They have had some really big names perform at the United Palace, and while most are not my thing, a few remotely have. Again, if anyone even remotely…..
Actually, here’s a WONDERFUL slideshow on the United Palace Theater’s website which shows how intact and beautiful the theater still is. Simply spectacular:
Thanks for that photo. The place looks beautiful inside. Thank goodness it was taken over by a church that has beautifully maintained the place all these years…. So many other theaters weren’t as lucky, and instead were left to rot.
Now I think it’s wonderful it’s come full circle, and the place is once again sometimes used as a theater again.
The stage still looks very intact in this photo, which mush have been soon after it closed as a theater.
Has anyone been in the place for a recent concert? I would love to see a current photo. I occasionally check it’s bookings. If it’s ever someone I am even slightly interested in seeing perform, and I am available, I would probably go to the concert just to see the inside of the theater.
I think it was in the 60’s already, but not sure of the actual date. It closed very early on already, for the reasons stated….it was unfortunately never a real profit maker.
The Ridgewood Folly Theater was a real theater that showed movies, but it’s location is still a mystery. Myrtle Ave should be removed, as that was misinformation, just as the “Queens Historical Society” comments were a goof.
Peter, again, remember that we can’t take the Ridgewood’s past performance as a “first run mainstream” cinema completely at face value. The theater was falling apart for at least 20 years, and again, very old fashioned, etc. I stopped going there in the late 80s already because it wasn’t as pleasant to see a movie there as it was at “The Midway” or some theater in Forest Hills.
If the Ridgewood was made into a modern, COMFORTABLE, and clean and new multiplex, I don’t see it doing any worse than any other modern multiplex. It has a great location, and can draw from not only Ridgewood and Glendale, but also Maspeth, Middle Village, Bushwick, Williamsburgm, Greenpoint. Even Bedford Stuyvesant. There’s no theater anywhere around those locations in easy access. The Ridgewood IS very much in the middle of all those areas, and not other theater other than Atlas, which is in an sheltered upscale onclave of a mall.
As for an art house, I don’t think it would survive on just that, but you could always gear one of the theaters to it. And if you added another theater or two to the stage area, perhaps the old billards area, and even perhap an adjacent store to the building could be taken over. that would make it even more viable to allow a couple theaters to gear to art films or something, which I think would really attract people from up and coming Bushwick, and hip Williamsburg.
I agree with Luis on this. While it is quite sad to see Sorrentinos gone, the Hofbrau gone, and most of all, Jahn’s, I don’t find this to be a “declining” neighborhood. Different, yes. In “decline”, no.
Demographics change, Luis said it right, 50 years from now, in all likeliness, people will be sitting on some internet message board (or whatever people use to communicate then), and lament the loss of their old “Montezuma Restaurant” and the old “Pool Hall” under the el…..
The golden age is never the present age, as humans, we always look back at out pasts as the “golden age”.
That being said, I also agree that I just don’t see the area surrounding this theater to make a live theater, or even a restored movie theater in this location viable. Let’s not remember that the RKO Keiths, even when open, was never really a shining star in profitiablility. It probably was a little overbuilt even when it was first placed there……
Quote Luis:
“don’t live in the area, but I hear that the Atlas cinemas are actually quite nice and comfortable. How far is this multiplex from the Ridgewood? Would it truly be able to compete?”
It’s not terribly far, not particularly walkable, but perhaps 15-20 minutes by car or bus. The problem is you have to pay to park, and that multiplex is also within a more upscale development, and you must pay to park. The Atlas movie theater “could” live with the Ridgewoood, as I think the Ridgewood would get a lot of people not only from Ridgewood, but also from up and coming Bushwick, and also Williamsburg. I think you have two totally different demographics and locations that would be served between the Atlas and the Ridgewood.
I don’t know if they would have to go through the extent of what they did to the Midway. They COULD make stadium seating within the two lower auditoriums. I have seen them do it at older multiplexes, they just put the structure into the existing auditorium. It is possible, and not all that hard. That would give it comfortable seating (with much better seating that the original old Ridgewood seats have to be at this point.
