“You hand in your ticket
And you go watch the geek
Who immediately walks up to you
When he hears you speak
And says, "How does it feel
To be such a freak?"
And you say, "Impossible"
As he hands you a bone
Because something is happening here
But you don’t know what it is
Do you, Mister Jones?"
Eleanor, thanks for asking. I will be back on Bushwick Buddies soon. I was hindered from returning by a compulsory computer upgrade on November 20, 2006. I will need to re-register when I return.
The last Bushwick stuff I looked at was the week of November 20, not on Bushwick Buddies, but on BrooklynPix.com : some new and improved Bushwick pages that Chris was kind enough to send me a link to. Some photos dated from 1896 and 1906.
I think the live chicken market and gas station on the triangle formed by Myrtle and St. Nicholas Avenues and Woodbine Street lasted until the fire right before Christmas 1965 that destroyed the Ridgewood Gardens Chinese Restaurant that used to be across Myrtle Avenue from the chicken market. Then the chicken market and gas station gave way to an unfinished hole in the ground, with naked steel girders in it, which my parents and other Ridgewood residents joked about whenever they passed it on the street. The unsightly wooden square scaffolding across the street, by what had been the Ridgewood Gardens Chinese Restaurant, my father sardonically referred to as Ridgewood’s equivalent of the Arc De Triomphe in Paris, France. My first memory of eating in the diner that replaced the chicken market was summer 1968.
The last time I saw a movie from the balcony of the RKO Madison may have been “The Odd Couple” in summer 1968, rather than “The Green Berets”. I am not sure which I saw first. The last film I saw at the Madison, “Lipstick”, in June or July of 1976, I went to the men’s room on the balcony level (its window was at the western side of the building’s facade) but did not watch the movie from the balcony.
I believe it was Fred Allen who once referred to television (TV) as “tired vaudeville”.
I’m glad to read that management has begun to take an active interest in this page.
Thanks for your answer, Lost Memory, including the gag items, some of which I’d known about. There was also a fake ice cube with a fly in it.
The first or second Saturday in September 1975, after seeing the Robert Altman film “Nashville” with two friends from high school in a midtown East Side theater, we walked around Times Square to check out the sleaze. There was a penny arcade with a movie titled “Crime Does Not Pay !” in which you could see a criminal executed in the electric chair. Sort of a “Faces Of Death” predecessor.
The irony of it, of course, was that, outside on the street, many forms of crime (drugs, prostitution) continued to pay a great deal.
mikemovies, your flick reminds me of “The Wild Wild West”, both TV show and film.
EdSolero, I enjoyed the Metro in the early 1980’s as a revival theater a few times. Also enjoyed the Olympia at 108th and Bway as a first-run movie house.
No sooner had I posted my last post, then I remembered “The Amazing Cinematograph” in London in the late 1880’s in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1992 “Dracula” film : Gary Oldman as Dracula as a Victorian hippie, visiting it with Mina (Winona Ryder) and wreaking havoc with it.
Where were the TAPIA and HARRISON theaters ?
Any updates on the Ridgewood Theater ?
Arcadia Press, Images Of Rail series, has a good, high-quality book on “Forgotten Trolleys of Manhattan, The Bronx and Westchester”. There are several images of trolleys running on East and West 42nd Street in Manhattan.
I’ve heard of Clayton Moore from a guy who used to post on this site as “Karl B”, mostly about Cypress Hills theaters, because that’s where he grew up.
Ridgewood Theater : safety reasons : Olivia is young, pretty, petite. 5 ft. 0 inches, 90 lbs. Needs protection from 7 ft. tall, 300 lb., horny 20 year-olds who crave violence and / or trouble. The bigger 2-legged rats.
Bklyn Jim, thanks for the correction on the Batman serial.
Boot camp in spring 1966 ? You’re a Vietnam graduate ? Have you ever seen the film “Good Morning Vietnam !” ? If so, what did you think of it ? I liked it, and, several years after I saw it at home on VHS, I saw the REAL Adrian Cronauer in a brief TV spot.
Re : editing of serials : my son has a VHS of three Max Fleischer Superman cartoons, and the cartoon “Japoteurs” has been re-titled “Saboteurs”.
