RKO Madison Theatre
54-30 Myrtle Avenue,
Ridgewood,
NY
11385
54-30 Myrtle Avenue,
Ridgewood,
NY
11385
21 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1,051 - 1,075 of 1,251 comments
Who were those two additional floors of the Ridgewood Theater rented to, besides the pool hall ? How much additional income would they have generated, and how would it have compared to the movie ticket and refreshments income from the theater ?
Thanks.
In the late 80’s or early 90’s, they powerwahed the granite of the fasade and repointed the seams. At that time, they also put new windows in the four windows on the second floor, and you could see that some sort of rooms were behind those windows, but they were probably rooms even when it was a theater. (someone mentioned the upstairs men’s room was behind one of those windows when it was a theater, but I don’t remember who said that or if it is reputible, I think I may have read it here though). Anyway, once Liberty Dept stores took over the Madison, they put a two story sign up on the Madison, and that covered over the row of second floor windows, so they are no longer visable from the street.
AH, that explains it. Of course. Now I get it. The three story part of the Ridgewood is the lobby part of the building, that is the length of the other stores adjoing it on Myrtle.
I don’t believe that has changed. The balcony of the Ridgewood of course is in the actual theater building behind it. Nothing really changed with the multiplexing of the Ridgewood. The front part on Myrtle was untouched for the most part. The balcony was made into three and the auditorium was cut in half downstairs. If not for the front Myrtle Ave part of the building, they probably would list the Ridgewood as a “1” story building even though it has the balcony area.
Back to the Madison…..
I was only in the Madison as a kid in the 70’s, so don’t remember it all that well. Was the lobby a one story lobby with a low ceiling, or did the “grand staircase” open up to a two story lobby (with a high ceiling, such as at the RKO Keith’s Richmond Hill?). If that is the case, then there is a fake ceiling in the front too.
Yeah, that’s what I meant to. (Although the front part of the store’s ceiling has to be right above the drop ceiling, I would assume.
Of course I have no idea if any of the stores ever did anything with the balcony area, although I am sure the seats are ripped out. Perhaps they leveled the floor too, but that would have required them building quite a few feet above the edge of the balcony., which would have been quite costly (it’s not as easy as leveling out a first floor, where in the case of the Oasis they actually filled in the orchestra level with sand right over the seats! A former worker of the Oasis Roller rink mentioned secret rooms where he actually saw the first few rows of seats under the floor!)
Who knows.
Yeah, I guess the city doesn’t consider a balcony level a second level (they don’t in the Commodore section either). Although, interestingly, they Ridgewood is I believe considered three floors, even though the second floor is the balcony (with a third level above that – which could be the reason they say three floors in it’s case).
The RKO Madison was built with a balcony. The balcony was not removed when the theater was converted to retail. The outline of the balcony down the middle of the theater is still there in it’s entirety. The ceiling under the old balcony is a “drop ceiling”, but the original ceiling of the balcony is directly under that. Of course the drop ceiling over the old main auditorium area is of course a “fake ceiling”, hiding the fact that the huge theater ceiling is way above that.
I don’t know if they consider a former balcony (which was not small by any means) as a “floor” of a building, but the grand stairway does lead to the floor that used to be the balcony, and it is there in it’s entirety.
Please keep posting your memories of all the theaters. They are great to read.
Hi, everyone. I’m new to this website and thought I’d post my memories of my favorite neighborhood theater. I grew up in the Brooklyn side of Ridgewood, yeah, went to St. Brigid’s (class of ‘66), know of the Imperial on Irving, the Wagner and the Wyckoff (passed them every day on the way to school), but my favorite has to be the RKO MADISON. It was very children-friendly.
They had all the great Corman horror films there as well as some not so great William Castle films there too, like MR. SARDONACUS, where we voted with thumbs-up or thumbs-down cards if we, the audiance, wanted to see Mr. Sardonacus' face, and THE NIGHT STALKER with Barbara Stanwyck and her ex-husband Robert Taylor. And THIRTEEN GHOSTS which we had to watch through special glasses if we wanted to see the ghosts.