The three balcony theaters are already “stadium seating” just by the design of an old balcony. Just change the seats.
Combined with cleaned up walls, new flooring, sound upgrades, there you have 5 modern theaters right there. The sight lines are fine in most of the current auditoriums, and with the addition of stadium seating downstairs, that would improve that.
I am sure there is enough room for at least one, perhaps two theaters in the old stage area. Of course, that one would also be a modern theater. The harder part would be designing a corridor to get there, but that could probably be fairly easily be incorporated into the structure they use to make the two downstairs theaters into stadium seating, probably using what is currently the surface floor of the orchestra level.
I have no idea of what sort of space exists in the old Billards area on the second and third floors, but perhaps another auditorium, even if small could be made up there too.
So in summary, I think while it would be wonderful to see the Ridgewood converted back to one large theater, I think the Kings probably would be looked at first, and within good reason. But the Ridgewood’s value does definitly still have a large value as a neighborhood MOVIE theater. And you can’t use the Ridgewood’s supposed bad performance at it’s end as a guide, as remember, the Ridgewood was not maintained as well as it could have near the end, and wasn’t for the last 20 years or more. If upgraded and modernized, it would be no less superior to any modern multiplex.
While Bushwick was beginning to fall by 1962, as mentioned, it wasn’t anything like what the 1970’s were to bring…..
I wonder if they came to the RKO Madison that day too. The RKO Madison also often had stars coming to it to promote it’s films.
Haha, I remember seeing that commercial during the superbowl, and didn’t put 2 and 2 together.
It also was featured in last year’s superbowl….a pretty funny commercial in which two guys get DRAGGED to an opera by their wives/girlfriends, but one guy says, “I can get through it”….opens his jacket, and had about 10 Bud or Coors Lights in bottles in his jacket….but then the opera hit a high pitch which made all the bottles crack and break…….funny.
That is a WONDERFUL photo of how beautiful the Ridgewood’s Lobby still is in that NY Times article. The detail is ALL still there, as well as it’s white marble stairway. Sure, the colors of the plaster may not be authentic, but that’s just paint. What a gem, that needs to be saved, or at least preserved in it’s transition. I would HATE to see what happened to the beautiful Madison Theater down the street happen to the Ridgewood….especially after having survived this long….
Oh, and just to remind everyone, “Forest Hills is 4 miles from Ridgewood”, but only as the crow flies. Just see how many people will walk to Forest Hills to see a movie. And let’s see how many people can get to “The Midway” by car, and park too in less than 45 minutes to an hour…..and my subway, and three trains later……
While it may not be 4.7 miles to Forest Hills, it’s certainly not within the “Ridgewood/Bushwick” area, or even Williamsburg, etc. Forest Hills is not even gotten to easily by bus or subway, it’s at least a 40 minute subway ride, using at least two or three subway train lines. The buses also roundabout, and probably would take longer, using traffic.
So no, Forest Hills' theaters are not viable alternatives to one in Ridgewood. Granted, as a teenager, I abandoned the Ridgewood Theater for the Forest Hills Theaters myself, but that was more because as a kid, we wanted to make a day out of it, not to mention, yes, the Ridgewood was dingy, and not kept nearly as well, even in the 90’s already.
That would not be the case if the Ridgewood was upgraded within it’s walls more modern to be competitive, and make people WANT to go there, not just becasue it’s close. They may even be able to make more than 5 screens using the existing 5 auditoriums, but also perhaps the old stage area as another, or somehow out of the unused 2nd and thurd floors for more. You could perhaps even make up to 8 screens within the building, which would make it more profitable, as well as more attractive to people coming to see a movie.
