The name of the owner of Proces' Bar being ‘Jim’ reads right. Thanks for the details of that trolley barn, and that old car that you used to sit in.
Yes, the park across the street from the Halsey Theater, Saratoga Park, is still there. There are some old and recent images of it on Bushwick Buddies.
When my father was a small boy in the 1920’s, he used to go with his grandma to the Imperial Theater on the northwest corner of Halsey Street and Saratoga Avenue to take her to see silent Western films. Her husband was a night watchman for the Brooklyn Chair Company, and was asleep during the day.
There is a page for the Imperial Theater on this site, and pictures of it on Bushwick Buddies. It is still there, and is now in use as a church, as so many old theaters are now, like the Colonial, the Empire, Loews Gates, and Loews Valencia.
That’s a very interesting thought, Warren, that the Ridgewood still shows movies, but only on Sunday.
Welcome, zitch ! I graduated St. Brigid in June 1969, along with Vicki Hobson, who has posted on this page, along with Debbie O'Connor, and Dawn Nahoney, who have also posted on this page.
When did YOU graduate St. Brigid’s ?
I don’t know if the Seneca Inn is still there. Where was it ? I remember the Elco Bar at Seneca and Weirfield. Where was the Cobbler Inn ? At St. Nicholas and Woodbine I remember Key Food, with Ace, King, Queen, Jack, and 10 painted on the wall for games of “off-the-wall”, Ciro’s Italian Restaurant, Sal’s barber shop, and the back of the Madison Diner, on the triangle formed by Myrtle, Woodbine and St. Nicholas, where the live chicken market and gas station used to be.
Corato Pizza and Bonafide Opticians were near there on Woodbine between St. Nicholas and Myrtle.
I was last at Eddie’s Sweet Shop in early August 2005, before seeing the Tom Cruise “War Of The Worlds” at the CineMart.
I have posted A LOT of my memories of Ridgewood on this page.
Welcome, zitch ! It appears we have much to talk about, and much in common. Thanks for sharing your memories of the Halsey and Ridgewood Theatres.
I have heard that Proces bar and grill was the basis of Jackie Gleason’s Joe The Bartender routine : with Frank Fontaine as Crazy Guggenheim, and the unseen Mr. Dunahy …. hee hee hee hee ….
Suggest you visit Bushwick Buddies at www.bushwickbuddies.com for more great memories, and pictures as well, if you haven’t already.
MrBill, those of us who remember the RKO Madison when it was still a theater have been trying to connect the dots now for years, as you can read right here on this page.
Ron Wheeler, I’m sorry to read of Brian Sosnowski’s tragic death. He was my 9th grade religion teacher at St. Francis Prep. I offer you my condolences.
Hello again, April W. This is Peter K. with the rest of my answer to your last post to me here.
Yes, I lived on the same (southeast) side of Cornelia street as the synagogue, but closer to Cypress Avenue. Yes, Billy Varade lived across the street from me, at about mid-block. I got some hand-me-down “Cat In The Hat” books from him, I think. His mom’s name was Virginia. He ended up attending medical school in Abruzzi, Italy. I remember him mentioning the Twilight Zone episode “Long Live Walter Jameson” one evening as we played in the front gate of my house in fall 1966.
The door under my front stoop led to the cellar. My kitchen and living room windows faced the back yard. The kitchen walls were light yellow, the living room walls a light green. The living room linoleum was alternating one foot squares of off-white and light brown. The kitchen linoleum was a darker gray, with black and colored speckles, sort of a tweed, and rather worn. Facing my house
from the street, the stoop and stairs were to the right.
My cousin Fran is now almost totally disabled by multiple sclerosis. At best, she can barely speak only at certain times. It is heartbreaking for her mother, my aunt. My aunt and my mother were not twins, but born 22 months apart, my aunt in May 1923 and my mother in March 1925. I know they resembled each other.
Thank you for mentioning my father as very kind. I will ask if he remembers you when next I see him.