Unconscious Linda Page awakens in Daka’s underground hideout. She sees him and shrieks, “Nipponese !”, then pulls open her blouse, revealing a poison-tipped Madonna cone bra !
Or, make it a musical, a la “Lady And The Tramp” :
“Please Nipponese if you please …”
Still LYAO ?
Bklyn Jim, when do you find the time to watch all this great sruff ? Are you retired ?
My young colleague still hasn’t attended a film at the Ridgewood. I suggested she do so with her husband for safety reasons. I asked her if she was into the old serials, and she said no, but, did I recommend any ? I mentioned “Zombies Of The Stratosphere” starring an impossibly young Leonard Nimoy, and “Commando Cody”.
I saw “Gwangi” (pronounced “gwon-jee”, not, “gwang-gee”) at the RKO Madison on its original 1969 run, right before I started high school (St. Francis Prep). I liked it. It was like a higher-tech remake of “The Beast Of Hollow Mountain”. Didn’t it also star Richard Chamberlain (Dr. Kildare) ? I tend to confuse him with Franciscus (Mr. Novak).
Bklyn Jim : I’ve seen the 1949 Batman serial with Lewis Wilson, Douglas Croft, and J. Carroll Nash as the evil Dr. Daka. Film Forum in NYC ran it summer 1989, concurrent with the then-new Michael Keaton Batman movie.
Film Forum also ran the Captain Marvel serial the summer of 1988, and, in either summer 1988 or 1989, an episode of “Zombies Of The Stratosphere” starring an impossibly young (19 or 20) Leonard Nimoy.
In summer 1987 they showed episodes of “Space Patrol” with Edward Kemmer as hero “Buzz Corey”.
The latest homage to Commando Cody was a reference to a “Commander Cody” in Star Wars Episode III in 2005.
I’ll see if young Olivia (about 30 years of age)has any interest in this wonderful old stuff.
I, too, wonder what kiddie stuff the Ridgewood and Madison ran before I started going to them.
I’m not sure if my young colleague is into old movies. The last movie she mentioned to me having seen was the recent “Sean Of The Dead”. She likes horror movies, but is afraid to watch them alone.
To open that door, Bway, or perhaps the as-built drawings of the RKO Madison can be found on-line somewhere.
The last time I remember being in the balcony of the RKO Madison was August 2, 1968 for “The Green Berets”, starring John Wayne, David (“The Fugitive”)Jannsen (sp ?) and George Takei.
Anything new to be said about the Ridgewood Theater, whose page this is ?
It may soon have a new, young, intelligent patron, as a result of a conversation I had about it with a colleague at work last week. She is in her late 20’s and lives in upper Ridgewood with her husband and parents, on Grove Street near Forest Avenue.
When I click on the links to Warren’s photos, I get a blank screen titled “blockpage”. Maybe my PC’s internal censor is somehow picking up the ghost of Mae West and Fast Eddie in an unseemly and compromised position.
Thanks, Bway. Sad to read, but thank you for posting this. You are a devoted seeker of what remains of the past.
Why didn’t you open that door in the fake drywall ? Alarmed ? Not allowed ?
Please refresh me. Where was the other stairway to the balcony ? Did it come down to the inner lobby, as in the Ridgewood Theater ?
What no longer remains within reflects what one sees without, that western wall, visible from the Wyckoff-Myrtle el station platform, on which “RKO MADISON THEATER” in those big block letters grows ever fainter, and the graffiti, ever bolder, keeps encroaching on it …
No idea. Why is the sign at the head of an alley, or gap, between two buildings ? Has anyone tried to date this photo using the films mentioned on the sign ?
“You hand in your ticket
And you go watch the geek
Who immediately walks up to you
When he hears you speak
And says, "How does it feel
To be such a freak?"
And you say, "Impossible"
As he hands you a bone
Because something is happening here
But you don’t know what it is
Do you, Mister Jones?"
Eleanor, thanks for asking. I will be back on Bushwick Buddies soon. I was hindered from returning by a compulsory computer upgrade on November 20, 2006. I will need to re-register when I return.
The last Bushwick stuff I looked at was the week of November 20, not on Bushwick Buddies, but on BrooklynPix.com : some new and improved Bushwick pages that Chris was kind enough to send me a link to. Some photos dated from 1896 and 1906.
