Thanks for answering my Richard Widmark – wheelchair question. The aunt of mine who told me of this perfidious deed in cinema also saw “The Paradine Case” at the Ridgewood Theatre on a hot free summer afternoon in 1947, or 1948.
Cappy passing on from spaghetti re-heated on the radiator : perhaps it came from the Villa Maria Italian restaurant, which used to be on the northeast side of Cypress Avenue, between Myrtle and Putnam Avenues, across Cypress Avenue from the WW I monument and B-18 bus stop. My favorite take-out meal from there was a veal cutlet and spaghetti. I can almost taste it now. Puglia’s in Little Italy (Mulberry and Hester) has something similar as a lunch special, which I’ve enjoyed in the last few years with my son.
I think there is now an electronics store where the Villa Maria once was. I last ate in the Villa Maria in August 1990.
I, too, saw “The Sound Of Music” at the Ridgewood, with my mom, in 1967. Perhaps we unknowingly sat in the same audience together !
What did you think of Ridgewood in your 1967 visit ?
My first experience of the Ridgewood as a multi-screened theater was Tuesday June 17 1980. “Friday the 13th” was playing in the balcony, and a boxing match was playing in the orchestra below on closed-circuit TV. The beauty of that was that it got me into the balcony of the Ridgewood, with its beautiful, elliptical inner lobby, for the first time in a LONG time !
I saw “The Howling” at the Ridgewood on Friday, March 13, 1981, on the orchestra level. I don’t remember if there was another film showing in the balcony. By the time I saw “Blowout” at the Ridgewood in late July 1981, it was at least a triplex : another film showing there then was “The Wolfen”.
Thanks for your architectural details and speculations about Cappy’s.
I, too, recall the Ridgewood Grove Arena, as does my father, who as a boy once lived across the street from it, near the eastern corner of Cypress Avenue and Palmetto Street. I think there was still wrestling there as late as summer 1982.
The Silver Dollar Club was the name of the dance hall I was trying to remember. Thanks.
That’s a good question, but I have never thought about it. I will defer to once upon a time or someone like him with experience, who, unlike myself, was in Cappy’s or that teen dance hall : someone who was once inside the Ridgewood Theater building for some other purpose than to see a film.
Thank you, once upon a time ! Please keep these Ridgewood Theatre memories of yours coming on this page !
I remember Hank’s Billiards above the Ridgewood Theatre, and have read on this page about some sort of teen dance hall (the name escapes me) that was before my time.
In “Kiss Of Death”, did Widmark push the old lady in a wheelchair down a long flight of stairs ?
Thanks for you answer, Patrick. I’m glad to read you’ve worked on a few films with people who worked with your alter ego, and that they told your alter ego about you.
Yes, it’s always fun to see your name on the big screen, even if it’s someone else’s.
It happened to me at Film Forum in NYC, Feb 1988 : they made a mistake, and screened “Heartbreak Ridge” instead of “Heartbeat”, Hollywood’s version of The Beats (Sissy Spacek as Caroline Cassady, Nick Nolte as Neal Cassady, John Heard as Jack Kerouac) and there was my name, Peter Koch, in the credits !
Even though it was “Heartbreak Ridge” instead of “Heartbeat”, some guy in the audience found characters in the intro who resembled Ginsberg, Cassady and Kerouac ! A balding guy with a beard, a guy talking rapidly, and another guy writing in his diary !
Again, Walter H, welcome to both Cinema Treasures and Bushwick Buddies ! Bway and I are on both.
My late Uncle John, who lived on Harman Street between Wyckoff and Irving Avenues as a kid, went to the Rivoli as a kid also. He passed away last November at age 86.
My dad went to the Colonial Theatre a lot as a kid, because, he, too, lived near there, among other places, on Moffat Street between Evergeen and Bushwick Avenues. He is now 88.
My family and I used to shop on Knickerbocker Avenue, northwest of Myrtle Avenue, also. It is still a busy shopping area.
Please continue to read here on Cinema Treasures, and on Bushwick Buddies also. I have posted a great deal on both sites, on many theatres and topics, over the past 4 ½ years.