I remember playing astronauts and space aliens with you in my front gate. I remember you making this crook-fingered hand gesture at me and saying, “This ray really kills you !” I think I complied by pretending to die.
I remember your very sharp and accurate perception that I really liked the Child Guidance plastic railroad set (tracks and cars) that I had then. I think what I enjoyed most about it was how easily I could build so many different layouts with it. My dad and I ordered another piece for it (crossover, maybe) which never came in the mail. I can still see and hear you say, in your serious way, “You really like that toy, don’t you ?”
I am now a hydrologic engineer for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, doing mostly flood control projects in NY and NJ. Yes, I am quite a movie theater buff. Click on my user name on this board and see how many theaters I have commented on !
Did my recollection of the collapse of the Ridgewood Theater marquee under the blizzard of February 9, 1969 make sense to you ?
I’m glad you enjoyed reading my recollections. Yes, I had Miss Vitolo for kindergarten, but only went two days out of the whole school year, so, little wonder we don’t remember much of each other from then. I think there were two kindergarten classes at St. Brigid in the 1960-61 academic year.
I have much more to write, but think it best to do it in private. So please e-mail me at :
.army.mil
and I will continue. Thanks, and my warmest regards to you.
Peter Koch
I don’t remember Sr. Davidica at all. I had Sister Mary Joyce for first grade. I was in Class 1-1. For second grade I had Sr. Mary Robertine (Class 2-1). She reminded me of the principal then, Sr. Mary Irene. I remember Sr. Mary Sylvia, though, as a warm and funny person. I also remember a Sr. Mary William dying and being buried at the start of second grade, and praying at the start of class about the Cuban missile crisis.
Then we found ourselves together in Class 3-6 with Mrs. Wagner. I vaguely remember her tying you up with a boy’s belt. She seemed to enjoy humiliating me as well. I remember an incident about not excusing myself to go get my bus pass. Having the baby did nothing to change her personality. I remember her visiting our class with him, and her saying, “Look at him ! He’s going to yawn his fool head off !”
I don’t remember Sister Mary Helen teaching Greek and Roman mythology. I DO remember her emphasizing the importance of the Baltic Sea, assigning “The meaning of Theos” as a paragraph topic (the Greek word for “God”, beginning with capital theta) and my getting an “A” for it, and for the paragraph I wrote about my summer vacation. I also remember her mentioning that, unlike English, Greek sentences did not start with a capital letter, only paragraphs.
I also remember her emphaszing after the geography midterm that Mexico was not UNDER the United States, and that the only thing under the United States was the earth’s crust !
My most unpleasant memory of her was being made to stay at school without going home for lunch for failing to submit a geometry homework assignment. My mother talked her out of it. Turned out it was her mistake. Not sure if she apologized for misplacing it.
I also remember “Man From U.N.C.L.E.” vs. “Bond Bread” fans, and Sr. Mary Helen likening it to Vietnam. I remember “Bond’s Bread Is Bursting With Taste” in code, and that “ZOBZI” was code for “TASTE”.
I don’t remember the book reports on index cards, only the report cards on paper that we had to keep returning to her.
I also remember Kevin Clarke saying something nasty to you, and you telling him, “Yeah, and you’re the Great Stinx !” (as opposed to Sphinx).
Hello, April W. ! This is your friend, Peter Koch, from St. Brigid’s, 4th grade. Thanks for the compliment on my memory !
It reads like what you remembered, and what you asked for eyewitnesses of, was the Ridgewood Theater marquee collapsing under the blizzard of Sunday, February 9th, 1969. We were halfway through 8th grade at St. Brigid’s, then. I didn’t see it happen. I first heard about it from my dad, who was the first in our family to venture outside that day, probably to get take-out Chinese food for supper.
As for me, I stayed inside all day, listening to the continuous Beatles on WNEW 102.7 FM in observance of Beatles Day (the five year anniversary of the historic Feb 8 or 9 1964 appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show) then watching the film “Fail Safe” on ABC that night, with the Beatles' “Eight Days A Week” still on in the background.