Peter
I think the live chicken market and gas station on the triangle formed by Myrtle and St. Nicholas Avenues and Woodbine Street lasted until the fire right before Christmas 1965 that destroyed the Ridgewood Gardens Chinese Restaurant that used to be across Myrtle Avenue from the chicken market. Then the chicken market and gas station gave way to an unfinished hole in the ground, with naked steel girders in it, which my parents and other Ridgewood residents joked about whenever they passed it on the street. The unsightly wooden square scaffolding across the street, by what had been the Ridgewood Gardens Chinese Restaurant, my father sardonically referred to as Ridgewood’s equivalent of the Arc De Triomphe in Paris, France. My first memory of eating in the diner that replaced the chicken market was summer 1968.
The last time I saw a movie from the balcony of the RKO Madison may have been “The Odd Couple” in summer 1968, rather than “The Green Berets”. I am not sure which I saw first. The last film I saw at the Madison, “Lipstick”, in June or July of 1976, I went to the men’s room on the balcony level (its window was at the western side of the building’s facade) but did not watch the movie from the balcony.
I believe it was Fred Allen who once referred to television (TV) as “tired vaudeville”.
Lost Memory, does this photo have a date ? Could this building have become the Museum Of The City Of New York ?
I’m glad to read that management has begun to take an active interest in this page.
Thanks for your answer, Lost Memory, including the gag items, some of which I’d known about. There was also a fake ice cube with a fly in it.
The first or second Saturday in September 1975, after seeing the Robert Altman film “Nashville” with two friends from high school in a midtown East Side theater, we walked around Times Square to check out the sleaze. There was a penny arcade with a movie titled “Crime Does Not Pay !” in which you could see a criminal executed in the electric chair. Sort of a “Faces Of Death” predecessor.
The irony of it, of course, was that, outside on the street, many forms of crime (drugs, prostitution) continued to pay a great deal.
Lost Memory, by “action” in Manhattan movie theaters, do you mean picking up girls ?
The Reverend Al Sharpton will next impersonate Little Richard, singing “Good Golly Miss Brawley”.
Warren, do not take the Lord’s name in vain.
Thank you, Grand Mogul !
mikemovies, your flick reminds me of “The Wild Wild West”, both TV show and film.
EdSolero, I enjoyed the Metro in the early 1980’s as a revival theater a few times. Also enjoyed the Olympia at 108th and Bway as a first-run movie house.
Thank you all.
No sooner had I posted my last post, then I remembered “The Amazing Cinematograph” in London in the late 1880’s in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1992 “Dracula” film : Gary Oldman as Dracula as a Victorian hippie, visiting it with Mina (Winona Ryder) and wreaking havoc with it.
Where were the TAPIA and HARRISON theaters ?
Any updates on the Ridgewood Theater ?
Arcadia Press, Images Of Rail series, has a good, high-quality book on “Forgotten Trolleys of Manhattan, The Bronx and Westchester”. There are several images of trolleys running on East and West 42nd Street in Manhattan.
Thank you, AAlvarez and Lost Memory.
What year did silent films begin ? What was the first one ? Thomas Edison’s production of “Frankenstein”, around 1899 ?
Does the Photo Drama Theatre DeLuxe / Candler Theater have a page on this site yet ?
Any news about the Ridgewood Theater, landmarking / preservation process or otherwise.
What year do you estimate the photo at, AAlvarez ?
I’ve heard of Clayton Moore from a guy who used to post on this site as “Karl B”, mostly about Cypress Hills theaters, because that’s where he grew up.
Ridgewood Theater : safety reasons : Olivia is young, pretty, petite. 5 ft. 0 inches, 90 lbs. Needs protection from 7 ft. tall, 300 lb., horny 20 year-olds who crave violence and / or trouble. The bigger 2-legged rats.
Bklyn Jim, thanks for the correction on the Batman serial.
Boot camp in spring 1966 ? You’re a Vietnam graduate ? Have you ever seen the film “Good Morning Vietnam !” ? If so, what did you think of it ? I liked it, and, several years after I saw it at home on VHS, I saw the REAL Adrian Cronauer in a brief TV spot.
Re : editing of serials : my son has a VHS of three Max Fleischer Superman cartoons, and the cartoon “Japoteurs” has been re-titled “Saboteurs”.