I have read that the Dectaur Theatre was known locally as “the itch”.
Thank you so much for posting your charming and poignant memories of the Grandview, once upon a time, and welcome to Cinema Treasures !
No such hide-away for ladies' hats …. my dad, about twenty years your senior, remembers the message “Ladies please remove your hats” on movie screens. The indoor / outdoor theatre he remembers was the Colonial, in his old home neighborhood of Bushwick, adjoining Ridgewood to the southwest. There is a page for the Colonial on Cinema Treasures. It was on the block bounded by Broadway, Rockaway Avenue, and Chauncey Street. The outdoor screen there must have been an outside wall of the Colonial. My dad remembers folks sitting on their fire escapes on Rockaway Avenue, watching outdoor summer movies for free.
for more talk of theatres, and of the neighborhoods of Ridgewood and Bushwick. Your input would be most welcome there.
There is plenty more for your reading and (hopefully) posting pleasure on the pages for the Ridgewood, Madison, Oasis, Parthenon, Glenwood, Belvedere, Wyckoff, Wagner, etc. theatres here on Cinema Treasures.
Again, welcome, and I look forward to seeing more posts from you.
Alas, the Ridgewood Theatre’s last day of showing movies was Sunday, March 9, 2008.
I remember both the Chaplains and the Halsey Bops, not personally, but as graffiti, the Chaplains en route on the B-52 Gates Avenue Civic Center bus from Ridgewood to downtown Brooklyn, somewhere on a building in Bushwick or Bed Stuy, and the Halsey Bops on the concrete abutments of the Cypress Avenue LIRR / Connecting Line trestle, along with “Russ and Connie” (on the northern abutment).
I remember thinking that maybe “Chaplains” was a dirty word that I should ask my parents about before using it aloud.
Please be advised : There is a Warren (G. Harris) out for our arrest for OT posting.
Any connection between the Halsey Bops and the Halsey Theatre ?
Does anyone have a chronology of Jackie Gleason’s appearances at the Halsey, first in the audience, then as a performer, on Amateur nights ?
Does anyone have any images of the Halsey, either interior or exterior, when it was still a theater ? Perhaps one of those 1930’s NYC tax photos, with the sign in the foreground, such as I have seen for the Eagle / Luxor and the Monroe ?
On Saturday, August 25, 2007 when “BrooklynJim”, “frankie” and I saw “The Bourne Ultimatum” at the Ridgewood Theatre, we saw a Patrick Crowley in the end credits. Unfortunately, I forget what he was credited for. Could it be the same Patrick Crowley that you work with at Cinema Treasures ? Thanks in advance for your answer.
If one looks at aerial views of the Ridgewood and RKO Madison Theatres, one can see how small the part that fronted on Myrtle Avenue is, in comparison to the rest of the theatre.
Thanks, Ross, good to see you on the board. I will comply.
Is Patrick Crowley still part of the management of CT as well ?
Does anyone have any older (say, 1960’s) interior images of the Ridgewood Theatre, especially the orchestra and balcony inner lobbies, that they could post here ?
All the best, Ross, and please keep up all your fine work here at CT. I LOVE being here !
Again, thanks, and you’re most welcome to the memory jog.
French Connection : I think the Ridgewood-baby carriage part of the chase scene was filmed under the Myrtle Avenue el between the Seneca and Forest Avenue stations, near the old trolley tracks.
Yes, Sal and Angie’s was used in the film, both inside and out.
Hope you walk the streets of Ridgewood again soon !
Thanks, mrbillyc. It makes sense that it’s now a Yugoslavian restaurant. A Yugoslavian man I used to work with, a Mr. Anton Tomic, “Mr. A. Tomic”, used to live near there on Catalpa Avenue near its end at Shaler Avenue.
You’re welcome, Monica. Good to have you back. Have you been to Bushwick Buddies yet ? It’s loaded with the history of our community, going back at least a century.
I’ll be back to your flickr site soon.