My father, who grew up in Bushwick, adjacent to Ridgewood, and who was born in 1919, remembers a “Daily Chat” newspaper. It was delivered by truck from Weirfield St. and Broadway in Bushwick. His mom liked to read it because of the ads. It was a local Pennysaver or Buy-Lines of its day.
I am sure the excerpt quoted above from the Weekly Chat will interest him. His mom, born in 1901, remembers farms in Brooklyn and Queens while she was growing up in Brooklyn.
Thanks for the info, P.S. 152. Sue Byrne sang : she had a pure, angelic voice. I last saw her in May or June of 1975. She had just moved to Avenue D and East 49th St. a month or two earlier, in April 1975.
P. S. 152, you appear to have taken your handle from P. S. 152 in Brooklyn, on Glenwood Road, three blocks east of Ocean Avenue, just west of Midwood High School and just north of Brooklyn College.
Are you familiar with “The Junction Bar” at Flatbush and Nostrand Avenues ? If so, do you know a heavy-set, red-haired folk singer of Irish descent, named Sue Byrne ?
zitch :
The name of the owner of Proces' Bar being ‘Jim’ reads right. Thanks for the details of that trolley barn, and that old car that you used to sit in.
Yes, the park across the street from the Halsey Theater, Saratoga Park, is still there. There are some old and recent images of it on Bushwick Buddies.
When my father was a small boy in the 1920’s, he used to go with his grandma to the Imperial Theater on the northwest corner of Halsey Street and Saratoga Avenue to take her to see silent Western films. Her husband was a night watchman for the Brooklyn Chair Company, and was asleep during the day.
There is a page for the Imperial Theater on this site, and pictures of it on Bushwick Buddies. It is still there, and is now in use as a church, as so many old theaters are now, like the Colonial, the Empire, Loews Gates, and Loews Valencia.
That’s a very interesting thought, Warren, that the Ridgewood still shows movies, but only on Sunday.
Welcome, zitch ! I graduated St. Brigid in June 1969, along with Vicki Hobson, who has posted on this page, along with Debbie O'Connor, and Dawn Nahoney, who have also posted on this page.
When did YOU graduate St. Brigid’s ?
I don’t know if the Seneca Inn is still there. Where was it ? I remember the Elco Bar at Seneca and Weirfield. Where was the Cobbler Inn ? At St. Nicholas and Woodbine I remember Key Food, with Ace, King, Queen, Jack, and 10 painted on the wall for games of “off-the-wall”, Ciro’s Italian Restaurant, Sal’s barber shop, and the back of the Madison Diner, on the triangle formed by Myrtle, Woodbine and St. Nicholas, where the live chicken market and gas station used to be.
Corato Pizza and Bonafide Opticians were near there on Woodbine between St. Nicholas and Myrtle.
I was last at Eddie’s Sweet Shop in early August 2005, before seeing the Tom Cruise “War Of The Worlds” at the CineMart.
I have posted A LOT of my memories of Ridgewood on this page.
You are invited to join Bway and myself at :
www.bushwickbuddies.com
Thanks for posting your recollection of the Valencia here, Don.
Welcome, zitch ! It appears we have much to talk about, and much in common. Thanks for sharing your memories of the Halsey and Ridgewood Theatres.
I have heard that Proces bar and grill was the basis of Jackie Gleason’s Joe The Bartender routine : with Frank Fontaine as Crazy Guggenheim, and the unseen Mr. Dunahy …. hee hee hee hee ….
Suggest you visit Bushwick Buddies at www.bushwickbuddies.com for more great memories, and pictures as well, if you haven’t already.
MrBill, those of us who remember the RKO Madison when it was still a theater have been trying to connect the dots now for years, as you can read right here on this page.
Monica, thanks for the great new pix of the Ridgewood Theatre. Yes, I had a happy and safe 4th of July, and I hope you did, too.
Do you know what’s going on with the Ridgewood Theatre right now ? Does anyone ?