Unconscious Linda Page awakens in Daka’s underground hideout. She sees him and shrieks, “Nipponese !”, then pulls open her blouse, revealing a poison-tipped Madonna cone bra !
Or, make it a musical, a la “Lady And The Tramp” :
“Please Nipponese if you please …”
Still LYAO ?
Bklyn Jim, when do you find the time to watch all this great sruff ? Are you retired ?
My young colleague still hasn’t attended a film at the Ridgewood. I suggested she do so with her husband for safety reasons. I asked her if she was into the old serials, and she said no, but, did I recommend any ? I mentioned “Zombies Of The Stratosphere” starring an impossibly young Leonard Nimoy, and “Commando Cody”.
I saw “Gwangi” (pronounced “gwon-jee”, not, “gwang-gee”) at the RKO Madison on its original 1969 run, right before I started high school (St. Francis Prep). I liked it. It was like a higher-tech remake of “The Beast Of Hollow Mountain”. Didn’t it also star Richard Chamberlain (Dr. Kildare) ? I tend to confuse him with Franciscus (Mr. Novak).
Bklyn Jim : I’ve seen the 1949 Batman serial with Lewis Wilson, Douglas Croft, and J. Carroll Nash as the evil Dr. Daka. Film Forum in NYC ran it summer 1989, concurrent with the then-new Michael Keaton Batman movie.
Film Forum also ran the Captain Marvel serial the summer of 1988, and, in either summer 1988 or 1989, an episode of “Zombies Of The Stratosphere” starring an impossibly young (19 or 20) Leonard Nimoy.
In summer 1987 they showed episodes of “Space Patrol” with Edward Kemmer as hero “Buzz Corey”.
The latest homage to Commando Cody was a reference to a “Commander Cody” in Star Wars Episode III in 2005.
I’ll see if young Olivia (about 30 years of age)has any interest in this wonderful old stuff.
I, too, wonder what kiddie stuff the Ridgewood and Madison ran before I started going to them.
The correct spelling of the name of the actor who played “The Fugitive” is David Janssen.
I don’t mean to be Warren, Bway, but please let’s not risk invoking Fast Eddie again !
I’m not sure if my young colleague is into old movies. The last movie she mentioned to me having seen was the recent “Sean Of The Dead”. She likes horror movies, but is afraid to watch them alone.
ERD, what a shame about your aunt’s photos being lost.
To open that door, Bway, or perhaps the as-built drawings of the RKO Madison can be found on-line somewhere.
The last time I remember being in the balcony of the RKO Madison was August 2, 1968 for “The Green Berets”, starring John Wayne, David (“The Fugitive”)Jannsen (sp ?) and George Takei.
Thanks, Anna Stern and Jose, for posting your memories.
Anna Stern, what rock and roll acts did you see at the Bklyn Paramount as a child, and what did you think about them ?
Anything new to be said about the Ridgewood Theater, whose page this is ?
It may soon have a new, young, intelligent patron, as a result of a conversation I had about it with a colleague at work last week. She is in her late 20’s and lives in upper Ridgewood with her husband and parents, on Grove Street near Forest Avenue.
Thanks for all the details, Bway and Lost Memory.
When I click on the links to Warren’s photos, I get a blank screen titled “blockpage”. Maybe my PC’s internal censor is somehow picking up the ghost of Mae West and Fast Eddie in an unseemly and compromised position.
That’s too bad. Is there any way you can enhance or enlarge that photo so as to be able to read those directions ?
I wish you success.
Thanks, Bway. Sad to read, but thank you for posting this. You are a devoted seeker of what remains of the past.
Why didn’t you open that door in the fake drywall ? Alarmed ? Not allowed ?
Please refresh me. Where was the other stairway to the balcony ? Did it come down to the inner lobby, as in the Ridgewood Theater ?
What no longer remains within reflects what one sees without, that western wall, visible from the Wyckoff-Myrtle el station platform, on which “RKO MADISON THEATER” in those big block letters grows ever fainter, and the graffiti, ever bolder, keeps encroaching on it …
No idea. Why is the sign at the head of an alley, or gap, between two buildings ? Has anyone tried to date this photo using the films mentioned on the sign ?