They also had great Saturday matinee’s of 15 COLOR CARTOONS (as it said on the marquee) and once a year they had this stupid short of a foot race. You’d get a ticket at the door and if you had the winning ticket (the old man would win the race in the film) you’d be invited (as I was one year) on stage to recieve a prize (mine was a set of Chinese checkers). You can only imagine how exciting it was to see the MADISON from the foot of the stage. I must have been about ten years old, circa 1962.
I guess it was inevitable that I’d become enamored with movie theaters as a kid growing up in Ridgewood since the whole neighborhood was packed with theaters and a quite a few mystery-theaters, buildings that were probably once theaters but were by then used for other things. I’d quiz my dad who grew up on Wilson Avenue and Sydam Street in the 20’s and 30’s and he’s the one who often told me the names of the then defunct theaters.
This website is like walking through the old neighborhood. I hope to post some more thoughts on the RKO MADISON soon since it played a very important part in my growing-up.
I have not seen a comment since 12/7/04. Although I thought I did see maybe a couple more after this date. In any event my e-mail said that a comment was made today, but I find none. Happy New Year.
Lostmemory, did you find The Calvert Drive-In? You made me curious and I only see the one that is closed. Now you have me thinking about a drive-in theater in Lanesboro, Massachusettes. But should I care? It opened in 1949 and the last that I was there was in 1950. I saw 1944’s The Uninvited starring Ray Milland and Gail Russell.
Like the lady above posts I add two theatre last week only one is on listing. I put in lots of time finding theatre and all my work is wasted. I first check for duplicate and find none so what happens here.
I haven’t been on for several weeks now – am just trying to catch up. I went to that citylegacy.com website and could not find anything I was willing to pay $12.50 to join. I’m glad everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and hope the coming holidays are just as grand. Can you tell me if it’s OK to take the pictures of theaters submitted by individuals to put on my website. It is located on MyFamily.com and it’s growing every day. Of course most of it is pictures right now, but I’m hoping someday to have lots of different sections. I can still be reached at about those pictures of the Gates, the Alhambra, the Ridgewood, the Madison and any others in the area. I don’t want to step on anyone’s toes. Most of the people on my website no longer live in Brooklyn, although some are on the Island. I had good friends who lived on Halsey – half way up the block from Knickerbocker. I’m sure they would like to see the picture even if it breaks their heart. I know it breaks mine. Hoping to hear soon.
Thanks Wassup. The only problem is that I tried this a month ago and again today. After filling out a form and putting in my comments i submit and then a message tells me to return to the form I completed. The form is blank and my comments are gone. Just for the heck of it I clicked on submit and it says Please enter a value for “Name” field. I guess I’m doing something wrong.
hey bobmc you need to email the people on this ridgewood board and ask them to start one for ridgewood or they never will
http://www.citylegacy.com/quridgewood/default.htm
they only got 5 boards for queens so far
I had an enjoyable holiday and hope everyone here did too. I will pass on the cheesecake recipe, thank you for posting it.
Thanks Judy, I passed the recipe along with the one requested by Lostmemory. Hope everyone had a HAPPY THANKSGIVING.
Enjoy your Thanksgiving!!!!!!
1 cup Graham Cracker crumbs (store bought works well also)
3 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted
5 packages (8 oz each) Cream Cheese, softened
1 cup sugar
3 tablespoons flour
1 tablespoon vanilla
3 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1 can (21 oz) cherry pie filling
Mix crumbs, 3 tablespoons sugar and butter; press onto bottom of 9-inch spring form pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 10 minutes.
Mix cream cheese, 1 cup sugar, flour and vanilla with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing on low speed after each addition, just until blended. Blend in sour cream. Pour over crust.