Brian Sosnowski was my teacher in the 1969-1970 academic year, and a good one.
Yes, Brother Brian, the first five books of the Old Testament are the pentateuch, not the pentitude, as I once mis-heard and mis-spelled it.
Thanks, Warren.
Ron Wheeler, I’m sorry to read of Brian Sosnowski’s tragic death. He was my 9th grade religion teacher at St. Francis Prep. I offer you my condolences.
You’re welcome, Noah. It’s good to see you back, Monica ! Congratulations on your graduation from St. John’s U !
Hello again, April W. This is Peter K. with the rest of my answer to your last post to me here.
Yes, I lived on the same (southeast) side of Cornelia street as the synagogue, but closer to Cypress Avenue. Yes, Billy Varade lived across the street from me, at about mid-block. I got some hand-me-down “Cat In The Hat” books from him, I think. His mom’s name was Virginia. He ended up attending medical school in Abruzzi, Italy. I remember him mentioning the Twilight Zone episode “Long Live Walter Jameson” one evening as we played in the front gate of my house in fall 1966.
The door under my front stoop led to the cellar. My kitchen and living room windows faced the back yard. The kitchen walls were light yellow, the living room walls a light green. The living room linoleum was alternating one foot squares of off-white and light brown. The kitchen linoleum was a darker gray, with black and colored speckles, sort of a tweed, and rather worn. Facing my house
from the street, the stoop and stairs were to the right.
My cousin Fran is now almost totally disabled by multiple sclerosis. At best, she can barely speak only at certain times. It is heartbreaking for her mother, my aunt. My aunt and my mother were not twins, but born 22 months apart, my aunt in May 1923 and my mother in March 1925. I know they resembled each other.
Thank you for mentioning my father as very kind. I will ask if he remembers you when next I see him.
I remember playing astronauts and space aliens with you in my front gate. I remember you making this crook-fingered hand gesture at me and saying, “This ray really kills you !” I think I complied by pretending to die.
I remember your very sharp and accurate perception that I really liked the Child Guidance plastic railroad set (tracks and cars) that I had then. I think what I enjoyed most about it was how easily I could build so many different layouts with it. My dad and I ordered another piece for it (crossover, maybe) which never came in the mail. I can still see and hear you say, in your serious way, “You really like that toy, don’t you ?”
I am now a hydrologic engineer for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, doing mostly flood control projects in NY and NJ. Yes, I am quite a movie theater buff. Click on my user name on this board and see how many theaters I have commented on !
Thanks for mentioning that, RobertR. I wonder if it could be made into a clickable video byte on this page.
Hello again April !
Did my recollection of the collapse of the Ridgewood Theater marquee under the blizzard of February 9, 1969 make sense to you ?
I’m glad you enjoyed reading my recollections. Yes, I had Miss Vitolo for kindergarten, but only went two days out of the whole school year, so, little wonder we don’t remember much of each other from then. I think there were two kindergarten classes at St. Brigid in the 1960-61 academic year.
I have much more to write, but think it best to do it in private. So please e-mail me at :
.army.mil
and I will continue. Thanks, and my warmest regards to you.
Peter Koch
I don’t remember Sr. Davidica at all. I had Sister Mary Joyce for first grade. I was in Class 1-1. For second grade I had Sr. Mary Robertine (Class 2-1). She reminded me of the principal then, Sr. Mary Irene. I remember Sr. Mary Sylvia, though, as a warm and funny person. I also remember a Sr. Mary William dying and being buried at the start of second grade, and praying at the start of class about the Cuban missile crisis.
Then we found ourselves together in Class 3-6 with Mrs. Wagner. I vaguely remember her tying you up with a boy’s belt. She seemed to enjoy humiliating me as well. I remember an incident about not excusing myself to go get my bus pass. Having the baby did nothing to change her personality. I remember her visiting our class with him, and her saying, “Look at him ! He’s going to yawn his fool head off !”