That all being said, someone mentioned the fact that the Ridgewood was multiplexed “taking away it’s interior grandeur”, well obviously not the same as when it was one large theater, the plaster does all still exist (even though painted unfortunate dark blue, black, and brown). it’s there. It “could” be restored into one theater (remember, the Paradise in the Bronx was also multiplexed, yet brought back, as were some other theaters I know like the Patchogue on Long Island). That also being said, I also have to agree with Luis to an extent. The Loews Kings would be much more important to save as Brooklyn’s “live venue location”. But that is not to say that the Ridgewood doesn’t hold value as a theater, I think it’s value does remain, but remaining as a multiplex, just with restored and updated and upgraded auditoriums, while saving whatever historic features inside, which would make that viable.
I love how on the story wrote the article like the theater is still a functioning theater (we only wish!):
“….when an out-of-control car smashed into the theatre’s entrance, narrowly missing the boxoffice but zooming into the first lobby, where it was stopped by a solid stone wall.”
You can search by current or former names. When you do your first search, as screen will come up, and you can click “former names” and search both current and former names at the same time.
In response to someone’s comment about why all over the country so many movie palaces aren’t showing movies anymore, it’s not that people don’t go to movies anymore. While I don’t think it may be as many as years ago, most multiplexes are packed when I go usually. People still like to go to the movies, but it appears the way they go has changed. It would be hard to fill a 2000 seat theater to keep it profitable with one movie. People have come to expect things like good sound, stadium seating, etc, etc. And they need to have a few movies playing at the same time in order to be able to make money.
The only reason the Ridgewood even survived as long as it did was because it was cut up into 5 theaters, which bought it an additional 25-30 years…where all the neighboring theaters died long ago.
Ticketmaster has a seating chart available for The United Palace Theater:
http://www.ticketmaster.com/seatingchart/356/18664
They have had some really big names perform at the United Palace, and while most are not my thing, a few remotely have. Again, if anyone even remotely…..
Actually, here’s a WONDERFUL slideshow on the United Palace Theater’s website which shows how intact and beautiful the theater still is. Simply spectacular:
http://www.theunitedpalace.com/slideshow1.htm
Thanks for that photo. The place looks beautiful inside. Thank goodness it was taken over by a church that has beautifully maintained the place all these years…. So many other theaters weren’t as lucky, and instead were left to rot.
Now I think it’s wonderful it’s come full circle, and the place is once again sometimes used as a theater again.
The stage still looks very intact in this photo, which mush have been soon after it closed as a theater.
Has anyone been in the place for a recent concert? I would love to see a current photo. I occasionally check it’s bookings. If it’s ever someone I am even slightly interested in seeing perform, and I am available, I would probably go to the concert just to see the inside of the theater.
…..due to the same problem it has today, sort of an out of the way, less dense area.
I think it was in the 60’s already, but not sure of the actual date. It closed very early on already, for the reasons stated….it was unfortunately never a real profit maker.
The Ridgewood Folly Theater was a real theater that showed movies, but it’s location is still a mystery. Myrtle Ave should be removed, as that was misinformation, just as the “Queens Historical Society” comments were a goof.
It’s not changed yet. Perhaps emailing the Webmasters. They probably don’t read all the comments in every theater to keep up with this.
Ooops, sorry, I thought that was a clip from the current story, and photo above of the police at the scene. Sorry, my misunderstanding.
Peter, again, remember that we can’t take the Ridgewood’s past performance as a “first run mainstream” cinema completely at face value. The theater was falling apart for at least 20 years, and again, very old fashioned, etc. I stopped going there in the late 80s already because it wasn’t as pleasant to see a movie there as it was at “The Midway” or some theater in Forest Hills.
If the Ridgewood was made into a modern, COMFORTABLE, and clean and new multiplex, I don’t see it doing any worse than any other modern multiplex. It has a great location, and can draw from not only Ridgewood and Glendale, but also Maspeth, Middle Village, Bushwick, Williamsburgm, Greenpoint. Even Bedford Stuyvesant. There’s no theater anywhere around those locations in easy access. The Ridgewood IS very much in the middle of all those areas, and not other theater other than Atlas, which is in an sheltered upscale onclave of a mall.