Panzer65, thanks for the update on the Grove pool hall. I see it all the time from the M train on my monthly trip to and from Ridgewood.
Zitch, right on about the S & W Dodge.
Too bad about McZak’s and its successor failing and closing.
The cinema closest to the Ridgewood that is still open is either the Atlas Park Cinema at 80th and Cooper in Glendale, or some theater in downtown Brooklyn.
Thanks for the info on the Brauhaus and “rosie”. There’s probbaly been many articles about it in the Old Timer column of the (Ridgewood) Times Newsweekly.
Yes, the spirit ages less rapidly than the body.
You’re welcome to the memory jog. My pleasure.
No, I don’t think you’re an alcoholic, from your mention of all those bars, just a very active and outgoing social drinker. I know that bars and pubs are usually de facto community centers.
Never been to St. Nicholas and Starr …. that was SAL AND ANGIE BOCA diner on Wyckoff Avenue n/w of DeKalb and the factory across Wyckoff Avenue from it.
Yes, I’ll let the people you knew you’re alive and well if I ever run into them.
You’re welcome, Panzer65.
once upon a time :
Thanks for answering my Richard Widmark – wheelchair question. The aunt of mine who told me of this perfidious deed in cinema also saw “The Paradine Case” at the Ridgewood Theatre on a hot free summer afternoon in 1947, or 1948.
Cappy passing on from spaghetti re-heated on the radiator : perhaps it came from the Villa Maria Italian restaurant, which used to be on the northeast side of Cypress Avenue, between Myrtle and Putnam Avenues, across Cypress Avenue from the WW I monument and B-18 bus stop. My favorite take-out meal from there was a veal cutlet and spaghetti. I can almost taste it now. Puglia’s in Little Italy (Mulberry and Hester) has something similar as a lunch special, which I’ve enjoyed in the last few years with my son.
I think there is now an electronics store where the Villa Maria once was. I last ate in the Villa Maria in August 1990.
I, too, saw “The Sound Of Music” at the Ridgewood, with my mom, in 1967. Perhaps we unknowingly sat in the same audience together !
What did you think of Ridgewood in your 1967 visit ?
My first experience of the Ridgewood as a multi-screened theater was Tuesday June 17 1980. “Friday the 13th” was playing in the balcony, and a boxing match was playing in the orchestra below on closed-circuit TV. The beauty of that was that it got me into the balcony of the Ridgewood, with its beautiful, elliptical inner lobby, for the first time in a LONG time !
I saw “The Howling” at the Ridgewood on Friday, March 13, 1981, on the orchestra level. I don’t remember if there was another film showing in the balcony. By the time I saw “Blowout” at the Ridgewood in late July 1981, it was at least a triplex : another film showing there then was “The Wolfen”.
Thanks for your architectural details and speculations about Cappy’s.
I, too, recall the Ridgewood Grove Arena, as does my father, who as a boy once lived across the street from it, near the eastern corner of Cypress Avenue and Palmetto Street. I think there was still wrestling there as late as summer 1982.
The Silver Dollar Club was the name of the dance hall I was trying to remember. Thanks.
Hello Panzer65 :
That’s a good question, but I have never thought about it. I will defer to once upon a time or someone like him with experience, who, unlike myself, was in Cappy’s or that teen dance hall : someone who was once inside the Ridgewood Theater building for some other purpose than to see a film.
Yes, those film cans remaining untouched outside the Ridgewood Theatre was indeed a sign of those safer times !
Thank you, once upon a time ! Please keep these Ridgewood Theatre memories of yours coming on this page !
I remember Hank’s Billiards above the Ridgewood Theatre, and have read on this page about some sort of teen dance hall (the name escapes me) that was before my time.
In “Kiss Of Death”, did Widmark push the old lady in a wheelchair down a long flight of stairs ?
Thanks, Noah, for the article.
Monica, you look great !
Thanks, Warren. Excellent article.
It’s good to see not only pictures of the Ridgewood, inside and out, but Monica H(arbison) as well.
Thank you, Monica, for contributing.
