RKO Madison Theatre

Real cool ? Glad you liked it, stevel.

Now, thanks to 9/11, there are no longer any Twin Towers, and, as most of us know, the once great and beautiful RKO Madison Theater is now a Liberty Department Store.

Sic transit gloria Ridgewood.

do any of you guys have any pictures of the old Oasis theater on Fresh Pond rd in Maspeth Queens.i would love to see an old picture of that one.(also the Arion on metropolitan ave. what town was the arion in

I am sure much of the ceiling of the main auditorium survives, and is obviously still there, probably sooted up, and since the plaster is not maintained, who knows what condtion it is in.

Lost, I think my memory is coming back. Your assumption is correct.
The Madison Theater closed as a theater, and sat vacant for a year or so. It was THEN guttedd, and converted to a Consumers Store. I was in the Consumers once, and you could only come into the lobby area of the store. You wrote down what you wanted after looking though catalogs, gave it to a worker, and they retrieved your item. The retail part of the store looked like a normal store, with an office style drop ceiling, and sheetrock walls. No ornamentation of the theater was present. The auditorium was the warehouse part of the Consumers, and it’s safe to say that nothing was done to that space other than remove the seats. It’s very likely that all the stuff was stored right there in the auditorium, with the Madison Theater ornamentation all above it, in it’s diamond in the rough glory. Consumers was short lived, and soon closed. I remember the Odd Lot opening, and remember going to it. The drop ceiling of the Consumers retail section was still there, and the wall was knocked down into the theater. I “think” there was a crude ceiling put up in the auditorium section, now that it was a store and not the warehouse anymore. Odd Lot lasted longer than Consumers but closed a few years later.
At that time, you are correct, THAT is when the Madison Theater burned. It was after Odd Lot closed, so it was vacant, but it WAS after the Odd Lot, not after the theater use. It didn’t last too long vacant before Busy Bee moved in. That was VERY short lived from what I remembered, perhaps a year or two? I went there only once when it was the flea market, and remember very little about it.
After that, Liberty Dept Store moved in. Ironically, that’s when they completely steam cleaned and repointed the face of the theater fasade, before Busy Bee moved in. Unfortunately, Liberty covered over much of the fasade with their sign. The elaborate window cornices are covered.

Lost, I remember the Busy Bee in between the Odd-Lot and the Liberty Dept Store. I had forgotten all about that until now! I remember shopping at that flea market when it first opened. it didn’t last long.

Regarding the RKO Madison in Ridgewood, it would be interesting to compile all the available photographs, taken from the Wyckoff Avenue station platform of the M train (Myrtle Avenue elevated) that show the western wall of the RKO Madison Theater, with the words “RKO MADISON” painted on it in block letters, starting with the earliest, when the theater was in its best condition, then after it was closed, to see the painted words “RKO MADISON” fade, and the graffiti beneath it grow bigger and bolder. Perhaps Bway would like to do it.

In spring or summer 1976, on a visit to the World Trade Center outdoor observation deck, I used one of the 25-power pay binoculars to find and read the words “RKO MADISON” from the western wall of the Madison Theater. There was also a guy up there with a Questar telescope, reading phone numbers off billboards in Flatbush !

Once, I recall walking northwest on Wyckoff Avenue from Putnam Avenue to Palmetto Street, and seeing the Twin Towers on the horizon, in a low gap between buildings on Ridgewood Place and the Myrtle Avenue el, thereby confirming the World Trade Center to RKO Madison Theater sightline.

i love the pictures of the subway trains that you guys put down.and the area`s that they show

It wouldn’t do any good, as they would have to be retaken. I don’t know how often satelite images are taken, or photos such as those “Bird’s Eye” photos are taken. It’s not “Google” that take the photos I don’t think, I think they buy the rights to them, and they use the most current available to them. Which in some areas may have been taken last month, but other areas 3 years ago, and others still perhaps 5 or more years ago!

Lost, I also have noticed that those satelite images are a little old on Google. It’s like you can read my mind, I also mapped my home about a week or two ago, and the Google Earth image I would date to about 4 years ago also, going by the houses built near by, or other conditions. I can take it one step further though! While the “Bird’s Eye” photos on local.live of NYC I date to about 2003 (going by the RKO Bushwick reconstruction going on in one view, and various buildings missing or under construction. However, their satelite views are even older than Google Earth! There’s a home about a block away from my home that was built about 7 years ago (yes, it was around 1998 or 1999 that it was built, and that lot is still wooded land yet in the image! So that would have to date the local.live satelite image to some time pre-1999!!!

Thanks for the advice, Lost Memory. I’ve seen many errors on Google maps myself.

“I’ll move the conversation to the Liberty Square section.”

….well I would if I could, but I can’t find it, do you have a link?

Are you sure you aren’t going from right to left?
Remember, north is not on top in this angle, east is.