I don’t remember Sister Mary Helen teaching Greek and Roman mythology. I DO remember her emphasizing the importance of the Baltic Sea, assigning “The meaning of Theos” as a paragraph topic (the Greek word for “God”, beginning with capital theta) and my getting an “A” for it, and for the paragraph I wrote about my summer vacation. I also remember her mentioning that, unlike English, Greek sentences did not start with a capital letter, only paragraphs.
I also remember her emphaszing after the geography midterm that Mexico was not UNDER the United States, and that the only thing under the United States was the earth’s crust !
My most unpleasant memory of her was being made to stay at school without going home for lunch for failing to submit a geometry homework assignment. My mother talked her out of it. Turned out it was her mistake. Not sure if she apologized for misplacing it.
I also remember “Man From U.N.C.L.E.” vs. “Bond Bread” fans, and Sr. Mary Helen likening it to Vietnam. I remember “Bond’s Bread Is Bursting With Taste” in code, and that “ZOBZI” was code for “TASTE”.
I don’t remember the book reports on index cards, only the report cards on paper that we had to keep returning to her.
I also remember Kevin Clarke saying something nasty to you, and you telling him, “Yeah, and you’re the Great Stinx !” (as opposed to Sphinx).
Any film may be researched on the Internet Movie Database :
www.imdb.com
Hello, April W. ! This is your friend, Peter Koch, from St. Brigid’s, 4th grade. Thanks for the compliment on my memory !
It reads like what you remembered, and what you asked for eyewitnesses of, was the Ridgewood Theater marquee collapsing under the blizzard of Sunday, February 9th, 1969. We were halfway through 8th grade at St. Brigid’s, then. I didn’t see it happen. I first heard about it from my dad, who was the first in our family to venture outside that day, probably to get take-out Chinese food for supper.
As for me, I stayed inside all day, listening to the continuous Beatles on WNEW 102.7 FM in observance of Beatles Day (the five year anniversary of the historic Feb 8 or 9 1964 appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show) then watching the film “Fail Safe” on ABC that night, with the Beatles' “Eight Days A Week” still on in the background.
My father, who grew up in Bushwick, adjacent to Ridgewood, and who was born in 1919, remembers a “Daily Chat” newspaper. It was delivered by truck from Weirfield St. and Broadway in Bushwick. His mom liked to read it because of the ads. It was a local Pennysaver or Buy-Lines of its day.
I am sure the excerpt quoted above from the Weekly Chat will interest him. His mom, born in 1901, remembers farms in Brooklyn and Queens while she was growing up in Brooklyn.
At least you saw the face of St. Peter crucified upside down !
My father explained to me yesterday that “The Prince Of Pitkin Avenue” was merely an expression, and did not denote any one real person, or persons.
Well said, Mike M. Keep the faith !
Thanks for mentioning that, hardbop. I love that film.
Any idea who “The Prince Of Pitkin Avenue” may have been, other than Crystal or his brother in the film ?
Thanks for the info, P.S. 152. Sue Byrne sang : she had a pure, angelic voice. I last saw her in May or June of 1975. She had just moved to Avenue D and East 49th St. a month or two earlier, in April 1975.
OK, thanks. I can research the film on the IMDb, mentioned by Warren in his post, six posts above this one.
Thanks, lostmemory. Do you know anything about “Chicken Every Sunday”, either film or radio program ?
P. S. 152, you appear to have taken your handle from P. S. 152 in Brooklyn, on Glenwood Road, three blocks east of Ocean Avenue, just west of Midwood High School and just north of Brooklyn College.
Are you familiar with “The Junction Bar” at Flatbush and Nostrand Avenues ? If so, do you know a heavy-set, red-haired folk singer of Irish descent, named Sue Byrne ?
Thanks, Warren. My dad remembers “Chicken Every Sunday” as a radio and perhaps also a TV show. I’ll have to ask him about it next time I see him.
I also didn’t know that “The Life of Riley” was a film, as well as a Gleason / Bendix TV show.