Bake 1 hour and 5 minutes to 1 hour and 10 minutes or until center is almost set. Run a small knife around the rim of the pan to loosen cake; cool before removing rim of pan. Refrigerate 4 hours or overnight. Top with Cherry pie filling.
I loved this theater I wish it was still open. Bobmc I have my aunt Roses recipe I will give it to you. If you don’t want meatballs you can use the recipe and stuff the turkey with the meat instead.
MEATBALL RECIPE
1 lb. ground beef
1 egg
½ cup soft bread crumbs
¼ cup ketchup
1 tbsp. parsley flakes
1 tsp. onion powder
1 tsp. salt
¼ tsp. pepper
Thoroughly combine all ingredients; shape into 1" balls (36). Arrange meatballs on dish. Cook at HIGH 4 – 6 minutes; stir once. Rotate dish after 3 minutes. Drain liquid. Repeat with remaining meatballs. Serve with favorite sauce.
Enjoy
Not to get off the subject, but since you all know something about the RKO Madison and Ridgewood theaters and because I can’t contact the Ridgewood Web site that Lostmemory told me is under construction and still is I thought perhaps someone out there might remember Peter’s Delicattessen on Fresh Pond Road near the corner of Madison Street. My sister-in-law is desperate to learn what the recipe is for Peter’s meatballs. She wished to make them over the Holidays. Peter’s closed about two years ago. Hope someone out there can help me. Thanks
There were two blizzards, one in late January, the next in late February, 1978. Which one do you mean ?
That’s nice.
Bklyn, I agree. The Madison was definitely the superior theater, right from day one, however, Myrtle did get a bit seedy right around Myrtle-Wyckoff in the late 70’s. Even though it’s improved from the 70’s, the Ridgewood’s location is still superior to the Madison’s old location. While it’s great that one of them is still open, and they were both great theaters in their days, the Madison was definitely the superior quality theater. I always compare the theaters to the old Penn Station and Grand Central station in Manhattan. While Grand Central is a spectacular building (especially now that it’s renovated), Penn Station was the far superior and more spectacular of the two, and Penn Station should not have been demolished. If one had to be lost, and one survie, it should have been Penn Station (not that I’d want to see Grand Central gone). The same is true on a smaller scale of the Ridgewood and the Madison. The Madison should no have been the one to close.
But that leads us to reality. At least the Ridgewood putters on, no matter how much renovation it needs.
I think this Astyanaax guy is the same guy that was dating Mae West in the balcomy of the Madison Theatre, there is a similar writing style.
Back to topic, to answer Tom’s question, it very well may be that the Ridgewood had better management in the 70’s, that made it survive over the more substantial Madison Theatre. Both were struggling in the 70s, so one had to go. The Ridgewood won that battle. Once the Madison was gone, the main competition was gone. If the Ridgewood had lost, the Madison may be the run down 5-Plex today, and the Ridgewood would be a department store. I also think that the location of the Ridgewood was and is a bit better than the location of the Madison. The Madison’s location on Myrtle was already sort of run down in the 70s.
I have always wondered why this theatre would close and yet the Ridgewood Theatre survives. Possibly poor management led to its demise.
While I don’t know if arson was involved in the RKO Madison fire, or not, as you noted, the fire did not play a part in the closing of the Madison as a theater, because the Madison closed before the fire.
However, how does a fire start in an abandoned building? While if could always be electrical or “squaters” or tresspassers in the building; I wouldn’t rule out the “foul play” on the part of the owners at the time. People set fires for a variety of reasons: insurance, to “get rid” of the building being able to be used as a theater, etc, a tax write off, etc. of course this is purely speculation, I don’t actually know how the fire started, but obviously buildings don’t just go on fire for no reason.
Thank you Bway for your detailed answer. I was curious if arson had played a role in the RKO Madisons demise. Since the theatre had closed prior to the fire that would not be the case.