As for an art house, I don’t think it would survive on just that, but you could always gear one of the theaters to it. And if you added another theater or two to the stage area, perhaps the old billards area, and even perhap an adjacent store to the building could be taken over. that would make it even more viable to allow a couple theaters to gear to art films or something, which I think would really attract people from up and coming Bushwick, and hip Williamsburg.
I agree with Luis on this. While it is quite sad to see Sorrentinos gone, the Hofbrau gone, and most of all, Jahn’s, I don’t find this to be a “declining” neighborhood. Different, yes. In “decline”, no.
Demographics change, Luis said it right, 50 years from now, in all likeliness, people will be sitting on some internet message board (or whatever people use to communicate then), and lament the loss of their old “Montezuma Restaurant” and the old “Pool Hall” under the el…..
The golden age is never the present age, as humans, we always look back at out pasts as the “golden age”.
That being said, I also agree that I just don’t see the area surrounding this theater to make a live theater, or even a restored movie theater in this location viable. Let’s not remember that the RKO Keiths, even when open, was never really a shining star in profitiablility. It probably was a little overbuilt even when it was first placed there……
JF Lundy, the Unique Theater was the former name for the Rialto Theater on South Ocean Ave in Patchogue:
/theaters/7421/
I think that the “Palace” was probably the Star Palace that Lost linked, but am not sure.
Quote Luis:
“don’t live in the area, but I hear that the Atlas cinemas are actually quite nice and comfortable. How far is this multiplex from the Ridgewood? Would it truly be able to compete?”
It’s not terribly far, not particularly walkable, but perhaps 15-20 minutes by car or bus. The problem is you have to pay to park, and that multiplex is also within a more upscale development, and you must pay to park. The Atlas movie theater “could” live with the Ridgewoood, as I think the Ridgewood would get a lot of people not only from Ridgewood, but also from up and coming Bushwick, and also Williamsburg. I think you have two totally different demographics and locations that would be served between the Atlas and the Ridgewood.
I don’t know if they would have to go through the extent of what they did to the Midway. They COULD make stadium seating within the two lower auditoriums. I have seen them do it at older multiplexes, they just put the structure into the existing auditorium. It is possible, and not all that hard. That would give it comfortable seating (with much better seating that the original old Ridgewood seats have to be at this point.
The three balcony theaters are already “stadium seating” just by the design of an old balcony. Just change the seats.
Combined with cleaned up walls, new flooring, sound upgrades, there you have 5 modern theaters right there. The sight lines are fine in most of the current auditoriums, and with the addition of stadium seating downstairs, that would improve that.
I am sure there is enough room for at least one, perhaps two theaters in the old stage area. Of course, that one would also be a modern theater. The harder part would be designing a corridor to get there, but that could probably be fairly easily be incorporated into the structure they use to make the two downstairs theaters into stadium seating, probably using what is currently the surface floor of the orchestra level.
I have no idea of what sort of space exists in the old Billards area on the second and third floors, but perhaps another auditorium, even if small could be made up there too.
So in summary, I think while it would be wonderful to see the Ridgewood converted back to one large theater, I think the Kings probably would be looked at first, and within good reason. But the Ridgewood’s value does definitly still have a large value as a neighborhood MOVIE theater. And you can’t use the Ridgewood’s supposed bad performance at it’s end as a guide, as remember, the Ridgewood was not maintained as well as it could have near the end, and wasn’t for the last 20 years or more. If upgraded and modernized, it would be no less superior to any modern multiplex.
While Bushwick was beginning to fall by 1962, as mentioned, it wasn’t anything like what the 1970’s were to bring…..
I wonder if they came to the RKO Madison that day too. The RKO Madison also often had stars coming to it to promote it’s films.
Haha, I remember seeing that commercial during the superbowl, and didn’t put 2 and 2 together.