Only $ 9.5 million now, eh ? Any takers yet among CT posters ?
You’re more than welcome, once upon a time, and thanks again !
Thanks so much, once upon a time, for posting this memory of yours.
I, too, have fond memories of Nagengast’s Hardware Store and Hobby Shop.
My dad remembers Cornelia Street once extending to Fresh Pond Road, past Forest Avenue, where it ends now. Do you remember this as well ?
I’m glad you enjoyed my story, Patrick.
I know what you mean about Film Forum. I’ve posted some on the Film Forum page on this site, although not recently.
Thanks for you answer, Patrick. I’m glad to read you’ve worked on a few films with people who worked with your alter ego, and that they told your alter ego about you.
Yes, it’s always fun to see your name on the big screen, even if it’s someone else’s.
It happened to me at Film Forum in NYC, Feb 1988 : they made a mistake, and screened “Heartbreak Ridge” instead of “Heartbeat”, Hollywood’s version of The Beats (Sissy Spacek as Caroline Cassady, Nick Nolte as Neal Cassady, John Heard as Jack Kerouac) and there was my name, Peter Koch, in the credits !
Even though it was “Heartbreak Ridge” instead of “Heartbeat”, some guy in the audience found characters in the intro who resembled Ginsberg, Cassady and Kerouac ! A balding guy with a beard, a guy talking rapidly, and another guy writing in his diary !
Again, Walter H, welcome to both Cinema Treasures and Bushwick Buddies ! Bway and I are on both.
My late Uncle John, who lived on Harman Street between Wyckoff and Irving Avenues as a kid, went to the Rivoli as a kid also. He passed away last November at age 86.
My dad went to the Colonial Theatre a lot as a kid, because, he, too, lived near there, among other places, on Moffat Street between Evergeen and Bushwick Avenues. He is now 88.
My family and I used to shop on Knickerbocker Avenue, northwest of Myrtle Avenue, also. It is still a busy shopping area.
Please continue to read here on Cinema Treasures, and on Bushwick Buddies also. I have posted a great deal on both sites, on many theatres and topics, over the past 4 ½ years.
I have read that the Dectaur Theatre was known locally as “the itch”.
Welcome, WalterH, to both Cinema Treasures AND Bushwick Buddies ! I hope you continue to enjoy them both. Bway and I are on both of them.
What did you read here about the IMDb, that you said you have to agree with ?
You’re most welcome, once upon a time. I look forward to more posts from you. I think you’ll enjoy this site.
I haven’t even mentioned the Bushwick theatres yet, but I’ve put a lot of myself into those, too.
Thank you so much for posting your charming and poignant memories of the Grandview, once upon a time, and welcome to Cinema Treasures !
No such hide-away for ladies' hats …. my dad, about twenty years your senior, remembers the message “Ladies please remove your hats” on movie screens. The indoor / outdoor theatre he remembers was the Colonial, in his old home neighborhood of Bushwick, adjoining Ridgewood to the southwest. There is a page for the Colonial on Cinema Treasures. It was on the block bounded by Broadway, Rockaway Avenue, and Chauncey Street. The outdoor screen there must have been an outside wall of the Colonial. My dad remembers folks sitting on their fire escapes on Rockaway Avenue, watching outdoor summer movies for free.
Please join Bway and myself on Bushwick Buddies :
www.bushwickbuddies.com
for more talk of theatres, and of the neighborhoods of Ridgewood and Bushwick. Your input would be most welcome there.
There is plenty more for your reading and (hopefully) posting pleasure on the pages for the Ridgewood, Madison, Oasis, Parthenon, Glenwood, Belvedere, Wyckoff, Wagner, etc. theatres here on Cinema Treasures.
Again, welcome, and I look forward to seeing more posts from you.
Alas, the Ridgewood Theatre’s last day of showing movies was Sunday, March 9, 2008.
Thanks, Warren.
Thank you, Ross.
Thank you, Zitch, particularly, in advance for those photos you may find, and which you may be posting.
Peter K.
