older sci fi and horror films, and enjoy them much more. It’s like what a friend of mine said about the original b & w “Twilight Zone” : the scariest ones generated an enormous amount of fear and suspense without showing one drop of shed blood.

Well-put, EdSolero. I agree. It doesn’t say much for our sense of values. The recent succession of re-makes seems to be a symptom or subset of what you have described.

Good point, mikemovies, about the films “Peter Proud” and “Lipstick”, yet, regarding the former, I think many people were also disturbed by the sight of Margot Kidder sitting fully frontally nude in her bathtub, quite obviously masturbating while thinking of how her late husband, who Peter Proud was the reincarnation of, had pleasured her many years ago, despite how he had relationally abused her.

Perhaps what many found objectionable about the movie Lipstick PKoch was the subject matter and not so much the nudity. Margaux Hemingway brings charges against the rapist but he is not convicted. I presume that would upset many people especially womens rights groups of the 70’s. Reincarnation of Peter Proud in 1975 was another movie that many people objected to. Not only for nudity but more importantly the subject of incest. In my opinion the issue of nudity was used to denounce these movies but the subject matter was the most disturbing to many people. For the most part these movies dealt with issues that were not discussed by most people and it both frightened and outraged them. Perhaps it was a sign of the new morality in the 1970’s.

OK, mikemovies, what was the last film you remember having seen at the RKO Madison ? Me, it was the trashy sexploitation flick, “Lipstick”, in June or July 1976, starring Margaux and Mariel Hemingway, and Chris Sarandon as the bad guy who gets blown away bigtime by Margaux at the end.

August 1976 was the double feature “The Exorcist”(in re-re-release)and “The Yakuza” but I didn’t enter the RKO Madison to see it.

Please post your e-mail address here if you want to discuss movies with me off this board.

mikemovies, that may be a matter of opinion. What would you consider to be “interesting and fun messages” ?

Thanks, Warren. It reminds me of another Castle film, “Thirteen Ghosts”, recently remade.

Boy, you do good work Bway.

The earlier photo is no earlier than 1933. I didn’t date the cars. But both movies were made in 1933. And Tarzan (the horse) is the best actor in Strawberry Roan, according to a knowledgeable source.

S,c, & e

I uploaded the photo. It’s from the book “Our Community: It’s History and People”, published in 1976. There’s also a photo of the Madison taken in 1976, in the end of the book where it says, “Photos for the future history”. it was taken a year or two before it closed.

Anwyay, here’s the one from the 40’s from that book:

Click here for photo

Here’s the one of the Madison from that book, taken in 1976 or so:

Click here for photo

And look at this, I found what appears to be a much older photo of the Ridgewood Theater, and the vertical sign wasn’t there yet!! I am sorry if I don’t credit the person who posted or emailed me this photo, I didn’t even remember I had it, and don’t remember who sent it to me or where I got it:

Click here for photo

I will also post these photos in the Ridgewood Theater section.

I don’t think I have ever seen a photo of the Ridgewood with a vertical sign like the Madison had, but then again, historical photos of the Madison are easy to come by, historical photos of either the interior of the Ridgewood are hard to come by. Amazingly, even with the hundreds and hundreds of photos in this thread, not one person has been able to come up with a pre-1950’s photo of the exterior of the Ridgewood, and NO historic photos of the interior. The Madison has everything covered in it’s thread, both historical interior photos, and current, semi old, and very old exterior photos.
Why can’t we get the same for the Ridgewood?

BTW< I don’t know if Howards had a vertical sign or not, but do know it had a HUGE sign up at the top of the building, which covered over the cornice at the top of the building. I remember when they took it down.

Irv and Syd’s diner was on the south side of Myrtle Avenue, a few stores west of Madison St (on the same block as the Madison and Ripley’s, but east towards Madison St).

You may be right about Howard’s having a vertical sign. Ripley’s brought out Howard’s in the early ‘60s.

Not to worry, I won’t hold it against you that you used to shop at Howard’s rather than Ripley’s.

Shalom, ciao, and excelsior.