It also was featured in last year’s superbowl….a pretty funny commercial in which two guys get DRAGGED to an opera by their wives/girlfriends, but one guy says, “I can get through it”….opens his jacket, and had about 10 Bud or Coors Lights in bottles in his jacket….but then the opera hit a high pitch which made all the bottles crack and break…….funny.
That is a WONDERFUL photo of how beautiful the Ridgewood’s Lobby still is in that NY Times article. The detail is ALL still there, as well as it’s white marble stairway. Sure, the colors of the plaster may not be authentic, but that’s just paint. What a gem, that needs to be saved, or at least preserved in it’s transition. I would HATE to see what happened to the beautiful Madison Theater down the street happen to the Ridgewood….especially after having survived this long….
View link
Oh, and just to remind everyone, “Forest Hills is 4 miles from Ridgewood”, but only as the crow flies. Just see how many people will walk to Forest Hills to see a movie. And let’s see how many people can get to “The Midway” by car, and park too in less than 45 minutes to an hour…..and my subway, and three trains later……
While it may not be 4.7 miles to Forest Hills, it’s certainly not within the “Ridgewood/Bushwick” area, or even Williamsburg, etc. Forest Hills is not even gotten to easily by bus or subway, it’s at least a 40 minute subway ride, using at least two or three subway train lines. The buses also roundabout, and probably would take longer, using traffic.
So no, Forest Hills' theaters are not viable alternatives to one in Ridgewood. Granted, as a teenager, I abandoned the Ridgewood Theater for the Forest Hills Theaters myself, but that was more because as a kid, we wanted to make a day out of it, not to mention, yes, the Ridgewood was dingy, and not kept nearly as well, even in the 90’s already.
That would not be the case if the Ridgewood was upgraded within it’s walls more modern to be competitive, and make people WANT to go there, not just becasue it’s close. They may even be able to make more than 5 screens using the existing 5 auditoriums, but also perhaps the old stage area as another, or somehow out of the unused 2nd and thurd floors for more. You could perhaps even make up to 8 screens within the building, which would make it more profitable, as well as more attractive to people coming to see a movie.
That all being said, someone mentioned the fact that the Ridgewood was multiplexed “taking away it’s interior grandeur”, well obviously not the same as when it was one large theater, the plaster does all still exist (even though painted unfortunate dark blue, black, and brown). it’s there. It “could” be restored into one theater (remember, the Paradise in the Bronx was also multiplexed, yet brought back, as were some other theaters I know like the Patchogue on Long Island). That also being said, I also have to agree with Luis to an extent. The Loews Kings would be much more important to save as Brooklyn’s “live venue location”. But that is not to say that the Ridgewood doesn’t hold value as a theater, I think it’s value does remain, but remaining as a multiplex, just with restored and updated and upgraded auditoriums, while saving whatever historic features inside, which would make that viable.
I love how on the story wrote the article like the theater is still a functioning theater (we only wish!):
“….when an out-of-control car smashed into the theatre’s entrance, narrowly missing the boxoffice but zooming into the first lobby, where it was stopped by a solid stone wall.”
You can search by current or former names. When you do your first search, as screen will come up, and you can click “former names” and search both current and former names at the same time.
Here’s a photo of the interior of the palace:
http://reliques.online.fr/theaters/theaters02.html
Here’s a photo of the Keith’s projection room:
http://reliques.online.fr/theaters/theaters04.html
Here’s a photo of the interior of the Eagle:
http://reliques.online.fr/theaters/theaters03.html
In response to someone’s comment about why all over the country so many movie palaces aren’t showing movies anymore, it’s not that people don’t go to movies anymore. While I don’t think it may be as many as years ago, most multiplexes are packed when I go usually. People still like to go to the movies, but it appears the way they go has changed. It would be hard to fill a 2000 seat theater to keep it profitable with one movie. People have come to expect things like good sound, stadium seating, etc, etc. And they need to have a few movies playing at the same time in order to be able to make money.
The only reason the Ridgewood even survived as long as it did was because it was cut up into 5 theaters, which bought it an additional 25-30 years…where all the neighboring theaters died long ago.