Zitch and Kevin :
I remember both the Chaplains and the Halsey Bops, not personally, but as graffiti, the Chaplains en route on the B-52 Gates Avenue Civic Center bus from Ridgewood to downtown Brooklyn, somewhere on a building in Bushwick or Bed Stuy, and the Halsey Bops on the concrete abutments of the Cypress Avenue LIRR / Connecting Line trestle, along with “Russ and Connie” (on the northern abutment).
I remember thinking that maybe “Chaplains” was a dirty word that I should ask my parents about before using it aloud.
Please be advised : There is a Warren (G. Harris) out for our arrest for OT posting.
Any connection between the Halsey Bops and the Halsey Theatre ?
Does anyone have a chronology of Jackie Gleason’s appearances at the Halsey, first in the audience, then as a performer, on Amateur nights ?
Does anyone have any images of the Halsey, either interior or exterior, when it was still a theater ? Perhaps one of those 1930’s NYC tax photos, with the sign in the foreground, such as I have seen for the Eagle / Luxor and the Monroe ?
Pax et bonum,
Peter K.
Ross :
On Saturday, August 25, 2007 when “BrooklynJim”, “frankie” and I saw “The Bourne Ultimatum” at the Ridgewood Theatre, we saw a Patrick Crowley in the end credits. Unfortunately, I forget what he was credited for. Could it be the same Patrick Crowley that you work with at Cinema Treasures ? Thanks in advance for your answer.
Peter Koch
I hereby apologize for my duplicate postings.
If one looks at aerial views of the Ridgewood and RKO Madison Theatres, one can see how small the part that fronted on Myrtle Avenue is, in comparison to the rest of the theatre.
Thanks, Ross, good to see you on the board. I will comply.
Is Patrick Crowley still part of the management of CT as well ?
Does anyone have any older (say, 1960’s) interior images of the Ridgewood Theatre, especially the orchestra and balcony inner lobbies, that they could post here ?
All the best, Ross, and please keep up all your fine work here at CT. I LOVE being here !
Peter Koch
Zitch :
Again, thanks, and you’re most welcome to the memory jog.
French Connection : I think the Ridgewood-baby carriage part of the chase scene was filmed under the Myrtle Avenue el between the Seneca and Forest Avenue stations, near the old trolley tracks.
Yes, Sal and Angie’s was used in the film, both inside and out.
Hope you walk the streets of Ridgewood again soon !
Peter
Thanks, mrbillyc. It makes sense that it’s now a Yugoslavian restaurant. A Yugoslavian man I used to work with, a Mr. Anton Tomic, “Mr. A. Tomic”, used to live near there on Catalpa Avenue near its end at Shaler Avenue.
French Connection ?
“That’s what you get for picking your feet in Poughkeepsie !”
“How about a milkshake, boys ?”
Saw it at the Ridgewood in 1972.
You’re welcome, Monica. Good to have you back. Have you been to Bushwick Buddies yet ? It’s loaded with the history of our community, going back at least a century.
I’ll be back to your flickr site soon.
Panzer65, thanks for the update on the Grove pool hall. I see it all the time from the M train on my monthly trip to and from Ridgewood.
Zitch, right on about the S & W Dodge.
Too bad about McZak’s and its successor failing and closing.
The cinema closest to the Ridgewood that is still open is either the Atlas Park Cinema at 80th and Cooper in Glendale, or some theater in downtown Brooklyn.
Thanks for the info on the Brauhaus and “rosie”. There’s probbaly been many articles about it in the Old Timer column of the (Ridgewood) Times Newsweekly.
Yes, the spirit ages less rapidly than the body.
You’re welcome to the memory jog. My pleasure.
No, I don’t think you’re an alcoholic, from your mention of all those bars, just a very active and outgoing social drinker. I know that bars and pubs are usually de facto community centers.
Never been to St. Nicholas and Starr …. that was SAL AND ANGIE BOCA diner on Wyckoff Avenue n/w of DeKalb and the factory across Wyckoff Avenue from it.
Yes, I’ll let the people you knew you’re alive and well if I ever run into them.
Peter